Space Opera: Alien Profiles Part 2

Continuing my posts about alien races for the Space Opera setting:

 

Name: Krayanans

Home-World: Lorkub

Description: A race of small but aggressive bi-pedal reptiles. They are highly intelligent and resourceful. They live on hot planets, preferring a temperature of approximately 80 degrees Celsius. Their average height is 1 meter, and their average lifespan is only 60 years.

 

I don’t like the 80 degrees Celsius thing for this race because I got a different idea while reading this entry. Space Kobolds!!!

 

Seriously, these are space Kobolds. They can still go ahead and prefer a warmer climate due to being cold blooded, but for seriously, these are space kobolds. What would their world be like?

 

I’m running with this idea, and screw all you who don’t like it! Anyone know where I can find a picture of a Kobold in a space suit?

 

Primary: Bizarre

 

Name: Nalaavites

Home-World: Soleer Prime

Description: A race of venomous amphibians who are governed by a committee of prominent businessmen.

 

Well I guess sentient humanoid poison dart frogs are the race that runs the biggest and most prosperous planet in the Star Cluster. They likely wear some type of body suit that helps them stay out of the water longer. It is a pretty vital piece of equipment for a space faring race since starships are going to be kept climate controlled for lower atmospheric water levels.

 

The suits also protect those not of their species from the poisons their bodies secrete. When stressed or in danger their bodies reflexively produce a powerful contact cardio/neurotoxin. They are able to train themselves to suppress this reflex, but it’s not always effective. A few sentient species in the universe who evolved from animals that eat similar species of animals may have an immunity to this toxin.

 

The entire race is of extremely varied and bright colors. They take the brightness, colors, and patterns of their skins very seriously. It is very much tied to desirability for mating.

 

Primary: Bizarre

 

Name: Pavongans

Home-World: Hetoo 4

Description: A race of inventive mollusks. They have no concept of written language. They are divided into two competing nation-states, each of which controls territory on their home-world, as well as several off-world colonies.

 

Mollusks, eh? Okay, so that gives me a lot of things to choose from. Let’s go classic and assume some type of Cephalopod-like critter. Maybe a kind of mostly humanoid shape, but with 4 tentacles acting as legs and 4 tentacles as arms. They have a head with a large brain, octopus looking eyes, and a beaked mouth. They can also change their skin colors at will. Their ancestors could do it to match the environment, but this mostly just coincides with emotional states and aesthetics now. Their bodies are made of soft tissues and cartilage and decay rapidly after death with the body taking only a couple of weeks to be near completely decayed. Each arm tentacle has a very delicate looking end that is used for fine manipulation of things while the leg tentacles are much larger and stronger.

 

If they have zero concept of a written language, how would they be able to share ideas over the course of their evolution into a space faring society? They either have to live a long time, have insanely awesome memories and brain power, or they transfer information in a different way. I like the last one. Maybe they exchange ideas concepts and memories by exchanging chemical signals of some type. A form of memory swapping telepathy, and possibly a form of ancestral memory built into each and every member of the race.

 

This would mean their society is very much based upon honoring their ancestors. These long memories would easily be passed on to their young. Each and every one of them would have memories leading back countless generations. Maybe these more distant memories can only be accessed through deep meditation or something similar. And clearly not everything is going to be passed on. If a parent lives a long life after having children those later memories aren’t going to be passed on unless they share them via whatever their biological sharing mechanism is. (Chemical cocktails seem about right for this, and these aren’t just a different form a writing, these are actual recreations of the things that make the memories exist)

 

This would very likely lead them to be a contemplative and deep thinking race with a respect for tradition. They would never be rash or quick to jump to a decision. The loss of someone before their memories can be passed on is a very grave thing to happen to this race.

 

Now, why the hell are there two competing nation-states? Easy, ancient rivalries that just cannot seem to die. These have been the dominant nations for thousands upon thousands of years in one way shape or form. Ancient conflicts and the horrors inflicted upon each other are still able to be vividly recalled. Ever experience someone else’s PTSD cause before? They can! So they don’t get along well. Memories from the long dead cloud the judgments of the living.

 

Primary: Bizarre

Secondary: Mysticism

Space Opera: Alien Profiles Part 1

Time for 3 more alien species. As before I’ll include the Randomly Generated Description from scifiideas.com first and then follow it up with my expansion of the species. I may or may not change the names of the species and home-worlds at some later date. I am planning on fleshing out each species some more, these are just general ideas of who/what they are.

Species #2
Name: Dolanans
Home-World: Gorder VI
Description: A race of thrifty therapods who wear chainmail and wear blue body paint.

Therapods are your quintessential bipedal dinosaur. When you think Velociraptor, Tyrannosaurus, or anything like them you are thinking of Therapods. So this mean they are warm-blooded, possibly covered or partially covered with “primitive” feathers and likely from predator or omnivore anscestors.

Thrifty implies that they are a frugal and mercantilism inclined race, so they will likely have a strong inclination for free-trade and shrewd negotiating.

The chainmail and body paint may represent a warrior history. The chainmail could be ancestral or handmade and part of their maturation rituals. The body paint will definitely be a religious symbol.

All in all, this sounds like a race that encourages their people to become mercenaries. A tribal or clan family/social structure with an emphasis on strength of arms would be the most common culture on the planet. Their chainmail is more than likely purely ceremonial at this point, especially when dealing with high tech weapons. It may still really be chainmail, but it’s more of a symbol of their status rather than actual protective material.

Primary Type: Warrior
Secondary Type: Religious

Species #3
Name: Sheromi
Home-World: Luminar 3
Description: A race of three-fingered mammals who are able to survive up to eight weeks without food or water and are easily insulted and quick to judge.

Mammalian species with three fingers. Okay, so appearance wise just go with generic Star Trek humanoid alien with different facial structure plus Ninja Turtle hands. Got it.

Survival with no food or water for eight weeks at a time implies they come from a harsh world with scarce safe resources. Their society could potentially live in a Hunter-Gatherer mode for a very long time before they decide to transition to agriculture. The transition to agriculture would likely be due to a weakened ecosystems or a sudden population boom. They could have even had an issue in their biosphere that made hunting and gathering a less than sustainable or effective tactic. The species would still have a great respect for the hunting and gathering lifestyle though and may choose to keep it up whenever they can, supplementing with farmed foods only when necessary.

Survival being their top priority they would concentrate on technological advancements. Let’s also assume that their ability to go weeks at a time without food and water also translates too little need to sleep and a longer life expectancy. Say a 300-500 year range. They tend to take things a little bit slower than everyone else but can also concentrate on tasks a lot easier. They like to plan ahead.

Their society may like to encourage a minimalist approach to sustenance intake, maybe consuming a meal once a month at most. Each meal is a feast though. It’s almost a religious event where they thank each animal for its sacrifice and are thankful for the bounty they are able to reap. When they can, they prefer to only consume food that they or their companions have hunted or gathered. It isn’t a requirement, as modern life has made this difficult to maintain, but when given the opportunity the species tends to take it.

When it comes to protective, environmental, and survival gear the Sheromi make some of, if not the, best. They are also all at least competent in hunting and wilderness survival as it’s required skills for them to learn while growing up.

They believe very strongly in the tradition of guest’s rights and helping travelers even if they are bitter and sworn enemies.

Primary: Tech
Secondary: a dash of Mysticism and Warrior

Species #4
Name: Basa (Bah-Sah)
Home-World: Jittania VI
Description: A race of fury (sic) marsupials. They evolved on the same world as a race of semi-intelligent mammals which they use as slaves. They share their homeworld with beings of pure energy, whom they worship as gods.

I don’t know if that’s supposed to be “Fury” or “Furry”. I’m just going to assume it’s okay to use a simile of “fury”. Passion or Rabidity sound good for beings that can physically see and interact with their “Gods”.

Passionate Marsupials. Hmmmm… all that’s popping into my head are disgusting images of humans in religious garb with kangaroo pouches. Something like a Mobi Wrap, but made of skin. *shudder* Okay, maybe I’ll just leave the appearance alone for the moment before I make myself sicker…

This entry is a little bit more complex. I need to include two more races.

Clearly the energy beings are controlling everything in this society. The enslaved, semi-intelligent mammals may not know they’re enslaved and they may be common enough that everyone has one, buys one, or is given one. It could very well be an important piece of their culture too. How well you treat your slave reflects upon your character, and so on and so forth.

Why do the energy beings allow the enslavement? Were the Semis intelligent beforehand? How long has this been the standard?

Okay, clearly they need to be fleshed out more. I’ll post them after this entry as minor/related species.

The Basa worship the energy beings as gods. Their gods clearly exist. Their religious devotion is going to be nearly unshakable. Maybe there are dissenters here and there, but I’m sure it’s heresy to speak of such things.

Everything the species does will be in service to these Energy Beings whom they will defend with only a passion that religious zealots only can.

Primary: Religious
Secondary: None

Name: Basa Sa-ani (Bah-Sah Say-on-ee) which translates to literally mean The Gods of Basa
Home-World: Unknown
Description: Vaguely humanoid shapes of pure energy of varying colors.

The Basa religious texts speak of these benevolent beings descending from the heavens and delivering a great golden age to the Basa. No one knows where they came from or why they’re doing what they’re doing, but they protect and help advance the Basa. There are rumored thousands of these beings on the Basa homeworld. Very few, if any, outsiders have ever seen one let alone spoken to them.

Name: Vallo
Home-World: Same
Description: Mamallian, semi-intelligent. They have four eyes, a muscular humanoid build, and are placental mammals.

The Vallo’s origin has always been that of one growing up in the shadow of the Basa. Two sentient species with incompatible DNA typically do not show up together on a world due to the competition between primitive societies. It appears that the two species vied for control somewhere in the distant past and the Vallo lost. The became a domesticated, semi-intelligent species while the Basa went on to obtain a more “typical” intelligence level the universe is used to seeing. Vallo are used for labor and menial tasks. They’re bred for it, they are treated well, and seem pretty happy with their lot in life.

A Vallo is given to a Basa as part of their coming of age ceremony before the Basa is sent off on a pilgrimage. The care and respect a Basa shows his Vallo is a direct reflection of whom that Basa is. A goodly Basa is seen as one who treats their Vallo well, despite the fact that the Vallo are seen as little more than animals.

Edit: Post was unfinished when originally published, fixed that issue.

Space Opera: Aliens

I’ve been trying to come up with a general set of concepts to use to populate my Space Opera setting with alien races, because what’s a sci-fi setting without aliens, right?

 

The problem is that I’ve pretty much got nothing bouncing around in my head to start off from. Anything that I make is going to either end up being clichéd, too weird, or not make any sense whatsoever. Maybe I shouldn’t care and just go with it, but I can’t make myself do it. Whenever I try I just end up with a blank screen in front of me as I attempt to write.

 

Fortunately a little bit of Google based luck while searching for images to use as inspiration lead me to a website called SciFiIdeas.com (link: http://www.scifiideas.com/). In its writing resources section it has a random alien species generator. It has helped me get a massive list of ideas to springboard off of. The Generator provides a Name, a Home-World, and a basic Description using what appears to be a fill in the blanks format. Pretty much in the same way that any dice based randomly generated tables would work which was going to be my next option. Heroes Unlimited’s Alien section is really useful for that type of thing and I may still use it to flesh out what I get stuck on.

 

Most Sci-Fi settings have various Tropes associated with their alien species. Each race fills a niche or acts as a metaphor for an aspect of humanity or a segment of human history. Star Trek is really blatant about this type of thing. Entire cultures with tens of thousands of years of civilization seem to have a single unified culture with humanity being the only one with any variety in said culture. I’ve never been a big fan of that, but I do have to do it a little bit for the sake of gaming, at least a little bit. Setting the races up in categories can help establish their general “role” in the galaxy at large.

 

Generally you’re going to see 4 primary types of races in a sci-fi setting with multitudes of species. You have the Warriors, the Techs, the Religious/Mystical, and the Bizarre. Depending upon the setting and the species you can see some overlap in these categories.

 

Warrior species tend to be your Krogans, Klingons, Mandalorians, and other war-loving races. They may or may not have a special code of honor and they respect might and tests of strength over diplomacy/politics.

 

Tech species are those who rely heavily upon technology (who aren’t humans) and are well known to be very skilled with it, very close to it, or manufacture amazing things. Quarians, the Tau, the Borg and the Protoss fall into this category. Tech species can also include species that have used other species tech to improve themselves, like the Hutts and the Krogan.

 

Religious/Mystical species tend to stand in for earth religions somehow to make a point about how silly we can be or how powerful faith is depending upon the point the author is trying to make, or they could just be and excuse for a holier than thou group with mysterious powers. In this category you’ll see the Protoss, Bajorans, the Yuuzhan Vong, and the Asari.

 

The Bizarre are those being which are utterly alien to humans. Everything I’ve previously mentioned is generally (and very improbably) humanoid. This category is where the really weird stuff goes. Races like the Tyranids/Xenomorphs/Zerg, the Buggers/Formicans, Species 8472, the Reapers, the Daleks, and other species that are extremely difficult to relate with or speak to. Their bodies don’t tend to end up looking humanoid and their thoughts are completely and totally alien to most other races.

 

With this type of guidline combined with some of these randomly generated species I think I may be able to build a few alien races now. Let’s try one out. I’m going to transcribe the original description I got directly and then work from there with my thought process included afterwards.

 

Name: Hutiglurn

Home-World: Holiday

Description: A race of bovids with green skin and large tusks. They live in self-sufficient communities and prefer their food to be ground into paste. They are staunch Atheists and find all forms of religion and superstition offensive. Their home-world is connected to orbiting space stations by huge space elevators.

 

Okay, wow. That’s a pretty solid randomly generated start to a species I’d say. So, where to start here? Apparently a Bovid is a ruminant, cloven footed animal. Cows, Antelope, Buffalo and other unbranched horn herbivores belong to it. So they have horns, tusks, green skin, and likely eat plant matter. Being ruminants it makes sense for them to prefer their food be ground up, it means that they are less likely to need to chew their food more. Horns would evolve as a defensive/mating mechanism so they’ll have some warrior tendencies. Tusks are also useful for those things as well as rooting around for edible tubers and fungi.

 

Staunch Athiesm, self-sufficient communities, and space elevator accessible stations scream a technologically adept and intelligent society that values logic, reason, and personal/communal responsibility. They are likely to not have a very strong care for art or expression unless it has practical applications.

 

Primary Type: Tech

Secondary Type: Warrior

Space Opera: The Last Bunch of Random Planets

Time for the last 3 planets to be generated at random.

Planet 11:

8 Planets; 4 moons; Earth-like atmosphere; saturated hydrosphere; Earth-like Gravity; 16 hour day; 165 day year; Ocean/Volcanic terrain; Cataclysm establishment; Alliance government; Intolerant regulations, Alien Prejudice; High-tech; Imports: Service (Terraforming)/Education (Terraforming/Economic); Exports: Gems, precious metals, jewelry/Natural Resources; 600,000 population; no spaceport; trade backwater

Planet 11 is a primordial earth that has very minimal life on it. Mostly its life is simplistic creatures living in the ocean still. There are no native land or air dwelling organisms here. People came to this planet as refugees following the destruction/devastation of their homeworld a few decades ago. This planet was colonized because no one wanted to deal with terraforming it before these refugees showed up. The refugees have been working very hard to transform this barren planet into a human-like species compatible planet so they can rebuild their culture. They import experts in financial and terraforming matters so that they can make sure they’re doing it right.

Planet 11 is not without controversy though. Because of how pristine of a condition this primordial world was in before their arrival, scientists and preservation groups have heavily protested this colonization, but since it isn’t in a government controlled system, no one can really do anything about it. The people on this planet don’t really like many visitors, and begrudgingly accept trade from other planets. They just want to be left alone to rebuild their people.

Planet 12:

9 Planets, 1 Asteroid Belt; Earth-like atmosphere; Arid Hydrosphere; 0.8 Earth Gravity; 29 hour day; 390 day year; Jungle/Forest terrain; Abandoned colony; Anarchy; Informal regulations: Alien prejudice; High tech; Imports: Service/Natural Resources (Water); Export: Minerals/Entertainment; 20 Million population; No spaceports; Off Route Trade.

Planet 12 used to be a semi-prosperous corporate colony mining precious minerals and metals until their parent company went under. Corporate abandoned them on planet as economic collapse set in. Many years of conflict ensued while people tried to instill their own order onto the planet. None were successful and no central authority exists anymore. After many years a sort of order sprang up from the remains of the colony. The spaceports that once existed are dilapidated and are being reclaimed by the deserts.

The planet is primarily composed of deserts; most plant life takes the shapes of desert and savannah plants. They protect themselves and are extremely efficient with water absorption and use. Most animals are adapted to a desert lifestyle. Water is a major import for these people because of the lack of major sources of water outside of processing the plants. Planet 12 is known very well for a very specific style of dancing entertainer groups (of course made up of beautiful women) and less known for being the originator of a primary chemical in a very popular drug. The knowledge of this chemical’s origin is a well-kept secret. The only thing most know is that the chemical originates from this planet and it’s from an organic compound that no one can reproduce. Its distance from the main trade routes and the secretive nature of its origin have made it an extremely expensive and not cost-effective for criminal enterprises and governments to go after, so whomever is selling the chemical is making a fortune and is not in any danger of losing their business anytime soon.

Planet 13:

4 Planets; 3 Moons; Earth-like atmosphere; moderate hydrosphere; 28 hour day; 375 day year; Wetlands/Plains terrain; Independent colony; Govt: Bureaucracy; Moderate Regulations: Unbeliever prejudice; High tech; Imports: Service/Luxury Goods; Exports: Processing/Service; 500 Million Population; Minor Spaceport; Minor Trade

Planet 13 is a small planet in a small system orbiting a giant star. It is owned and operated by a Corporate interest and run by an autocracy. Has the single most convoluted and difficult to understand tax/regulatory/etc systems in the galaxy. It is impossible for even the most advanced brains in the galaxy to comprehend them. To speak ill of the planet’s convoluted systems is to invite fines upon yourself and possibly be forever expelled from the planet.

The planetary government can get away with this because of how much money they have and how high quality of a product they’re able to produce. This planet produces the best, cheapest, and most reliable starship replacement parts in this sector. Everyone relies upon their production facilities and wants to sell their parts or use them on their ships. The planet would have a more prominent role in the cluster’s trade routes but it’s out of the way and the costs of doing business there is extremely prohibitive. (Primarily because you’ll have to buy a native lawyer team in order to safely navigate their rules and regs.)

Space Opera: Ship Categories

The next step for the Space Opera is Starships and their classifications. This one should be pretty easy to do since I was planning on initially just using ships from existing sources anyways.

Ships will be broken down into a handful of categories; Fighters, Freighters, Cruisers, Capital Ships, and Superships. Primarily this setting will be dealing with the first four categories. The Supership category is just there in case I feel a need to use it someday long down the road.

Fighters are small ships that tend to be fast, maneuverable, cramped, and tend to be short-range. This category also includes sub-categories that would be the equivalent of Naval PT boats, a ship like the Delta Flyer or a Danube-class Runabout in Star Trek, or an X-Wing or Skipray Blastboat in Star Wars. These are the smallest classes of ships and are usually armed with weapons that fire in a small, sometimes fixed arc. Almost everything in this class can be effectively flown with a single pilot. The larger ships may need two pilots, usually a pilot and gunner team, to be fully effective.

Freighters are larger than Fighters but smaller than Cruisers. Freighters are the most common ship type out there with the largest variety available. Large enough to actually have a “crew” and typically designed to not only haul cargo and passengers, they also fill many different roles in militaries. These are the types of ships that are based off of the Millennium Falcon and the Serenity. A hardy, independent, deep space transport vessel that has a lot of potential setting/story hooks. Some are combat oriented, some are scout ships, some act as personnel/cargo transports, other are smugglers, and so one and so forth.

Cruisers are larger than Freighters. Cruisers fill roles similar to the modern military equivalents of Frigates, Destroyers, Littoral Combat Ships, Cruisers, and other similarly sized vessels. This also includes your Bulk Freighters and other common large transport vessels. Equivalent ships would be Nebulon-B frigates and Correlian Corvettes in Star Wars, or the Defiant and a Klingon Bird of Prey in Star Trek. In a military sense these ships will fill an escort role or a specific niche in a larger fleet.

Capital Ships are your truly impressive ships. These are your Star Destroyers, your Enterprises, your Mimbari Sharlin Battleships, and your EVE Battleships. These have a very large variety of sizes (depending upon the series they originate from, with Star Trek’s being the smallest), but they all fulfill a similar role. They are the heart of a fleet. These are the big, important ships that will carry entire fighter command wings, massive invasion forces, countless weapons, and all the other cool things you expect from gigantic ships in a Sci-Fi setting. Civilian ships of this size tend to be the rarer Mega-Transports or Starliners. Those are essentially the Super Tankers and Mega-cruise ships of the sci-fi world and as big as civilian ships get.

The Superships category is reserved for the greatest ships of the types of ships you’d think of as Superships. We’re talking Ships about the size of a Super Star Destroyer and larger. If these types of ships exist in this setting they will be rare and restricted to the military almost exclusively. These are the engines of war that can bring ruin to entire fleets of lesser ships on their own. If I do include them for whatever reason in a story, they will likely be set-pieces with no real stats to speak of because there is no way in hell I’d let PCs have something strong enough to take something like this on…

Next time I think I might start looking at a couple alien race ideas.

Space Opera: Small Arms

Because we’re talking Space Opera we can’t just talk about planets and the make-up of the star cluster. We need to have a full discussion on the subjects relating to what the PCs are going to be using relatively often, their weapons. I generally have a view on technology for sci-fi that variety is important to a realistic setting. Each species, planet, and culture is going to have its own preferences, capabilities, and resources that will determine what types of weapons are available to them. Each type of weapon will have its own strengths, weaknesses, and unique advantages. This will determine their usefulness in battle. With that being said, my sci-fi setting does not discriminate against most types of imaginary weaponry (I only discriminate against lasers because they’re lame in reality) and includes a wide variety to choose from because of the multitude of species, systems, and cultures.

The first type of weapon is the Particle Blaster. Typically referred to as a Blaster; this weapon essentially rips solid matter from its own barrel, superheats it, and projects it downrange using a magnetic field to push it into hypersonic speeds. It has the advantage of causing impact as well as energy damage to targets. It is the most common weapon type in the galaxy because it uses a simple power pack to fire (just called “Packs” for short). These power packs are easy to recharge pretty much anywhere power is generated and are highly reliable. They can even be adapted into power sources for other things in an emergency. The catch with Blasters is that after about 5 power packs worth of shots their barrels don’t have any more particles they can pull from and have to be replaced otherwise they suffer a meltdown. They have a very reasonable price point as far as weapons go and are a very good balance of Stopping Power and Range.

The second type of weapon is the Plasma Caster. Plasma weapons superheat special gasses inside of a magnetic field and then send the whole thing downrange. Plasma is a powerful energy weapon, but it is limited range. The Mag-field used by plasma weapons can only last a set amount of distance before it dissipates and releases the plasma to the air in a relatively harmless form. Typically considered a step above Blasters in terms of damage, but a step below in their range. They have the same amount of functionality as a blaster though, so they find their way to similar platforms. Plasma weapons use a combination Gas Canister and Battery to hold the gasses and generate the power required to make each plasma bolt. These are typically called “Cans” by those who use them.

The third type of weapon is called a Needler. Needlers are essentially scaled down railguns. They fire tiny metal projectiles with a magnetic rail at hypersonic speeds. They require very little power to operate and are capable of very high rates of fire. The ammunition is generated by the gun shaving a tiny, needle-like shard of metal off a block inserted into the weapon called a “Slab”. A one pound slab is able to generate about 100 or more rounds of ammunition. Some types of needlers are even able to use scrap metal found on the battlefield if it is inserted into its receiver (this could have a detrimental effect on the damage, range or accuracy depending upon the metal inserted) It is a very efficient and effective system but it can generate a lot of waste heat over the course of firing the weapon and the rounds are not as powerful as a comparable Blaster bolt. The rounds do have the advantage of being solid matter though, so they are able to go further than the rounds of most other weapons. Built-in cooling systems and external cooling enhancers help extend the amount of time a needler can function without hours long “rest” periods. (The Mass Effect series uses these types of weapons exclusively, outside of their heavy weapons.)

The fourth type of weapon is a Gyrojet. A Gyrojet is essentially a miniature rocket that shoots out of a small arm. They are self-propelled, explosive tipped bullets. People familiar with Warhammer 40k know who the Space Marines are and know what their iconic weapon, the Bolter, is. That weapon is essentially a Gyrojet. In this setting they’re smaller than bolters, they have a low rate of fire (I’m thinking semi-auto for the handheld stuff), and have powerful explosive heads relative to their size. So when compared to a Blaster, they’ll be stronger, longer range, more expensive, have a lower rate of fire, and a very limited magazine.

The last type of weapon is called a PlasCart. (The name needs work, shut up) This name is short for Plasma Cartridge. PlasCarts are self-contained cartridges that allow someone using an old slugthrower to fire plasma bolts. They are cheap, one-time use items that people on the frontier like to keep around. You don’t have to spend a ton of money on a modern weapon, you don’t have to have fancy recharge machines, and you don’t have to have high tech tools to maintain the weapon. Old slug throwers tend to be far more resistant to environmental wear and tear than most modern weapons so people who spend a lot of time exploring might keep one on them when exploring. These plasma rounds have about the same punch as a Needler, the range of a Blaster, and are dirt cheap to buy. They come in various calibers to fit whatever weapon you’re using them in and are highly praised for their reliability. Due to the nature of the design, these rounds are also undetectable by most modern sensors. No one knows why that is, but people are starting to take advantage of this feature more and it is making some places paranoid.

The typical small arms platforms you see in the galaxy fit into the following categories; Pistols, Submachine guns, Carbines, Rifles, and Heavy Weapons.

Pistols are pretty much anything that falls under the category of a handgun. They are typically small, concealable, semi-automatic, lower powered, and able to be held in one hand. All types of weapons are supported by this platform.

Submachine guns are typically larger versions of pistols that have a larger supply of ammunition and are capable of full-auto fire. They offer your normal pistol advantages as well. These weapons are typically heavily restricted in most civilized space and being caught with one can mean trouble. There are no Gyrojet submachine guns and loading one with PlasCarts is seen as impractical and unnecessarily expensive.

Carbines are shortened rifles. Traditionally used by ancient armies for use on horseback, the carbine found its way into regular military use by troops who needed the power of a rifle in tight spaces that others might use a submachine gun in. In the modern era, carbines are the primary weapons used in urban warfare and starship boarding actions. They have the power and capabilities of rifles, but with a shorter barrel and lighter weight to make them more maneuverable in tight spaces. Military models are capable of full auto. Supports all weapon types, Gyrojet weapons are not capable of automatic fire.

Rifles are the quintessential long-arm. These range from simple target practice rifles to the highest tech rifles carried by the military. They are accurate at long range and military models are capable of putting out an insane amount of rounds down range. The power of a rifle depends greatly upon its role. Same as Carbines.

Heavy weapons are anything that is big, bulky and able to wreak destruction above the norm. This is where you’ll see rocket launchers, machineguns, and other types of anti-material/anti-group weaponry. Weapon types expand here to also include small versions of vehicle/starship weapons as well as more powerful versions of small arms. Here is where you’ll be able to see Gyrojet weapons capable of fully automatic fire.

I’ve been thinking about adding a Shotgun category, if I do it will only work for Needlers since everything else uses an accelerated beam/energy source. Although Plasma Casters and Plasma Cartridges might be able to simulate something similar.

Planets of Random, Episode 3

Part 3 of the ongoing world-building for the Space Opera campaign.

Planet 8:

15 object system with 1 asteroid belt; 4 moon planet; atmosphere harmful over a long period of time; Saturated Hydrosphere; 0.6 earth gravity; 29 hour day; 285 day year; Common terrain: Mountainous/Wetlands; Establishment was a Recent or Past Cataclysm; Government is an alliance of groups, Informal regulations with tech/weapons restrictions; Imports: Finished goods, services;  Exports: Processing and Research; Population of ~20,000; Basic Spaceport; Off-route trade status

Planet 8, this one has been hard to think about. Nothing really jumped out at me about it. It is known about enough that it can’t really be a secret research base but it’s off the normal trade route so it only gets minimal or deliberate trade traffic. Exports processed materials and research on a world that is a world saturated with liquid water that has been devastated by some type of disaster.

Hmmm… How about it’s a world where various interests rent out spaces to do R&D and Raw Material processing that they can’t do elsewhere. Similar to a certain planet in the first Mass Effect game. This is a planet owned by one business, family, or species that rent out spaces to whoever can afford them to do what they feel like doing there away from prying eyes. The only real rules are a in regards to secrecy and keeping everything contained to your research area. Typically only people who have a good reason to be there fly out to it with the occasional trader flying out to try to sell some luxury goods, exotic foods, or similar things.

Planet 9:

12 object system, 3 annual comets; 1 moon; earth-like atmosphere; Dry hydrosphere; 1.2 Earth gravity; 27 hour day; 105 day year; Common terrain: Mountains and Forests; Established as independent colony; Democratic government; Moderate regulations, alien intolerance; Imports: Luxury Goods, Natural Resources; Exports: Services, Manufacturing; Population of 20 million; Basic Spaceport; Minor trade port

Planet 9 is a colony of people looking to get away from the rest of the galaxy. They live their own lives and try to leave everyone else alone. The government is a loose confederation of allied city-states in semblance of post-revolution, pre-constitution America. Most of the people just want to live their lives and be left alone. They trade mostly with each other and occasionally go to the markets to trade with off worlders. The government restricts where off-worlders can go unless they are purchasing property. They just don’t trust people whom they don’t know.

The planet itself is rather earth-like in nature. It’s a little bit large and closer to its star though so there is less liquid water and a little bit warmer, but it is perfect for raising most types of food plants and animals.

There is a city-state near the space port that specializes in manufacturing components from raw materials. They have contracts with many of the major businesses in the cluster for component supply due to their proximity to trade routes and the lack of taxes.

Planet 10

12 planets, 2 asteroid belts, 1 annual comet; 1 moon; Enviro-suits required on surface; Saturated Hydrosphere; 0.3 Earth Gravity; 30 hour day; 345 day year; Common Terrain: Jungle, Artificial; Established as Dependent Colony; controlled by single organization; Intolerant regulations, alien intolerance; Imports services and manufactured components; exports luxury goods and services; Population 300,000; Basic Spaceport; Major Trade Port

Planet 10 is a corporate owned world. There is a single Dome city that humans land on here to conduct business with the company. This is the primary manufacturing plant for a number of luxury goods that the Starliners that stop at Planet 1 like to stock their ships with. As such, there is always a high level of demand for these products and the company is always willing to let independent traders transport these items for them since it pads the company’s bottom line.

It’s also a great place to gain some experience and a reliable reputation for independent traders who are just getting started. You can prove you’re reliable and trustworthy by doing some of this transport work. It’s an easy route with lots of security. Basically it’s a great and boring way to make enough money to pay some bills and build up a reputation. You won’t get rich doing it but you aren’t going to get attacked by a pirate along the way.

The planet isn’t all happiness and sunshine though. There are many rumors about health, safety, and rights violations by the corporate owners but no one seems to speak much about it because of how popular the products are and how much money it brings in everywhere. It also doesn’t help that no one is able to actually confirm these rumors.

Space Opera 33 and 1/3

So this Sci-Fi thing won’t leave my head. So I found a ton of D6 Star Wars Resources free on the web that I can peruse at my leisure now. That’ll make the possibilities for personal gear, weapons/armor, and starships much easier to get a baseline to use. (Unrelated tangent: I find it really interesting how humans are typically the ones depicted as the individual classes in these WEG books while different species are typically represented as their species and not as a class. Humans are depicted in the entries like “Smuggler”, “Bountry Hunter”, and “Diplomat”. Meanwhile aliens are depicted as “Wookie” or “Mon Calamari”. Just an odd way to do things in my eyes. /Tangent)

I started thinking about the way this star cluster could be setup and how things would run more. First off we should have an idea of how many Stars are in the cluster and how many are inhabitable. [Rolls a D20 + 10] So 27 stars in this cluster, we’ll make half of them habitable which puts us at 13 or 14 systems with habitable planets. Let’s go with 13 because that number is far cooler than 14. The other 14 stars may or may not have planets or useful resources and they may even quite possibly have some people living in stations or other such things, but they will be few in number and living/trade will be hard for them. We’ll keep those areas uncharted and mysterious for the time being because no one in the habitable worlds are really going to give much of a damn about them.
Okay, so 13 solar systems in the cluster with habitable worlds. One of these systems will have a world that is a stop for Star liners and will be the primary trading hub/consumer of goods/tourist destination in this particular star cluster. Every other star cluster is going to primarily be exporting their goods and services to this system to be able to fetch the best price they can from their labor. I think I’ll use the Guild Council/Mercantile Republic style government I came up with for the Geinrich setting to run this main planet. The planet should be earth-like for the most part, nothing to make it difficult to adapt to over long periods of time for people who are visiting. What might make this a desirable tourist spot? Well, let’s see… how about vast, untouched swaths of natural Earth-like biomes, a very strong (for the area) and poorly regulated economy, and a unique set of rings surrounding the planet that make the night sky amazingly beautiful.

Every other system I’ll generate randomly using the planet generation charts included in the D6 Ships book and write them up separately.

How does this cluster deal with the two neighboring interstellar governments? What is their relationship to them both? Does either side give a rat’s ass about these systems? Does the cluster actively fight against annexation, incorporation, or any other versions of adding the planets into their government structures? What does each side call the area? Is it under any type of political contention?

These are all questions that need to be answered at some point. Maybe after fleshing out these new planets it will become super obvious how some of these will be answered. Here’s to hoping…

Space Opera Part Deux

So I’ve been running this Space Opera campaign idea around a bit more in my head and have a few more random thoughts to add to it.

So this star cluster (a group of stars near each other and grouped together) is a remote region that is not resource rich, it doesn’t have any real strategic value, and isn’t claimed by either major government surrounding it. So why the hell would anyone live there? Well, being not claimed by either government is exactly the type of place people who want to be left alone would go. There are always humans who will flee from civilization to be where they can just be left alone and I’m sure there are species of aliens that would do the same.

There are bound to be enough resources and such in the area to seem at least attractive enough to people to move out to there, so it isn’t going to be devoid of an economy. It’ll just be smaller than other areas. Maybe there’s a nice planet that people will fly to as a tourism destination, possibly on the way to another destination. So one planet in the entire cluster will have a larger economy and population than the rest of it, but it will be more of a tourism/consumer based economy than anywhere else in the cluster. Most of the cluster’s economy would be based around feeding raw materials and supplies to the largest consumer in the area because that’s how economies tend to work.

This means that interstellar shipping will be important. Great time and place to be a trader… or a pirate.

With the lack of a central government, each system is going to be policing their own territory and not caring about what other places are doing. Coupling this with how much shipping is going to the same location you’re going to see a decently large pirate presence throughout the cluster. The area being poorly patrolled by civilized society means that privateers, security companies, and bounty hunter types exist in droves to help provide the law and order. Most of them are even pretty decent folk.

Okay, so let’s talk about technology. Since this is my personal setting it has its own set of tech. Most of it is pretty straightforward.

Let’s start with propulsion and interstellar travel. Keep in mind that we’re going to go with the cinematic approach to speeds similar to how Star Wars or space flight sim games like Wing Commander use. It isn’t realistic and is explained by the “Rule of Awesome” as to why this is even practical. So you have 3 speeds of travel; Local/Combat, In-System Navigation, and Interstellar.

Local/Combat speeds are the slowest and are based upon the speeds required to safely maneuver near gravity wells of certain strength or around other ships. It also enables ships to operate weapons safely and accurately. This propulsion system is based off of Fusion/Plasma Engines generating thrust.

In-System Navigation (I-SN, ISN Drive) is kind of like Warp Speed, but it only works while within a certain distance of a star’s gravity well, the further away it is from the star the slower it goes. Once you pass the Interstellar space threshold the I-SN is about as useful as the engines for Local speeds. This is a separate type of engine that is essentially a field generator that manipulate space-time/gravity around it similar to the familiar warp-drive but interstellar space doesn’t have enough gravity generating matter available to provide the “wave/bubble” effect.

Interstellar navigation was a difficult thing for the various species to master. The true key to making a functioning interstellar drive was to design a system that didn’t interact with the physics of our universe. The Sub-Space Drive (SSD, sub-drive, subspace field generator, SFG) is the interstellar drive of this setting. It basically covers its parent ship with an energy field that allows it to travel into another reality that exists partially within our own. These drives more or less open a shortcut between two points in reality using subspace as the path because subspace doesn’t work the same as our universe and allows for quicker travel. The Navigation of subspace is dangerous and difficult. It must be plotted carefully or else you could end up very off course very quickly. Navigation Computers make it easier but they can take a while to put together a course. Auto-pilots can also help to handle the dangers of subspace, but leaving them entirely in charge without oversight has led to some spectacular disasters over the years. (There’s a lot more about the subspace field generators bouncing around in my head but I’m just going to call this much a good starting point for most people) Oh, one last thing about them, don’t use one that’s broken. It’s bad news. What they find is messy to say the least.

Weapons Technology is based around the classic trio of Projectiles, Missiles/Torpedoes, and Energy Beams. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses. Energy Beams/Weapons are based around Plasma technology. Projectiles are based around rail-guns. Missiles/Torpedoes come in various shapes and sizes and each have a different mission to fulfill. Defensive measures generally are energy shields, but there are anti-missile systems and armor plating as well.

The newest type of torpedo that is driving military planners crazy is the “Skipper” torpedo. Typically attached to a very large warhead and designed to take down the most heavily armored starships, the skipper torpedo has a small subspace field generator on it that allows it to briefly enter subspace. This essentially allows it to increase its speed and range with the same fuel load and makes it harder to target with anti-missile weaponry. The skipper’s targeting system can also time the shifts to subspace to bypass the defenses and come back inside of its target. These systems are extremely limited in distribution, expensive, and heavily controlled by the various governments of the galaxy.

The one time pirates got a hold of a cache of these weapons the cost and damage was catastrophic. The pirates didn’t survive, not a single one. There has been a big push to adapt this technology to fighters and ships, but each time they activate the test ships’ drives all organic matter disappears from the ship within the first few skips through subspace.

Stealth technology is essentially unheard of. Most everything that is able to circumvent a certain type of sensor is easily going to be able to be detected by another type of sensor. Most of the known types of stealth craft are extremely expensive, ridiculously short range, and extremely underpowered. They will usually be deployed by a different ship that acts as their support ship/carrier. Typically they will be used for Spec-Op insertion planetside. Most reconnaissance work is conducted by spies in civilian ships and cheap probes that only escape detection most of the time due to their small size.

One relatively common tactic in full-scale warfare is the use of boarding ships/pods on the target. The targets in these cases are going to be Starships, Space Stations, Planets, etc. There are two types of boarding ships, Breachers and Cutters. Cutters fly their way onto the hull of an enemy ship, using plasma beams it cuts open a section of the hull and allows its occupants to enter into an enemy ship and later be able to escape with ease just by reboarding the ship and flying away. Cutters are great for  Spec-Ops teams with precise missions to accomplish. Breachers on the other hand tend to be more brutal and direct in their approach.

These heavily armored and very fast ships act like missiles filled with troops. They slam through the enemy hull and anchor themselves to it, making it extremely difficult to remove the ship. Once the hull is breached the hull on the Breacher opens to allow all the troops inside to rapidly board the ship. These are typically used in large numbers when the controlling fleet knows it has a good chance of capturing an enemy’s vessel with those troops.

On the ground, limited stealth field generators can give some semblance of cloak to unaided vision, but most security systems and vision enhancement equipment is able to see through these devices. People will carry around man sized versions of the energy/projectile/missile variety and wear armors of various types. Robots, super-medicine, bionic/cybernetic implants, cloned body parts, and other such things will end up existing as well.

After looking through the book for D6 Space I realize I’m going to have to design equipment myself and/or steal it from other settings because the core rulebook has pretty much nothing in it. Same thing goes for ships. At least there are extensive design rules for that. I’ll probably just steal already existing pictures of other settings ships and use them as filler and a template for the time being.

As far as aliens go, I’ve never actually populated this setting with specific species before. I just never got around to actually doing it, I was too busy with the sculpting of the Humans and their struggles to actually give them specific aliens to encounter and deal with. I’ve got ideas about what’s out there, but my sensibilities regarding alien races have changed themselves so many times over the years that nothing has survived a purging of Tropes and silliness. I really need to figure out a few of them now.

Space Opera

So after discovering the absolutely wonderful webcomic Darths and Droids (I highly recommend it, check it out here) I have been kindly reminded about my love of sci-fi epics. It has put me in the mood to at least look into writing down some campaign ideas for some type of space epic that will go into the file of “Things that will never see the light of day again.”

Thanks to my new found love of Old School gaming groups on Facebook I’ve found that West End Games, the creators of the wonderful d6 Star Wars system, have released the core rulebooks for their generic Fantasy, Adventure, and Sci-Fi d6 rules to the public for free download from the various PDF distribution sites out there. They've even made them Open Game License products so anyone can use them as a baseline system for their own settings which is a very awesome thing to do.

So with those downloads fresh on my various storage devices and a glorious spark of sci-fi epic based creativity I've kind of gotten into a mood of wanting to play or run a sci-fi epic. I know it won’t happen because apparently anytime I try to run something it falls through and I've got some other things that are ready to go and are just waiting for players first (Geinrich, Dresden, multiple World of Darkness, an Exalted campaign, a couple Pathfinder/3.5 campaigns, and a partially built Star Wars D20 which I would like to convert to d6 now). I think it shouldn’t be a problem to use the D6 Space rules for this so that’s what we’ll use.

So picking a setting for sci-fi is a difficult thing to do. Most people end up wanting to play in a well established setting with certain tropes or various things they know well. That’s all well and good, but when given the ability to create sci-fi from scratch with a system I think this is as perfect a time as any to pull out one of my brain. Way back in those dark days of middle school (shudder) I started to develop and flesh out my own sci-fi universe. It had originally been a rip off of various established universes (primarily Star Wars and Wing Commander) but it was mine and I liked to come up with neat ideas for various characters and societies in it.

In my navy days I came back to it again to revisit and re-work it because underway you have a lot of extra time on your hands and watches are long. I wrote out a bunch of ideas and concepts that eventually grew into the current version of this universe. Now that I’ve been out of the Navy for years and some of that information I wrote is lost, forgotten, or stupid and I want to refine it again for my new sensibilities. So hey, look, an excuse!

Back to what I was trying to say, I’ll use my own setting for a Sci-Fi campaign. It’s your standard Sci-Fi fare in general. Kind of like what you’d find in various video game universes, animated shows, comics and such. You have a Human organization spread across a large number of planets, a bunch of alien races with varying types of governments and alliances, a semi-stable level of technology, shields, plasma cannons, FTL travel, and cinematic action.

I love realistic sci-fi combat, but in an RPG no one wants to deal with the realities of space based combat, they want to be Han Solo, Christopher Blair, or Captain Kirk. They don’t want to be John “Black Jack” Geary trying to calculate the relativistic distortion of two giant fleets coming towards each other at 0.1 Lightspeed over the course of dozens of hours setting up the perfect last minute maneuver that will give them the best advantage for that brief fraction of a fraction of a second that the opposing ships will be passing each other at insane speeds. That just isn’t very RPG-ish, so I have fighter wings and such in my setting because it’s cool.

So really, just think that the setting is a rip-off of Star Wars with elements of Wing Commander, Mass Effect, and Titan A.E. and you’ll probably be close enough.

So, what could I do for a campaign? That’s always the first question. For that I turn to my favorite settings and series and look for inspiration. There are two ways to approach a new and unknown setting, Railroad tracks or Sandbox. Railroad tracks you start off with everyone in a pre-defined role with a mission already briefed and ready to go. You don’t give them an option and force them into a story and drag them around to some set pieces. They can learn new things that way. The sandbox just plops them down and you say have at it! Sandbox can be very difficult most of the time but is far more rewarding in the end. I’ll probably need to do something that’s a combination of both though.

With those in mind, what’s a good starting point? Military? Freelancer? Traders? Privateer? Pirate? Stuck on a planet because of an accident? Do they have their own ship? Human only party?

Hmmm…

Primarily I’d say that starting out as some type of Freelance Trader is a good jumping off point. Firefly is a wonderful example of the possibilities that this type of starting point provides. So at least one of the players will be the owner of a ship, at least one other person is a member of the crew and everyone else can either be a passenger or a crew member. They’re doing their best to make a living for themselves as they make their way from planet to planet at their own pace. Ah, yes. That makes the beginning easier. The opening adventure module could be a simple transport job or something. Very easy for something to go wrong, money being owed, success or failure, etc. I like it.

Alright that basic premise is done. What’s next? Scope is a good one. Maybe make a cluster of star systems near the border of the Terran Interstellar Alliance and the Confederated Systems. Some type of semi-unclaimed set of territory. Call it “The Borderlands” or some other stupidly simple name that humans would name something like that. This particular star cluster has something like 10-15 systems in it usually with 1-3 inhabited planets and handfuls for stations or hollowed out asteroids in each system. The systems may have some type of general pirate/raider problem and aren’t patrolled very well by either major power. Each system probably has its own system of government and laws, plus their own militia/law enforcement. This is probably more than enough for the first module and possibly the campaign.

What types of major dangers and conflicts exist in this cluster that they’d have to deal with? Obviously the pirates as mentioned before will be one. There is likely to be some type of criminal enterprise that operates on multiple planets and in multiple systems. Maybe some of the planets in a system don’t like each other very much and are planning a feud or a violent trade dispute. Some of the planets are going to have their own sets of problems too. Yup, Liking where this is going.

The area isn't super resource rich and not of much interest to either government and isn’t important strategically so it isn't likely to be contested soon. This means that any major problems (like the pirates) will have to be handled by the cluster. Which also means that they'll probably be handled by the individual governments independent of the others.

That's a pretty good start maybe I'll continue fleshing this out some more just as an exercise in world building.

Of course I could just do Star Wars instead and scrap all of this… do some New Jedi Order, Knights of the Old Republic, or Rebellion Era and call it a day. Yeah, that does sound tempting, but whatever.