Jump to content

Transhuman Traveller


Wardsman

Recommended Posts

http://www.orionsarm.com/xcms.php?r=oa-intro

 

What is "Orion's Arm" you might ask? That is an excellent question, and in a nutshell here is your answer:

Orion's Arm is:

  • The next step in the evolution of science-fiction
  • A collective hard science fiction world building endeavor
  • A space opera
  • A communal background for science fiction stories
  • A universe ready to be brought to life through illustration
  • A forum for cutting edge science
  • A roleplaying setting
  • A transhumanist projection of what the future might look like
  • A bunch of semi-sane sentients having fun together

Why are we here? The answer to that question can be found in our Statement of Purpose:

 

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE:Our purpose is to inspire writers, artists and thinkers. To create a vision of the future that is plausible at every level, internally consistent and abides by the accepted facts and theories in the physical, biological, and social sciences. We embrace speculative ideas like Drexlerian assemblers, mind uploading, posthuman intelligence, magnetic monopoles, wormholes and the technologies, and developments that will make all this possible.

To quote Arthur C. Clarke's Second Law:

The only way to explore the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

Our task is to create an ever evolving universe that is interesting, inspiring and provocative - to theorize on a future that may, or may not, come to be.

Our purpose is to inspire writers, artists and thinkers. To create a vision of the future that is plausible at every level, internally consistent and abides by the accepted facts and theories in the physical, biological, and social sciences. We embrace speculative ideas like Drexlerian assemblers, mind uploading, posthuman intelligence, magnetic monopoles, wormholes and the technologies, and developments that will make all this possible.

To quote Arthur C. Clarke's Second Law:

The only way to explore the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

Our task is to create an ever evolving universe that is interesting, inspiring and provocative - to theorize on a future that may, or may not, come to be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I ran a Traveller story arc dealing with contact with a lost colony that had gone in big for genetic transhumanism. I could post some bits if anyone wants. I'll warn you, though, it was for a Traveller campaign that friends of mine ran since high school and was well into its third decade -- and they never paid attention to any official publications after the 1st ed. booklets. By the time I came along, their setting did't look very much like "official" Traveller anymore.

 

Dean Shomshak

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My question would be "why Traveller"? I'm assuming you're using Hero for the game system, since you're asking here. For me, though, setting aside the system, the implications of Traveller's J-Drive, both in how they affect the day to day lives of the characters and the consequences of wider stellapolitics are central to the setting, so if it's the setting you're keen on, you just "have" to choose J-drive over wormholes, unless the same constraints apply to wormholes as do to J-Drive, at which point it's just terminology... :) So, if your answer to "Why Traveller?

 

Other elements of transhumanism fit more readily into the milieu than a different way of getting about the "terrain".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My question would be "why Traveller"? I'm assuming you're using Hero for the game system, since you're asking here. For me, though, setting aside the system, the implications of Traveller's J-Drive, both in how they affect the day to day lives of the characters and the consequences of wider stellapolitics are central to the setting, so if it's the setting you're keen on, you just "have" to choose J-drive over wormholes, unless the same constraints apply to wormholes as do to J-Drive, at which point it's just terminology... :) So, if your answer to "Why Traveller?

 

Other elements of transhumanism fit more readily into the milieu than a different way of getting about the "terrain".

Very good point. It also begs what makes traveller what is too you.

One thing I never got about Traveller is how you could misjunp farther than you normally move.I remember a tournament where we misjumped our way through the scenario.

 

Traveller at the basic level looks like baselines or NEBs of the fringe of Architect territory.

 

It also brings how to model higher sophic beings in Hero. People who can predict your reactions like you can predict a child's.

It It occurs to me I might need speedzone rules for those faster thinking Transapients..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...
  • 3 months later...

I am totally for transhuman traveller. As to the question "What makes traveller" to me the one thing you can't change is the travel and communication rules. Traveller has a pretty fast FTL engine, the jump drive but no FTL communications. This makes it necessary to travel to communicate and it means at a minimum it takes 2 weeks to send a message to another system and get a reply. It can take months for information to reach the capitol of a large interstellar polity and the same time for a reaction to reach the border.

 

This mandates a decentralized government with a lot of variability in different parts of it. You end up with a distant central government that maybe takes a limited role in most matters and focuses on the military as in maintaining a defense force in case of a hostile Alien race being encountered. It might maintain standards in certain things like disease control to keep plagues from spreading to world to world, first contact protocols and other things that could affect the human race as a whole but beyond that leave a lot of things to local custom, authority and so on. So you get wildly varied cultures and societies as only things that can affect humanity as a whole are subject to the central government.

 

Barring super nanotech and matter replication or synthesis trade becomes vital. Some systems may be better suited to one thing, like industry or agriculture, than others so trade occurs. What may be legal in one system may be illegal in others, so a black market may exist.

 

As long as it's a local matter it's up to local governments which could be nearly any type imaginable.

 

That is pretty much what you can't change about traveller and still have traveller. Some worlds may opt to go totally transhumanist, some worlds may ban transhumans. So adding transhumans to traveller is ok with me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, very reminiscent of 18th century European empires and the communications/logistics issues they faced. For all the super-high technology in Traveller, it is...um...interesting how they managed to make certain aspects of the game feel trapped in a far more primitive era.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It doesn't just decentralize governmental control. It slows down the pace of any and all large-scale activity to pre-20th century standards. If it takes two months to get new orders out to your generals on the front lines of an invasion, it doesn't really matter whether it's a courier on horseback or a messenger in a starship. Two months is two months, and for players living in a (21st century) society who are used to nearly instantaneous communication to/from everywhere that matters, Traveller surely feels more like it takes place in our (somewhat) distant past, not our far future.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A yep. It does that. It also makes the players on the frontier cut off from "central authority" and unable to call in aid or call for orders even if they wanted to. So it essentially leaves them in a position where they have to act on their own.

 

Almost....almost like, the game was set up, deliberately, to make a group of explorers or other adventurous types act on it's own. Not just giving them the option of taking action on their own but making it an essential part of the universe. ;)

 

Damn, that Marc Miller sure is smart...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

things change and tech evolves... Traveller celebrated its 40th anniversary in publication on saturday

Traveller hasnt evolved as well as it could have... but what really has

 

the ideas of trans-human traveller definately intrigues me... and adapting to Star Hero/Traveller Hero should certainly be doable

what can I do to help?

 

Traveller Hero is still kinda my baby, along with Eodin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A yep. It does that. It also makes the players on the frontier cut off from "central authority" and unable to call in aid or call for orders even if they wanted to. So it essentially leaves them in a position where they have to act on their own.

 

Almost....almost like, the game was set up, deliberately, to make a group of explorers or other adventurous types act on it's own. Not just giving them the option of taking action on their own but making it an essential part of the universe. ;)

 

Damn, that Marc Miller sure is smart...

 

It's the same model Gene Roddenberry used for Star Trek. While most current incarnations seems to have instantaneous FTL communication, the original Trek often had the Enterprise far enough from Starfleet HQ that it could take days or weeks or more for a message to be sent and a response received. This was, as with Traveller, intentional, so that Kirk had to be given the authority (and responsibility) to make big decisions. No passing the buck up the chain of command.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It feels quite realistic for communication and travel to take meaningful amounts of time (i.e., not be instantaneous irrespective of distance). After all, the same notion holds true for us today on our little blue planet. It is what we're used to and I think players can relate to that. However, what does not resonate with anyone today is the idea that communication takes as long as physical travel. You can certainly try to justify it on the grounds of some esoteric design goal, but it will still feel wrong for adventure in the far future where ultra-tech exists (e.g., FTL).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...