Science Fiction campaigns

[Spence]

So I was thinking about how the majority of science fiction campaigns I see out there aren’t.  Science Fiction campaigns I mean, at least not by the definition I grew up with.    Most I see are science fantasy carrying along magic, sometimes called Psionics.  Though the vast array of Psionic Powers usually blows right past simple mind powers and right on through to the realm of magic. 

 

And then I got to thinking about those settings that actually throttle back and stay Science Fiction.  Practically all of them have blown right past any wonder and discovery and populated the universe with a few to dozens of alien races.  Many, if not most, treated like humans in a rubber mask. 

 

That is actually sad.  I look back and remember the campaigns of yore where the known universe was parceled out into human civilizations in multiple star systems, with their interactions, wars and politics.    There had never been a confirmed contact with anything not human, and there was no (public) knowledge that anything even hinted that there had been, ruins, artifacts, anything.  

 

The fun in the campaign was when the PC’s are involved in actual first contact.   Trying to piece together what is happening from clues.  It had a dose of wonder and genuine excitement involved in unraveling the mystery. 

 

Do you miss those days too?

[C-Note]

That's how I recently began a campaign taking place in the near future. The solar system is colonized similar to The Expanse. In the past century, interstellar probes identified several terraformable planets within 20 light-years of Earth. The first interstellar sub-light colony ships were launched within the last 20 years and are still en route. Not even a hint of alien life, anywhere.  And then, Dr. Nels Bergenholm invents the Hyperdrive.

 

Contact has been lost with the Santa Maria, the massive colony ship en route to Barnard's Star. During the last message, screams of terror were heard before the transmission was cut off.

 

The player's ship, the Windfall Prophet, has been retrofitted with the experimental Bergenholm Hyperdrive. Their mission is to intercept the Santa Maria to determine what happened.

[Spence]

That's how I recently began a campaign taking place in the near future. The solar system is colonized similar to The Expanse. In the past century, interstellar probes identified several terraformable planets within 20 light-years of Earth. The first interstellar sub-light colony ships were launched within the last 20 years and are still en route. Not even a hint of alien life, anywhere.  And then, Dr. Nels Bergenholm invents the Hyperdrive.

 

Contact has been lost with the Santa Maria, the massive colony ship en route to Barnard's Star. During the last message, screams of terror were heard before the transmission was cut off.

 

The player's ship, the Windfall Prophet, has been retrofitted with the experimental Bergenholm Hyperdrive. Their mission is to intercept the Santa Maria to determine what happened.

 

That sounds interesting.  Are you going space horror (i.e. Aliens)  or first contact non-horror?

[C-Note]

Neither.  Going for a "Pandorum" type of scenario.  Cryopod failure resulting in a percentage of the colonists going crazy/violent/cannibal.  Going to keep the campaign "alien-free" for a little while before springing the full galactic Lovecraftian cosmic horror on them!

[L. Marcus]

You forgot the "Mwahahahaaa!!" at the end there, I think.

[Xavier Onassiss]

So I was thinking about how the majority of science fiction campaigns I see out there aren’t.  Science Fiction campaigns I mean, at least not by the definition I grew up with.    Most I see are science fantasy carrying along magic, sometimes called Psionics.  Though the vast array of Psionic Powers usually blows right past simple mind powers and right on through to the realm of magic. 

 

And then I got to thinking about those settings that actually throttle back and stay Science Fiction.  Practically all of them have blown right past any wonder and discovery and populated the universe with a few to dozens of alien races.  Many, if not most, treated like humans in a rubber mask. 

 

That is actually sad.  I look back and remember the campaigns of yore where the known universe was parceled out into human civilizations in multiple star systems, with their interactions, wars and politics.    There had never been a confirmed contact with anything not human, and there was no (public) knowledge that anything even hinted that there had been, ruins, artifacts, anything.  

 

The fun in the campaign was when the PC’s are involved in actual first contact.   Trying to piece together what is happening from clues.  It had a dose of wonder and genuine excitement involved in unraveling the mystery. 

 

Do you miss those days too?

 

 

This is a partial list of reasons why I wrote Terracide.

[C-Note]

I love Terracide!  Did you get inspiration from "The Killing Star" by Charles R. Pellegrino and George Zebrowski?

 

Edit: Just read Appendix II: Reading List.  It's there.

[indy523]

For mr the main problem with the Star Wars cantina of aliens or the Star Trek United Federation or even Babylon 5 is the anthroponorphism of alien races.  Not just because they are all men in rubber suits but because they all think like humans. 

 

No real discussion is made as to what it would be like to meet an alien and the problems therein.  How those creatures evolved would make their world view completely different,

 

Humans raise their young, we are hardwired to protect children.  A parent that left their child in a locked car to die would be a monster in most people's eyes.  We would demand a child be saved before an adult even if we don't know them.  How we evolved defines us.

 

Now imagine a world of intelligent life coming from air breathing Octopus or Squids.  Squids lay eggs in huge clutches and maybe one in 1000 survive to adulthood despite being the most intelligent of sea creatures.  What would a Squids view of the value of life and children be.

 

Until a young squid reaches teenage status where it can begin to take part of society it might not be considered a "person" in the minds of adults.  The young would have to from hatching be able to live instinctually and only those that survive to a point of progression where they learn to communicate and take place in society are considered to be Squids.  There are just too many born to even be able to worry about their living.  They have to die off, it is part of life. 

 

Such creatures would have morals that made no sense to you or me.

 

On the one hand the equivalent of Squid toddlers could be seen as pests stealing food and exterminators could be hired to kill those that come onto one's homes so little regard for the life of the young does the species have yet....

 

The equivalent of an abortion, removing eggs before they develop so that they di not hatch might be a parent locking their kid in a car moment to members of the species.  Killing a living child not grown to adulthood might mean nothing because the one in a thousand that does survive will be the most cunning but not laying the 1000 eggs to begin with, removing them so nothing can fight to survive.  That they would class an unthinkable evil which would perplex them because laying eggs takes so little time.

 

Imagine we encounter Squids.  Could we live with them or they with us.  This is the greatest issue with contact with aliens. 

[Lord Liaden]

I have to give some credit to Hero Games' own sci-fi Star Hero line. Its shared galaxy setting certainly has its share of moderately modified humans in the guise of aliens, but it also hosts a wide variety of non-humanoids, some radically so; and a fair percentage of them also have non-human mindsets, a few extremely different.