CrosshairCollie Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 I'm finally hammering down a homebrewed Star Hero universe (or a tiny galactic sliver thereof), and I'm needing some organizations. A few I've lifted from various sources (including using the Interstellar League for the over-government, even though it isn't a Terran Empire setting ... hope Steve forgives me). So, here's what I have so far ... Interstellar Leage (Interstel): The over-government, a basic rip-off of the United Federation of Planets. Delegates from the member worlds gather at Interstel HQ and do a United Nations thing, 'cept it actually works. Mostly. Brotherhood of the One True Mind: Essentially, a group of psi-supremacists. Lucifer's Hammers: Name stolen from a book in Star Hero's bibliography; a mercenary unit, but a big one ... practically a privatized army. Work for money, no sense of conscience besides fulfilling the contract. Dark Circle: Stolen from Legion of Superheroes. Claim to be 'mystics', though most claim that their powers are simply psionics or well-concealed technology, and they play 'dress-up' as wizards and sages. Agenda unknown to the public, but they actively recruit people with promises of power and 'control of one's destiny'. Novastorm Pirates: A band of pirates who have, through stories that Interstel refuses to tell (both because of security issues and embarassment), operate out of one of those Star Destroyer style megabattleships as a mobile HQ. The leader, whom I've not named, will be a bit of an homage of Blackbeard, who supposedly once said, "I have to kill one of my crew every now and again, or they begin to forget who I am." Machine Empire: While not precisely an 'Empire', they aspire to be. Android supremacists, essentially (rather like Battlestar Galactica's Cylons, if I recall the show correctly ... organic life must be exterminated). The game's theme will be Space Opera, though the PCs won't necessarily be Interstel personnel (I'm cooking up a big out-of-sector invasion that happened in the very recent past ... all the non-battle-ready Interstel ships will be upgraded to battleships, so they'll have to use freelancers for non-military missions until they get things stabilized). Any blatant omissions of standard sci-fi stuff that I'm missing? (I confess that my sci-fi exposure amounts to Star Wars, Star Trek, and MST3K movies ... I don't read much.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 Re: Needed: Organizations! Let's see if I can dredge up a few more of the classics: Infiltrators: alien beings who masquerade as other creatures within the interstellar society, attempting to subvert it from within. Shapeshifters or controlling parasites. Anti-techs: rebels against the prevalence of unliving technology, they want to return sentient life to a more "natural" order. They can be more dangerous than standard environmental radicals if they have access to sophisticated "organic technology." Elder races: beings from a civilization(s) older and more advanced than your League. Mostly isolationist but may interfere for their own mysterious reasons. Navigators Guild: beings with innate abilities that are crucial to maintaining interstellar travel, whether it's precognizance that lets them chart out safe starship courses, or energy manipulation needed to safely operate stardrives. As a union they have tremendous influence. I'll think about this more when I'm less tired. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agemegos Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 Re: Needed: Organizations! How about The Historical Institute as in Jack Vance's "Asutra" series. Or the Interplanet Police Co-operation Company as in Jack Vance's "Demon Princes" series. Or the Humanity League (a sort of Amnesty International cum International Committee of the Red Cross) as in Niven & Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrosshairCollie Posted May 18, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 Re: Needed: Organizations! Definitely sounds like some interesting organizations ... But what do they do? I've never even heard of any of those series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocMan Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 Re: Needed: Organizations! The Free Trade Alliance. Originaly begun as a loose organization of independantly owned ships, the Free Trade Alliance was formed in protest to what was seen as prohibitive trade regulations by Interstel. The FTA maintain strict independance from any planet-bound govnernment or corporation. In the early days of the FTA, they were often looked upon as smugglers and criminal opportunists. But as time passed it became clear that the main goal of the FTA is maintaining trade. All FTA ship are armed, and at times when piracy is a particular problem an FTA flotilla will usually appear before Interstel's forces. At one time it was rumored that the FTA were the pirates, but their repeated efforts to root out piracy have put most of those rumors to rest. As trade routes have expanded, the FTA has flourished, adding more and more ships to their roster every year. This is particularly surprising since the FTA almost never admits ships with ground-born crews. FTA crews are born and bred among the ships of the FTA and have become increasingly suspicious and distrustful of grounders. They recognize their dependence upon planetary trade, but they hold themselves to be free of any particular planet. Drawn loosely from Robert A. Heinlein's "Citizen of the Galazy". Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mentor Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 Re: Needed: Organizations! Definitely sounds like some interesting organizations ... But what do they do? I've never even heard of any of those series. The titles given by the posters are tremendously influential sci fi novels with a lot of background on the types of organizations your asking about. enjoayble reads as a bonus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agemegos Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 Re: Needed: Organizations! But what do they do? The Historical Institute is trying to compile a complete history of mankind, so it sends Observers to every planet it can. Sometimes it has to do so secretly. In general, the ethics of these observers require them not to interfere in any way, so that no regime will expel or persecute Observers. But there is one faction who maintain that in order to ensure that mankind continues to generate history, observers ought to interfere between humans and aliens, or even between humans and other humans backed by aliens, or against humans who are doing things that threaten the ability of Mankind ot generate continual history. To protect its observers, the Historical Institute keeps their identities and reports confidential (also the locations and even the existence of the planets they are working on): that way its observers are hard to persecute, and the interests of security and secrecy do not dictate than any regime try. So the Proceedings of the Historical Institute (which contain absolute goldmines of accumulated information) are available only to trusted senior members. Internally, the Institute is a hotbed of academic intrigue, with progress by demonstrating ability and objectivity and by winning savage Faculty Committee meetings. It is intensely rivalrous, and never was "Publish or Perish" a more a motto to live by. The Asutra series is set on a planet with low (but interesting) tech that is threatened by an alien invasion/biological warfare campaign. Fortunately, it has an Observer on it. Unfortunately, the existence of this planet is a secret that the Historical Institute does not intend to divulge to the interstellar community, on the grounds that once contacted it would be absorbed, and lose its distinctive character. The Interplanet Police Co-operation Company starts out as a clearinghouse for information (particularly about criminals on whom a bounty is offered), in a setting in which there is no or insufficient interstellar co-ordination of law enforcement. It members are mostly law enforcement officers (there are some bounty hunters) who get an opportunity to close cases and to obtain the information that will win them bounties in an environment lacking extradition procedures and official sources for interplanetary information. (That is in the Oikumene stage of Vance's main future.) It then develops into a bounty-hunter's collective, and finally (in theGaean Reach stage), into a quasi-official law enforcement body dealing with fugitives, interstellar crime, and areas without their own law enforcement. Niven and Pournelle don't give much detail on the workings of the Humanity League. We gather that it is a fairly powerful lobby group (championing 'human' and civil rights), and that it also takes a hand in disaster relief and perhaps other charitable works. I've never even heard of any of those series. Read the Vance. You really, really, ought to read the Demon Princes series, Planet of Adventure/Tschai series, Alastor "series", the first two books of the Cadwal Chronicles (Araminta Station and Ecce and Old Earth), and Emphyrio. And maybe The Gray Prince. And maybe Maske: Thaery. And maybe others. Jack Vance has been a very influential SF and fantasy writer for nearly fifty years, and his best stuff is very, very good. Some of his works (but not all) have a picaresque content and pyrotechnical writing, and aren't to everyone's taste (even though they have been immensely influential: if you are a fan of Anne McCaffery, read Vance's The Dragon Masters and compare its publication date witht eh first Pern novel). But the works I have recommended have a less perfervid style, and more likeable, better-drawn characters. Vance is call 'the master image-maker of English letters', and credited witht eh invention of the 'planetary romance' sub-genre of SF ('planetary romance' is a type of SF adventure story in which the peculiarities of a planetary culture are central to the story. He is an absolute genius at devising and concisely conveying bizarre but utterly logical societies. It you are going for a setting in which a collection of politically, socially, and culturally diverse planetary cultures exist under a loose federation you will get a million miles per gallon out of any time you spend reading Vance. I recommend The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, but not quite as enthusiastically as Vance. You might also like to try their Oath of Fealty as suggestive material for your campaign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Major Tom Posted May 19, 2004 Report Share Posted May 19, 2004 Re: Needed: Organizations! You could have a government-sponsored force of peacekeepers/law-enforce- ment personnel (the Rangers of the Interstellar Alliance from Babylon 5 and the Galactic Patrolmen of the Lensman series of novels come to mind). Major Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Anomaly Posted May 19, 2004 Report Share Posted May 19, 2004 Re: Needed: Organizations! The Champions of Biodiversity. They have both a public arm and a more militant "black" arm. Publically they decry the extinction of species, and maintain extensive gene banks of now-extinct (or nearly extinct) species so that one day in the future, these species might be "re-kindled" and re-introduced into their native habitats. The more militant branch -- unacknowledged by the "public" branch -- takes a more direct approach. They have been known to "fix" ecological problems on various planets (whether the inhabitants want them "fixed" or not), often with disaterous results for the humans on the planet. Experts at genetic engineering, they usually accomplish their "fixes" by introducing gengineered off-planet species to "correct" the "imbalance" in they percieve in that particular planet's environment. They have also been known to re-introduce extinct species to their native habitat, but suitably "modified" so they are more "competetive" with humans...wolf-like carnivors gengineered to have a form of natural kevlar for skin and hair, for example, along with a very fast reproduction and growth rate, and often increased intelligence as well. These sorts of things have occassionally devestated entire biospheres, rendering the world in question uninhabitable by pretty much anything, let alone anyone, but these zealots shrug that off as a regrettable but necessary cost of teaching humanity its lesson. The Justice Bringers. Know one knows who or what they really are, as no one has ever seen a dead one and they appear to be immune to all known applications of force. In appearance they are generally humanoid, being upright bipeds, but they are completely encased in opaque full-environment armor, including featureless black bubble helmets. There is never more than one on any given world at a time, and it may be a generation between visits for any given world. When they arrive, they will hear the plea of anyone who petitions them about an injustice, and they will invesitgate (through unknown means) to determine the facts of the situation. Once the facts have been determined, they pronounce a sentence and carry it out...there is no appeal, and they are never wrong. There is a down side to approaching, them, however...if the accuser is wrong, the punishment that would have been appropriate for the crime is visited upon the accuser. Further, even if the accused is guilty, the accuser is investigated as well, and sentenced in accord with any wrongdoings in their past. It is said that only the foolish, or those with nothing left to lose, will approach a Justice Bringer. The Justice Bringers stay on a particular world for no set period of time; sometimes it is as short as a few hours, sometimes for a decade or more. They apparently do not have the power to travel through space on their own, nor do they have ships of their own. When they wish to leave a world, they simply walk onto a ship going to their next desired destination and inform the captain they are traveling with him and that he will be properly compensated. They do NOT take 'no' for an answer, and simply ignore any attempt to remove them from the ship. They always do compensate the captain the precisely proper amount -- in gold or other precious metals or substances. No one knows who or what the Justice Bringers are, but most suppose them to be either the remaining representative of some long-forgotten Forerunner race, or perhaps a sort of robot left behind by such an Elder race. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agemegos Posted May 19, 2004 Report Share Posted May 19, 2004 Re: Needed: Organizations! GreenWar- "an organisation for people who think that the only problem with GreenPeace is the 'Peace' bit". GreenWar is a broad, loosely-co-ordinated movement of campaigners against practices harmful to biospheres, especially complex ones. Its particular bête noir is terraformation, which according to GreenWar amounts to the deliberately induced mass extinction of autochthonous lifeforms, which is tantamount to mass-multiple genocide. Peaceful protest on remote and uninhabitable planets with no liner service is difficult and disappointingly inconspicuous, and GreenWar must depend on illegal sabotage. Nevertheless spokesfolk for the 'responsible leadership' insist that the organisation eschews all practices endangering human life. "There is terrorism associated with the anti-terraformation movement, but not by GreenWar, and not by anyone in its employ. Because it is bad for donations." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agemegos Posted May 19, 2004 Report Share Posted May 19, 2004 Re: Needed: Organizations! The Sons of Patrick Henry- on planets where the tech level allows it but does not provide superior alternatives, the medical techniques developed to produce tissue-clone organs for synthetic-allograft replacement of limbs and organs are applied to the production of 'androids', with human or genetically-modified tissue grown over (usually) manufactured skeletons. By choosing compliant gene stock and applying appropriate conditioning, manufacturers can produce androis slaves willing to perform disgusting, degrading, demeaning, and dangerous duties for 'reasonable' pay. Where such androids have legal rights, they can often be genetically and/or psychologically engineered to waive them voluntarily. The Sons of Patrick Henry think this sucks. And they are prepared to fertilise the Tree of Liberty with its natural manure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agemegos Posted May 19, 2004 Report Share Posted May 19, 2004 Re: Needed: Organizations! Democracy Unlimited-noting that tyranny is associated with oppression and poverty, Democracy Unlimited channels contributions and advisors from rich democratic planets to freedom fighters on poor tyrannised ones, and into a wide-spread public education propaganda movement (attempting to bring about reform by persuasion). In a few noteable cases, Democracy Unlimited has attempted to help revolutionary regimes construct functional free democracies in post-tyrannical circumstances. Results have been mixed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agemegos Posted May 19, 2004 Report Share Posted May 19, 2004 Re: Needed: Organizations! The Economist- this newspaper has been being published continuously since September 1843, and still hasn't managed to convince any government to abolish all restrictions on and interferences with trade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agemegos Posted May 19, 2004 Report Share Posted May 19, 2004 Re: Needed: Organizations! The Catholic Church- might be 'nothing other than the ghost of the Roman Empire, sitting enthroned on tomb thereof'. But it doesn't seem to be going away in a hurry. Perhaps someone could try exorcism? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wombat Posted May 19, 2004 Report Share Posted May 19, 2004 Re: Needed: Organizations! Mantis Section from the Sten series of Books. Basically they are the emperors elite black ops unit's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadowcat1313 Posted May 20, 2004 Report Share Posted May 20, 2004 Re: Needed: Organizations! SMM, The Society of Man Over Machine, militant anti-robot/AI organization Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travellerne Posted May 22, 2004 Report Share Posted May 22, 2004 Re: Needed: Organizations! The Blaylock Round - a pirate round led by Captain Alfonzo Blaylock. They have bases on a number of uninhabited rocks but suffered a setback when one of their fueling bases was destroyed by independent ships working under a government contract. TNE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travellerne Posted May 22, 2004 Report Share Posted May 22, 2004 Re: Needed: Organizations! Check out the "Campaign Brainstorming: The New Abbey" thread Major Tom has posted some really good ideas for religoius/military groups. TNE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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