Guest Suleyman Rashid Posted October 1, 2005 Report Share Posted October 1, 2005 I'm trying to construct a basic "hard rivet" space opera setting, one that tries to seem as realistic as possible without actually letting realism get in the way of the fun. (This way, it never gets too outrageous, but allows just enough outrage to be enjoyable.) In the background information, I mention the "old races"... the Babylon 5-ish "first ones", who were the early species to gain intelligence, technology, and star-empires. I'm avoiding the "they are beings of mental energy" thing entirely as way, way too deus ex machina, but am diving straight into Clarke's Law when it comes to these people. And as I said, they are 99% of the time going to be nothing but background neat-stuff and McGuffin manufacturers. Has anyone else ever done this sort of thing, and if so, how'd it work out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted October 1, 2005 Report Share Posted October 1, 2005 Re: The Old Races Iain Banks' "Culture" books deals, tangentially, with what happens when civilizations advance to a certian point. Either they 'sublimate', and essentially disappear to a higher plane, or they become really... weird? unexplainable?... in their actions and motivations, as though you had a race of Gandalf the Greys. So every once in a while one of these ancients shows up and does something weird and incomprehensible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Suleyman Rashid Posted October 1, 2005 Report Share Posted October 1, 2005 Re: The Old Races The progenitors were responsible for genetic maniplation and "seeding" various star systems' date=' and are responsible for many of the more humanoid races (as they were themselves, humanoid), including the Ergons (Thorgans), Humans, Mandaarians, Malvans, Varanyi, and Valerians, among others.[/quote'] Wasn't there a TNG episode about this? I like the idea, though... adds an element of David Brinn to the setting, and I've always enjoyed his work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outsider Posted October 1, 2005 Report Share Posted October 1, 2005 Re: The Old Races It also might be adding an element of Larry Niven. The Thrint had an ancient empire, were psionic, and (unintentionally) seeded many worlds. Not that they intended to create a multitude of species with similar biochemistry... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kal'daka Posted October 1, 2005 Report Share Posted October 1, 2005 Re: The Old Races I run my game in an altered version of B-5 using galactic champions rules as well as Star Hero and terrean empire. I use some of the first ones from B5 but only as back plot I use other races that have been around longer. One is the Cabal... they predate the Malvans, but therir society and people were arrogant and war mongers. They were also superior bio geneticists they created many of the races I use in my campaigns. They were also trying to tamper with their own DNA to make themselves better but it only assissted in their downfall as their own enhancements cause catastrophic genetic failures in their biology. Some where able to halt it temporarily but eventually most dies out. I also use Atlantians as a first one race. I also created the Mystecs which are in essence spiritual mystically evolved elves that split from their origin races around early Valdorian age and started to traverse the stars and dimensions. Those are just a few examples from my campaign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Suleyman Rashid Posted October 1, 2005 Report Share Posted October 1, 2005 Re: The Old Races It also might be adding an element of Larry Niven. The Thrint had an ancient empire, were psionic, and (unintentionally) seeded many worlds. Not that they intended to create a multitude of species with similar biochemistry... Haven't read that particular Niven yet, but but I like that too. Unintentional seeding of life on many planets. How about a race that started terraforming a bunch of planets by seeding "early earth"-like planets with a tailored algae to make the air breathable. Then have the race die out somehow, and the algae mutated... sounds workable, and leaves the "non-earthlike" worlds to develop non-humanoid life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clsage Posted October 1, 2005 Report Share Posted October 1, 2005 Re: The Old Races Originally Posted by nevereverend: "The progenitors were responsible for genetic maniplation and "seeding" various star systems, and are responsible for many of the more humanoid races (as they were themselves, humanoid), including the Ergons (Thorgans), Humans, Mandaarians, Malvans, Varanyi, and Valerians, among others." Wasn't there a TNG episode about this? I like the idea' date=' though... adds an element of David Brinn to the setting, and I've always enjoyed his work.[/quote'] Yes...I believe the title was "The Chase". I especially liked the concept used in that episode of the "major races" genetic structure having segments of a coded message within. A plot point I will have to use someday, once I get a chance to GM again. -Carl- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Suleyman Rashid Posted October 2, 2005 Report Share Posted October 2, 2005 Re: The Old Races The most "successful" of these seeded species may become hosts to the Progenitors, as the old race grew frail and unable to compete with harsher environments without significant technological aid. They relied too much upon slave races for almost everything. Thus, at some point, the Progenitors will thrust their consciousnesses forward through time and oust many of the host minds of a race. Sort of like Lovecraft's Great Race of Yith. They also have a failsafe redundancy in place if the first option fails, which involves a piece of psionic technology that has a "backup copy" of many of the Progenitors minds... enough to co-opt a race's development to better suit themselves. The most likely hosts at this point would be the Thorgans or the Varanyi. The Mandaarians have a pretty good idea of what may happen, and the Varanyi have some suspicians that something has been deliberately mussing about with the development of various races and recognize some common genetic traits in common with the "lesser" races. That's a bit farther out there than I planned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeropoint Posted October 2, 2005 Report Share Posted October 2, 2005 Re: The Old Races I have a Space Opera campaing trying to start itself, and I'm including elements from a number of movies, anime series, and video games. One of the games is the Metroid series, so I have the remnants of the Chozo civilization scattered throughout the galaxy. I haven't really come up with any game use for this other than providing cool ruins here and there, although I suppose the PCs could find a weird piece of Chozo tech when the game starts to drag. Zeropoint Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Suleyman Rashid Posted October 2, 2005 Report Share Posted October 2, 2005 Re: The Old Races I have a Space Opera campaing trying to start itself, and I'm including elements from a number of movies, anime series, and video games. One of the games is the Metroid series, so I have the remnants of the Chozo civilization scattered throughout the galaxy. I haven't really come up with any game use for this other than providing cool ruins here and there, although I suppose the PCs could find a weird piece of Chozo tech when the game starts to drag. So do you think I should keep the ancient civilizations as fallen, existing as nothing but ruins and the odd piece of leftover tech? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kal'daka Posted October 2, 2005 Report Share Posted October 2, 2005 Re: The Old Races Keep the ancient civilization as left over ruins .... possibility of advanced tech and/or survivors...whether they be full blood or half breeds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeropoint Posted October 2, 2005 Report Share Posted October 2, 2005 Re: The Old Races So do you think I should keep the ancient civilizations as fallen, existing as nothing but ruins and the odd piece of leftover tech? Well, the way I'm going to handle it (based on my interpretation of the Metroid games) is that the Chozo went Away some time ago. No one knows if they evolved into beings of pure thought, transferred themselves to another dimension, picked up and moved to a different galaxy, or what. What IS known is that either they didn't all leave, or some of them stop by and visit occasionally. Samus Aran is less than thirty years old, for instance, and she was rescued and adopted by Chozo after a Space Pirate attack on her colony. Chozo ruins are scattered throughout the galaxy, but frustratingly little of their technology has been left behind. Basically, they exist as background color and a mystery to explore, but there is always the possibility that they can show up and do something unusual and interesting when it suits the game. Now, as to how YOU should play it, it's up to you. I hope my ideas can at least give you some food for thought. Zeropoint Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted October 4, 2005 Report Share Posted October 4, 2005 Re: The Old Races I'm a big fan of the Pak as a progenitor race - they didn't have any rubber science psychic powers, and tended to go for large ambitious projects, such as Ringworlds. They're in Niven's books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRavenIs Posted October 5, 2005 Report Share Posted October 5, 2005 Re: The Old Races I am going to start a space game myself. In mine it start's out with no real connection to any part of the CU. The PC's will get thrown into a 'different' reality and be lost. It's has a feel of a combo of Star Trek: Voyager/Bab 5/Star Wars/Lost in Space. The PC's are all different members of some of the major races in the area of space where the game start's. When they drop thru the 'Looking Glass', well let's say that they will meet some strange races as well as some not so strange. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Carman Posted October 6, 2005 Report Share Posted October 6, 2005 Re: The Old Races Haven't read that particular Niven yet' date=' but but I like that too. Unintentional seeding of life on many planets. How about a race that started terraforming a bunch of planets by seeding "early earth"-like planets with a tailored algae to make the air breathable. Then have the race die out somehow, and the algae mutated... sounds workable, and leaves the "non-earthlike" worlds to develop non-humanoid life.[/quote'] That's more or less the thesis of his Thrint situation, tho the seeding was mainly to create worlds to support their food stock. The genetic manipulation capabilities of one of their slave races had a lot to do with that "race die out somehow" business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UltraRob Posted October 8, 2005 Report Share Posted October 8, 2005 Re: The Old Races One interesting take I saw on "The Old Race" was the anime series Vandread, in it the Old Race was Earth humanity, but for various reasons it had seeded countless numbers of other worlds with more baseline humans. Highlight for spoiler info: The various "earth colonies" in Vandread were actually pools of "spare parts", each of the different planets having slightly different genetic quirks that they were harvested by the Earth-progenitors for. Damn that was a creepy series when they introduced that idea. Rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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