Classic Sci-Fi Novels for Scenario Ideas

[gojira]

Re: Classic Sci-Fi Novels for Scenario Ideas

 

C. J. Sherryh's Downbelow Station and Merchanter's Luck I think would make very good game worlds. They are space opera but try to look like hard science in as many respects as possible. It's a nice blend of fast paced action without suspending too much believability.

[TheRavenIs]

Re: Classic Sci-Fi Novels for Scenario Ideas

 

I am not familiar with that one.

Norton did a book entittled Star Rangers; and Asimov did a juvenile series in the 50's that I think was called "Space Ranger". about a character named "Lucky Star."

Is either of those what you mean?

 

 

Yeap that was the series I was talking about. All of the books are set on different planets inside the solar system.

[TheRavenIs]

Re: Classic Sci-Fi Novels for Scenario Ideas

 

You could also use almost all of Lester Del Ray's books for idea's.

[Nyrath]

Re: Classic Sci-Fi Novels for Scenario Ideas

 

I just noticed that the Baen Free Library has the Telzey Amberdon novels as free downloads.

(go to http://www.baen.com/library/ click on "The Authors", then click on "James H. Schmitz". The novels are "Telzey Amberdon" and "TNT-Telzey & Trigger", though the others have great plot seeds as well.)

 

These are great novels for a Star Hero campaign that includes psionics.

 

From Trigger & Friends (sadly not one of the free novels)

"At one time I made an extensive investigation of this subject in the Federation. My purpose was to test a theory that the emergence of a species from its native world into space and the consequent impact of a wide variety of physical and psychic pressures leads eventually to a pronounced upsurge in its use of Uld powers [psi]." (Lord Gulhad, The Demon Breed)

...

Not much more than two centuries ago the Hub still had been one of the bloodiest human battlegrounds of all time. It was the tail end of the War Centuries. A thousand governments were forming and breaking interstellar alliances, aiming for control of the central clusters or struggling to keep from being overwhelmed. (The Demon Breed)

 

One thing that happened during the War Centuries is that entire planets died, including Earth -- though Schmitz never explicitly states this.

...

The War Centuries were caused by the rise of psi power in human beings. Pre-war human societies had no defense against psis -- they had not yet developed an organization or institution to control them.

 

A Class Two psi (telep-2) such as Telzey is a serious danger to an unprepared society. In fact, "catastrophic" would be a better word. Consider the first thing Telzey does with her newfound power in "Novice." As soon as the Baluit crest cat crisis is over, she starts experimenting with her Aunt Halet's mind. Halet has no defense and doesn't even know she is being controlled.

 

The next step for a psi as powerful as Telzey would be to take control of the people around her. She would soon find that she can only control a handful of the billions of people on a planet, so she would try to find a way to extend her control. Schmitz calls these "telepathic amplifiers" or "psychimpulse-multipliers." Using such devices, a sufficiently skilled telepath could start a chain-letter of control called the "Pyramid Effect" in the Agent of Vega series. A single telep-2 could end up controlling the entire planetary population.

 

The controlled population would have no more defense than Aunt Halet. Those with strong minds that might be able to resist would be destroyed. The average IQ then falls. Eventually, any psychoses in the ruling mind would be transferred to and amplified in the population, leading to ritualized serial murder and mass suicide. When the controlling mind died, the entire planet would die as well. That's what the Psychology Service was worried might be happening on Palayata. It's hard to believe that Schmitz wrote all this before Jim Jones founded Jonestown in Guyana.

 

In the War Centuries, this happened not once, but hundreds of times. It kept several thousand planets in turmoil not for years, but for centuries. Finally, a defense was found against the psis. It consisted of an organization of both psis and non-psis protected by mind shields. With a defense in hand, physical force was sufficient to defeat the psis.

...

 

With the end of the War Centuries, the group that won the war founded the Federation. To prevent another psi war, they created the Psychology Service. Their number one job was to prevent rogue psis from causing trouble in the Hub.

 

One thing that bothers many people about the Federation is the autocracy of the Psychology Service. They censor the news. They spy on the citizens. They even have a policy to mind-wipe any Federation official who finds out what they are doing and disagrees with it. The rest of Hub society is so libertarian, how does Schmitz justify the actions of the Service? In fact, he never explicitly defends it. It is left to the reader to realize that the Psychology Service is fighting a plague that threatens the entire human race.

...

Let's return to the case of Telzey Amberdon. On the trip back to Orado, she discovers "tele-hypnosis" and uses it to take control of her Aunt Halet. As soon as she steps off the ship, she's spotted, hooked, tagged, and tracked by the Psychology Service. This girl is a danger and they know it. So what do they do? Do they kidnap or murder her? No, they implant a suggestion that she limit her psi activity and seek out the proper authorities.

 

This is the true Schmitz touch. The Psychology Service is not out to protect society by eliminating psis. Quite the contrary. They will protect the Federation by immunization. To eliminate psis would leave the Federation defenseless against external threats (such as the Elaigar), and internal threats such as undetected psis. Instead, Telzey is left free to find her own way of handling her new abilities. She will be tracked, and harsher means will be used only if she becomes a problem. If she can control herself and fit into society, she will be left alone.

 

Because of this, the Psychology Service is not presented as some dark repressive Gestapo-like organization hiding behind the friendly façade of the Federation. They are instead controlling a serious problem as nondestructively as possible. More than that, they are trying to turn this serious problem into a strength.

 

"I think the Overgovernment prefers the species to continue to evolve in its own way. On the record, it's done well. They don't want to risk eliminating genetic possibilities which may be required eventually to keep it from encountering some competitive species as an inferior." (Ticos Cay, The Demon Breed)

...

The Service is also pushing the use of psionic machines in the Federation. People with no psi talent of their own will be empowered to deal with psis. Mind shields are available for defense, and powerful mind-reading machines, such as the ones at the Orado City Space Terminal or Transcluster Finance, will provide the advantages of psi to ordinary people.

 

As part of their plan to introduce psi to the Hub on a larger scale, one job of the Psychology Service is to control the fear of psis. We see them doing this in several ways. They clean up after psis (like Telzey) by providing believable ordinary explanations for extraordinary events (such as in "Resident Witch"). If a psi won't keep under cover, they arrange to ship them off to someplace like Askanam ("Glory Day"), or the psis disappear into rehab-as happens to Wakote Ti and Alicar Troneff.

 

The Service also disseminates false stories, minimizing the effectiveness of psi. For example, Assistant Secretary Duffold believes that "the psi boys had produced disturbing effects in various populations from time to time, but in the showdown the big guns always had cleaned them up very handily."

 

[Guest daeudi_454]

Re: Classic Sci-Fi Novels for Scenario Ideas

 

Also- Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestials is a great resource...

Not only do you get a depiction of the alien, but a general writeup of their society. All of the entries are based on races from classic Scifi novels/series, and 95% of the books are great reads.

[Nyrath]

Re: Classic Sci-Fi Novels for Scenario Ideas

 

And also available at the Baen free library is James Schmitz's AGENT OF VEGA. This is chock full of great stuff for anybody running an interstellar James Bond-Secret Agent campaign.

[Egyptoid]

Re: Classic Sci-Fi Novels for Scenario Ideas

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1089026&postcount=86