My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

[tkdguy]

I've been working on this campaign for at least a year, if not longer. It's mostly finished, barring a bit of fine tuning. It took a long time because I think it's only proper to develop a setting fully before I let the PCs destroy it.

 

Anyway, the main premise in the design was to use technology that at least has been given serious consideration, if it's not currently being developed already. There is a bit of handwavium involved to increase playability, such as space combat, but I've tried my best to minimize it.

 

Another premise is to do away with certain sci-fi trappings. Since I'm setting the campaign in the near future, all space travel is limited to the solar system. The campaign deals with humanity's struggle against itself, so aliens appear in the campaign. There are robots, but they're pre-programmed drones with limited (if any) AI. You won't see Data or R2-D2 here. Although lasers are currently being developed as weapons, I decided they were too cliche and dropped them in favor of rail guns and coil guns. Guns still fire bullets. Missiles are still in use, of course.

[tkdguy]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

Here's the background for the setting. By 2020, Mankind has returned to the moon, the Americans landing on 2015, and the Russians and Chinese landing in a joint venture in 2017. The following years saw the growth of space colonization as space travel became affordable, both on space stations and on the surface of Mars and several moons. Manned flights to the outer planets has been achieved, although Uranus and Neptune are still considered a bit too far to colonize. Only unmanned probes have reached Pluto or beyond.

 

By 2068, the nations of Earth began disputing the ownership of several extraterrestrial colonies. The major powers aligned with either the USA and Western Europe or with Russia and China. In 2076, an American colony in Eath's L3 position received a distress call from a Chinese spacecraft and allowed it to dock. Nobody knows exactly what happened, but the ship and the station were both destroyed. Accusations and counteraccusations led to conflict, and the first war in space began.

[tkdguy]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

This is an overview of the major powers on Earth.

 

USA: The USA is still a major power, although it has expended much of its strength in several wars earlier in the century. It is currently attempting to counter its decline and reassert its dominance in world politics.

 

Russia: A military coup-d'etat backed by China restored the Communists back to power in 2037. Renewing its ties to several former Soviet states, particularly Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, Russia is on its way back to becoming a force to be reckoned with.

 

China: China is quickly becoming the dominant world power. It has conquered Taiwan and sponsored Communist takeovers in Russia and Korea (which had been unified peacefully).

 

UK: Disilusioned with the EU, the UK is considering seceding from the union. It has made peace with Ireland and renewed its ties with Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, all of which are major players in the space race. It remains a staunch ally of the USA.

 

France: Currently the head of the EU, it currently faces a political challenge from Germany. It is supported by Italy, Spain, and Portugal.

 

Germany: Germany is poised to take control of the EU and is supported by Austria and the Netherlands. Its once-cordial relationship with France has soured over the last few years.

 

Japan: While Japan is the world's major economic power, it lacks military might. Concerned about China's growing influence, it has allied itself with several nations in the Pacific Rim. Strong ties with the USA have protected Japan so far.

 

India: A war with Pakistan depleted India's economy and military might. Fearing China's expansionist policies, the two countries made peace and entered an uneasy alliance.

 

The Middle East: Resumed saber-rattling by Israel and the Arab nations threatens to end an uneasy peace that has lasted for decades.

 

Central and South America: Socialism has become more prevalent. The countries remain largely Catholic.

 

Africa: Islamic states predominate in the north, while secular republics are the norm in the south. Many nations are trying to gain nuclear weapons technology.

 

Asia: Most countries in Central Asia are trying to avoid being absorbed in the Russian or Chinese spheres of influence. Countries in Southeast Asia have renewed their economic ties, as well as trading with Japan and Oceania.

 

Time for a break. Next time: life on Earth and the list of extraterrestrial colonies.

[tkdguy]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

Life on Earth

 

Life on earth in the 2070s is neither utopian nor dystopian. There is a rather large gap between rich and poor, with only a small number of people in the middle class, but the standard of living is a bit higher on the average. Technology makes life comfortable and is readily accessible, but people are more dependent on it than ever. Hunger and poverty have been alleviated, but those problems remain. While many societal woes remain, they are balanced by new opportunities and advances.

 

Overpopulation, pollution, and climate change have taken their toll, and their effects are still being felt. Water shortages, famine, and lack of living space led to war and strife. Rationing of food and water was necessary for years, and adapting a more ecologically friendly lifestyle became the norm. The colonization of space brought resources and helped alleviate the problem of overpopulation.

 

Available Technology

 

Space Travel: The space elevator has been completed and is mainly used for transporting cargo. Single Stage to Orbit has also been achieved. The VASIMR drive has been improved and is used to in many spacecraft. Fusion power has been developed and nuclear energy powers spacecraft.

 

Communication and Entertainment: The internet has become even more widespread; most of the world is wired. There have been advances in virtual reality, which has made a resurgence in popularity.

 

Medicine: Cures for diseases such as AIDS and cancer have been found. Bionics and cloning are used to replace lost limbs.

 

Robotics: Robots are programmed to be autonomous, but they are not sentient. Artificial Intelligence is still limited, although research continues. Many people have automated "servants" that do household chores. Spacecraft engineers often use robots to maintain and repair the ship's more dangerous areas via telepresence, and some robots are even used in medical procedures.

 

Warfare: Advanced ballistics technology allowed rail guns and coil guns to become practical earlier in the century. Nuclear warheads are still around. Conventional weapons have somewhat better range and more stopping power than today's firearms, and they are less likely to malfunction.

[tkdguy]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

Space Colonies

 

Mercury: There are no permanent settlements orbiting the planet. However, there is a scientific outpost (Vulcan) orbiting Mercury. It is an international space station, and its purpose is to study the planet and oversee its terraforming for future habitation.

 

 

Venus: There is an international colony orbiting the planet. Named Neith after the planet's fictional moon, this O'Neill Cylinder is mainly a residential colony. However, Venus is also undergoing terraforming experiments, and a team of scientists overseeing the project reside there.

 

 

The Moon: By international treaty, all lunar colonies are international communities, subject to international law. Military bases are prohibited.

 

1. Armstrong: This was the first lunar colony and is the site of the lunar mass driver. It is located in Mare Tranquilitatis near the Apollo 11 landing.

 

2. Clarke: This colony started as a scientific station, but it expanded to accommodate permanent residents. It is located in the Archimedes Crater in Mare Imbrium.

 

3. Clavius: This scientific station is located in Clavius Crater.

 

4. Tycho: This colony is located in Tycho Crater and is a major industrial center.

 

 

The Lagrange Points: L1 supports a station that saw great use during the early years of space colonization, but it has fallen out of service. Astronauts and soldiers train for space travel there, but it is often undermanned. L2 has a scientific station (New Discovery) where deep space observations are made. L3 had the doomed colony Antichthon ("Counter Earth"). L4 and L5 have a number of space stations, both residential and military. L4 is held by the eastern powers, while L5 is controlled by the western countries.

 

1. Challenger: Located in L1, it is no longer as active as it used to be. Lately, an international peacekeeping force has been stationed there to protect the lunar colonies.

 

2. Shenzhou (China): This Stanford Torus in L4 produces most of China's spacecraft, both civilian and military.

 

3. Tsiolkovsky (Russia): This Bernal Sphere houses residents from many of the former Soviet states. It is also a commercial center for the region.

 

4. Gagarin (Russia): This Stanford Torus is a military base and shipyard. It produces military and civilian spacecraft.

 

5. Zedong (China): This O'Neill Cylinder is a residential and industrial center. Many of the residents come from Korea and Vietnam.

 

6. Goddard (USA): Most of the inhabitants of this Bernal Sphere come from the USA, although there are residents from Canda, as well as Central and South America.

 

7. Lagrange (EU): This Stanford Torus is primarily a European settlement, although many residents come from Asia (including the Middle East) and Africa.

 

8. Asimov (International): An O'Neill Cylinder, it is the area's major industrial center. It has a shipyard that produces civilian spacecraft for travel and commerce.

 

9. Tyr (NATO/ANZAC): Another Bernal Sphere, this station produces the military spacecraft used by NATO and ANZAC forces.

 

 

Mars: There are several colonies on Mars, owned by different nations. Military bases are present on the planet.

 

1. Sagan (International): This was the first colony on Mars. Located on Chryse Planitia, it is the site of the Martian beanstalk. It is the main commercial site on the planet, and is usually the first stop for immigrants.

 

2. Bradbury (USA): This is an industrial colony on Solis Planum. The workers mine and process ore for use both on Mars.

 

3. Novgorod (Russia): Located on Hellas Planitia, this colony was once a residential community. It has become increasingly militarized recently, however, and missile silos are suspected of having been built there.

 

4. Nuevo Havana (Cuba): This is Cuba's only extraterrestrial colony near Elysium Mons. It is mainly residential, although a platoon of soldiers are stationed there.

 

5. Dao (China): This military outpost in Hesperia Planum holds an armored division.

 

6. Bova (International): This is a scientific outpost and is the center of the Mars terraforming project. It is located in Cimmeria Terra.

 

7. Boyington (USA): This is an outpost for the USMC located in Lunae Planum. It includes ground forces and a squadron of pilots.

 

8. Newton (UK): Located in Newton Crater, it was originally a scientific outpost. However, it has grown to become a residential and commercial center. Two RAF squadrons are stationed nearby.

 

 

The Asteroids: Most asteroids are uninhabited. Several dozen have mining outposts, but these are fully automated. Spacecraft pick up ore 2-3 times a year. There are manned outposts on Ceres, Pallas, and Vesta, but staff members are assigned there for about a year or less, never more than two years.

 

Ceres is the home of a major mining installation. Belters, Incorporated is the headquarters for the world's asteroid mining industry. Staff members stay for six-month tours of duty. Ore is sent into space via mass driver. The ore is then picked up by mining ships.

 

Vesta holds an international deep-space observation outpost named Hawking, although it is frequently unmanned.

 

Pallas is the headquarters of Pax, an international station made for rescue operations and (more rarely) law enforcement. It rarely sees action.

 

 

Jupiter: A few colonies are positioned safely far enough from Jupiter's magnetosphere, but these must still be heavily shielded. Ganymede and Callisto support a few colonies, although these moons are contested territory, as is Europa, which has a colony in the subsurface ocean. A few of the Trojan asteroids have colonies.

 

1. Shoemaker-Levy (USA/Canada): This Stanford Torus is in geosynchronous orbit around Jupiter's South Pole.

 

2. Korolyov (Russia/Ukraine): This underground colony is located in the Asgard Basin in Callisto.

 

3. Xinhua (China): This colony is located in the Osiris Crater in Ganymede.

 

4. Galileo (USA): This colony is located on Galileo Regio in Ganymede.

 

5. Seaview (EU): This underwater scientific outpost is located under Cilix Crater in Europa.

 

6. New Kyoto (Japan): This Bernal Sphere is located near Jupiter's outermost moons. It is mainly a commericial center.

 

7. Terra Nova (Argentina/Brazil): This small colony is located under the surface of Elara.

 

8. Fermi-Dirac (EU): This is an underground colony located in the Trojan asteroid Toutatis.

 

 

Saturn: A few colonies orbit the planet. Like the Jovian space stations, they are also heavily shielded, as Jupiter's magnetosphere sometimes extends to Saturn. Some of Saturn's moons have been colonized, although these territories are also disputed.

 

1. Einstein (International): This scientific outpost is in orbit around Saturn's North Pole, where scientists observe and analyze the mysterious hexagonal cloud in that area.

 

2. Hubble (International): This underground colony is located in Titan's Xanadu Region and is in the middle of disputed territory.

 

3. New Horizon (China): This Stanford Torus orbiting the planet is mainly a civilian habitat, but it is heavily armed and houses a squadron of fighters.

 

4. Dyson (USA): This Bernal Sphere located near the planet's South Pole is ostensibly a residential and scientific community, but it secretly houses a squadron of fighters.

 

5. Cassini (EU): This underground colony is located under Dido Crater in Dione.

 

6. Edo (Japan): This Bernal Sphere is located just outside Saturn's rings. It is a major tourist attraction.

 

7. Terminus (Russia): This penal colony is secretly located in Herschel Crater in Mimas. Terminus is where political prisoners and criminals who can't or won't reform are sent to build a military installation on the moon. This is a one-way trip for the guards as well as the inmates, so the former have become exceptionally brutal when disciplining the prisoners.

 

8. Marcy (USA): This is an underground colony located in Sarandib Planitia in Enceladus.

 

 

Uranus and Neptune: No colonies exist there as of yet, but plans for the colonization of Titania and Triton have been drawn up.

 

 

Beyond Neptune: Mankind has not yet been that far except via robotic probes.

[L. Marcus]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

*sits down with a bucket of popcorn, waiting for rest of thread*

[Dholcrist]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

*sits down with a bucket of popcorn, waiting for rest of thread*

 

Mind sharing the 'corn? I'll get the next bucket.

[Comic]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

So, the problem I've had with resolving 'inter-colony' adventure is.. they're so far apart.

 

My planned setting uses Turing ships, so they digest masses, build offspring, and head off in their own separate directions toward the next set of resources.

 

Each planned encounter with a resource has its own set of possible adventures, so I'm going with each player having a different character on each ship approach for mine.. since I don't plan to have FTL.

 

How do you approach it with yours? It seems to me your colonies would be weeks, months or years apart by the technology your descriptions imply.

[tkdguy]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

Good question. I did write a make up some numbers for transit times. Keep in mind I guesstimated rather than worked out the math, although I'll do the latter eventually.

 

One of the NASA papers about the VASIMR drive claimed a trip to Mars going at high speed would last 90 days. So I used that as the base. Here's what I came up with. Feel free to correct me if you find my numbers inaccurate.

 

Earth to Moon or Lagrange Point: 2-3 days

Earth to Mercury: 2 months

Earth to Venus: 90 days

Earth to Mars: 90 days

Earth to Asteroids: 2.5 months

Earth to Jupiter: 5 months

Earth to Saturn: 9 months

Earth to Uranus: 1.5 years (predicted)

Earth to asteroids: 3 years (predicted)

 

Keep in mind these are just average travel times. Actual times vary depending on the relative positions of the planets, although it would vary less for the gas giants.

 

Edit: People have come up with different transit times for the space elevator, ranging from 2 days to 3 months. For the sake of playability, I opted for the first one.

[L. Marcus]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

Mind sharing the 'corn? I'll get the next bucket.

No, not at all -- go ahead and help yourself.

 

. . . Um . . .

 

I hope you like Soylent Green Butter Flavour . . .

[Dholcrist]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

I hope you like Soylent Green Butter Flavour . . .

 

Soylent Green Butter Flavour: By people, for people, is people.

 

But hey, better than that recycled food crap. "Eat recycled food". Yeah, right.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

Re: robots and androids....

 

Check out Android World. Robots are not only becoming more human-like in appearance, but are increasingly able to simulate emotions.

 

Note the verb there, though: while they can simulate emotions, and even evoke appropriate feelings in humans, they're just simulations. It could make for an interesting exploration of the idea in a story (I've written a play that does just that, among other things). In a game it probably wouldn't be the main focus of anything, but rather a colorful background element.

 

On a completely separate note: do you have methane mining on any of the outer moons?

[Spence]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

tkdguy

 

belated rep for a great thread.....

[tkdguy]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

The robots in my campaign can be programmed with simulated emotions, but they won't actually feel anything. Likewise, they can be programmed to calculate complex problems and even apply logic, but they aren't capable of thinking outside the box. In any case, they won't have free will, so to speak.

 

Edit: Robot pets may be popular in the colonies, since living animals are rare in those places.

 

I hadn't thought about methane mining, but I can incorporate it in the campaign. Thanks for the idea, and the link, Bob.

 

And thanks for the rep, Spence, and everyone who has shown support.

[tkdguy]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

Okay, I redid the math and found a bunch of inaccuracies in my figures. Looking at the VASIMR article in Wikipedia, it states the engine can give a speed ranging from 10,000 m/s to 300,000 m/s. And if It takes 90 days to gt to Mars, it's the minimum value being used in the calculation.

 

Using the equation time = distance/speed, where

 

distance = difference in the semimajor axes between Earth and the destination

 

and

 

speed = 10,000 m/s = 10 km/s

 

We get the travel times to these planets from Earth:

 

Mercury: 106 days

Venus: 50 days

Mars: 91 days

Ceres: 10 months

Jupiter: 2 years

Saturn: 4 years, 2 months

 

For speed = 300 km/s, we get the results:

 

Mercury: 85 hours

Venus: 38 hours

Mars: 73 hours

Ceres: 10 days

Jupiter: 24 days

Saturn: 50 days

 

Keep in mind the fudge factor. I used exactly 24 hours/day and 30 days/month.

[Badger]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

Soylent Green Butter Flavour: By people' date=' for people, [i']is[/i] people.

 

But hey, better than that recycled food crap. "Eat recycled food". Yeah, right.

 

 

But, isnt recycled food just a fancy name for poop.

[tkdguy]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

Life in the colonies

 

Some colonies are underground (or underwater such as in Europa). Others are biodomes on the surface or inside craters. Yet others are space stations. Regardless, all these are shielded against radiation and have internal systems to simulate Earth's day/night cycle. Hydroponics gardens are used to help supply oxygen to the colony. All water and oxygen is recycled. All food is grown organically. Recycling is mandatory in order to minimize pollution in the colony and the colonized planet or moon, and only recyclable material is used for perishable items. Pets and livestock are rare if they exist at all, since animals tend not to adapt very well to low-gravity conditions.

 

Early space stations recycled old rockets that were welded together to form a habitat. Eventually, enough resources were gathered to build more advanced space habitats (Bernal Sphere, Stanford Torus, O'Neill Cylinder). All space habitats are able to spin on their axes, thus creating artificial gravity. This allows the inhabitants to avoid problems caused by low gravity, and even to enjoy the company of living animals.

[tkdguy]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

Daily shipboard life

 

A 24-hour shift would have a schedule like this:

8-hour work shift (3 shifts total)

2 nonconsecutive hours of excercise

3 nonconsecutive hours for meals

3 nonconsecutive hours of leisure time

8 hours of sleep

 

Crewmen strap/zip themselves in bunks, to which a pillow and a sleeping bag are attached. Enlisted and officers sleep in different rooms; the captain has his own room.

 

Exercise is mandatory in order to counteract theeffects of microgravity. Treadmills, exercise bikes, and human centrifuges are used daily to regulate bodily functions.

 

Meals are specially prepared to help counteract the effects microgravity as well. Meals are often in paste form so they can stick to the compartments of a metallic tray without floating away. Utensils have small magnets so they can be attached to the tray. Other meals come as powdered cubes or in tubes. Water is added to make them edible. Calcium pills, developed in Japan in the mid-21st century, are taken daily to reduce calcium loss in bones. A drink designed to combat fatigue and stress was developed in the United States. The taste is extremely unpleasant (it has often been described as a vile concoction), but spacers often toast with the drink before going off on long voyages.

 

Waste management is highly regulated. Air, water, and other materials are recycled. Special equipment is used for urine and feces extraction and disposal. Non-recyclable material can be jettisoned.

 

Leisure time includes movies, music, and video games. On larger ships, zero-gravity sports (details to come later) may be possible.

 

Aside from normal duties, training in emergency procedures is done. Drills are held at least once a week, more often when the war erupts. Maintenance of the ship is constant.

 

Spacecraft dock in space stations once every 2-3 months, more if they have been in a battle. The ship is repaired and tended, and the crew can enjoy "shore leave."

[Cancer]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

Rather than focussing on speed as controlling the transit time of interplanetary ships, you might look at thrust divided by mass, or acceleration. Divide the distances by two, assume accelerate full-time the first half, decelerate full-time the second. This will, I think, compress the travel times between distant points while retaining a pretty firm minimum transit time between near-Earth stations.

 

If you have the patience for it, you might get heliocentric maps of where the planets actually will be for the time interval of interest to your campaign. I don't have immediate suggestions for where to get those, but after class I can scare some up, I think, if Google doesn't find 'em for you quicker.

 

An added complication can be that the Sun is several degrees wide in the radio ... that is, radio communications between planets can be blocked by the Sun for a few weeks when they are on opposite sides of it. Now, the existence of multiple stations around the Solar System means you have alternate communications paths, albeit with longer light-travel times.

 

On the Moon and Mars, you could posit that deposits of ground ice are an important resource that would be contention points for the ground stations there. On the Moon, those might be expected to be in the polar craters. On Mars, it could be more local, dependent upon purely local geology with a secondary effect from latitude. Also, on Mars, there are reliably predictable seasonal global dust storms that happen and blanket more or less the whole planet for months at a time. Nothing like climate to complicate your politics, and give opportunities for military action.

 

Finally, forecast the 11-year solar activity cycle out into your campaign period. If you have solar max happen in a game relevant era, use it.

[Bygoneyrs]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

Awesome job so far TKDGUY...

 

I had a thought for Mars, you could have them working on trying to terra-form Mars collectively. You might work out a number of things that each colony is doing to help the process along. I like to think that the water on Mars is frozen or deep in the planet in caverns and etc. Maybe they are able to add to the atmospher and get more water in the air and increase the planets temperature. Maybe they were able to alter some type of plant that they have seeded on the Mar's surface that has managed to survive and begin to spread.

 

Penn

[Comic]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

One issue I'm considering (because my campaign world is intended to traverse interstellar distances with 'conventional' technology/physics) is propulsion efficiency as a ratio of mass.

 

All drives work by action-reaction, so all have to lose mass to accelerate.

 

How much mass is lost to space (and therefore unrecoverable) can be significant for the very long journeys.

 

Of course, this is a fairly large difference in our settings, and isn't likely to affect yours. The Sun produces plenty of free mass, and interplanetary distances won't eat reaction bulk on a scale with a small moon.

 

What do you do for communications lag at these distances?

[Cancer]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

I wouldn't think communications lag is a big issue. Light travels at 1 AU per 500 seconds, which means no more than a couple of hours lag time. It's not the connectivity that we in the cell-phone age are used to, but in WW2 with the time lost in manual encryption/decryption and delivery is comparable.

[Bygoneyrs]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

You know I always liked the show called Earth II. It had great potential for a campaign if say the Colony ship was sent by a company and actually landed safe and sound. Set up shop and the player PCs were a scouting team searching the planet and surrounding solar system.

 

Penn

[tkdguy]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

There are a couple of types of robots widely in use by the spacecraft crew. One is the Personal Satellite Assistant. This one is meant for communications systems and administrative tasks, but a variant with attached tools can be used to maintain and repair nuclear engines on the ship, operated by the engineers via remote control. Let's face it, maintaining a miniature nuclear plant in space doesn't sound too appealing. When the ship is accelerating, there will be some gravity. So perhaps the PSA robots will have mobile magnetic attachments to let them move on the ground or have miniature jets that will allow them to stay airborne.

 

For repairs and maintenance outside the ship, miniature versions of the Mars Rover will be used. They pop out of their compartments and repair the exterior of the ship. Their wheels will be magnetized, so they don't float out into space. These will also be guided by remote control.

[tkdguy]

Re: My mostly hard sci-fi campaign

 

As far as how the spcecraft look, realistically, they'd look something like the ones on this site, but if you're going for the look, I recommend these ships.

 

BTW, Ravenstar Studios has picked up the Cold Navy line, which means those miniatures will once again be in production, hopefully soon.