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Planetary Romance Setting: Sard


DShomshak

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TAMILORE

            Geography: Tamilore occupies a small landmass that straddles Sard’s equator. Its cultural sphere of influence includes several large islands to the northwest (sections of the continent separated from the mainland by epeiric seas) and a marginal island arc. The main landmass has ranges of hills along its southern and northeastern coasts. The nation now has two rival capitals, the towns of Kanchilore and Lanka. The only other towns of any size are Tinnicut and Manipura.

            History: The Republic of India fractured in the middle of the 21st century. A Tamil-dominated, authoritarian government ruled the southern quarter of the Indian subcontinent. When the WGB overthrew the United Nations, many Tamil nationalists chose exile to Sard in the first Anti-Nationalist Purge; many others were forced to leave Earth. Several other Indian groups suffered deportation to Sard as well, and they founded a string of colonies.

            Two parties emerged on the Tamil-dominated continent. The People’s Republic party tried to re-create the authoritarian regime from Earth and was friendly to the WGB. The Social Democrat party advocated more civil liberties and a strong welfare state. For centuries, Tamilore wavered between military-dominated near-dictatorships and attempts at democratic reform. A third group, a non-Tamil, Hindu Fundamentalist minority, advocated a strict adherence to Brahminist tradition. The Brahminists repeatedly acted as a spoiler between the two main parties — now provoking a political crisis that helped the People’s Republic Party mount a coup, now throwing its support behind Social Democrat reform. Sometimes the Brahminists attempted their own foredoomed coup attempts.

            In the 2300s, Tamilorean scientists discovered that combining Novo Bahían neuroelectronics with traditional Hindu ascetic techniques could activate the latent psionic powers possessed by a tiny fraction of humans. The Brahminists leaped on this discovery. For once, they mounted a coup that worked. Tamilore gained a new ruling class of psionic Brahmins.

            The psionic Brahmins proved their worth in the First Cladist War, though their burnout rate was terribly high. After the war, the Brahminist regime began a program of forced conversion and re-education of Tamilore’s people in the face of steady Tamil opposition.

            Naturally the Tamils sought psionics of their own. The Tamils combined psychotronics with the orisha techniques of Tecumba. The electronic brain stimulation and drugs used to activate psionic powers cause intense mental stress. The Tamils used religious ritual and trance techniques to redirect this stress into the creation of an orisha from repressed aspects of the subject’s personality. To the Hindu Tamils, these “dark side” personalities seemed like rakshasas — notorious demons from Hindu myth. Becoming a psionic meant playing host to a possessing demon. This directed delusion made the Tamil psionics more powerful than the Brahmins, but they could use their powers only while “possessed” by this demonic personality.

            The Tamils actually had a mythic framework to assimilate the techno-rakshasas. One of India’s national epics, the Ramayana, recounts the great war between the North Indian divine hero Rama and the South Indian rakshasa king Ravana. Even before the 20th century, some Tamils interpreted the Ramayana as a propaganda piece about North Indian imperialism and rewrote the epic to make Ravana the hero and victor.

            To some Tamils, the Brahminist conquest looked like the Ramayana all over again. They hailed the techno-rakshasas as new culture heroes. Led by the rakshasas, the Tamils mounted a counter-coup and recaptured Tamilore’s government. The People’s Republican and Social Democratic parties became completely irrelevant.

            The WGB briefly forced the two psionic factions to coexist in peace. In the Second Cladist War, Daedalan propagandists easily sparked a civil war between the Brahminists and rakshasas, even while psionics from both camps fought in the WGB military. In the post-war planetary confederation, the Roundup’s charter carefully specified that Tamilore’s electors should include equal numbers of Brahminist and rakshasa delegates. It didn’t work, of course, and Tamilore descended into war again.

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Dean Shomshak

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TAMILORE (Cont.)

            Society: Tamilore now has two rival governments caught in a permanent low-grade war. Both are psionic theocracies — rule by psionics who claim divine sanction despite the technological origin of their powers.

            The Rakshasa government is a non-hereditary monarchy. The most powerful rakshasa wins the Throne of Ravana by combat against rival claimants. Administrative competence is not considered necessary: Merely human bureaucrats deal with such things. As a minor safeguard, both the rakshasa and the baseline human personality must agree upon a royal decree. Then the ministers and bureaucrats work to turn their Demon Emperor’s decree into reasonably sane policy.

            The Brahminist government is a network of abbacies, somewhat like old Tibet. Monastic communities called ashrams administer the government. The psionic Brahmins, called rishis, rule the ashrams. A council of the leading rishis makes the laws.

            Tamilore has split into dozens of small cantons. Some cantons accept the Demon Emperor as their sovereign. These cantons often have a rakshasa governor of their own. Other cantons side with the Rishi Council and may receive governance from a local ashram. Still other cantons reject both sides and try to govern themselves. The continent also now includes the usual assortment of bandits, tribes and independent communes.

            Both the Brahminist and Rakshasa governments strive to subvert or conquer cantons that support the other side, or recruit independent cantons. Cantons that support different sides often raid each other.

            Brahminist government is rigid and regulation-obsessed. They use the purity taboos of old India’s Code of Manu as their model for law. A visitor can break a half-dozen laws just by walking down the street. The rishis particularly insist upon strict separation between castes. Anyone except an Untouchable, however, can achieve instant promotion to Brahmin by showing psionic potential. Most Brahminist Tamiloreans spend several years as a monk in an ashram. In this period, the men are tested for latent psionics. (Women are not tested. The Brahminists do not approve of gender equality. Untouchables are not tested either, because Brahminist dogma holds that an Untouchable could not possibly receive such a divine favor.)

            Rakshasa government is necessarily loose, since most rakshasa personalities are at least borderline insane and may be criminal. Few rakshasas make good administrators. There’s no way to predict who will generate a powerful rakshasa so these are true citizen-governors, plucked virtually at random from the population. All they have in common is enough ambition or piety to undergo the psychotronic operation and training.

            The mythic framework helps somewhat, since Hindu legend says that although demons try to subvert the divine order, they can show every virtue of honor and wisdom among themselves. Demons can even become good kings in a purely secular sense. It’s a rare rakshasa, though, whose human and demon personalities cooperate well enough, and who possesses sufficient political skill, to become a competent head of state. Most rakshasas are drones supported by the population and delivering very little service in return, except to grant legitimacy to the civil service. Some rakshasas become psionics for hire.

            The whim of the Demon Emperor or the local rakshasa governor can change laws at the drop of a hat. The bureaucrats must carefully specify whether a decree is ad-hoc or genuinely meant to change the law of the land. The rakshasa-led Tamiloreans downplay the importance of caste and enjoy near-total gender equality (women become rakshasas too, and these rakshasas accept no gender limits).

            Both societies rely upon telepaths in their criminal justice systems. An indicted person or witness cannot refuse examination by a telepath. This does not provide infallible justice. Both rishis and rakshasas may lie because of bribes, personal agendas or institutional interests. For instance, few rishis would testify that another rishi committed a crime. Rakshasas simply live above the law, but the threat that a victim might hire another rakshasa for revenge restrains them somewhat.

            Ideology/Religion: The Brahminists espouse an aridly formal version of Hinduism that emphasizes strict observance of rituals and purity taboos. Through ascetic practices such as fasting, yoga and chanting mantras, or service to an ashram, people can gain merit to assure themselves a higher status in their next incarnation. After several blameless lifetimes, one can win reincarnation as a rishi. The rishis emphasize that everyone must keep their place in society to prevent chaos and assure safety, prosperity and the favor of the gods. They blame the rakshasas and foreigners for Tamilore’s conspicuous lack of all these good things.

            The rakshasas sponsor a more pietistic faith that might by called Pentecostal Hinduism. Celebrants get to meet a god (or at least a demon) face to face in the middle of a wild party. After the revel they can present their pleas for help or advice. Rakshasan Tamiloreans revere Shiva as supreme deity, Ravana as his prophet, and the rakshasas as their immediate connection to the divine. Instead of the Code of Manu they learn the Code of Ravana, an existentialist creed of rugged individualism, personal honor and self-mastery. Their ideal is to stand like Ravana himself, scarred by the attacks of the gods but unbowed and invincible.

            The rishis champion manager and collectivist ideology. The rakshasas support darwinist and libertarian ideology just as firmly. They both practice a form of transhumanism, since both the ascetic priests and the demon-possessed believe they attain a condition beyond humanity.

            Technology: Decades of war and anarchy took their toll on Tamilore’s technology. Every decade, maintaining the foundation industries necessary for psychotronics — computers, microelectronics, brain surgery — becomes more difficult and would-be rishis and rakshasas depend more upon the remaining urban and technological centers at Kanchilore and Lanka.

            Economy: Like most Sardians, most Tamiloreans live as subsistence farmers and fishers. The Brahminists regulate business so tightly it becomes a de facto arm of the ashram government — and indeed, the ashrams own large tracts of land and many businesses outright. The rakshasans practice free enterprise with few laws to guarantee contracts and loans, protect consumers or otherwise limit the actions of merchants. This caveat emptor uncertainty stifles business as much as the hyper-regulation of the Brahminists.

            Unlike most societies, however, Tamilore offers psionic services to its people. Psionics are about as rare in Tamilore as cardiologists are in most developed cultures: Not exactly common, but you can usually find one if you need one. Tamiloreans can go to the local ashram or attend a rakshasa shindig and beg or hire the help of a telepath, clairvoyant, dynakinetic or other psionic. When Tamilorean merchants negotiate major deals, they often insist that a telepath sit in to make sure the other person genuinely intends to keep the deal.

            Military: The little militias of the cantons own nothing heavier than a bazooka; they rely entirely upon small arms. Since no one can muster a large army, wars between cantons usually consist of raids, counter-raids, terrorist strikes and counter-strikes. The Tamiloreans add mind readers, remote viewers, telekinetics and dynakinetics to their pocket battle-plans. Of necessity, Tamiloreans keep their tactics flexible because they never know exactly what they might face.

            The Terran Union military loves Tamilorean psionics and wishes it could recruit more of them. The rishis are among the most reliable psionics around, though military units must make allowances for the strict regimen of meditation and ritual they use to stay healthy and sane. Rakshasas are clinically insane, as well as undisciplined and insubordinate, but the ones who turn to military matters often prove fiendishly clever at applying their powers to small-group tactics.

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Dean Shomshak

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VAJRANAGAR

            Geography: Vajranagar, the Diamond Empire, occupies a chain of three subcontinents in Sard’s southern hemisphere. They are called Uttara (“North”), Madhya (“Middle”) and Nirrath (“Southwest”). Uttara, the smallest landmass, features a central range of comparatively high mountains; the other two subcontinents have ranges of low, eroded hills in their interiors. The Diamond Empire also claims territories in the Iroon Archipelago between itself and Novo Bahía, but cannot enforce its claim. Its current capital, Rudrapore, is on the northern landmass, which has Vajranagar’s densest population and most of its industry. Nirrath received the least settlement. The government largely ignores it. Other important towns are Chambai, Jarnool, Savitralore, Simhagarh and Varunapatnam.

            History: Vajranagar began as a deliberate social experiment at combining Hindu Fundamentalism with a bureaucratic empire. The country’s Indian founders believed humans were most content living in an authoritarian society with absolutely rigid social classes, so everyone knew their place without the discontents of ambition. Of course, the founders did not renounce their own ambitions. For their lower castes, the Vajranagar ruling class recruited tens of thousands of poor, desperate people from the squalordoms of Africa and southern Asia. The WGB actively helped finance and transport the colony because the promise of an offworld escape helped pacify the squalordoms. A mass influx of soldiers from South and East Asia led to a quick replacement of the ruling class, but no long-term change to the social system.

            For centuries, the Diamond Empire worked exactly as planned. The soldiers’ descendants split into factions, but their infighting did not produce opportunities for social mobility. The ruling class used electrical generation and rationing to enforce social control, just as Earth’s ancient empires used irrigation. Every few years, a cult leader arose as a self-proclaimed god who promised liberation from caste restrictions through mysticism. Vajranagar’s rulers encouraged these cults: Mystical escapes detoured malcontents from genuine social activism. The Empire swiftly crushed any cult leader who advocated changing society instead of one’s own mind, or co-opted them by incorporating their followers as a new caste with defined privileges.

            The Daedalan propagandists recognized the Hindu cult tradition as a fracture-point within the closed logic of Vajranagar’s society. In the First Cladist War, Daedalan agents unleashed a wave of god-men armed with high-tech gadgets for healing and putting on a show. The god-men recruited enough of Vajranagar’s population to paralyze the nation. After the war, Vajranagar’s elite had to grant the god-men a measure of state recognition. In the Second Cladist War, the Daedalans gave the next generation of god-men even flashier technology, including cybernetic and bioengineering modification to mimic the forms of Hindu gods. The god-men took over Vajranagar’s government with ease. The god-men did not join the cladist cause, but their power struggles took Vajranagar’s military and industrial power out of the war.

            When the WGB reorganized Sard for home rule, it supported the most powerful of the god-men as the new monarch of Vajranagar. The other god-men became his vassals. Within a decade, however, god-men seceded from Vajranagar to form splinter states. Vajranagar retains about 2/3 of the territory it had before the Second Cladist War (though Nirrath hardly counts since it has the least population).

            Society: Vajranagar divides its population into six castes: god-man Avatars, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Sudras and Untouchables. Avatars rule. Brahmins run the government and the priesthoods. Kshatriyas are soldiers, or at least connected to military operations in some way. (For instance, surgeons are Kshatriyas because the military needs battlefield medics, and only a warrior can touch blood without defilement.) Vaisyas are tradesmen, from bankers to plumbers, as well as professional farmers and middle managers. Sudras are agricultural and industrial laborers. Untouchables handle all the work the Brahmins consider especially degrading or defiling, such as garbage collection and undertaking. They are also the only caste that engages in genuinely entrepreneurial commerce. People can become Untouchable for inter-caste or illegitimate parentage, serious morals crimes, or a formal cursing by an Avatar. Just like Old India, Untouchables make up a significant fraction of the population.

            Vajranagari castes are somewhat looser than the Hindu prototype. In the old Hindu system, people of each occupation had to marry people of the same occupation or a very few related professions. This created literally thousands of narrow subcastes. The Vajranagari system permits intermarriage between any people of the same broad caste, and their children can enter any occupation within that caste.

            The Diamond Empire also has ways to change a person's caste. Anyone can drop to a lower caste by taking an occupation within that cluster — but they cannot move back into a higher caste at will and neither can their children. Severe disgrace against social mores or purity taboos results in demotion to Untouchable status. Once in a while, a god-man recognizes a person’s talent and achievements and promotes him to Sudra, Vaisya or Kshatriya rank. (For instance, the Cladist Wars resulted in several promotions of common soldiers to Kshatriya status along with their officer’s commissions.) In such cases, a doctor carefully stops and re-starts the person's heart so that he “dies” and “reincarnates” with a new identity and name. A lower-caste child who shows signs of exceptional talent may be taken from his parents and adopted into a higher-caste family.

            The Avatars’ power is humbug. They convince people of their divinity through techno-trickery, spectacular religious pageantry, and skill at oratory and theater. Plastic surgery and bionics now let an Avatar take the actual, traditional form of a god (or something like it; multiple heads are still out of the question). A god-man is an actor who plays a god.

            Vajranagaris are not technologically ignorant. They know about light shows, holograms, gravitational technology and bionics. They even concede the existence of sleight of hand. That does not change the emotional impact of a special-effects spectacular or the charisma it bestows on an Avatar who plays his part well.

            Brahmins do the scutwork of administration. The Avatar, as incarnate god and head of state, supplies legitimacy. When an Avatar proclaims some new law during a religious festival, he gives a sound bite. A team of Brahmin lawyers write the actual law. Avatars have no legal limits on their powers, however, and can issue spontaneous decrees. A prudent Avatar does not use this power too often, since his control of the mob through religious awe is very much a blunt and uncertain instrument.

            Each district has its own civil service with bureaus cast in the form of priesthoods serving various gods. The most important bureau/priesthoods are: Brahma (staffing, diplomacy, inter-caste relations), Vishnu (budget, taxation), Shiva (law enforcement, intelligence), Agni (energy, technology), Indra (military oversight), Ganesha (commercial oversight), Yama (probate, judiciary), Sarasvati (arts, education), Lakshmi (agricultural oversight, the interior) and Parvati (marriage, birth, health care). An Avatar heads each national bureau, and other Avatars rule as provincial governors. The current monarch, or Mahavatara, is the Avatar of Rudra who calls himself Vajrajodhram or “Diamond Warrior God.” He is Vajranagar’s second Mahavatara.

            Avatars are semi-hereditary and 2/3 of them are male. An Avatar typically grooms a son to take over when he dies — or “transcends,” as the Vajranagari put it. Now and then an Avatar trains a Brahmin with suitable stage presence to become his successor. Not uncommonly, an ambitious Brahmin proclaims himself the replacement Avatar after a god-man’s death. The death of the first Mahavatara sparked a frenzy of displays and counter-displays among the remaining Avatars as they sought the mob’s acclaim and the cooperation of the Diamond Empire’s civil service. Several Avatars also murdered competitors. The same will surely happen when Vajrajodhram dies, and the final victor will probably choose a new capital.

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Dean Shomshak

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VAJRANAGAR (Cont.)

 

            Ideology/Religion: Hinduism is the only legal religion in Vajranagar, and only Hinduism that recognizes the legitimacy of the god-men at that. The god-men try to restrict contact between their people and Tamilore because they fear inroads by that country’s rishis and rakshasas — while they covertly try to obtain psychotronic and voodootronic technology for themselves. On the other hand, Vajranagar now sends superfluous (or politically inconvenient) Avatars on missions to recruit followers in other countries. These expat Avatars carry full complements of special-effects gear, plus all the equipment for a charity clinic or school, to lure in potential recruits.

            The Avatars and Brahmins espouse managerial and coccooner ideas. They shield their people from foreign ideas. Nothing should happen without bureaucratic and religious oversight. Excelsian ideals are probably weaker and rarer in Vajranagar than anywhere else on Sard. Despite the Avatars’ pretensions of godhood, they hold no genuinely transhumanist beliefs: Their godhood is a scam and they know it. Vajranagari leaders call this state humbug the “Veil of Maya” and insist most people prefer it to knowing the truth.

            Technology: In most respects, Vajranagar’s technology is horribly backward by interstellar standards, and fairly poor by Sardian standards. The Diamond Empire has great skill at holography, pyrotechnics and other special-effects technologies, though. The Daedalans left some highly advanced bionic and surgical gear, too, which the Avatars carefully maintain. Fabers are forbidden to anyone but the upper classes, precisely because they would give commoners access to too much advanced technology.

            Economy: Vajranagar has a two-tier economy. The upper tier consists of large businesses organized like Japanese kairetsu. These businesses form permanent partnerships. For instance, a construction company buys all its girders from one steel company, that buys all its ore from one mining company, and they all use the same bank for financing. Priests of Ganesha must bless every major deal. Only such scripted business arrangements do not defile the participants. Vaisyas handle most of this “legitimate” business but Kshatriyas can own stock. Sudras cannot: They are forbidden any income except from wage labor. Brahmins cannot own any sort of business openly but become silent partners as long-term “consultants” who help the business with government matters in exchange for periodic “gifts.”

            The economy’s lower tier consists of small businesses that engage in genuine free-market capitalism, financed through credit unions — but such business, that must actually work to make a profit instead of relying on fixed contracts and guaranteed markets, defiles the participants. A storekeeper typically remains behind a glass wall, isolated from the shoppers. A really high-class store that caters to Brahmins would keep the merchant completely unseen and conduct all transactions electronically.

            The Untouchable shopkeepers supply all the flexibility and innovation in Vajranagar’s economy. If an Untouchable’s business becomes large and profitable enough, however, the local Avatar confiscates it and give it to a crony to incorporate into a kairetsu. The two economies also interact through gift-giving and other elaborate legal fictions to avoid the taint of interaction between the higher castes and the Untouchables.

            Of course the Diamond Empire’s economy is horribly inefficient and it became even worse after Sard’s social collapse. The upper classes, however, do not value efficiency. Offworlders find the system maddening, especially since contracts between offworlders and kairetsu businesses must be scrutinized and blessed by a priest of Ganesha, who demands a regular consultants’ “gift” in return for his approval. It can hardly be called graft, though, because the practice is so formalized and accepted. Working out a business deal can take years because of the elaborate formalities and permit processes set by the Brahmins.

            Military: Vajranagar can make energy weapons, but they cost a great deal because of the Empire’s general backwardness. Only Kshatriyas, Brahmins or Avatars may own them. The Diamond Empire maintains a small force of aircraft called vimanas, which are little more than flying guns. It also has a good-sized navy. Vajranagar’s large, long-range battleships are getting old and in poor repair, though. Piracy is increasing between Uttara and the Iroon Archipelago.

            Vajranagar excels in camouflage and deception. The decades of theatrical competition between Avatars bred immense skill at anything related to illusion. The Vajranagaris can create bogus battle-fleets, Potemkin fortresses and whole decoy cities to fool their enemies.

            For 200 years, the previous regime forbade Sudras and Untouchables to own weapons of any sort. They learned to use sticks, agricultural implements, industrial tools, or other everyday items as weapons. The result is a martial art called Sudrathari. While it shows many affinities with Asian martial arts developed for similar reasons, such as Kobu-Jutsu, Sudrathari is distinctive for its use of urban improvised weapons such as chairs, garbage can lids and bottles, as well as the agricultural tools used in the martial arts of Old Earth.

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Dean Shomshak

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For the last of the "encyclopedia," four minor cultures that never received definite locations. I figured I'd just have them ready in case an adventure went off the rails into unexpected territory. I never actually used them. A few other lesser societies ended up developed in play as part of character backgrounds and adventure settings.

 

SAMPLE MINOR STATES

 

AMITY [Location: Hyperborea]

            This commune was founded by Mythoid neopagans who sought to live in beautiful harmony with Sard. Like many such communes, the meme-bombing turned them into a murderous cult. In the Second Cladist War, the people of Amity captured a Promethean combat bioengineer and her surgical ship. The Amitans want to turn themselves into Mythoids. Their captive Promethean lacks the resources or training for radical genetic engineering, but she can perform radical plastic surgery and tissue engineering. Amity’s leaders now sport tentacles and gills for water breathing. The Amitans believe they are destined to rule Sard as the children of Great Cthulhu. Unfortunately, their surgeon is getting old and her equipment is wearing out. The Amitans now seek a replacement and some genetic engineering to make their biomods inherited.

            The Amitans differ from other Mythoid cults in that they do not kill visitors right away and retain some of Sard’s famous hedonism. Attractive prisoners can expect to hear lines like, “Mate with me, sub-creature!” and receive a chance to save their lives through their performance.

 

LASER INSTALLATION #16 [Location: Anywhere]

            As the area around Laser Installation #16 collapsed into bloody anarchy, the soldiers and engineers at a WGB bunker fought to protect their strategic laser cannon and the fission reactor that powered it. Refugees flocked to the bunker for protection. Laser Installation #16 became an island of high technology in a sea of barbarism, but their weapons and electric lights did not protect the people from wild memes….

            Decades later, the elderly nuclear engineers rule the commune as technocratic priests. They enforce their rule through the soldiery and their control over electrical power and the industries and high-tech defenses that depend on it. Several times a year they offer human sacrifices to the nuclear reactor. The engineers say the sacrifices are necessary to keep the reactor running. The Laserites raid other communities to gain sacrifices. If a village wants to avoid the raids, the people can offer tribute in food, goods and sacrifices taken from more remote tribes and villages. Laser installation #16 is now the center of a small but growing empire of tributary villages.

            Laser Installation #16 now claims one of the defunct electorships. No one in the old department is in a position to dispute the atom-priests. After all, the engineers command the sacred fire of creation and destruction (and squads of soldiers with automatic rifles). The common people can see the Holy Fire for themselves when the engineers fire the laser cannon to vaporize a sacrificial victim.

 

NINGSEC TRIBE AND SECNAR TRIBE [Location: Anywhere]

            The memetic mutations were bound to create a few tribes of lesbian amazons (along with every other trashy cliché you can imagine). The Ningsec tribe is one of the more successful examples. The Ningsecs assure their next generation through the obvious solution of kidnapping men from other tribes or buying them as slaves. The male prisoners fight to the death to find who’s the strongest and fittest sperm donor. The Ningsecs eventually kill their stud if he does not escape first. The women select candidates for motherhood through lottery, as the fairest way to decide who must undergo a degrading and unpleasant union with a male instead of the pure love possible only between women. If the tribe’s three priestesses (maiden, mother and crone — duh) ever rig the lottery so someone can escape this duty — or volunteer without seeming to — the tribe ignores the cheating.

            Male children go to the neighboring Secnar tribe of homosexual men, who keep a small stock of female slaves for their reproductive needs, run a similar lottery, and send the girls to the Ningsecs. The two tribes otherwise live in a constant state of low-grade war, though between captured prisoners and child exhanges they mix genes a fair bit.

 

RYZHKOVIA [Location: Hyperborea or Karkovy]

            Amadou Chandravitch Ryzhkov began as a warlord’s soldier. In time, he killed the warlord and took over. Ryzhkov wants advanced weapons to help expand his kingdom, but weapons cost money. The cunning warlord realized that some offworlders visited Sard because of its barbarism and saw a marketing opportunity. Ryzhkov offers tourists the ultimate adventure vacation: Spend a few weeks as a warrior in the savage hinterlands of Sard! Visitors get to ride a jennet with Ryzhkov’s real soldiers, swing a padded sword, and dress in sword-and-sorcery outfits. For the climax of the adventure, they take part in a simulated attack on a village, complete with looting, burning and raping. Anyone who wants to pay extra can take part in sacking a real village, with real weapons, as part of Ryzhkov’s ongoing campaign to terrorize his neighbors into submission.

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After this, I'll post more "local color" bits.

 

Dean Shomshak 

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Thankew, thankew. Here's some more: a bit if background I wrote during "A Princess of Sard." Happy Newtonmas, all!

 

As we left Our Heroes, they had just become the proud thieves of the Lusambu Cutlass, formerly owned by the pirate captain Adoula Jero. It's a sweet little two-master ship. The 30-meter hull is schooner-styled for speed, and the layer of vitrium over the basic fiberglass/epoxy hull makes it strong as well as light. For propulsion, it has two swivelling propellors powered by a fuel cell, and sails. The sails and rigging roll up into the spars at the touch of a button, and the spars and masts collapse and swing down into a slot in the deck. When the wind is favorable and you aren't in a hurry, a trained crew can put up the masts in half an hour. With sail and a good breeze, the Lusambu Cutlass averages 26 kph (15 knots, for the tradition-minded -- a respectable clip). Under power, the ship can reach 78 kph (42 knots; for comparison, a World War Two PT boat could reach 45 knots). The dual propellors also make the Lusambu Cutlass highly maneuverable by naval standards. It carries fuel for just 60 hours of full-power travel... which is why you use sail whenever possible. Very probably, space originally meant for fuel was converted into cargo and living space for the pirates.

 

For armaments, the Lusambu Cutlass has heavy machine guns mounted fore-and-aft. The guns can sink down to deck level, so the ship can look unarmed. The arms locker below decks has a dozen VB-47 assault rifles, three grenade launchers and a case holding 11 tear gas grenades. For landing craft, it has two 4-meter speedboats. For emergencies, lockers on deck hold 4 self-inflating life rafts.

 

For sensors and communications, the ship has radar, a sonar depth indicator and wide-spectrum radio. Navigation is by inertial compass and GPS.

 

Nothing about the Lusambu Cutlass is very unusual, though Linneas gets the impression Captain Adoula was a gadget-head. On Sard, steel is too valuable to use in ships' hulls, while composite materials are comparatively cheap and easy to produce (though not as cheap as wood, which is standard for smaller civilian craft). The retractable masts are an expensive safety feature; most ships would leave the masts up, and take the chance of them breaking in a hurricane (as apparently happened to one of the Kwazembian ships).

 

Sails are popular on Sard to save costs, not from any deficiency of technology:  Wind is free. Automated rigging reduces the number of crew needed from hundreds in Earth's Age of Sail down to dozens.

 

For auxiliary power, ships carry diesel engines, internal combustion engines or fuel cells, with alcohol or oil for fuel. Fuel cells are more efficient power sources, but require higher technology to build and maintain. Military ships always use fuel cells; civilian craft often use engines -- not because they cost less, but because they are easy to maintain and repair.

 

Military ships also have a historical reason to carry sail. In the First Cladist War, attacks from orbit obliterated Sard's navies. Only ships that could disguise themselves as civilian craft survived. Since then, Sardian military ships have always been able to "pass" as fishing boats or trading vessels, at least when seen from orbit. Cannon and guns can hide below decks and pop out when needed. During the Second Cladist War, Sardian navies deployed "boomers," old fishing boats or tramp traders fitted with a fast-boost missile or a single-shot laser. From anywhere on the planet, an innocent-looking boat might suddenly fire at an orbiting cladist warship (probably the only time in history when windjammers fought spaceships). Of course the boomer was usually destroyed a few minutes later.

 

Ships on Sard navigate by the stars, by inertial compass, or by the GPS satellites put in place by the World Governance Board. Magnetic navigation is too often disrupted by magnetic storms to be worth much when there are alternatives so readily available. The magnetic storms also disrupt radio communication, but only for a day or two every week.

 

None of the PCs have Skills that let them know anything specifically about Kwazembian naval forces. You do know, however, that the ships are twice as long as the Lusambu Cutlass and carry marines (Unegen saw them drilling on deck). You can guess they are slower, but at least as sturdy and probably much better armed.

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Dean Shomshak

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A few more notes on technology in Sard's universe, expanding on what was already given in the campaign overview:

 

Hy-Matter

            This term is short for “hypernuclear matter,” or substances created using energies beyond the reach of normal nuclear processes. Normal matter consists of protons, neutrons and electrons; hy-matter includes more exotic subatomic particles such as antimatter, muons (the “heavy electron”), the “strange” and “charm” quarks, or magnetic monopoles. These particles seldom (if ever) occur naturally. They must be manufactured using particle accelerators the size of moons, powered by the fusion of tons of hydrogen every second. Hy-matter has properties that are not possible for normal matter, though. Faster-than-light drives, portable nuclear energy sources, artificial gravity fields, and many other advanced technologies depend on the unique properties of hy-matter.

            Some forms of hy-matter are easier to make than others. Monopoles, for instance, can only be made in the immense factories at Jupiter or Barnard’s Star. On the other hand, the “strange matter” used in nuclear batteries can catalyze its own creation in a properly-designed fusion reactor, which is no bigger than a normal power plant. All forms of hy-matter require heavy industry and nuclear energy to produce, though.

            Sard lacks the industrial base needed to produce any sort of hy-matter. Because of this, all artificial gravity devices, nuclear batteries and the more exotic energy weapons, can only come from other planets, or at least require parts manufactured offworld. This makes hy-matter, or any device that contains it, even more costly on Sard than on other worlds.

 

Fabers

            A faber is a miniature factory that can break down raw materials into their component atoms and reassemble them into a finished product. For instance, you can toss some lumps of ore and and a shovelful of dirt into its hopper and it makes a dozen bullets, each in its cartridge and loaded with propellant.

            The typical faber ranges in size from a suitcase to a refrigerator. It holds a mass of tightly-packed machinery, most of it very small but not microscopic. (It is not nanotechnology, though some parts of it come close.) Fabers need a power source, and they do not work quickly:  A typical faber takes hours to make even a small object. A faber also needs a highly detailed program telling it how to assemble the desired object.

            A top-of-the-line faber can create anything small enough to fit inside its assembly chamber, at least if you give it the right raw materials and a program. It can even make the parts for another faber. Most fabers found on Sard are more specialized… if only because the people with Universal Fabers seldom want to sell something that guarantees no repeat business.

            Fabers don’t find much use on developed worlds. For bulk production, it’s more efficient to build a real industrial infrastructure. These devices allow small settlements to maintain surprisingly high technology, however. On Sard, their use is most common in Hyperborea and Tamilore, and most limited in Novo Bahía (which doesn’t need them). In Kwazembia and Vajranagar, fabers are limited by law to the ruling classes (which makes them a prime commodity for smugglers). Karkovy once had little need for fabers, but as its industrial infrastructure crumbles, these devices are multiplying — literally.

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Dean Shomshak

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And here's a bit more local color:

 

SARDIAN OCCUPATIONS

 

            Sard has given rise to a number of peculiar occupations found on no other world. Here are a few examples. Small-time vendors are often called wallahs, from the Hindi word for a petty merchant or delivery-man.

 

            Cabari-Wallah:  A professional recycler who buys stuff other people thow away, and finds some way to turn it into something useful. Very often, this means feeding it into a faber. If a faber isn’t available, a cabari-wallah may just separate out glass, metal, plastic, vitrium, cloth, paper and other substances, and sell them to artisans for re-use. It’s more efficient for one cabari-wallah to do this for a community than for each artisan to collect recyclables on his own. Cabari-wallahs may also refurbish still-useful items and sell them to poorer folk. For instance, a shirt that’s too torn to wear could still have several perfectly good buttons to snip off and sell.

            Cybervet:  This is one of Sard’s most specialized occupations:  a roboticist for hire who maintains and repairs android steeds and other pets. A cybervet probably owns a faber, and certainly owns a wide variety of other tools and knows many technical skills.

            Faberman:  This traveling peddler carries his or her stock in the form of a faber with a variety of programs. Fabermen are often excellent programmers themselves, so they can tell their faber to produce custom devices. Whatever you need, the faberman does his best to create it. A faberman may carry raw materials too, such as metal bars, but charges more if he must dip into this stock, and less if the customer supplies the raw materials. These artisans often know many other technical skills as well, to design machines for any purpose. Most of a faberman’s business, however, comes from supplying the special tools needed to service other technologies.

            Teli-Wallah:  A dealer in oils and unguents, both cosmetic and medicinal. A century ago, Vajranagari high society developed an elaborate code of perfumed bath and body oils. The teli-wallahs who compounded and sold the oils gained some status in their own right. Hyperborean sybarites copied the perfume etiquette; people in other countries did so as well, to a much lesser degree. Thus, other countries gained teli-wallahs of their own.

            Teli-wallahs in Vajranagar are now Vaisyas with elegant shops. A Hyperborean teli-wallah may own a shop, or sell his wares from a pushcart (though he may have regular customers). In other countries, teli-wallahs usually sell to general stores, rather than directly to customers.

            Vine-Trainer:  Some of the squirmy plants on Sard can be trained to attack anyone who doesn’t wear a particular chemical. Now and then, wealthy Sardians surround their home with a hedge of trained attack plants; everyone in the household uses soap containing the protective pheromone. Vine-training is a somewhat dangerous job, so its practitioners make good money.

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Dean Shomshak

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A little more on Sardian technology:

 

Power Sources

            Common people on Sard often get by with the most archaic energy sources:  lamps and candles for light, wood or coal stoves for heat, wind and water mills, and animal power.

            Many small, low-power items, however, run on solar cells. For instance, a panel of solar cells can power a computer or radio. Such items are fairly common in some regions.

            Fuel cells generate most of the energy for larger machines or energy-intensive applications. A flying vehicle, for instance, might run off a bank of highly efficient fuel cells. Typical fuels are sugar, alcohol or vegetable oil; but special cells may use more exotic and energy-rich fuels that must be specially made.

            Batteries store large amounts of power in compact, portable form. A fist-sized battery might store a full hour’s output from a closet-sized fuel cell. Ray guns and other personal energy weapons run off small batteries. Larger batteries power therioid steeds and personal flyers.

            Nuclear energy is rare. A few fission or fusion reactors still work, but the Sardians can no longer repair them. These reactors use hy-matter in some of their components, or to catalyze the reactions, and those parts just aren’t available anymore. Fuel is a problem for the fission reactors, too. Novo Bahía could build crude and dirty fission reactors, but lacks a source of uranium. The owners of working reactors guard them with great care.

            Nuclear batteries are completely impossible for Sardians to produce. These use hy-matter, and that can only come from offworld. Small nuclear power packs for personal weapons or gadgets are heirlooms, far more valuable than the device they are in; larger batteries suitable for flyers or energy artillery are treasures beyond price.

 

Vitrium

            This ceramic material is as hard as reinforced concrete, and even more durable. Vitrium is so tough and chemically inert that some Old Sardian cities remain intact after 20 millio years, with only a little scratching:  Damage came from earthquakes or subsiding foundations. The glassy material can also be given any color or degree of transparency without affecting its strength. On Sard, vitrium is a construction material almost as important as steel or concrete, and its use has spread to many other worlds as well.

            [In rules terms, vitrium objects have a DEF from 6 to 9, depending on their structure and thickness. That DEF is Hardened against corrosion, grinding, and other forms of wear. Finished vitrium is more easily carved by intense heat than by normal cutting or drilling tools. On the other hand, vitrium is somewhat brittle. A slight change in the recipe and treatment makes vitrium more flexible, but reduces the material’s strength (DEF in the 4 to 6 range).]

            Usually, no one even tries to reshape vitrium after it sets. The ceramic starts as a chemical slurry that’s cast into the proper shape, then polished while still relatively soft. Setting requires running a mild electrical current through the slurry. The vitrium hardens in hours, and cures in days. Very thick castings (such as support pillars for buildings) take longer to set and need special techniques to make sure the slurry cures evenly. Sardian artisans know many trade secrets for tinting, texturing and curing vitrium that aren’t known on other worlds.

            Vitrium is most often used for construction, but it has many other applications. Artisans and engineers use vitrium for everything from jewelry to boat hulls. More flexible forms of vitrium even find use in armor and weapons. The omnipresent use of vitrium makes Sard a glittery place.

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Dean Shomshak

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Flying Vehicles

            Charabanc:  This flying vehicle is reasonably common throughout Sard. A charabanc is large enough for a dozen or so people, with a fairing and canopy but open sides. The rear may hold a small cabin or two. Charabancs are often highly ornamented.

            The best charabancs fly using antigravity, but those built in the last 30 years are lifted by powerful fans. Charabancs are usually meant for medium-range travel, up to few hundred kilometers, or for crossing swamp or jungle.

            Thalamege:  A larger flying vehicle, like an aerial barge. The typical thalamege has one deck of cabins, an open deck above (possibly with a canopy), a pilot-house in front, and a sterncastle in the rear. Thalameges are always richly ornamented and luxuriously appointed, since only the wealthiest people own them. These craft may mount weapons atop the pilot house or sterncastle. A thalamege typically includes a small kitchen and lavatory, for the comfort of travelers.

            Vimana:  Small warcraft lifted by propeller-fans. They are the fastest aerial vehicles on Sard, but carry just a few people. They are little more than flying artillery. A high-quality vimana can fly thousands of miles.

 

 

Cladist Medicine

            The cladists developed medical retroviri, drugs and organisms that heal wounds with great speed. Most are now commonplace on developed worlds. On Sard, they are somewhat more rare, and very valuable. Some cladist refugees — Daedalans in hiding, Huxleyan tribes, and so on — can make or grow their own supply of regenerative medicines, but they seldom share.

            The basic cladist medical package heals wounds at a rate of 1 BODY per 6 hours, under ideal conditions. The kit of drugs and organisms requires a trained user. A Daedalan or Promethean autodoc can additionally restore lost limbs and organs, but these are not available at any price.

 

            Cladist Medical Kit:  Healing BODY 1d6 (Regeneration option; regenerates 1 BODY/6 Hours), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2) (20 Active Points); OAF Fragile (-1 1/4), Extra Time (6 Hours per Regeneration increment; -3 1/2), Requires A Paramedic Skill Roll (-1/2). Total cost:  3 points.

 

Cyberhives

            Cyberhives are a self-replicating weapon invented by the Daedalans. Each hive consists of a house-sized robot factory that builds other robots. These subsidiary robots go out and cause whatever damage the central unit's computer can devise. A robot can range from an obvious machine, such as a miniature helicopter loaded with missiles, to a murderous android that can pass for human. A cyberhive’s mission is sabotage and terrorism.

            The cladists landed several cyberhives on Sard, and a number of them survived the war. They continue to build robot monsters and deploy them for maximum terror and destruction. The cyberhives are the demons of Sard - hidden powers that work evil for its own sake.

            Like demons, a few people make pacts with the cyberhives. A person who knows the right radio codes can contact a cyberhive and ask for its help. A cyberhive can use its robot minions to assist in some project, or create just about anything a person might desire. In return, the cyberhive demands help in sabotaging civilization, or raw materials it cannot easily obtain. A pacter may also receive a robotic "familiar" to keep an eye on him, or a cybernetic implant that monitors his activities and spies on the people around him. Sardians think of cyberhive-pacters as sorcerers, and kill them.

            The cyberhives are limited chiefly by Sard's lack of special materials. The hives' inexhaustible nuclear batteries require a number of artificial elements to build, which are not produced on Sard. To replicate, a cyberhive must accumulate the proper nuclear catalysts and insulators, which isn't easy. The robot monsters can get by with more mundane energy sources, such as fuel cells.

 

Space Flight

            Thanks to contact with aliens, humanity knows how to build reactionless drives for travel in normal space, and FTL drives for travel between stars. Actually, there are two FTL drives, though they work by the same basic technology. FTL drives expand the hidden dimensions of space-time. This bubble of 10-dimensional space can travel through the universe at faster than the speed of light; within the bubble, the ship itself stays locally below the speed of light. The planoform drive rotates one dimension of the ship outside normal space, leaving a massless, mathematical plane section to move through space. The linoform drive rotates two dimensions out of normal space, leaving a mathematical line section. Planoform drive is good for moving very large masses, but the energy cost increases with speed to such an extent that planoform ships cannot exceed 60 times lightspeed. Linoform ships easily reach 1,000 times lightspeed, but must remain quite small.

            A minor refinement of the technology can rotate a ship out of all three spacial dimensions — the punctiform drive. Punctiform travel is instantaneous, since in the “hidden” dimensions of space-time the ship is everywhere in the universe at once. Unfortunately, theory provides no way to control where the ship emerges in normal space. It also does not seem possible to rotate a ship through the temporal dimension, to produce a time machine.

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Dean Shomshak

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And what's a future history without a timeline? Presented herewith:

 

LIBRARY DATA

 

SARD TIME LINE

 

2045    Surellans attack Earth:  First contact with an alien race.

2046    Conglomerate sells warships to leading Earth states, ending the First Surellan War and

            providing humanity’s second contact with an alien species, the Nivoncoli.

2052    First proven encounter with a psionic — a surellan.

2058    EU expedition surveys 40 Eridani system. Sard named.

2060    Russia plants the New Kharkov colony. Half the colonists die in the first year.

2060s   Token colonies on Sard from US, EU, China. Explorers discover Monopod ruins.

2061    A nivoncoli admits their species learned psionic technology from even older civilizations.

2063    First contact with the Zyradu reveals the full potential of genetic alteration.

2069    UN grants representation to megacorporations in the World Business Governance Board.

2070s   First Anachronist, Atlantist and Dreamlander colonies on Carteria, soon renamed

            Hyperborea. Turkey plants a colony on the same continent as New Kharkov.

2072    Discovery of the first Monopod “time capsule” vault.

2078    Brazil exiles its dissidents to Sard, founding the Novo Bahía colony.

2080s   Iranian Zoroastrians flee persecution to Sard, founding the Parsumash colony in

            Hyperborea.

2081    Japan plants a small colony, New Sapporo, on the same continent as New Kharkov.

2086    Psionic examination of Monopod artifacts reveals that a few are actually psionic devices.

2091    The Corporate Rebellion against Conglomerate influence begins. The Conglomerate

            attacks Sard, destroying several nascent cities and abducting the entire Chinese colony.

2097    The World Business Governance Board usurps and abolishes the UN.

2110s   The renamed World Governance Board mounts the first Anti-Nationalist Purge. Soldiers

            from several nations move en masse to Sard, becoming military aristocracies.

2115    WGB buys out African dictator Ondo Kwazembe by offering him the continent on Sard

            formerly claimed by China: origin of Kwazembia.

2120    First use of electrical brain stimulation to initiate orisha possession in Novo Bahía:  Start

            of Tecumba and Voodootronics.

2126    Death of Ondo Kwazembe. His sons begin a civil war for the throne, and a junta of

            generals executes them both.

2130s   Second Anti-Nationalist Purge. Tamils and other Indian groups establish Tamilore.

2140s   Indian political theorists establish Vajranagar with WGB blessing.

2144    Novo Bahía becomes a Tecumba-based theocracy.

2149    Humanity’s first meeting with an Elder Race, a super-psionic Marvurin, goes badly.

2150s   Hyperborean continent briefly at peace through the Treaty of the Ten Kingdoms:  Albion,

            Heian, Lemuria, Mhu Thulan, Mnar, Parsumash, Polarion, Poseidonis, R’lyeh, and

            Tritonia.

2153    First Kwazembian war of aggression, against Karkovy.

2160    Overman Foundation chartered on Earth.

2160s   Solarism begins in Hyperborea.

2165    Karkovy annexes Turkish colony.

2178    First cladist colony:  The Aesir settle Kepler with help from the Overman Foundation.

2182    WGB forbids cladism anywhere in the Solar System. The Overman Foundation moves to

            Hestia and the Martian Transhumanist League settles Daedalus.

2183    Karkovy annexes Japanese colony of New Sapporo, changes the city’s name to Saporsk.

2186    Prometheus Colony chartered.

2192    Hestia Colony bans cladism, driving the Overman Foundation to settle Heracles.

2199    Prometheus sends Sasquatches to Kepler.

2212    Solarism becomes the state religion of Mnar.

2215    Prometheus spins off Huxley Colony.

2220s   Psychomantium invented in Novo Bahía, beginning the rapid development of other

            Neural Interpretive Link applications.

2254    Novo Bahía ratifies its constitution as a stockholder’s republic.

2260s   Dukhobor sect in Karkovy begins systematic teaching of hand-to-hand combat.

2280s   A Solarist schism creates the Trinary Temple.

2290    Mhu Thulan and R’lyeh merge to form the Kingdom of Hyperborea.

2304    Rishis mount coup in Tamilore, establishing its first psionic ruling class.

2313    Rakshasas mount counter-coup in Tamilore, beginning its second ruling class.

2329    WGB forces a merger of all Hyperborean states into one kingdom.

2340s   Scientists in the R’lyeh Archipelago begins study of Monopod artifacts, psionics and

            various novel Sardian technologies; documented origin of the Runemasters of Ning.

2341    First attempt by WGB to force a joint government of rishis and rakshasas on Tamilore.

2350s   First Cladist War. Civil war in Karkovy and Tamilore; “god-men” paralyze Vajranagar.

2368    Lord Mabila of Kwazembia makes his first attempt to conquer the tribes of the

            continent’s eastern highland steppes.

2372    Second Cladist War begins. Civil wars in Karkovy and Tamilore again; ”God-men” take

            over Vajranagar completely; Kwazembia declares allegiance to the Cladist Axis.

2375    Cladist forces slam a giant comet into Earth, killing 99% of the population through direct

            impact effects, starvation and disease.

2376    Destruction of cladist militaries, but some cladists (especially Huxleyans) escape and

            hide on Sard. WGB abolishes and partitions Kwazembia, though Kwazembian insurgent

            movements remain active and under central control.

2377    WGB charters Sard as an autonomous commonwealth, with the Roundup as its

            legislature.

2378    Civil war between Vajranagari god-men ends when a strong junta forms and appoints an

            Emperor. Some losers flee to Kwazembia.

2379    Civil wars in Hyperborea and Tamilore force them to abandon their Kwazembian

            territories.

2381    Tribes led by expat Avatars force Vajranagar from its Kwazembian territory.

2382    Karkovy abandons its Kwazembian territory for budgetary reasons.

2383    Kwazembian forces drive Novo Bahía from its territory, declare restoration of the

            Empire.

2385    Apparent death of Lord Mabila in his final attempt to conquer the tribes of the East

            Kwazembian Highlands.

2386    Last valid Roundup held on Sard, to discuss what to do about Kwazembia’s resurgence.

            The Roundup dissolves in acrimony without resolving anything.

2390    The Avatar Vajrajodhram become ruler of Vajranagar.

2391    A single Karkovan submarine destroys a pirate fleet in Kwazembian waters.

            Kwazembia’s government denies any connection to the pirates.

2405    PRESENT. Rogue Kwazembian officers plot to conquer Hyperborea and install a puppet

            king. Worldwide appearance of new “god-men” with formidable powers.

------------------

Dean Shomshak

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My players used the material you've seen to start creating their own Sard material as character background. Here's what one player proposed for his character Zardalex Kain, one of the Runemasters of Ning.

 

The Runemasters Of Ning:

 

     On an island in the archipelago off Hyperborea stands Mount Yulgoth.  Several hundred years ago, a group of visionary scientists and utopian dreamers formed a collective on the mountain’s desolate slopes.  Their goal was to unify all the various technologies of Sard and create a synthesis that would turn Sard into a paradise.  It didn’t quite work out that way.

     Despite their isolated location, the scientist were not immune to the general chaos that characterizes Sard.  They made great progress in the first twenty or so years, combining Hyperborean Neural Links, Tamiloran Psionics, and highly advanced Fabertechnology.  Then they came under attack.  Their grand fusion was not yet finished but they had made enough progress to drive off the attackers.  The price was great, however.  The collective’s chief scientists and visionaries were all killed during the war, leaving little more than technicians to carry on their work.

     Time passed, and instead of continuing towards the grand technological synthesis, the survivors concentrated on perfecting what they had.  An earthquake and a second attempt by pirates and slavers to capture them left them with no real memory of how and why they are started.  Only what they now referred to as their Runemastery saved them.

 

Runemastery:  There are a number of prerequisites to Runemastery.  First, the character must have had his latent Psionic ability awakened.  This means that all Runemasters have some form of Psionic ability (generally low level Telekinesis or a general Mental Awareness).  Next the character must be able to create the distinctive tattoos of a Runemaster (These are highly specialized variants on Neural Links created using Piseoelectronic Circuitry which is embedded in the skin in the form of tattoos – generally on the head or along the spine).  Finally, the character must be able to create Runes.  This was the original group of scientist’s greatest invention – a form of psychically reactive, parasitic Fabertechnology that “infests” whatever the specialized Runes are carved in and allows the Runemaster to use his tattoos to control the object.

 

     Note- by this point, the Runemasters have become something like a Gnostic sect, passing along their wisdom to members as they advance in rank.  The knowledge they pass on is practical (here is how to make this rune) as opposed to theoretical (the theory is basically lost at this point).

 

      The Runemasters themselves, do to repeated attacks have becomes a highly disciplined and secretive sect.  They control the area around Mount Yulgoth – it is said that the greatest of them have actually carved a series of Runes in the mountainside that gives them a certain amount of control over the mountain itself.

 

Dean Shomshak

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Another handout from in-pgame about an ancient Monopod book the PCs found. The book survived the geological ages because it was micrprinted on a thin slab of vitrium --a microfiche. Hurry for SF versions of obsolete technology!

 

LIBRARY DATA

 

THE MICROFICHE AND ASSORTED NOTES ON THE MONOPODS

 

            The Royal College of Celephais printed out a copy of the Monopod text Zardalex Kaine liberated from the Commodore’s treasure hoard. The more Zardalex studies the text, the more difficult it looks. As he first surmised, it’s a Monopod textbook on psychotronic engineering. It is not, however, an introductory text. Either the “Psychotronics for Dummies” first volume is somewhere else on Sard, its true value unrecognized, or this book was never in a time capsule at all. People mining ruined Monopod cities do sometimes find vitrium artifacts that survived the epochs, including books.

            All psionics is very much a rule-of-thumb discipline: People know that some things work, but have very little idea why. Monopod psionic devices consist of tablets, rods or lenses of vitrium holding thin veins and layers of other substances, all with very complicated molecular and micro-crystalline structures. Studying these devices helped steer the Runemasters in the direction of nanotechnology, but no one could say for sure why the Monopods used certain substances or arranged them in particular structures. People have guesses, but no proof. Zardalex’ book might explain several mysteries. What little Zardalex has translated already seems to confirm that the Monopods created their psionic devices using psychokinetically-controlled nanotechnology, much like the Runemasters.

            However, Zardalex won’t understand the entire text for a long time. The book is packed with technical jargon with no glossary. Zardalex must work out meanings from context and cross-references.

            Zardalex also knows that fully understanding the book requires more than one new discipline. Most importantly, he needs a grounding in Monopod music theory. His Ritual Electronics Skill and knowledge of Monopod language gives him a rudimentary knowledge, but that’s not enough.

            It’s common knowledge that the Monopods were highly musical. Their languages were all tonal: Words changed their meanings depending on changes of pitch and intonation. Every time capsule contained lots of Monopod musical scores, and archeologists are quite sure the abstract, contrapuntal music held far greater meaning for Monopods than humans can perceive. Zardalex can already tell that the placement of layers and veins in Monopod devices have something to do with harmonic ratios and sonic waveforms.

            *                      *                      *

            The upshot is that Zardalex can develop new Powers and create new psychotronic gadgets by studying the book. However, he needs to buy some new Skills, or get help from someone who already has them. I think Electronics and Music Theory are a sufficiently unlikely combination to explain why no one has figured out much about Monopod psionic devices. Conveniently, Tryka is a skilled musician who knows some of the Monopod musical repertoire.

            In particular, this is a chance to develop really exotic psionic Powers (though you still have to stay within Zardalex’ basic schtick of psycho-nanotechnology). New Powers may also require Zard to buy at least a Familiarity with some new Skill, though. The more improbable the juxtaposition, the more I’ll like it.

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Dean Shomshak

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Another handout geared for one of the PCs:

 

UNEGEN:  TWO CITIES

 

            Unegen found Celephais a strange experience. His previous exposure to urban life happened in Ondovia, the second city of Kwazembia. Ondovia overwhelmed him with the scale of its population, squalor and oppression. Half the city was shantytown — kilometers of shacks made from rotting lumber and plastic sheeting. The rest of Ondovia consisted of neighborhoods walled off from each other, segregated according to tribe and income. The city center held the massive government buildings and palaces of the aristocracy. The style here was Afro-Stalinist, featuring huge, ill-proportioned concrete boxes and cylinders ornamented with oversize African masks. Off the wide main avenues the city’s streets were a maze of narrow alleys with cracked pavement or none at all. You could drown a man in some of the mudholes. Main streets and side streets were all strewn with garbage. Unegen heard the city held 100,000 people.

            Hyperborea’s capital has a population is just 20,000, though it’s growing steadily. It’s built on and around the ruins of a Monopod city. A few spires and terraces of the ancient arcology still rise from the soil, but most of the city fell and broke from 20 million years of earth movements or was buried in sediment. What remains is tilted about 7 degrees from true vertical and horizontal, so human habitations need false floors to bring them to level. The tallest of the Monopods’ rose-crystal and amethyst spires tower 100 meters high, the tallest structures in Celephais. One spire holds the Royal Palace; another holds the city’s chief Solarist temple. Other spires and arcades have been retrofitted for the Royal College, businesses, villas and smaller private homes. Three terraces, 10, 25, and 40 meters above ground level, support both Monopod and human-made buildings, while the great support piers incorporate more living and working space. Broad ramps and stairways connect the terraces to ground level and each other.

            Public buildings that aren’t retrofitted Monopod structures tend to be built of vitrium as well and imitate Monopod styles. Smaller buildings such as homes and shops are built of glazed brick and tile, carved wood, concrete, the tawny sandstone of the nearby Tanarian Hills, and salvaged vitrium from the ruins. Vitrium fragments range from intact pillars and sheets large enough to use as skylights, to gravel that adds glitter to mosaics and concrete.

            Unlike Ondovia, in Celephais everyone lives next to everyone else. None of the districts are walled off from each other. The villas of the rich are sprinkled among smaller homes of the less well off, instead of clustering into their own neighborhood. The palaces, government buildings and temples of Celephais are likewise scattered throughout the city.

            The upper terrace holds the main plaza, called the Acropolis. It bustles with pushcart vendors who cater both to the sightseers and lunching clerks from government buildings nearby. The royal palace faces the Acropolis; so do the great Solarist temple, the Karkovan embassy, the office of the World Governance Board legate, and two dozen small storefronts. Nearby is a small park with a special area for duels, which always attract an appreciative (or critical) audience.

            The newer neighborhoods of Celephais lack the urban planning of the old town built around the Monopod ruin, and vitrium is less in evidence. The smallest, poorest homes still show a neatness and pride absent from the hovels of Ondovia. New Celephais also has its own parks and markets, as well as more peculiar attractions such as a street where the concrete trash cans are all shaped like pigs and covered in colorful mosaic.

            The people, however, present the greatest contrast to Ondovia. Nobody in Celephais seems afraid. In Ondovia, the homes of the rich are built like fortresses, presenting blank concrete walls to the street. The villas of Celephais have gardens and verandahs. Ondovians dress plainly and clam up when too many people seem to listen to them. Celephites dress up when they step out, and talk louder and fancier when they have an audience. Even the beggars of Celephais lack the air of desperate servility or vicious resentment Unegen saw in Ondovia.

 --------------

Dean Shomshak

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Another PC-centered handout:

 

THE MUSICAL MONOPODS

 

            It’s common knowledge that the Monopods were highly musical. Their languages were all tonal: Words changed their meanings depending on changes of pitch. Every time capsule contained lots of Monopod musical scores, and archeologists are quite sure the abstract, contrapuntal music held far greater meaning for Monopods than humans can perceive. Their visual art seems to incorporate musical concepts as well, such as harmonic ratios, syncopation, counterpoint and polyrhythm.

            Most of the time capsules held copies of a musical collection dubbed the Great Canon. A canon is an instrumental version of a round, like “Row, row, row your boat.” Different voices might play at different pitches or tempos, or the principal theme might be played backwards or inverted so low notes become high and high notes become low. The fugue is a looser form of canon. Fugues and canons were the Monopods’ favorite musical form. As J. S. Bach showed, however, this extremely formal and mathematical form can also be a vehicle for intense and profound emotion. Bach’s supreme explorations of the form, The Art of the Fugue and The Musical Offering, had less than two dozen fugues each and none for more than six voices (the most achieved by any human composer). The Great Canon consists of 64 fugues, including one written for eight voices, a feat no human has equaled. Even more remarkably, the Great Canon shows the Monopods had emotions much like humans (which cannot be said for every alien race). Some sections of the Great Canon leave humans cold: They seem to portray emotional states humans don’t understand. Most parts, however, portray feelings humans can appreciate.

            The Great Canon seems to be a musical exposition of Monopod life and history. Some of the fugues use a single theme, which remains the same throughout the entire sequence. Fugues with four or more voices add secondary themes.

            The first eight fugues portray the rise of Monopod civilization. The first canon is entirely for percussion: “Bang the rocks together, guys.” It begins unsteadily, but ends as a confident, three-voice canon with rhythmic tricks that trip up careless players. The next six range from harsh, brutal evocations of war to a courtly dance. The eighth is a musical evocation of a factory assembly line, commemorating the start of industrial technology.

            Canons nine through 55 vary widely. Some evoke particular emotions. Others seem to be pure exercises in musical structure, though even the most abstract are pleasant enough to hear. The 56th is the high point of the Great Canon, a majestic, eight-voice fugue that evokes the triumph of a great civilization that thinks it can last forever.

            The last eight fugues portray the Monopods’ doom. The 57th canon takes the grand theme of the 56th and opposes it with a softly ominous theme that grows to overpower it — the approaching death-throes of 40 Eridani’s companion star. The succeeding fugues evoke the Monopods’ shock, struggle to save themselves, and rage at their failure. The 62nd canon is one of the grimmest musical portrayals of grief and despair known to humanity, while the 63rd is a pitiless funeral march. Tryka’s teachers told her stories of master musicians who used these fugues to drive enemies to suicide.

            The final canon, however, is a lullaby of infinite gentleness. “Go to sleep,” it seems to say, “You’ve had a long day and it’s time to rest.” Though written for only two voices and melodically spare, some musicians say mastering the Sixty-Fourth is literally the work of a lifetime.

            Tryka, of course, is completely familiar with the Great Canon and she can play most movements on her keyboard. (Fugues with four or more voices require multiple players, or a pipe organ or other instrument where the musician uses both hands and feet.) She learned the melody of the Sixty-Fourth when she was nine; when she was 16, she became a good enough musician to understand why her teachers said she can only master the Sixty-Fourth when she’s an old woman and has buried people she loved. Most audiences, however, do not ask for the last eight fugues in the Great Canon. Performances of the entire sequence take more than six hours and are understandably rare.

            Musicologists argue whether the Great Canon had one author or several. The style seems too unified for a collection of works by separate composers, but how could anyone be such a genius as to write all 64? Some musicologists point out, though, that the Monopods placed far less emphasis on the solitary artist than humans have in the last several centuries. Very few Monopod books or works of art have their authors named. These scholars say it’s quite possible that Monopod artists were actually committees whose members merged their individual talents into a collective genius. A few scholars even speculate about psionic gestalt-minds and other exotic possibilities. The truth may never be known: The Monopods couldn’t fit everything about themselves into their time-capsule vaults, and some facts they simply took for granted and didn’t bother explaining — but of course, the Monopods had no experience with aliens. They didn’t know that when dealing with other intelligences, nothing is obvious.

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Dean Shomshak

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I let my PCs design weapons if they wanted, but I tried to give them some idea of what was possible in Sard's universe. Hence, this somewhat extended look at small arms. It'll be in multiple parts.

 

SMALL ARMS

 

            Personal weaponry reached its zenith of lethality in the 21st century. After a certain point, greater killing power loses its value:  You can’t make a person more dead, and most people don’t walk around in battle armor that only heavier weapons can penetrate. As a result, the sidearms of 2400 do not inflict much more damage than they did four centuries before. Instead, the last four centuries of weapons development concentrated on making sidearms lighter, more reliable, and safer to use, and exploring new ways to incapacitate people.

            Changing social standards also made the legitimate use of lethal force more difficult in the 21st century. Wrongful-death lawsuits against police officers, and homicide charges against homeowners who shot robbers, encouraged the invention of weapons to incapacitate without killing. Old-fashioned guns remain common in 2400, but people can also choose from other sorts of sidearms, each with their own particular advantages.

 

[[BOX]]

Commentary:  Real Weapon (-1/4)

 

            This Limitation represents how most weapons come with a host of minor restrictions on their use. For instance, regular guns may stop working if they fall in water or mud, while laser beams lose power if they pass through fog or smoke. Guns also need the right sort of ammunition or power pack to recover their Charges.

            Not every weapon for sale needs this Limitation in its game mechanics. For instance, some slugthrowers are so sturdily built and perfectly manufactured that nothing can jam their workings or cause them to misfire. Of course, they still need the proper ammunition; but this may be so readily available that reloading rarely becomes a problem. In a similar way, a high-tech sword may be made of a special alloy that never nicks or rusts, and so does not receive this Limitation. Not using Real Weapon is a way to represent high-tech, high-quality engineering applied to low-tech weapons. Special weapons that cost Character Points do not generally take this Limitation.

[[END BOX]]

 

Active Points and Damage Classes

 

            When calculating the Damage Classes for weapons, include built-in OCV levels. In a Heroic-level setting, if you’re hit you will take some damage, and even swashbuckling heroes cannot take many hits without being incapacitated. Improving your chance to hit with a less-powerful attack is just as useful as dealing more damage, with a lesser chance to hit. Range Skill Levels do not apply, though.

            The 45 Active Point limit has a bit of flexibility if you use Advantages that do not directly affect the amount of damage done. For instance, Delayed Return doesn’t matter much for Adjustment Attacks — the fight will probably be over before characters have a chance to recover lost Characteristics anyway. On the other hand, Advantages such as Armor Piercing or Increased STUN Multiplier, that increase the STUN inflicted to a target or that bypass defences, definitely apply to the effective Damage Class of an attack. Limitations can also reduce the effective DC of an attack, by reducing the chance of dealing significant damage. For instance, an attack that is Reduced By Range (-1/4) does not always do its full damage. Other Advantages and Limitations must be judged case-by-case.

 

Small Arms On Sard

 

            The sample guns that follow come from throughout the Terran Sphere. They all exist on Sard, though, in the form of locally-manufactured copies. On Sard, people don’t care much about the legal consequences of lethal force, but nonlethal (or less-lethal) weapons are still pretty common for dueling, or to capture enemies for interrogation or holding hostage.

 

SLUGTHROWERS

 

            Slugthrowers propel their projectile using chemical energy, compressed air, or magnetic fields. The classic, chemically-propelled bullet remains popular and effective. A thousand years of engineering makes 25th-century slugthrowers the most rugged and reliable of all sidearms, as well as the cheapest and easiest to manufacture. A village blacksmith can make an automatic rifle — not a good one, but good enough. Ammunition requires a more advanced technology than the gun itself, but bullets are a compact, valuable commodity that is easy to transport across and between worlds.

 

Game Mechanics

 

            Most slugthrowers are represented as a Killing Attack (Ranged). Less lethal guns may use Energy Blast that acts versus Physical Defense. Special ammunition can grant Advantages such as Armor Piercing or Increased STUN Multiplier. Drug-injecting darts permit more diverse Powers and Advantages, such as Drains or No Normal Defense attacks. Automatic weapons have Autofire. Sights and more advanced targeting systems may give a weapon built-in OCV and Range Modifier Skill Levels.

            All slugthrowers receive the Limitations, OAF (-1), STR Minimum (usually between 6 and 14; STR Does Not Add To Damage; -1), and Beam (-1/4). Charges are also mandatory, but can be an Advantage or Limitation, depending on how many bullets a gun carries in its clip. Real Weapon (-1/4) is common but not mandatory (see box).

 

SAMPLE SLUGTHROWERS

 

            These are only a few of the guns available in the 25th century. The differences between most guns are negligible:  A few have especially good or bad targeting, or their clips hold different numbers of bullets. Caliber matters as much as players want it to:  Since the Star Horizon setting assumes a fairly high proportion of romance to realism, an expert marksman can do as much damage with a .22 as a regular Joe inflicts with a high-caliber magnum, if that’s what the player wants. The marksman is assumed always to achieve a shot in a desirable Hit Location, or find a weak point in the target’s defenses. Some ammunition may also increase damage beyond the norm for a given caliber, or add various Advantages to the attack.

 

Grimaldi Safety Pistol with Prefragmented Ammunition

 

            Grimaldi Gunworks of Luna specializes in small arms that fire only when held by their owner. The trigger scans the user’s finger, and if it doesn’t recognize the user the gun won’t fire. This makes Grimaldo guns Personal Foci. Such safety features are quite common in the 25th century.

            This example uses prefragmented ammunition, which delivers greater stunning power than a normal bullet. The tiny metal shards are also more difficult to remove from a wounded person.

 

            Grimaldi Safety Pistol:  RKA 2d6, +2 Increased STUN Multiplier (+1/2) (45 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4), STR Minimum (9; STR Minimum Doesn’t Add Damage; -1), Beam (-1/4), 12 Charges (per clip; -1/4). Total cost:  11 points.

----------------

Dean Shomshak

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Small Arms, Continued:

 

Hyperborean Electric Pistol

 

            In the kingdom of Hyperborea, gentlemen settle personal scores through duels, and some of these duels involve guns. Actually killing people tends to cause vendettas, though, so Hyperborean duels often use nonlethal weapons:  It’s enough to show that you could have killed your enemy. This pair of gilded revolvers is chambered for rounds of a standard caliber, but also fires special bullets that are actually powerful capacitors. When the bullet strikes, it disintegrates and releases an electric shock large enough to knock most people unconscious and leave significant burns.

            These pistols, the product of a master craftsman, possess one other power:  They look both beautiful and dangerous. Pose with one of these, and you’ll look tougher, suaver, cooler than you really are — good for intimidating or impressing people.

 

            Hyperborean Electric Pistol:  EB 9d6 (45 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4), STR Minimum (8; STR Minimum Doesn’t Add Damage; -1), Beam (-1/4), 6 Charges (-3/4) (total cost:  11 points)

            Plus +5 PRE; No Defensive Use (only for PRE Attacks or some Skills; -1/2), OAF (-1) (total cost:  2 points)

            Total cost:  13 points.

 

Nusrat GR38 with Teflon-Coated Ammunition

 

            Nusrat Personal Munitions, based on Paradise, is famous for producing the “Guaranteed Reliable” line of automatic pistols. Nusrat guns never malfunction. They never jam or misfire, even when exposed to water, mud, dust, high heat, extreme cold, or extended periods in vacuum. Nusrat guns achieve this perfection through exceptionally tough metals and ceramics with very little thermal expansion or contraction, chemically inert coatings, and incredibly precise machining. Nusrat guns are also slightly more accurate than average. They cost a lot, but the Nusrat has a definite cult status among gun enthusiasts.

            This example is a 9mm model. The clip holds 15 rounds. Nusrat guns take standard-sized ammunition, including a variety of specialty rounds designed for extra penetration or stopping power.

 

            Nusrat GR38:  RKA 1 1/2d6, Armor Piercing (+1/2) (37 Active Points); OAF (-1), STR Minimum (8; STR Minimum Doesn’t Add Damage; -1), 15 Charges (-0) (total cost:  12 points)

            Plus Combat Skill Levels:  +1 OCV with Gun (5 Active Points); OAF (-1) (total cost:  2 points)

            Plus Range Skill Levels:  +1 vs. Range Modifier with Gun (3 Active Points); OAF (-1) (total cost:  1 point)

            Total cost:  15 points.

 

RA-11 with Cracker Ammunition

 

            People’s Victory Armaments, the state-run munitions company of Renchuang, produces a flood of cheap weapons and ammunition. The RA-11 is their largest caliber pistol. Like the other pistols in the RA series, it is a merely adequate weapon:  not especially accurate, but not actually bad, either.

            In addition to normal bullets, People’s Victory Armaments also produces a variety of specialty ammunition. The Cracker bullet contains a small shaped charge of high explosive that detonates on impact. The shockwave drills a hole through all but the toughest materials, and incidentally sends a needle of spalled material into whatever’s immediately behind the impacted surface. The upshot is that any Focus hit by a Cracker definitely takes damage, and so does a person hit by a Cracker, no matter how good his body armor may be.

 

            RA-11, Cracker Ammunition:  RKA 2d6, Penetrating (+1/2) (45 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4), STR Minimum (9; STR Minimum Does Not Add Damage; -1), 8 Charges (per clip; -1/2). Total cost:  12 points.

 

Tesla Gun with Splat Shell

 

            Tesla guns fire projectiles using electromagnetism instead of exploding chemicals. This makes them quieter than regular guns, but firing one sends a blast of radio static you can detect from orbit, if you have the right equipment — and any technologically mature planet does. On well-policed worlds, the authorities immediately know when and where anyone fires a Tesla gun.

            These guns are always shotguns or rifles, since the propulsion comes from the electromagnetic pulse running down the barrel instead of a single impulse in the gun’s breech. Recoil compensators make Tesla rifles especially good for long-range shooting, since the gun has no kick at all. Tesla guns can fire both normal bullets and a variety of specialty projectiles.

            The splat shell is made of soft putty instead of metal. The putty flattens on impact, transfering all its energy to the target in a powerful thump, instead of wasting energy by ripping apart flesh and bone. The splat shell is a good weapon for police, since it takes a person down without inflicting quite as much damage as a metal bullet. Only a Tesla gun can fire the putty, though; the putty would just splatter in a regular gun. Tesla rifles fire a single slug. Tesla shotguns can fire a cluster of smaller slugs that peel apart in flight, increasing the chance to hit but delivering less damage on average.

 

            Splat Rifle:  EB 8d6 (acts versus PD) (40 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4), STR Minimum (8; STR Minimum Does Not Add Damage; -1), 8 Charges (per clip; -1/2), Beam (-1/4) (total cost:  10 points);

            Plus +3 vs. Range Modifier with Gun (9 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4) (total cost:  4 points);

            Total cost:  14 points

            Splat Shotgun:  EB 7d6 (acts versus PD) (35 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4), STR Minimum (8; STR Minimum Does Not Add Damage; -1), 8 Charges (per clip; -1/2), Beam (-1/4), Reduced By Range (-1d6/4”; -1/4) (total cost:  8 points);

            Plus +3 OCV with Gun (15 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4) (total cost:  7 points);

            Total cost:  15 points.

 

VB-47 Automatic Rifle

 

            “VB-47” is a slang term for automatic rifles hand-crafted by technologically and socially primitive people. It’s based on a famous 20th-century automatic rifle that was very popular with tribal people, insurgent groups, and bandits in backward areas:  The “VB” replacement prefix stands for “Village Blacksmith.”

            VB-47s vary widely in their ammunition, targeting, and damage. The following write-up is merely a typical example. These guns are also much less reliable than the factory-made originals, and don’t target as well, but they are adequate killing machines for the sort of people who use them. Primitive regions that lack effective governments — but that can import ammunition — are usually awash in VB-47s.

 

            VB-47:  RKA 2d6; Autofire (5 shots; +1/2), 30 Charges (per standard clip; +1/4) (52 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4), STR Minimum (15; STR Minimum Doesn’t Add Damage; -1 1/4), Activation Roll14-, Jammed (-1). Total cost:  12 points.

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Dean Shomshak

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Small Arms, continued:

 

ENERGY WEAPONS

 

            Instead of a material projectile, energy weapons fire a laser beam, plasma, sound, a stream of subatomic particles, or some other damaging force. Energy weapons require a higher technology than slugthrowers — sometimes much higher — and cost a lot more to build. On the other hand, most energy weapons use a battery, not a clip:  You don’t reload an energy weapon, you plug it into the wall and recharge it. (Many weapons use a replaceable power pack, though, in case you don’t have a wall socket handy, or don’t have time to recharge.) Energy weapons have no recoil, so they require less strength to use. Many energy attacks can be spread, either by opening the weapon’s focus for a wider but more diffuse attack, or by sweeping a beam across a target for a better chance to hit but less concentrated damage. Particular weapons may offer further advantages, such as an attack that bypasses normal defenses, or that’s less lethal while remaining destructive and incapacitating.

 

Game Mechanics

 

            Start with a Power such as Energy Blast, Killing Attack (Ranged), or a Drain with the Ranged Advantage. Many Advantages are possible, such as Penetrating or No Normal Defense. Autofire is rare for civilian weapons. Energy weapons sometimes include built-in OCV and Range Modifier Skill Levels.

            All energy weapons receive the Limitations OAF (-1) and STR Minimum (usually less than 6; STR Does Not Add To Damage; -3/4). Real Weapon (-1/4) is mandatory, because energy weapons are intrinsically less rugged and reliable than the best slugthrowers. Charges are also mandatory, but can be an Advantage or Limitation, depending on the weapon’s power pack. Civilian weapons (including police models) usually have less than 16 charges — not because better power packs aren’t available, but to prevent massacres by unstable persons. Civilian weapons also may carry Limited Range or Reduced By Range, to reduce the chance that missed shots hit innocent bystanders.

 

SAMPLE ENERGY WEAPONS

 

Enervator

            The Enervator fires intense microwave pulses tuned to destroy two molecules needed for muscle cells to contract. A shot or two quickly renders the target too weak to fight. The body reconstitutes the destroyed molecules within minutes. Normally there are no side effects. A shot to the heart, however, almost certainly kills because the heart stops beating. (Shooting the heart is a -10 Hit Location, and converts the enervator beam to Drain BODY 12d6, Ranged. Success at a Paramedics Roll at -3 keeps the person alive until his heart starts beating again.) On the other hand, shooting a person in the hand, foot, or head is pretty much useless. Under most circumstances, an Enervator shot does not take Hit Locations. An attacker can attempt a called shot, however, to incapacitate a specific limb (or kill); while most of a target may be protected by cover. The Real Weapon (-1/4) Limitation covers these minor advantages and disadvantages.

 

            Enervator:  Drain STR 2d6, Delayed Return Rate (points return at the rate of 5 per Minute; +1/4), Ranged (+1/2) (35 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4), STR Minimum (6; STR Minimum Doesn’t Add Damage; -1), 8 Charges (-1/2) (total cost:  9 points)

            Plus Combat Skill Levels:  +2 OCV with Enervator (10 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4) (total cost:  4 points)

            Total cost:  13 points

 

Ion Gun

            This weapon blasts the target with highly ionized atoms accelerated to great speed. When the ions crash into armor, they create secondary sprays of particles that burn the target. Only specialized armor can block this effect. Ion shots also wreck any machine more complicated or fragile than a steam engine:  The hard radiation fries computer chips as thoroughly as flesh, and burns hairline cracks through solid parts.

 

            Ion Gun:  RKA 2d6, Penetrating (+1/2) (45 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4), STR Minimum (8; STR Minimum Doesn’t Add Damage; -1), 16 Charges (-0). Total cost:  14 points.

 

Laser Pistol

            The Laser Pistol is a standard sidearm in technologically advanced societies, with many makes and models with their own minor variations — a little more or less damage, different number of Charges in the power pack, or slightly different targeting. Most laser pistols shoot a pulse of light that lasts a fraction of a second. A few pistols fire a pulse that lasts long enough that a shooter can sweep it across a target, for a better chance to hit at cost of slightly less damage (that is, they lack the Beam (-1/4) Limitation.) Most lasers actually fire a tight cluster of beams, with each beam slightly out of focus, so the laser pulse gradually disperses. This is so a missed shot doesn’t kill someone a mile away.

 

            Laser Pistol:  RKA 2d6 (30 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4), STR Minimum (4; STR Minimum Doesn’t Add Damage; -3/4), Beam (-1/4), Reduced By Range (-1 DC/25”; -0), 16 Charges (per clip; -0) (total cost:  9 points)

            Plus Range Skill Levels:  +2 vs. Range Modifier with Laser (6 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4) (total cost:  3 points)

            Total cost:  12 points

 

Laser Rifle

            The Laser Rifle fires a more powerful beam than the Laser Pistol. It’s also a longer, heavier weapon. Any laser more powerful than this example requires a backpack power source and a bipod mount.

            Laser rifles are designed as military weapons (though large numbers of these weapons reach black or gray markets), and so they lack the deliberate defocusing of laser pistols:  A laser rifle shot remains deadly until the air itself absorbs or disperses the beam.

 

            Laser Rifle:  RKA 3d6 (45 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4), STR Minimum (8; STR Minimum Doesn’t Add Damage; -1), Beam (-1/4), 16 Charges (per clip;-0) (total cost:  13 points)

            Plus Range Skill Levels:  +2 vs. Range Modifier with Laser (6 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4) (total cost:  3 points)

            Total cost:  16 points

 

Pinlaser

            The Pinlaser is a laser pistol with an unusually narrow and focused beam.

 

            Pinlaser:  RKA 2d6, Armor Piercing (+1/2) (45 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4), STR Minimum (4; STR Minimum Doesn’t Add Damage; -3/4), Beam (-1/4), 12 Charges (per clip; -1/4) (total cost:  13 points)

            Plus Range Skill Levels:  +2 vs. Range Modifier with Laser (6 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4) (total cost:  3 points)

            Total cost:  16 points

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Dean Shomshak

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Small Arms, concluded. And that should be enough to last people several days.

 

Plasmoid Gun

            Plasmoid guns fire a ball of superheated, tightly confined plasma — artificial ball lightning. The plasmoid moves as fast as a bullet. The plasma’s heat is actually negligible because its mass is so small. A plasmoid contains a great deal of electrical energy, though, which it releases when it strikes a solid object. Legal guns also fire plasmoids set to collapse on their own in a fraction of a second, so shots don’t travel very far — a safety feature in urban settings.

            Most plasmoid guns fire a spherical or spindle-shaped ball of plasma. The Vorticule is unusual for its doughnut-shaped plasmoid. The vorticule is not more powerful or accurate than other plasmoids, and the plasma “bullet” travels too fast to see, but the gun has cult status with some shootists. Maybe it’s because the body of the gun is transparent, so you can see the spinning ring of plasma form and fire. The vorticule is also called the “Lifesaver” or “Cheerio Gun,” for reasons most people no longer remember.

            Some police and security forces prefer plasmoid guns to the cheaper slugthrowers. Multiple shots from a plasmoid gun can kill a target through burning and electrocution, but it’s less lethal than a bullet.

            You can also buy a kit to install a special control that adjusts the focus on a plasmoid gun, so you can shoot a larger but more diffuse ball of energy, for a better chance to hit but inflicting less damage (the attack can be spread). This kit removes the Beam (-1/4) Limitation, and increases the weapon’s Real Point cost by 1.

 

            Plasmoid Gun/Vorticule:  EB 8d6 (40 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4), STR Minimum (4; STR Minimum Doesn’t Add Damage; -3/4), Beam (-1/4), Limited range (30”; -1/4), 16 Charges (per clip; -0) (total cost:  11 points)

            Plus Combat Skill Levels:  +1 OCV with Plasmoid Gun (5 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4) (total cost:  2 points)

            Total cost:  13 points

 

Sone

            The sone fires a narrow beam of high-intensity sound that shakes and vibrates whatever it hits. The sound waves themselves are too high-pitched to hear, but “beat” effects from the sound waves create a distinctive whine. Sones are also audible to Ultrasonic Hearing. The width of the beam makes the sone especially likely to hit its target, but it cannot target Hit Locations. Sone attacks are also easy to spread, just by giving the gun a little twitch as you fire.

 

            Sone:  EB 6d6, Invisible To Sight Group (+1/2) (45 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4), STR Minimum (7; STR Minimum Doesn’t Add Damage; -1), Limited Range (30”; -1/4), Limited (only does BODY to Rigid Matter; -1/4), 12 Charges (-1/4) (total cost:  11 points)

            Plus Combat Skill Levels:  +2 OCV with Sone (10 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4) (total cost:  4 points)

            Total cost:  15 points

 

Stunner

            The stunner uses extremely brief, specially tuned microwave pulses to break down the molecules that nerve cells use to pass signals. A body part struck by a stunner immediately goes numb. Two or three shots (or one well-placed shot to a Hit Location) can knock a person out completely. The victim recovers quickly, with no aftereffects worse than a headache — but 10 seconds of unconsciousness can be enough to capture a foe and end a fight. Stunners are popular weapons in space colonies, where missed shots from lasers or slugthrowers can damage vital life support machinery.

            Rare specialty weapons combine the Stunner and Enervator in one device, so the user can switch between weakening and stunning attacks. (The weapon becomes a Multipower.)

 

            Stunner:  EB 4d6, NND (defense is Power Defense or Force Field; +1) (40 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4), STR Minimum (4; STR Minimum Doesn’t Add Damage; -3/4), Beam (-1/4), Reduced By Range (-1d6/4”; -1/4), 16 Charges (per clip; -0) (total cost:  11 points)

            Plus Combat Skill Levels:  +2 OCV with Stunner (10 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4) (total cost:  4 points)

            Total cost:  15 points

 

Police Laser Pistol

            Police sometimes use special laser pistols with an adjustable focus. The focused beam burns the target, like any other laser. The beam can also be broadened so it merely dazzles and blinds a target for a short time. The laser pulse lasts half a second, giving the attacker time to sweep the beam across a target’s body or eyes. The glare-beam has to hit the target’s eyes, which makes it slightly harder to use than the focused beam, even though the unfocused beam can spread to a few inches wide compared to the needle-thin laser pulse. The glare setting lets a cop try to blind a perp for several seconds, but the cop can still use lethal force if necessary.

 

Cost    Powers

14        Police Laser Pistol:  Multipower, 45-point reserve; reserve and all slots take OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4), STR Minimum (3; STR Minimum Doesn’t Add Damage; -3/4), Reduced By Range (-1 DC/25”; -0), 12 Charges (-1/4)      [12]

1u        1) Focused Beam:  RKA 3d6; OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4), STR Minimum (3; STR Minimum Doesn’t Add Damage; -3/4), Beam (-1/4), Reduced By Range (-1 DC/25”; -0), 12 Charges (-1/4); +1 OCV with Laser; OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4)

1u        2) Unfocused Glare:  Sight Group Flash 9d6

            Plus Range Skill Levels:  +2 vs. Range Modifier with Focused Beam (6 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4) (total cost:  3 points)

            Total cost:  19 points

 

Police Plasmoid Gun

            This variable plasmoid gun was originally built for police to use as both a regular sidearm and a crowd-control weapon. Like other plasma pistols, it fires a blob of highly energized plasma that shocks and burns whatever it hits. The police version, however, can also fire a plasma projectile that explodes when it hits something, dealing damage to everyone in an area and possibly knocking people down. Like other plasmoid guns, the projectile automatically dissipates 60 meters from the weapon, as a safety measure.

 

Cost    Powers

13        Police Plasmoid Gun:  Multipower, 45 point reserve; OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4), STR Minimum (4; STR Minimum Doesn’t Add Damage; -3/4), Limited range (30”; -1/4), 12 Charges (-1/4) on reserve and all slots          [12]

1u        1) Concentrated Blast:  EB 8d6, +1 OCV

1u        2) Exploding Blast:  EB 6d6, Explosion (+1/2)

            Plus Combat Skill Levels:  +1 OCV with Plasmoid Gun (5 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4) (total cost:  2 points)

            Total cost:  17 points

 -------

Dean Shomshak

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