Re: Game Ideas
Not sure what I want to call this one yet, it obviously borrows heavily from multiple sources, would love to know if there's some interest or anyone wants to provide feedback. If there's enough interest, I'd prefer to run something like this in a sandbox type environment with a light narrative arc, but with a smaller group, I'd provide a stronger narrative arc:
Main Summary: In the far flung future, man has risen, fallen and risen again. For generation, man has been digging itself out of a cataclysm. The origins of the cataclysm are unknown, what we do know is this: We are not alone, we can't hope to fathom what came before, space is a harsh place to make a living.
About a dozen systems comprise known space, some with many habitable planets, moons and ancient outposts. Earth was left behind, the cradle of civilization is now Orinda Prime and only in the last few generations have we begun to inhabit the other planets, moons and outposts again. Some colonies have broken away from Orinda, governing themselves, many still work under her sway. The Orindan government is a theocracy, with the Grand Phoenice Nakir being the head of the church and state. They bring light to the dark corners and fire to those that would oppose them.
Some are born with abilities beyond that of mortal men, they are the gifted. Many believe they inherit genetic sequencing from before the cataclysm that grants them powers beyond explanation. The Orindans see this as a divine calling, taking in the gifted they find to be indoctrinated into the life of Orindan Verisaat, holy paladins that enforce the will of the Grand Phoenice. For this reason, many hide their gift, even in independent worlds, for word is, Orindans will seek out and capture or murder the gifted in all corners of known space.
The PCs are frontiersmen, smugglers and independents who are trying to make a buck while staying out of Orindan space. They have a ship, a friendly settlement and a map pointing to some unexplored pre-cataclysm ruins. Some can be gifted, though not all will be.
Space Travel: FTL space travel is done via induction gates, an example of the old earth technology that demonstrates mastery over dimensions. They work by targeting a beacon, broadcasting a specific code from a target ship and folding space to place the ship in the vicinity of a corresponding gate on the other side. The known codes were passed down for generations. The systems in known space are not actually neighbors in physical space, some hundreds or thousands of light years from systems they can reach via induction gate. The travel is instantaneous between the systems, but it can still take several weeks to travel from one side of known space to the other, due to the slower than light travel required and the distances between the gates themselves. Also, the gates must cool down between activation, so while several dozen ships may travel at once, it may take up to two or three hours before the gate will transport the next batch. It is theorized that the gates create such distortion fields that they can not be placed within more than a few AU of each other and they sit in inclined, eccentric orbits. Many gates lie dormant, their beacon codes lost to the ages or lying in wait to be discovered. Communications and data transfer are near instantaneous while in system but word must travel via ship to get to other systems. Without close coordination, dedicated communications vessels and sophisticated data networks, news and correspondence can take hours, days or weeks to spread.
Races: Some forty races inhabit known space, by most reckonings, though many of these are in small colonies of a few hundred or a few thousand. Some posses the gift, though most do not seem to carry it. The most populace races one might recognize are sylvans (elves), goroth (orc), mintakken (tall, thin, gray skin, black, pupil-less eyes, black hair) and widowren (short, copper skinned, brightly colored hair and eyes). While distinctively different species, they have been long isolated from their home worlds and while living among a predominantly human civilization, they have developed what are more akin to close sub-cultures rather than distinct cultures of their own. Races with smaller numbers in more isolated colonies tend to have more distinct cultures.
Credit to Numenara, Diaspora, Firefly, Rifts, Mass Effect and Star Wars for inspiration.
