The Campaign Builder's Guild

Quote<TheNinjaD> GO!
<Llum> can I lead off with a question?
<BiOHaZaRD> Go for it
<Llum> in the Brinsley Drive incident, you say that all the uncaptured infected went to high ground (or high point) is this an oblque Gargoyle reference? Or is there another reason why they did this?
<BiOHaZaRD> I'm so far leaving that deliberately unclarified; it's one of those things you want a potential GM to work out for themselves, although I wanted it to work the same way the movie I Am Legend's alternate ending works, where it makes you go "OH wait, HE'S the bad guy to THEM" where it hints that maybe there's more to the infected than just a mindless, ravenous pseudo-zombie/vampire
<BiOHaZaRD> You know, it could suggest that the Grays or the Vorovka are spreading these infections deliberately and are somehow controlling them; it could just suggest that something about the stars attracts them, or maybe that they just really like high places... and the list, as with anything, goes on and on, with varying degrees of complexity and stupid/weird simplicity
<Llum> I like the stars idea
<Llum> like there yearning for something
<Steerpike> How do you feel adventuring working in the Dystopian Universe, Biohazard?  You've invested a lot of effort into military organizations - do you envision the players as predominantly military/special forces?
<BiOHaZaRD> Predominantly military, yes, but not necessarily
I hope for DU to be fully capable of running using the Star Wars Saga system, and that system really seems to endorse a sort of outlaw lifestyle, too, so that's a definite source of characters
It's important to remember for any players, someday when the setting is run, that Private Military Forces exist too, and you don't actually have to be "military" to have similar training and run around with big guns, as Halov Corporation would suggest

<Steerpike> So are you thinking of primarily human players, or are the other races definitely also playable?
<BiOHaZaRD> Well, I hope they'll all be playable, with varying degrees of "similarity" to humans
 I want their differences to be subtle but drastic, though
<Steerpike> Yeah, I imagine playing a vorovka would be challenging.
<BiOHaZaRD> Like I was discussing with Llum last night, the Wraz (reptilians) are the most human-like of the alien species, and among other things such as no mammary glands and internal genitalia (think the Dinosauroid), they have only four digits per hand, lending a base-eight mathematics style among other things to the way they think

<Steerpike> Wraz struck me as reptillian aliens in the conspiracy theory vein.
 You seem to be channeling that sort of tone more generally, with the grays as well, yeah.
<BiOHaZaRD> Yeah, that was what I was going for
I want to use as much of modern-day conspiracy theorizing as possible
I love that whole area of our culture; the other setting I'd love to design would just be more of an elaboration on the current period and all of the conspiracy stuff going on

<Steerpike> About the grays - how powerful are they?  Are they more or less as popular culture imagines them?
<BiOHaZaRD> They're sort of like up-and-coming Vorovka; they're brilliant genetic and robotic engineers, and they're malicious
 They vary in power, but are generally not very warlike
<Steerpike> probes and labcoats, not giant warfleets, then
<BiOHaZaRD> Yeah
 I tried to convey that a bit with the "New Strain" thing, where the M.O.T.H. cadets were getting some basic surgical training with Volkov and Meissner, and when the human recruits were all gagging or sweating, the Grays just had a cold stare and kind of fascination as they looked at the massacred, infected body
 They, according to The Oddity history, were thought to be the short things sometimes seen in fiction, when those are actually "Moglins", robotic servants, slaves, and scouts
 Grays actually stand closer to seven feet
<ell_see> That is highly disturbing.
<BiOHaZaRD> Grays as a race just have an obsession with knowledge, something I have as well
 The Gray's obsession with said knowledge just happens to extend more to biological systems, where you could say humans and reptilians have a more mechanical/astrophysical desire

<Steerpike> I really liked the vignette, by the way
 New Strain
 especially the giggling nanocreeps
<BiOHaZaRD> Thanks, that short bit was both an attempt at some atmosphere/an attempt at displaying the structure of the setting, and a spotlight on two legendary M.O.T.H. leaders

<Steerpike> The former title Oddity, which I noticed you just invoked a bit earlier - is it a metaphysical force in itself?
<BiOHaZaRD> Perhaps, that's another thing I want to leave unanswered
 But it also alludes to the cameo that the Nightmare is making
 I think that element has become a pretty staple part of my world design, and I'm afraid to overdo it but I just can't help myself... a mirror reality is a must-have

<ell_see> I wanted to ask you about the nature of these integrations of your previous work.
<ell_see> Can you clarify about them at all?
<Ishmayl> I must have missed something - I would like to hear more about the allusions to the Nightmare
<BiOHaZaRD> Well, when I first started writing DU, I had no intentions of having mirror realities/parallel universes besides those used for wormholes
 Then, I started looking at NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day at work, and they have some really impressive, clever pictures that use the right conditions and positioning to make it look like the Milky Way is just over a little ridge, and you could reach up and touch it if you just walk out of this cave you're looking at it from
 And I thought, hey, I want this in my setting... and then I started throwing in a general disorder of existing elements in this parallel universe
 It's also influenced by Hyperspace by Michio Kaku, and Chaos: Making a New Science by Gleick... mostly the former, which deals with redefining what "dimensions" are... and it led to what The Nightmare is going to be; a chaotic otherworld that runs parallel to our universe and follows different and sometimes poorly-defined laws of physics
 The Unreality, as it will be known, is going to feature a lot of the same feeling that The Nightmare did in Haveneast, with the addition of varying and illogical tech levels for the technology you will see... it's going to be so random at times it'll be hard to describe
 It might be appropriate to call it the source of any high "fantasy" you'd want to throw into the setting

<Llum> What percentage of psychically gifted people are Weirds, possessing multiple gifts? Also, if you have multiple sorcerer powers (aerokinesis and hydrokinesis, are you a weird or a sorcerer?
<BiOHaZaRD> It's still a small percentage among Humans, a percentage of about 0.008 or 0.08, but it's quickly growing and the numbers don't mean much, because they just refer to "natural" psychics... with some special surgeries and steroids, a lot more people can harness the power
 The Grays are the most psychic of the "player-appropriate" races, with a psychic percentage of about 4%
 Multiple sorcerer powers just make you a more diverse sorcerer; you'd have to have some from the other categories to be a Weird

<Ishmayl> Do you have plans to introduce "crossings" from the Nightmare into DU, or would that be more of a GM-specific type event?
<BiOHaZaRD> Yeah Ish, they'll definitely be there... Mezerous Volkov is one of them that's already prominent, although I've sort of retconned the NPC

<Steerpike> Remind me who he was in the Nightmare?  It's been awhile since I looked over the setting
<BiOHaZaRD> He was that druid/necromancer in Vilydunn who'd subdue demons and dissect them
<Steerpike> makes sense
<BiOHaZaRD> He keeps appearing because I think the name fits well with necromancy and surgeons and I love necromancy

<Steerpike> He feels very much like a kind of B movie mad scientist, in the best way possible
<BiOHaZaRD> In this version, he's a human polymath who was born in the Ukraine and joined the UDF as a medical officer, but had a stint in a kind of weird special forces unit that did a lot of psyops (he's a pretty good shot, too, although you wouldn't bet on him in a contest)
 He eventually developed a sort of strange biological immortality serum that he uses on himself (not really an unusual thing in the darker parts of space), and he's since gone rogue and joined M.O.T.H.

<Llum> kinda gives me vibes of mengele
<Llum> without the twin neurosis
<BiOHaZaRD> Odd you say that... he operates in "civilized" regions under the alias Jack Mengele
 I want to flesh him and my other major NPCs out with very fond "heroes" from our age
<Llum> Mengele as a hero? never heard that one before :p  
<Steerpike> Yeah I was trying to figure that out myself
<BiOHaZaRD> Well, he's supposed to be a little twisted
 It's actually pretty common in DU for inhuman experiments to take place... you just do it on backwater colonies and with people no one will really miss
 Although that's not to say that various hostile groups haven't taken hostages that are very noticeable on the radar and done wicked things to them
 SLIDE units are also notorious for being havens for cruel and terrible experiments
 Halov tends to do very weak background checks on their potential customers

<Llum> For the Wraz, what % of the population become scions? Also, are there any prominent Scions active in the universe at large?
<BiOHaZaRD> The Wraz have about a 1/15000 Scion rate, which allows a significant population but in the early days of their history created a lot of tribalism, which actually still echoes in their modern societies

<Steerpike> it definitely seems like a trope - the grays, the government, etc. connecting into that world of psionics and paranormality.
<BiOHaZaRD> It's definitely a trope I want to milk every last drop out of... sometimes the cliche stuff is still the best

<Llum> for the Wraz Grunhulks, are these ships part biological?
<BiOHaZaRD> Yeah, sort of... it's kind of like a metallic frame that's been overgrown with an exotic fungus
<BiOHaZaRD> And that fungus provides a lot of the functionality when properly maintained, from actual ship control to energy to life support system cycles
<BiOHaZaRD> The idea for the construction is that the reptilian engineers build the frames, then a "gardener" team comes and tends to a fungus as it grows over the frame

<Steerpike> How settled is the galaxy, by humanity and the other races?  You've covered some of humanity's space, but are they largely limited to the solar system, or has darkspeed allowed them to colonize a lot of other systems?
<BiOHaZaRD> Darkspeed is near-instantaneous, so it lets you go pretty much anywhere, and as a result everyone who has access to it goes pretty much anywhere; but in DU, estimates of the vastness of the Milky Way were much too small, and because of this a lot of space gets unexplored just because there are too many systems
<BiOHaZaRD> You can guarantee, however, that if it's rich in resources, someone will claim a system
<BiOHaZaRD> Right now the Milky Way is about 85% explored, and about 70% officially claimed territory, while the Magellanic Clouds have been about 60% explored and 20% claimed; Andromeda and a few other nearby galaxies have been reached but no claims have been made, yet
<BiOHaZaRD> Andromeda is actually where one of the races, a very crab-like one, will be coming from
<BiOHaZaRD> The civilizations don't classify well on a Kardashev scale - I'd guess them at just under Type II but at times it would seem more, and others less

<ell_see> So, let's say somebody else runs a game in this setting, and you are one of the players. What do you play?
<BiOHaZaRD> I'd play a human, probably, because I like going back to the basics. They'd definitely be a ranking soldier of some sort. Probably a techie or something. Alternatively I'd play a reptilian or gray pilot, just because space combat and just being a pilot would rock
<BiOHaZaRD> Maybe a space corporation's ambassador/talent scout
<BiOHaZaRD> That'd be fun
<ell_see> The talent scout idea is one I don't think I've ever seen mentioned before. It does sound like fun.
<BiOHaZaRD> It would be a blast
<BiOHaZaRD> I don't know if I'd play a psychic, honestly
<BiOHaZaRD> I want them there and think they're a cool element, but I'd rather play a scientist/soldier

<Llum> For the vorovka, you mention they're the terror of known space and they don't respect the borders of other races. Does this basically make them kill on sight for anyone they meet?
<BiOHaZaRD> More or less, Llum, although like the Dzurlon of Alternity which I ripped off religiously for them, they're not against "peaceful" transactions in return for human, gray, and wraz objects/people of interest

<Llum> People who follow the Matadela and live there lives in the Network, do they give up there physical bodies? Or do they have to store them in some sort of Net hookup that keeps them alive?
<BiOHaZaRD> The sacrifice of the body isn't something that has been successful in The Oddity, although it's been attempted and continues to be
<BiOHaZaRD> Mainly, you could think of Matadeli as being that kind of stereotypical constant-lurker in a random chat that's always there and happens to be an admin... except it's a "legitimate" lifestyle
<BiOHaZaRD> They might leave the Network long enough to wash, eat, and follow some basic health practices, but generally they're going to be on The Network doing whatever they do
<BiOHaZaRD> And they can make a career; it's like what Oracle does in the Batman comics, only taken to a new level; a player could make a character out of this and operate solely from an interface on a distant, high-traffic planet

<TheNinjaD> I have a question that is the reason I chose not to thoroughly read up on your setting before coming into this. Though I have read some of it in the past, when you first posted it, I was wondering this: If you wanted to convice an outsider to your setting, someone who knows next to nothing about it, to take a look or to play in it, what would you say about it?
<TheNinjaD> How would you say it is different from other sci fi or cyberpunk settings?
<BiOHaZaRD> I'd say it's everything that you'd expect from a sci-fi/conspiracy setting, with some very important new elements. It explores everything that we as people could ever imagine will one day be reality and tries to hint at and birth things that we haven't, and it defines a lot of things that are varied across the sci-fi scale only to leave new questions and mysteries that the players would have a good time trying to find the answers to
<BiOHaZaRD> One of the underlying themes, and a reason for why military elements are so prominent, is the concept of "when humans have explored vast amounts of spaced and learned so much that there is increasingly becoming less and less to learn, what comes next?" and the setting's obvious, but possibly incorrect answer is: war.
<BiOHaZaRD> The setting is entering an age where intelligent civilizations are starting to be of the philosophy that someday they are going to be so powerful that they'll be one collective, all-powerful God-like entity that can escape the death of the universe and create new ones with the blink of an eye, and watch them grow through an endless timeframe

<Steerpike> the military focus is definitely evident.  Can you outline what the major conflicts are as you see them?
<Steerpike> that is to say, who's at war with whom?
<Llum> this brings up a question, a lot of the races seem to be warlike
<Llum> Humans with there numerous militaries, Vorovka with anyone they meet, the Wraz seem similar to humans and the Greys don't seem all that peaceful. Are there alien races that are predominately peaceful?
<BiOHaZaRD> Indeed, there's a very strong theme of warfare
<BiOHaZaRD> The conflicts are varied and not all-that-simple, although the Vorovka make almost universal enemies and there are some pseudo-Cthulhu horrors that are just so massive and bizarre that no one really could notice them before
<BiOHaZaRD> I tried and am still trying to do away with the common theme I've always seemed to notice in sci-fi, where a species always seems to be at race with another
<BiOHaZaRD> Humans with the Covenant races in Halo, Klingons with Humans (for a while) in Star Trek, some hostile Star Wars races, etc.
<BiOHaZaRD> Grays with Humans in Area 51 and the like
<Steerpike> Starcraft is a prime example, although to an extent that gets deconstructed
<BiOHaZaRD> Every race will have its terrorist factions and its friendly factions, with a few exceptions
<BiOHaZaRD> Yeah
<BiOHaZaRD> Odd I couldn't think to use Starcraft as an example when it's such a huge influence on the setting :P
<BiOHaZaRD> And the exceptions will be very old races like the Vorovka, the Cthulhu-esque horrors when they're included (they're rare), demons (creatures from parallel universes whose different laws of physics carry over with disturbing results when they come to our reality, etc.
<BiOHaZaRD> Enemies will take microscopic form as well, with viruses

<Steerpike> It feels like a mix of Starcraft, Lovecraft, and pulp conspiracy-theory/B movie stuff
<BiOHaZaRD> Indeed, very big influences on the setting
<BiOHaZaRD> And I have a bit of an obsession with circular things, too - something I want to show in the evolution of social interaction between races
<BiOHaZaRD> Humans tended to go to war a lot in the "early days", and then will get peaceful, and then as they get old as a race and run out of other things to do, go to war again, like other races
<TheNinjaD> Interesting/
<Llum> indeed, interesting concept

<Steerpike> I was thinking of Half-Life as another comparison to DU, which got me wondering - how integrated or comsopolitan are cities/planets/space stations in DU?  Could humans pass grays and wraz in the streets of some particularly diverse city?  Or is this a more segregated universe?
<BiOHaZaRD> Well, each race tends to have a Heartland or two, with each faction having a Heartland as well
<BiOHaZaRD> Human Heartland is obviously Earth
<BiOHaZaRD> These areas will be more oriented towards their home race, but even they aren't super-segregated
<BiOHaZaRD> Even close colonies will be cosmopolitan - as long as they're allies with the species' faction
<BiOHaZaRD> For example, Halov has a lot of territory that borders some Grays' space, and this leads to a lot of integration when appropriate (i.e. when the specific Grays faction is friendly [usually] and isn't trying to destroy Halov)
<BiOHaZaRD> Same with M.O.T.H., but they're a radical terrorist faction, more or less, and they'll take anyone from any race who's willing to forego a little xenophobia in favor of a lot more directed in other directions

<Steerpike> so concievably there might be organizations/factions/nations composed of multiple species, with an extra-racial agenda, so to speak?
<BiOHaZaRD> Yeah
<BiOHaZaRD> There is actually at least one Gray/Vorovka faction, but it's small and will probably operate out of one of the Magellanic Clouds

<BiOHaZaRD> Going back to the cosmopolitan aspect of cities
<BiOHaZaRD> Different species naturally have different styles and designs, and different cities and planets will reflect this
<BiOHaZaRD> Human architecture is very "reach for the sky" with the "Tower-Cities", while other Human factions and a lot of Grays will follow a more "sprawl with monuments" style, as is seen in that Palace of the Soviets picture I linked in my thread

<TheNinjaD> You clearly put a lot of thought into those kinds of details. A lot of it is stuff that never even occurs to me.
<BiOHaZaRD> :) I'm really getting a kick out of going into that kind of detail
<TheNinjaD> I'll have you know, Biohazardoustrollwitchhuntingjokerman, that you are very much giving me the urge to go back and work on my setting more.

<Llum> So just to clarify, with the circular nature of social evolution, there aren't any peaceful or predominately preaceful races?
<BiOHaZaRD> There will probably be at least one predominantly peaceful race; you could call the Grays a "peaceful" one even though they're by no means what one could consider "moral" in a lot of cases
<BiOHaZaRD> But I'll be likely to put in a more peaceful one

<Polycarp> Is the design of cities you're talking about more utilitarian or simply a choice of style?
<BiOHaZaRD> Both, Polycarp
<BiOHaZaRD> Humans will be more utilitarian, with hints of style
<BiOHaZaRD> Grays will be more stylish, with hints of utilitarianism
<BiOHaZaRD> And there'll be different reasons in different places
<BiOHaZaRD> Following increasing habitat and environmental issues on Earth and early colonies, there were a few major upheavals (Earth being first in line) where large populations were moved into massive city centers that sacrificed their areas to ultimately allow the rest of the world to breathe; they did this by building higher and higher more than they did outward
<BiOHaZaRD> The Tower Cities are basically what would happen if you reinforced current skyscrapers in our tallest cities, put great big flat platforms on top of them, and then built on those platforms, sometimes repeatedly

<Llum> A lot of the colonies seem to be on habitable planets. Are there more extreme environments that are colonized?
<BiOHaZaRD> Yeah, they are
<BiOHaZaRD> For example, Mars is currently a lot like that planet in KotOR2 - the name escapes me - where they're trying to make it habitable but it's largely orbital platforms and sustained bubbles
<BiOHaZaRD> I have a squid-like race in mind that actually comes from a home planet that's an atmosphere and then just an endless sea of a chemical... maybe ammonium or liquid nitrogen, not sure

<Llum> they probably wouldn't do well in environements habitable to other races
<BiOHaZaRD> Yeah, and that's cause for a big ethical dilemma, as it's reason for a lot of hostility between them and other races
<BiOHaZaRD> Because you really just can't interact that well
<BiOHaZaRD> Their spacefaring vessels are filled with said liquid
<TheNinjaD> That could make for an interesting race. I've always liked the idea of races needing encounter suits if they go among others.<TheNinjaD> It makes them feel more alien while allowing them to still interact with others.
<BiOHaZaRD> Yeah
<BiOHaZaRD> And that actually goes well with a thought I've been having and another concept I'm implementing
<BiOHaZaRD> That hazmat suits, gasmasks, and environmental suits and such are kind of a modern incarnation of Death, replacing the reaper and scythe
<BiOHaZaRD> All kinds of imagery is associated when you throw that concept in and then take a look at this squid-like race from a very distant part of the galaxy (or another galaxy) that comes into your home space wearing some twisted and menacing suit

<TheNinjaD> Another idea would be like the navigators from Dune that exist in giant tanks of their own atmosphere that move either with wheels or by being carried by others.
<TheNinjaD> That felt very alien, in my mind.
<BiOHaZaRD> Yeah, and I'm definitely going to try and make things very alien, both so alien you won't want to do anything but scream KILL IT and just alien enough that you want to find out more and/or play one

<Llum> I like the idea of the hazmat suit/gasmask replacing the tried and true Grim Reaper
<BiOHaZaRD> It does, Llum, and I'm starting to wonder if maybe it isn't already a more appropriate avatar in our modern age
<BiOHaZaRD> So that was a major reason for including it

Quote<TheNinjaD> GO!
<Llum> can I lead off with a question?
<BiOHaZaRD> Go for it
<Llum> in the Brinsley Drive incident, you say that all the uncaptured infected went to high ground (or high point) is this an oblque Gargoyle reference? Or is there another reason why they did this?
<BiOHaZaRD> I'm so far leaving that deliberately unclarified; it's one of those things you want a potential GM to work out for themselves, although I wanted it to work the same way the movie I Am Legend's alternate ending works, where it makes you go "OH wait, HE'S the bad guy to THEM" where it hints that maybe there's more to the infected than just a mindless, ravenous pseudo-zombie/vampire
<BiOHaZaRD> You know, it could suggest that the Grays or the Vorovka are spreading these infections deliberately and are somehow controlling them; it could just suggest that something about the stars attracts them, or maybe that they just really like high places... and the list, as with anything, goes on and on, with varying degrees of complexity and stupid/weird simplicity
<Llum> I like the stars idea
<Llum> like there yearning for something
<Steerpike> How do you feel adventuring working in the Dystopian Universe, Biohazard?  You've invested a lot of effort into military organizations - do you envision the players as predominantly military/special forces?
<BiOHaZaRD> Predominantly military, yes, but not necessarily
I hope for DU to be fully capable of running using the Star Wars Saga system, and that system really seems to endorse a sort of outlaw lifestyle, too, so that's a definite source of characters
It's important to remember for any players, someday when the setting is run, that Private Military Forces exist too, and you don't actually have to be "military" to have similar training and run around with big guns, as Halov Corporation would suggest

<Steerpike> So are you thinking of primarily human players, or are the other races definitely also playable?
<BiOHaZaRD> Well, I hope they'll all be playable, with varying degrees of "similarity" to humans
 I want their differences to be subtle but drastic, though
<Steerpike> Yeah, I imagine playing a vorovka would be challenging.
<BiOHaZaRD> Like I was discussing with Llum last night, the Wraz (reptilians) are the most human-like of the alien species, and among other things such as no mammary glands and internal genitalia (think the Dinosauroid), they have only four digits per hand, lending a base-eight mathematics style among other things to the way they think

<Steerpike> Wraz struck me as reptillian aliens in the conspiracy theory vein.
 You seem to be channeling that sort of tone more generally, with the grays as well, yeah.
<BiOHaZaRD> Yeah, that was what I was going for
I want to use as much of modern-day conspiracy theorizing as possible
I love that whole area of our culture; the other setting I'd love to design would just be more of an elaboration on the current period and all of the conspiracy stuff going on

<Steerpike> About the grays - how powerful are they?  Are they more or less as popular culture imagines them?
<BiOHaZaRD> They're sort of like up-and-coming Vorovka; they're brilliant genetic and robotic engineers, and they're malicious
 They vary in power, but are generally not very warlike
<Steerpike> probes and labcoats, not giant warfleets, then
<BiOHaZaRD> Yeah
 I tried to convey that a bit with the "New Strain" thing, where the M.O.T.H. cadets were getting some basic surgical training with Volkov and Meissner, and when the human recruits were all gagging or sweating, the Grays just had a cold stare and kind of fascination as they looked at the massacred, infected body
 They, according to The Oddity history, were thought to be the short things sometimes seen in fiction, when those are actually "Moglins", robotic servants, slaves, and scouts
 Grays actually stand closer to seven feet
<ell_see> That is highly disturbing.
<BiOHaZaRD> Grays as a race just have an obsession with knowledge, something I have as well
 The Gray's obsession with said knowledge just happens to extend more to biological systems, where you could say humans and reptilians have a more mechanical/astrophysical desire

<Steerpike> I really liked the vignette, by the way
 New Strain
 especially the giggling nanocreeps
<BiOHaZaRD> Thanks, that short bit was both an attempt at some atmosphere/an attempt at displaying the structure of the setting, and a spotlight on two legendary M.O.T.H. leaders

<Steerpike> The former title Oddity, which I noticed you just invoked a bit earlier - is it a metaphysical force in itself?
<BiOHaZaRD> Perhaps, that's another thing I want to leave unanswered
 But it also alludes to the cameo that the Nightmare is making
 I think that element has become a pretty staple part of my world design, and I'm afraid to overdo it but I just can't help myself... a mirror reality is a must-have

<ell_see> I wanted to ask you about the nature of these integrations of your previous work.
<ell_see> Can you clarify about them at all?
<Ishmayl> I must have missed something - I would like to hear more about the allusions to the Nightmare
<BiOHaZaRD> Well, when I first started writing DU, I had no intentions of having mirror realities/parallel universes besides those used for wormholes
 Then, I started looking at NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day at work, and they have some really impressive, clever pictures that use the right conditions and positioning to make it look like the Milky Way is just over a little ridge, and you could reach up and touch it if you just walk out of this cave you're looking at it from
 And I thought, hey, I want this in my setting... and then I started throwing in a general disorder of existing elements in this parallel universe
 It's also influenced by Hyperspace by Michio Kaku, and Chaos: Making a New Science by Gleick... mostly the former, which deals with redefining what "dimensions" are... and it led to what The Nightmare is going to be; a chaotic otherworld that runs parallel to our universe and follows different and sometimes poorly-defined laws of physics
 The Unreality, as it will be known, is going to feature a lot of the same feeling that The Nightmare did in Haveneast, with the addition of varying and illogical tech levels for the technology you will see... it's going to be so random at times it'll be hard to describe
 It might be appropriate to call it the source of any high "fantasy" you'd want to throw into the setting

<Llum> What percentage of psychically gifted people are Weirds, possessing multiple gifts? Also, if you have multiple sorcerer powers (aerokinesis and hydrokinesis, are you a weird or a sorcerer?
<BiOHaZaRD> It's still a small percentage among Humans, a percentage of about 0.008 or 0.08, but it's quickly growing and the numbers don't mean much, because they just refer to "natural" psychics... with some special surgeries and steroids, a lot more people can harness the power
 The Grays are the most psychic of the "player-appropriate" races, with a psychic percentage of about 4%
 Multiple sorcerer powers just make you a more diverse sorcerer; you'd have to have some from the other categories to be a Weird

<Ishmayl> Do you have plans to introduce "crossings" from the Nightmare into DU, or would that be more of a GM-specific type event?
<BiOHaZaRD> Yeah Ish, they'll definitely be there... Mezerous Volkov is one of them that's already prominent, although I've sort of retconned the NPC

<Steerpike> Remind me who he was in the Nightmare?  It's been awhile since I looked over the setting
<BiOHaZaRD> He was that druid/necromancer in Vilydunn who'd subdue demons and dissect them
<Steerpike> makes sense
<BiOHaZaRD> He keeps appearing because I think the name fits well with necromancy and surgeons and I love necromancy

<Steerpike> He feels very much like a kind of B movie mad scientist, in the best way possible
<BiOHaZaRD> In this version, he's a human polymath who was born in the Ukraine and joined the UDF as a medical officer, but had a stint in a kind of weird special forces unit that did a lot of psyops (he's a pretty good shot, too, although you wouldn't bet on him in a contest)
 He eventually developed a sort of strange biological immortality serum that he uses on himself (not really an unusual thing in the darker parts of space), and he's since gone rogue and joined M.O.T.H.

<Llum> kinda gives me vibes of mengele
<Llum> without the twin neurosis
<BiOHaZaRD> Odd you say that... he operates in "civilized" regions under the alias Jack Mengele
 I want to flesh him and my other major NPCs out with very fond "heroes" from our age
<Llum> Mengele as a hero? never heard that one before :p  
<Steerpike> Yeah I was trying to figure that out myself
<BiOHaZaRD> Well, he's supposed to be a little twisted
 It's actually pretty common in DU for inhuman experiments to take place... you just do it on backwater colonies and with people no one will really miss
 Although that's not to say that various hostile groups haven't taken hostages that are very noticeable on the radar and done wicked things to them
 SLIDE units are also notorious for being havens for cruel and terrible experiments
 Halov tends to do very weak background checks on their potential customers

<Llum> For the Wraz, what % of the population become scions? Also, are there any prominent Scions active in the universe at large?
<BiOHaZaRD> The Wraz have about a 1/15000 Scion rate, which allows a significant population but in the early days of their history created a lot of tribalism, which actually still echoes in their modern societies

<Steerpike> it definitely seems like a trope - the grays, the government, etc. connecting into that world of psionics and paranormality.
<BiOHaZaRD> It's definitely a trope I want to milk every last drop out of... sometimes the cliche stuff is still the best

<Llum> for the Wraz Grunhulks, are these ships part biological?
<BiOHaZaRD> Yeah, sort of... it's kind of like a metallic frame that's been overgrown with an exotic fungus
<BiOHaZaRD> And that fungus provides a lot of the functionality when properly maintained, from actual ship control to energy to life support system cycles
<BiOHaZaRD> The idea for the construction is that the reptilian engineers build the frames, then a "gardener" team comes and tends to a fungus as it grows over the frame

<Steerpike> How settled is the galaxy, by humanity and the other races?  You've covered some of humanity's space, but are they largely limited to the solar system, or has darkspeed allowed them to colonize a lot of other systems?
<BiOHaZaRD> Darkspeed is near-instantaneous, so it lets you go pretty much anywhere, and as a result everyone who has access to it goes pretty much anywhere; but in DU, estimates of the vastness of the Milky Way were much too small, and because of this a lot of space gets unexplored just because there are too many systems
<BiOHaZaRD> You can guarantee, however, that if it's rich in resources, someone will claim a system
<BiOHaZaRD> Right now the Milky Way is about 85% explored, and about 70% officially claimed territory, while the Magellanic Clouds have been about 60% explored and 20% claimed; Andromeda and a few other nearby galaxies have been reached but no claims have been made, yet
<BiOHaZaRD> Andromeda is actually where one of the races, a very crab-like one, will be coming from
<BiOHaZaRD> The civilizations don't classify well on a Kardashev scale - I'd guess them at just under Type II but at times it would seem more, and others less

<ell_see> So, let's say somebody else runs a game in this setting, and you are one of the players. What do you play?
<BiOHaZaRD> I'd play a human, probably, because I like going back to the basics. They'd definitely be a ranking soldier of some sort. Probably a techie or something. Alternatively I'd play a reptilian or gray pilot, just because space combat and just being a pilot would rock
<BiOHaZaRD> Maybe a space corporation's ambassador/talent scout
<BiOHaZaRD> That'd be fun
<ell_see> The talent scout idea is one I don't think I've ever seen mentioned before. It does sound like fun.
<BiOHaZaRD> It would be a blast
<BiOHaZaRD> I don't know if I'd play a psychic, honestly
<BiOHaZaRD> I want them there and think they're a cool element, but I'd rather play a scientist/soldier

<Llum> For the vorovka, you mention they're the terror of known space and they don't respect the borders of other races. Does this basically make them kill on sight for anyone they meet?
<BiOHaZaRD> More or less, Llum, although like the Dzurlon of Alternity which I ripped off religiously for them, they're not against "peaceful" transactions in return for human, gray, and wraz objects/people of interest

Quote<Llum> People who follow the Matadela and live there lives in the Network, do they give up there physical bodies? Or do they have to store them in some sort of Net hookup that keeps them alive?
<BiOHaZaRD> The sacrifice of the body isn't something that has been successful in The Oddity, although it's been attempted and continues to be
<BiOHaZaRD> Mainly, you could think of Matadeli as being that kind of stereotypical constant-lurker in a random chat that's always there and happens to be an admin... except it's a "legitimate" lifestyle
<BiOHaZaRD> They might leave the Network long enough to wash, eat, and follow some basic health practices, but generally they're going to be on The Network doing whatever they do
<BiOHaZaRD> And they can make a career; it's like what Oracle does in the Batman comics, only taken to a new level; a player could make a character out of this and operate solely from an interface on a distant, high-traffic planet

<TheNinjaD> I have a question that is the reason I chose not to thoroughly read up on your setting before coming into this. Though I have read some of it in the past, when you first posted it, I was wondering this: If you wanted to convice an outsider to your setting, someone who knows next to nothing about it, to take a look or to play in it, what would you say about it?
<TheNinjaD> How would you say it is different from other sci fi or cyberpunk settings?
<BiOHaZaRD> I'd say it's everything that you'd expect from a sci-fi/conspiracy setting, with some very important new elements. It explores everything that we as people could ever imagine will one day be reality and tries to hint at and birth things that we haven't, and it defines a lot of things that are varied across the sci-fi scale only to leave new questions and mysteries that the players would have a good time trying to find the answers to
<BiOHaZaRD> One of the underlying themes, and a reason for why military elements are so prominent, is the concept of "when humans have explored vast amounts of spaced and learned so much that there is increasingly becoming less and less to learn, what comes next?" and the setting's obvious, but possibly incorrect answer is: war.
<BiOHaZaRD> The setting is entering an age where intelligent civilizations are starting to be of the philosophy that someday they are going to be so powerful that they'll be one collective, all-powerful God-like entity that can escape the death of the universe and create new ones with the blink of an eye, and watch them grow through an endless timeframe

<Steerpike> the military focus is definitely evident.  Can you outline what the major conflicts are as you see them?
<Steerpike> that is to say, who's at war with whom?
<Llum> this brings up a question, a lot of the races seem to be warlike
<Llum> Humans with there numerous militaries, Vorovka with anyone they meet, the Wraz seem similar to humans and the Greys don't seem all that peaceful. Are there alien races that are predominately peaceful?
<BiOHaZaRD> Indeed, there's a very strong theme of warfare
<BiOHaZaRD> The conflicts are varied and not all-that-simple, although the Vorovka make almost universal enemies and there are some pseudo-Cthulhu horrors that are just so massive and bizarre that no one really could notice them before
<BiOHaZaRD> I tried and am still trying to do away with the common theme I've always seemed to notice in sci-fi, where a species always seems to be at race with another
<BiOHaZaRD> Humans with the Covenant races in Halo, Klingons with Humans (for a while) in Star Trek, some hostile Star Wars races, etc.
<BiOHaZaRD> Grays with Humans in Area 51 and the like
<Steerpike> Starcraft is a prime example, although to an extent that gets deconstructed
<BiOHaZaRD> Every race will have its terrorist factions and its friendly factions, with a few exceptions
<BiOHaZaRD> Yeah
<BiOHaZaRD> Odd I couldn't think to use Starcraft as an example when it's such a huge influence on the setting :P
<BiOHaZaRD> And the exceptions will be very old races like the Vorovka, the Cthulhu-esque horrors when they're included (they're rare), demons (creatures from parallel universes whose different laws of physics carry over with disturbing results when they come to our reality, etc.
<BiOHaZaRD> Enemies will take microscopic form as well, with viruses

<Steerpike> It feels like a mix of Starcraft, Lovecraft, and pulp conspiracy-theory/B movie stuff
<BiOHaZaRD> Indeed, very big influences on the setting
<BiOHaZaRD> And I have a bit of an obsession with circular things, too - something I want to show in the evolution of social interaction between races
<BiOHaZaRD> Humans tended to go to war a lot in the "early days", and then will get peaceful, and then as they get old as a race and run out of other things to do, go to war again, like other races
<TheNinjaD> Interesting/
<Llum> indeed, interesting concept

<Steerpike> I was thinking of Half-Life as another comparison to DU, which got me wondering - how integrated or comsopolitan are cities/planets/space stations in DU?  Could humans pass grays and wraz in the streets of some particularly diverse city?  Or is this a more segregated universe?
<BiOHaZaRD> Well, each race tends to have a Heartland or two, with each faction having a Heartland as well
<BiOHaZaRD> Human Heartland is obviously Earth
<BiOHaZaRD> These areas will be more oriented towards their home race, but even they aren't super-segregated
<BiOHaZaRD> Even close colonies will be cosmopolitan - as long as they're allies with the species' faction
<BiOHaZaRD> For example, Halov has a lot of territory that borders some Grays' space, and this leads to a lot of integration when appropriate (i.e. when the specific Grays faction is friendly [usually] and isn't trying to destroy Halov)
<BiOHaZaRD> Same with M.O.T.H., but they're a radical terrorist faction, more or less, and they'll take anyone from any race who's willing to forego a little xenophobia in favor of a lot more directed in other directions

Quote<Steerpike> so concievably there might be organizations/factions/nations composed of multiple species, with an extra-racial agenda, so to speak?
<BiOHaZaRD> Yeah
<BiOHaZaRD> There is actually at least one Gray/Vorovka faction, but it's small and will probably operate out of one of the Magellanic Clouds

<BiOHaZaRD> Going back to the cosmopolitan aspect of cities
<BiOHaZaRD> Different species naturally have different styles and designs, and different cities and planets will reflect this
<BiOHaZaRD> Human architecture is very "reach for the sky" with the "Tower-Cities", while other Human factions and a lot of Grays will follow a more "sprawl with monuments" style, as is seen in that Palace of the Soviets picture I linked in my thread

<TheNinjaD> You clearly put a lot of thought into those kinds of details. A lot of it is stuff that never even occurs to me.
<BiOHaZaRD> :) I'm really getting a kick out of going into that kind of detail
<TheNinjaD> I'll have you know, Biohazardoustrollwitchhuntingjokerman, that you are very much giving me the urge to go back and work on my setting more.

<Llum> So just to clarify, with the circular nature of social evolution, there aren't any peaceful or predominately preaceful races?
<BiOHaZaRD> There will probably be at least one predominantly peaceful race; you could call the Grays a "peaceful" one even though they're by no means what one could consider "moral" in a lot of cases
<BiOHaZaRD> But I'll be likely to put in a more peaceful one

<Polycarp> Is the design of cities you're talking about more utilitarian or simply a choice of style?
<BiOHaZaRD> Both, Polycarp
<BiOHaZaRD> Humans will be more utilitarian, with hints of style
<BiOHaZaRD> Grays will be more stylish, with hints of utilitarianism
<BiOHaZaRD> And there'll be different reasons in different places
<BiOHaZaRD> Following increasing habitat and environmental issues on Earth and early colonies, there were a few major upheavals (Earth being first in line) where large populations were moved into massive city centers that sacrificed their areas to ultimately allow the rest of the world to breathe; they did this by building higher and higher more than they did outward
<BiOHaZaRD> The Tower Cities are basically what would happen if you reinforced current skyscrapers in our tallest cities, put great big flat platforms on top of them, and then built on those platforms, sometimes repeatedly

<Llum> A lot of the colonies seem to be on habitable planets. Are there more extreme environments that are colonized?
<BiOHaZaRD> Yeah, they are
<BiOHaZaRD> For example, Mars is currently a lot like that planet in KotOR2 - the name escapes me - where they're trying to make it habitable but it's largely orbital platforms and sustained bubbles
<BiOHaZaRD> I have a squid-like race in mind that actually comes from a home planet that's an atmosphere and then just an endless sea of a chemical... maybe ammonium or liquid nitrogen, not sure

<Llum> they probably wouldn't do well in environements habitable to other races
<BiOHaZaRD> Yeah, and that's cause for a big ethical dilemma, as it's reason for a lot of hostility between them and other races
<BiOHaZaRD> Because you really just can't interact that well
<BiOHaZaRD> Their spacefaring vessels are filled with said liquid
<TheNinjaD> That could make for an interesting race. I've always liked the idea of races needing encounter suits if they go among others.<TheNinjaD> It makes them feel more alien while allowing them to still interact with others.
<BiOHaZaRD> Yeah
<BiOHaZaRD> And that actually goes well with a thought I've been having and another concept I'm implementing
<BiOHaZaRD> That hazmat suits, gasmasks, and environmental suits and such are kind of a modern incarnation of Death, replacing the reaper and scythe
<BiOHaZaRD> All kinds of imagery is associated when you throw that concept in and then take a look at this squid-like race from a very distant part of the galaxy (or another galaxy) that comes into your home space wearing some twisted and menacing suit

<TheNinjaD> Another idea would be like the navigators from Dune that exist in giant tanks of their own atmosphere that move either with wheels or by being carried by others.
<TheNinjaD> That felt very alien, in my mind.
<BiOHaZaRD> Yeah, and I'm definitely going to try and make things very alien, both so alien you won't want to do anything but scream KILL IT and just alien enough that you want to find out more and/or play one

<Llum> I like the idea of the hazmat suit/gasmask replacing the tried and true Grim Reaper
<BiOHaZaRD> It does, Llum, and I'm starting to wonder if maybe it isn't already a more appropriate avatar in our modern age
<BiOHaZaRD> So that was a major reason for including it