The Campaign Builder's Guild

So I've always noticed the general lack of science fiction settings when it comes to RPG. I tried to get one started a while ago, but it was pretty hard to get the concept across while keeping it coherent and understandable. So I thought I'd try my hand at a slightly more approachable Sci-Fi setting as a side-project. But before I get ahead of myself, there are a few basic assumptions that this setting would be built upon.

1. Technological Singularity has never and will never be reached. Contrary to the exponential development in technology at the turn of the 21st century, most technology reached a point where it experienced an anti-singularity: the input resources to develop anything increases exponentially greater than the returned output. Things like true artificial intelligence and teleportation are impossible. FTL travel is also impossible. Period.

2. Space is not friendly. It is alien and harsh. Inter-planetary shipping is commonplace, but they travel much like modern spacecraft do today: ponderous and clumsy, albeit faster. Space combat is not like naval combat, it does not involves flashy lasers and zippy fighters. Space combat often includes boarding and fighting within the ships, as defensive technologies - armor, counter-measures, etc. - have developed faster than weapons, which are still mostly based upon ballistic principles.

3. The human brain is far more powerful, deep, and complex than ever imagined. Specially trained and gifted humans are believed to have begun to make the next step in human evolution. (Do not read as X-men.) The melding of man and machine will be a key source of conflict within the setting.

4. Nationalism, patriotism, and ethnicity as a whole have been replaced by ideologies. People are not united by homeland so much as beliefs. Factions, guilds, and organizations have replaced nations. Vendettas and war still occur between various groups, but for the most part they are not waged as total war.

 [spoiler=Possible Factions]
-The Lord's Adherents: An alliance of the Abrahamic religions who violently oppose merging of man and machine. While they only truly control a handful of cities, including Jerusalem on Earth and New Antioch on Mars, their numbers large and wide-spread.

-The Company: While the Company does not truly exist on paper anywhere, it is a real and over-arching capitalist organization of thousands of smaller corporations, guilds, and cartels. Free and unhindered economic development is paramount to the Company. Like the Adherents, they only control a few cities along the former Unites State's east coast, but they have contacts and businesses across the board.

-The Concord Union: A 24th century bureaucratic union of the United Western States and the Eurasian Union. Nominally control Earth's Western Hemisphere and greater Eurasia and parts of Mars and serve as the de facto government in the setting. Often referred to as the Peacekeepers, both respectfully and sarcastically.
 
-The Federation: A loose alliance of powerful city-states on Mars, Phobos, Earth, and Earth's moon, Luna. Libertarian/right-wing beliefs, many members resisted the formation of the C.U. in the Unity War of 2345-2365 and successfully resist assimilation into the C.U.

-Minerva's Kin: An extremely loose and disorganized group of hackers, splicers, and data thieves. It only exists as a measure of protection for it's members, as power comes in numbers. Many members of the Kin permanently trans-load themselves into the Weave, a virtual network-world that transcends physical and political boundaries. The Kin name themselves after the ancient Roman goddess of weaving and magic - Minerva.

-The Colonies: Not a true ideological group or unified faction, the Colonies are human settlements within and beyond the (asteroid) Belt. While many may lay claim to them, they are such backwater settlements that they are for all intensive purposes autonomous.

That's all I can pull up right now, but there could and should be more of varying strength and scope. [/spoiler]

5. The setting will take place primarily on Earth and Mars, as well as the closer parts of the Solar System.

Ok, that being said, I was thinking the 28th or 29th century as a rough time frame. Uh, yeah that's all for now, but hopefully this WIP keeps rolling for a while.

A non-FTL sci fi setting seems a positively refreshing idea.

How do you percieve Chinese and Indian developments on your timeline? They didn't become dominating superpowers? What happened in Africa and South America?

Quote from: Leetz-The Combine

Might want to consider another name to avoid unfortunate associations with aliens from Half-Life 2 :-p

Quote from: GhostmanHow do you percieve Chinese and Indian developments on your timeline? They didn't become dominating superpowers? What happened in Africa and South America?

For the most part, the vast majority of Asia joined with the C.U., Japan, along with a handful of city-states like New Singapore and Hong Kong are organized along corporate lines within the Combine (which will be changed in name :))

I'm thinking that most of Africa would have suffered from massive desertification after a long series of wars. Surviving parts of Southern and Western Africa would probably be members of the C.U.

South and Central America was part of the United Western States before the founding of the C.U. I should probably specify that western means western hemisphere, and not western United States.

How long does travel between e.g. Mars and Earth take?
How many planets have colonies? What about moons? Have any of them been terraformed in any way to make them more habitable? What is the epitome of technology in this setting if not FTL and AI?

Quote from: Cataclysmic CrowHow long does travel between e.g. Mars and Earth take?

Not sure exactly, but I was thinking in the realm of about a week. Travel to the farthest colonies would be in months.

Quote from: Cataclysmic CrowHow many planets have colonies? What about moons? Have any of them been terraformed in any way to make them more habitable?

sustainable, self-sufficient colonies would exist on Mars, the moon, and Phobos. Other colonies would exist within the asteroid belt, Mercury, and the moons of Jupiter and maybe Saturn, but would require various level of constant supplies.

Small orbital settlements would also exist above the aforementioned planets.

Quote from: Cataclysmic CrowWhat is the epitome of technology in this setting if not FTL and AI?

Oh man, that's tough to explain. I'll try to give a few examples in general areas of technology for the moment. I'll hide them in spoiler tabs to keep the WALL O' TEXT at bay.

[spoiler=Military] Missiles and bullets are still the most common form of weapons. Flashy laser guns never happened. The most advanced, and massive, weapons use superheated plasma "blobs" and are so large they must be mounted on vehicles or ships. Nuclear weapons obviously exist, but are outlawed amongst all factions. Despite rigid laws, rogue organizations have used nuclear weapons with devastating effect on several occasions.

Armor, however, has advanced much farther. Synthetic materials of extreme strength are common as military-grade personal armor and ship hulls. Standard rounds rarely have immediate effect on even personal armor, although sustained fire will eventually yield results. Most military casualties are the result of severe physical trauma and shock caused by concussive weapons. Biological warfare, while outlawed along side nuclear, still occurs.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Terraforming] Humans turn out to be quite adept at terraforming. The warmest half of Mars supports various terrestrial and hybrid vegetation and insect life. Complex lifeforms are unable to cope with the atmosphere, although only a simple respirator is required of humans to exist outdoors. However, only Mars was capable of being successfully terraformed, as the other planets and moons suffered from various problems including lack of atmosphere, lack of water, extremes in temperature, or cosmic radiation.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Computer Sciences] While true self-aware machines do not work, various levels of AI do. (I realize I said no AI, but I can't seem to replace the term, and the term in and of itself does not necessarily denote true free will.) The most advanced AIs are called Sentients, but are unable to question, rebel, or change their nature and purpose, as it is simply not in their coding to have free will. Sentients often form the hubs of robotic networks, most often used in industrial manufacturing. Aside from the rare Sentients, robotics and advanced programming are used across the board in every conceivable pursuit - war, economics, entertainment, research, etc.

The most recent developments have been the merging of human minds and machines. These interfaces are costly and dangerous, but provide the best of both worlds - creative and critical thought of humans plus the exact and calculating nature of machines.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Transportation] Trans-planetary transportation of goods and military occurs on massive, mile-long freighters. While they all vary in final size, armament, purpose, and appearence, they are all large, ponderous, and clumsy. Smaller military vessels exist, but are most often used in planetary defense or travel inside the bulk freighters. Zippy little fighters do not exist. Nearly all goods are moved from planet to space via massive, atmosphere breaching elevators, as rapids and efficient travel through atmospheres is not possible. When a space to planet military invasion does occur, large, one-use drop pods are shot to the surface and contain whatever necessary to wage war.

Within atmosphered worlds, Mars and Earth, most goods and people are shipped via lightning quick gravtubes, basically a faster bullet train. Flying is done through advanced jet engines, much like a Harrier jet. Air transportation within an atmosphere, however, is mostly limited to VIP travel and military operations.[/spoiler]

ok, that's all I'm going to write for now, even though I have lots of other ideas. Would some sort of ingame snippet or the dreaded historical timeline help at all?

I like this, it's a bit grittier and lower tech than I think the actual future would be technology wise. But not by much. You've done a very good job of capturing a realistic version of humanities future IMHO.

Quote from: NomadicI like this, it's a bit grittier and lower tech than I think the actual future would be technology wise. But not by much. You've done a very good job of capturing a realistic version of humanities future IMHO.

why thank you sir, and keep up on the comments yeah?

also, I thought I'd put out a quasi-theory I thought of in college to explain the absence of ethnic nations. I thought that as distances are lessened and technology increased, nations would continue to fragment into smaller, and smaller groups of more like-minded individuals, until no single nation would have the strength to be a superpower. Like global Balkanization. Therefore, people would begin to unify through ideas and beliefs more than ethnicity. Just a theory, and I wouldn't be surprised if someone thought of that before I did.

Pretty good work, Leetz! Am I detecting Herbert's influence over here? :)

Quote from: Cap. Karnaugh (aka gnola14)Pretty good work, Leetz! Am I detecting Herbert's influence over here? :)

you bet. but none of that Hubert guy, he's just crazy.

Hubert...Reeves? The canadian guy?

actually I meant L. Ron Hubbard. but I'm dyslexic, so there you have it.

Quote from: LeetzOk, that being said, I was thinking the 28th or 29th century as a rough time frame. Uh, yeah that's all for now, but hopefully this WIP keeps rolling for a while.

I like the general idea of what you've posted, though I'm not sure about this part. I know that you've said that technological progress is going to slow way down, but is there really a reason to go this far out? 700 years is a long time, even when technological progress was slower. It seems like this setting could work just as well in the 22nd or 23rd century and then could still preserve some links to the "current" time. Of course, maybe you don't want to. Like, I can understand if you want to essentially have "sci-fi with humans" but preserve very little of what we would commonly think of as our culture, and essentially have the setting be something only loosely related to current Earth. Then putting it after a lot of time would make more sense. :)

Quote from: sparkletwistI can understand if you want to essentially have "sci-fi with humans" but preserve very little of what we would commonly think of as our culture, and essentially have the setting be something only loosely related to current Earth. Then putting it after a lot of time would make more sense. :)

that's a big part of what I'm going for. Just like the human condition was drastically different 700 years in the past, I want this setting to be far enough into the future that the de facto mind-set of humanity has changed just beyond what might make sense to us. Like the unification of the Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism)- today that may seem like a big stretch, but given certain circumstances and the understanding that they all share the same roots, it isn't quite as hard to believe that it could happen in the future.

I want this pseudo-Ancient feel to the setting, like Dune had. Visually, it would also be influenced to an extant by Star Wars - the tunics, cloaks, extravagant clothes, ornate armor, etc. Buildings would have a heavy, quasi-art deco feel with lots of heavy stone work and ornamentation. And even though all this neat technology is around, religion, beliefs, and ideology are as strong as ever. The future shouldn't be this sterile, shiny, Utopian place that it is so often portrayed as. People aren't any smarter or logical as they are now.

I agree with your concept as a whole. Humanity has been and always will be religious and/or superstitious to some degree. The unknown has always haunted our minds and we will always desire to evict that spectre. Science can't explain away all of it.

thanks for all the compliments so far, but to be honest, i have no idea where to even start with this thing! Timeline? or just pick something and write an IC synopsis?

Also, for those who have been looking through this, I think I want to replace the Concord Union with something a little more imperialistic and "old" sounding. Keeping with the pseudo-Ancient tone, I don't think that having abbreviations for things sounds right (in this instance being the C.U.) Using a council of houses has been done, as has a strong, Emperor-based empire.

What if the nominal Earth government was an imperial theocracy? I think that would be keeping with the alternative sci-fi vibe I'm trying to get here. Plenty of opportunity for conflict there - heretics, nonbelievers, blasphemers, etc.