30 June 2010: “Vortex” species — humanoids

Fellow role-players, by now, you’ve probably seen my descriptions of the development of my upcoming “Vortex” space opera and the “future history” and tone of the homebrew campaign setting. As we get closer to beginning the game, here are some notes on available Player Character species.

In one future, humanity has begun to colonize the Sol system, but struggles for scarce resources persist. Open and official First Contact with alien societies, themselves at war, opens a wider galaxy to explore — if Terrans survive.

Humans and “near” humans

As I’ve noted previously, about 200 years from now, our solar system is home to nearly 20 billion people, most of whom are “normal” humans living on Earth. They’re still the baseline for whatever rules set we ultimately choose (the top contenders are D20 Star Wars: Saga Edition, FATE Diaspora/Starblazer Adventures, GURPS 4e Lite/Space,” and BASH Sci-Fi Edition).

In the “Vortex” universe, as in many space operas, humans are adaptable, corruptible, and lower-tech than their new galactic acquaintances. Still, the upstart children of Terra have great potential.

Also known as “metahumans,” “parahumans,” “posthumans,” and “transhumans,” the broad category of “near” humans includes mutants, genetically modified humans, and cyborgs. About one in 5 million people is born with a random but significant (and mostly helpful) mutation, and during the era of the Societe de Justice Internationale and the “Drake’s Seven,” many were costumed vigilantes or supervillains.

“Gennies” include humans born in the low-gravity environments of the Lunar Free State, the Mars Confederation, or some outer colonies (but not the orbital cities, which have mostly normal inhabitants).
Some people have been enhanced as entertainers or soldiers, while others have engaged in dangerous recreational splicing. As mentioned previously, some cloning exists, but it’s expensive and heavily regulated.

Cyborgs may not seem as high-tech as their genetically modified kin, but they can be nearly indistinguishable from normal humans (in contrast to many gennies, who often flaunt their differences and supposed superiority). Many modifications are to repair injuries, to interface with machines, or to have swappable functions.

“Synths”

“Synths,” or synthetic humanoids, include genetically modified animals and androids and mostly live in Earth’s colonies. Although humans created these client species to be more capable individually than themselves, humans have also been reluctant to grant them equal rights.

“Uplifted” animals arose out of the creation of “gennies” and efforts to preserve megafauna that was going extinct. They’re commonly based on dogs and wolves (Canids), large cats (Felinoids), primates (Chims), bears (Ursoids), or cetaceans (Delphines). Uplifted animals are usually stronger than humans but not as smart, and like gennies, their reproduction is strictly controlled. Alien synths are known as “xenoids.”

By contrast, true artificial intelligences may be smarter than humans but rely on robotic bodies. Robots have industrial, exploratory, or military applications, and androids are often confused for gennies and have social or entertainment applications. Humanoid androids, nonhumanoid bots, and disembodied A.I.s all have programming and legal restrictions and are as vulnerable to computer viruses as organic beings are to
regular illness.

Coming soon: “Vortex” aliens and occupations!

1 June 2010: The setting of “Vortex”

Fellow role-players, I hope that you had a good Memorial Day weekend. I’m glad that our one-shot games have been mostly successful so far, and I know that some of you have expressed interest in a longer-term campaign. Although I don’t plan to return to the “Vanished Lands” fantasy world anytime soon with the Boston-area face-to-face group, by now, you should have seen my recent post about the development of my “Vortex” space opera.

Here’s more information about my homebrew speculative fiction setting: About 200 years from now, humanity has begun to colonize the Sol system, but ecological problems and internecine conflict persist. The rediscovery of mystical powers, plus open and official First Contact with alien societies, themselves at war, threaten Terra’s very survival. Can heroes arise to meet the challenges in time?

Demographics

Most of the solar system’s 20 billion inhabitants are human, and most live on Earth. The average person is born to a slightly smaller nuclear family than in previous generations, is educated and employed by a megacorporation, and lives in one of the megalopoli that have metastasized along rising coastlines. To picture the teeming megacities, think of Blade Runner or The Fifth Element. Despite globalization, regional and cultural differences remain.

The orbital cities around Earth, Venus, and Jupiter have millions of residents (think Babylon 5 or Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), and the Lunar Free State has megacorp and military bases. Many settlers in the Mars Confederacy (which is beginning to be terraformed) come from crowded Asia. A few generations have now been born that have never set foot on Earth.

“Near” or “trans-” humans (mutants, metahumans, and cyborgs), “Uplifted” (genetically engineered) animals, and true artificial intelligences (robots/androids) are minorities, mostly living offworld. Like the outer colonies, they’ve fought for and earned limited rights.

Technology

Once possessing one of the most diverse ecosystems in the galaxy, Earth still has an impressive variety of organisms and cultures. The “ecocrises” of population pressure, pollution, global climate change, and the depletion of fossil fuels and freshwater led to famine and wars, as well as technological innovation. “Cold fusion” is finally a reality, but disparities in the distribution of resources remain.

Outside the megalopoli, carefully maintained cropland is surrounded by vast wastelands. The average person has access to more technology but less personal space than his or her ancestors. Cyberspace mitigates that somewhat, but virtual perception overlays and mechanical telepathy bring their own hazards, such as addiction.

Communications, transportation, and combat have also changed, even if the social sciences haven’t yet succeeded in creating harmony for all citizens regardless of belief. Memes (transmittable ideas) flitter across infotainment media, and those who still want to or need to travel in person can take high-speed trains, hypersonic aircraft, or commercial submarines (to undersea cities). Unfortunately, these advances also facilitate crime, terrorism, and warfare along economic, ethnic, and ideological divisions.

First used in the colonies, mecha (powered suits) are used as heavy infantry and artillery. Interplanetary carriers, aerospace fighters, and scout ships spend long months patrolling the cold vastness of space, but a storm is approaching the Milky Way’s Orion Arm. After First Contact, Terran humans and related species have access to Transit-level faster-than-light drives, which can propel vessels at up to a parsec (3.26 light years) per day.

Medicine

Many illnesses have been cured, and the life expectancy for the 60% of people above the poverty line is 120 years (half that for those still below it). The very wealthy have access to cloned bodies, partial consciousness transfers, and android avatars, but such technology is expensive and restricted. Terran biochemistry isn’t exactly compatible with that of most aliens.

Economics and politics

Politics has become both decentralized and more centralized, with many services once delivered by local governments now performed by megacorps, and regional governments replacing states and provinces. For example, Boston is now part of the North Eastern American Megalopolis (NEAM), with most goods and services provided through Transglobe Information Company, one of the “Big Eight.” North America’s Continental Congress (NACC) is in Denver.

In response to the ecocrises and the use of weapons of mass destruction, the United Earth Authority has started to become the first true world government. It’s based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and is the nominal ruling body over Terra’s colonies. Each regional state contributes to the U.E.A.’s law-enforcement, bureaucratic, and military forces. NACC’s elite force is the Aerospace Marine Corps. The U.E.A.’s Fort Olympus Mons overlooks Mars’ red outback, where bands of homesteaders, nonhuman rebels, and ecoterrorists try to eke out a living (not unlike Firefly/Serenity).

The sparsely populated Asteroid Belt and Jovian and Saturnian systems include several mining colonies, policed by the small but growing Interplanetary Patrol (think Outland). The colonies have petitioned the U.E.A. to change its name and grant them both equal and proportional representation, but that’s only one of many debates on the eve of First Contact with galactic societies, themselves at war.

The U.E.A. sponsored the United Ecumenical Movement partly in reaction to the destruction of Middle Eastern holy sites and the horrific related casualties late in the petroleum era. Although its chaplains are drawn from different faiths, the U.E.M.’s members have managed to collaborate closely on secret archaeological and paranormal research (with extraterrestrial advice).

Galactic conflict

Many of the billions of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy have planets around them, and millions of those have life. Of those, thousands are capable of sustaining intelligent life, and hundreds are inhabited at any given time. Dozens are homeworlds to Transit-capable beings. Hidden for centuries behind Kuvor’s Veil, a nebula, the Sol system has been a backwater, visited by occasional pirates, explorers, or pranksters. First Contact causes some disruptions in Terran society, but greater threats are ahead.

Although most aliens are nonhumanoid, some can (and do) interact with Terrans (think Flash Gordon, Star Wars, or Farscape). Most of the starfaring species in the Orion Arm are nonaligned, neutral, or members of the Trade Guilds, which are interested in working with Terran megacorps. A few are members of the growing Kharvamid Alliance, which seeks to defend systems like Sol’s from the approaching Zarkonian Armada….

In coming posts, I’ll outline Player Character options for species and occupations, why our choice of rules matters, and more! In the meantime, I look forward to the next Pathfinder: “the Dragonslayers” teleconferencing session and Gabe C.’s Lady Blackbird one-shot. Be seeing you!

6 May 2010: What is “Vortex?”

The “Vortex” space opera has its roots in “The Zarkonian Bomb,” a film script that I wrote with Carlo R., Jon and Bill B., and Ray C. in high school in New York's Westchester County. Looking back to 1982, we were obviously inspired by the novels of Isaac Asimov, Doctor Who, the original Star Wars film trilogy, and the Star Frontiers game. I later wrote “The Adventures of Jason Delmar,” a series of short stories.

In contrast to “hard” science fiction or other subgenres like cyberpunk, space opera features relatively easy interstellar travel and human interaction with aliens, plus themes of exploration, diplomacy and heroism amid warfare, and the importance of friendship. Space opera has its roots in the “planetary romances” of the 19th and early 20th centuries, pulp fiction, and movie serials, but James Cameron's Avatar is a recent (if explicitly derivative) example.

In college in Upstate New York, I created the “Vortex” role-playing rules with my brother Peter and David I.S., influenced by Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Ed., the Star Trek franchise, books by Larry Niven and others, and the cyberpunk/fantasy game Shadowrun. Our system had several species options, five attributes (Prowess, Agility, Intellect, Respect, and Aura), skills and mystical powers, and lots of gear.

The name “Vortex” came from late-night conversations about the nature of time, human history, and perception with Carlo and Dave, touching on the works of Edward Gibbon and Mircea Eliade. Is history linear or cyclical? Are technological and social progress inevitable or transient, and what role does individual choice play? From the perspective of the present, global events seem more crowded at an ever-accelerating pace, hence the vortex (I'm not the only gamer to think of it this way). It can also represent the spiral of the Milky Way Galaxy.

After graduate school, I used the Generic Universal Role-Playing System to run successful campaigns, including GURPS 3rd Ed. Space: “Vortex,” for about a dozen people in Virginia in the 1990s. At that time, we enjoyed the books of three Davids (Brin, Gerrold, and Weber), movies like The Fifth Element, and television shows such as Babylon 5 and Space: Above and Beyond. The universe expanded as the players developed more aliens, and the crew of the P.T.S. “Venture” explored more space.

Earlier in the 1990s, I had used the original “Vortex” system for “Bay City: Visor and the Seer,” which later became the GURPS “Supers: the S.J.I.” superhero campaign (most recently using D20 Mutants & Masterminds 2nd Ed.). In addition, we used my timeline in the “Voyagers II: Adventures in the Dimensional Corps” game I co-ran with Steve M.R., Tim M.B., Jim J.D'B., and other Game Masters.

I ran GURPS “Vortex” briefly by e-mail and for Rob R. and Randy K.M. after moving to the Boston area. We then returned to my long-running “Vanished Lands” fantasy campaign using Dungeons & Dragons Third and Fourth Editions. In 2010, I expect to incorporate some “transhumanist” concepts, “retrofuturist” speculative fiction, and “rules-light” games, looking back and ahead simultaneously.

In future posts, I'll explain more of the “Vortex” setting, character options, and various space opera rules sets. Feel free to post your own questions and ideas to the “Vanished Lands” Yahoo/eGroup, the “Holy Steel” Google group, or my blog at Yahoo, MySpace, EnWorld.org, or Wizards of the Coast!

8 April 2010: RPG roundup, continued

In the past few months, I’ve blogged about developments in face-to-face role-playing games (RPGs) including “retro-clones” and “rules-lite” RPGs. After some reflection, I realized that although I described the “old-school” movement, I didn’t post many examples of rules-light tabletop RPGs, so here are a few more. I’ve looked at Risus, FUDGE (the basis of FATE), MicroLite 20, Mini-Six, BASH Ultimate Edition, and Chimera. Other systems that are arguably rules-light include True20, Savage Worlds, and the upcoming e20.

In the Pathfinder: “Holy Steel” teleconferencing team, Beruk A.’s Rogue “Milos” helped Byron V.O.’s Paladin “Ibrahim” defend himself in his trial for treason in the court of Pharaoh Ramses II. The heroes turned the tables on their accusers by proving that cultists of Set led by Prince Sethemwie had desecrated the tomb of Unas. After a year of “game time” and three years of real time, it was nice to reach the climax of that quest!

Although my current gaming group has had some scheduling disruptions because of travel, the Boston-area party’s post-Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition period of one-shots and miniseries has continued. Greg D.C. ran his Jenga-based Dread horror game, and after demonstrating FATE 3.0 for his “Spirit of the Caribbean!” pirate scenario, Brian W. successfully used it with his “Fierce Frontier” fantasy setting.

Josh C. expects to run a Werewolf: the Apocalypse supernatural scenario using White Wolf‘s Storyteller: World of Darkness rules, and Beruk A. is preparing a D20 version of
“Rifts.” Josh also hopes to run an Exalted high-fantasy one-shot, and Paul J. has expressed interest in the mythic Scion, which uses a variant of the Storyteller system.

Also in the wake of the D&D4e “Vanished Lands: the Faith-Based Initiative” fantasy campaign, I’ve been looking into other genres and rules systems. In addition to my D20 “Gaslight Grimoire“ steampunk/fantasy and D20 Mutants & Masterminds 2nd Ed. (D20″M&M”2e) superhero scenarios, I plan to eventually return to my “Vortex”
space opera.

However, there is some question about what rules set to use. After being inspired by games such as Star Frontiers, I created homebrew rules that I used from high school through grad school. In the mid-1990s, I successfully converted to Steve Jackson Games’ Generic Universal Role-Playing System (GURPS) 3rd Ed. Space, but since then, I’ve been favorably impressed by various D20 games, including one version of Traveller (“T20”) and Star Wars: Saga Edition.

However, Hasbro’s Wizards of the Coast (WotC) unit, which also publishes D&D4e, recently announced that it was dropping its license for the Star Wars RPG. That’s too bad, but the books and online community for George Lucas’ franchise are sufficient for long-term campaigns.

WotC also said that it plans to release a new version of the Gamma World postapocalyptic setting using D&D4e, but I’ve been exploring other systems, such as Savage Worlds, Eclipse Phase, and FATE 3.0. Savage Worlds is a pulp RPG with a lot of support, and Eclipse Phase is a good example of the recent “transhumanist” strain in “hard” science fiction.

Starblazer Adventures (“SBA“) and Diaspora both use FATE, an up-and-coming system. SBA is based on 1980s British speculative fiction comics and is from Cubicle 7, which is also publishing Adventures in Time and Space and The One Ring, the latest Doctor Who and Lord of the Rings RPG adaptations, respectively.

Brian and Paul are proponents of FATE, which will also be the basis for the Dresden Files RPG and Icons, a superhero game and potential rival to D20″M&M”2e. Diaspora is a transhumanist RPG that’s a bit more portable than SBA, and after comparing them, we might combine the former‘s hard-SF concepts with the latter’s pulp style.

Ultimately, whatever rules are selected should serve the player group and my “Vortex” stories. Of course, if you ask eight role-players their opinions, you’ll get 10 responses. I’ll post more about the my plans and other genre entertainment soon.