Castaway E201789-7 G, A No bases
Perhaps one of the most isolated colonies ever founded by mankind, Castaway is aptly named, and was founded entirely by accident.
Castaway seems to be the result of a disastrously failed generation-style colonization effort. The colony, only recently located by the scout service, is on, or rather within, the sole iceball moon of a rogue gas giant/brown dwarf at least x parsecs from the nearest actual star system.
The moon is essentially a mico-Europa, with a large internal liquid water layer sustained by internal heat generated by the massive tidal forces generated by its companion. The main habitations are anchored to the bottom of the external ice layer, which is several kilometers thick. The actual surface is hard vacuum at near absolute zero. The water/ice zone covers a roughly circular area approximately 10% of the surface of the planet, and is likely the result of an early impact/meld with an ice body, possibly during planetary formation.
Little is known of the circumstances surrounding the no doubt desperate situation that necessitated the colonization of Castaway. It is clear that access to the liquid zone was obtained by impacting the asteroid based colony ship into the ice surface, hopefully after it was stripped and evacuated. Several beacons and at least one decommissioned shuttle have been found in orbits around both the primary, and Castaway, apparently in an attempt to mark their presence, as once the ice layer reformed no contact with the moon's surface was possible.
The surviving technology has been maintained at approximately TL 7, barely sufficient to support and maintain life in a subaquatic, low temperature microgravity environment.
Most technological equipment is adapted and recycled colony equipment; almost no new production is possible due to both the environment and the resource-poor nature of the moon; nonetheless, the original colonists, who seem to have been a fraction of the original colonists and crew, did have access to a large store of prefabricated and varied high tech colonizing equipment.
Almost all other resources available are scavenged from the wreckage of the original colony ship, and the asteroid hull. A few fusion plants are still active, along with a makeshift geothermal technology to provide heat and power to the habitations. Food is entirely based on either thermal based plant forms apparently introduced by the colonists, or vat grown protein and plants.
The habitations tend to be as self-sufficient and dispersed as much as possible, but an extensive communication system and submersible transport has maintained a mostly cohesive society, likely a testament to the constant struggle to survive.
The colonists have not lost memory of their origins, nor of the outside universe; however, it appears that the impetus for the initial colonization effort was to create a hidden haven for the human race, an ethos which is still strongly in existence. Accordingly, the society is extremely exophobic and opposed to any external contact. They essentially believe that they are the last true humans in the universe, and that an unspecified "evil empire" (physically resembling humans) has eliminated earth and all other colonies.
The colony as a whole is a loosely federated Polis, with full citizen participation in important decisions; otherwise, most of the habitations are governed by a changing board of expert technologists and biologists, who are quite ruthlessly and unforgivingly tested for competence and fired for failure.
The central goal in the society is survival and efficiency, and as a result individuals are very strictly tracked and monitored by the central committees, and each other, and observation is almost ubiquitous. This has become so ingrained in the population that the concept of privacy is almost non-existent; rather, the concept of "oversight" is taken as a basic human need. This observation is seldom if ever used for political or social manipulation goals; indeed such use of "oversight" is strictly taboo. Rather it is used to safeguard individuals in a very dangerous and unforgiving environment, and to allow constant refinement of working techniques. Indeed, given the strong social restrictions on oversight as a method of supervision or control, most inhabitants are acutely uncomfortable in its absence, and are highly agoraphobic when alone.
Population levels are strictly limited and limited to replacement. Life expectancy is low, and the population is as a whole fairly young. Education and training are universal, and begun at a very early age. Most individuals will be working for most of their waking hours, for most of their life.
Resources and property, as well as all production is entirely held in common, and strictly rationed and distributed on a strictly per capita basis; material goods or access to same is not used as a reward or benefit. Private ownership is limited to clothes, and, oddly, musical instruments and religious items.
Waste of resources or failure to recycle is considered a major criminal and moral offense. Interestingly, human life is also considered a scarce and perhaps the most vital resource (after power ) needed to preserve the colony (and thus the human race). Even the worst of crimes have no death sentence; however, the societies concept and implementation of "forensic resource recovery" would give even hardened criminals pause before offending.
Finally, it must be noted that the population has diverged significantly from the original human population, primarily due to adaptation to a constant microgravity environment. It is unclear if the colonists are aware of this divergence, and if so, what part it plays in their hermit/survivalist ethos.
The initial effect is that it is impossible for a baseline human to infiltrate their society.
Interestingly, all information suggests that the colonists are unaware of the orbital beacons which attracted the initial survey expedition; it is possible that this is the remnant of early, perhaps initial, schism in the colonist society.
The classification as an E starport is due to the scout presence on the surface. A semi permanent post has been created, as they anticipate a long, long period of study before contact, if it is ever deemed to be necessary.
Adventure hooks.
One obvious possibility is trying to make contact with the society. This would be a major challenge for a group –one that would have to be comfortable with a very “talky-thinky” campaign.
Another would be running the initial discovery by the scouts; note that in this case, the planet should still retain a type E port – insofar as the scouts quickly discover that someone has been here before, and plans to come back. Who ? Why ? well, seems that One habitation has broken the ultimate taboo; when a private ship had to enter the system, they found the colony and made contact with one of the habitations –the rulers of which are trading local resources for luxuries for the upper few. Obviously this is depleting the resource loop of the colony, and will likely cause its collapse if the mayor of habzone 8 doesn’t stop trading trace elements and compounds for really tasty food bars.
A less official scenario would be the players being hired to either find the colony by an undisclosed private company; the kicker is that when the colony ship set off, it was funded by the inventor and of a unique and very efficient fusion power plant (who was also owner of the start-up to exploit it) – a design which was never produced, an as she left with the colony ship and all known prototypes. The remains of the start up company were left behind, and actual ownership of the process has been passed from corporation to corporation, and been the focus of several unsuccessful attempts to replicate it, as it still has several unique advantages over current designs (GM: make up your own, could be as as simple as an extremely low production cost, could be as revolutionary as room temperature fusion). While it was supposed that the design and prototypes were lost with the ship, and have never been rediscovered, the patron has evidence that someone is trying to reverse engineer one of the exact designs of the originals with the goal of putting it on the market as their own invention. So, the mission is to find out where the unit came from. Turns out, the prototypes are the fusion units running the habitations –one of which recently vanished, condemning the local population to a rapid, icy, death.
Extra twisty bits (for those who need them) would be that the holding corporation is mostly interested in suppressing the design, as they really don’t hold ownership of it after all this time; a cheap, public domain design would cost Imperial Gizmotronics a serious hit in their profits . For further twistiness, make the reverse engineers are a subgroup of the same company with different goals; see, the patrons cannot kill the project, and its success may well put them out of a job; or at least supplant them. So, barring blowing their own lab (not really an option) they can either cut off the source of prototypes, or uncover the fact that it isn’t an invention of the rival department, or even that they killed a whole habitation to get it; thus possibly doing the right thing, for the basest of reasons.
Alternately, the reverse engineers might be agents of the inhabitants (only the highest levels know about this contact, see above as regards taboos) attempting to raise funds for the colony to be either improved or relocated, like say, to somewhere that isn’t the inner circles of hell. So, now we have the “big oil suppressing the water powered car” scenario.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Traveller world again: Truckstop of adventure plus adventure hook !
Another one from my campaign....
This would have been reduced to a pop zero rockball by the standard rules for tech and habitability if it/I was rules pure. However, the vagueness of what exactly a tech level means (local production ? Maintenance ? Local innovation ? Best available ? Average?) is something I've always seen as a feature, particularly if one wants to have a universe full of the same old sameold.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present:
Truckstop of Adventure !!!
Ta's Rock D100120-6
An airless rockball in the outer system,Ta's Rock is a secondary link in a low traffic secondary route intoSubsector from .
The Ta system's star is a smallish M2 Star of great age, possibly of the original galactic population. The system is dominated by an extremely large inner orbit gas giant ("Gigi")with an extensive debris belt. Ta itself is likely a rogue planetoid captured semi recently. No other planets exist
Ta itself has no water deposits, and the Oort cloud of is exceedingly sparse due to the great age of the system and the effects of the Gas Giant. Accordingly, the main source of fuel for the station is from scooping the Gas Giant.
Ta was originally colonized by a start up freight and transport corporation as a rest/refueling stop, but only the basic installation was completed when the company collapsed in bankruptcy, fraud and embezzlement. The rough and ready nature of the frontier judiciary resulted in the station being awarded to the inhabitants in lieu of back salary and contract payment. Those who decided to stay bought out those who wanted out, and incorporated as a joint ownership company.
The main resource of the station is a set of five modular cutters with fuel scooping modules and high thrust engines. Two are inoperable and currently being stripped for parts. The three remaining cutters make regular runs to GiGi to scoop fuel. The stations survival is due to the extremely dangerous nature of skimming operations off Gigi. The debris belt is massive and uncharted, and Gigi itself is a borderline brown dwarf requiring high thrust to escape and special protection for the crew. Few merchants entering the system are willing to make the extremely hazardous attempt, when the locals will do it for them for a very reasonable fee.
Population is approximately 50-90 persons mostly composed of six or seven families and some transient workers. Provides Fuel, Bar, Brothel and Bijou.
As noted, the locals sell fuel, but currently only unrefined fuel is available as their latest makeshift refinery has failed. Originally the station was supported by a dedicated (if small) refinery, that has long since broken down beyond repair It was then replaced by a junked small freighter with fuel processing modules. This, too has since broken down. Ships with a processor will be offered a good discount price on unprocessed fuel, if the ship will process an equal amount for the station.
It must be noted that the locals have lost at least two fuel skimmers to the operations off Gigi, and one of the disabled cutters is entirely due to a barely survived collision with what may have been a large lifeform in the upper atmosphere of Gigi. The locals will not provide pilots or up to date chart info on Gigi (likely useless in any case due to the complexity of the system) but have no objection whatsoever to outsiders attempting to skim the giant planet; it provides them with much needed entertainment when successful, and a source of much needed salvage when not.
The tech level reflects the effective level of maintenance possible on Ta. As noted, almost no support infrastructure was built before the original corporations bust, and the owners have little capital to bring it in. As a result, almost everything is imported, with very limited local technology or production beyond spacecraft service, recreation and habitability. Vacuum survival and food supplies can be maintained and even expanded , but little else not directly related to habitability. However, the inhabitants are no more than one or two generations removed from the original founding, and most are able to operate much higher tech equipment than can be maintained.
All permanents inhabitants are part owners of the station, and by default, the system. With the exception of semi-retired elderly family members, and one or two colorful retired travellers, all inhabitants are directly employed in servicing passing ships in one way or another, or in maintaining and feeding the station.
There is a small group of transients and drifters hired to fill some job unfillable or unsuitable for the locals; occasionally they will buy in and stay, but generally make their passage off, and leave. The economy is well described as being one of subsistence service.
Check out Trader Jim’s mobile Bar and Grill, but avoid the Vilanii frijoles.
Be nice to Sal, she'll be nice to you.
Adventure Hook:
During the last war with the ENEMYPOLITY towards the end, a commerce raider (destroyer size, M6 J3) infiltrating deep behind imperial lines raided a research station investigating an ANCIENTFALLEN archaeological site, initially to resupply at an out of the way location, as it was mainly of academic interest. What happened next suggested that it was anything but a boring academic dig. When the raider left, it slagged the site, and apparently captured the archeology team, as no traces of survivors or remains were found. The raider then apparently abandoned its mission, and fled at maximum speed for ENEMYPOLITY space. Local planetdef pickets detected and engaged the raider as it entered SYSTEM, and while they were able to identify it, they were unable to stop its departure. Imperial forces were notified. Next citing of the RAIDERSHIP occurred in SYSTEM, again by local forces: in this case, the raider was closely followed by several Imperial ships of cruiser class an up, who immediately signalled an all ship mobilization to intercept the Raider; this included several Battleship & Battletender class ships. Again unable to do more than track the Raiders exit, it should be noted that the entire imperial force was ordered to jump out in pursuit (leaving the system undefended), and the x-boat system was preempted to send an all systems alert ahead of the raider . The further records are somewhat fragmentary as no Imperial report or acknolegement of the events exists, and much local data has been cleaned. Nonetheless, it is clear that the raider continued fleeing, utilizing (and revealing) ENEMYPOLITY supply caches throughout the sector -and indeed, marooning at least two other raiders which later showed up expecting to find supplies. At some point, a fast squadron of imperial ships did manage to intercept and damage the raider as it attempted jump -which apparently caused a misjump to occur. This last factoid is gleaned from a comet miner who happened to be in sensor range of the raiders last battle. The flight of the raider was with obvious disregard for consequences (it frequently was seen to maneuver at the very edge of the safe combat limits of the class of ships, and was clearly being damaged by such) . Combined with the massive imperial response, it is clear that they found somthing that seemed of extreme importance, vital enough to blow a raider network throught the subsector.
The adventure is to find it, a classic myth across the local area, and source of innumerable scams since then. However, in this case, the adventurers have access to new data -the sensor logs of the miner who was onsite at the raider's misjump which can be mined for an approximate vector, and evidence at Ta's rock that something entered the system one jump week later, and attempted (unsuccessfully) to refuel at GiGi.
Perhaps one of the old retired codgers at Ta is the miner ? Or his son ? or just a deluded seeker ? Perhaps its the final stop on a search of possible misjump exits based on the data from the sensors.
Regardless, the stage is set for an expedition to GiGi, especially when the players detect a faint ENEMYPOLITY distress beacon out of the electronic hash around the planet.......
This would have been reduced to a pop zero rockball by the standard rules for tech and habitability if it/I was rules pure. However, the vagueness of what exactly a tech level means (local production ? Maintenance ? Local innovation ? Best available ? Average?) is something I've always seen as a feature, particularly if one wants to have a universe full of the same old sameold.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present:
Truckstop of Adventure !!!
Ta's Rock D100120-6
An airless rockball in the outer system,Ta's Rock is a secondary link in a low traffic secondary route into
The Ta system's star is a smallish M2 Star of great age, possibly of the original galactic population. The system is dominated by an extremely large inner orbit gas giant ("Gigi")with an extensive debris belt. Ta itself is likely a rogue planetoid captured semi recently. No other planets exist
Ta itself has no water deposits, and the Oort cloud of is exceedingly sparse due to the great age of the system and the effects of the Gas Giant. Accordingly, the main source of fuel for the station is from scooping the Gas Giant.
Ta was originally colonized by a start up freight and transport corporation as a rest/refueling stop, but only the basic installation was completed when the company collapsed in bankruptcy, fraud and embezzlement. The rough and ready nature of the frontier judiciary resulted in the station being awarded to the inhabitants in lieu of back salary and contract payment. Those who decided to stay bought out those who wanted out, and incorporated as a joint ownership company.
The main resource of the station is a set of five modular cutters with fuel scooping modules and high thrust engines. Two are inoperable and currently being stripped for parts. The three remaining cutters make regular runs to GiGi to scoop fuel. The stations survival is due to the extremely dangerous nature of skimming operations off Gigi. The debris belt is massive and uncharted, and Gigi itself is a borderline brown dwarf requiring high thrust to escape and special protection for the crew. Few merchants entering the system are willing to make the extremely hazardous attempt, when the locals will do it for them for a very reasonable fee.
Population is approximately 50-90 persons mostly composed of six or seven families and some transient workers. Provides Fuel, Bar, Brothel and Bijou.
As noted, the locals sell fuel, but currently only unrefined fuel is available as their latest makeshift refinery has failed. Originally the station was supported by a dedicated (if small) refinery, that has long since broken down beyond repair It was then replaced by a junked small freighter with fuel processing modules. This, too has since broken down. Ships with a processor will be offered a good discount price on unprocessed fuel, if the ship will process an equal amount for the station.
It must be noted that the locals have lost at least two fuel skimmers to the operations off Gigi, and one of the disabled cutters is entirely due to a barely survived collision with what may have been a large lifeform in the upper atmosphere of Gigi. The locals will not provide pilots or up to date chart info on Gigi (likely useless in any case due to the complexity of the system) but have no objection whatsoever to outsiders attempting to skim the giant planet; it provides them with much needed entertainment when successful, and a source of much needed salvage when not.
The tech level reflects the effective level of maintenance possible on Ta. As noted, almost no support infrastructure was built before the original corporations bust, and the owners have little capital to bring it in. As a result, almost everything is imported, with very limited local technology or production beyond spacecraft service, recreation and habitability. Vacuum survival and food supplies can be maintained and even expanded , but little else not directly related to habitability. However, the inhabitants are no more than one or two generations removed from the original founding, and most are able to operate much higher tech equipment than can be maintained.
All permanents inhabitants are part owners of the station, and by default, the system. With the exception of semi-retired elderly family members, and one or two colorful retired travellers, all inhabitants are directly employed in servicing passing ships in one way or another, or in maintaining and feeding the station.
There is a small group of transients and drifters hired to fill some job unfillable or unsuitable for the locals; occasionally they will buy in and stay, but generally make their passage off, and leave. The economy is well described as being one of subsistence service.
Check out Trader Jim’s mobile Bar and Grill, but avoid the Vilanii frijoles.
Be nice to Sal, she'll be nice to you.
Adventure Hook:
During the last war with the ENEMYPOLITY towards the end, a commerce raider (destroyer size, M6 J3) infiltrating deep behind imperial lines raided a research station investigating an ANCIENTFALLEN archaeological site, initially to resupply at an out of the way location, as it was mainly of academic interest. What happened next suggested that it was anything but a boring academic dig. When the raider left, it slagged the site, and apparently captured the archeology team, as no traces of survivors or remains were found. The raider then apparently abandoned its mission, and fled at maximum speed for ENEMYPOLITY space. Local planetdef pickets detected and engaged the raider as it entered SYSTEM, and while they were able to identify it, they were unable to stop its departure. Imperial forces were notified. Next citing of the RAIDERSHIP occurred in SYSTEM, again by local forces: in this case, the raider was closely followed by several Imperial ships of cruiser class an up, who immediately signalled an all ship mobilization to intercept the Raider; this included several Battleship & Battletender class ships. Again unable to do more than track the Raiders exit, it should be noted that the entire imperial force was ordered to jump out in pursuit (leaving the system undefended), and the x-boat system was preempted to send an all systems alert ahead of the raider . The further records are somewhat fragmentary as no Imperial report or acknolegement of the events exists, and much local data has been cleaned. Nonetheless, it is clear that the raider continued fleeing, utilizing (and revealing) ENEMYPOLITY supply caches throughout the sector -and indeed, marooning at least two other raiders which later showed up expecting to find supplies. At some point, a fast squadron of imperial ships did manage to intercept and damage the raider as it attempted jump -which apparently caused a misjump to occur. This last factoid is gleaned from a comet miner who happened to be in sensor range of the raiders last battle. The flight of the raider was with obvious disregard for consequences (it frequently was seen to maneuver at the very edge of the safe combat limits of the class of ships, and was clearly being damaged by such) . Combined with the massive imperial response, it is clear that they found somthing that seemed of extreme importance, vital enough to blow a raider network throught the subsector.
The adventure is to find it, a classic myth across the local area, and source of innumerable scams since then. However, in this case, the adventurers have access to new data -the sensor logs of the miner who was onsite at the raider's misjump which can be mined for an approximate vector, and evidence at Ta's rock that something entered the system one jump week later, and attempted (unsuccessfully) to refuel at GiGi.
Perhaps one of the old retired codgers at Ta is the miner ? Or his son ? or just a deluded seeker ? Perhaps its the final stop on a search of possible misjump exits based on the data from the sensors.
Regardless, the stage is set for an expedition to GiGi, especially when the players detect a faint ENEMYPOLITY distress beacon out of the electronic hash around the planet.......
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Since I'm writing about Traveller.....T5 at kickstarter !
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/traveller5/traveller-5th-edition
Check it out ! Now ! I so command it !
600 pages of Traveller crunch. Wow. The final version & vision of Traveller by Marc Miller with help from the playtest minons (including me) at COTI. A huge games toolkit for running traveller or any space opera/ golden age or niven-anderson-heinlein SF at any level of detail or generation.
Update: funded in 24 hours & still going. Compared to about a dozen complaners on various forums (many being same old voices saying the same old things in their own echo chambers), around 400 backers suggest that theres considerable life and interest in the old girl, yet ! HAH! That to you grumpy brigade !
Check it out ! Now ! I so command it !
600 pages of Traveller crunch. Wow. The final version & vision of Traveller by Marc Miller with help from the playtest minons (including me) at COTI. A huge games toolkit for running traveller or any space opera/ golden age or niven-anderson-heinlein SF at any level of detail or generation.
Update: funded in 24 hours & still going. Compared to about a dozen complaners on various forums (many being same old voices saying the same old things in their own echo chambers), around 400 backers suggest that theres considerable life and interest in the old girl, yet ! HAH! That to you grumpy brigade !
Friday, June 1, 2012
Deadends and Hellholes of the Traveller universe
Back when I was way more active on forums, I got involved in the Mogoose Traveller Playtest. Part of which involved me rolling up a BUNCH of worlds (100K ) to look for anomalies and outliers generated by the process. Long story short, I was left with quite a few planets with wildly odd stats - and as I was trying to make the point that creativity is a function of what you put into it, I started posting interpretations of the UWP -a bland string of letters and numbers, to make the point that traveller Plangen wasn't an unsupervised planet generator, but rather a generator of a minimum amount of info to hand a more elaborate story on.
So, I've decided to post a bunch of those here, to get back into the whole pro-traveller mindset, to get them to a wider audience (safe from the No Fun Allowed lobby that seems to spring up on any forum) and generally to make it easy for me to get me into the habit of posting again -the lazy way.
First up:
Occulus: X723571-2
This is a world that has already been inflicted on my scout campaign. This is the classic post catastrophe survey planet, with several distinct mysteries: what actually caused the disaster, what made the survivors decide to attempt to return, and the biggie, the fact that the increasing taint and decreasing fertility almost guarantee that this is the last generation of inhabitants. Related to this is the cause of the fertility decrease, and some unexpected historical findings about the original base on the moon.
I must note that this is a UWP that would be either zeroed out or elevated due to the problems with the low tech and the atmosphere; instead, I decided to see if it could be made plausible, if not realistic, as a medium-term challenge for a scout crew.
This one does play fast and loose with the way an atmosphere would work in this situation- and the recovery of the planet post impact (ie cooling off). is highly atypical. As regards the atmosphere, it's a cheat. As regards the catastrophe....let’s just say that it is a big clue that what happened wasn't necessarily your standard everyday asteroid impact.....another clue (if noticed) is the atypical formation of the crater -no central peak, which is very unusual, especially when this recent. Although it must be noted that there are very few other examples on this scale to draw conclusions from.
Oculus is currently named for its appearance from Space. A barren greyish rockball, the planet’s sole habitable area is a massive impact crater with a denser atmosphere allowing mostly circular weather patterns to form, giving it the appearance of an immense eyeball. Unofficially it is known as “Bullseye”. There are a wide variety of local names for the planet, although, interestingly, none of them translate as “home”, for reasons which may become made apparent when the planets history is considered.
The last known records of the planet are from approx -1779, just prior to the collapse of the second empire and indicate that its original name was Famideii. At that time, the planet was petitioning the remains of the central government for aid and succor; they reported that the planet was in severe economic and technological distress, and may have been involved in a local conflict with neighboring star systems. There is no evidence that the petition was acted on, or indeed, ever seriously considered.
Thearea was superficially surveyed and annexed, approximately 215 years prior to the present, and while the project was terminated (and never restarted) by the , the history of the planet since last contact was partially pieced together.
Best estimates are that the planet fared as did many smaller and isolated settlements in this area : poorly. However, an essentially habitable environment kept the colony from dying out, and apparently enough of original technology and/or knowledge was available to enable recovery to begin once the crisis years had passed. By at least 900 years previous to the present, well before recontact, Oculus seems to have been an excellent example of an abandoned colony well on the road to recovery. The original physical UWP of Oculus is estimated to have been C756. Population code is estimated to have been in the 7 - 9 range, with a local tech level of 7-8; government type and Law level are unknown, but it is likely that the society may have been either Balkanized or Oligarchic, due to the later history. It is known that the society had a fairly extensive orbital presense, as well as semi-permanent bases on its moon, and at least one of the inner planets. (Vacuum rockballs –Luna & mercury type)
Unfortunately, at this point, the planet suffered a massive catastrophic event; most evidence suggests that the planet was struck by a massive long orbit comet or asteroid. The surface of the planet was devastated and rendered uninhabitable; at least 90% of the planet’s atmosphere was lost, and likely a similar amount of the water. The resultant impact crater is approximately 15% of the surface area of the planet; it is clear that the planet came very close to complete fragmentation.
It is unclear if the civilization had any warning of the event, but even if so, it would have had limited capacity to respond. It appears that a major project to construct self supporting settlements on the inner planet and the moon were in progress when the impact occurred, and may have been prompted by the approaching event, possibly carried out by a subset of the planetary polities (if balkanized), or a ruling elite (if oligarchic). It is likely that the orbital presence was destroyed or crippled by the secondary effects of the event, and the local moon base also damaged to a lesser extent.
Post disaster, it appears that the extraplanetary surviving population (perhaps population 3-4) attempted to consolidate into one of the two off planet bases, and managed to struggle to survive for several hundred years.
At some point, at least 500 years before the present day, the survivors decided to attempt to recolonize the Mainworld. It is suspected that the attempt to maintain a civilization in the face of the challenges of a low grav and zero atmosphere planet proved insoluble or finally collapsed. It is likely that the return to the home planet was a last ditch attempt to survive a massive system collapse and die off. Currently, the extraplanetary bases are completely abandoned, and have been extensively stripped of all useful goods.
At this point, some semblance of habitation was possible on the remains of the homeworld. The remaining atmosphere had partially largely settled into the impact crater, giving a barely breathable thin atmosphere on the floor, and below that, a series of deep canyons formed as the lava flows of the crater floor cooled gave a denser if tainted (volcanic outgassing) atmosphere.
Genomic data suggest that no more than 2000 related individuals returned to the planet. The current ecosystem is entirely artificial, and likely only survives due to intense husbandry. As perhaps six species of non-human domestic animals are known to exist, as well as a wide variety of domesticated food plants, it is surmised that the surviving extraplanetary population had access to stored ova, or cloneable resources; this is the clearest evidence that some subgroup of the original inhabitants may have had warning of the impending disaster. On the planet nothing more complicated than lichen and bacteria survived the calamity.
The returning survivors have managed to survive, although with a severely regressed society and in a very precarious situation. The colonists seem to have dispersed into two cultural groups, nomadic tech 1 dwellers on the floor of the crater, and more numerous and somewhat more advanced tech 2-3 city dwellers in the deep canyons. The nomadic population is estimated at pop 4, and the city dwellers at pop 5.
The planet is still wracked by frequent quakes and volcanic activity, as well as a greatly elevated rates of meteoric impacts resulting from the debris thrown off planet by the initial impact. Further, as a result of the continuing volcanic activity, is possible that the low atmosphere taint will increase to a point where survival in the canyons is impossible.
Contact with the inhabitants has been limited as the population has only recently been identified.
Both floor and canyon cultures are extremely insular and balkanized, the nomads by tribe, and the canyon dwellers by city and village. The canyon dwellings are essentially pueblo style settlements, seldom with more than 1000 inhabitants. No central or unifying polity has arisen, likely due to the lack of surplus resources and the constant struggle to maintain agriculture. Culturally, the inability of the local infrastructure to support a leisured or professional class has led to most of the canyon dwellings to develop an essentially unstratified society, although there are exceptions.
The inhabitants suffer from a variety of environmental problems, including UV exposure, lung damage, and decreased fertility. Starvation and famine are common in the canyons, and the extremely hard life of the crater floor above has led to more than one tribal group to simply die out. For both groups, but especially the canyon dwellers, survival requires an immense amount of cooperative effort, particularly with regard to agriculture, which produces almost no surplus. Wars are infrequent due to the desperate emphasis on agriculture and food gathering, but raiding, particularly between the floor and the canyon dwellers, is frequent.
Currently, the world is not interdicted, but contact is discouraged, while a debate rages in the Imperial administration about the best way to deal with the situation: evacuation, technological uplift, or cultural quarantine.
So, I've decided to post a bunch of those here, to get back into the whole pro-traveller mindset, to get them to a wider audience (safe from the No Fun Allowed lobby that seems to spring up on any forum) and generally to make it easy for me to get me into the habit of posting again -the lazy way.
First up:
Occulus: X723571-2
This is a world that has already been inflicted on my scout campaign. This is the classic post catastrophe survey planet, with several distinct mysteries: what actually caused the disaster, what made the survivors decide to attempt to return, and the biggie, the fact that the increasing taint and decreasing fertility almost guarantee that this is the last generation of inhabitants. Related to this is the cause of the fertility decrease, and some unexpected historical findings about the original base on the moon.
I must note that this is a UWP that would be either zeroed out or elevated due to the problems with the low tech and the atmosphere; instead, I decided to see if it could be made plausible, if not realistic, as a medium-term challenge for a scout crew.
This one does play fast and loose with the way an atmosphere would work in this situation- and the recovery of the planet post impact (ie cooling off). is highly atypical. As regards the atmosphere, it's a cheat. As regards the catastrophe....let’s just say that it is a big clue that what happened wasn't necessarily your standard everyday asteroid impact.....another clue (if noticed) is the atypical formation of the crater -no central peak, which is very unusual, especially when this recent. Although it must be noted that there are very few other examples on this scale to draw conclusions from.
Oculus is currently named for its appearance from Space. A barren greyish rockball, the planet’s sole habitable area is a massive impact crater with a denser atmosphere allowing mostly circular weather patterns to form, giving it the appearance of an immense eyeball. Unofficially it is known as “Bullseye”. There are a wide variety of local names for the planet, although, interestingly, none of them translate as “home”, for reasons which may become made apparent when the planets history is considered.
The last known records of the planet are from approx -1779, just prior to the collapse of the second empire and indicate that its original name was Famideii. At that time, the planet was petitioning the remains of the central government for aid and succor; they reported that the planet was in severe economic and technological distress, and may have been involved in a local conflict with neighboring star systems. There is no evidence that the petition was acted on, or indeed, ever seriously considered.
The
Best estimates are that the planet fared as did many smaller and isolated settlements in this area : poorly. However, an essentially habitable environment kept the colony from dying out, and apparently enough of original technology and/or knowledge was available to enable recovery to begin once the crisis years had passed. By at least 900 years previous to the present, well before recontact, Oculus seems to have been an excellent example of an abandoned colony well on the road to recovery. The original physical UWP of Oculus is estimated to have been C756. Population code is estimated to have been in the 7 - 9 range, with a local tech level of 7-8; government type and Law level are unknown, but it is likely that the society may have been either Balkanized or Oligarchic, due to the later history. It is known that the society had a fairly extensive orbital presense, as well as semi-permanent bases on its moon, and at least one of the inner planets. (Vacuum rockballs –Luna & mercury type)
Unfortunately, at this point, the planet suffered a massive catastrophic event; most evidence suggests that the planet was struck by a massive long orbit comet or asteroid. The surface of the planet was devastated and rendered uninhabitable; at least 90% of the planet’s atmosphere was lost, and likely a similar amount of the water. The resultant impact crater is approximately 15% of the surface area of the planet; it is clear that the planet came very close to complete fragmentation.
It is unclear if the civilization had any warning of the event, but even if so, it would have had limited capacity to respond. It appears that a major project to construct self supporting settlements on the inner planet and the moon were in progress when the impact occurred, and may have been prompted by the approaching event, possibly carried out by a subset of the planetary polities (if balkanized), or a ruling elite (if oligarchic). It is likely that the orbital presence was destroyed or crippled by the secondary effects of the event, and the local moon base also damaged to a lesser extent.
Post disaster, it appears that the extraplanetary surviving population (perhaps population 3-4) attempted to consolidate into one of the two off planet bases, and managed to struggle to survive for several hundred years.
At some point, at least 500 years before the present day, the survivors decided to attempt to recolonize the Mainworld. It is suspected that the attempt to maintain a civilization in the face of the challenges of a low grav and zero atmosphere planet proved insoluble or finally collapsed. It is likely that the return to the home planet was a last ditch attempt to survive a massive system collapse and die off. Currently, the extraplanetary bases are completely abandoned, and have been extensively stripped of all useful goods.
At this point, some semblance of habitation was possible on the remains of the homeworld. The remaining atmosphere had partially largely settled into the impact crater, giving a barely breathable thin atmosphere on the floor, and below that, a series of deep canyons formed as the lava flows of the crater floor cooled gave a denser if tainted (volcanic outgassing) atmosphere.
Genomic data suggest that no more than 2000 related individuals returned to the planet. The current ecosystem is entirely artificial, and likely only survives due to intense husbandry. As perhaps six species of non-human domestic animals are known to exist, as well as a wide variety of domesticated food plants, it is surmised that the surviving extraplanetary population had access to stored ova, or cloneable resources; this is the clearest evidence that some subgroup of the original inhabitants may have had warning of the impending disaster. On the planet nothing more complicated than lichen and bacteria survived the calamity.
The returning survivors have managed to survive, although with a severely regressed society and in a very precarious situation. The colonists seem to have dispersed into two cultural groups, nomadic tech 1 dwellers on the floor of the crater, and more numerous and somewhat more advanced tech 2-3 city dwellers in the deep canyons. The nomadic population is estimated at pop 4, and the city dwellers at pop 5.
The planet is still wracked by frequent quakes and volcanic activity, as well as a greatly elevated rates of meteoric impacts resulting from the debris thrown off planet by the initial impact. Further, as a result of the continuing volcanic activity, is possible that the low atmosphere taint will increase to a point where survival in the canyons is impossible.
Contact with the inhabitants has been limited as the population has only recently been identified.
Both floor and canyon cultures are extremely insular and balkanized, the nomads by tribe, and the canyon dwellers by city and village. The canyon dwellings are essentially pueblo style settlements, seldom with more than 1000 inhabitants. No central or unifying polity has arisen, likely due to the lack of surplus resources and the constant struggle to maintain agriculture. Culturally, the inability of the local infrastructure to support a leisured or professional class has led to most of the canyon dwellings to develop an essentially unstratified society, although there are exceptions.
The inhabitants suffer from a variety of environmental problems, including UV exposure, lung damage, and decreased fertility. Starvation and famine are common in the canyons, and the extremely hard life of the crater floor above has led to more than one tribal group to simply die out. For both groups, but especially the canyon dwellers, survival requires an immense amount of cooperative effort, particularly with regard to agriculture, which produces almost no surplus. Wars are infrequent due to the desperate emphasis on agriculture and food gathering, but raiding, particularly between the floor and the canyon dwellers, is frequent.
Currently, the world is not interdicted, but contact is discouraged, while a debate rages in the Imperial administration about the best way to deal with the situation: evacuation, technological uplift, or cultural quarantine.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
What......
....has a shell, lives a long time, and is always bemoaning it's fate serving the gods of chaos?
...The ETurtle Champion.
Thank you for your attention,
The Mgt.
...The ETurtle Champion.
Thank you for your attention,
The Mgt.
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