They sound more like a real life hivemind than something like the zerg.
That's already a nice improvement from what I feared you may do and I hope that further revisions and IC will differentiate them more from being mindless drones as time goes on.
I am curious as to why they have space travel and what the vehicles are as they don't seem to have guns and seem mostly docile beyond defensiveness of the queens (do they have actual authority or are they more or less factories that don't actually manage anything?).
Asymmetrical conflict is a major element to the scenario and it would destroy lots of variation in the types of potential scenarios for how relationships between factions work out if every native species manages to independently develop space travel and makes symmetrical warfare the norm.
Though you don't specify their means of space travel much, so it could well just be in the form of colonial seed ships, something based on some symbiotic relationship with custodians or something else. Space travel is optional in this NRP and you can always find reasons to have spaceships outsourced/stolen from another player's faction.
I should have specificed the name/subject thing.
Name is what you intend to call them and subject was misleading.
Type or Class may work better. Basically what you classify them as in regards to lore content on the question of if they are species, a faction, a individual, some non-state actor and so on.
In what style you write your description is up to you as I don't put many limits on what you can contribute beyond not being allowed to dominate any whole world (the major ones, anyways. Having total control of a asteroid is not a problem)
Humans exploring the star system is fine, just don't make a interstellar expedition out of it (a mission to earth at 1% the speed of light would take around 20 thousand years, believe me it's not worth it). The rest of the star system is much more barren, I should note. There may be a pocket or two of life hiding somewhere or some strange ruins with hostile custodians though.
@Liotrent No FTL means you can't travel at relativistic speeds (I consider that a apocalypse device, as do I consider Reactionless drives, zero point energy and other such tech that is decidedly far future in nature. The machine womb colony ship is actually the more economic and cheap choice to interstellar colonization believe it or not... I intentionally leave it unclear as to how long the trip took but lemme just say now it was not a short trip at all) or really any warp drives/wormholes.
I recommend a speed limit of 1% the speed of light and nothing faster (even than such speed would be for interplanetary velocities). The reason is since FTL = interstellar travel and the scope of this NRP is one star system at most, even than it is mostly centered around a single planetary system in regards to where most activity is.
Insectoids are fine, though try to do something a bit unorthodox here. Creativity is highly encouraged with the other species, as is giving them interesting and more compelling traits than mindless droning about.
Posting format is free form but I will ask you to give a time slot for when Everyone can expect activity from you. Time stamps and giving a location for your posts are recommended. Other than that it's very free form and narrative based.
hmm a sci-fi RP that doesn't sound like a cluster fuck of OPness I'm in.
Am I going to fast with the OP?
Just curious.
The premise is based on brainstroming I was doing to try to work aorund a problem with sci-fi NRPs that bothered the shit out of me. That problem being how to have a small scale while still allowing for more exotic locales or having to use the solar system. However I don't really define this as a colonization NRP as the humans are already developed and said humans were more or less a lone colony ship leaving a dead earth.
Also I thought it would be a good idea to have a colony of people descended from robots.
And to have ancient ruins and a really huge playspace. That is tiny compared to actual space NRPs.
As I hate wasting so much space in sci-fi NRPs, so this NRP tries to be economic even if it means casual WMD use isn't the norm. (lobbying nukes still happens but you have lasers to shoot the nukes so not a big deal. Rods from god are more dangerous though, but you can still blow them up using surface-orbit missiles or a superjet that reaches the troposphere of the world you are waging war on. Yes I consider that near-future tech, I don't see why we wouldn't have all this before the 22nd century).
Interplanetary travel takes weeks here, even for the custodians and i'd rather most players place their civilizations in the moon system around or on one of the major moons or the main planet Gabriel. Most action takes place within the Garbiel planetary system and for those wondering about sensors and such, the idea is that the details are lost due to how much heat there is and there is tons of traffic between the moons and in orbit of planets to hide in. Your sensors would see tons of stuff moving about as these worlds are all densely populated by multiple sapient beings, with humans not holding exlcusivity on building spacecraft (not even counting the custodians).
Climate is erratic as hell, even with the lack of reliance on oil/gas by the more advanced societies who like their nuclear fusion due to how much waste heat is given off by all the people and things doing stuff around the moon system.
And yet the depths are still not well understood by humans, hell Exodus and Gabriel haven't been explored that much. It is not like scanning the moon either, as you have to deal with thick atmospheres and underground cave systems that are all over the place along with artificial structures on the surface that love making it hard to see inside. It can be overwhelming to be honest and I am kinda worried that you may get players who are overwhelmed by all the factors in play- it is a huge, varied place to say the least. Or that is what I want it to be anyhow.
But even with that a few individuals can have a huge effect thanks to the simple fact that from a cosmic scale, this is but a pinpoint. What drama happens on Ezekiel can have a ripple effect that causes wars on Solomon for instance.
I will make a map and stats for all the major bodies used here, a detail map for each moon/planet. Help with more detailed maps would be nice, but not a need. I am willing to do the heavy work for I have a whole weekend to work on it. I also want to make sure I have a good share of people on board.
All the major worlds except Ezra are complex biospheres who I expect people to populate with a extremely diverse range of creatures. Go wild on that for you have regions for most kinds of life. Ice world life proved the hardest though, due to the limits of being in a temperature range where ice melts (if I wasn't, Solomon would be a ice world too) and thus limited to much more niche regions than desert or forest dwellers. Hell, creatures who bathe in acid has the highly volcanic and smoggy moon of Exodus.
I think that things can be kept short of being totally overwhelming, there's a lot of ground to cover and the smaller scale of this NRP means detailing out the moons in-depth is not a waste of time as multiple players will likely be using all five of these worlds along with adding in minor worlds.
Minor worlds are large asteroids and should always not have a biosphere. How many small moons and asteroids the Gabriel planetary system has I don't even know. I presume it to be in the dozens however. They can however have artificial habitation centers and bubble ecosystems (for instance, a small ecosystem housed within a O-Neill cylinder).
Outside the Gabriel system I may be open to adding more planets that have complex biospheres if it must happen, but only if it must happen. For instance, if you must have a europa-like world. However you will be expected to have the world be public domain.
I expect activity all over the star system from multiple factions, human or not human, but a majority of the civilizations capable of space travel should still base themselves around the Gabriel system.
As the last men and women of Earth, it is our duty to make one last ditch effort to reach paradise... however long the journey.
Millennia ago the human species was rendered extinct.
A thousand years ago, our kind was born again.
From the wombs of machines born to live on a humid tropical world.
From the few thousand raised by machines came the future.
From the first tribe would develop every civilization that exists today.
Having to struggle in a humid environment filled with alien beings.
Worse still, some of them were smart and genuinely a danger to us.
As they would be monitored by custodians and attacks by the natives.
Still, our ancestors persisted despite the constant struggle.
And went on to build the foundations for billions to thrive once more.
And from those foundations we launched yet again into space.
To colonize other worlds and understand this strange place.
It was known the other worlds also had life.
Still, it was a massive shock to find intelligence still.
It became a fact of life, how common civilization is.
As even Solomon proves not as secure as it was initially assumed.
For we have been just scratching the crust when there is far more.
Layers upon layers of underground jungles on Solomon and sprawling ghost cities.
Some still maintained by mindless and mad custodians.
Overwhelming it all can become, the more you take it in.
The whole star system being touched in some way by the degenerative descendants.
Of the true creators of the worlds we live upon.
And every time we look we see swarms of activity.
Be it from the numerous ecosystems of wildlife across multiple worlds.
Giving rise alien civilizations primitive and advanced.
Or how every day a citizen sees specks of light drifting.
That weld the means to oblivion at the push of a button.
The flux and traffic of activity between the orbital cities we have set up.
Has created endless traffic around and between the worlds of Gabriel.
The scariest part is knowing how so few people can affect the lives of billions.
Across multiple civilizations, worlds and species.
Making the only certainty we have now being uncertainty.
May the first tribe save us all!
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Out of Character
The Grand Enigma or "The Grand Enigma of 82 Eridani" is a fusion of near-future technothriller and planetary romance and is the product of a desire to make a sci-fi NRP that is neither sol or has a galaxy to worry about. For here there is only one star system, near future technology in the far future and lots of exotic locales to work with across multiple worlds.
In terms of applying for Grand Enigma, all you need to do is PM me your first IC post as a trial after making some lore and promise to work with other players in regards to collaborative world building while not doing the things on the list of NO. For ideas, check the list of YES which you can also add to by saying what you as a player want to have someone else take on the role of.
But first you must understand the Eridani 82 system and the worlds you are to inhabit and figure out where you want to set up.
((Under Construction))
Overview of the Gabriel System
The Gabriel system is a binary planet system with three other smaller celestial bodies that have managed to eek out gravitational niches in what is a very peculiar arrangement of worlds.
One of the most notable aspects of the Gabriel system is that every world has complex biospheres with the potential for intelligent life.
It is this place that the center of most activity presides in this NRP and more detailed maps for Ezekiel, Solomon, Luke and Ezra will be of great use.
I strongly recommend sticking around this moon system as the rest of the star system is much less hospitable and much less interesting. Well, there are interesting things out there but I want the locus of action to be within the Gabriel system of worlds.
Gabriel
Gabriel is the largest world and the main planet of the Gabriel planetary system. It is a world comparable in size to Neptune host to global ocean that runs over a hundred kilometers deep. Gabriel is 13 times the mass of Earth and is for all intents and purposes an ice giant. However it is a habitable ice giant, with massive water-ice cloudscapes where pockets of easy human habitability (beyond the harsh gravity, anyways) exist. These cloudscapes go down for hundreds of kilometers until you hit sauna-like oceans (where all sorts of hellish denizens exist) with a depth far greater than any ocean on Earth.
Gabriel has a massive, extremely diverse ecosystem filled with creatures that are simply massive and able to mitigate the gravity through the intense updrafts and turbulent weather characteristic of this world. The gravity is high on Gabriel and the air will suffocate you despite the oxygen content.
Gabriel has massive lightning storms you can see from space.
Gabriel is host to a large range of resources, mainly exotic organic products that are naturally produced in huge quantities found nowhere else.
Stats
Life: Complex Biosphere Biodiversity: Very High (due to the sheer size of the world) Ruins: Moderate-low Drone Activity Level: Type-3 (Drone hives for monitor and collection drones mostly) Gravity: 2.6 Gs Atmosphere: Extremely Thick Temperature: 70-90 degrees Celsius Weather: Extremely Stormy. There are frequent lightning storms, turbulent wind systems and huge hurricanes Geology: N/A Wetness: It's water all the way down.
((The below is Under Construction))
[Luke - frozen world with shallow subglacial seas
Life: Complex Biosphere Biodiversity: High Ruins: High Drone Activity Level: 2 Gravity: 0.3 Gs Atmosphere: Thin Temperature: -30 degrees Celsius Weather: Howling Winds, ash storms and blizzards, heat seasons cause the surface to be unstable Geology: Lots of hotspots and volcanic activity during the heat seasons, Mineral Poor Wetness: Large, shallow subglacial ocean. The world is covered completely in ice
[Solomon - earthlike, heavily forested world
Life: Complex Biosphere Biodiversity: Extreme Ruins: Extreme Drone Activity Level: 5 Gravity: 1.2 G Atmosphere: Average Temperature: 27 degrees Celsius Weather: Flooding is common Geology: Volcanoes, Sinkholes, Earthlike Geology Wetness: High, there are oceans, rivers and seas with a frequent swelling of ocean levels that caused huge tidal floods in low lying areas.
[Ezekiel - desert world
Life: Complex Biosphere Biodiversity: Very High Ruins: High Drone Activity Level: 4 Gravity: 0.7 Gs Atmosphere: Average Temperature: 15 degrees Celsius Weather: Howling Winds, Sandstorms, Tornados, Blizzards, Cold Snaps Geology: Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Mineral Rich Wetness: Medium, there is lots of water shored up underground
[Ezra - abandoned city world
Life: Isolated to habitation zones Biodiversity: Low Ruins: Extreme – the whole world has been made into a abandoned city! Drone Activity Level: 10 Gravity: 0.1 G Atmosphere: None Temperature: -130 degrees Celsius Weather: Radiation Storms occur at times Geology: Moonquakes, Structural Collapses, Nuclear Plants sometimes destabilize and irradiate a region of the world
[/hider]
INCOMPLETE REGIONS -Vulcan Zone [one complex biosphere, a venus-like, high gravity super earth with oceans of sulfuric acid] -Outer Zone [no complex biospheres out there]
System stats overall- Worlds with Life: 5 worlds with complex biospheres (the majority of which exist in the Gabriel System), unknown amount of worlds with simple biospheres or habitation zones. World Count: 43 or so (this includes smaller worlds and gas giants) Asteroid Belts: Two Belts Star Count: One G8 Star, 82 Eradini
Now dedicate to one of three perspectives and put your work within said perspective. You can make individuals from another perspective, but you cannot make civilizations or species from other perspectives once you make a civilization for one of the three perspectives.
The first perspective is the perspective of humans or other beings who came in just one spaceship and had to redevelop their civilizations from scratch over the last thousand years.
Once there was the first tribe after the rebirth of our species, there was a original sin that happened after a century of unity and a Arcadian existence that led to us spreading around the world in a dark period (which players define).
Space travel became possible once more around three centuries before the starting time or the year 700-800 Post Birth.
Humans landed on Solomon and thus should have most of their civilization on Solomon, with any societies on other worlds being younger and likely having some relationship with a Solomon based human society.
Human technology should be internally consistent, which means that all human players share a tech pool and that every time a human player adds a new human tech, every human faction is likely to also have the tech you want to give yourself (especially if it is common use). So for instance if you decide to have swarm missiles, other human factions also know how to make swarm missiles.
In general humans are more faction explicit and deal with each other in a symmetrical fashion (meaning humans have similar tech to each other in general) but have to deal with the other two perspectives asymmetrically. NPC human isolated colonies and such can be set up by other players to do whatever they want with. As a human you just need a faction sheet.
Terms
PR Post-Rebirth. We still use the gregorian calendar even though day cycles are far faster on Solomon. However, the sheer significance of our rebirth as a species means that a new year one separate from the birth of Jesus had to be established. The starting year is 1000 PR. (Times before PB are Before Rebirth, or BR)
The First Tribe The first several thousand or so humans raised by dumb machines who managed to be united as a species for the first hundred years. One of the few points in human history where the human species was at relative peace. Lots of good press from this time.
Original Sin The undetermined event that caused the first tribe to split for (player determined) reasons and lead to the dark period.
Dark Period The centuries of time in-between the launching of the first spaceship by 700-800 PB and the Original Sin. I leave what happened here to whoever opts to make a human civ as it is in this archaic period your civilization likely began its developments even if your civ has continuity with the first tribe.
Arcology A city that has its own internal farming and is self-contained instead of dependent on outside resources.
Your perspective as an alien is the most unique perspective, for to be an alien is to be of many potential perspectives all different from each other due to the limited knowledge you have. Your biology and life style dictates a way of life suited to the world you evolved on.
Aliens should be alien, not humanoid. You can have a biped, but it can't be humanoid.
When making an alien, focus on making an interesting alien form that is a believable product of the world you want to set up shop. Avoid trying to make something to win a game. Think in terms of asymmetrical advantages and disadvantages instead of trying to match the tech of the humans or custodians. Be creative about this, try to avoid high tech solutions to the human problem. For your focus is on having a cool culture, strange tech and on making them feel like aliens. Weird them to death!
When making an alien, keep the species app separate from the civilization app as all species made are public domain (unless there is some lore reason why it can't be).
For a species is treated as a parent to the civilization, and thus a species can have multiple civilization along with all manner of less developed groups (or your sapient may just be 100% tribal, in which case you don’t need a civilization app).
NPCs of your species can be assumed to exist somewhere on the planet you base your species on. Like with humans, should multiple players share a family of sapients who know each other well, technology is easier to share between them. Tech is harder to share between sapients with larger differences, though you can always trade anyways.
You can set up your sapients anywhere a complex biosphere is.
Sapients should avoid independently developing space travel unless there is a good reason for it.
In exchange, you get to have much higher populations and better adaptations to the world you set up shop on. You also get to define the environment, fauna, flora and so forth of the regions you want your alien to occupy much more than custodians or humans get to. So please be someone who likes making strange, horrifying creatures and landscaping if you seek to be an alien.
The third perspective is that of the custodians.
Custodians are ancient beings, related to the Creators who built the megastructures and systems that keep this star system from falling to total ruin. How you define your relationship to them is up to you and due to not being a primitive or interloper you can set up shop anywhere in the star system. Be warned that the rules regarding space travel still apply.
Custodians are shockingly diverse entities, be it strange synthetic things, monolithic drones with a scary voice, surreal eldritch beings or as some memetic fuzz entity it is up to the player. Custodians have access to the most advanced technology of all three perspectives and are much more individual oriented than the natives or the humans.
Which means as a custodian you are more or less expected to be a character with powerful capabilities. You can be a drone collective unified by a personality too. It's up to you!
When you are in the custodian perspective, you can direct the drones and define the tech of the drones in the region you want to have your custodian make their main basing area (nomadic custodians may have many smaller outposts). You also can be the dungeon master for the various megastructures and define what technological artifacts exist in them.
In terms of technology, you can go high-tech more than the other two perspectives can within the limits of the NO list.
Custodians due to having a pervasive information gathering network have a lot of knowledge in regards to raw data about all the societies inhabiting the worlds of 82 Eridani. There is lots of spying going on in regards to the inhabitants of the Eridani System.
Custodians tend to be independent minded in nature and so often have their own ideas of the past. This is not helped by the periods of generational warfare that break out that distort the past.
Custodians can communicate with any species with ease by nature, they’ve done their homework and have had ages to understand everyone. They even can talk to the giant colonial gas bags that inhabit Gabriel.
Custodians are not invincible. Don’t make them so.
Terms
Primitives- The technologically primitive sapients Interlopers- Humans and any sapients who come from another star system. Creators- Vague term referring to the ancients who you have some connection to, however far back that connection is. Generational Warfare- Custodians have generational wars from time to time, often fought by proxy and in the shadows. It is unknown how long these generational wars have gone thanks to the frequent revisionism the victors engage in, just that it has gone on for a long time.
The Comus
There is a Comus who will speak to you in private privates OOC who has an agenda. Even as a custodian you aren’t fully aware of who the Comus is. Disobeying the Comus has IC consequences, but it isn’t against the rules OOC-wise and if you want you can be a rogue custodian from the start, though this means you are an enemy of all other custodian players (maybe the primitives or interlopers may be of better company?) The Comus is story important! You can converse with the Comus in the PM, but remember that the Comus is an authority figure who benefits you in some explicit way. The Comus is your father in many ways, he cares for you ultimately but expects loyalty from you and to understand that not everything can be explained upfront.
There are also hybrid perspectives and guidelines regarding any potential mixture of the above three perspectives.
Hybrids are a diverse bunch and various players may fall into the hybrid range. What this means is that parts of multiple perspective guidelines may apply to you. I consider hybrid perspectives a more complicate role to take due to the element of making sure they balance right as you can get very unfair advantages if you get the advantages of multiple perspectives.
Here are some examples of hybrid perspectives:
A alien species native to 82 Eridani that once had a interplanetary empire which collapsed into a degenerative state with remnants and lost colonies spread about the system. (alien/custodian)
A non-human alien species from another star system. (human/alien)
A human who is a agent of Comus or a human faction that has a intelligensia ran by a agent of Comus (human/custodian)
The Grand Enigma of 82 Eridani is oriented around adventuring with near future technologies and gadgetry, with lots of play space to work with. Try to have diverse tech over powerful tech even if dropping kinetic rods and nuclear weapons are all acceptable to have (but let's not go around willy nilly with the apocalyptic devices! Thankfully smaller scale warfare and skirmishes when adventuring is more what I am looking for here- Don't have overly massive spaceship fleets please. I'd say around a couple hundred at most, nothing too fancy okay!)
Creative freedom is important so I will just say what I don't want to see:
-humanoid aliens who minus well be people
-Furry aliens
-Interstellar mass invasions
-Planet killers (overkill, no?)
-Massive space fleets (again, overkill when you just have one planetary system to worry about... Though one filled with drones that hate you and other civilizations who also hate you)
-Pop cultural things (This is not a fandom Rp, please don't treat it like one)
-Anything that has control over a entire world (don't be greedy! These are big worlds with lots of things to control, no need to monopolize it and you probably won't be able to as things are too multi-polar for that... Too many thinking creatures and robots with surface-orbit missiles)
-Making a world with complex life elsewhere in the star system. I want most of the action and content for this NRP within the Gabriel planet system. Note: If you can make the case for adding a new planet with complex life elsewhere I may consider it, but Gabriel's Planet system will remain the only notable place in the human habitable zone.
-Elves. Please no.
-AI gods. AI is fine, but for go full retard on it okay?
-Tech that is advanced. Most advanced I'd prefer people get are orbital killsats or spaceships with kill rods in terms of WMDs. For this NRP is not a matter of how fluffy you can be!
-Human cultures that have blatant continuity with today's nation-states (so try to avoid having something called "New France" or such). Having something Abrahamic is fine (I am using biblical stories to name the world's after all), though please consider the theological impact the environment and its strangeness has had on the human factions. Also consider the dark ages and split that happened centuries earlier. We can work backwards on the details.
-Species/entities that are redundant to what already exists. Consider forming a family with said already existing species (give them some trait continuity) or use the already existing species in play but with a separate civilization. Worlds are huge places!
So, anyone interested?
It'll be all the fun of a Sci-fi NRP mixed with some of the good aspects of fantasy NRPs in regards to having a geography to think about instead of simply blobbing it up on a galaxy map or overthinking the BILLIONS of stars your empire should be in control of. And I even included a diverse range of environments and worlds that suit all matter of strange esoteric beings from icy caves and dense jungles to cool deserts and stormy cloudscapes.
@pugbutter It has been hell getting republican senators to oppose some of the less... Savory aspects of the Trump agenda as is.
Getting them to invest in vertical farming is just not in question unless some billionaire can get a lobbying group going for it or a governor somewhere runs on the promise of investing in it.... Even than there is a chance it'll be overpriced to hell and take forever to finish like with Jerry Brown's bullet train.
Each of the ideas you mentioned are unsatisfactory.
China's one child policy worked somewhat, however with the scale of the world we inhabit we would still end up with many country bumpkins continuing to produce more than one child.
A lottery of that nature would cause too much societal strife, and might lead to unrest among the population to such an extent that they rebel against the processes which enforce the lottery.
Simply euthanizing "leeches" would do little to quell the constant threat of population growth. It would disincentive people from lethargy to such an extent that they might even cause further strain on the world. And, of course, there is always the question of the global scale; it won't slow the birth rates of developing countries and is hard to enforce without incident.
Constant war does too much damage to infrastructure and the environment, and can even lead to the destruction of humanity as a whole: something which is rather unwanted. Besides, war opens up too many other avenues of societal degradation (see 1984).
I should have stated that by reversing population growth, I meant stopping birth rates from occurring at a replacement level, so that the next generation of humanity is much smaller than the last.
Who defines who as a 'leech'? Who is this elite to say who is and isn't allowed to exist?
The general trends in population growth actually shows a general stagnation after a certain point- the fears of overpopulation are simply that, fears. The system can stabilize itself if allowed to.
The issue is that there's always some complications. I just don't really think that you need that much tech for a solution. Simply a new distribution of it and even if global cooperation is impossible each country may see it crucial as to copy solutions from competitors that work.
Ultimately the idea is you have a perpetual state of 'tension' induced as a means of making sure civilization doesn't become complacent. That matters more than a reliance on top-down authoritarian measures of population control that don't really solve the problem. It's the right kind of conflict you want, if you have destructive conflict you go back to the stone age- have productive conflict and you get a man on the moon.
That's why I don't really advocate world government much as world governments tend to lead to global tyrants who would care more about power preservation than any abstract hope of advancing humanity, I suppose a ideological vanity project or two might happen, but I believe that a multi-polar system that doesn't collapse has the best hope of leading to a paradoxically better world. Consider the cold war and consider the constant advancements happening both in america and overseas. America won't play with biotech on humans? China will! China won't allow for new political concepts to develop? The West Will! America won't use biofuels? Brazil does! America didn't invest in a particle collider? Europe does!
The need to deal with climate change will also require many solutions, thankfully more countries have leaders who believe it than don't so even if it may seem hopeless I still think that there is some chance of pulling from the brink... Even if the entropy increases may make that thought come off as foolish. Just remember that complex systems have their ways of finding a equilibrium even if it may seem like we are doomed to apocalypse at times. Technically we should've had Reagan start WW3 and wipe out the human species... Yet still we are here!
