If you are a player still looking for a mature group to join, please send me an email if you have an interest in our game.
We just had a player drop out of our game due to scheduling reasons right before we were to get underway, leaving us a player short.
Here is a copy of the Campagin email sent out to players to familiarize them with the setting:
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Campaign Background (give some credit to the Traveller background)
It was far in our future, and man had colonized countless worlds. Thousands upon thousands of starships of different sizes and functions raced through space taking man to distant galaxies. Entire worlds were terraformed to make way for new colonies. Though there was conflict and struggle, mankind continued to thrive in scientific and cultural growth.
Over many generations, several different coalitions of star systems formed together and differences began to grow between them. Large scale war broke out over territorial disputes. Massive fleet battles pitted major coalitions, each made up of dozens of worlds, against one another while smaller factions fought for new expansion as well. The war escalated until becoming epic in proportion.
Scientists from one of the coalitions developed a virus to stop the war once and for all. This virus was to seek out their opponents computer systems and shut everything down. Planetary defense systems would be halted and massive battleships would be left floating dead in space. The virus was to grow and spread only to wipe out the weapons of the opposing coalition. It would have been a very humane end to a bloody struggle that had lasted several decades. The defeated coalition would be forced to surrender and the conflict would be stopped almost over night without a single shot fired. But things did not go as planned.
The virus grew and struck out at the defenses and did its job. Its AI developed as it worked its magic, defeating computer systems with absolute ease. It began to grow and learn. When efforts were made to purge it from the military systems, it lashed out across the civilian networks. Its coding became corrupt as it now began to see not just the machinery of war but mankind itself as a threat to the AI. The AI infected every machine it could touch, turning them upon their human creators. The AI machines went out of their way to infect other systems and machines as time wore on.
The rate of infection was sickening in effectiveness. Imagine a self-aware flu virus that could control an infected person. This flu virus could then get itself added to the water supply or purposefully contact other people to infect them and spread it further. This is what the AI virus did, but through machines. Computer systems worked efficiently and with lightning speed to break down any barrier to other machines, killing every human it could. The human race had little chance. Massive starships were crushed into dense cities. Weapons of mass destruction detonated over world after world. Even the remote colonies were not safe. A quick thinking hero quickly warning the next system that the AI was coming their way to destroy them only sealed the fate of the worlds he contacted. The AI was already embedded in the communications sent. Dome covered metropolosis on desolate planets had their protections collapse, instantly killing millions. The spread was fast and violent.
A few brave souls fighting their own infected ships raced to systems multiple jumps away, ejecting themselves free from their vessels and floating to the distant world's awaiting vessels. Only in this way were regions of humanity warned in time to be spared. Blockades were setup to destroy every ship that attempted to reach these distant worlds. Computer systems everywhere were disconnected from each other. Important information was condensed into small chunks that could be passed from one user to the next when moving information between systems. Everything became much more compartmentalized.
Humanity suffered a major blow through the virus, and that was over 125 years ago. Over time, the developing code of the AI virus has stopped. Humanity is safe from further infection, but only a fraction of the planets remained untouched. Virus ship attacks have become less frequent and are rarely seen at all. People are struggling back into civilization. Some cultures were thrown back into the stone age and struggle to survive on a day to day basis. Other proud nations are ruled over by whoever has the most powerful weapons at hand. But more technologically advanced groups of worlds have banded together again from the ashes.
Two major groups of the surviving systems have formed up since the Collapse. These two coallitions rest at the edge of human space with undiscovered galaxies extending beyond their borders. In the opposite direction of thier borders lies thousands of dead worlds ready to have their lost secrets and technologies reclaimed while roaming fleets of AI infected vessels still wander the region.
One of these two coallitions, The Inner Alliance, seeks to bring back the power and advancements from the past. The Inner Alliance wants to setup a similar government and society as it was before the Collapse. They have the resources and manpower, but their dedication to the old way of life keeps them stuck in the past.
The other coalition is the Grey Union. These systems want nothing to do with how men ruled themselves before the Collapse. Just look where that got them. The Grey Union is a loose collection of worlds that want to strip away the technology from the ruins of the past and exploit it for their own gain. The Union is essentially an uneasy agreement between neighboring worlds to stick together and recover as quickly as they can before other powers like the Inner Alliance become dominant. Where the Inner Alliance stifles itself in beauracracy, the Grey Union festers in corruption and greed.
The worlds of the Grey Union are greatly influenced by the massive corporations that have grown out of the destruction. After an initial breakdown of government at the start of the collapse, these corporations have become the major players within the Union. They make the laws and keep the society growing. The worlds of the Union have become the most vile representation of commercialism. Death and cruelty are a mere afterthought if the mighty credit is involved.
Finally, out there amoungst the Grey Union, Inner Alliance, Collapse ruins and the wilderness lies an area called the Fringe. Here, local worlds manage their own affairs struggling to keep out of the hands of the coallitions let alone simply survive.
YOU
Your group of heroes, though heroes they need not be, will be aboard a small vessel caught in the center of these regions. The work you do is whatever you can find. Hauling cargo, passenger transport, scouting new regions, theft and even the occasional disappearance of thugs who have crossed one person too many. Your vessel is owned by an independant group of "financers" who cover the massive cost of the ship requiring a reasonable fee each week. However, these financial backers also need certain odd and dangerous jobs be handled for free on their behalf every now and then. Though you have not pried into who these people are or even met them, you have never questioned their assignments and have dropped everything you are doing to make them happy. Without them, you are stuck planetside somewhere, scrubbing around to live just like everyone else.
Your vessel is small and is similar to a heavy transport helicopter, missing its mid-section so that it can attach small cargo containers to itself. It has light weaponary, light defenses, a system drive for getting around nearby and the expensive fold drive for reaching far out into space.
MISCELLANEOUS
Cyberware is virtually non-existent. There are prosthetic replacements for the injured but that is about the extent. High-end technological resources are just now making a return to the Union. There are lots of videos and violent or over-the-top live entertainment, but no sim like units that people plug into their heads. There are many computers to deal with in the world, and very few networks. Though the Virus no longer presents an infection threat, technology and fears are slow to build back computer connections.
Sidearms are common in most regions, though the core worlds of the Inner Alliance require permits. However, even the most remote town will get very agitated about automatic weapons and body armour in their community. Most weapons fire bullets, energy weapons are rare.
Starships are out there in the form of trade and defense. These ships are normally old and well used, pieced together from several other vessels. The Union government spends no effort at all on research and science, that is for the corporations to develop. Most science related advances come from recovery of lost technology that a corporation then figures out how to re manufacture. The Inner Alliance spends considerable efforts at research and new construction but at painful costs to other needs of their citizenry.
Psionics are excessively rare. The cause of psionics was a scientific effort, one of the highest attained, that was just getting underway before the collapse. Any psionicists still in existence have had their power passed down through the last few generations. The powers are only fading now as there is no training doctrine or formal development of the psionicists any longer. People with the power are shunned and sometimes criminally charged or killed to remove them as threats to the society and people in power.
Game mechanics wise, expect the combat to be brutal. You guys will have an edge over the standard thug in the street, but a single bullet can still kill you. So take cover. If the combat round starts and you just now decide you are going to draw your weapon, you may be already dead. You need to have that hand edging towards the weapon before things get heated or have a friend cover you from afar if trouble is expected.
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Again, if you are interested and can make our times listed in the original post, please email me as soon as possible as we are ready to get going.
Thank you,
Tom / Doc4
[email protected]