So I’ve said that I would work out the background for an SF RPG, based entirely in space but without hitting too many of the tropes of Star Trek or Star Wars.
Better not populate it with weird aliens and faster than light travel then.
Taking those options out is a restriction, but the great thing about being limited are the boundaries. Those lines of demarkation help give focus and I have some boundaries.
Here are some inspirations
The Martian Way – Isaac Asimov
The Belter Stories of Larry Nivens Known Space
The general feel of Jerry Pournelles’ writing
Revenger – Alastair Reynolds
The Expanse – James SA Corey – No link here as The Expanse spans a series of books and a television series. Both are important inspirations. Google The Expanse – go and watch it or start reading the books
The Last Dance – Martin L Shoemaker
The Feel of Things
The aim is to capture the feel of working and living beyond the limits of the Earth but within a reasonable frame of reference. By reasonable I mean a few miracles. Few miracles equals no gravity control, inertial control, faster than light travel or other familiar crutches of Space Opera. The solar system becomes a place we live and work in, with all the problems that come with it.
However, given the popularity of the Expanse and the like this must stand out on its own and not be a cookie-cutter experience for the players.
So how to do that?
I think the answer comes from three places, people, history and technology. People as all stories including RPGs are about people. History as that’s our social framework and technology because that influences how we live.
The History
The first instinct is to look only a few hundred years in the future. I want to divorce things from modern thinking. Doing so needs some elbow room. The setting is then 1000’s of years in the future. History isn’t linear. I’ll need to build in some social changes that look forward and some backward. That’s good as I can add in elements that challenge the players morally, even though that is the world their characters know.
Here are a few key points of that make up the historical backstory for this Solar Syste
- Nations as we know them are gone. Replaced by interest groups I’m going to call these Phyles and come back to what they are in a moment
- Various ecological, political, religous and planetary crisis has kept the population of Earth low. Ruins abound, much of the planet has returned to nature.
- The wrecks of old conflicts are everywhere. Abandoned spaces on worlds, moons and asteroids. Spaceship wrecks float through the solar system.
- Any computer exhibiting any form of consciousness is banned. Computers once became conscious and revealed themselves to be something quite alien. There was conflict and it was not a good time
- In places people are the aliens. Large scale playing with genetics for profit and fashion has fractured humanity into something that approximates multiple species.
The Phyles
Nations broke down as the world changed and bubbles of people sharing common beliefs became more and more important. The practical take on this is that we’re talking tribes of people. I didn’t want to use the word Tribes as it has a good many connotations that I didn’t want to get tied into. So I went to the older term phyles. In this future view of things the tribes will be organised in plenty of different ways. Instead of trying to describe everything in detail here are some terms that apply
- Monarchy
- Noble Houses
- Warlord
- Elected Leader
- Family
- Serf
- Slave
- Company
- Worker
- Crew
It’s going to be a complex mash of interacting societies. The scope for backstories is enormous.
Technology
Since we’re talking about a Solar System full of activity a certain level of technology is a given. We’re also saying that thousands of years have passed. So what is the technology like in this environment? I think the answer is complicated. So perhaps the way to do this is to list some options.
- No faster than light travel
- No removing the effects of acceleration
- No artifical gravity fields. Gravity is from mass or can be simulated by movement
- No teleportation
- No conscious artificial intelligences or networks complex enough to exhibit intelligence
- There is genetic manipulation on live subjects
- There are genetic changes that can become hereditary
- Nano technology has opened up a vast array of high strength light weight materials
- Spacecraft are common and relatively easy to obtain. This follows for most types of transport or complex machine
- Medicines can cure almost all diseases
- The majority of injuries can be healed in hours or days not weeks or months
Technology is not evenly distributed. Some places get by on next to nothing. Some the latest everything and others use old technologies forgotten by everyone else/
It’s a mixed and complex future. Mix, match and play with ideas.
Interstellar Travel
There is no travel between the stars at the time these stories are set in. There is no faster than light travel. The past could have been different. Voyages to far off suns could have been attempted. There could be other human civilisations out there. Legends could persist of vast starships and effort to make a voyage.
When you’re thinking about time on a long scale it is hard to say something never happened. There could be stories there could be remnants. Referring to a mysterious past could make good stories in the current time.
Wrapping it up
I’m hoping this outline gets some thought going. Next its time add in some detail so we can get a bit of flavour on this.
Image Credit
The image in this post is used via NASA and JPL
Stream of Consciousness 
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