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Generation Ship

Alias

SOC-8
Ok here's a quick idea I had. Imagine a kilometers long generation ship, much time passed in their passage through the stars and serveral wars were fought in her ancient hull. Damage acculmalates and the various factions call a cease fire. When they arrive the people have become highly religous and they find a planet already inhabited and launch a holy war to cleanse the world. They strip the world bare and return to the generation ship fitting it with new weapons and systems enslaving engineers from the now dead world to maintain thier vessel.

As I said just a quick idea I'm gonna start work on but I like to hear your take on it.
 
My Dear Alias,

The idea of generation ships has long been fodder for SF. I think that a kilometers long ship can offer plenty of opportunity for adventure for a Traveller campaign.

I read a great series by Ben Bova in the 70's about life on a generation ship, but the name escapes me right now. I highly recommend it.

Your scenario also reminds me of a really cheesey canadian SF TV series called Star Lost.
 
If you set it in the OTU why not set it in those non-Imperial sectors spinward of the Spinward Marches (Dark River, Far Frontiers, Beyond, Vanguard Reaches). The sector details can be found if you look and you have no Imperium to worry about (for a while at least!)
 
My Dear Antony

Yes I remember MA, I never played it, but that sure broght back a lot of warm and fuzzies for Gamma World.
 
Alias,

1) Is the generation ship background for your campaign, or would your game take place on the vessel itself?

2) Do the events revolve around the the invasion of the one world you mention, or is it understood the ship has "harvested" several already?

3) Do the zealots have an idea of where the ship is going and why?

4) Do the zealots have COMPLETE control of the ship, or are there rival or "outlaw" areas?

5) Were any of the original crew cryogenically frozen or "backed up" in gene banks in case of emergency?

I'm a big fan of generation-ships-gone-awry literature (e.g. Aldiss, Heinlein, Bova) and gaming (ALL versions of Metamorphosis Alpha) and would really like to see how you're developing the idea.

If you need maps for your vessel, I suggest pirating the "Amazing Engine" version of Metamorphosis Alpha: it had the most sensible and detailed deckplans of the various versions. Likewise, the Alternity Star*Drive supplement "The Lighthouse" features a gigantic, mobile station-like ship that houses more than enough living space to make sense as a slowship (the maps are full colour and well thought-out.)

A good OTU source for generation ships are the various ESA expeditions outfitted in the 21rst and 22nd centuries: most of the vessels found there way to the Islands Subsector in the Rift, and founded squabling colonies there (featured in the "Trillion Credit Squadron" for CT and "Keepers of the Flame: the Regency Sourcebook" for TNE.)
 
Alias,

The only thing I can think of, in addition to your original idea, is the idea of isolation. If there were generations of colonists on that ship, I'm sure that they would tend to be relatively single minded. If they come in contact with a civilization that is descended from their homeworld, they experience culture shock-- maybe even a little jealousy.

Time would have just passed these people by...

Maybe they act a little like the restless natives from "Robinson Carusoe." Maybe not in the cannibalistic sense, but lauching a Jihad on a colony might not be that much of a stretch. Just flesh it out a little bit and you probably have the makings of a great game.
 
Some good ideas folks, been laid up in bed unable to crawl to the keyboard! Anyway feeling better now so... At the moment I see the ship without jump drives, this would make difficult to detect (the colonys they attack are over a hundred years apart) and find. Historians may see simaralities in the methods employed if they noticed a connection,
As for they culture onboared the ship, I think Orionruse hit the mark these guys have been flying around for thousands of years listening to the same religeous Dogma, they are the chosen and must cleanse the universe of the unpure!

Hey Arsulon what were those books you mentioned could be a good read and I like the idea of dissedent religeous groups. Our own history shows how easy it is for these groups to form. Ok Thanks Ladies and Gents and keep the ideas flowing!
 
What if you took another hint from Earth religions and had them believe that their ship was wondering the stars looking for some promised land. Also what if the ships computer had taken on the place of God for the people on the ship? If it is a sophisticated enough intellegence it may even believe itself to be god.
The rival factions could have different interpretations of its somewhat cryptic messages. What if in order to produce the best settlers possible and prevent inbred idiots the ships computer had a kind of eugenics plan? The people and the computer could even believ that they were awaiting the birth of a savior or some perfect new type of human.
 
The Orion Starship would make a great generation starship. This Starship is tech level 7 or early 8, it can reach a speed of 10,000 km/sec. and is 150 km in diameter with a mass of 240 million tons. It takes 30 years to accelerate to full speed and it can arrive at Alpha Centauti in 150 years. The starship is propelled by 25 million thermonuclear bombs, with each exploded behind the starship every 1/4 of a second. By the end of 30 years all of them are used up. Each explosion pushes a pusher plate made up of Uranium 150 km in diameter. The neutron radiation released by each explosion turns some of the Uranium into plutonium. The plutonium is then fed into nuclear reactors to power the starship for the 150 voyage. A magsail (a loop of superconducting wire is then deployed near the end of the voyage to generate a large magnetic field. The solar wind from Alpha Centauri, pushes against this magnetic field and slow the starship down without the requirement for additional fusion bombs. A Nerva nuclear rocket then manuevers the starship into orbit around the target planet and shuttles are deployed to decend to the planet's surface. The shuttles would most likely be one-way reentry vehicles able to land vertically on an unprepared surface and be unable to reach orbit again.
 
(Sorry to take so long listing these titles for you Alias)

Orphans of the Sky, Robert Heinlein

Starship or Non-Stop, Brian Aldiss

The Exiles Trilogy, Ben Bova

The Dark Beyond the Stars, Frank Robinson
 
Thanks bud! Not too worry though, I've not been too well and am on a late shift this week! I hope to post some info on the inhabitants beliefs next week so keep those eyes peeled!
 
Hello everyone,

yes, sorry for reviving this 9 year old thread. :eek: :oo: Still: I am not a SPAM-Bot or SPAM-dude. But this is - actually - the kind of topic I hoped to find on this forum. Seriously, read on. :)

(If you'd rather have me create a new topic, I'll do so; because my question may be a little offtopic to what has been discussed here way back in the early 21st century.)

First of all: It is kind of awesome to have a generation ship being the fundamental idea for a campaign or something in your game. And it is interesting to see that the backstory of your generation ship, Alias, follows the "forgetfullness pattern" to some degree, which is not uncommon to the generation-ship-theme.

Now, what or why is it that I am interested in this topic?

First of all and in order to stay on-topic for a moment: What has happened to this campaign of yours? Are there any reports and experiences with this kind of story by other forum-members?
Also I would like to know how you designed this generation ship of yours, Alias? (Alias - are you still active on this board?) Or did anyone else here design generation-ships, and how did you do it, or what did you consider?

To ride the red line twoards off-topic ... at least for a bit:

Since I am only loosely connected with Traveller (I own some of the core-stuff of Classic Traveller; I used to own the Fire, Fusion & Steel supplement of TNE, but don't own it anymore), I have only little experience in the game. That is why I'd like to know, which Traveller/ 2300 products actually cover the "generation ship" or "generation star/spaceship" in detail, if there is/was any supplement or sourcebook available at all?

The reason why I am interested in such Traveller/2300-products, is, because the various rpg-stuff-things I own (Alternity, Stellar Wind, Classic Traveller, Riftroamers) don't provide a lot about generation ships; and with "don't provide a lot" I actually mean: don't provide nearly anything; sleeper-ships are slightly more common in those books, but I don't like the concept of sleeper-ships (although the movie of "Pandorum" was awesome!).

At the moment I read "The Generation Starship in Science Fiction: A Critical History, 1934-2001" by Simone Caroti (ISBN: 9780786460670); this book covers part of the generation starship literature history in SF between 1930ies and the early 21st century.
And on my list of "books to read" the title "Interstellar Travel & Multi-Generational Space Ships: Apogee Books Space Series 34" by Yoji Kondo (ISBN: 9781896522999) is the next one to read.
Also I have a long list of book-titles that cover this topic at least to some degree: http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/14137375?shelf=sf_generation_ships

The reason behind all this is that I want to start writing short stories and maybe even a longer narration (novel? series of novels???) about a generation starship and the people on it; and I want to do it on a "likely" or "probable" ship-design that has only as few concessions regarding nature-sciences as possible, so only as much as are really, really required in order to make a gen ship work, since real sciences and economy wouldn't allow this kind of space-travel.

Back to topic this means: What does the generation ship by Alias (or others here, if they have developed and/ or deployed generation ships in their games or narrations) look like, and what concession did you make in order to make it "playable" and plausible ... ?

Thank you very much, all the best!
Liam
 
I doubt that there is anything official.

My advice is to create a size 1 world (or size 0 if your handy rules allow) and then imagine the ship as a city on the inside of a cylinder (like the O'Niel space stations) with an engineering section on the back.

Then you can use a small world map (inside out) as the land forms and anything for cities and space stations to fill in details.

YMMV,
Arthur
 
Liam: the only rulebook that covers generation ships with enough detail to make them is T4's Fire Fusion and Steel (commonly called FF&S2).

In T4, given the fuel rates for PP are per year (instead of CT's per month)... it's possible to put a (massively underpowered) ship with 100 years or so of fuel.

Note also that long term LS is huge... in CT terms...
Daily sludge LTLS:7.15 Td per person (plus Stateroom)
Fruits and Veggies: 14.3 Td per person (plus Stateroom)
Meat and Veggies: 35.7 Td per person (plus stateroom)
full up farming: 117 Td per person (plus stateroom)

I'd personally round these - but a little oddly.
Daily Sludge: 8+SR
Fruits and Veggies: 16+SR
Meat and Veggies: 32+SR
Varied Meats and Veggies: 64+SR
Farming: 128+SR
Ecosystem: 256+SR.
 
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Hey there,

thank you very much for the quick responses.

Just for clarifications: Which FF&S do you mean -

This one: Fire, Fusion & Steel v2

Or this one: T4 Fire, Fusion and Steel Revised

About 15 years back I owned the "Fire, Fusion & Steel" supplement for TNE, and I loved it so much. But 'cause none of my friends was interested in playing SF-rpgs, I split from the items and sold them after a while. And I remember it being a hard decision even selling FF&S, because I used it to create spaceships for a Star Wars group in the mid-nineties for a short period of time. Am glad to see that this supplement still exists in the traveller-verses.

All the best!
Liam
 
Ever read O'Donell's Myflies?

In this book the ship is (or becomes) basically a generation one, and (IIRC, there's some time since I read it) it takes hydrogen from the so-called vaccum (as few as there can be) as fuel. IDK if this would be possible, but the reading is entertaining.
 
The TSR game, Metamorphosis Alpha, was sent in a generation ship. I am not sure how hard it would be to find a copy.

Also, the 1959 book, The Forgotten Star, first in the Digby Allen series, postulated the asteroid Eros as an alien generation ship, and would be worth looking at.
 
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