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Imperial Cultural Exchange Program

Following the Civil War (604-622), a popular grassroots movement amoung the nobility came into being. In order to help prevent another civil war and to increase the impact of Imperial culture upon its member worlds, STL vessels loaded with examples of this multi-world Imperial culture (both people and items) are built and launched. Their voyages will begin at Core and radiate outward from there to each domain capital, new ships built and launched
from each domain capital to each sector capital, with new ships built there and launched to each subsector capital, and each subsector capital building a ship to send to each of its high
population worlds. This outward expansion is then followed by an inward return from high population worlds to subsector capital to
sector capital to domain capital to Imperial capital.

This STL cultural reinforcement/exchange program is both designed to strengthen the unity of the Imperial member worlds, act as a sort of 'time capsule', and to act as a hedge against another Long Night (each ship would have a comprehensive library onboard built to assist in the technological bootstrapping of an Imperial world
should its government collapse and the Imperium fall). They are travelling combination museums, libraries, and theaters.

At each stop, the ships are ordered to not only distribute their cultural items but to also collect items of cultural significance from the Imperial member worlds to bring back to Core.

The ships are not jump-capable in order to make use of relativity effects to prolong the lifespan of their cargoes.

Now, tell me if this makes sense as an idea for the 3I. The ships are relatively small (10 kilotons or less, most likely in the 1000
ton range). Cultural items would include entertainments like books, music, dramas, sports, philosophies, religions, anything deemed
significant by that culture. Would the Imperium and its member worlds support such an idea? If not, why? Could the basic idea be modified or improved so that it could work?
 
Q1: How would such a ship land and diseminate it's data on a former TL9+ world that was somehow reduced to TL3 or less?

Q2: How would the natives of such a world react to a shiny robotic ship that lands and announces "I come from beyond the stars, bearing the knowledge and wisdom of those who dwell there. Attend to my teachings, and be restored to glory!"

Q3: Considering Q2 and Q3, how would the Imperial cultural scientists program the probes to initiate first contact protocols in order to preclude the formation of 'Cargo Cults' on the lost worlds?

Q4: Who will be the first to apply this to adventure seed material?
 
Not quite the same thing (and my memory might be off), but weren't there STL ships carrying the knowledge of a wiped out race from their home system to another system in the Chamax Plague 2-parter adventure?

Maybe you could look there for some ideas?
 
I don't know how many holes a PC group could poke into this idea, but I plan on using it. However, corsairs and naval units are going to be a little busier IMTU.

Adventure Seed
· With the STL Cultural Exchange ship leaving <insert world name>, <insert MegaCorp/other world government name> can now intercept it and perform a little PR spinning or sully the name of a rival Mega Corp/world. The PCs are contacted to perform this discrete job in open space between systems. This will involve a deep space jump, vector matching and security overrides. The core will be watching every Cultural Exchange vessel route but a careful group could pull it off. (Yeah right.)

1. The job is as presented, ship skills, T/ skills and Forgery will win the day.
2. As #1 above, but the automated ship is much more capable of repelling boarders than expected. Time to pull out those Robotic NPCs.
3. The job was meant to fail. The patron does not represent LSP, but instead works for their rival and wants this to look like a LSP black-op gone bad.
4. As #1 above, however the originating world believes its people are its best commodity. The ship has been filled with over a million low berths. Large berths contain whole families, livestock and the biomass to fill an entire ecosystem. “Think of it as a little slice of Ruie from us to you.”
5. Q-ship! This STL vessel is meant to be like a Roach Motel: “Pirates check in, but they don’t check out!” Imagine a 10,000d-ton automated prison ship travelling through space collecting its own lawbreakers.
6. As #4 above, however the low berth cargo are actually the dregs of society from<insert world name>. Now if you were into the slave trade this could become your own secret gold mine. Get past the automated defenses, grab a hold full of future servants and head for your favorite free port. Repeat as necessary, till someone with bigger guns jumps your claim.
 
Keklas Rekobah, the first Adventure Seeds have been provided by Burocrate to answer Q4.

Now for the answers to Q1, Q2, and Q3. A high population world that is considered a hub of a subsector has suffered some kind of catastrophe that has reduced it to below TL3 and there has not been any assistance provided by the Third Imperium. This is now in the realm of Worst Case Scenario because something is preventing the 3I from helping (must be a big something) and a subsector hub has been crunched. The crew of the STL ship would them work to bootstrap and uplift the world By Any Means Necessary to restore it to a postition of power. If that means Cargo Cults, then so be it because the crew is looking at the potential of another Long Night and that world may just be the only light left.

The patented Sigg Oddra Interactive Widescreen Plasma TV (solar powered with satellite reception) may be needed in a scenario like that.
 
Is this something for CT or TNE?
First off, I interpet this as being something from a century or more after M0. To me, this is not a case of 'on your mark, get set, go! Everybody build a ship and launch it.' This is a multi generational program. Every 10 - 20yrs, build a 'cheap' STL ship. It would'nt be designed to land, just orbit a planet that its rudimentary sensors indicated had a specified TL. Send the information contained in its data banks, request an info upload, and move on after x days/weeks in orbit.

I think that this is a great idea.

Chuck
 
I would love to see this used in a TNE format where a ship enters either a pocket empire or is taken by the Guild and the PC's need to retrieve it.
Perhaps this would be the begining of a cultures climb back into the stars.
10K to 50K Dtons would hold a lot of technology. :D
 
This idea is for all settings after the Imperial Civil War (that being the event which brought about the idea). The ships would be targets of all factions during MT and the Rebellion. The ships would also be great prizes or weapons during TNE and the Virus Era, pocket empires would want them for their technological knowledge and Virus would want them as anything from Near-C rocks for world killers to mobile bases.

Come to think of it, the ships could be a symbol of the tragedy of the MT Rebellion since they were created to help prevent such an event by providing support from the far member worlds to the core of the Imperium and back again. Dulinor's assassination of Strephon being the demonstration of the Third Imperium's failure because it was a betrayal for power at the highest level of that cultural and governmental body. I hadn't really thought of that before.
 
"... the ship sends a large display screen to the surface, which just happens to be a black rectangle... The patented Sigg Oddra Interactive Widescreen Plasma TV (solar powered with satellite reception)"


Amazing device; it's dimensions are always in a 9:4:1 ratio, even though its physical size may vary ("... as large as it needs to be...").

Too bad it's not cable-ready!
 
Originally posted by Keklas Rekobah:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />"... the ship sends a large display screen to the surface, which just happens to be a black rectangle... The patented Sigg Oddra Interactive Widescreen Plasma TV (solar powered with satellite reception)"


Amazing device; it's dimensions are always in a 9:4:1 ratio, even though its physical size may vary ("... as large as it needs to be...").

Too bad it's not cable-ready!
</font>[/QUOTE]Who needs cable, it's full of stars! ;)
 
Then these ships were "all" created before virus was was released? Will they travel across the rift? Ah yes, they are sent out to all sectors of the Imperium.
I would love to see some possible stats for these ships and their cargos.
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