O
Omnivore
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Dark Stars
an Alternate Traveller Universe setting
Dark Stars is a variant of the Hard Times/One Small Step setting. In Dark Stars, the only non-hard science fiction technology is the FTL travel mechanism. It is not a near future setting however, it is a far far future setting as the far-flung children of Earth try to rebuild past glories even though their ancient, now legendary if not forgotten, home world is lost in time and space.
The Dark Stars setting removes the following elements from Traveller: gravitics, nuclear dampeners, meson guns and screens, plasma/fusion guns, sandcasters, and psionics. Other elements remain but are changed quite a bit, most notably computers, electronics, certain power plant and drive fuel usage rates, advanced armors, and especially lasers. A few new elements are introduced, including materials technologies such as metastable metallic hydrogen and crystalline boron nitride nanotubes.
The largest shift in the setting beyond the technology changes and the lack of an Imperium, is that without a low cost to orbit solution, space stations and habitats are far more common. As far as the game itself goes, the biggest changes are in vehicle design and space combat.
Dark Stars (*will attempt*
) attempts to balance the desire for realism vs the desires for simplicity and playability without sacrificing science (too badly at least).
I'll be adding in a simplified variant of the Lares drive I posted in another thread to cover the FTL needs of the setting. The portion I'm currently concentrating on is the hull portion of vehicle design.
Feedback, ideas, critics, etc all welcome - hope this is of interest!
an Alternate Traveller Universe setting
Dark Stars is a variant of the Hard Times/One Small Step setting. In Dark Stars, the only non-hard science fiction technology is the FTL travel mechanism. It is not a near future setting however, it is a far far future setting as the far-flung children of Earth try to rebuild past glories even though their ancient, now legendary if not forgotten, home world is lost in time and space.
The Dark Stars setting removes the following elements from Traveller: gravitics, nuclear dampeners, meson guns and screens, plasma/fusion guns, sandcasters, and psionics. Other elements remain but are changed quite a bit, most notably computers, electronics, certain power plant and drive fuel usage rates, advanced armors, and especially lasers. A few new elements are introduced, including materials technologies such as metastable metallic hydrogen and crystalline boron nitride nanotubes.
The largest shift in the setting beyond the technology changes and the lack of an Imperium, is that without a low cost to orbit solution, space stations and habitats are far more common. As far as the game itself goes, the biggest changes are in vehicle design and space combat.
Dark Stars (*will attempt*

I'll be adding in a simplified variant of the Lares drive I posted in another thread to cover the FTL needs of the setting. The portion I'm currently concentrating on is the hull portion of vehicle design.
Feedback, ideas, critics, etc all welcome - hope this is of interest!