United Worlds Campaign

[jwdh71]

Hi everyone on COTI. I've decided to start a new Traveller campaign, but none of my players really wanted to play a "hard" SF game, so I started thinking. I'm calling my new campaign the United Worlds, it is an alternate history to the normal Traveller Universe. The point of departure from the normal TU is the Ancients, they did take samples of humaniti to other planets, but they weren't Grandfather and his kids. They too had a war, but with each other or someone (or something) else isn't known (well, I know, but the characters don't . They also developed some new technologies, including a type of FTL that I call Hypergates, which allows instantaneous travel between systems equipped with them. The same races that are in the OTU are there, some are a little different, such as the Vilani having not had the sweeping empire that they did in the OTU, and no Vargr having existed (there will be a canine race, but they are an uplifted race from Terra).
The wars between the Vilani and the Terrans never occured, since the Vilani weren't a threat and there was much more of a parity between the two civilizations.

The traditional "bad guy" races from the OTU will be there, the Zhodani gaining more space since the Vargr Extants doesn't exist, the K'Kree being as militantly vegetarian as ever. I'm adding another human "bad guy" race, known as the Transhumans, or Transies for short. They are the remnants of the Terrans who fought against the banning of further genetic modification of themselves and others, as well as the creating of "slave" races and cyborgs.

This is intended to be a little bit more of a "space opera" setting the the OTU, and I wanted to get some ideas from the venerable members of the COTI. Any ideas that anyone may have, please post it here.

As always, YMMV
John Hamill
jwdh71@ayhoo.com

 

[kaladorn]

Originally posted by jwdh71:
Hypergates, which allows instantaneous travel between systems equipped with them.

no Vargr having existed (there will be a canine race, but they are an uplifted race from Terra).

John Hamill

Hypergates sound like TL 21+ matter transporters in the classic universe.

And, just as an aside, Vargr ARE uplifted Terran canines, so.....

 

[jwdh71]

Hypergates sound like TL 21+ matter transporters in the classic universe.

And, just as an aside, Vargr ARE uplifted Terran canines, so.....

Yes they are a bit like the TL 21+ matter transporters, but with some differences, like they cannot be used in a gravity well, so they have to be placed in the system, usually well away from any planetary bodies, they are easily copyable by anyone with TL 12 or better technology, however while they may be copied, the principles behind their operation are well beyond that TL's ability to comprehend.

I do realize that Vargr are Terran canines uplifted by the Ancients, what I was trying to get across is that in this universe, the Ancients either didn't do it, or the project was dropped for some reason, so that there is not a seperate Vargr civilization. Bowman's Wolf (the name of which should be familiar to those who follow webcomics) are the Vargr equivalents in this universe, they were uplifted by Terrans during a time of large ambitious genetics programs, so are part of the Terran family and the United Worlds, they speak Galanglic and don't have a seperate culture.

Do you have any other comments or questions about this project? I really want to get some feedback from people here to these ideas, so I can tell if I'm on the right track or not.

As always, YMMV
John Hamill
jwdh71@yahoo.com

 

[Jame]

Well, it _is_ Your campaign, so the parts pretty much anything you want. I think yours is a good setting, though (so why not post a summary in "Homegrown Campaigns" in this section?), and has a bit of the feel of David Brin's Sundiver series in it.

That's pretty much it for my comment. If I think of anything else I'll tell you.

 

[Ran Targas]

^ Very cool and sounds like a lot of fun. IMHO, homegrown is always better (ducking the canon ball aimed at my head)!

The stargates would be very useful to take players way off the beaten path and expose them to more of the backstory (I have similar but my players don't understand their use yet).

I too have turned the OTU races on their collective heads and created new backstories; all I can say is GO FOR IT! My Aslan, Vargr, Zho, Hivers, and Droyne only look like their OTU counterparts, otherwise their histories and motivations are very different.

Good luck and keep us posted on your successes!

 

[jwdh71]

Well, it's been a while since I posted anything about my new campaign, so here's an update. The basics are done enough to begin, and character generation has started. After considering using GURPS for a number of reasons, mostly due to the amount of published resources for it, my players prevailed upon me to use T20. The characters so far are as follows: A Tau ex-United Worlds Star Navy pilot (Navy7/Ace Pilot2), a human (heavy worlder dwarf) ex-UW Star Marine (Marine6), a Vilani ex-liner captain (Merchant8), and two others who haven't yet made up their minds yet.

The campaign is a Special Ops one, the characters have all been recruited by the United Worlds Star Rangers (the UW's special forces) to do a covert "sneak and peek" beyond the frontier. They have been given the use of a "broken down" TL12, 300 dton frontier trading ship, which just happens to have cleverly disguised TL15 drives, and weapons. It also happens to be fairly well equipped, with several goodies waiting in cargo containers in the hold (assault speeders and weapons and battledress, oh my!). The major baddies in the beginning of the campaign will be the breakaway Terrans known as the Transhumans, and they'll be a real challenge for them, but I have even worse in store for the players as they get comfortable with the system.

I don't have a website yet, but am looking into putting one up. When I do I'll post the URL for everyone to see it.

As always, YMMV
John Hamill
jwdh71@yahoo.com

 

[Antony]

For a bit of inspiration (not that it sounds like you need it!) The Larry Niven novel "The Mote in Gods Eye" mentions the Sauron Supermen a race of genetically enhanced humans. The war between these and the rest of humanity brought about the collapse of the first empire.

 

[Whipsnade]

Antony wrote:

"For a bit of inspiration (not that it sounds like you need it!) The Larry Niven novel "The Mote in Gods Eye" mentions the Sauron Supermen a race of genetically enhanced humans. The war between these and the rest of humanity brought about the collapse of the first empire."


Sir,

An excellent suggestion! Larry NIven's and Jerry Pournelle's Saurons would neatly fit the bill.

The Saurons are only mentioned in passing in MiGE and the fall of the First Empire of Man is indeed blamed on them. Those laying the blame are doing so from a distance of centuries however. In the shared universe 'War World' novels, Pournelle has signed off on further elaborations of the First Empire's collapse and the Sauron Supermen themselves.

The Saurons seem to have developed a functioning caste system complete with specially bred sophonts for each role. There are 'soldiers'; little more than worker ants of a sort, cyborgs; biomechanical horrors who supposedly embody the Final Goal of the Sauron people (AFAIK, this idea predates Star Blecch's Borg), and 'run of the mill' genetically modified people; whether they are a result of eugenics or actual genetic manipulation is unclear.

The genetically enhanced Saurons fill all the 'officer', 'management', and 'thinking' roles. The more heavily modified and specialized 'soldiers' are cannon fodder and labor. The cyborgs fill a specialized combat niche along with a general advisory role that is almost religious in nature. In that function, they act much like priests or commisars; forex: The captain of the misjumped Sauron cruiser 'Dol Guldar' must worry about whether the few cyborgs aboard will accede to his plans to land on Haven (War World) and recreate the Sauron state.

Also in the 'War World' books, we learn that the fall of the First Empire was due to the usual melange of historical forces in which the Saurons played a leading, but far from primary, role.

Spoiler Alert:


We also learn that R&D efforts by the CoDominium and the Empire may have actually begun the process that led to the Sauron supermen and cyborgs in the first place.


Sincerely,
Larsen

 

[Whipsnade]

jwdh71 wrote:

"Do you have any other comments or questions about this project? I really want to get some feedback from people here to these ideas, so I can tell if I'm on the right track or not."


Mr. Hamill,

Are you and your players having fun? That is the only bit of feedback that counts; Are you and your players having fun? Nothing else matters, nothing.

I think your setting sounds excellent and can't wait for your website to appear so that I can stea^^^^ (ahem) admire your work.


Sincerely,
Larsen

 

[savage]

jwdh71,

I like YTU. I have recently started my own here in the tampa bay area. Using some similar thoughts.

Grandfather and his kids were more like Roman Generals in a civil war. They no longer exist and their society is gone.

I placed my players in 1212 at Corridor Depot after explaining that it fought off the 500 ship Vargr invasions and started the Vilani-Regency battles in orbit...now 90 years later a commonwealth is underway and the players are privateer/ mercs running govt missions. And of course my scouts are Rangers as well. The players purchased a refitted armed liner and are off on a twisted version of the Kinunir mission. If your curious check out my website.
But the reason I'm responding is your Hypergates.
I too have implemented jumpgates and stargates.
My jumpgates reduce the outgoing fuel usage by 50% providing a jump ship with the bubble and the opening into jumpspace. They survived the rebellion because no one wanted to loose them... even virus. Also, the Ancient built jumpgates are impervious to virus attack.
For the ancients stargates, I have a limited supply of 4 highly secret, gates in the Imperium (a research station near Core, Regina, Diaspora Depot, and Corridor Depot). The Core gate was lost in the Rebellion (buried 100+km). The 4th Imperium doesn't even know its there.
These worked similar to SG-1 except they were in the hands of ISS. And were generally used to search for alien technologies. Underutilized for anything other than galactic research and providing ISS with a before knowledge of events. When virus hit they were sealed and then re-opened in 1210.

Savage

 

[jwdh71]

Mr. Whipsnade: Yes! Niven and Pournelle's Saurons were one of the inspirations for the Transies, as the United Worlds call them. The other inspirations are the GURPS Transhuman Space setting, and several novels I have read in the past, including one called Space Angel, I believe by John Maddox Roberts, which had a genetically engineered human species known as Vivers (short for survivers).

I decided to do a slightly more "space opera" campaign this time, but still wished to use a few of the standard Traveller ideas, so rather than build an entirely new universe, I decided to graft the necessary changes onto the OTU, which made the current maps and many of the worlds detailed in canon materials still very useful. The United Worlds covers the territories of the 3rd Imperium, the Solomani Confederation, the Aslan Heirate, and Hiver space, whatever it's called. It is definitely the biggest government in known space, but is actually closer knit then the 3rd Imperium is in the OTU due to the near instant communications ability the Hypergate system gives them. The Transhuman government is to rimward, and has combat power out of proportion to its size due to it's heavy use or genetic upgrades, cybernetics, nanotechnology, and robotics. The Zhodani are nastier, becoming a true totalitarian psionic state, and the Consulate is larger, taking up the spinward area of what in the OTU is the Vargr Extents (since there are no Vargr).

There is a lot of differences in technology, with some things I have added in from GURPS, and others from different sources. The feel is definitely high-tech, with the frontier feel of much of the OTU being limited to the frontiers away from the big polities.

All in all, the feedback from my players is good, and I wil let you know how the first game session goes.

As always, YMMV
John Hamill
jwdh71@yahoo.com

 

[jwdh71]

jwdh71,

I like YTU. I have recently started my own here in the tampa bay area. Using some similar thoughts.

Grandfather and his kids were more like Roman Generals in a civil war. They no longer exist and their society is gone.

I placed my players in 1212 at Corridor Depot after explaining that it fought off the 500 ship Vargr invasions and started the Vilani-Regency battles in orbit...now 90 years later a commonwealth is underway and the players are privateer/ mercs running govt missions. And of course my scouts are Rangers as well. The players purchased a refitted armed liner and are off on a twisted version of the Kinunir mission. If your curious check out my website.
But the reason I'm responding is your Hypergates.
I too have implemented jumpgates and stargates.
My jumpgates reduce the outgoing fuel usage by 50% providing a jump ship with the bubble and the opening into jumpspace. They survived the rebellion because no one wanted to loose them... even virus. Also, the Ancient built jumpgates are impervious to virus attack.
For the ancients stargates, I have a limited supply of 4 highly secret, gates in the Imperium (a research station near Core, Regina, Diaspora Depot, and Corridor Depot). The Core gate was lost in the Rebellion (buried 100+km). The 4th Imperium doesn't even know its there.
These worked similar to SG-1 except they were in the hands of ISS. And were generally used to search for alien technologies. Underutilized for anything other than galactic research and providing ISS with a before knowledge of events. When virus hit they were sealed and then re-opened in 1210.

Savage

Interesting, Savage, I guess an example of weird minds thinking alike!

I like the Ancients, I just didn't want to use them as in the OTU, where anyone with any knowledge of Traveller knew exactly what they were, so in MTU they aren't Grandfather and his kids. They left no pictures, video or audio recordings of themselves, so no one knows WHO they were, or even if it was just one race or a number of races. They left examples of technology around, some in working condition, some not, and some in what can only be described as technology storehouses. The two biggest examples of course are the jump drive, and the Hypergate network.

The Hypergates the Ancients constructed are tough, powered by some unknown source, and capable of self-repair, even to the point of reconstructing themselves from small pieces. It also seems that the network itself is capable of self propagating, as there have been reports that systems have been scouted thoroughly, and found to have no Hypergate, then later one is found in an already checked orbit. Of course anyone with the technology to make jump drives can pretty much make a copy of the Hypergate, albeit larger, less capable, total power hogs and not able to self repair. The Ancients network covers 50% to 75% of the systems in this area of the galaxy, thinning out coreward and rimward. Most of the rest of the inhabited systems use copies to access the Hypergate network. As the network makes instantaneous travel across vast distances possible, in civilized areas it means that no planet who has access to the network is more than a few hours or days away from any other. It also would mean that any system would be able to be swiftly invaded, except for a feature of the network. There is a code for every Hypergate, that corresponds to its location in space. You can "lockout" gates, either individually or in groups, so that no one using those gates can access your gates. Thus the Hypergates in Zhodani space cannot connect to the ones in the United Worlds, and vice versa. There is no known way to override this "lockout" without physically taking possession of the Hypergate itself and changing the lockout codes, so Hypergates are both a highly desirable target, and a heavily defended resource during wartime.

I too use Hypergates for research, in several UW "depot" systems there are gates that aren't lockout coded, and can connect to almost any gate outside the UW. These are used to send exploration groups out, as well as to try to insert intelligence gathering missions into systems near the borders of the UW's enemies. There they can use good old jump drive to get into position to gather information.

As always, YMMV
John Hamill
jwdh71@yahoo.com

 

[savage]

jwdh71,

Nice I like the way your handling the gates. But are they completely self sustaining jumps.

The canon idea is that jump drives use part of the jump fuel to stay in jumpspace.

A rare version would be an interesting use, on a lesser scale, for major jumps (J6+).

I suspect that a TL15 engineer would be stumped by TL21+ gates. Like B5 they could build them but they'd be no where as good. Self repairing that is a good idea. nanobot type approach.


Savage

 

[jwdh71]

Savage;

The Hypergates as I use them are near instantaneous, sending the ship using it from the originating gate to the destination gate in mere seconds, no matter how far away the Hypergates are from each other. Distance seems to have nothing to do with the amount of time actually spent in transit, since there have been recorded transits across the entire width of the United Worlds in fractions of a second, while once a transit from the Hypergate in the Sol system to the one around Alpha Centauri took 10.5 seconds.

Scientists have taken measurements while transitting through the gates, and report readings similar to jump space, so the current theory is that the Hypergates open into a higher level of jump space, faster than normal jump space, and not requiring the "jump bubble" of gasses to remain stable. I do use the canon concept of the jump bubble for regular jump drive, but it's not needed for Hypergate transit. The only thing a ship needs for using the Hypergate network is a functioning Hypergate Control Device, or HGCD, called a Gate Key or just Key by most people. The HGCD is 1 dton, and can be fitted to any size craft, so there are even lifeboat sized small craft that carry them. With the cost and speed of travel between systems cut down the the cost of the hull and manuever drives, and the time cut to getting from the main planet to the Hypergate, zip through and travel to the main planet on the destination side, travel and trade are much greater than in the OTU, at least in the systems that are connected to the Hypergate network. For those who don't have a Hypergate in thier system, there is the good old standby, the jump drive, so frontier freighters use both systems.

Yes the original Hypergates are incredible pieces of technology, almost off the charts on the TL scale. The copies are very simple in comparison, and have MUCH fewer "features". No self-repair, not self-powered (huge banks of fusion generators needed to power the things), need constant repair and tuning, and are expensive to build and maintain. However if there is no Ancient Hypergate in the system, and the potential traffic justifies it, there is really no alternative to building one.

Scientists that study the Ancient's gates often try to find nanobots on the gates, both working gates and pieces of destroyed ones. They have never found any, but have no other explanation for the amazing self-repair mechanism.

As always, YMMV
John Hamill
jwdh71@yahoo.com

 

[jwdh71]

Since the original incarnation of this campaign lasted a grand total of three sessions, due to a number of complications that I would rather not go into (sheesh!), I'm giving it another shot. It will again be in T20, with the option of switching to GURPS:Traveller if the players feel more comfortable with that system. (I hope not, it's literally been YEARS since I ran GURPS!) I have about 4 players this time, and am hoping to get a long running campaign going this time (keeping fingers crossed).

Since I can't use the adventure that I started the earlier campaign with again (some of the players having been in the earlier campaign), I was wondering if any of you COTI members had any ideas for a decent starter adventure for some relative Traveller newbies. It's a special ops campaign, and I'm kind of stumped for ideas at this time. Any help would be greastly appreciated.

As always, YMMV
John Hamill
jwdh71 (at) yahoo.com