Rules Light RPGs

The StarForce

The StarForce is the Confederation’s military arm. It is charged with the defense of the Confederation, the enforcement of Confederation law in space (and, when necessary, on member planets to the limited extent allowed by the Confederation constitution), and exploration. Most of the Confederation budget goes to its support.

StarForce Ship Designs

Due to the requirements of Confederation hyperspace drive technology, most large starships are a snub-nosed wedge with twin outrider hyperdrive pods containing the hyperdrives port and starboard toward the aft. Small starcraft (under 75 meters in length) are more varied in design.

StarForce capital ships generally fall in one of the following classes: Scout, Destroyer, Light Cruiser, Heavy Cruiser, Starcruiser, Battleship. Except for the Battleship (and the Battle Crusier variant of the Heavy Crusier), all of these vessels are useful in peacetime exploration and police missions as well as in war.

Weapons Systems

Most StarForce vessels are equipped with some or all of the following weapons systems:

PLASMA GUNS: These weapons fire gravitationally-contained bursts of plasma at the enemy and do not require ammunition as they are powered from the vessel’s power plant. Plasma guns are the main anti-ship weapons, since they can be made powerful enough to penetrate any shield and still do severe damage to the target ship.

SCAM MISSILES: These are self-guided missiles with a small anti-matter warhead. They do a large amount of damage if they get past the target ship’s shields.

NM TORPEDOES: These a high speed, short range unguided projectiles formed of pure energy. They are very effective at taking down the target ship’s shields by overloading them.

Quarters

Due to the long duration of the average StarForce capital vessel’s overall mission (five years), the StarForce pays extra attention to the needs of vessel personnel. Each person aboard a capital StarForce vessel is normally assigned approximately 120 square meters of living space (about 20 square meters less for enlisted personnel and about 20 square meters more for senior officers). A crew member’s quarters typically account for about 60% of this space and include a bedroom, a work area, and a small bathroom. Crew members who wish to live in a group may have their space allocations combined to form a single larger area. Quarters decks are designed with movable walls with that in mind. A number of amenities are available, depending on one’s rank and needs, from the food synthesizers, computer terminals, and ultrasonic showers in all quarters to holographic walls and null gravity sleeping chambers.

DreamSpace

Ship computers are programmed with several elaborate worlds which they are able to create in the minds of most sapients via neural induction through headbands called “dreambands”. Time in these DreamSpaces passes at the speed of thought, so 15 to 20 minutes of real time connected to the ships computer is normally about a day in DreamSpace. DreamSpace is used for relaxation in the StarForce universe much the way the Holodecks are in that TV series. In most humanoids, connection to DreamSpace for more than 45 to 60 minutes a day causes severe headaches.

Confederation StarForce Ranks

OFFICERS

Flag Officers:
Fleet Admiral
Admiral
Vice Admiral
Rear Admiral
Field Officers:
Commodore
Fleet Captain
Captain
Commander
Officers:
Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant
Ensign
Midshipman

While all officers are trained to give orders and command StarForce personal, there are two classes of officers: line officers and staff officers. Line officers are those in the direct chain of command of a vessel, the highest ranking line officer present would assume command of a vessel if something happened to his superior line officers — even if there were still superior in rank staff officers present. Midshipman are officers in training and are seldom assigned to capital ships. The commanding officer of a ship, no matter what his actual rank, is always addressed as “Captain”.

TECHNICIANS

Technician 10
Technician 9
Technician 8
Technician 7
Technician 6
Technician 5
Technician 4
Technician 3
Technician 2
Technician 1

Technicians are highly trained specialists who are considered officers, but only have authority over crewmen assigned to aid them in their duties and only in areas related to those duties. The various Technician ranks are actually pay grades. They are addressed as “Mister” unless they have a more appropriate honorific (e.g. “Doctor”). Technicians are not actually in the normal chain of command of the ship.

CREW

Petty Officers:
Chief Petty Officer
Master Petty Officer
Senior Petty Officer
Petty Officer
Crewmen:
Senior Crewman
Crewman First Class
Able Crewman
Crewman

Sample Capital Ship

Here is a sample StarForce capital vessel designed to fulfill a similar function in the PSC to the main ship of that popular TV show.

KAISER CLASS Starcruiser

Specifications

Form: snub-nosed wedge with aft outrider hyperdrive pods
Length.............................617 m
                       Aft          Forward
Beam...................227 m ...... 45 m
Draft..................105 m ...... 25 m
Mass.............7.3 million metric tons

Ship’s Complement

Officers.............................112
Technicians..........................450
Crew.................................600
Marine Officers........................5
Marines...............................95
====
Standard Ship's Complement..........1262

Standard Features

Turbolifts................8 systems of 6 cars each
Transporters.............14 personnel, 10 Cargo
Fighter Bays..............2 (20 fighters each)
Shuttle Bays..............1
Oracle Sensor Array.......1

Propulsion

2 Emacs Limited Hyperdrive Mark J7 Hyperpods
5 Skardu Thruster Technologies Thruster Drive Units

Small Craft

Command Launch...................1
Shuttle craft...................18
Runabouts/landing craft..........6
Heavy Fighters (Angz class).....10
Light Fighters (Saris class)....30
Marine Dropships (Wyvern class)..4

Weapons

Plasma Guns...............12 banks (6 forward, 2 port/starboard/aft)
SCAM Missiles..............6 banks (4 forward, 1 port/starboard)
NM Torpedoes...............3 banks (2 forward, 1 aft)
Tractor/Pressor Beam.......1 bank (lower)

Deck by Deck

Deck # Length Main features
1      1/4    Main Bridge, Ready Room, Observation Lounge, Operations
2      1/3    Senior Officers Quarters, Oracle Sensor Array
3      1/3    Officers Quarters, Oracle Sensor Array Computer core
4      1/2    Administrative
5      1/2    Science Labs
6      1/2    Science Labs
7      2/3    SCAM Missile Banks
8      3/4    Configurable Mission Specific
9      3/4    Configurable Mission Specific
10     3/4    Configurable Mission Specific
11     3/4    Communications, NM Torpedoes
12     Full   Ship's Services
13     Full   Technician Quarters
14     Full   Sickbay, life science labs, medical labs, recreation, gym
15     Full   Battle Bridge, Engineering, computer core, environmental
              support, Plasma banks
16     Full   Crew Quarters, life support,
17     Full   Crew Quarters, Thruster Engineering
18     Full   Maintenance, Hyperdrive Engineering, Fighter Bays
19     3/4    Petty Officer Quarters, SCAM Missle Banks
20     3/4    Mission-Specific, NM Torpedo Banks
21     3/4    Mission-Specific
22     3/4    Mission-Specific
23     2/3    Cargo and Storage
24     1/2    Cargo and Storage
25     1/2    Shuttle Bay, Shuttle Maintenance
26     1/2    Power Generation, Fabrication
27     1/3    Power Engineering, Accumulators, Tractor/Pressor 
28     1/4    Oracle Sensor Array
29     1/4    Marine Quarters, Marine Dropships

Notes: Starcruisers are the StarForce’s compromise between the terribly expensive to operate battleships and multi-mission heavy cruisers. Starcruisers as as large as a battleship and as well-armed as a battle cruiser. They mount the Oracle long range sensor system which makes them great multi-mission exploratory vessels in peacetime and an excellent fleet command vessel in conflict situations. Many of a Starcruiser’s lab and office areas are designed for easy and quick conversion to other uses in time of conflict. Additionally, three decks (decks 8-10) are designed to be easy to reconfigure to match the needs of the ship’s current major mission. Three decks (decks 21-23) vary from Starcruiser to Starcruiser based on StarForce needs at the time the ship is built.

While not much more powerful than a battlecruiser, due to their size, Starcruisers are far more impressive when there is a need to “show the flag” and far less expensive to operate than a battleship.

One of my players said that it would be fantastic if there was a way to play a single character in every universe possible with the Tiny D6 rules. Naturally, I came up with several ways this could be handled as we were talking about the idea to the slight shock of my players who are too new to playing with me to know than I can usually “spin up” ideas for settings and such on the fly. Here’s a brief write-up of the idea they liked best. It’s an obvious variation on Lovecraft’s “dreamlands”. It is not play-tested at all and is somewhat rough around the edges.

The base characters — that is, the character’s personality, outlook on life, etc. — have a humdrum existence in the real world working jobs, having families, etc. By night however, they are among the Earth’s “Great Dreamers” who live somewhat separate lives in dreamworlds…

Beth slowly drifted off to sleep beside her husband. in her sleep, she descended the 70 steps to the Cavern of Flame where the bearded priests Kaman-Thah and Nasht were maintaining the holy flame. She made the complex sign of dreams with her hands and asked if her friends had arrived yet. Nasht bowed to the holy flame, turned to her and gestured to a random point on the walls of the chamber where an archway appeared. Kaman-Thah murmured that she was the last to arrive and her friends awaited her within.

Beth thanked the priests, bowed to the Holy Flame, and walked through the archway to where her friends awaited. Tonight they were visiting one of their favorite dreamworlds: Zankhara, a relatively savage world of barbarians, pirates, and dark magic.

After a short discussion or their plans, her friend Robert touch the emblem of the flame on the wall before them and the wall opened to a version of the rune-covered seven hundred steps to the Gate of Deeper Slumber. The pattern and color of the runes matched her memory of the stairs to Zankhara, so she lead the way down the steps, joining her friends in discussing what had happened the last time they were in Zankhara as their forms slowly changed from their waking world forms to those of their Zankhara avatars.

By the time they reached the Gate of Deeper Slumber, she had assumed of her Zankhara avatar Ruth — the bastard daughter of a Umalau master scholar and a warrior and excellent navigator on sea or land. Her waking world memories faded as her Zankharan memories came to the fore. Ruth stepped through the gate and with a sudden shift in a direction that should not exist woke up in a bed in the Daft Unicorn. Looking out the window she saw the Golden Dodger, her group’s ship. She longed for the open sea — anything to get out of this oppressive town….

Game Mechanics

The game mechanics are simple. I’m giving them in Tiny D6 form as that is what we are currently using, but this should be easy to adapt to most games that have some type of “roll for success” mechanic.

Players can adventure in any setting their GM has ready for play. The players create a character, call an avatar, for each setting using the normal Tiny D6 rules for that setting. All of a single player’s avatars should have very similar personalities and general beliefs as they are all the same person, but their form, traits and memories are those of the particular setting. When the players enter a dreamworld, they assume the form of their avatar for that dreamworld. When the players temporarily leave that setting by “waking up” to resume their boring waking lives (usually at the end of a game session), the form remains ready for the next time they choose to visit that dreamworld.

What happens if a character dies? The player creates a new character which becomes their avatar in that dreamworld. In overarching waking world “fiction,” the player wakes up briefly with vague horrible memories of something “getting” them and they falls back asleep, descends to the proper gate, and steps though as their new avatar in a position able to rejoin their group ASAP. The same thing can happen if the a player just wants a new character. The old character retires/settles down/goes off to school/whatever at the end of a session and the player starts a new avatar the next time the group plays in that setting.

What about Experience? Assuming experience is used at all, that’s up to the players and GM. For example, each dreamworld avatar could have its own experience total or experience could be a part of the waking world player (like basic personality) and carry over to every dreamworld avatar the player has in some manner. If the latter, an avatar from one dreamworld probably should only be able to advance with experience earned by the base player in another dreamworld when the avatar has downtime to reflect and/0r study/train.

What about memories of other avatars? Can an avatar in one dreamworld remember experiences another avatar of the same player had in their dreamworld? Memories of the player’s waking world are somewhat remote. An avatar needs to successfully roll a test to remember waking world details (other than group info/plans, of course). An avatar can remember details of their alternate’s experiences in another dreamworld with a successful test with disadvantage and all such other dreamworld memories will be somewhat blurred, vague and dreamlike.

What is Zankhara? Zankhara is from “The Savage Seas of Zankhara” microsetting (created by Darren W. Pearce) for the Tiny Dungeon 2e rulebook (pp 134-138).

Playtesting would be needed to work out kinks and to add more details (if needed). This system should work well enough to be usable at the basic multi-setting system as is, however.

High Tech Alternative

A group’s main characters could be in a high tech setting where dreamworlds could be technologically created. For example, the main characters are spacers in a setting — main setting — where one has to sleep and dream through hyperspace travel to retain one’s sanity. The main campaign could be the SF setting the spacers are in. If the players and group wish to play some other setting for a break, they can play out their character time in a dreamworld generated by their ship’s computer during hyperspace travel.

What About Gates?

Gates are an obvious solution to the problem. Characters walk through the gate and end up in the setting the players want to play in now. This sounds like an exact solution to the desire to play “a single character in every universe possible with the Tiny D6 rules.” Unfortunately, gates have two major issues that often make them a poor solution in practice.

First, when a group of PCs go through a gate into a new universe, they are going to be the proverbial “strangers in a strange land”. The characters will have no knowledge of the universe they are entering and in many cases most of a character’s more advanced skills (e.g. technological and magical skills) may be next to useless in the new universe. For example, a German-speaking character built around  21st century medical skills with a side order of computer skills walks through a gate into Conan’s Hyboria. Second, some characters will simply be completely incompatible with some universes. For example, magic-using characters in a non-magical universe, characters that depend on a minimum level of technology/magic (or specific things like a specific drug) to simply survive or function.

While these problems can be fun to deal with for a while, especially if the campaign is about going through gates to explore strange new universes, they will quickly become more of a pain than fun for many if not most players. It’s easy to limit these problems by only having gates go to universes the base universe has known of and studied for a long enough time to educate gate walkers in the ways of the universe they are entering so they are less likely to be a “stranger in a strange land” and by limiting the places gates travel to places compatible with all the PCs. However, this solution is really more about running a campaign about a team of characters exploring different settings than it is the original idea of running almost separate campaigns in different settings using with (at some level) the same characters.

This is the second part of a short series of posts on the Pan Sentient Confederation, a system neutral “final frontier” mini-setting. The first post is here.

Please remember that this material was created in the 1990s for SRRT3 on the Genie online service with writing fiction in mind, so it probably goes into more (or less, in some cases) detail than needed for a tabletop RPG on some background material  This writeup was produced by taking messages I posted on SFRT3, editing them slightly to correct typos (and probably to add different typos), and rearranging the posted material to be somewhat more organized. All of this material is copyright 1996 by Randall Stukey.

Major Species

PSC Member Species

Binoids

These are binary humanoids. Part machine and part humanoid life form they have the strength and endurance of a machine but lack the imagination and flexibility of a humanoid. Their individual computational skills are equal to any but the best supercomputers. Their memory and “sampling rate” are superior to humans. They have less agility and speed than an athletic human.

In appearance they look like humanoids wearing pieces of power armor. They “eat” power and in a pinch can absorb solar energy but prefer artificial power sources.

There are two factions of this group. The Network, which is a large group of Binoids who live as a collective mind. The Rogues, a small number who revolted against the Network and live independently of the Network, in societies resembling humanoid societies. They have not developed the social skills that smooth humanoid relationships so there are continual disputes and somewhat of an anarchy.

The Network keeps to itself, refusing to have diplomatic or other relationships with other species. Occasionally they will attack ships or planets. This is thought to be for the purpose of finding spare parts and assimilating individual humanoids into their Network.

Individual Rogues have trade and other relations with the other humanoid species. Some serve in various planetary militaries and even in the Confederation. Most humanoids dislike them as individuals because they either refuse to or are unable to learn social skills.

The Network is not all that dangerous a foe. They make occasional raids and are more of a nuisance than a real danger to the Confederation or other worlds.

One can recognize the difference between a Binoid in the Network and one who is a Rogue. The Network Binoids are all of uniform appearance, their bionic parts are more uniform and of the same color, usually a dark grey. The Rogues have scavenged a lot of parts and crafted their own so they look more pie bald in appearance. (sort of like those old cars one sees that have one fender red and the rest of the body blue.) [created by Linda Robinett]

Humanity

The dominant species of the Pan Sentient Confederation is humanity. Terran humanity (and its various genetic offshoots created by genetic engineering) control about 45% of the approximately 10,000 Confederation’s member worlds. Humanity has matured a bit as it has spread through space, but is basically the same as it is now. Humanity in the PSC is much more tolerant of difference and somewhat less self-centered than than humanity of the late 20th century. The average true human has a life-expectancy of 150 years. This can be pushed to 250-300 years with expensive anti-agathics, a healthy life, and a lot of luck. Cybernetic enhancement was the vogue in the 2200s, but while still somewhat common today, it is now usually done for for specific purposes instead of simply because it can be done.

Thanks to the discovery of a major Forerunner site below the Western Australian desert in 2133, humanity has mastered basic genetic engineering. While Terran humanity is probably tens of thousands of years away from the ability to create new species from undifferentiated protoplasm as the Jorchim allegedly could, they can create sub-species of humanity and humanoid races tailored for specific talents and/or otherwise marginal planets. These creations are called sub-species because they are all genetically capable of interbreeding with each other and true humanity (even though, in some cases they might not be physically capable.) While, officially, there is no prejudice, many true humans look down on their genetic-engineered brethren.

After the abuses of World War IV (the so-called “Metamorph War”) in 2178, the Terran government has tried to maintain strict control of all genetic engineering projects and to hold those involved to extremely high ethical standards. While they have generally succeeded, there is still a Cartel-ran black market in genetically engineered humanoid slaves of various types in Confederation space and beyond. While the Terran government freely shares the knowledge they gained from the Forerunner site, they maintain a virtual monopoly on many of the biochemicals needed for more radical genetic engineering as they can (thus far) only be made by massive Forerunner equipment at the Australia site.

L-Rame

The L-Rame are a stoic, nearly emotionless humanoid species from a large, hot desert world bound by family duties, strange traditions and philosophies, and logic. While they are a small minority species in the Confederation, their great scientific and diplomatic abilities, make them second in power to Humanity. Scientists from the L-Rame Science Academy (who are not, of course, all L-Rame) hold over 30% of the patents and perform or supervise the majority of the basic scientific research in the Confederation. The L-Rame have a lifespan of 250-300 years, but there are no known anti-agathics that can increase it.

Medean

The Medeans are a humanoid species descended from felines. They are a very serious and somewhat arrogant species that seems to live for excitement and adventure. A Medean’s social status is mainly determined by where he has been and what she has done. While the average Medean looks (and often sounds) ferocious, most Medeans are followers of the Way, a pacifistic philosophy. Those who are not do make excellent marines.

Sirie

The Sirie are a humanoid race, on average, slightly smaller and thinner than humans. Their skin ranges from a very light tan to a dark brown. Eye colors can be yellow, gold, brown or, rarely, green and are usually quite large. A bony ridge goes from the ear flaps, located low on either side of the head, to the center of the forehead, curving and thickening over the eyes, to meet at a point in the center of the forehead. Just behind the ridge, where the hairline starts, are slim antennae, which serve as additional sense organs. Due to the antennae, the Sirie have very acute senses of hearing, sight and smell. Hair on the head is quite thin, fine and straight, ranging from white to dark blond. The hair covers width of the head from behind the ridge, down the neck and back and narrows to a point at the middle of the lower back. Sirie limbs are thin, with fingers of three digits and an opposable thumb. While Sirie faces show little emotion and their body language is difficult to decipher, their antennae are quite expressive. They have been known to lay flat along the head in depression or stand straight up with fear.

The Sirie’s home planet is a dry world, having no oceans, though there are numerous lakes and rivers. Trees and plant life are abundant. There are no large carnivores though there are several species of large herbivores, most of which have been domesticated by the Sirie. Due to the relatively dry nature of the planet, the Sirie do not swim and dislike being immersed in water excessively. Note that due to the Sirie’s body makeup, they tend to sink like a stone in bodies of water.

The planetary government is very stratified. Class is strict and non- negotiable. Class layers include the ruling class, who are the wealthy and powerful; the warrior class, who get their wealth mostly from the ruling class and are highly honored by all; the working class, who are nearly a complete society within themselves; and the slave class, who have little of their own — they serve the ruling class and the warrior class. Within each class layer are numerous clans. Each clan will have ties to corresponding clans in the other classes. The classes will rarely interact, but the fortunes of corresponding clans from one class to another will often rise and fall together. [created by April Legate]

Trell

The Trell are a shape-changing species whose native form is sort of a very thick soup. They tend to assume the outward form of other species — although changing form takes 24-48 hours. For convenience, most Trell assume some type of humanoid form when dealing with humanoids. They were one of the founding members of the Pan Sentient Confederation. They are often considered too superficial by the L-Rame as they generally act as if they do not have a care in the world. Their lifespan is approximately 100 years, but this can be nearly doubled by relatively inexpensive anti-agathics.

Non-PSC Species

Bren

The Bren are a bluish-skinned humanoid species who totally dominate BrenSpace. They are a militaristic race that believe they were created by their god to conquer and rule the galaxy. They believe that other humanoid species are the failed experiments of their Creator and are to be cared for as one might a child, unless they have be seduced to the side of the Destroyer. They believe that non-humanoid species were created by the Destroyer to be its army in a great battle to be held with the Creator at the end of time. Such species occasionally make useful slave species, but have no rights and can never be trusted. The Bren believe that the Pan Sentient Confederation is a tool of the Destroyer because it considers all species equal. With slightly over 3500 systems, BrenSpace is the Confederation’s main rival in the galactic arm. BrenSpace is technically a theocracy, but to outsiders it closely resembles an empire. In spite of their apparently warped point of view and their open hostility to the Confederation, the Bren are generally honorable beings who can be dealt with and trusted to keep their word once given, unlike the P’sill. Since the Fourth Bren War ended about 350 years ago, there have been many incidents along the border between these huge nations, but until recently the Bren have been too involved with internal problems (some type of religious schism) to bother with the Confederation. They are believed to have a lifespan similar to that of Humanity.

The Bren religion could best be summed up as “Manifest Destiny.” Their deity has chosen the Bren to expand out into the galaxy and show the unchosen species by example what the Creator(s) expect of them. In many respects the religion is very “Old Testament”-like with lots of rules and rituals to be observed. It’s also authoritarian, which fits the Bren military machine nicely.

Even their many enemies have to consider the basic teachings of the Bren religion noble and good; they are just taken to unbelievable extremes. The average Bren would be considered a religious fundamentalist in the Confederation. A Bren fundamentalist makes the worst of the fundamentalists of old Earth look like heretics in comparison.

Socially the Bren are organized into strong families and clans. To be clanless is to be no one. Clans sponsor temples, military units, and most of the rest of the infrastructure of Bren society. Each clan (and there are several hundred of them) has one vote in the assembly which approves appointments to the higher levels of the priesthood and selects the “King-Priest” when the current one dies. All laws and justice flow from the King-Priest speaking for God, however, the assembly has no other powers — at least officially.

Frumm

The Frumm are long snake-like beings with two arms and a somewhat humanoid head. Like the lamia of Terran mythology, they keep the portion of their body near the head upright. An adult Frumm averages 17 feet long and stands about 5 feet high. The Frumm home world is an old, very dry planet. The only planet orbiting a fairly hot star. Records of Frumm civilization go back more than 400,000 standard years. The Frumm have only colonized 17 planets in their long history, but all 18 Frumm worlds are under a single government. The Frumm worlds are located inside Confederation space about 150 parsecs from BrenSpace. While Frumm technological advancement has been as slow as their colonization efforts (as they believe in fully consolidating all gains before moving on), their technology is still several hundred years in advance of that of the Confederation.

While the Frumm are slow to colonize, they are excellent explorers. They seem to enjoy the process of exploration and interacting with strange cultures. Frumm ships have roved this area of the galaxy for almost 100,000 years. The Frumm are a quiet, ethical species; if somewhat smug and standoffish. Unfortunately, Frumm ethics and Confederation ethics often clash. For example, the Confederation has a policy of non-interference in non-star-travelling cultures to allow them to take their own path — even if that path leads to the primitive culture’s self-destruction. The Frumm consider this policy highly immoral. One of the basic tenets of Frumm society is that if one able to act to save another, one is (almost) always obligated to do so.

To the Frumm, the Confederation is a childish society that has not yet grown up enough to realize it has a responsibility towards others. The Frumm therefore do not recognize the Confederation government. When forced by circumstance of their location to deal with the Confederation, they treat its representatives like the children they believe them to be. While the Frumm will not normally interfere with the Confederation, they will not tolerate any Confederation interference with their own activities even if such activities should violate confederation law. The Frumm have always responded firmly but non-violently to any Confederation attempts to force the Frumm to heed Confederation law while operating in the space claimed by the Confederation. As the Confederation has seen a single Frumm cruiser easily destroy a small Bren fleet (generally in retaliation for Bren destruction of a crippled small Frumm trading or exploration vessel) on several occasions, the Confederation is always very careful when “Frumm situations” arise. The Frumm opinion of the Bren appears to be “juvenile delinquents” with whom one must be willing to use a firm hand when they get out of hand. The Bren consider the Frumm to be spawn of the Destroyer, of course.

Jorchim

Jorchim is the Prithii name for the species normally referred to as the Forerunners or the Ancients: a powerful species that explored and seeded life throughout the galaxy almost a billion standard years ago then mysteriously disappeared. According to the Prithii — whose tremendous lifespans have the Forerunner seeding occurring only thirteen Prithii generations ago — the Jorchim were extra-galactic in origin and claimed to have been responsible for creating much of the cold life in the universe. The Prithii claim the Jorchim fled when they discovered that the universe had been invaded by a great evil that had somehow survived from a prior cycle of the universe. The Prithii are either unable or unwilling to explain in greater detail. Many of the Confederation’s scholars believe that the Prithii are simply playing a joke on “cold life” with these stories. The Bren consider the Jorchim to be the demon-followers of the Destroyer.

Prithii

The Prithii are large glowing clouds of sparkles that live in deep space, approaching star systems only rarely. Prithii are seldom seen and when seen, seldom interact with “cold life” (their term for non-energy beings). Those few who have elected to interact with “cold life” briefly have told seemingly outrageous stories. For example, they claim to have evolved from sentient stars early in the life of the galaxy and that their ancestors watched the Ancients flee the galaxy in terror. If true, their lifespans must be tremendous as they claim that event was only thirteen generations ago. They show no real interest in the affairs of cold life. While there have been hundreds of Prithii sightings in the the last thousand standard years, there have been less than ten confirmed interchanges with a Prithii. At least some of the Bren apparently see the Prithii as messengers of the Creator.

P’sill

The P’sill are a hive-like humanoid species descended from rodent-like creatures. They have genetic castes and apparently think little of themselves as individuals (the clan is all important) even though they do not have a true hive-mind. The P’sill Anarchy is a somewhat feudal collection of approximately 1000 systems rimward of the Confederation. It is hostile to everyone. The P’sill are not organized enough to be a real threat in spite of their high technology level, but they operate as ruthless pirates, taking anything that they can get away with. The P’sill have an average lifespan of 30-40 years, except for the leader castes which seem to live about twice as long. One relatively rare caste is powerfully psionic.

Alien Interstellar Transportation

The P’sill Hyperdrive (aka the Hump Drive)

Most hyperdrives are massive and very expensive. The P’Sill hyperdrive is an exception. A P’Sill drive is 85% less massive than a standard hyperdrive and costs about 80% of a standard drive. P’Sill drives also allow vessels to enter hyperspace at a slightly lower normal space velocity (98.2% of lightspeed instead of the standard 99.5%). This latter ability is very useful for P’Sill pirates — and the larger cargo space the smaller drive mass allows doesn’t hurt.

Unfortunately, P’Sill drives have a nasty side-effect on about 70% of known species (including most mammalian humanoid species other than the P’Sill): the initial activation of the drive to enter hyperspace drives affected species into a homicidal mania — unless they are having sexual intercourse while the drive is active (hence, the “Hump drive” nickname). This prevents the mania in most affected species, but has other side effects. Because of necessary activities, affected crew members are generally incapable of doing anything else for some minutes before Hump drive activation and for 30 to 120 minutes afterward. This effectively prevents the use of the P’Sill drive in military and many large commercial vessels of those species affected. The drive also seems to produce telepathic exchanges between those on the vessel when it activates. These are strongest between sexual partners, but to an certain extent, everyone in the crew can roam through the minds of every other member of the crew for 20 to 40 minutes after the use of the drive to enter hyperspace. Regardless of their drawbacks, P’Sill drives are often used on small “family” trading PSC vessels. To small traders, the lower mass and cost often mean the difference between profit and bankruptcy.

Jump Tunnels

About two hundred years ago, a Prithii stopped to “chat” with an L’Rame science vessel having trouble with its hyperdrive in an uninhabited star system. It suggested in an off-hand manner before it left that the L’Rame might try passing through a particular point in the system from a specific direction at a specific sublight speed. Having little else to do while they repaired their hyperdrive, they did as suggested. When they reached the point specified, the universe suddenly ceased to exist and the ship appeared to be hanging in unending grayness, unable to move. About ten days later, the grayness was suddenly replaced by the normal universe. The ship was moving with the same speed and direction it had before the grayness appeared, but was some 500 parsecs away, near the star of a sector Starforce base The L’Rame research vessel had just discovered jump points.

As relatively few stars have jump points and most of those that do are only connected to nearby stars (so travel via jump tunnel is much slower than travel via Hyperspace), one might think that jump tunnels are seldom important to star systems lucky enough to have them. In practice, they are often very important. Hyperdrives are expensive and the larger the vessel, the more expensive they get. Vessels without hyperdrives can travel via a jump tunnel. Jump tunnels make bulk material trade between linked systems profitable and make possible very cheap travel between system linked by jump tunnels. All Frumm worlds are thought to be connected by a system of jump tunnels as this would explain how the Frumm worlds can operate as if they were in a single star system.

I’ve occasionally heard people say they would like to run campaigns in the Traveller’s Third Imperium universe, the Star Trek universe, the Star Wars universe, etc., but they never do because they don’t want to deal with the canon fanatics. My solution is to just not play with canon fanatics. However, I realize that this may not be possible for everyone. Another solution is to file the numbers off the setting by creating a new setting that can be used for very similar adventures/stories but is different enough that the old canon obviously would not apply.

Back in the 1990s, when I was an assistant sysop on GEnie’s Third Science Fiction Roundtable (SFRT3), we had a similar situation. We had people who wanted to write fan fiction set in that “Final Frontier” universe but could not because GEnie’s management/lawyers would have had a fit. Our solution was to file the numbers by changing terminology, history, and the like enough to create a different but obviously similar universe. I rediscovered my background notes on this setting a few weeks ago and thought it might make and interesting alternate universe setting for exploring the final frontier with the Final Frontier canon getting in the way.

Please remember that this material was written with writing fiction in mind, so it probably goes into more detail than needed for a tabletop RPG on some background material. This writeup was produced by taking messages I posted on SFRT3, editing them slightly to correct typos (and probably to add different typos), and rearranging the posted material to be somewhat more organized. All of this material is copyright 1996 by Randall Stukey.

Introductory Fluff

“Pendragon Log, Standard Date 35-2378.02, Captain Roland Boyer recording. 4 hours ago, communications picked up a faint distress call apparently originating in the Gamma Zeta Seven system on the Brenspace border. Although the signal died as we entered hyperspace, we have no choice but to investigate. The Pendragon dropped to the fifth level of hyperspace, which will put us in system about 10 hours from now.

“Given intelligence reports of considerable recent activity in Brenspace, I have ordered a tactical analysis of the Gamma Zeta Seven system in anticipation of a Bren ambush….

His computer’s seductive voice interrupted. “I’m sorry to interrupt your log recording, sir,” Jenny stated. “But I have a urgent report from communications on hold.”

Boyer sighed. “On screen, Jenny.”

His holoscreen, which had until now be displaying the relaxing shifting patterns of the hyperspace surrounding the Pendragon, shifted to a portrait shot of his Polarian Chief Communications Officer. His green face tentacles waving in barely suppressed excitement, he stated “I’m sorry to disturb you, sir. The cryptography section has identified an ancient Earth code in the pattern of short and long pauses between words in the distress call.”

Boyer stared at the holoscreen. “You have my complete attention, Lieutenant.”

“Only two words, sir. `Bren’ and `Nova’. I’m sorry that it took so long to find this, but the code used predates the Confederation. If fact, according to the information banks, it predates space flight on Earth.”

Boyer frowned. “It’s not much to go on.” He paused a moment. “Mr. Gradlax, inform the senior officers of this message and that there will be a briefing in two hours in the central briefing room.”

“Aye-aye, sir. Communications out.”

Boyer drummed his desktop absently as he thought. Starforce intelligence had reported that the Bren were working on a new class of ship which had been codenamed “Nova.” However, it was supposedly still in the planning stages. As his mind drifted on the possibilities, he suddenly realized that the use of an old Earth code probably meant that their were Confederation citizens, probably from his home world, in the supposedly uninhabited Gamma Zeta Seven system. Their presence could only complicate matters for the Pendragon.

General Background

With the discovery of hyperspace in 2112 CE, humankind began the exploration and colonization of the stars with the same fervor that they explored and colonized the western hemisphere of the Earth in the previous millennium. However, they quickly discovered that they shared the galactic arm with hundreds of alien species, some of which were as advanced technologically as (or even more advanced than) they were, if not nearly as prolific. The Pan Sentient Confederation (PSC) was formed in 2289 as a trade and defense alliance when humankind and their informal trading partners first encountered the Bren.

Today, the Pan Sentient Confederation (PSC) is a confederation of over 7,000 member planets of many different species. While the PSC started out almost four hundred years ago as a trade and defense alliance, it has grown into an actual government, although it is more of a United Nations or a European Economic Community of the stars than it is a United States of the stars.

PSC Government

The PSC is governed by a President, elected every 10 standard years by the Confederation Council with the approval of the Confederation Senate. The Council has 45 members: the Confederation President, representatives of the 12 founding cultures and 32 members elected to staggered 8 year terms by the Senate. The Confederation Council is in continuous session, but its powers are strictly limited to trade, defense, enforcement of the rights of Confederation citizens and the laws approved by the Senate, and any other duties specifically delegated to it by Senate. The Confederation Senate normally meets for three months every two years, although special sessions can be called if needed.

Each member of the Confederation has one vote in the Senate. This became a problem as the PSC expanded. Not only did the size of the Confederation Senate quickly become unwieldy, but less wealthy planets — especially those further from the center of the Confederation — had trouble funding a Senator. With the admission of the 2000th member planet in 2507, the PSC Charter was amended to allow member planets to assign their votes to other member worlds. This practice tends to keep the actual voting body to a reasonable size. However, it transferred much of the politicking from the very public floor of the Senate to back rooms where deals for control of proxy votes were made.

The PSC has an extensive bureaucracy, but its powers are generally limited to administrative areas as the Confederation Charter does not allow the Senate to delegate legislative authority to any body other than the
Confederation Council. The Charter includes a strong Bill of Rights that protects both the rights of individuals and the rights of member planets. Except in cases of emergency, all Confederation laws must be certified as constitutional by the Confederation’s Constitutional Court before it is allowed to take effect. This certification does not prevent challenges to the constitutionality of specific applications of a law, it is simply a means of preventing obviously unconstitutional laws from being imposed on the citizens and member planets — or, at least, attempting to. If any part of a law is struck down as unconstitutional when the court reviews it for certification, the entire law is sent back to the Senate or Council to be rewritten. The all or nothing nature of the certification process was a deliberate attempt to prevent large, complex, “everything but the kitchen sink” laws on the part of the PSC’s founders.

The authority of the Confederation is limited to defense, space, and to protection of the rights of PSC citizens visiting starports on member worlds. Other laws can be passed, but any member world can nullify those
laws on their own worlds (outside of starport areas where Confederation law always applies just as it does off-planet) if they wish.

This odd arrangement is what allows the Confederation to work. There are uniform laws in space and travelers/merchants are protected from odd local laws — thus allowing trade to flourish; and the Confederation StarForce protects its members from hostile powers. Yet outsiders cannot impose the morality and beliefs on the cultures of member worlds simple because they are more numerous and/or more influential.

For example, the Confederation has banned the import of the ecatasy-producing drug Thorrin — yet it must allow the drug to reach 37 hedonistic member-planets who have elected to nullify the law. As might be expected, this produces a number of enforcement headaches. However, it is the price that has to be paid for bringing such a large group of very different societies and species together in one working entity.

One of the most unique rights of PSC citizens is that equal protection under the law is clearly defined in the Confederation Charter to mean that all citizens must have equal access to the legal system without regard for their wealth or power and that all punishments must, in so far as possible, have the same effect on all subject to them. The latter means that in Confederation law almost all fines are defined as a percentage of worth and almost all prison terms are defined as a percentage of lifespan. The intent of this is to make sure all punishments have the same deterrent effect on all citizens regardless of their species or their wealth. (Think about it, here in the US a $150 speeding ticket is a great burden to someone supporting a family with a minimum wage job, but would be pocket change to a billionaire.)

The “cruel and unusual punishment” clause also has a couple of interesting differences from modern America’s. First, it prohibits “cruel, unusual, and excessive punishments or judgements.” This applies the provision to both criminal and civil cases. Second, this provision makes it clear that what constitutes “cruel and unusual” must be judged differently according the physical and mental attributes of each species. However this section of the charter also makes it clear that a punishment that does to the criminal what they did to their victims is not in and of itself cruel, unusual, or excessive punishment.

The Charter’s Basic Rights also apply to all organizations operating under the authority of the Confederation or under an Confederation charter (such as interstellar corporations).

Interstellar Businesses

The Confederation strongly supports free enterprise and a free market at the interstellar level so long as businesses are honest and strictly adhere to Confederation laws and regulations. Businesses operating only on a single planet are generally not subject to Confederation regulation, only to those of the planet they operate on.

Competition is enforced to ensure that consumers get the best possible goods at the lowest possible prices. All forms of non-government interstellar monopolies are illegal. Taxes are kept as low as possible and regulation merely for the sake of making work for an army of Confederation  officials is avoided. Long-tern planning is rewarded while catering to the whims of stock speculators is strongly discouraged. Trademarks are limited to the company’s name, product or service names can not be trademarked. Advertising and sales pitches are required to be completely honest and product data easy to compare with the competition.

While the ideal is free competition at the interstellar level in an honest, open environment with the rights of customers, workers, management, and owners protected (generally in the order listed), there are millions of businesses that operate at the interstellar level in the Confederation. Obviously many are going to operate less than legally and not be caught unless they get too cocky, too greedy, or have a run of bad luck. The punishments for businesses that break the law to increase their profits, however, are extremely harsh — often confiscation of a major part of their wealth, imprisonment for their management, and confiscation of a percentage of each stockholder’s stock. The latter is intended to encourage stockholders to elect directors who place a very high priority on obeying the law while still limiting a stockholder’s liability.

Hyperspace and the Hyperspace Drive

The major means of interstellar travel known to the PSC is through the various levels of hyperspace — alternate universes, generally nearly empty of matter, where travel is not limited by relativity. Hyperspace drives generate gateways to these various universes and provide a stable set of physical laws for their ship in the various hyperspaces — thus allowing life to continue to exist within the ship. Because ships must pass through the “lower” levels of hyperspace to reach the “deeper” levels as their drive powers up, space is often thought of as the “top” of an ocean with the various levels of hyperspace stacked one beneath the other below that “surface,” with each level of hyperspace having an ever stronger “current” that pushes ships along much faster than the “current” of normal space. Scientists and engineers cringe at this terrible analogy, but it is often used as it is easy to understand — while what actually happens requires one to be able to think in complex math to even begin to grasp.

There are nine (known) safe levels of hyperspace. That is, there are nine alternate universes where ships can travel faster than allowed in the “real” universe safely. The approximate speed of travel in the various levels of hyperspace is as follows:

Hyperspace Level (HL)	Approximate “Real” Universe Speed	Approximate Travel Time
		1 parsec	100 parsecs	1000 parsecs
1	0.2 parsecs/day	5 days	17 months	13.5 years
2	0.5 parsecs/day	2 days	7 months	5.5 years
3	1.0 parsecs/day	1 day	3.5 months	2.75 years
4	2.5 parsecs/day	10 hours	1.3 months	13 months
5	5.0 parsecs/day	5 hours	21 days	7 months
6	10.0 parsecs/day	2.5 hours	8.3 days	3.5 months
7	1.0 parsecs/hour	1 hour	4.2 days	1.4 months
8	4.0  parsecs/hour	15 minutes	1 day	10.5 days
9	8.0 parsecs/hour	7.5 minutes	12.5 hours	5.3 days

 

Unfortunately, the energy requirements for maintaining a vessel in the deeper levels of hyperspace are so great that most vessels cannot enter them at all. Most Confederation commercial vessels (and those of other nearby cultures) cruise in HL 4. The faster ones can cruise in HL 5. Most Confederation military vessels (as well as those of other nearby cultures) can cruise nearly indefinitely at HL 5, for 3 to 4 months at HL 6, and for 1 month or so at HL 7 before a major overhaul of the drives and power accumulators is needed. Large capital ships (heavy cruisers and above) can normally operate one hyperspace level deeper for the same periods of time. These larger vessels can also briefly enter the highest levels of hyperspace (approximately 1 week at HL 8 and 2 days at HL 9) but doing so puts a great strain on the hyperdrives.

A ship that cannot maintain the level of power needed to keep itself in a given level of hyperspace “rises” through the levels until it either reaches one that has power to maintain itself in or reaches normal space. The only exception is that vessels in the three deepest levels of hyperspace are sometimes thrown into unknown (or known but deadly) hyperspaces if they exit these deepest hyperspaces in an uncontrolled power down. This occurs because there has not yet been enough experience with these deep levels of hyperspace for sufficient safety features to be built into the hyperdrives. About 99% of the time (when this is believed to happen), the ship is never heard of again. It is assumed it was destroyed by entering a hyperspace whose physical laws would too different for the ship to compensate for. The 1% that survive and manage to return to normal space is one way new levels of hyperspace (many of which, of course, are not useful) are discovered.

As most sensors do not work reliably in any of the hyperspaces, only vessels very close to each other can reliably detect and/or communicate with each other in hyperspace. Most hyperspaces look very strange to creatures from normal space, although some people find the shifting curtains of color in hyperspace levels 4 through 6 to be very relaxing. A computer is normally used to display the real universe as if the ship were moving through it on holoscreens and tactical displays.

Hyperwave communications travel at 5 parsecs a day and can be received by properly equipped ships in normal space or in the first five levels of hyperspace.