Ambrosia Software Web Board: Brainstorming Session - Ambrosia Software Web Board

Our RPG we have going is all fine and well, but I was thinking of making a new one, partly for those people who don't feel they really fit in with the marathon mumbo jumbo and stuff.

So this is the idea, this topic is wholly devoted to crazy and wacky ideas for a new RPG universe. It isn't Ares, Marathon, SETR, Starlance, or really anything based, it's just a hand-crafted one unique for his particular RPG.

Well, submit your ideas please. It could be for one race, the socia-political climate of this new universe, current science, other stuff like that. But fun comes from strange and unusual situations!

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There are only 3 kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't.

Here's an interesting idea: the galaxy is extremely new and volatile, and ftl space travel is very risky because of, erm, gravitic disturbances. This makes wars in the RPG very difficult to carry out and most races try and maintain some modicum of peace.

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There are only 3 kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't.

how 'bout not

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Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

Well I guess there's no better time to ask... Slug, could you please not enter this RPG under any circumstances?

About why I'm doing this: I don't really like how my old RPG is turning out. That's just my opinion, it's not really my creation anymore. I'm willing to start another one if there's sufficient interest. This is the only idea I think that hasn't been tried before. Well I hope you all like it.. if not, I will try and do my best not be embarrassed.

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There are only 3 kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't.

I see

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Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

Another possiblity (most likely not compatable) is to set the RPG in a gigantic empire that's been around since before anyone can remeber, but is now decaying due to internal problems.
Of course, everyone wants a peice. This is where conflict comes in.

I kinda like this idea, then again, I'm using it ELSEWHERE?. What do you think?

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Seen on a Claymore anitpersonell mine: "Do not eat"

WOW he see's its a merical.Gods work

Jager

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Sounds nice! (this is l33t hax0red between a GR conversation)

'Decaying roman empire in space' I like it, alot of fun. Every opressed group imaginable wants either a chance to strike back, a piece of the pie, or both. It's even more fun when a caste system has been in place so long, the casts are now diverged species. Some slave races, the administration is mainly a single race of varying 'ruling' classes. There might be a "military" caste that either gets special treatment or is controled biologically (eg addiction to something only rulers can supply) there's could even be a journalist caste/species, merchants, mercenaries, really wierd intell department (morphing, telepathic and all that). The intelligence caste can hypnotise you and stuff a little although it doesn't work on the millitary caste or the upper level of leaders. And perhaps what formed the empire was a war with another galaxial invader millions of years ag. There needs to be AT LEAST one conspiracy afoot. How about, to maintain order the administration moves it's forces back into the core worlds, and all the other races fend for themselves against encroaching barbarism, that's kind of copying too much off Foundation. Mb, the military and psionic factions have been forseeing this for a while, and have begun gathering forces? The psionics need to hire mercenareies because they can't control military, the military cannot fight psionics because the administration needs to give orders. Perhaps because they are decaying, they need AI's to run some of the empire, and don't have the science any more to prevent AI's from going nuts.

Food for thought.

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There are only 3 kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't.

Interesting... And eirily familiar; I've been doing a lot of thinking about caste systems becoming divergant species lately. One could maybe arise from our socio-econimic class system. It would be Brave New World brought to a freakish extreme. So why not have this be an ite of background? Our story's species is the extremely distant human races (now plural because of the catse system).

If it's not too much more, I'd like to tag on an explaination for the fall of the civilization:

There are three things we have to bear in mind about the evolution of governments in human history: 1) Bigger and more advanced societies follow different rules and paths than those of smaller and simpler ones, 2) Societies don't change unless they have to, and 3) A megalocratic system always crumbles. Thus we can say that the galactic empire fell because it was built from a government system designed to manage only one solar system.

With this we get sort of a wierd combination of Brave New World and the Foundation trilogy. Sounds like a good frame to build on IMHO, but these are of course just suggestions.

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[This message has been edited by Sargatanus (edited 12-11-2001).]

Sounds nice. I wonder what sort of technology the empire will have... I think perhaps a more primitive approach would be best.

-Main weapons of the era. Atomic-based missiles/torpedoes, not necessarily atom-blast, but perhaps lasers or plasma vents using atomic power. Like the Ishiman cruiser's fusion pulse is not an atomic bomb, but is based on atomic (fusion) power.

-Defenses. Not sure what to put here, but I think shields are generally overused. Perhaps missile cluster screens, and (borrowed from Hyperiums) Stasis fields. A stasis field around a ship would be used to slow all incoming weapons except light. As an offset, light weapons (lasers) might be extremely weak, but atomic weapons very very poweful. Disabling a ships stasis generator (let us say it has to be vulnerable) would be the first order of business.

Ships: People should make up the kinds of ships they want there faction to have...

Otherwise, warp technology is a little overused as well. I think instead, the ships in this RPG could use a type of travel burrowed again from Foundation and Dune. The 'jump' as it were, no intervening distance is crossed, the ships merely appear on one star and then on another. The chances of a successful jump are drastically increased the farther you are from a gravitic field, and also the computer that is used to calculate the jump. Travel would be composed of many jumps, around gravitic disturbances (stars, novas, bh's).

Medical: Medical technology in the empire would have been good, but is now decaying. Let us use some possibilities from current science and assume that cloning and genetic modification's are common phenomenon. There would be atleast a few societies for purifying the genetic code (eugenists) and others against genetic modification altogether.

Social: People would interact with other sub-species on a daily basis, but feel higher loyalty to their own caste.

Well I think that's enough ranting from me... any suggestions/contributions are of course, welcome.

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There are only 3 kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't.

I suppose I'll add a little more to the caste system. Plato's Republic gives us the basic timarchy (caste society). It's pretty rudimentary but surprisingly realistic. Instead of paining myself to create my own, I'll build off of Plato's.

Let's start at the top and work our way down, shall we?

At the top of the pyramid we have the Master caste (for lack of a better name). Early on in it's development the best of human genetics worm their way into the ruling class and blossom. Eugenic morals and beliefs have always been more prevelant in rich people. This would be further aided by the advancing genetics market, allowing one's genes to be tweaked, and later on replaced. As technology progressed, cybernetics make their way onto the comercial market. Of course, this sort of technology and the procedures to install it would be hideuosly expensive and only available to the extremely wealthy. Give this trend a few hundred years and the ruling class are a superhuman amalgam of man and machine free from the constraints of an aging body. With all these resources at their disposal, the Master Caste would be the pinacles of physical beauty, atheleticism, inteligence, and just about every sort of human attribute ad naseum. This isn't to say that they would be without fault. Materialims would run rampant among the Masters. Everyone of them would have their own treasure trove, every part of which is disposable. To them everything is a comodity and nothing is sacred. For example, starting a family would require no more than a visit to a designer baby parlor. With this sort of materialism comes obscene greed, and with greed comes conflicts over just about every social schism imaginable. This would be one of the leading factors for the Fall. Enough on them for now.

The next rung down is the Guardian Caste. These are the super hero's of civilization: Soldiers, police, rescuers, etc. This caste would enjoy just about all the physical benefits of the Master Caste (top genetics, cybernetics), with one exception; This Caste would have been created by the master caste, and thus would have limited free will. They follow the orders of their commanding officers and superior officials to the fullest extent of their abilities and without question.

Then we move down to the Logistics Caste. Today's data entry nerds, systems administrators, cubical slaves, accountants and their contemporaries are the ancestors of this group. Just plain old human genetics here, and nothing fancy like cybernetics. Only excelent clerks bred for centuries to punch numbers and file records.

On a slightly lower level than the Logicians is the Artisan Caste. Here is where we find the galaxy's craftsmen, artists, drivers, and every other average joe. This is the largest caste, composing about 60% of the galactic population. It is comparatively as diverse and dynamic as todays general public.

And finaly at the bottom of the social structure is the Labor Caste. This group does all of the work that is excessively dirty, dangerous, and exhausting. All of the Laborers are genejacks; genetically altered to work as hard as possible for as long as possible. Their work is their life. They are incapable of forming a personality, interacting socially, conceiving emotion, or feeling pain. Their job is all they know.

This again, can be built on and altered. But for now it's a good working guidline.

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Interesting concept, but would anyone actually play it?

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Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

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Why not?

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"I'm a controversial figure. My friends either dislike me or hate me."

Light weapons should be REAL lasers. They work byt burning through stuff. At close range, these would be devastating, but you'd need to keep the laser on the same spot for long enough to blast holes and such. These would be aimed by mirrors and such. Probably very effective as point defense guns (this has been proven back in the sixties, though powerful lasers were big back then) but you'd need mighty powerful lasers to blast a hole in a ship from anything more than a few hundred kilometers. Railguns and missiles/torpedoes would be king at range. Plasma vents would be too finniky. The plasma would diffuse too quickly and not have enough kinetic energy to do much.

Also, I'd say that space battles should be SLOW. capitol ships are heavy, and require a lot of power to move them around. Once a large ship has committed to a course, good luck pointing it somewhere else, espescially if fuel is a concern. Thrust to weight ratios on anything bigger than a corvette should be tiny.


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NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

You gotta hate it when you ever scroll down the page and you see your words in bold

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There is nothing to diffuse the light energy in space.

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Railguns and missiles/torpedoes would be king at range. Plasma vents would be too finniky. The plasma would diffuse too quickly and not have enough kinetic energy to do much.

Railguns and missiles/torpedoes would take longer to reach their targets than a laser, and also need a prodigious fuel capacity. I'd imagine missiles to be short-range things with a large payload instead of a large amount of fuel.

Let's define the torpedoe weapon as a missile that does not carry fuel as such, but it's own fusion reactor which is used for the explosion and the propulsion. As such it is not hindered like missile, but the cost of a reactor is extremely high.

Indeed, plasma vents might not be suitable as a weapon. Perhaps as a means of propulsion?

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Also, I'd say that space battles should be SLOW. capitol ships are heavy, and require a lot of power to move them around. Once a large ship has committed to a course, good luck pointing it somewhere else, espescially if fuel is a concern. Thrust to weight ratios on anything bigger than a corvette should be tiny.

Agreed, it is very hard to manouevre a large object in space with an inertia expressable in C.

I'd like to rant about what sort of ships/fleets might be useful in a galactic navy with this technology:

Teledrill: A large, lumbering hulk outfitted with a powerful laser. It's purpose would be to disable the stasis fields on an enemy ships to allow more powerful weapons to destroy it.

Fusion Heat: A small cruiser with a limited supply of torpedoes. These ships would use the long-range of the torpedoes to assist in the destruction of enemy ships.

Atom Ship: All-purpose battleship for large space campaigns. Absolutely dwarfs anything else. Doesn't specialise.

I don't think there's much use in missile defensive clusters, since they would be slowed by a stasis field as well. Instead pd lasers would be more useful. I expect most ships would have these 2 defenses.

This isn't decided by the way, this is only my thoughts on the matter. Please comment...

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There are only 3 kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't.

[edited, light energy, not energy. pharris you're thinking in terms of atmospheric laser tests.]

[This message has been edited by Joveia (edited 12-14-2001).]

One thing most people overlook about lasers is that they have NO stopping power. Sure you can scorch a hole through something, but since lasers have no impact the target is going to keep on moving. A plasma stream on the other hand, would have a tremendous impact effect since it's hitting it's target with a high temperature gas moving at nearly the speed of light. One could work by fusing hydrogen in a chamber (prefferably by pressure but any method will do), and aligning the trajectory of the atoms with the photons of a laser. The effect produced on firing would be a lethal spray of fusing hydrogen. At short range this would crumple an enemy ship (and most likely detonating anything remotely volatile abourd it), and at long range it would be like spraying the enemy ship with a solar flare. Range would be severely limited with a plasma beam though, as the beam disipates. Thus lasers would probably find their way as medium range weapons with plasma beams to cover point defense and close in assaults.

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Would plasma be affected by stasis fields?

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There are only 3 kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't.

I would assume so. Well, partially anyway. See, a plasma laser has three types of damage to it; light, heat and impact. We've already agreed that light can penetrate a stasis field so there would be damage from that. The matter componant probably wouldn't make it through so the heat would have no effect, but there would still be a great amount of impact damage at close range.

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Yes, the plasma beam would make a formidable weapon, perhaps for close-range interceptors or other attack craft? For pd, using plasma weapons might be a bit overkill... The volatile composition of the beam would detonate incoming missiles and destroy the containment field controls/breach the reactor of a torpedoe. Lasers would be able to target the controlling mechanisms with great accuracy. I expect that, with the stasis field is down, a plasma cloud/sreen could be deployed around a ship, making it very hard for projectiles to enter/leave without blowing up.

To all about the stasis fields; it is not a true stasis field in the sense of the word 'stasis'. It creates a time dilation (someone please suggest a relevant technology ) effect around a ship. The range of the stasis field would depend on the size of the generator. It would be useless if it effected the insides of a ship, so it must be projected outside, from outside.

xyz

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There are only 3 kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't.

Actually, powerful lasers do have stopping power. Way back when they were making star wars they made lasers so powerful that they actually imparted kinetic energy onto the thing that they hit. I also think it had to do with combusting the surface of the object, creating backwards force.

Missiles would be long ranged. They wouldn't need much fuel as all they'd need to do is small bursts until their final "Ramming Speed" phase of their flight.



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NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

I'll state the obvious:

What about the infamous "criminal group". People who either hate someone, broke a law, or were forced to practive the "dark arts" for simple survival. This group consists of everything from the common purse-snatchers and drunks to the lethal assassins (probably a great tool to rival groups). Perhaps we could even have some renegade mercenaries here, who just follow the money.

I think these people would be crucial to the story, as it provides the public "big groups" (for lack of a better name - perhaps ruling "barons"/"families") a way to keep their hands clean and accomplish "dirty" tasks.

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"I'm a controversial figure. My friends either dislike me or hate me."

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Suppose we get 2 kinds of missiles. The normal missiles would have an atomic based warhead and fuel for moving a few thousand kilometres. Then you could get 'rammers', very large missiles with a small tactical warhead and an absolutely huge amount of fuel and a booster. It would accelerate to a ship with a stasis field and target it's stasis generator - using enormous boosting power to make it through the stasis field without being deflected by the pd weapons.

Food for thought, and also, another idea:

Perhaps there could be more than 1 defense, what about 'reflection fields'. This would be to prevent laser weapons (presumably with no dissipation) from being fired across the solar system at enemy ships. The reflection field (using tachyon scanners), if given enough time would detect an incoming burst and adjust the frequency of the shield to repel it. At anything except very large ranges (where the light takes over 5 seconds to hit) it would be effective.

I'm not sure if this is possible of course, but I do remember an article saying that weapons used to destroy sight can be deflected by goggles that detected the light frequency and employed a 'visor' over that frequency. I might assume this could be a future technology on the same idea.

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There are only 3 kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't.

[This message has been edited by Joveia (edited 12-14-2001).]

Or the ultimate defense against the laser:
The mirror!

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Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

Mirrored hulls would be good, but even the best mirrors don't reflect 100% of what you throw at them. A powerful laser would burn through the backing of mirrors relatively quickly. Perhaps ships captains would need to keep moving, so that the laser moves along their hull rather than burns through their armor at one point.

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NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

pardon me for interrupting your jam session here folks. Going back to the plot:

There's a "master" species that has ruled over the galaxy for aeons. Through terraformation of hundreds upon hundreds of worlds and the insertion of and manipulation of species on them, this "master" species has changed the galaxy from largely desolate to an area of space with large numbers of "inhabitable" planets.

But alas it is the curiosity and experimentality that destroys this masterspecies. They had decided to try to recreate the evolution of their own species (accelerated, of course), on another planet. Things went smoothly at first- they saw vivid recreations of their species' first bipedal movement, of the discovery of fire, to their first city. Encouraged by the results, they began expirements with creating sentient life on other planets with different environments, leading to the rapid development of several advanced civilizations.

The master species liked to mingle with its children, once they were somewhat developed enough. The client species always revered them as gods, and subsequently all species heard the same tale of the creation and of the powers of their masters.

But internal conflict was tearing the master species apart. Roughly half thought the manipulation of lesser species was immoral, the other half argued on behalf of science. The tension escalated as the practice continued, eventually leading to a devastating civil war. Nearly 70% of the master species was whiped out in the conflict before it ended in truce and compromise. The master species would no more interfer or intervene in the affairs of "lesser species".

Several millenia pass, and what was left of the master species had mysteriously disapeered from the galaxy. The Client Species all manage to take to the stars only centuries apart from each other. And even after all that time, there's still many in each species that believe the old myths and legends of the gods from the heavens above. Many ambitious individuals from each species have set their goals to find "paradise - the birthplace of the creator" in the sea of stars- a placed known only as "Earth". As each species hears of the location of this "Earth", it is soon to become the epicenter of the greatest war in all the heavens...

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[erich]