DIASPORA: Thus Spoke Belisarius (Hard SF Roleplaying with FATE)

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CLUSTER CHART
  • Informational

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    SYSTEM #1: NEW CHANCELLORSVILLE
    [T0 | E3 | R0]
    "Cold War Between Colonies"
    "This system can't be natural"
    "Offworld Artifact Hunters"

    SYSTEM #2: SANGALEA
    [T-1 | E0 | R-1]
    "Magnetic Tape For Everything."
    "Green Power Only."
    "The Southland Quagmire is Their Shopping Center"

    SYSTEM #3: ONEIDA
    [T3 | E1 | RO]
    "Space Hippies"
    "Heavy Biopunk"
    "We Act For Their Own Good"

    SYSTEM #4: OZYMANDIAS
    [T-3 | E4 | R0]
    "Hot Hydrogen Holistically Historic Home"
    "World of a Thousand Mountain-top Kingdoms"
    "Proxy Conflicts"

    SYSTEM #5: AKNA SECUNDUS
    [T-2 | E-3 | R-2]
    "Heat like Hate: Burning and Devouring"
    "Elegy for a Dying World"
    "Spies Everywhere"

    SYSTEM #6: SHORTSTICK
    [T-1 | E0 | R-1]
    "Solarpunk because we don't have the gas for dieselpunk"
    "Big Hungry Sun"
    "The Backwater of Backwaters"

    SYSTEM #7: VULCANTHIS
    [T2 | E-3 | R3]
    "The Nomad Traders"
    "Family First"
    "Arrogant Upstarts"

    SYSTEM #8: NYX-OMEGA VOIDYARDS
    [T0 | E-4 | R-3]
    "Deep in the Black"
    "Ancient Shipyards and Stations but failing hydroponics"
    "Vassalized-Uplifters of the Canths"
     
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  • Informational
    • Posting for planet. Nevermind, miscounted.

    Woo! I do get to Space!
    ... And that's not what throw another dice does, ignore dice number 5 please.

    I believe that's
    T2 E-3 R3

    Vulcanthis
    A set of asteroid belts and tidally locked planetoids around a tiny red dwarf. Any natural resource you need is there for the taking, except nature.

    Aspects
    The Nomad Traders
    Family First
    I'm thinking small family groups running everything, each with their own asteroid(s) and ship. Very loose with rules because they're never there long, but God forfend you hurt the family.
    Tetragramm threw 5 6-faced dice. Reason: Tech Total: 21
    3 3 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 4
    Tetragramm threw 4 6-faced dice. Reason: Environment Total: 8
    2 2 3 3 1 1 2 2
    Tetragramm threw 4 6-faced dice. Reason: Resources Total: 20
    3 3 5 5 6 6 6 6
     
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    Madness Inbound.

    Edit: Damnit, between loading the page and actually reading it looks like the rest of the planets got generated and I didn't refresh before posting... Sadness Inbound more like.

    2nd Edit: Ouch, looking at those other planets that got rolled... This is a resource scarce cluster. It's not barren but there's basically no systems that have a noticeable surplus of resources and a bunch of systems lacking the resources to even maintain an atompunk level of civilisation.

    Going to be a lot of resource wars, which the most advanced system being heavy on the biotech is at least a saving grace. Because it means terraforming is more easily possible, and biotech at least uses the same resources as humans. So if it can't maintain biotech, then it can't maintain a human population.
     
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    SpacePaladin said:
    Is my system good or should I change any aspects?
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    It looks good, though "parallel" Earth might be an assumption of the people there, not literally true.

    Like, they think they're on Earth due to a collapse that wiped out their information, but it's not like they're exactly identical like this is some Star Trek TOS episode. Does that make sense?
     
    DragonCobolt said:
    It looks good, though "parallel" Earth might be an assumption of the people there, not literally true.

    Like, they think they're on Earth due to a collapse that wiped out their information, but it's not like they're exactly identical like this is some Star Trek TOS episode. Does that make sense?
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    It's a reference to the Dragonriders of Pern. In the Pern-verse, "parallel Earth" was a originally a survey term meaning "can support human life".
     
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    OOOH!

    I getcha! Then you may want to change it, since aspects should be slightly more unique in terms of how they speak about the world in question - like, any E1 system is, in that case, a parallel Earth.
     
    Okay, guess I am unleashed Madness then. Or at least Chaos.

    Edit: So that's T0 E-4 R-3 right? Well fuck.

    The two aspects I'm going to go with will be...

    Deep in the Black
    Ancient Shipyards and Stations But Hydroponics Failing
    Name: Nyx-Omega Voidyards

    Do these work @DragonCobolt ? I decided to go for the reason the environment is just not there being because this 'system' is actually in the interstellar void between systems. As for the decent tech but horrific resources? Well, this used to be a major void shipyard. But it's been a while and whilst they've got a lot of stuff to keep the industry and shipyards working even if the knowledge to build the top quality stuff isn't there anymore... They're basically out of CHON and other biologically important elements whilst what life support there still exists is not in good condition.
    Pyro Hawk threw 4 6-faced dice. Reason: Tech Total: 13
    3 3 4 4 3 3 3 3
    Pyro Hawk threw 4 6-faced dice. Reason: Ecology Total: 6
    2 2 1 1 1 1 2 2
    Pyro Hawk threw 4 6-faced dice. Reason: Resources Total: 8
    3 3 2 2 2 2 1 1
     
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    Man.

    ...sucks to be them.

    And, @Pyro Hawk, don't forget a name and two aspects!

    EDIT: SOunds good, but there does need to be a barycenter for the slipknot to form around so...how about a rogue brown dwarf that's hurtling through the cosmos that forms a slipknot?
     
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    DragonCobolt said:
    Man.

    ...sucks to be them.

    And, @Pyro Hawk, don't forget a name and two aspects!
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    Was writing up the aspects as you commented. Thanks for the reminder about a name however, as I originally forgot that. So now say hello to the Nyx-Omega Voidyards! Finest void shipyards within thirty clusters... ten thousand years ago before slipstreams changed unexpectedly and they fell into nowhere. And sadly, all the life support systems were proprietary to an out-system cartel which ensured native knowledge on how to fix or maintain them was minimal. After all, there's always the food warehouses able to keep everyone fed for ten years if fixing or replacing them takes longer than expected!

    Edit: Brown Dwarf's fine. Gives them a reason to not have run out of fuel for the fusion reactors at least. So it's more like CON that they're lacking in.
     
    Okay! We have the cluster's basic sketch and now, we have the slipknot links!

    So, some setting assumptions.

    A T2 ship's max V-shift is 4 (max burn: 1.5 Gs) , while a T3 ship's max V-shift is 5 (max burn 2Gs.)

    Most people burn at 1G, which takes 6.5 days to hit a slipknot. Then, you instantly arrive in another system with a randomized vector and a TON of waste heat (T2) or merely lots of waste heat (T3.) The randomized vector means it takes anywhere between days to, on a bad roll, weeks to find where the other planets are (finding a planet in a solar system when you're tumbling at a random vector at one of two entrance points is...harder than it sounds.)

    Thus, expect at minimum two weeks of transit time between systems that are connected by lines. THe length of the line doesn't change this, only the number of jumps.

    There will be stops, usually, for re-mass and resupply.

    Knowing this, EACH SOLAR SYSTEM gets ONE MORE ASPECT, which is related to how they interact with other systems.

    The current technological hegemons are the nomad traders of Vulcanthis and the hippy dippies of Onedia. Many systems are biologics starved, many are resource starved, but we have some resource rich and eco-rich systems, which implies trade routes, wars, occupations, and more!

    Start tossing out ideas and I'll take the ones I like most.
     
    One for Ozymandias: Ferocious Formality
    A thousand mountaintop kingdoms means a thousand kings. And every last one of them demands respect and formality. But as a gigantic E4 system, they can set their price. And if that means informal traders studying courtly manners, then that's what they have to do.
     
    Shortstick or Sangalea: North/South Rivalry
    Shortstick and Sangalea arrived in the Belisarius Cluster via Akna Secundus, where the two split paths over divergent ideals that turned violent. Unfortunately, while their techbase prevents them from engaging in open conflict, the two do everything in their power to drag their neighbours or whoever else they can to attack the other system, with Akna Secundus often being used as a staging ground.
     
    Ok, so the Voidyards, are screwed, but they are one jump from the Nomad Traders. I'm not sure what I'd call the aspect, but I'm definitely imagining Voidyard inhabitants selling/bartering ancient tech with the traders solely to get passage out of their crappy system.

    I dunno I'm also imagining a lot of marrying/adopting into the Nomad Trader family's from the voidyarders. There's definitely going to be some diehards refusing to leave the decaying shipyards. But I really do feel like they are probably in the middle of a mass exodus, to any system that will have them. Actually guess I did figure out an aspect name. And I guess some of them are probably also heading to Oneida but that's a notable greater distance.

    Aspect idea for Nyx-Omega Voidyards: Mass Exodus
     
    Kosjurake said:
    Ok, so the Voidyards, are screwed, but they are one jump from the Nomad Traders. I'm not sure what I'd call the aspect, but I'm definitely imagining Voidyard inhabitants selling/bartering ancient tech with the traders solely to get passage out of their crappy system.

    I dunno I'm also imagining a lot of marrying/adopting into the Nomad Trader family's from the voidyarders. There's definitely going to be some diehards refusing to leave the decaying shipyards. But I really do feel like they are probably in the middle of a mass exodus, to any system that will have them. Actually guess I did figure out an aspect name. And I guess some of them are probably also heading to Oneida but that's a notable greater distance.

    Aspect idea for Nyx-Omega Voidyards: Mass Exodus
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    Actually, considering that Vulcanthis is a major asteroid belt colony yet poor on nature, Nyx-Omega has all the ancient tech even if they're now regressed...

    I'm going to suggest this for Nyx-Omega Voidyards:
    Vassal-Uplifters of Vulcanthis

    Basically, Vulcanthis was in trouble as a major asteroid mining colony which were not that great on tech despite having all the resources to pay for it. Which Oneida likely exploited to get a lot of resources for the tech they'd trade and get away with seeing as they were the technological hegemon of the cluster. Then Nyx-Omega Voidyards connected with Vulcanthis, desperate for any resources used to sustain a human population yet possessing a bounty of industry, technology and knowledge so long as it wasn't associated with life support in which they were only barely scraping by using jury-rigged and desperate replacement systems for the lost wonders of the past.

    So a deal was struck. Vulcanthis offers up all it's resources in exchange for Nyx-Omega uplifting them, offering them the tech they needed to become independent and the remaining industrial capabilities of the Voidyards. So Vulcanthis ends up elevated to T2 whilst Nyx-Omega drops to T0 because they're getting everyone out they can until they fix or replace the life support systems. Which is rather a struggle because effort keeps needing to be diverted to fending off Oneida as they aren't happy about the fact they lost their hegemony over the cluster due to there existing a competitor now.

    If the Voidyards can have their life support restored to anything like what they were originally... Well, there was never a problem maintaining or feeding the yards themselves. Just the workers. So once those workers can be maintained on site, the Vulcanthis-Nyx-Omega Coalition is going to go from the underdog competitor to Oneida to equaling or exceeding them in everything but inhabitable worlds. So their one weak point will remain the fact they're tied to their agricultural stations.

    EDIT: Gives a good reason for there to be struggle in the cluster as we have the Old Power of Oneida and the New Power of Vulcanthis clashing, with everyone knowing that what may well determine the results of the battle for hegemony being if that ticking count-down until Nyx-Omega can support the workers for the yards again ends before, or after Oneida seizes an unassailable advantage.

    The hilarity of course being that if Vulcanthis-Nyx Omega could work together with Oneida, they have everything needed to rapidly solve those problems. Which would result in a technologically supreme, resource rich, ecologically abundant and industrially powerful hyperpower.
     
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    We have three systems that seem to have "ancient relics"

    We have Ozzy, with it's E4 ORBWORLD, then we have Nyx, which has its ancient shipyards that the T0 people are trying to maintain, then we have the "this system can't be natural" in New C.

    What if this implies that this system once had a T4 civilization that went singularity has peaced out. Or, alternatively, this cluster had a T4 alien civilization that humanity is building in the bones of. Protomolecule, anyone?
     
    DragonCobolt said:
    We have three systems that seem to have "ancient relics"

    We have Ozzy, with it's E4 ORBWORLD, then we have Nyx, which has its ancient shipyards that the T0 people are trying to maintain, then we have the "this system can't be natural" in New C.

    What if this implies that this system once had a T4 civilization that went singularity has peaced out. Or, alternatively, this cluster had a T4 alien civilization that humanity is building in the bones of. Protomolecule, anyone?
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    I mean, that gives a good reason for why Oneida the Space Hippy Biopunks exist, and also why there's a general resource scarcity due to the previous civilisation uses up those resources even as it terraformed a few worlds... Oneida are the people of the T4+ civilisation which wanted to 'return to nature/our origins/primitive wars' and the like. So when the T4+ died, they were left with extreme biotech capabilities (what their civilisation thought was natural and what actually is nature were rather different...) which positioned them to dominate the cluster.

    If my idea for Nyx-Omega ends up chosen, they're new to the Cluster. And their arrival was in just the perfect place to throw the millennia long status quo into chaos. Probably not helped with how Nyx-Omega is very likely to be all about the machine and cyber due to that being what the system had, even when they were at their height. So we've got the Space Hippies with their biotech fighting for dominance against the Space Nomads who use more mechanical and cybernetic technologies.
     
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    Oh, one thing to keep in mind for choosing aspects: I do want reasons for space combat and ground combat because Diaspora has PLATOON SCALE WARFARE MINIGAMES which has rules for TANKS and AIR SUPPORT and artillery, and you can have orbital artillery!

    More powder! More matches!

    I mean, we already have a resource starved system where all the high tech places desperately need shit, so, like...
     
    DragonCobolt said:
    Oh, one thing to keep in mind for choosing aspects: I do want reasons for space combat and ground combat because Diaspora has PLATOON SCALE WARFARE MINIGAMES which has rules for TANKS and AIR SUPPORT and artillery, and you can have orbital artillery!

    More powder! More matches!

    I mean, we already have a resource starved system where all the high tech places desperately need shit, so, like...
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    Goddamnit, it's going to be the Biopunk Space Hippies clashing against a Coalition of Cyberpunk Family-Guild-Corporations isn't it? With the Coalition fighting each other internally almost as much as the Space Hippies (whenever they lose their chill at least). Because the 'Guilds'/'Corporations' being individual stations and shipyards which banded together to maintain themselves and FUCK THOSE GUYS FROM SLIPYARD BETA! makes too much sense. They each then ally with different Space Nomad Families from Vulcanthis to get their part of the voidyards in operation first and...

    If it wasn't for the fact that Akna-Secondis is perfectly positioned to solve their problems from being the central trade node of the Cluster, I think they'd probably be worried at how often nuke flashes light up their system. Or other weapons of many kinds and natures depending if it's just an 'internal' issue between Families, an 'external' issue because someone wake the Hippies up again, an 'internal' issue because who spiked the Hippies weed with meth, they're going crazy! or a 'fun times' issue when one of the Families allies with a group of Hippies to try and seize advantage only to have the other Families and Hippies turn up to stop the 'heresy' this month. Oh, and the various Families and Hippies turning up to stop the 'heresy' are also shooting each other of course.

    ... I really, really want to see this happening now, I thought it would be a bit bland at the start but as I started writing more and more of this I got ever more hilarious images of just what kinds of mess this can cause.
     
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    Akna Secundus: Unseen, Tread-Upon Gateway
    Akna Secundus is the Gateway of the Belisarius Cluster. The Eastern and Western Hemi-Clusters have to use it to pass through its lines to get to each other. Were the Belisarius Cluster more prosperous, this would position Akna Secundus to be a great trading hub. Unfortunately, the resources are scarce and rivalries bitter, meaning that the system is constantly overrun by hostile powers on their way to attack each other, leaving its population at the mercy of more powerful factions.

    The only saving graces are that 1. because the system is devoid of useful materials and its star is unstable, the other factions tend to ignore the locals, only staying as long as needed to get to the next slip line or to fight each other if both are in-system at the same time, and 2. the cluster's resource bottlenecks mean even the larger factions can only field so many ships and so many campaigns.
     
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    The really funny thing about Ozzy is that it's SO BIG that it could be a major imperial outpost for every faction in the cluster and the natives would still only be marginally aware of it outside the trade in glass-bead-equivalents.
    I imagine Ozzy would be the perfect place for Proxy Conflicts

    All the non-rubble-pile asteroid 'mountains' are also pretty easy to hook up to balloons to make them float - so theres a class divide among city states between the mobile hegemons with the good metal deposits and the static vassals who do most of the farming in carbon rich asteroid soil.
     
    Proposal for Sangalea (or Shortstick): Intellectual Pirates

    Because these are worlds that might switch to a positive R score if they can get upwell, and can maybe make monkey copies of the slipstream drive.

    And for another world, doesn't matter which one, something like Cultural Hegemon or Perpetual Proselytizing
     
    Idea for Oneida: Paternalistic Philanthropy

    You want help? The Oneidan's are happy to give it! Totally Groovy with Mutual Aid, my dude. As long as you do things our way because you obviously don't know what you're doing! It's just until you can take care of yourselves, of course we swear!
     
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