Sparks of Life

[AnyaTheBlue]

Once upon a time, there lived a very powerful and wise people. They were so great, they had learned all there was to know. Because of this, they had learned that the Fire which gave their world life, their Sun, would die. Not soon, but soon enough.

And they knew that such a tragedy would doom not just them, but the whole of their history and accomplishments. It would be as if they had never been.

So they decided to find a new home, which was amazing. As far as they knew, no one had ever done such a thing. In fact, as far as they knew, there was no one other than themselves who had ever existed who could have had such a thought.

It was a very hard problem, and it required many other hard problems to be solved first.

They knew that the trip to a new Sun -- a new fire to warm and nurture them -- would be farther and take longer than anyone could live, so they took measures to make their vessels very large, so that some people could live and have children and live their lives while the trip was underway.

They knew that it would be helpful to have some of those who were alive at the outset be there at the conclusion, so they arranged for many people to sleep the many long years that the voyage would take.

They knew that disaster might strike, or that their destination might not make a good place to live, so they sent many vessels, not one, and they sent them to many different places. And they sent along plants and animals and all the things that would be needed to make their new home as comfortable and as like their old home as possible.

They knew that over such a long time, there were many simple and boring things that would need to be done, over and over again. So they made things that would be happy to do such jobs, and do them reliably and safely.

They knew that things would break, so they brought spares, and parts for repairing, and even materials to make new spares for all the things they brought with them.

And they even knew that one day, far in the future, the new homes they might make would also suffer the same fate as their old one, and so they took steps to insure that the vessels could build more of themselves, and could spread the Sparks of Life as far as they might go, to every place that might give them refuge.

This, child, is our story. We are that wandering people. Our first home died many generations ago, and this home is one our fathers fathers fashioned for us in the hopes we would find a new place to make our own.

At least, this is what the legends say. Myself, I'm not so sure. Maybe this world is simply that old, dead one, and we have survived that death. Who can say? The Animates do not speak, and the Sleepers in their towers and vaults tell no tales...
----

What do you think?

[Viper]

Sounds awesome! It reminds me a lot of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun - about a colony ship that has been in space so long, it's inhabitants have forgotten it's even a spaceship.

It sounds like a great world- I can see the potential for a great campaign there... what were you thinking of doing with it?

[jc_madden]

Sounds like Metamorphisis Alpha without sharks w/ laser eyes.

[AnyaTheBlue]

Sounds awesome! It reminds me a lot of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun - about a colony ship that has been in space so long, it's inhabitants have forgotten it's even a spaceship.

That was one of the inspirations, but I'm thinking a little bit bigger...

My thought is that the ship(s) in question are in fact semi-alive, and that the "human biosphere" portion is basically a "side effect" of it's normal operation. The humans are in some ways a parasite, but in this case the host has been tailored to them very carefully, to provide them with a self-contained, self-maintaining living space which, in addition, can undertake terraforming and what-not of inhospitable places.

The specific inspirations are the Book of the Long Sun, Logan's Run, and The Starlost, actually.

I envision there to be basically four populations of Humans on the ship. Well, five, I suppose.

First, there are the sort of rustic, roughly medeival people who farm and live. What technology they have has been redeveloped. They distrust the city dwellers and the Animates (the robots).

Second, there are the utterly insulated, naive, Eloi/Logan's Run-esque inhabitants of the cities, whose lives are filled with sybbaritic abandon and whose needs are largely taken care of by yet more Animates.

Third, there are the "pests" -- these communities are sort of Mad Max/Gamma World/post apocalyptic survivors who live "outside" the "human-specific" biosphere either completely or partially. Basically, they scrounge technology or whatever they can from the other humans and the Animates and are, well, pests, at least from the point of view of the various AIs.

The fourth group would be the Crew and their descendants, heirs to very advanced technology, in constant brain-to-ship contacted -- being Linked -- who know what is going on, who they all are, understand and command the ship's technology, and who have medical technology capable of sustaining them for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

The fifth group would be the Sleepers. Think "the matrix", except their metabolism has been slowed down so that they can survive for a very long time. Some of the Sleepers come from Earth, some are from the Crew, or even from the rest of the people, depending on past events.

My thought is that there would also be some genemoded life forms -- human/animal chimerae, perhaps, and Exalted/Uplifted animals. And, of course, Sports and Mutants.

I'm assuming very advanced technology, but with certain strict limits -- no FTL, no Force Fields, no psychic powers, although some implants and genetic modifications will work like Natural Magic. And being Linked to the ship's network permits all sorts of interesting possiblilities -- commanding animates, perhaps, as well as mediated reality and awareness of the environment through sensors and whatnot. Plus access to, well, all of human knowledge...

My initial thought is to have the players generate "rustic" characters who only slowly discover they are on a vast Starship, not in fact a fantasy setting or a post-apocalyptic one, either.

Dunno, though. It just popped into my head a month ago or so, and I've been poking at it in order to get it to take shape properly...


It sounds like a great world- I can see the potential for a great campaign there... what were you thinking of doing with it?

Well, I had several ideas -- First, of course: Aliens! Second, what about having some of the cities, which have basically lost civilization due to being overly pampered, decided to throw their technologically-augmented weight around -- might makes right and all that. Also, I thought about "First Contact/Arrival" of either guiding the ship in (kind of trite) or coping with the realities when things begin changing because a Terraforming operation was underway and the Animates are breaking things down for spare parts.

Plus, I figured with a small-ish fleet, there is the possibility of mapping out multiple "worlds" which you might be able to shuttle between (although at 99% of light speed you have to worry about a small shuttle trying to move around without some pretty nasty shielding...

[jc_madden]

I am not critisizing because this all looks very cool and I really want to see how it turns out. But, it still sounds a lot like MA (the ship could teraform too). If you haven't done it yet, check out my take on porting some BW stuff to a modern/sci-fi genre. You may download the lifepath's and new traits/skills here (http://www.supercommon.com/jc/BWscifi_draft.doc), it is unfinished though might give you a good place to start.

[AnyaTheBlue]

Sounds like Metamorphisis Alpha without sharks w/ laser eyes.

Right!

Also, a bit of Rendevous With Rama, Titan, Mad Max, Logan's Run, The Time Machine, The Book of the Long Sun, and a dash of half-remembered Orphans of the Sky and Wyrldmaker.

=)

[AnyaTheBlue]

But, it still sounds a lot like MA (the ship could teraform too).

I actually have a copy of MA. Well, I did before it went to a deserving home -- someone who liked Gamma World far more than I do...

Warden didn't terraform, it dissasembled and landed bits, IIRC.

This is a much bigger vessel than Warden was, and a lot more complex. Warden actually was a) careening out of control, and b) used gravity control to allow all the levels to stack on top of one another. Bah! These are cylindrical and rotate all proper-like! =)

And I will brook no three-legged purple mutants, either...

I'll definitely take a look at your lifepaths, though! Thanks!

[jc_madden]

I have MA as well including the Amazing Engine version which states that the Warden does tarraform, and in fact HAS tarraformed Alpha Centauri and is awaiting the command codes to begin operation Exodus. I also have GammaWorld versions 1-5.

[AnyaTheBlue]

I have MA as well including the Amazing Engine version which states that the Warden does tarraform, and in fact HAS tarraformed Alpha Centauri and is awaiting the command codes to begin operation Exodus. I also have GammaWorld versions 1-5.

=)

I stand corrected!

I had MA, MA to Omega (the Amazing Engine version) and GW versions 1 and 2 -- all of which went to the aforementioned Gamma World fanatic, so I'm relying on my dicey memory.

My idea for the terraforming would be, amongst other things, that one of the small fleet would "plant" itself, and grow a space elevator up to one of the other ships. The rest would remain in space, ferrying raw materials from elsewhere in the system, to drive the terraforming operations of the "grounded" pair. And, eventually, the humans would 'disembark' in some fashion...

And more ships would be built/grown, and manned, and set off for yet more stars and worlds to inhabit. Or perhaps some would go back to the world that they had come from, starting a generations-long ferrying of information, material, and people between the worlds.

And, again, when I say "mutant", I don't mean laser vision and telepathy.

Or something like that.

[jc_madden]

Heh heh, i'm a pretty big GW head (HATE what white wolf has done to it, Darwin's World is a far superior product).