Asimov's Foundation

HobbitFan

Mongoose
I've been playing around with setting my new Traveller campaign in Asimov's Foundation universe.
Does anyone know of a good overview of the universe I can point my players to so i don't have to summarize the books for them?
 
You could try the Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_Trilogy

When in the universe do you want to set the game? During the Empire while the Foundations are being set up? During the Empire while the Foundations are up and running and the Empire has almost finished declining? After the Empire has finished declining, the (First) Foundation is the major power and Trantor is little more than a collection of scrap metal? During the time of the Mule?
 
For the most dramatic potential, I think I need a time period where we have the Empire and both Foundations.
Once the 2nd Galactic Empire is founded, do the Foundations stick around?
It's been such a long time since I read the books that I don't recall.
 
You want to use a setting you don't remember anything about. Just make up something then that you think the setting was cool for.
 
SPOILERS!


Seldon's "public" plan was that the (First) Foundation, on Terminus, would grow into the Second Galactic Empire. Seldon's "secret" plan was that the Second Foundation would emerge as a perfect rulers guided by psychohistory. That's as far as the original books went.

Asimov revisited things, though. The "double secret backup" plan, hatched by Seldon's family/associates, involved the creation of the world-mind Gaia which would expand into the unified Galaxia mind. At the end of the the last book, chronologically, this appears to be the inevitable direction, as the thousands of years of plotting by R. Daneel Olivaw to safeguard humanity against internal and external threats comes to fruition.

However, Brin's prequel teases that a galactic hive mind would not need the written Encyclopedia Galactica entries that preface each chapter in the Foundation stories, and that perhaps things take a different turn.
 
thanks for the responses guys! Going through the original Foundation books refreshing my memory and looking for cool scenario ideas.
 
HobbitFan said:
For the most dramatic potential, I think I need a time period where we have the Empire and both Foundations.
Once the 2nd Galactic Empire is founded, do the Foundations stick around?
It's been such a long time since I read the books that I don't recall.
The 2nd Empire doesn't really matter because the time period you probably want is covered in "Foundation and Empire" and finished off in "Second Foundation". The First Foundation is a major emerging power, the Empire is a declining major power, and then just when your players are starting to feel comfortable in the universe you get to spring the Mule on them as a surprise. :twisted:

Otherwise just re-read the original "Foundation". The Foundations are being, er, founded. :) By definition you therefore have the Empire and both Foundations, though just about nobody knows anything about the Second Foundation or even that it exists. You also have plenty of fun for merchant characters, possibly operating as agents of the Foundation.
 
Bear in mind that Psychohistory is a real science in the OTU.

http://members.tip.net.au/~davidjw/libdata/alphabet/p/psychist.htm

You'd be perfectly within your rights to run an OTU campaign in which secret psychohistorical foundations are manipulating the course of Imperial history, perhaps an alternate timeline game.

Simon Hibbs
 
adrian: thanks for the advice on time periods. I'm thinking about doing my game in that very time period. Lots of good story ideas in Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation. And the Rise of the Mule is gold. All sorts of good potential there.

simon: that's a good point about using psychohistory in the regular campaign. That might be an option too.
 
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