Just a Matter of Time ...

[rust]

In the setting I am currently working on the most advanced starship
drive is a hyperdrive with a speed of 1 month per lightyear and the
colony in question is almost 30 lightyears from Earth, so the colony's
supply ship will take 2 1/2 years for a voyage from Earth to the colo-
ny and also 2 1/2 years back to Earth, which means that it will visit
the colony only every 5 years or so.

This makes calling for help from Earth somewhat pointless, and the la-
test news from Earth will indeed be rather late. New colonists can use
the long voyage to learn some additional skills for the life on their fu-
ture homeworld, and the politicians of Earth will find it difficult to med-
dle in the colony's affairs. Supplies delivered to the colony will have to
be very flexible, probably raw materials and machines enabling the co-
lonists to produce whatever they might need to solve their problems.

These are just some of the obvious consequences of living in a truly re-
mote colony, but there are perhaps others I did not think of, and which
might become important during the campaign - ideas on this would be
most welcome.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

General:
You have decided what tech is available in your universe?

Shipboard roleplaying ideas:
Are characters awake during the 2.5 years travel time?
Can characters make the trip part of their character generation past history?
Is the living space on the ship large enough to allow roleplay opportunities? If so, design your colony ship...

Messages and news feeds would still be available allowing for continuity of culture to some extent.

Colony:
Who sponsored the colony, government or corporation? This will reflect the character of the colony and its overall goal (mine the tantalum/quantium-40/unobtanium, send dissidents away, etc.). This also determines some prior history for characters as the ship will only be taking those who meet the needs of the colony. Why waste a ship berth on someone who does not belong there.

Who controls the colony? How do they control it? Five years or more is a long time waiting for help. If the government of the colony is not by agreement of the colonists, government is imposed and established from outside by the sponsor.

 

[Lemnoc]

Who controls the colony? How do they control it? Five years or more is a long time waiting for help. If the government of the colony is not by agreement of the colonists, government is imposed and established from outside by the sponsor.

These are good questions. The distance and isolation of this colony places it outside the easy analog of colonial systems we know, the New World, Australia, Africa and the like, where—while remote—they still were serviceable in a time frame of months or at most a year. Here, servicing this colony would consume a career.

I would think this place would not operate much like a colony at all, certainly not for any of the socio-economic reasons we understand about colonization and colonialism. Something much different, a profound isolation more at the level of exile.

What would be the point of creating and supplying such an unusual colony?

 

[phavoc]

Supplies would be of the type that could not be manufactured locally, or that they may experience a shortage of raw materials. So small items, like pharmaceuticals, computer parts, etc. I would suspect the initial colony would have brought along CAD/CAM machinery designed to replicate itself (maybe 3D printers or equivalent?). Specialized materials could also be brought along for very small production runs.

Obviously information is the easiest most compact information to bring. I would suspect petabytes of data would come (tv shows, digital copies of magazines, images of artwork, music, new patterns for their machinery, etc). There might be additional vehicles, or say specific vehicle parts (like engines) that could be grafted onto locally produced products to create boats or airships or whatever.

Then there's the bio-stuff. Embryo's of animals, seeds, etc. And, of course, more colonists (awake or as corpsicles)

They may also bring a few bulkier items that would be useful. Leaving their shuttles behind for the planet to use, maybe a few communication satellites or other orbital equipment beyond the local manufacturing base.

For the cargo back you would see things like samples of local plants, maybe some custom-produced goods made out of local fauna that would be of value back on Earth. And there might be a few people headed back (for medical reasons, or criminals, etc).

 

[Dave Chase]

Not sure how common space ships are even if they are slow.

If they are not common, then each trip space will be of premium because it cost way to much in time and effort to make a round trip. So crowded with people and supplies going to the colony and the ship not leaving until it is loaded for leg home.

Another factor is if the drives (or the power plant) can only be used for ship flight or can it be used to help the colony?

If it can only be for ship flight, then the first statement about space and premium is very important

If it can be used to power the colony or mine planets/asteroids in the system, the trip maybe one way.

Just some of my thoughts

Dave Chase

 

[rust]

The colony in question began as an outpost used for a private
terraforming research project and later on was turned into a
small permanent settlement, intended as the core of a future
colony once the terraforming had made the planet sufficiently
habitable. The colonists, about 300 adults and some children
when the campaign starts, are basically independent from Ter-
ra and the core worlds, they have organized their own govern-
ment. However, the colony is still dependent on the support of
the private organization which originally founded it, and which
operates the supply ship and pays for the supplies - an invest-
ment that is expected to return a profit once the planet can be
opened for extended colonization.

New colonists are mainly personnel required for the terraforming
and to run the colony, they include scientists and engineers as
well as hydroponics technicians, mechanics, nurses, teachers and
whatever else a small community needs to survive and expand.
During the 30 months of the voyage from Earth to Ashara (that's
the name of the planet) the colonists stay awake and use their ti-
me for education and training as well as to get to know each other
and to learn to cooperate.

In the campaign the voyage will partially be used as character back-
ground (e.g. the skills learned during the voyage) and partially for
short roleplaying scenes designed to introduce the characters to the
important or interesting non-player characters among the colonists
and to the various factions among the colonists.

 

[rust]

What would be the point of creating and supplying such an unusual colony?

In this case, to prepare a somewhat hostile planet for a major
future colonization program, which perhaps makes sense in a
setting where habitable planets similar to Earth are exceedingly
rare and mostly even farther away from Earth than this seed co-
lony - there are not that many promising system closer than 30
light years even in our real universe.

 

[rust]

Not sure how common space ships are even if they are slow.

In this setting they are common and comparatively inexpensive.
They are basically interplanetary craft, used for a long time in
the Solar System, retrofitted with the new hyperdrive to serve
as interstellar craft.

The main reason that the colony's supply ship returns to Earth
after each voyage to the colony is the crew, which is actually
more valuable and difficult to replace than the ship itself, and
which is unlikely to be willing to change from spacers into colo-
nists.

 

[rust]

Thank you all very much for your thoughts.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

These are just some of the obvious consequences of living in a truly re-
mote colony, but there are perhaps others I did not think of, and which
might become important during the campaign - ideas on this would be
most welcome.

What is the theme of the game? Horror? Action? Drama? Thriller? Mystery? Adventure? B-Movie? Low-Budget BEM? Epic Battle?

 

[locarno24]

How well mapped/analysed is the world?

I noticed reference to terraforming, so presumably limited if any life.

With a 5-year round trip, any survey and detailled cartography has to be done 'in house' - therefore a quite impressive little practical researchgeology department must be part of an initial team.

Depending on how significant the terraforming activity is, you may need to raid the rest of the system for materials - ice and hydrocarbons - in which case you need to be able to sustain and co-ordinate off-world activities.

 

[rust]

What is the theme of the game?

The theme is the development of the colony and everything
connected to it, from the exploration of the planet with the
search for water and resources to the internal conflicts be-
tween the factions among the colonists to the colony's limi-
ted offworld relations. Since the campaign will be a sandbox,
it is mostly up to the players what the actual focus will be,
while I will concentrate on the setting's reactions to the cha-
racters' activities and provide a living background of events,
developments in technology, news from the core worlds, and
all that.

 

[rust]

How well mapped/analysed is the world?

The original map available to the characters will show little detail
(see below*), and there will be a data sheet with all the important
general informations about the planet (orbital radius, length of the
year and the day, diameter, surface gravity, atmosphere, and so
on). These informations are the result of the work of the initial
team of scientists, which mostly uses research satellites and some
short range expeditions to study the planet, which is somewhat
like Mars (only bigger, with more subterranean water and a den-
ser atmosphere). The terraforming will be of the biological kind,
with bacteria, algae and lichens to change the planet's albedo, to
produce oxygen and to create fertile soil.

* The "P.M." on the map is the location of Port Mallory, the only
settlement of the project. There is a more detailed regional map
for the settlement's region.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

The campaign is not about terraforming the planet is it? That's just a procedure that won't have much impact on things since it is very long term (on-going). How long have the scientists stated it's expected to take anyway? Fast? Slow? Result in altered animal life that wasn't originally planned for?

 

[rust]

The campaign is not about terraforming the planet is it? That's just a procedure that won't have much impact on things since it is very long term (on-going). How long have the scientists stated it's expected to take anyway? Fast? Slow? Result in altered animal life that wasn't originally planned for?

No, the progress of the terraforming is just a part of the living back-
ground, the characters will not be directly involved, they will only see
that the environment is slowly changing - but I also intend to use so-
me "terraforming events", mostly unpleasant mishaps, to add a little
"colour" to the setting. A lot can go wrong with simple organisms mu-
tating in a not completely understood planetary environment ... :shock:

I have not yet decided how long it will take to change the planet from
"Mars+" to "Earth-", this will take a little more research, but I think a
century will be the fastest terraforming plausibly possible. Since the
campaign is designed to be "generational", with the children of the ori-
ginal characters taking over during the campaign, this should not be a
problem.

 

[locarno24]

So... essentially the financial goal of the colony (at least from the backers/initial colonists) is essentially to 'produce' a liveable world? That's the end product to sell on to someone (i.e. wave II colonists)?

In which case, the important tasks are anything which makes said world more efficiently settleable/exploitable, be that mapping (which it sounds like there's limited information to go on to date), comms infrastructure, local space activity (including SPACEGUARD type asteroid surveys), ecology* etc, etc.

With a 30 month round trip and relatively little traffic, unless you discover a crystalline material that turns lead into fissile uranium whilst simultaneously making you rich, immortal and irresistable to the gender of your choice, I can't see there being anything worth shipping back to Earth**. Are there any other colonies in the vicinity?

* Possibly involving a blue-eyed man who prefers the old term 'planetologist'. Small desert world, you say? Have some spice.
** depending on what state the Earth ecosphere and/or mineral resources are in in your universe, of course.

 

[rust]

So... essentially the financial goal of the colony (at least from the backers/initial colonists) is essentially to 'produce' a liveable world? That's the end product to sell on to someone (i.e. wave II colonists)?

Yes, that is at least the plan, although I think that the sponsors
are more interested in creating a new future work force and mar-
ket for core world corporations than in the actual colonists them-
selves.

With a 30 month round trip and relatively little traffic, unless you discover a crystalline material that turns lead into fissile uranium whilst simultaneously making you rich, immortal and irresistable to the gender of your choice, I can't see there being anything worth shipping back to Earth**. Are there any other colonies in the vicinity?

There is another colony approximately halfway between Ashara
and Earth, named Durani, which is developing into the commer-
cial and industrial center of the region, the Durani Arm. There
are plans to mine rare crystals or other resources on Ashara in
order to export them to Durani in exchange for industrial goods,
but until now this is just an idea of the colony's sponsors. The
only things worth shipping back to Earth at the moment are sci-
entific data from the exploration of the planet and the terrafor-
ming project (and perhaps the colonists' mail to relatives back
on Earth).

 

[2330ADUSA1]

I like your campaign idea as stated, it would be fun to play. I might state that the world has the potential to be a great staging point for other planets and asteroid belts rich in resources. Maybe the plan is to get a sizeable support base in place to then mine a rick asteroid belt and maybe another resource rich planet in other orbits within that same solar system

 

[Nathan Brazil]

On Ashara the not having exports:

That being the case, a more efficient use of resources by the sponsor might be to make the ships going there one way ships. The reason being that now you have to bring this empty ship back empty holds all the way from Ashara paying for the 2.5 years of fuel, life support and maintenance. Unless of course bring back the ship is cheaper than building a new one. The cost of new colonists and equipment/cargo to Ashara should not factor in because the sponsor pays for that regardless new ship or recycled ship.

Or perhaps a modular cargo/habitation bay. Bring home only the engines and controls portions (along with needed crew quarters) back to reduce costs.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

What sort of terraforming is Ashara doing?
Drop ice asteroids from orbit?
Massive atmospheric processors ala LV-426?
Oxygenators (i.e. plants)?
Soil enrichment?

Makes a better determination of what equipment is needed. In the case of the first two, you may need more space vehicles. The first for towing, the second for transporting equipment back and forth.
The others may require extensive bio-labs.