Mongoose 2300AD Progress Report
- Thread starter Colin
- Start date
GypsyComet
Emperor Mongoose
The setting uses what is called Stutterwarp for FTL. Stutterwarp drives build up a charge while in use, which MUST be discharged every 7.7 light years. The drive can only be discharged in a gravity well.
The upshot is that, prior to the discovery of Brown Dwarf stars, the 7.7ly limit defines the setting by establishing runs of systems that are close enough together to allow the Stutterwarp to carry ships between them. These runs are called "arms" and each is dominated by one or more national groups from Earth. Two arms end (for humans) where alien races have established realms of their own, while the other arms are dead ends; nothing new lies within 7.7ly of their end points.
Now throw in brown dwarf stars. Small gravity wells sufficient to allow a drive to discharge, and they are *everywhere*.
The Arms vanish, and along with them a lot of the flavor of the setting.
Ooops.
The problem is that, when Brown Dwarf stars were just being discovered for real, they were thought to be rare. No problem so far, but an adventure for 2300AD posited a brown dwarf in the right place to make a "Backdoor" into the space of one of the alien races. Specifically, the hostile one. This established that brown dwarf stars were acknowledged to exist and could be used.
Twenty years later, we know the things are everywhere. So the question is whether a new edition puts the genii back in the bottle and pretends brown dwarf stars don't exist, or attempts to work with their existence without breaking the whole game.
The upshot is that, prior to the discovery of Brown Dwarf stars, the 7.7ly limit defines the setting by establishing runs of systems that are close enough together to allow the Stutterwarp to carry ships between them. These runs are called "arms" and each is dominated by one or more national groups from Earth. Two arms end (for humans) where alien races have established realms of their own, while the other arms are dead ends; nothing new lies within 7.7ly of their end points.
Now throw in brown dwarf stars. Small gravity wells sufficient to allow a drive to discharge, and they are *everywhere*.
The Arms vanish, and along with them a lot of the flavor of the setting.
Ooops.
The problem is that, when Brown Dwarf stars were just being discovered for real, they were thought to be rare. No problem so far, but an adventure for 2300AD posited a brown dwarf in the right place to make a "Backdoor" into the space of one of the alien races. Specifically, the hostile one. This established that brown dwarf stars were acknowledged to exist and could be used.
Twenty years later, we know the things are everywhere. So the question is whether a new edition puts the genii back in the bottle and pretends brown dwarf stars don't exist, or attempts to work with their existence without breaking the whole game.
No offense but the above is a hair incorrect.
One Arm, the French Arm (dominated by the newly proclaimed French Empire, Great Britain and Germany with a smattering of Azania, Japan and Ukraine) runs into two star faring alien races. The Chinese Arm (Manchuria, Canton, Texas, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, a left over Bavarian colony and few other colonies and enclaves) has the space faring Sung but they are confined to only one star system. Despite these contacts both arms have numerous "fingers" and "frontiers" that extend to other star systems and possibly deep into unexplored space.
Only the American Arm (almost exclusively American and Australian) is truly closed. There is a handful of largely unexplored star systems that may (depending upon which sources are considered canon) have habitable planets. It is here that the most important Brown Dwarf is found as it leads to a previously unknown alien race and allows humans to make a "Back Door" foray into Kafer space.
By having a 7.7 LY limit on star travel it creates Arms as GypsyComet said. Furthermore these arms have corridors of travel, choke-points and some very strategic star systems. This IMHO greatly enhances the game by imposing interesting limits and structure on star travel, exploration, communication (which goes only as fast as the fastest star ship as there is no FTL radio) and of course warfare. There is no POOF go anywhere you want star travel like Star Wars / Star Trek. You have to plan and think before traveling.
I hope this gives you further insight into 2300 AD.
Benjamin
One Arm, the French Arm (dominated by the newly proclaimed French Empire, Great Britain and Germany with a smattering of Azania, Japan and Ukraine) runs into two star faring alien races. The Chinese Arm (Manchuria, Canton, Texas, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, a left over Bavarian colony and few other colonies and enclaves) has the space faring Sung but they are confined to only one star system. Despite these contacts both arms have numerous "fingers" and "frontiers" that extend to other star systems and possibly deep into unexplored space.
Only the American Arm (almost exclusively American and Australian) is truly closed. There is a handful of largely unexplored star systems that may (depending upon which sources are considered canon) have habitable planets. It is here that the most important Brown Dwarf is found as it leads to a previously unknown alien race and allows humans to make a "Back Door" foray into Kafer space.
By having a 7.7 LY limit on star travel it creates Arms as GypsyComet said. Furthermore these arms have corridors of travel, choke-points and some very strategic star systems. This IMHO greatly enhances the game by imposing interesting limits and structure on star travel, exploration, communication (which goes only as fast as the fastest star ship as there is no FTL radio) and of course warfare. There is no POOF go anywhere you want star travel like Star Wars / Star Trek. You have to plan and think before traveling.
I hope this gives you further insight into 2300 AD.
Benjamin
Colin
Mongoose
Civilian vehicles are complete. Animals are complete. NPCs are almost done, and military vehicles should get finished tonight. After that, just spacecraft, and about half of those are already done. (Thanks guys!)
So Mongoose should have the whole thing in their hot, sweaty British hands by Monday, at the latest.
So Mongoose should have the whole thing in their hot, sweaty British hands by Monday, at the latest.
GypsyComet
Emperor Mongoose
ben51 said:
It's been a while, yes. The Kafer and Pentapods are on the same Arm?
Colin said:Civilian vehicles are complete. Animals are complete. NPCs are almost done, and military vehicles should get finished tonight. After that, just spacecraft, and about half of those are already done. (Thanks guys!)
So Mongoose should have the whole thing in their hot, sweaty British hands by Monday, at the latest.
So is this just the beginning of a long editing / production process or have you done much of that yourself? What I'm asking is when will we see your master piece. I go in for open-heart surgery on Sept. 2nd and will something to read for the next few weeks as I recover. So hustle your butt mister.
Benjamin
P.S. Are you really leaving the Kafers out or just not covering the Invasion meta-plot?
GypsyComet said:
Yes. The "French Arm" was the center piece from the start, but other arms had aliens, included published adventures, and were completely detailed. Primary nations along the French Arm included France, Britain, Germany, and Azania. Some others included Bavaria, a corporate colony, and an independent one.
GypsyComet
Emperor Mongoose
The key to making use of "Backdoor" is probably going to resolve to a statement that brown dwarf stars are pretty common, but not everywhere, and in the context of 2300AD, rarely in useful spots. Backdoor is the only one so far.
Colin
Mongoose
ben51 said:Colin said:Civilian vehicles are complete. Animals are complete. NPCs are almost done, and military vehicles should get finished tonight. After that, just spacecraft, and about half of those are already done. (Thanks guys!)
So Mongoose should have the whole thing in their hot, sweaty British hands by Monday, at the latest.
So is this just the beginning of a long editing / production process or have you done much of that yourself? What I'm asking is when will we see your master piece. I go in for open-heart surgery on Sept. 2nd and will something to read for the next few weeks as I recover. So hustle your butt mister.
Benjamin
P.S. Are you really leaving the Kafers out or just not covering the Invasion meta-plot?
I've done much in the way of editing, but the rest is up to Mongoose. I don't imagine this will get released much before Christmas.
There are still Kaefers, but things may unfold differently...
GypsyComet
Emperor Mongoose
Colin said:
Because that's how Mongoose rolls.
Colin said:
I agree...with the caveat that Invasion was the best "Humans must fight the implacable alien horde," RPG supplement I've ever read. (Along with the fan rewrite of Operation Overlord...called Operation Herkules which is on the Etranger website.)
I think a closer look at merchant and explorer occupations is needed but there needs to be some conflict for the military buffs to work with.
Benjamin
Colin
Mongoose
There is. There's the whole Kaefer thing, however that goes, the incipient hostilities on Heidelsheiment, on Syuhlahm, on Beowulf, Kazakhstan, border skirmishes between Texas and Mexico, the possibility of another Rio Plata war, the ongoing 'wars' against a variety of terrorist groups, the possibility of colonial succession on the French Arm, and French efforts to stop that (look at Elysia), And loads more that I can't find in my brain right now.
Conflict-based adventures are easy. It's the merchant and exploration campaigns that are hard.
Conflict-based adventures are easy. It's the merchant and exploration campaigns that are hard.
middenface
Cosmic Mongoose
Off course theres the whole explore the unknown thing... like you can do in this baby...
And with the Aconit... (not sure if the scale is quite right...)
And with the Aconit... (not sure if the scale is quite right...)
ben51 said:
I agree. However, one could come up with some very interesting situations for merchants, explorers, and other civilians if they are caught in a war zone. A simple one: blockade runners. I think this could be particularly interesting if you were dealing with a colonial rebellion. Another option might be forcing the PCs to crash land on a remote planet after being shot down because they were mistaken for an enemy warship. This scenario could be particularly interesting if they were on a large passenger liner and then have to lead the other passengers, fight off other survivor groups, etc. There are plenty of possibilities.
Even in the original 2300 you could do other stuff. I ran a Beyern campaign that lasted almost two years. Everyone had a blast exploring the galaxy and I tied it in with a bunch of political stuff and piracy as they left known space. At the Pleiades I used the AGRA mystery to drop them back on Earth during the Twilight. This made them part of several historical events (uncredited of course) while simultaneously explaining to them why a certain organization had been trying to stop the mission as they launched. Gotta love time loops.
