Moonquest

[Utgardloki]

Hi folks,

For a long time I've been thinking of running an RPG set on the moon. The tentative title for the campaign would be "Moonquest", and that has sort of stuck, which sort of suggests using the Runequest rules for it. Runequest may be the best fit, although I'll start another thread for arguments over whether or not Runequest is the best system for space-based adventure.

But what I need for such a campaign, however, is a good set of adventures, preferably one that fits into a campaign arc. So I come here for ideas.

My ideas so far:

* Time period would be late 21st Century. The events of Kim Stanley Robinson's book _Red Mars_ have just taken place. (i.e., the first interplanetary war, between the Martian colonists and Earth corporate interests, have devastated the Martian colonies.) The Lunar colonies would like to avoid this kind of problem.

* A woman named Serena Kross is very rich and very influential, owning a fortune due to her stock in Lunar mining and nuclear industries. There is no proof that she has any secret military bases stocked with the most sophisticated of technology, but she is rich enough to afford them. It is no secret that she wants to unify the Lunar colonies and declare them independent of Earth. She also proposes rapid development of interstellar space arks.

* Colonists from the various Earth nations, especially China, Isreal, the United States, and Iran, do not readily trust each other.

* There is an AI League, which in a conference held in one of the airlocks to the Lunar surface, convinced the Lunar Mafia to stop killing people by throwing them out of airlocks.

* There is no "magic" technology. No FTL travel or communications, no magic, and no psionics. This is hard science fiction.

* The moons of the outer planets have been colonized, but travel times to Pluto and beyond make the Kuiper Belt an extremely isolated region of inhabited space.

Obviously, this implies a campaign where espionage and subtle intrigue will be featured. I am interested in any and all suggestions that may be generated. Thanks.

 

[seanwalsh]

If I remember Robinson's books correctly, there were hints of lots of corporate intrigue on Earth, although not on Mars. The moon could be largely run by corporate interests, who tolerate the squabbling little governments, so you could have the PCs spying on other mining operations, or seeking that unverified secret military base.
One thing I do remember from Robinson's books is he skillfully pointed out how difficult it is for a colony with no atmosphere to rebel against the Earth. Being smaller, the moon would face that problem more so, and also, being closer, would not benefit from the time lag between Mars and Earth (ie. reinforcements would come quickly).
Depending on your PC's proclivities you could play an anti-technology storyline, sort of like the Red Mars eco-terrorists, with a healthy dose of anti-corporate sentiment.
One difficulty I see, is there are no unexplored areas on a planet where the only habitable spaces are man-made. Maybe, someone has let loose some nanobots to dig tunnels and terraform the tunnels.
Also, there are some interesting Arthur C Clarke stories about the moon. The Sentinal (although that introduces 'magic' of sorts), a short story about a volley of bullets that are perpetually in orbit about 5' above the surface because the Russian and U.S. astronauts fired upon each other.
I've also always liked campaigns where the PCs think they are working for the good guys, but then they figure out that they were tricked into working for the bad guys, and then they figure out that the good guys are actually not very good. William Gibson-like stories.
I think the idea has lots of possibilities; as for the name, MoonQuest, not so much. Sorry.

 

[Utgardloki]

One thing I was thinking is that the Moon would have plenty of some resources, such as aluminum, but little of other resources, such as water. In fact, they may have very severe water-conservation habits, like in _Dune_, because every drop of water has to be brought up from the Earth.

I will definitely play up the scarcity of certain resources (beef, for example, is more expensive than gold), and the difficulties Serena would face in achieving her dreams.

 

[Adept]

One thing I was thinking is that the Moon would have plenty of some resources, such as aluminum, but little of other resources, such as water. In fact, they may have very severe water-conservation habits, like in _Dune_, because every drop of water has to be brought up from the Earth.

There's a lot of water chemically bonded in the silicates of the lunar crust. Water definitely won't be brought from earth, at least not with rocket power.

If the crust mining fails for some reason, it would propably be worth it to divert some ice-asteroids to lunar orbit for a water resource.

 

[jorganos]

One thing I was thinking is that the Moon would have plenty of some resources, such as aluminum, but little of other resources, such as water. In fact, they may have very severe water-conservation habits, like in _Dune_, because every drop of water has to be brought up from the Earth.

There's a lot of water chemically bonded in the silicates of the lunar crust. Water definitely won't be brought from earth, at least not with rocket power.

If the crust mining fails for some reason, it would propably be worth it to divert some ice-asteroids to lunar orbit for a water resource.

I liked the linear accelerator devices in Heinlein's "The Moon is a harsh mistress". "Send us all your sewage" was their slogan...

Extracting water from silicatious minerals isn't fun (I did my diploma thesis on silicates...). More troublesome to get are carbon and nitrogen, anyway.

 

[waylandson]

jorganos

You beat me to it, I was going to suggest that Utgardloki read Heinlein's most excellent book "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" and use it as a major source of Inspiration, especially Mike, the Colony's Main Computer.

 

[Adept]

jorganos

You beat me to it, I was going to suggest that Utgardloki read Heinlein's most excellent book "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" and use it as a major source of Inspiration, especially Mike, the Colony's Main Computer.

One of his best novels, that one. A good inspiration, and it would make for a good campaign.

 

[Osentalka]

There was another Moonquest

Moonquest was also a manuscript title when David Hall and the Reching Moon Megacorp were shortly in charge of developing a new Glorantha RPG based on RuneQuest.
It used RQ, Pendragon and some other game mechanics.
I think the manuscript (i only knew a few pages, and don´t know of they really deserve the name "manuscript") was called Moonquest because David and his friends prefered to play citizens of the Lunar Empire.


Cheers

Osentalka

 

[Utgardloki]

I was under the impression that there would be plenty of oxygen on the Moon because it could be extracted from the rocks, but is there also abundant quantities of hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon? I was thinking that these three essential elements would be very rare.

As for bringing water in from comets, I thought of that too, but there is a bootstrapping problem. In order to make it economical to bring water in from the comets, a functioning moon base would first be needed as a way station. Therefore the original moon base would have to be built without using cometary water.

One thought is that as the decades go by, the amount of available water on the moon would increase, so that the current PCs would not face the extremely austere conditions that the initial colonists faced. In fact, one of the factions I imagine is called "The Austeres" who favor a simple, minimalist lifestyle.

 

[jorganos]

I was under the impression that there would be plenty of oxygen on the Moon because it could be extracted from the rocks, but is there also abundant quantities of hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon? I was thinking that these three essential elements would be very rare.

True. Depending on the technology you allow, these elements could be harvested from comets or planets. Carbon and hydrogen abound in Jupiter and Saturn (as methane). Venus has an interesting CO2-rich atmosphere, with some nitrogen present, too.

As for bringing water in from comets, I thought of that too, but there is a bootstrapping problem. In order to make it economical to bring water in from the comets, a functioning moon base would first be needed as a way station. Therefore the original moon base would have to be built without using cometary water.

The way station could actually be in geostationary earth orbit or in earth/moon lagrange point.

One thought is that as the decades go by, the amount of available water on the moon would increase, so that the current PCs would not face the extremely austere conditions that the initial colonists faced. In fact, one of the factions I imagine is called "The Austeres" who favor a simple, minimalist lifestyle.

I expect some differences in the air pressure these people use. Early colonists might use a low total pressure atmosphere, with oxygen partial pressure equivalent to say 4000m on earth and nitrogen strongly reduced.

Poul Anderson's series starting with "The Stars are Also Fire" has a genetically modified Lunarian population. Worth reading for inspiration, too.


To bring this back to a forum-relevant tone, what changes to RuneQuest would be necessary for such a setting?

 

[Utgardloki]

Well, I really need to see the new Runequest book to be sure what changes are needed.

One thing I am not sure what to do with is Power. I want a setting where the supernatural/paranormal plays essentially no role. There is no magic. There is no Psionics Corps. There's not even a "Luck" which played a role in the Ringworld book.

In other thread I thought about going with a concept like "Flow", where Power represents your ability to instictively react to situations. There are some real-world examples I can think of: George Washington being able to charge the British troops without getting hurt; Rasputin able to survive four assassination attempt; Bill Clinton managing to get himself elected President.

So one thought is to use Power instead of Dexterity to dodge missile and energy weapons. Technically, it is impossible to dodge such weapons, but if a person were able to instinctively understand that a person was just about to pull a trigger, she could duck just after he aimed his weapon.

I wouldn't make such an attribute if I were designing the game from scratch, but since Runequest has Power, I need to figure out how it can be used.