I'm working on a setting for a Traveller game and would like constructive comments. Maybe it's not the most orriginal, but I thought I'd share it. Sorry for the size of the post.
Simon Hibbs
----
Starfall is intended to be a flexible framework for the development of Traveller campaigns. It's scale and background means it's compatible with the default world generation system for Traveller and can form the basis for the creation of an ATU.
Starfall is the name of the setting, but within that setting it is specifically used to refer to the war between the preservers and the prevailers, which shattered galactic civilization several generations ago. It’s also used to refer to the galaxy which is the stage for these events, which may or may not be our own milky way galaxy.
History
All across the Starfall galaxy new societies and civilizations are blossoming, reaching out across the light-years to settle new worlds, obtain vital resources and acquire essential technologies either peaceably or by force. Some of these societies barely scrape a bleak existence from marginally habitable worlds, others are massive population centres rapidly developing more advanced technologies. It wasn't always like this, less than two hundred years ago the galaxy was an advanced, prosperous and cosmopolitan utopia guided and protected by the Preservers - vast sentient machines dedicated to the protection of all life. For a billion years the Preservers have fought a relentless war against the Prevailers, a rival faction of their own kind that aims to eradicate biological life from the universe. Their struggle has raged across the observable universe leaving galaxies shattered in it's wake, and then the war came here. Nova bombs and anti-matter warheads laid waste to entire star clusters. Drone war fleets sterilized worlds and hunted hunted down starships. The preservers struck back, they contained most of the nova shockwaves using collapser fields - black hole generators that implode a vast volume of space up to several parsecs across into a singularity – and used this and other weapons to assault the prevailer force, but enough prevailers and their munitions made it through to wipe out hundreds of trillions of lives and bring galactic civilization crashing down. Eventually the preservers and prevailers simply disappeared, and much of the preserver technology on which so many worlds depended simply stopped functioning. Some speculate that the preservers triggered a suicide weapon that wiped out themselves and the prevailers and much of their technology at a single stroke. If so how far that effect reached is unknown. All the survivors and their descendents know is that with their guardians gone, it's up to them to rebuild what civilization they can.
The war left vast swathes of the galaxy ravaged. Some areas were worse affected than others, but few if any sectors were left unscathed. Even those systems that were not directly affected by the war suddenly lost the use of almost all their preserver technology. Transport, manufacturing, food production and environment control facilities suddenly stopped working. Every computer based on preserver technology, and every device incorporating one, became instant junk. Even for worlds that had survived the conflict, the effect was devastating. Many artificial habitats failed completely, and few worlds were capable of sustaining their populations at anything like their previous levels. The results weren't pretty.
The default campaign setting begins 152 years after the end of the Starfall. Some communities have stabilised their population levels and others are even re-developing advanced technology, including space travel. There are still a lot of populations that lead precarious existences, relying on rapidly dwindling resources or jury rigged technology that is slowly degrading.
The Setting
A galaxy is a big place, which gives a lot of latitude to decide what kind of region you want to set your game in. The setting fully supports using the default world generation rules from Traveller to create a sector and fill it with worlds, but you could just as well use the optional Hard SF or Space Opera variants instead to represent an area differently affected by the war, or otherwise tweak the system to create a region more to your tastes.
Note that since all preserver computers stopped working, almost all records from the pre-war era were lost including historical, scientific and astrographic information. Most information that has survived was recorded from memory and has been handed down through several generations. Most people have only a very sketchy idea of what their neighbouring part of the galaxy was like before the war and much less idea what might be there now. With very few exceptions, even the most advanced worlds have only had space travel for a few decades and so while their knowledge of local space is much more detailed than that of less developed worlds, information about regions more remote than a few sub-sectors away is still rather limited in scope and patchy at best.
Bases
There are several ways to handle Navy or Scout bases. These could represent the remains of facilities left over from the pre-Starfall era. Alternatively if there is a dominant interstellar federation or empire in your region of space then these facilities could belong to them.
Technology
Prevailer computer technology was found in even the most simple devices before the Starfall, so when it stopped working all but the most basic mechanical systems failed with it. Most worlds have had to re-develop a lot of their technology. Of course they had a head-start in terms of a basic understanding of science and technology, but most of the equipment they used to have failed when the computers stopped working. They have had to go back to the drawing board, especially for computer technology, often using primitive silicon based systems. Even for the most advanced worlds it has taken generations to build up their economic and technical base to achieve stable or even expanding societies with space faring capability. The most advanced worlds have just reached TL 15, but most are much more primitive and some are even scraping by at a subsistence level.
The most common FTL system in use is the Jump Drive. This is a very archaic and limited mode of travel by historic standards, but it's a fairly simple system that is one of the easiest to re-develop. Some worlds have got alternative systems working such as warp drives but these are more complex and hence generally less reliable. Any attempt to operate, maintain or repair an FTL system other than Jump Drive is at a -2 DM compared to the equivalent task with a Jump Drive.
Nonhuman Species
The Starfall galaxy was populated by many sentient species who, like humanity, brought many life forms from their own home world with them when they settled new colonies. Thanks to Panspermia most biospheres in the galaxy are based on carbon-chemistry organic life that is broadly compatible with terrestrial biology. This means that humans and most aliens can eat, and be eaten by many of the same things.
Remnant Technology
Some remnant technology did survive, mainly because for whatever reason it did not use standard Prevailer computer systems. Perhaps this was done for novelty reasons, such as in a recreation of a device from history, or as a research project. Such devices are rare in the extreme and fantastically valuable.
Preservers and Prevailers
These were massive, fantastically advanced war machines locked in a perpetual war across much of the observable universe. Each preserver is several thousand kilometres across, they are independently mobile, fitted with a variety of cataclysmically devastating weapon systems and with automated repair and construction facilities capable of manufacturing more of their kind. Their origins are mysterious, but the preservers claimed that they and the prevailers were originally the same, but divided over their attitude to organic life. The prevailers are dedicated to eradicating it as though it were an infection in the cosmos, while the preservers are dedicated to protecting and nurturing life, especially intelligent life. Their war has been waged for hundreds of millions of years, leaving entire galactic clusters shattered and sterilized, but only recently swept through the Starfall galaxy (though some believe this is not the first time the war has been fought here).
Simon Hibbs
----
Starfall is intended to be a flexible framework for the development of Traveller campaigns. It's scale and background means it's compatible with the default world generation system for Traveller and can form the basis for the creation of an ATU.
Starfall is the name of the setting, but within that setting it is specifically used to refer to the war between the preservers and the prevailers, which shattered galactic civilization several generations ago. It’s also used to refer to the galaxy which is the stage for these events, which may or may not be our own milky way galaxy.
History
All across the Starfall galaxy new societies and civilizations are blossoming, reaching out across the light-years to settle new worlds, obtain vital resources and acquire essential technologies either peaceably or by force. Some of these societies barely scrape a bleak existence from marginally habitable worlds, others are massive population centres rapidly developing more advanced technologies. It wasn't always like this, less than two hundred years ago the galaxy was an advanced, prosperous and cosmopolitan utopia guided and protected by the Preservers - vast sentient machines dedicated to the protection of all life. For a billion years the Preservers have fought a relentless war against the Prevailers, a rival faction of their own kind that aims to eradicate biological life from the universe. Their struggle has raged across the observable universe leaving galaxies shattered in it's wake, and then the war came here. Nova bombs and anti-matter warheads laid waste to entire star clusters. Drone war fleets sterilized worlds and hunted hunted down starships. The preservers struck back, they contained most of the nova shockwaves using collapser fields - black hole generators that implode a vast volume of space up to several parsecs across into a singularity – and used this and other weapons to assault the prevailer force, but enough prevailers and their munitions made it through to wipe out hundreds of trillions of lives and bring galactic civilization crashing down. Eventually the preservers and prevailers simply disappeared, and much of the preserver technology on which so many worlds depended simply stopped functioning. Some speculate that the preservers triggered a suicide weapon that wiped out themselves and the prevailers and much of their technology at a single stroke. If so how far that effect reached is unknown. All the survivors and their descendents know is that with their guardians gone, it's up to them to rebuild what civilization they can.
The war left vast swathes of the galaxy ravaged. Some areas were worse affected than others, but few if any sectors were left unscathed. Even those systems that were not directly affected by the war suddenly lost the use of almost all their preserver technology. Transport, manufacturing, food production and environment control facilities suddenly stopped working. Every computer based on preserver technology, and every device incorporating one, became instant junk. Even for worlds that had survived the conflict, the effect was devastating. Many artificial habitats failed completely, and few worlds were capable of sustaining their populations at anything like their previous levels. The results weren't pretty.
The default campaign setting begins 152 years after the end of the Starfall. Some communities have stabilised their population levels and others are even re-developing advanced technology, including space travel. There are still a lot of populations that lead precarious existences, relying on rapidly dwindling resources or jury rigged technology that is slowly degrading.
The Setting
A galaxy is a big place, which gives a lot of latitude to decide what kind of region you want to set your game in. The setting fully supports using the default world generation rules from Traveller to create a sector and fill it with worlds, but you could just as well use the optional Hard SF or Space Opera variants instead to represent an area differently affected by the war, or otherwise tweak the system to create a region more to your tastes.
Note that since all preserver computers stopped working, almost all records from the pre-war era were lost including historical, scientific and astrographic information. Most information that has survived was recorded from memory and has been handed down through several generations. Most people have only a very sketchy idea of what their neighbouring part of the galaxy was like before the war and much less idea what might be there now. With very few exceptions, even the most advanced worlds have only had space travel for a few decades and so while their knowledge of local space is much more detailed than that of less developed worlds, information about regions more remote than a few sub-sectors away is still rather limited in scope and patchy at best.
Bases
There are several ways to handle Navy or Scout bases. These could represent the remains of facilities left over from the pre-Starfall era. Alternatively if there is a dominant interstellar federation or empire in your region of space then these facilities could belong to them.
Technology
Prevailer computer technology was found in even the most simple devices before the Starfall, so when it stopped working all but the most basic mechanical systems failed with it. Most worlds have had to re-develop a lot of their technology. Of course they had a head-start in terms of a basic understanding of science and technology, but most of the equipment they used to have failed when the computers stopped working. They have had to go back to the drawing board, especially for computer technology, often using primitive silicon based systems. Even for the most advanced worlds it has taken generations to build up their economic and technical base to achieve stable or even expanding societies with space faring capability. The most advanced worlds have just reached TL 15, but most are much more primitive and some are even scraping by at a subsistence level.
The most common FTL system in use is the Jump Drive. This is a very archaic and limited mode of travel by historic standards, but it's a fairly simple system that is one of the easiest to re-develop. Some worlds have got alternative systems working such as warp drives but these are more complex and hence generally less reliable. Any attempt to operate, maintain or repair an FTL system other than Jump Drive is at a -2 DM compared to the equivalent task with a Jump Drive.
Nonhuman Species
The Starfall galaxy was populated by many sentient species who, like humanity, brought many life forms from their own home world with them when they settled new colonies. Thanks to Panspermia most biospheres in the galaxy are based on carbon-chemistry organic life that is broadly compatible with terrestrial biology. This means that humans and most aliens can eat, and be eaten by many of the same things.
Remnant Technology
Some remnant technology did survive, mainly because for whatever reason it did not use standard Prevailer computer systems. Perhaps this was done for novelty reasons, such as in a recreation of a device from history, or as a research project. Such devices are rare in the extreme and fantastically valuable.
Preservers and Prevailers
These were massive, fantastically advanced war machines locked in a perpetual war across much of the observable universe. Each preserver is several thousand kilometres across, they are independently mobile, fitted with a variety of cataclysmically devastating weapon systems and with automated repair and construction facilities capable of manufacturing more of their kind. Their origins are mysterious, but the preservers claimed that they and the prevailers were originally the same, but divided over their attitude to organic life. The prevailers are dedicated to eradicating it as though it were an infection in the cosmos, while the preservers are dedicated to protecting and nurturing life, especially intelligent life. Their war has been waged for hundreds of millions of years, leaving entire galactic clusters shattered and sterilized, but only recently swept through the Starfall galaxy (though some believe this is not the first time the war has been fought here).
