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Post by warspawned on Mar 7, 2013 16:02:21 GMT -5
I thought I'd get the ball rolling in the fiction section. This is, I assume, the place to post any of the background as it might appear in the final version - if not re-post it somewhere else  Advanced Weapons TechnologyHumanity is not the only species to have conducted many wars against themselves. Indeed the majority of alien civilisations have, at some point, fought themselves for many different reasons. In so doing the more advanced races created some truly terrible weaponry capable of destroying entire planets. Yet as the galaxy became smaller, as all the more advanced races including humanity began to reach further into the stars and, inexorably, towards each other, these weapons saw ever increasing action. War inevitably brings with it much in the way of innovation and soon the technology that was only available in gargantuan form, mounted upon planetary defence systems or the largest of all space craft, soon enough became portable, used upon vehicles and within Infantry units alike. The most notorious of these weapons are those which manipulate matter along a projected beam of intense dark energy, breaking the bonds of sub-atomic particles and then releasing them with explosive force, causing all matter within the beam and its explosive radius to be torn apart at the sub-atomic level. Many races have since gone on to abandon such overly destructive and inherently dangerous weaponry, be it from a sense of ethics or simply through economics. The majority of civilised alien races, as well as humanity, instead rely either on ballistic energy, in the form of rockets and other explosive projectiles, or else fusion energy, in the form of laser, plasma and even nuclear projectiles. This range of weaponry is almost universally known as many civilisations and species have traded with each other, or else fought with or against one-another, replicating or copying any technology they feel they could adapt to best suit themselves... End...My thoughts are we could then go into a little more detail about weaponry, but not too much as it would also be explained within the meta/sub faction pieces as well. This could then lead to x pages on universal rules of how these types of weaponry behave in different systems, if they are not already covered. What do you think? |
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Post by kynell on Mar 7, 2013 22:32:02 GMT -5
I like it cause I know it fits the setting!! All I can say is to make it a little longer.
If this is a passage in the general core background info on tech (you know, the kind of narrative giving a general idea of all the concepts of the setting) Then I think you should extend it a little more, maybe by introducing a few of the concepts we are sort of agreed on up to press.
I know that it sounds easier than it seems, but we do have some, like corporations, United Terran Alliance (UTA) or whatever its going to be, the aliens too.
Plus the rifts...maybe a few casual references to these things in relation to the advanced weaponry or some history of where a bit of kit turned the tide of the battle etc.
I'll give an example of what I mean, and try and explain why after so here goes!!
(Insert this after the paragraph about dark energy projectors)
"These kind of weapons have great risks attached with their use, and many of their casualties include countless innocent lives, as these devastating death beams have reigned down terror in many savage and needless conflicts.
Many still remember the tragic incidents not twenty years ago in the B'Jani system, when anti-government rebels took to the crowded streets armed with a stolen cache of these, killing thousands of civilian men, women and children within hours."
Ok, I just did that off the top of my head to make a point of a hook within the background for several reasons.
1. If this is official cannon, then we have established a key point in the history of our timeline of our core universe. 20 years ago there was a bit of recorded history from when "now" is in the timeline.
2. We know there is a battle of somekind with anti government rebels in the B'Jani system, So we know now there is a system called B'Jani, theres factions probably still fighting on there against the government etc, possibly terrorists or such. This can help develop scenarios, even a basis for anyone to take inspiration from to create an entire campaign from either the past historical incident, or the current one.
3. Gives the impression that this was a significant historic turning point for many worlds against too much use of weapons like this, maybe a significant ruling was made that limited production and use of these weapons or such, that in itself could have led to something even more significant today....
You see what I mean, just a little bit of fluff inserted in the right place has just expanded the universe possibly, if we can add just tiny bits of it into each bit of normal text (in the right context to it of course, and not over do it) we are getting timeline info, history, politics, battles, scenario ideas and campaign data.
The devils in the detail as they say!! But, yeah I like the way your going with the fluff, if we can sort out a rough outline of certain fluff sections we are likely to need, we could post it up and see what everyone can come up withto fill in the bits. Hopefully all it would take is a little tweak here and there, and before long we could have large sections of fluff done in less time, plus we'd all know what everyone is writing so it'd be easier to collaborate to make sure it fits!
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Post by warspawned on Mar 8, 2013 3:19:43 GMT -5
I agree completely ;D It wasn't finished (though me typing End in big bold letters probably gave that impression!) - it needs detail and maybe a brief overview of the major weapon types. The rest would be covered on a faction by faction basis as there weapon may utilise the same base technology but be a little different in some ways. I was also thinking of portal technology (like in the game), which may open up small rifts in reality to enable units to move through them - of course they would have dangers and maybe a re-charge time, but I think it would be cool. I also agree we need a rough overview of the fiction - like a rough contents page that we can then each print out and write bits for as and when. I'll start a seperate thread for it here. Meanwhile if anyone has any cool ideas for Technology or any little pieces they write up, post them here |
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Post by tvidlak on Mar 8, 2013 7:56:23 GMT -5
Technology is actually very fundamental to any Background & determine what can & can not be done. Let me give an example based on David Drakes Hammers Slammers Universe. The Primary weapons of the Main Tank (Blower Tank) is a 20cm Power gun which can Shoot LOS with computer guidance & can shoot ships & satellites out of orbit & has a secondary weapon of a 2cm tribarrel Power gun with the same Rang as the main gun & a rate of fire that allows it to shoot down Artillery shells as soon as they cross the horizon. In this world Combat Aircraft are used only by the foolish & inexperience as they are death traps before the can even scout an area.
One of the reasons I stated Limiting certain technologies is not all technologies are compatible to make an interesting game that is fun for all players. Sorry to have to point out a negative point on the project but I have been waiting to see if anyone else had noticed this problem with the approach of lets make a universe using anything & everything & allow everyone access to it or if it is just me.
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Post by warspawned on Mar 8, 2013 11:23:04 GMT -5
I agree tech is important in determining what can and can't be done in any given setting & you have a point, but I also think freedom isn't a bad thing either. If we're to cover multiple gaming systems and leave the door open for other in-game backgrounds I think any restriction would be damaging. I'm also thinking of basing the tech simply on the miniatures available - which include many kick-ass looking flyers, tanks, grav-vehicles, assault rifles, plasma weaponry, rockets etc etc. I think many of these things could welcome all kinds of weapon effects and be presented in almost infinite ways within any given background. For example rockets could fire not just explosives but more alchemical elements - perhaps cryogenic or poison technology etc. I feel we also have to be open enough in order to welcome any new miniatures released. I think any background we come up with has to be friendly to the miniatures that are out there. I'm not saying any faction could use any weaponry. I think the idea is that certain factions may specialise in certain weaponry and tech, that's different in nature but similar in death dealing results ;D However I see no reason why certain scenarios or planetary effects won't limit weapon options - a change in gravity or simply hostile planetary conditions might make a selection of weapons pointless or else too dangerous to use etc. Such things may limit certain tech or make forces adopt more simple & less destructive tech as a result, for example. I also see no reason why certain 'primitive' technology couldn't be on par with more 'advanced' weaponry. What I mean is that bullet technology is pretty old but it also could be at such a stage where it causes damage that's on par with plasma weaponry, although to our minds the concept of plasma weaponry is superior to that of the humble bullet. I understand what you're saying about certain tech maybe being too good to make a game fun for someone playing a force without it but I also think you can negate that worry through design. It's hard to say what restictions we ought to have without me knowing the detail of all the rules systems we're trying to cover in as friendly a way as possible in this project/experiment. At the moment I'd rather think of as many things as possible and then eliminate them at a later date. Again many of the ideas I'm putting forward in regards to background are some of the one's I'm thinking of exploring in my own system to use with my own collection (when it arrives  to see if people feel they have any place here. If not, fine, if so - groovy ;D The more I read and post here the more I think it's going to take us a while for all of us to "be on the same page" as we throw around ideas to see what sticks and what falls by the wayside, which is part of the fun. All this said if we are to restrict technology, what are the parameters for doing so? Do we only give background for weaponry that already exists within other gaming systems, or do we elaborate a little further? Should we set a point at what the lowest tech would be (like the equivalent of modern or near future weapons might be) and work up or vice-versa? |
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Post by kynell on Mar 9, 2013 21:43:10 GMT -5
I don't think tech should impose too much hassle, tons of it is going to be fluff based scenario effects and possibly even between game too.
The limits on tech should be sorted by the game system the end user is playing I imagine to some degree, even if not, players who decide to import their forces over will be limited with weapons like these, after all they've just come through a one way rift, so they'd have little chance of getting any more exactly like it, anytime soon!
Hopefully the randomised between battle campaign system should stir things up by having lots of negative and limiting effects on each force before the next battle. It's just a case of making sure we have a balancing factor in place.
There's not much point in a big all encompassing universe setting if tech is limited.
I agree we need to keep adding more ideas in the pot, and keep an open mind to how we can fit in as much as we can using as many good ideas, at least then we're going to be able to fit in almost any scifi theme as possible (we are going to need that to encompass 15mm scifi gaming and minis!!)
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to see if people feel they have any place here. If not, fine, if so - groovy ;D