On Tue, 3 Dec 2013, Onno Meyer wrote:
Johannes wrote:
This is one option for a SG like background. It is not entirely compatible
with SG canon, and it does not always pick the options i like best, but i
think it neatly combines some issues discusssed here to a consistent
picture.
Dodging the SG canon is a feature, I'd say. That makes it easier to
avoid IP violations.
It also can have the advantage, to be closer to the spirit of the show. A
lot about the show is finding out more about the background. If most of
the background is already known to the players, that makes sense.
There is a race of high tech Amish.
Amish in the sense of community, pastoral lifestyle, etc.?
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/20/us/amish-beard-cutting-trial/index.html
I mean hollywood amish with their total pacifism.
They have a psi power, that kicks in,
once there is a critical mass of them around (somehow defined by
population density and number of people, the exact mechanics are likely
not game relevant). It enables them to find a compromise solution for the
interests of everyone in reach of the ability, and forces them to adopt
that solution.
An extremely powerful ability. But I dislike powers which alter the
mind of player characters.
Hence the option to make option, that it does not work fully on aliens,
not forcing them to act on it. If the pcs are humans they are aliens with
regard to that power.
I also would not expect to have many adventures where the power actually
kicks in. There might be a scout mission followed by a diplomatic mission
eventually, but that would follow the "You go into fairyland, where normal
rules what happens do not apply." You can have individual adventures in
that way, but not whole campains.
Do you really need a psi power to make
it happen, or is it enough to have a society which believes in its
own rules and due process even for people who abuse loopholes?
If people abuse loopholes on grand scale for centuries, creating evil
pocket empires based on it, then you really need to think about changing
the rules eventually.
Propably the ability works also on aliens (such as humans), either fully,
or it just includes them in peoples, who's interests need to be
considered.
For most of them, this means a happy peacefull life. However among them
are also sadistic individuals, who derive pleasure from the suffering of
others. They are a minority, so their interests are ignored, making them a
supressed minority, unhappy with what society forces them to do.
You wrote that the psi power enforces a compromise solution in the
interests of everyone. This minority is part of the community, so
their interest would be part of the solution ...
If they are plain greedy, then yes. But if their interest is to hurt
others (and not willing masochists either) or exercise power over
unwilling subjects, then there simply is no compomise solution. The best
they can get is a sort of simulation, where they can roleplay their
villiany, but if they know that, it will still be a very unsatisfactory
compromise for them.
Then came interplanetary space travel, and that allowed them to venture
outside of the influence of the dreaded psi power, to lead a lifestyle
appropriate to their nature among alien primitives.
Mainstream society is forced to supply them with some equipment, when they
come home, since if they are there, but their alien subjects are not,
their interests factor into the great compromise, while thoose of absent
aliens do not.
If the psi power is strong enough to force the majority to aid the
monsters after diaspora, wouldn't it force some accomodation to
their wishes before?
Providing them with equipment they like to torture people in remote
places, who are not within the reach of the power is one thing. Providing
them with torture victims, who are within the reach of the power is
something else.
Say the mainstream knows and dislikes the minority, but the lawyers
argue that the alien subjects are not covered by civil rights laws.
Unfortunately a budget dispute produces total gridlock and the laws
can't be adjusted right now. Or next year. Or next century.
That would be a different option. If you want the pcs to eventually make
contact with that civilisation, you will have to supply details on their
legal procedures, since players will want to consider changing their
minds.
Which means you need to design them.
(at least if they have something to pay for the equipment
they buy) They will however dislike going home under the spell of the
great compromise, so most of them will try to stretch the intervals
between purchases as long as they can, and only buy what they really need
or want.
Which can explain weired gaps in equipment.
That society will likely originally not have developed many advanced
weapons. After their equivalent of antiquity likely warfare became
obsolete and weapon development stopped.
Hunting weapons at higher TLs are going to be more effective than
military weapons at lower TLs, at least for man-portable stuff.
Propably they don't do much hunting.
It also is a complex what if question, how hunting technology would have
developed without military weapons development. Would you start developing
weapons to hunt for food or pelts, if it is more efficient to get thoose
resources via animal husbandry. And if you start with primitive weapons,
hunting will not be all that efficient.
And how would hunting for sports develop? Modifications on existing tools
yes, but how much effort would there be to develop entirely new weapons.
The expatriates will then have
started again, with ultratech at their hands, but based on weapons
technology, where crossbows propably have not been invented yet.
They also might see their empires as going back to the good old days,
explaining other antiquity look and feel.
They also will live in constant fear, that they will be forced out of
their sadistic lifestyle again, by their subjects. So they will prefere
thinly populated empires, with many remotely managed outposts, they will
avoid their own kind and they will promote sadism and cruelity among
their subjects, the closer they are the more, to preserve a sadistic
majority.
The last can explain putting villiany over ecconomic sense.
Economic "sense" depends on how you assign value to things. The
Evil Overlords value control, and they don't value more economic
output than they can personally use. A happy and well-fed
population isn't on their list.
I am not really sure if typical evil overlords are that efficient at
keeping control. Keeping a tight lid on a preassure cooker is a rather
short term solution, and Goa'uld live long lives.
All in all, it gives a reason for isolated little empires of card carrying
villians, that have great technology, but do not use them effectivly.
How does the mainstream society affect the adventures?
I am assuming the pcs are either a SG team, or they are some primitives
initially enslaved or about to be enslaved by the overlords.
They will start with fighting the overlords, or running from them, and
gradually learn more about the background of the overlords, where they
come from and where they get their equipment from.
Eventually there cam be a big story arc adventure where they make contact
with mainstream society. If that isn't the great campain finale, it likely
at least is an important turning point, because afterwards the tech
advantage to the overlords is likely gone.
_______________________________________________
GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]>
http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
