So I'm going to be starting a new RPG setting in the next few weeks and could use some help from this esteemed board. During the REF's long absence from Earth, they had more than just the job of hunting down the Robotech Masters. Living up to their name as "The Pioneer Mission", they also began scouting new solar systems for potential future colonization and the begining of the Gloval Inititive proper: spreading humanity away from its oh so fragile cradle.
20 light years away from Earth is the stellar system known as Delta Pavonis. In the mid-20th century, the system generated a lot of interest in the various national space administrations (before their funding was pulled in favour of the Global Civil War) due to the high probability of it contaning rocky, Earth-type planets. The arrival of the SDF-1 and the advanced alien technology it brought with it allowed a new generation of scientists the opportunity to study it in tantalizing detail. While the First Robotech War and the Rain of Death put a second stop to the survey, the launching of the Pioneer Mission brought it into the limelight for a third time, and this one would prove to be the charm.
Folding in-system showed that the earlier theories were correct: the star, remarkably Sol-like in character, hosted a massive planetary system, most of them rocky-type planets of all sizes, with two large gas giants in the outer system acting as comet catchers. The SDF-3 immediatly knew it had a good candidate and began establishing bases and facilities on the various planets (and moons of the gas giants). Even though the main fleet left to continue the hunt for the Robotech Masters, it left behind a sizable population of new colonists begining the daunting task of taming this wild new home. Almost 20 years later when the Invid threat was finally taken seriously and the REF mobilized it's entire fleet to fight the Regis head-on, Delta Pavonis had grown into thriving system of mulitple human habitations that were suddenly left (mostly) on their own with no protection and little in the way of law enforcment save for what the people could provide for themselves.
This is the setting. The idea of the game is a Firefly-like game where the players will be part of an "independant freelance shipping" outfit which uses a modified Horizon-T to travel throughout the system. The starboard wing pod has been modifed into crew quarters allowing for long-term habitation while the port pod has been kept as a large cargo bay. What I'm looking from you are ideas for moons and colonies the PCs can visit. What plots are there? What bad guys need a Gallant shoved into their faces? What dirty secret is the seemingly innocent yet creepy village/asteroid base hiding?
I actually use the armies of the southern cross as my colony defenders and police force. While the REF/UEEF is the mobilie forces that lead the way and do the majority of the fighting.
I like the concept, I think you are going to need a handful of other vessels and possible space fold for your PCs if you want them to be able to do any real trading.
for your story i would put the twist that they had been forgotten or defected from the UEEF/Earth and their the military command structure colasped and what remains are independant cities. Or perhaps a virus struct the population and the UEEF Quarentined the system till they can return with medical team and they just simply forgot them.
I have not seen firefly or serenity so i can not say anything about that show.
Well men if we are destine to die, let us die with honor
If all of your wishes are granted then many of your dreams will be destroyed.
The final form of a person character lies in their own hands
I'd take a look at Rifts: Manhunter if you have a copy. Lots of new races, weapons for each race, starships and starship constuction rules as well as corperations and different worlds and colonies.
Heck...even the old Mechanoids Compiled collection has some usable races and 'slow' FTL drive systems, if you don't mind the wholly SDC format(which gives the Robotech forces a real advantage if you retain it for the 'new' aliens)....
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"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
The idea of putting everything into one starsystem is it removes any need for FTL. Boats and ships still take weeks to make transits in our time, so it's not unreasonable to assume a Horizont would take the same amount of time for a intra-system transit.
I'd say you could use Rift's manhunter as good source of info. Also Mutants in Orbit would be an excllent source for hor to handle in system transit and trading since it is essentially what they do with various stations and bases.
I am very opinionated. Yes I rub people the wrong way but at the end of the day I just enjoy good hard discussion and will gladly walk away agreeing to not agree
The arch rival of the PC groups, having been shown up by one of the members of the PC group as a child Brain seeks revenge. But not just any revenge he wants complete and total destruction of the chosen PC, want to humiliate, hurt and destroy this PC on all levels including emotionally. Brain lacks any true physical traits that can help him but his skills with mechanics and robotics along with his senses have served to amass a small fortune to take his revenge out. He is constantly being the unseen but yet known villain hiring any gun in the system to cause the PCs problem including sabotage and blatant of ship and cargo, discrediting them whenever possible his connection in the underworld are massive. But like all hate filled people who seek such revenge he wants his victim to know who it is that is causing him pain. He gloats about it, baits them into taking jobs that carry low chances for success by using the PCs arrogance against him. Brain is smart and resourceful and will not knowingly put himself in harm’s way. He will run if he feels threatened like a true coward. He stills harbors fear for this Chosen PCs from childhood memories of being beat. But he wants to gloat over the broken forum in front of him when he is finished toying with his victim.
Well men if we are destine to die, let us die with honor
If all of your wishes are granted then many of your dreams will be destroyed.
The final form of a person character lies in their own hands
I am not sure how your party will start, but instead of giving the a bright shiny new Horizon t how about something they find in a junk yard which they have to spend an adventure or two scrounging the parts to make it operational including a fuel source. this gives you something to keep them motivated in continuing on, looking for more fuel.
The juck heap is constantly needing something done and unless they all want to be bunked in the neck they could have a Modified smaller bunker/cargo container that attaches where the alpha/beta team sits.
or how about some old shuttle from the Southern Cross/Earth forces.
Well men if we are destine to die, let us die with honor
If all of your wishes are granted then many of your dreams will be destroyed.
The final form of a person character lies in their own hands
I like the idea. I keep thinking a cross between Firefly & Cowboy Bebop.
I think it would be a lot of fun if the characters/players are non-military types or ex-military looking for work. Perhaps they get a job mining an asteroid for coal? for 6 months and on their first trip they come across a Horizon T crashed on the asteroid. Some light weight scavengers have gone through the Horizon T already but haven't taken anything that was bolted down. Some of the bodies have floated out into space or can be found on the asteroid. The group comes up with the idea of working for themselves by making the Horizon T space worthy again.
Decide what you want for damage on the Horizon T, but I think it will take quite a bit of work to make the bunker attachment have a passageway to the main ships compartment. I think it will need to be pressurized and small. You would have to crawl through the space. Maybe make it take 1d4+ minutes for anyone bigger than 5'8" & 150 lbs. Just some thoughts.
You could have a lot of fun with the players trying to figure out how to use some Cyclones.
I'm thinking to completely restrict mecha. For the first few session, the most protection the PCs would have is some CVR-3 and the occasional MD weapon. Getting Cyclones would be the plot of a major adventure, and I seriously doubt I'd allow any sort of heavier mecha.
Create your own mecha...maybe make is lighter and less heavily armed then what is in the books.
use the VF is strikeforce or the super logan for a colonial militia force. Upgun the stats for the micronian power armor for a salvage / combat platform that civilians can purchase...make is as powerful as the cyclone in armor mode.
I know it is a little extreme to advocate the death penalty for stupidity...but can't we just remove all the warning labels and let nature take it's course???
Gryphon wrote:And so this isn't entirely deviating from the thread, I really like the idea there LT. Holmes, but are we talking about a single system with potentially several dozen habitable planets?!?!?! Someone has got to believe this isn't natural, and that something REALLY BIG AND POWERFUL set this up for some reason, a long, long time ago!
I will also point out that canon early fold drives took a decent bit of time to travel in real space, much less in hyper space, so instead of one system, perhaps its a collection of nearby systems, some with multiple livable planets, and the civilians don't travel much because they are in possession of limited, low powered, high time dilation drives. Then you get several adventures in any given system, and a week of travel (say 3-5 weeks in real space) to have several more adventures. Also, for gear, since the UEEF covets its own product, simply introduce non UEG originated weapons and armor. If a player doesn't have CVR-3, then they wont miss having a Cyclone as much. It could even be a case of "the man" keeping the players down by having intermittent UEEF patrol ships pass through and confiscate, fine, or even arrest those found in possession of things like Gallants, Cyclones and bigger mecha.
Actually, this is giving me some ideas of my own...
I wasn't meaning to say that all the planets were naturally inhabitable "garden worlds" like Earth. They could be chunks of rock with an underground base system (like ALuCE in the Masters Saga) or domes on the surface of an airless rock or asteroid.
But I do like your idea of a UEEF patrol looking for "contraband" and military hardware. They might raise an eyebrow at the use of a Horizon-T, but I imagine a lot of those were repurposes to civilian uses once the various colonies got up and running to encourage private trade. If they catch you in possession of a Cyclone, or God fobid an Alpha... *cracks knuckles*
Don't forget refitted Zentraedi gear as well...shuttle craft, theatre recon pods, re-entry pods...any number of support vehicles(there are hints of them in the production artwork of the original Macross episodes...the landing bay of Breetai's ship shows at least two large shuttle/tanker-like designs as background furniture)...
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"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
The arch rival of the PC groups, having been shown up by one of the members of the PC group as a child Brain seeks revenge. But not just any revenge he wants complete and total destruction of the chosen PC, want to humiliate, hurt and destroy this PC on all levels including emotionally. Brain lacks any true physical traits that can help him but his skills with mechanics and robotics along with his senses have served to amass a small fortune to take his revenge out. He is constantly being the unseen but yet known villain hiring any gun in the system to cause the PCs problem including sabotage and blatant of ship and cargo, discrediting them whenever possible his connection in the underworld are massive. But like all hate filled people who seek such revenge he wants his victim to know who it is that is causing him pain. He gloats about it, baits them into taking jobs that carry low chances for success by using the PCs arrogance against him. Brain is smart and resourceful and will not knowingly put himself in harm’s way. He will run if he feels threatened like a true coward. He stills harbors fear for this Chosen PCs from childhood memories of being beat. But he wants to gloat over the broken forum in front of him when he is finished toying with his victim.
Wot we gonna do tonite, Brain, Narf?" "The same thing we do every night Pinky, try to kill the PC's!!"
My real world Physics defeats your Quasi-Physics!!! Bubblegum Crisis, best anime/sci-fi/ for totally hot babes in Power Armor.!!!! Magic. Completely screws logic at every opportunity. (credit due to Ilendaver)
Hidden in the Rings of shattered planets, planetoids, frozen ice and gasses, the remains of comets trapped in a giant suns orbit and spinning majestically amoungst the solar systems rings is a single planet. A world uninhabited, partially frozen by a perpetual cycle of winter that binds its center. The poles are the only part of the planet that sees light, and as such, it's closeness to the sun has thawed it's poles with a ring around it's equator in perpetual darkness due to the debris rings that circle the sun, the planet is an enigma against a sea of floating rocks, ice and debris. Its equator is frozen and desolate and the it's icy peaks reach into the sky altering weather patterns and causing temperatures to plumit. The poles exist in a state of near continuous twilight as the sun peaks out from the horizon and changes the colours of the sky in dazzling or sunrise and sunset that last nearly 42 hours. Days are also 42 hours long, and night is more of Shade, than true night.
Most of the planet is covered in snow. The average temperature on the planets surface is below zero, but it is crisp and refreshing with a high oxygen content. From the surface, one can look into the sky and see the unnerving giant chunks of rock and frozen ice, the remanents of the debris of the solar system drift by in the sky, held in place by the suns gravity. No wildlife exists on the planets snowy surface. At night winds pick up and cover most of the planets tracks and the sea of snow always looks fresh and untouched. at the equator a giant ice wall reaches hundreds of meters into the sky and it is possible to here the constant crushing of the glaciers moving across the planets surface. The storms near the equator can be defening, and thick clouds block out whatever sun could have made it through the rocky frozen ring surrounding the planet. Violent winds and snow storms so terrible no one could survive without protection. at the poles, Giant evergreens grow hundreds of meters into the sky, even against the slightly higher gravity of the planet. Great frozen forests filled with such trees and pine needle covered shrubs and bushes are everywhere.
The planet is also covered in small fizzures and cracks in it's surface where boiling water cracks open the outer crust and spews hot springs of fresh water out into lakes and streams of hot water. Volcanic activity is also responcible for thawing and heating snow, contributing to rocky coves filled with natural springs and gysers. It is in these areas that the true terror of the planet can be found. In the warm ravines and valleys of rocks fed by warm waters and humidity, the Invid Flower of Life survives. It's spores strangly unable to leave the solar system and solar winds continuously causing them to fall towards the center of the solar system and destroyed in the systems sun. The planet remains hidden to the Invid.
Out of ignorance the Flower of Life also remains hidden to the systems hidden Occupants, The Zentraedi. A large fleet of warriors use the solar system to hide their fleet of ships within the systems rings and remain hidden untill they are ready to strike. A group of seasoned warriors of Largos Loredo Division specializing in hit and fade strikes and planetary destruction they boast a fleet of over a 1000 vessels. Jinzara Tormilin, the leader of the fleet and Female Zentraedi fighting ace takes pride in her work and fears nothing. Life is a game of chance, but one can always stack the deck in ones favour. The Zentraudi are sitting on top of a the Seed of the Invid aggression and are unaware of it, seeing the solar system and it's surrounding ring of crushed planetoids as the ideal operations to hide their fleet. Patrols leave the system of operations daily and scores of female warriors float in armour in the rocky rings lying in ambush and opertunity and simply to watch. The size of the solar system however, and the same conditions which hide their fleet also mean that they are mostly blind accept for reports from their scout ships. Acting on old orders to patrol, attack and destroy left by Dolza long before leaving for earth. The news of his destruction is yet to reach some of the more remote Zentraedi deep space patrols. Currently awaiting the arrival of a Robotech factory to replenish her fleet, Jinzara will not risk all out war untill meeting with the Robotech Factory.
The Robotech Factory visits a sight just outside the Solar System twice yearly ( Human Calander). It requires a short fold to get there. It is the first time the Zentraedi have used this particular factory before, or this location. It is as new to them as any REF fleet that stumbles into the area. Or brings the Invid with them. To make matters worst, The Horsat Grimmel and his roudy Skull Crushers are on route for supplies to! A drunk and a braggert, and never willing to back down from a fight, a Deep space encounter with zentraedi females could lead to yet another headacke for REF fleets.
Keep in mind that a solar system is huge. A thousand ships stretched out in a single line 100 000 miles apart probably wouldn't make it from one side to the other! This system is filled with places to hide in the form of saturn like rings of coloured debris in the form of large planetoids, frozen rock and gases, etc. They stretch through the entire solar system along a single plane probably tens of millions of miles thick! Have fun. Any size battles could take place. There's two kinds of Zentraedi, The Flower of Life and possibly the Invid in the form of the Regent or the Regis' forces. It's nice to lure players onto the planets surface to. A beautiful frozen world with fresh hot springs and gysers can turn into a nightmare!
Cool system, but not really a "huge" system.
Ninjapuppy wrote:"A thousand ships stretched out in a single line 100 000 miles apart probably wouldn't make it from one side to the other!"
This would only equal a system that is 100 million miles across. By way of comparison, the Earth has an average radial distance of 98 million miles from the Sun.
I like it though. I might drop my team in here soon.
"The impossibility of the world lies in the fact that it has no equivalent anywhere;it cannot be exchanged for anything. The uncertainty of thought lies in the fact that it cannot be exchanged either for truth or for reality. Is it thought which tips the world over into uncertainty, or the other way around? This in itself is part of the uncertainty." - J. Baudrillard
Really got to get back to expanding the setting...I really like what I've seen here already...
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
In mid-2017 two vessels set off on the early stages of the UEEF's mission to find the home of the Robotech Masters. These ships were the Tristar-Class vessel Thor and the Zentraedi scout ship Valkyrie. In a test of the Thor's fold drive, a fold bubble was pushed out to envelop the Valkyrie to determine the limits of the Thor's ability to take additional vessels along with it. Due to a miscalculation the two vessels ended up several hundred light-years from their projected destination with the Thor's fold system damaged and irrepairable with the supplies on hand.
While the engineering teams were assessing the damage, the mission commander gave orders to start perfoming long range sensor sweeps as well as sending out combat aero-space patrols to be aware of any rogue Zentraedi or other threats. The reults of these actions was completely the opposite of what anyone could have expected. The ships had accidentally discovered a untouched star system the 5th planet of which is capable of supporting human life.
The commander ordered both ships to the planet and began an extensive survey.
The planet that came to be called Arcadia is roughly 85 percent water with one large continent surrounded by hundreds of island chains. The soil is rich in nutrients and perfect for farming. While the animal life on the surface is generally limited to nothing larger than a house cat the ocean is teaming with life. Secondary to the benfits of the fifth planet, the sixth in the system was determined to have enough ore deposits to build a fleet of ships.
Upon completion of the survey the two ships used the Valkyrie's fold drive to return to Earth-space and present their report.
Needless to say, a colonization plan was immediately set in motion.
2024 A.D.
The Colony is thriving. Nearly 350,000 people call Arcadia home and live in its one city along the eastern coast. Instead of growing "up" the city grew "out". Buildings are generally not taller than six stories and the entire city resembles an urban mixed use community with residential, commercial, retail, dining and any other businesses one can think of within walking distance. Even though the city goes on uninterupted from one side to the other there are still neighborhoods.
Everyone who lives on the planet is supported in one way or another by the two main businesses that are headquartered there. They either work for them or are a business that caters to their employees.
Arcadia Agriculture & Mining is a civilian company that was originally contracted by the UEG to develop the arable land as a large corporate farm and mine the ore on the sixth planet. Contrary to what people may think, the corporate leaders really care about their employees and the environment and spare no expense to make sure they are well taken care of and work in safety. One of the conditions of their being the company sent to develop the system was that the colonists be allowed to set up their own form of government to act as an oversight to the companies activities.
The agricultural side of the business uses large combines to sow and reap huge tracts of land. The fields are set up so that only two thirds of the land is growing exportable crops at any time. The remaining third of the land is put thru a rejuvenation process with cheap crops and allowed to grow and rot to add nutrients back to the soil as well as adding natural fertilizers and compost. The main crops produced are stable such as corn, beans and other vegetables that can be dried for long term storage and use. They are also responsible for a large fishing fleet that reaps the bounty of the ocean. All the agricultural products are processed and packaged on world for shipment to other colonies, back to Earth or to the UEEF space stations for fleet resupply.
Another 35,000 colonists work the mines on the sixth planet. The miners came up with the completely un-original name of "Six" as a bad joke that stuck. A permanent mining station was established on the surface with all the comforts or home in a large habitat ring that surrounds the main entrance to the mines and the ore processing plant. About half of the miners are family people who work on the sixth planet on a 4 day 10 to 12 hour shift and then return to Arcadia for a three day weekend. The mine runs in shift and normally has work progressing around the clock. The company maintains the habitat ring and rents small apartments to the miners at a discount and has free food for them in the company cafeteria. There are also privately owned businesses such as restaurants and shops for the miners to purchase just about anything they need. The company maintains a fleet of shuttles to carry the miners back and forth between "Six" and Arcadia between shifts an at half shifts. They have also been known to pull a shuttle for a family emergency to transport a single employee back to Arcadia.
The third business headquartered on the planet is Colonial Defense Industries. The company was founded by some former engineers from the Robotech Research Group and started building veritech mecha for sale to colonial governments for local defense. Their motto, "When seconds count the fleet is only days away". The Primary mecha they build is the Super Logan (See Return of the Masters 2nd edition) . As soon as they announced their intentions the orders rolled in and the company was literally an overnight success. They employed dozens of former military mecha mechanics as well as engineering graduates. They currently have two factories located on Arcadia. One on the west side of the city that produces whole mecha and another that produced the replacment parts as well as armor and parts to repair laser weapons used by the colonial militia. They currently have a backlog of orders that they are working thru quickly but they have already supplied several colony worlds with their own squadrons of veritechs.
The system is patrolled and protested by the Arcadia Militia. The structure of the militia is based of that of the UEDF Marines. The commanding officer is the Commandant, a former Marine officer who took retirement then found he really had nothing to do with himself. The fact that his wife threatened to kill and or divorce him if he didn't find something to get him out of the house also played a role in his decision to take the colony government up on their offer to form and lead the militia. All mitlitiamen are trained as basic riflemen, officer and enlisted alike, and then sent off to MoS schools. The militia is a core of 25,000 men but nearly everyone on teh colony is considered a reservist to be calle upon in an emergency. The militia maintains a small fleet of 6 Banshee-class destroyers. Their purpose is to patrol the system for pirate activity as well as any other source of trouble for the colony. The Militia also maintains 12 squadrons of Super Logan fighters. One each on the Banshees and 3 each at the Arcadia military base and the mining station on Six. The squadrons are rotated on a six month schedule between the three duty stations. The basic military equipment for the military is CVR-2 armor and a FAL-2 rifle. The standard service pistol is the SAL-9.
EDIT: THe militia also uses The Heavy Assault Battloid from RoTM 2nd ed. and Centraur Tanks for heavy firepower. As well the security forces use an upgraded Micronian Power Armor from Strikeforce (treat as Cyclone in armor mode for stats)
Last edited by Chris0013 on Thu Jan 07, 2010 11:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
I know it is a little extreme to advocate the death penalty for stupidity...but can't we just remove all the warning labels and let nature take it's course???
The arch rival of the PC groups, having been shown up by one of the members of the PC group as a child Brain seeks revenge. But not just any revenge he wants complete and total destruction of the chosen PC, want to humiliate, hurt and destroy this PC on all levels including emotionally. Brain lacks any true physical traits that can help him but his skills with mechanics and robotics along with his senses have served to amass a small fortune to take his revenge out. He is constantly being the unseen but yet known villain hiring any gun in the system to cause the PCs problem including sabotage and blatant of ship and cargo, discrediting them whenever possible his connection in the underworld are massive. But like all hate filled people who seek such revenge he wants his victim to know who it is that is causing him pain. He gloats about it, baits them into taking jobs that carry low chances for success by using the PCs arrogance against him. Brain is smart and resourceful and will not knowingly put himself in harm’s way. He will run if he feels threatened like a true coward. He stills harbors fear for this Chosen PCs from childhood memories of being beat. But he wants to gloat over the broken forum in front of him when he is finished toying with his victim.
Wot we gonna do tonite, Brain, Narf?" "The same thing we do every night Pinky, try to kill the PC's!!"
Well men if we are destine to die, let us die with honor
If all of your wishes are granted then many of your dreams will be destroyed.
The final form of a person character lies in their own hands
New Gobi New Gobi is an arid, dusty, barely habitable world lying in the southern galactic hemisphere of the old Tirolian Empire. It orbits an older reddish-spectrum star that shows signs of beginning its long slow cooling death after its expansion phase. The star is, however, still able to shed enough warmth on Gobi to render it temperate within human comfort levels. New Gobi is the four planet outwards from its star. The inner three are scorched rockballs of little value(in fact, the innermost shows signs of actually having SKIMMED the outer parts of the primary’s photosphere during its expansion). Two gas giants lay outsystem of New Gobi, and there are a number of lesser rocky bodies making up the outer orbital shell of the New Gobi system. There is evidence that New Gobi was at one time a warmer, wetter, more verdant world; extensive fossil beds and large underground petrochemical reserves hint at a past planet-wide ecosystem. However, little of that native life remains, mostly in the form of mosses, lichens, and a few stunted shrub-like plants, mainly clustered around those areas where the deep aquifers that now hold the planet’s water bubble to the surface, and in thin mats covering large areas of planetary surface, eking out a living from the occasional frosts and thin layers of water-ice laying under the gravelly surface soil. Animal life has all but disappeared; only bacteria and a few small nematode-like animals survive. Its atmosphere is thin, but breathable without assistance, except in the highest elevations. Climate is cool and dry, comparable to the Tibetan plateau on Earth. Terrain is terrestrial, shaped by both plate tectonics and the past thermal expansion of the planet’s star; many of the current deserts and basins are the dried-out remains of former oceans. It has a surface gravity of about 0.8 terrestrial. More recently, New Gobi was surveyed and colonized by the Tirolians; the planet was the site of a large industrial presence, tended by both normal-sized Tirolians and full-sized Zentraedi, exploiting the rich mineral deposits in the planet’s crust. The planet, however, was caught in the path of the Invid Regent’s steamroller advance on Tirol. New Gobi(known to Tirolian records as Ziros IV) saw heavy fighting, before the defenders were overwhelmed and exterminated. Finding little to occupy their interest once they’d won, the Invid occupied the planet only for a short time before abandoning it, finding insufficient Protoculture to build a presence, leaving Ziros IV covered with battlefield debris and wreckage. Hardpressed by the Invid advance, the Tirolians did not reclaim the planet and what remained of its facilities. The planet was rediscovered and surveyed by scouts from the Terran Pioneer expeditions that were skirting the edges of the Tirolian Empire while trying to determine what remained of its military capabilities. The planet was tentatively approved for settlement, once both the presence of strategic minerals and substantial water were confirmed, and the debris belts in orbit swept for any still-active Tirolian, Zentraedi, or Invid hardware. New Gobi was subsequently settled by several converted Zentraedi ship’s worth of ethnic Chinese(and others) who have set up home on the planet. Their primary commerce is mining; though few of the original Tirolian ore processing facilities and factories remained intact, the actual mines and ore fields remained untouched. The colonial populace is balanced in distribution between several large deep valleys that have been seeded with Terrestrial life and irrigated from the deep aquifers, and multiple smaller oassis-style farmsteads and mining heads. Local construction is mainly of fired ceramic brick, though in those areas near oil fields, wood-simulation plastic is popular as building material for non-industrial/military structures. Despite the original UEG purpose in settling New Gobi as a mining world, the Chinese colonists have lend their ethnic influence to the planet’s architecture and colonial culture; traditional Chinese-style buildings are all the rage in the larger communities, Chinese social customs predominate, Chinese (especially Mandarin) is the main language heard spoken outside the spaceports and industrial facilities, and the Yuan, Jiao, and Fen have replaced the UEG credit in local circulation. There’s even an emerging ‘Silk Road’ culture of intinerant merchants traveling between the scattered mines and small settlements outside the more heavily populated agricultural valleys. Salvaging Tirolian battle wreckage provides another source of income and recreation for many New Gobians. The planet produces metal ores for the UEEF, but the planet also has a small Robotech factory that produces complete VAF-6s(and spare parts), and several adjacent works turn out Destroid/battloid and Cyclone parts, as well as body armor, small arms, and munitions. Local industry outside the UEEF-administered defense industries uses little in the way of Protoculture, and most local energy needs are met by either SLMH reactors or large solar arrays tapping the light of the cooling sun. The planet is attended by the presence of 15 Ikazachi-class carriers(though ten of them are fleet tender conversions), four Tokugawa-class battleships, and roughly fifty smaller vessels( a mix of Garfish, Banshee, and other fleet auxiliaries). Near-orbit is home to three modular space stations, one serving as a freight terminal and shipyard(repairs only, not wholly new construction), and two communications/defense platforms. Two small outposts/observatories have been established around each of the two outer gas giants(they’re little more than Garfish modular lower hull modules linked together into orbiting residence/hangar platforms, winged with sensor arrays, and manned by 2-3 squadrons of fighters or space-adapted battloids). Local defense forces consist of VAF-6 Alpha fighters(many manufactured locally), large numbers of older SF/A-5 Conbats, and a ground force of older UDF and UEF destroids. The military governor of New Gobi, former PRC and Southern Cross General Qang Xhi, has administered the planet with a firm, but fair, hand for the past twelve years, but recently he has begun to act erratically in ways that are begining to disturb UEEF officials. The general has become obsessed of late with historic figures from Chinese history, and has been heard to make comments relating his life and career to such personages as Kubla Khan and Qin Shi Huang(the reported First Emperor of China). A military build-up and large scale recruitment, especially among the younger populace, has taken place. Qang Xhi’s engineers have recently tweaked the Alpha factory to make stylistic changes in new VAF-6s produced there, and a rennovated Tirolian factory has begin producing a new battloid(roughly equivalent in capabilities to the ASC’s Salamander) dubbed the Tieh Gou, as well as a non-transformable power armor, based on the Cyclone, proposed as an economy measure for the UEEF, that the New Gobi government is calling the Hung Hou. Other unusual projects include the manufacture of Southern Cross-style body armors, but with a Chinese design theme, and the formation of a large militia, armed with reconditioned Zentraedi and Tirolian salvage(leading to a large number of ‘frankenmecha’ similar to post Rain-of-Death Zentraedi ‘Stingers’), dubbed the ‘Xian Legion’ (or the ‘Terracotta Troopers’ owing to the grime still adhering to the hardware, and the clay-hued desert camouflage adopted by the militia). The militia, mostly younger recruits with little experience beyond basic training, are a vocal lot, and have appeared at a number of public gatherings, usually loudly cheering the General’s public appearances and recent policies, but the militia have also been known to hang around local watering holes and pick fights with visiting/offworld military units, non-humans, and obvious non-Chinese. The General’s people have also managed to find and recondition a massive Tirolian industrial hovervehicle originally used to service the farflung ore fields, into a giant mobile command center. The General spends increasing amounts of time aboard the giant mobile platform, traveling about his domain, administering to the various regions, and holding frequent exercises with the local defense forces. So far, though, the General hasn’t done anything TOO unusual(at least administration-wise); he has cited his reasons for the recent military buildup as part of a necessary colonial defense program meant to appeal to the ethnic sensibilities of his constituents, and New Gobi continues to deliver much-needed materials and components on schedule to the UEEF and other colonies, but the UEEF Command has covertly dispatched several teams of agents to keep an eye on the situation.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
taalismn wrote:....... Qang Xhi’s engineers have recently tweaked the Alpha factory to make stylistic changes in new VAF-6s produced there, and a rennovated Tirolian factory has begin producing a new battloid(roughly equivalent in capabilities to the ASC’s Salamander) dubbed the Tieh Gou, as well as a non-transformable power armor, based on the Cyclone, proposed as an economy measure for the UEEF, that the New Gobi government is calling the Hung Hou. Other unusual projects include the manufacture of Southern Cross-style body armors, but with a Chinese design theme, a.........
I see what you did there...
I know it is a little extreme to advocate the death penalty for stupidity...but can't we just remove all the warning labels and let nature take it's course???
taalismn wrote:....... Qang Xhi’s engineers have recently tweaked the Alpha factory to make stylistic changes in new VAF-6s produced there, and a rennovated Tirolian factory has begin producing a new battloid(roughly equivalent in capabilities to the ASC’s Salamander) dubbed the Tieh Gou, as well as a non-transformable power armor, based on the Cyclone, proposed as an economy measure for the UEEF, that the New Gobi government is calling the Hung Hou. Other unusual projects include the manufacture of Southern Cross-style body armors, but with a Chinese design theme, a.........
I see what you did there...
Yeah...I was inspired....
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
taalismn wrote:....... Qang Xhi’s engineers have recently tweaked the Alpha factory to make stylistic changes in new VAF-6s produced there, and a rennovated Tirolian factory has begin producing a new battloid(roughly equivalent in capabilities to the ASC’s Salamander) dubbed the Tieh Gou, as well as a non-transformable power armor, based on the Cyclone, proposed as an economy measure for the UEEF, that the New Gobi government is calling the Hung Hou. Other unusual projects include the manufacture of Southern Cross-style body armors, but with a Chinese design theme, a.........
I see what you did there...
Yeah...I was inspired....
Not to thread jack...but are you thinking the mecha on page 9 and 10 is a Battloid size (and if so SC Battloid or Alpha Battloid hight) or a SC power armor size. I am assuming this is the Tieh Gou you are talking about.
I know it is a little extreme to advocate the death penalty for stupidity...but can't we just remove all the warning labels and let nature take it's course???
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
I currently have the group in a system with a series of grav anomoinalies that force the ships to defold a ways out then do a power burn into the system. part of there mission was originaly Rescue and recovery of a Souther cross type fleet squadron part ended up being monitoring a aparently perminently grounded Mother ship*. (no drive on any ships that were stranded in system, thoes are defacto trashed) when you try jump all the way in system you have an automatic drive failure. a properly programed fold out will work roughly 4D6X4 AU out,(roll for each hour and sensor rolls to detect if its "clear" at -15%) but for safty reasons noone will jump closer than 125au out) (note com range is also disrupted for radio and several other forms of comunication)
Theres also currnently a Robotech factory satelite in there but its not that productive**. its more of a fleet dockyard than anything else and a automated Zor lab facility that went out of controll. Noone wants to nuke it out of existance because everyone wants the good stuff thats inside.
*
Spoiler:
The Masters and science masters were stupid enough to think they could just walk into Zors lab and take over. they dont realise that someone sabotaged things.
Techchnicaly you could say they took over. there brains were extracted and added to the organic systems, and their bodys were converted to a kind of mdc zombi. the place is a Techno-necro madhouse now
**
Spoiler:
The factory is curently incapable of building OR repairing a fold drive, the one attempt to do so recently resulted in the automated test ship literaly imploding. however the factory is capable of repairing and building (if you ignore the fold drives) any Zentradi or Master or Teran ship. however the number of slips for each are limmited, however roughly 10% are dedicated to maintaining Robotech master craft, 10% are dedicated to maintaining the older (RDF modified) ships 10% are dedicated to Southern cross era type ships 10% are current "UEEF" ships, 10% can handle any ship(although not as well as the dedicated slips) 10% are being used to refit the Zentradi ships the remainder are unrefited Zentradi ships.)
What kind of 'out of control' are we talking about? Biological?
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
taalismn wrote:What kind of 'out of control' are we talking about? Biological?
(points to every Palladium book ever printed) all of the above.
the good news is that
Spoiler:
the "Zor base" IS techicaly following its "prime directive", develop design and Test new generations of combat units using all kinds of interesting technology from bio systems to hardware to exotic energy sources and turn over samples for futher evaluation. . . its not going to go out on a war of intersteler genocide its going to stay right where it is . however bascialy it has access to the full range of and can reproduce any combat mecha ships in the robotech univers with whatever upgrades strikes its fancy, and can reproduce basicaly every alien species in the Robotec univers . . . with upgrades. (the ZB shipyards fortunatly are currently unable to build a working fold drive and the base realy dosent see any point in doing so. After all It has no clue as to why the fold drives are failing in the first place because in part its techical data on fold science is so corupted that its usless and frankly it feels that the space occupied by fold drives is better serverd by installing a extra self destruct device thats smaller than the fold drives and that frees up space for additions data recording and telemetry devices and more things to test,)
However the base IS fully commited to testing its designs, so its constantly sending out its latest experinents for live fire testing and is convinced that your there for shooting at and being shot at by its test er subjects.
As for providing test samples for evaluation, lets just say if you want to stay fully human Dont Get Captured! if your lucky a minor species change is all that will happen
I create worlds all the time, however, I have a back ground in astronomy and geology. Most of the worlds I create have to make sense along those lines. I take a star system and base probabilities based on what we know of that system.
26 Draconis
What we known;
Triple star system, just like Alpha Centauri. A Yellow main sequence with an Orange Main Sequence at about Saturn's orbital distance with an Red Star orbiting so close, it can be seen by the naked eye from a world in those systems and is brighter than a full moon.
26 Draconis has more heavy metals than our system, so most likely, any worlds there will be more massive than ours.
26 Draconis also is about 8 billion years old. Any earth-sized worlds would have lost their magnetic field by now and resemble Mars.
Being a triple star system, has created more zones in which water is liquid and evaporated into space during its formation. Any worlds there would have less water.
26 Draconis A2,
The second world in the Draconis system has beaten the odds. It has an active magnetic sphere: Is the right distance for liquid water and it a terrestrial world, only slightly more massive than Earth.
Having more heavy metals, created a world that has more radioactive materials and heated the core longer than Earth's core, which will probably cool off in the next billion years or so.
It started out as an ice world. Through stellar evolution, it warmed up. About 3.2 billion years ago, it was thawed out enough to have ice free oceans. Though, life has existed since the start of this world. It only has about a quarter of Earth's water. It's a very dry world.
Over time, only one-fifth or so of the surface was covered with water. Plate tectonics requires water. Only a part of the planet could have plate tectonics at any given time. Now, on Earth, it takes about 500 million years for a mountain range to be eroded away. On 26 Draconis A2, it takes about 2.5 billion years for a mountain range to erode away. The surface is criss-crossed with the remains of ancient mountains, that formed when the oceans were near them, only to have the mountain building stop when the oceans drained away to a lower point. Also, the surface is scared by super volcanoes. Massive shield volcanoes 25 miles high, there the surface moved little. Given the lack of erosion, any mountain ranges are vast and tall. Sometimes, 10 to 20 miles high.
Right now, the oceans have been at the South pole, but geologic forces are opening up a central rift through the planet, creating an equatorial sea that reaches the poles. Mountain ranges, 15 miles high, flank it.
Though, the average temperature at the equator is a balmy 150F, the world is in an ice age. There is a massive glacier sheet at the North pole and a small sheet at the South pole.
The Legacy of Life: Only microbial life exists here. There's a massive meteor belt between 26 Draconis A and B, that sometimes causes massive global killer asteroids. There might have been complex life here at one time, but it's since gone extinct. The seas are green with algae and the surface is stained red from oxygen. Before the arrival of man, the average oxygen content was about 2 to 5%.
The Legacy of Man: Humanity settled here, long ago. The original inhabitants have been long forgotten. Their advanced space faring civilization is in ruins. They terraformed the world, and killed most of the native mircobial life by oxygen poisoning to be replaced by Earth like microbes. Humanity exists as Neo Primatives. Thousands of years of evolution has produced a very strong and muscular human, due to the stronger gravity (1.24Gs). They have a civilization that has agriculture, metal working, reading and writing and speak a language that is almost...Alien, etc. They have cities and empires. There's a weaker Ozone layer, so everyone has dark skin.
The Future: the complex Earth life will probably be whipped out when the next Global killer asteroid strikes. The surviving native and Earth mircobes will compete for dominance. Humans will probably go extinct in the next million years or so. There's just too much solar radiator for humanity to sustain itself as a species. in about 2 billion years, 26 Draconis A will go Red Giant phase, incinerating this world.
Wow. I leave the thread alone for a while and look what happens! I asked for some help and you guys came through for me (and how!). to you guys
Unfortunatly, the game kinda imploded on me when the shopowner I asked to pass the word around failed to do so. Also imploded due to my brother, who was the main player-to-be, had to bow out (stupid wedding thing. The nerve!). But I really appreciate all the thought and effort you put in in. And now, on to some of my own ideas for this setting:
Alpha The first colony to be settled in Delta Pavolis was in a heavy-metal rich planetoid that would become known as Alpha Colony. The rich metals meant the Robotech Factory Sattalite would only need to produce the basics of manufacturing equipment and the ground-dwellers would take it from there. Over the 20 or so years before the REF pulled out for the final assult on Invid-occupied Earth, Alpha has grown into a massive underground city of several hundred thousand, most of whom still work in the mines. It's size, age, and entrenched nature made Alpha the ruling "power" in the star system without even trying. Most splinter colonies are heavily dependant upon Alpha wares and materials during their start-ups, which Alpha's leaders and corporations are more than happy to provide... for a minor controlling interest in the colony. Even without that sort of political pressure, Alpha would lead the Pavolis system by sheer momentum and economics.
Alpha Colony has the best hospitals, most advanced factories, best-funded movies, recreational parks... you name it, Alpha has it. All for a price, of course. Money makes Alpha go 'round and if you have the cash, anything can be yours without question. If you can't afford it, chaces are that you're going to be on the receiving end of someone who can.
REF System Patrols Even though the REF recalled all of its disparate fleet for the final assault, they weren't stupid enough to leave all of their colonies defensless. To that end, a token security force was left behind to provide "safety and security" in the Delta Pavolis system. Most of these soldiers are old-timers and bitter about the fact that they were left behind instead of going to liberate their homeworld, and they're not afraid to vent their disgust on some random pirate or law-breaker that they happen to catch. While their numbers are small, and most of their operations are limited to anti-smuggling and anti-piracy operations, they maintain an utter lock on all Protoculture reserves and will use lethal force on anyone caught in possession of it. Without Protoculture to fuel mecha, most groups are at an extreme disadvantage to the REF and their deadly powerful Alpha Fighters and boarding parties of Cyclone Riders.
Of course, banning public use of Protoculture doesn't make it simply happen, and somehow a small amount does escape from the REF every year and is never recovered. There is a large public reward for information leading to the arrest of the indivdual(s) involved, yet nobody has stepped forward yet.
That's it for now, folks. Thanks again for all your help and keep those imaginations working!
