Myosho-Shintar Experiment

Recruitment

Player Characters

• Rook, Impoverished Military Scoundrel (Soldier of Fortune) [played by Argent]
• Case, Advanced Technocratic Consul (Hacker) [played by Mercurial Sea]
• Nasweret, Augmented Occult Fanatic (Shintar Honor Guard) [played by Lysus]

Name	Archetype	Mettle	Physique	Influence	Expertise	Interface
Rook	Soldier of Fortune	+2	+1	+1	+0	-1
Case	Hacker	+0	-1	+1	+1	+2
Nasweret	Shintar Honor Guard	+2	+1	+1	+0	-1

Advancements

• A problem is solved with firepower
• A broken law goes unpunished
• An abuse of power is resisted
• A system’s security is breached
• An injustice is rectified

The Ship

Class 2 Starship
Facade Observer Shrine
Most common, most versatile ship type. Jump capable. Able to land on rough terrain. Used for planetary exploration and fast inter-system travel. Tend to favor utility over living space, making for close-quarters living conditions.

• Helm
  • Workspace: Observer - Advanced, multi-band sensors, capable of long-distance scans. Probe launchers. Recording equipment, shielded data storage.
  • Armament: Energy Cannon or Launcher
• Engineering
• Quarters
  • Workspace: Shrine - A deeply personal space entirely devoted to your obsession, filled with samples, inspirations, trinkets and memorabilia.
• Cargo Bay
  • Workspace: Facade - False identification/registry, disguised as something else. Crawlspaces, hidden compartments, false walls.
  • CB1:
  • CB2:
  • CB3:
  • CB4:

The Sector

Myosho Consortium

The Myosho Consortium is a corrupt corporate meritocracy, distrustful of 'outsiders', and which puts a high standard on the ideal of courage. Twenty-seven (once thirty) technocratic families/clans rule over three hundred lesser families, the latter organized into constantly-shifting groupings of guilds, trade groups, and service associations. An individual can climb through the clan ranks through 'merit', leaving behind one family to enter another, including the twenty-seven families that rule (though movement between the Twenty-Seven, once that social strata is attained, is extremely rare). In addition to the Eda system, the Myosho Consortium has a presence in many other systems, where society is not always as rigidly stratified as it is in the core system. The people of the Consortium are of many ethnicities, but the culture at the root of their society is very loosely Japanese.

There is currently tension between the military and the more mercantile and diplomatic aspects of Myosho society. Armed conflict with the Shintar Republic was not that long ago, and there remain political elements that wish to continue that assault which, while weaker now in society, still have some influence.

Conflict between the Twenty-Seven families (and, by extension, the lesser families within their associations with conflicting Twenty-Sevens) makes for dramatic fluctuation in the internal Myosho economy, which makes life harder than it needs to be for the working classes. That's combined with high taxation that was instituted as a result of the Shintar conflicts, but which hasn't yet returned to former levels, which combination leads to unrest amongst the populace. The working classes additionally have the support and backing of the Naru religion. Balanced against those forces of unrest is the meritocratic practices of the society. Many people are focused more on personal upward mobility than in demanding better conditions for the masses, and a number of middle-class and upper middle-class clans (as well as a few of the Twenty-Seven) have been growing their ranks as a means to both temper societal unrest and to gain an advantage over their rivals.

The military clans are experiencing more cohesion and less volatility, though the hawkish elements among them are currently in disfavor and are chafing against the ascendancy of the more dovish military elements. There are some pressure valves there which will need releasing, before any kettles blow.

Eda System

The capital system of the Consortium, Eda, has three settled celestial bodies: a gas giant and two of its moons.

• Nara, the capital and cultural center of the Myosho Consortium, is a luxury moon of Kumamoto, and is where the twenty-seven families make their home.
• A gas giant, Kumamoto features cities that float in the upper stratosphere of the gas clouds. Once a prison colony and later a key naval base, Kumamoto is important for resource extraction and its shipyard, and the entire settlement functions as a militarized society.
• Aomori is the other settled moon of Kumamoto, and is the ancient seat of the Naru religion. An animistic religion at the roots of Myosho culture and civilization, its priests and most devout adherents experience genetic mutation that causes them to take on the features of various animal clans. Simultaneously revered and shunned by modern society, the Naru find sanctuary and haven on Aomori. In an orbital anomaly, the moon's orbit is constantly within the solar shadow of Kumamoto, making it a society eternally shrouded in night. Aomori is also the seat of the Kurimoto Academy of Psionic Science.

Shintar Republic

The Shintar Republic is a representative theocracy ruled by the God-Empress Neithikret. The Republic is welcoming of outsiders, though citizenship is predicated on conversion to the Shintar religion, which is a worship of the Ancients and their genomic technology. A hedonistic society, they put a high standard on the ideal of loyalty. The Shintar command fewer worlds than their neighbors, but they have advanced technology, stemming from their study of the Ancients. The Shintar Republic has a presence Coreward of the Myosho Consortium. Welcoming of outsiders, the people of the Shintar Republic are of many ethnicities, but the culture at the root of Shintar society is loosely Ancient Egyptian.

Pakhet system

Heset and Satet are both water worlds riddled with ruins of the Ancients, with floating cities. Satet, the smaller of the two, is less hospitable to life, yet serves as the celestial seat of power of the God-Empress.

The Myosho-Shintar Conflict

Forty-five years ago, the Myosho Consortium and Shintar Republic encountered each other as neighbors in the natural course of galactic expansion of their territories. Twenty-eight years ago, still early in their creation of diplomatic and economic agreements, a few Myosho families discovered an incredibly resource-rich system in the border territories that the Shintar had already laid claim to. Undertaking a campaign of corporate espionage, fake diplomacy, and deception, those clans first established a strong foothold in the system to siphon off some of those resources, and then fabricated an interstellar incident in an attempt to gain full control of the system, which was backed up by elements of the Myosho military in collusion with the families.

The Shintar Republic responded with an overwhelming show of force that decimated the attempt to steal their system. The two polities were poised on the precipice of full-blown war when the conspiracy of the Myosho families was exposed. Main elements of the Myosho military worked in tandem with the Shintar to defeat the forces of the conspiracy, which opened the doorway for a diplomatic solution between the two empires. Three of the Thirty families (two industrial and one military) were dismantled, imprisoned, and removed from the ledgers, bringing great shame to the entire Consortium.

That was twenty-two years ago.

Factions

Myosho Consortium

Underhanded Corporate Meritocracy

The Twenty-Seven Families

Conniving Self-Assured Oligarchy
Each of the Twenty-Seven Families of the Myosho Consortium has material control over some aspect of society (technology, the military, religion, politics, various mercantile interests like shipping, mining, specific manufacturing, etc), with some families operating as rivals (multiple technology families, or military clans, etc.). Beneath the Twenty-Seven are many lesser clans that form shifting alliances with each other and their patron families, who are similarly associated with the many spheres of influence in Myosho society. So, one of the Twenty-Seven might specialize in personal defense, manufacturing weapons and defense systems for individuals, and have close relationships with lesser families involved in raw materials, factory manufacturing, and distribution networks, as well as a lesser family that specializes in providing security personnel for personal defense. That one clan of the Twenty-Seven may have a rivalry with another weapons-system manufacturing member of the Twenty-Seven which is seeking to expand its personal armaments division, and it might have an alliance with a political faction that seeks to expand into Shintar space, where personal armaments will be in high demand.

Due to peculiarities of the way the Consortium is run, allegiances between the families is relatively fluid, though history and the ever-shifting politics of arrangements makes for tense bedfellows.

The Three Blocs

The Expansionists espouse rapid progression through space, discovery/control of resources, and deployment of industry to firmly establish the dominant footprint in the sector. Militarily aggressive, technologically 'neutral'. Second in terms of size and current political power. Sometimes called 'Imperialists'. The Fujimoto military family, Ishida and Takagi governmental families, and Nakagawa and Harada industrial families. Exploitative Expansionist Bloc

The Protectorate advocate for only expanding at the rate that ensures the Consortium's ability to properly defend, monitor/police, and govern its already-existing territory. Militarily defensive, technologically 'conservative'. First in terms of size, third in terms of current political power. Sometimes called 'Conservatives'. The Yamamoto military family, the Yamada, Maeda, and Shimizu governmental families, and the Fukuda and Miura industrial families. Honorable Conservative Bloc

The Planners champion 'The Great Plan', a middle road between the other two blocs. The Consortium should not overstretch itself, but should not hesitate to develop strategic territory that will support immediate or long-term goals. Holding power primarily in response to the other blocs, this group itself has much inherent factionalism along the Conservative - Imperialist spectrum. Militarily and technologically progressive. Third in terms of size, first in terms of current political power. Sometimes called 'Opportunists'. The Miyamoto military family, the Ota governmental family, and the Okamoto industrial family. Opportunistic High-Tech Bloc

Government

Bureau of Intelligence, Investigation, and Interdiction

Controlling Authoritarian Government
A governmental agency that acts partly as domestic intelligence service and partly as law enforcement. Many criminals of the type that bounty hunters get called in for are those that have jumped between jurisdictions or systems, meaning that the BIII, 'Triple I,' or 'Third Eye' is frequently competing for the same targets, attempting to bring them in without using outside services.

Military

Federated Navy (FN)

Factional Military Armada
Every segment of society contributes to the military protection of Myosho space. Traditionally, this was managed feudally, with each of the Thirty Families and their vassal families contributing materiel and personnel to the Navy. This led to extreme factionalism within the military, and was altered hundreds of years ago to the current system, wherein every family contributes funds to the Federated Navy. The FN is managed by three families of the Twenty-Seven, long regarded as the 'military families'. Factionalism still exists between the three, but the FN itself is more centralized and uniform under this arrangement.

1st Expeditionary Fleet

Fanatic Military Fleet
1EF, also known as Forerunner Fleet or Fujimoto's Forerunners, prides itself on being the first fleet in any new territory, and is a storied regiment for its conquests in the name of the Myosho Consortium. Firmly a part of the Expansionist Bloc, and a crown jewel of the Fujimoto military family.

Black Diamonds

Brave High-Tech Cult
An elite cadre of first-drop assault troops within 1EF, discernible by their lithe black Combat Assault Skins and their preponderance of cyberware and bionics.

Six Iron Brigade

Brave Special Forces Legion
A branch of the Myoshan interplanetary special forces, more commonly and less lovingly known as the Redhands because of the amount of black ops they did - wetwork, destabilizing sabotage actions, and the like. They serve in spacebound or orbital theatres doing a lot of recon and doorknocking, either scouting places and taking out sentinels before an assault, or being the first one into one. In the end, everyone did almost everything - the Redhands spent so much time on the move and so little in bases, they had to work with what was available every minute.

Division 56

Sinister Covert Military
A branch of the Federated Navy responsible for apprehension of enemies of the state, which is explicitly granted kill orders against known internal threats to the interests of the Myosho Consortium. Rumored to falsify termination and destruction, and instead to assimilate rogue technologies and actors, conduct blacksite interrogation, and illegal military experimentation.

Commercial

Auctioneer 9000

Wealthy Popular Trade Cartel
Auctioneer 9000 (aka AE9000, AE9K, Auctioneer, Auction House, Market) is the AI interface to the interactive marketplace of the Myosho Consortium. Designed and managed by the Kinoshita Family, AE9K is a central database and purchasing interface listing every good sold and traded within Myosho space. Featuring seventeen personality algorithms, EncyptoSecure (TM) interfaces with every communications medium known to man, and a real-time catalog of over five octodecillion products, Auctioneer is your personalized concierge to anything and everything you could possibly desire.

"Freelancers"

Eclectic Warrant Registry
The Division of Freelance Interdiction Specialists or D-FIS, also known as Freelancers in police, military, and criminal circles, is a commercial enterprise run by Family Ueno, a subsidiary family of the Sugimoto, Murata, and Takeuchi families who supply many of the members of the rank-and-file Protectorate bloc in government and the military. The D-FIS charter is to support government agencies in the securement and delivery of Myosho citizenry attempting violation of their terms of parole. That role has since expanded to serving warrants of any kind, though that function remains an unofficial one as far as the strict letter of the charter is concerned.

Freelancers come in all stripes; once certified and made part of the D-FIS registry, a D-FIS agent is free to deputize a team and to pursue their bounties in the manner they see fit under the loose oversight of the agency.

Nakamura Information Technology

Popular Merchant Corporation
Officially, the Nakamura specialize in entertainment, information, and data technologies. Unofficially, their most valuable commodity is information. Think Google meets the NSA--they gather information on anything that could be remotely useful, from simple marketing data to the secrets of powerful individuals and organizations. No one really knows just how much data the clan really possesses; they have an entire department dedicated just to sifting through the vast databases for useful or valuable information. NITech is a member of the Planners Bloc.

Department of Public Esteem

NITech's Department of Public Esteem (Marketing & PR, basically) is headed by a staunch traditionalist who remembers a time when the Nakamura name was synonymous with quality products, not shady information-gathering (whether such a time actually existed is debatable). She is opposed to the very existence of the SPT, and while the department doesn't necessarily have a lot of sway in the company, they do have media contacts and the department head has powerful friends inside & outside the company. Worse, she appears to be entirely clean (to wit, lacking exploitable secrets). The department doesn't often take direct action against SPT, but isn't above undermining their operations.

Special Projects Team

Secretive High-Tech Corporation
A subsidiary of the Data Acquisition & Application Department of Nakamura Information Technology (NITech), the Special Projects Team is a small unit with a mandate to acquire and apply information in ways that benefit the clan, and they have a great deal of leeway in how they interpret that mandate. They're effectively a privately run intelligence agency, with all that implies. They work extensively with freelancers (though they can bring Nakamura resources to bear, if need be) and aren't above working as freelancers themselves.

Special Project Team's relationship with the the B3I is complicated and often comes down to individual members of each organization. Officially, NITech cooperates fully with law enforcement and provides some of their gear. Off the books, NITech's cooperation often takes the form of B3I requisitioning information from them while pointedly ignoring how the information was obtained. But occasionally, SPT operatives go too far or run afoul of a B3I agent who refuses to look the other way, so NITech has had to leave a few "rogue" employees (and quite a few freelancers) on the proverbial hook. There are some within the agency that would love to shut down the SPT and confiscate all of NITech's data.

Division 56 mostly hates SPT. They resent having "civilian spies" interfering in their sphere of influence and they really resent NITech's attempts to gather information on Division 56 activities.

Fujita Enterprises

Austere Political Corporation
Fujita Enterprises produces comparable technology to NITech, but claims not to have the same sort of information gathering apparatus that their rival does (they do; it just isn't as comprehensive). They bill themselves as a more honest answer to NITech, and have parleyed their reputation into better contracts with the government and military, particularly Division 56. NITech is slightly more cutting edge than Fujita, but between their government contracts and widespread appeal, Fujita is actually the more financially successful company.

Criminal

The Nivosis Gang

Brutal Criminal Fleet
These pirates don't prey on the major shipping lanes of the Myosho Consortium - too well patrolled. Instead, they tend to target the spurs and last-mile hauls, never striking in the same place twice. They don't pull down the same massive heists that some of the other pirate gangs do, but they also don't end up in a shootout with state forces either. They seem to have an almost eerie ability to know when a freighter or convoy won't be sufficiently guarded.

The Nivosis Gang has definitely originated in Myosho space with all that entails. Almost all of them are intimately connected in some manner with the Myosho. They will sometimes strike at shipping outside the boundaries of Myosho space, but the pattern of their attacks would certainly seem to indicate that their home base or bases are within the Consortium.

Their attack pattern usually involves showing up with enough force to trivially overwhelm whatever merchant convoy they're intending on hitting - usually one that tried to skimp on escorts in order to save a dime or two. Any show of resistance involves a ship being blown to bits and a repeat of the demand to surrender and turn over their cargoes or ships. They usually don't exhibit any particular tactical brilliance, although there are rumors floating about of one squadron captain who will sometimes put on a show.

The organization of the gang is relatively loose. Ship squadrons are organized by captains who are responsible for the maintenance and administration of their squadron and also responsible for any losses. This means that squadrons will frequently impress captured spacers or ships into service in order to gain in power, prestige, and capability. Mutiny is not terrible uncommon. Each squadron captain is fed intelligence on ripe targets from the Gang's leaders, but they are forbidden from making direct contact with other squadrons outside of specific contexts in order to prevent the few raids that do go wrong from bringing down the whole operation.

Shintar Republic

The Munificent Staff and Sanctuary of Shintar

Controlling Scientific Religion
The Church-Government of the Shintar Republic, founded on the worship of the Ancients and their genomic technology.

The Ministry of Form

An agency regulating and promoting research into biological modification. Their focus is on achieving a perfection of bodily form, leading to right thought and right action within Shintar society. Their approaches and goals sometimes meet with controversy.

Other

Joshean Belters

A ragtag and tribalized (socially) culture of semi-nomads living in the asteroid fields at the outskirts of [Nominally Myoshan system X]. Asteroids range in size from "pretty large rocks" to "size of a regular moon". Since they are fairly numerous and tend to get by on whatever they can scavenge they tend to get hired for a lot of risky, low-pay work. Since they are also not Myoshan citizens, they do not have many ways to assert themselves and few employers think twice about stiffing them on contracts. Josheans don´t have many ways of recourse, so this has led to them having a reputation as violent pirates (which is deserved by some, though not nearly as many as the stories you hear in the center systems would indicate).

When the Myosho-Shintar conflict broke out, many "independent" groups like the Josheans got an offer - enlist and fight on the side of the Myoshan families (predictably, for the more dangerous jobs) and as an end-of-tour benefit you became a full citizen. This meant almost everything for many - with a citizenship comes licenses, actual legal recourse in negotiations, the chance to serve in high-paying professions in the systems. Many Josheans signed up. Many, many of them died.

Notable Posts

• Inspiration: Influences and Influences II
• Inspiration: the Outsider in Civilization
• Myosho Society: Merit
• Medical technology in the two civilizations

House Rules

Asset Standard: Energy Weapons

Weapons that fire physical projectiles have been entirely phased out and replaced by energy weapons. All firearms and heavy weapons automatically gain Laser as a free upgrade. The following archaic upgrade replaces Laser and can be purchased for firearms and heavy weapons.

• [Bullets] Fires fast-moving physical projectiles rather than energy. Good against shields.

Cargo: Fuel Shortage

Out on the fringes of known space, beyond the refineries of civilization, lies a frontier where decent fuel is vanishingly scarce. Communities are forced to subsist on a smattering of inferior, unrefined fuels harvested from mines, asteroids and local gas giants. Taken for granted in the core worlds, fuel is the lifeblood of commerce, exploration, safety, and colonization on the ragged edge of space.

Fuel Shortage is a variant set of rules for frontier settings in campaigns where scarcity plays an important role. Adopting this rule set will make a campaign feel more desperate, with tighter profit margins and a greater focus on trade and profitability to stay aloft. Ships will need to refuel between trips, and it’s possible for a ship to stall or even become stranded if its fuel supply runs out. Fuel itself becomes a much sought-after commodity.

Fuel as Cargo

In a Fuel Shortage campaign, units of fuel count as a special type of Cargo (UW core book, p 126). Like any other Cargo, fuel is graded from Class 0 to Class 4. A fuel’s value depends on its source, purity and level of refinement. Some, like hydrogen, are plentiful but inefficient. Others, like dark matter or cordeliarite, are incredibly powerful but rare.

• Fuel units can be used as part of a Barter to gain Cargo units, and Cargo can be used to Barter for Fuel. Fuel can also be sold as part of Acquisitions.
• Fuel takes up as much space as a vehicle or unit of Cargo, and must be transported in the cargo space of starships and aboard vehicles with the Transport upgrade.

Running on Fumes

Starships must always have a unit of Fuel loaded into their reactor. Once loaded, the unit of fuel doesn’t take up Cargo space anymore, but is not recoverable. Reactors can only accept one unit of Fuel at a time, and old Fuel has to be jettisoned before new, better Fuel can be added.

While routine starship operations can be maintained for a very long time, taxing maneuvers may result in a ship running out of fuel during the attempt. Taxing maneuvers include overuse of energy weapons, heavy use of shields, extended atmospheric flight, and of course Wild Jumps.

When pushing a ship in these situations, use the Run On Fumes custom Move. Failures and Partial Successes will reduce the class of the Fuel loaded into the reactor. Should the Fuel’s class fall below 0, the Fuel is expended.

A starship without Fuel is effectively dead in space, drifting powerlessly with only emergency life support.

RUN ON FUMES (+Fuel Class) When you push your ship in a Fuel- scarce situation, Roll + the loaded Fuel's Class.

• On a 10+, the Fuel supply holds.
• On a 7-9, reduce the Fuel's class by 1.
• On a 6-, reduce the Fuel's class by 3.

SectorNet

SectorNets handle the information traffic for an entire star-system, linking planets, space stations, and outposts, all with minimal communication lag. All but the most backwater star-systems have at least some version of the SectorNet that coordinates everything from traffic to crop harvests to Jump Point priorities to school testing schedules.

Common SectorNet Activities:

• Seeking common information is an Assessment using +Interface.
• Social interactions requires +Influence, as if the participants were face to face.
• Minor purchases are still based on the character’s wealth, but are anonymous.
• Major purchases made over the SectorNet are Acquisitions, as per normal.

Modifications

Cybernetics are available in the Myosho Consortium. Bio Mods are available in the Shintar Republic, and are common amongst Shintar citizens. The Naru of Aomori (in the Myosho Consortium) also make use of bio-modification.

Market Types

The Assets chapter of Uncharted Worlds assumes a similar level and style of technology across the galaxy. The potential for greater variety and sheer alien oddity in Far Beyond Humanity necessitates markets that are just as varied. Use this section rather than the Minor, Standard, and Major Markets from Uncharted Worlds.

When introducing a new market, an Origin will be selected that most closely expresses its general tone, spirit, and technology level. This will provide a narrative guideline as to what the characters can expect to find. A particularly important and complex market space could be expressed through a combination of two Origins.

Market Distribution

The frequency of new markets should depend on the scope of the game. The further and faster the characters are expected to travel, the more space each market takes up. In a standard Starship game, where players are free to fly from star system to star system, they can expect to find a single market per planet or space station. In a City game, each district of the city would have its own unique market that matches the district’s motif. And so forth.

Secondary Markets

Sub-markets can exist within a major market. These secondary markets tend to be exclusive, secretive, dangerous, and/or illegal. Characters can risk seeking them out if the primary market can’t provide them with the kinds of Assets they need. Note that the Commercial career’s Marketing skill (Uncharted Worlds core book, page 81) allows characters to find secondary markets with ease.

Evolving Markets

Markets will change as the story progresses. Major events and shifts in the balance of power will change the Market type. If the Scientific Cabal faction takes over a space station that was once Crowded, that market will probably be Advanced or Galactic the next time the characters visit. Wars and great catastrophes can turn any market into an Impoverished or Brutal market.

Group Career

Group Career is in play, with the PCs using the Starfarer career.