Diaspora - The Great Filter - Main Page

This is the main page for the play by post The Great Filter, using the rules of Diaspora (a FATE variant).

Rules

• For any and all questions, I (GM Daniel) can be reached via PM via my RPGNet profile
• I intend a roughly 24h turnaround - if someone has not reacted to a post within that time frame, I default their behavior to something sensible, but at best mediocre in result.
• Players must post a minimum of 3 times per week to participate in any meaningful way and to keep the game moving (unless on OOC-announced vacation etc).
• Players need not necessarily be familiar with rules up front, but should be willing to learn and read up when required. I'll try and provide links to appropriate places in the SRD where possible.
• Mature topics are ok if handled maturely (sex, violence, drugs). Please refrain from going overly and needlessly graphic, there are other places for that.

Resources

Game Threads

Recruitment, initial discussion, setting and character design go into the meta thread. Systems can be fleshed out directly in the wiki as well.

OOC and IC posts go into one thread (TODO: link), please hide OOC in spoiler blocks (sblock).

Web resources

Diaspora SRD - content is identical to my PDF core book, as far as I can tell

TODO: link to dice roller

Setting

An integral and enjoyable part of Diaspora is that there is no fixed setting. The bones of the setting are created cooperatively according to these rules. Whatever is not defined will be defined during play (subject to GM approval). Please don't make design choices based ONLY on what helps you most at the time (some of that is ok, but let's keep it sane).

The Cluster

The Great Filter takes place in The Cluster, made up of seven connected solar systems. Scientists speculate other systems might also be connected in clusters, but this discussion is pretty much moot, since even the highest tech ships would take incredibly long times and/or unfeasibly large amounts of reaction mass to reach even the nearest stars without FTL slipstream travel.

The systems in the cluster are described by the tech, environmental and resource levels (on a scale from -4 to +4, here prerolled by GM), please consult this table for interpretation. Concerning tech: take into account that present day Earth is a T0 civilization - some things that sound fairly high tech might not necessarily be that far off.

A (to be designed)

T1 E0 R-2

Alku

Alku is a lush green world. About 3/4 of its surface is covered by water, the rest is one ring-shaped mega-continent spanning the globe. Some small to medium sized islands can be found in the northern and southern oceans. There is a planetary government, the Alku People's Authority (APA), ensuring basic amenitites for everyone. War is a thing of the past, regional conflicts are kept in check by the Protectors (a relatively small, global security force so ridiculously over-equipped they basically squash any uprising against the "common good" by their mere presence) and then arbitrated by a hierarchy of APA legal courts. Hunger and poverty are non-existent among the legally registrated populace, who have the option to live a calm life of moderate comfort on basic provisioning ("basic") provided by communally owned and run facilities for food production, housing, healthcare, education and transportation. The expected life span on basic is about 130 years in good health.

Those with higher aspirations are free to move to any one of the metropolises, homes to eponymous megacorporations specializing in diverse areas such as bio technology and genetic engineering (Kukka), aquatic research and exploitation (the artificial floating megacity of Mesi), space exploration and prospecting (Rautaa) and about two dozen more. Megacorps give their employees access to higher education and more exclusive goods and services, provided by their respective subsidiaries, in exchange for work (mostly creative, scientific and highly specialized skilled labor). The megacorps are granted 25 year "leases" of their metropolises, with limited legal and executive authority, based on their merit to society as a whole by the APA (back in the unification days, preexisting industry giants of former nation states mostly remained in the places of power they previously held). In theory, they could be replaced if a new corporate player has surpassed them during the last lease period, but in practice this is almost unheard of due to the current concentration of brain power and resources in established megacorps. Metropolises are provided with basic services from their surroundings, in exchange for worldwide access to useful specialized products or services (their aforementioned "merit to society"). People in places of power and responsibility can expect to live for very long times indeed, with the age of several CEOs being estimated well in excess of 2000 years.

This system has been stable since the unification, some 5000 years ago, and there are fairly reliable historical records for another about 500 years of the nation-state period prior to that. There are some conspiracies aiming to overthrow and replace the current "rule of the few" with a variety of alternative societal models, none of which currently pose any real threat to the APA and the megacorps.

Local rare-earth etc. resources have been exploited for most of Alku's recorded history and have run out thousands of years ago. System wide resources are also on the verge of running out, which prompted the research scramble toward other stars that resulted in the (re-)discovery of the slipstream, and following that, the connected systems of the cluster. Since then, several megacorps have entered trade agreements with other system entities, exchanging raw materials (or mining rights) for products and services (notably, maintenance of other systems' slipstream nodes).

• T 2: Slipstream capable ships. Exploitation of system starting to decline (what's needed isn't there, and what's there isn't needed all that much).
• E 1: Pleasant climate. Abundance of (mostly) benign local flora and fauna. Multiple research bases on, or orbiting, other planets in the system.
• R -3: Essential raw materials for high-tech production have basically run out locally.
• Aspect: "You can get that off basic"
• Aspect: Starving for raw materials
• Aspect: Amazing restorative medicine

Corelum

Corelum is primarily characterised by high population pressure resulting from the recent discovery of a cure for a medical condition that has long plagued it with high infant mortality. Adopting fewer-child policies is complicated due to a delicate stalemate between Adaram and Obertam, the two dominating nation states that have historically fought for supremacy on Corelum. The current situation could be described as a cold war of population control.

Facing environmental limits and the shared danger of other more advanced systems taking advantage of them, the states have agreed to a "twinning" program: every citizen is assigned two "twins" in the other state, one at birth (birth date and time closest), one on starting their higher education (most similar degree). This program is marketed by both governments as a sort of fraternization effort, because we are all buddies now and need to close ranks against potential political threats from other worlds, but it is really intended to ensure basically equal population sizes and qualifications to prevent each of the mutually mistrusting nations from one-upping the other secretly. "Surplus" births are taken into foster care in the other state, "surplus" applicants cannot enter their desired programs. This system has led to coordinated quota systems for higher education admission, in turn leading to very competitive admission restrictions (if you can only have a given number of engineers, you want the very best) and harsh tax penalties if a student drops out or cannot finish their degree. Generally speaking, people from Adaram and Obertam have always been very hard working (after almost continuous war efforts for many centuries) and are very competitive.

Because, officially, the twinning program is a fraternization effort (and the not-so-jaded actually believe this), people are encouraged to keep in touch with their twins via subsidized annual visit programs. They are also encouraged to write reports of special achievements or qualities of their twins and submit them in essay form for the "Twinning Program Yearbooks" both governments have set up, with an attached prize if your articles are selected for publication (generally speaking though, the really interesting articles are not made public). Despite the program's more cynical origins, some people are actually starting to overcome old border thinking and have genuinely good relations with one or both of their twins.

With imported star ships for intra-system travel becoming more readily available, Corelum has started joint (strictly twinned) colonization programs for the two neighboring planets towards the hot and the cold end of the habitable zone (desert and tundra type). With Corelum's states using the colonies mostly to take population pressure off the homeworld, the output of the thorium and rare-earth mines is mostly exported, enabling them to stock up on interplanetary and intersystem space ships and equipment.

• T -1: Atomic power.
• E 1: One settled garden world (also named Corelum). Starting colonization of desert and ice worlds using bought Alku tech.
• R 2: Established mining operations on Corelum's close-orbit moons (thorium and rare earths), leasing asteroid belt mining rights
• Aspect: Population pressure towards new frontiers
• Aspect: Cold war twin culture
• Aspect: (open)

Tranquility

The events that turned Tranquility into a hellish wasteland are not discussed in polite company. The ladies and gentlemen who run the society use euphemisms -- the Unpleasantness, the Incident, the Dust Up. The last is particularity apt. In addition to the massive radioactivity that still plagues much of the planet, one of the weapons used was to hurl asteroids at the planet from space. Generations later, they still drift in, hurled from erratic orbits, or perhaps from an enemy who set them up to bombard the planet for generations. Many burn up in the atmosphere, but enough get through. Some cause massive damage on impact; others leave unhealthy amounts of rare earth metal compounds floating around, making breathing outdoors without a respirator unhealthy.

Tranquility's society also spins what most would view as technical regression or ecological disaster into positives. When the electric engines that pumped air to the underground facilities (once war bases, now vacation spots for the wealthy) failed, and men and women were brought in to operate bellows manually, this was called an increase in employment for the working class. That wasn't an unusual incident. Workarounds using industrial age technology for the old and slowly failing high tech artifacts are common.

The technology is failing, but Tranquility's science remains fairly strong, since it's a necessity, albeit an unpleasant one. The ladies and gentlemen who run the finance of the town would never admit to studying the effects of terbium poisoning on the body. Instead, they surround themselves with scientist-servants. A butler is likely to know how to craft a geiger counter for madame to take on her jaunt to the ruins; the head chef likely knows a good deal of biology as well as how to make the limited selection from greenhouses sufficiently elegant for a banquent.

Among children and the lower class, there is a recurring rumor that the unpleasantness was caused by aliens. It may or may not be a "George Washington chopped down the cherry tree" legend but the story goes that the day before the asteroids began hitting the world, scientists operating a giant radio telescope announced they had made an important discovery they would soon make public. (This is partially to fit in with the theme of the game.)

• T -2: Industrialized, polite society, between gas lamps and electrical air filters. Some slowly failing high-tech artifacts (T3) keep underground cities alive.
• E -2: Near-barren, toxic surface due to asteroid bombardment; no fauna and few plant species.
• R 0: Overabundance of rare elements in kicked-up dust (not much else though).
• Aspect: What civilization-ending catastrophe, old chap?
• Aspect: Watch out for falling (space) rocks, and their side effects.
• Aspect: (open)

Characters

Characters are created according to these here rules, that also are cooperative to some extent. Most notable mechanical features are the character's ten aspects, 15 skills arranged in a pyramid (1 skill at level 5, 2 at 4, 3 at 3, 4 at 2 and 5 at 1), three stress tracks (modified by some skills) to track abstracted "hit points", and three stunts (ranging from "own a thing (that the GM can't just take away)" such as a spaceship, to "do something special with some skill", and some other options).

Concerning equipment, note this section of the rules: equipment is not explicitly tracked in minute detail. If your character has a skill, you can assume to initially have access to appropriate "automatic equipment" as per this list. The higher the skill, the shinier the equipment you can assume to have. Note: pilots do not automatically own spaceships, take these as have-a-thing stunts! Also note, you do not carry your bulky stuff on your body at all times, unless you explicitly haul it along to meet Mr. Smith at the bar. Let's be reasonable.

Player Characters

When editing your character, please use the edit button next to their name, so not the whole document is blocked(?). If you want to post lengthy edits, please finish them up in a text editor first and then paste here. "Experience" in Diaspora means "change". Please keep your entries up to date, as this post is the primary "character sheet". If you struggle to get to ten aspects

Example PC

Please post characters according to the following template (after GM approval in the meta thread) - can be deleted once a finished player character takes its place! Story write-up here: Maybe summary of episodes visited during character creation, maybe continuing as the story progresses (although that will mostly be in the play thread)

Aspects

Growing up

• Aspect 1
• Aspect 2

Starting out

• Aspect 3
• Aspect 4

Moment of crisis

• Aspect 5
• Aspect 6

Sidetracked

• Aspect 7
• Aspect 8

On your own

• Aspect 9
• Aspect 10

Skills

Chosen from this list, unless specifically greenlit by GM

1. Assets, Resolve, Science, MicroG, Slug Throwers
2. Communications (space), Medical, Oratory, Brokerage
3. Demolitions, EVA, Intimidation
4. Charm, Arts
5. Profession: Nerf Herder

Stunts

• Military Grade skill: Nerf Herder
• Own a thing: Grandma's electric Nerf Prod (used for herding)
• Take a bonus: Nerf Herder

Significant Equipment

• Grandma's electric Nerf Prod (stunt)
• Set of paint brushes
• T1 EVA pressure suit (used)

NPCs

NPCs typically have less skills (Pyramid going to 2 or 3, depending on importance) and aspects (as many as highest skill level). Just post a quick summary and some sensible assumed skills if you expect to reuse that NPC. Possibly important

Example NPC: Aaron Beta

Aaron is a black market contact on Corelum Prime, owns a pawn shop front for his business. Has done business with X in the past and trusts him to some degree. Aspect: Can get you anything, at the right price Aspect: Trusts no one he hasn't shared sparkling wine with in a jacuzzi Aspect: Unknown

1. Bureaucracy, Stealth, Unknown
2. Charm, Unknown
3. Profession: Trader