Setting information

[Renekin Skywalker]

Name: Out in the Galaxy
Genre: medium-hard story/RP-based Sci-Fi

Setting: An adaptation of Mutants in Orbit, with a higher level of technology, and a greater variety of places to visit, including successful colonization of other moons in the solar system, and with world-stations drilled inside mined-out asteroids. In addition, Earth remains accessible, though, with the movement of humans to the stars, more of the world is used for farming, agriculture, and there is increased reclamation from the ravages of human activity. Industrial work is done in the stars.

The existing stations and colonies are, in some fashion, as described in Mutants in Orbit, including outlooks, political set-up and industrial focus. Their sizes and levels of technology will be higher than listed.

This is a future setting and, to make things simple, terraforming, interplanetary travel and even artificial gravity are all successful, every-day activities.

There are no mutants. No super powers, no genetic alterations, no psychics. None.

The adventures will take place in or around a trading/cargo/longhaul vessel called The Galaxy. The Galaxyis a multi-faceted business venture that includes most specifically long-distance passenger travel and medium-sized cargos (and a little smuggling of both. For travel time reference, it can still take a half a day to travel from the Earth to the moon, and often weeks to arrive at the other planets in the system. This makes vessels such as The Galaxy fairly common in the shipping circuits.

While hand-held weapons are common, they are not pervasive. Only those "in the business" have any kind of firearm, and, even then, very few have what would be considered infantry levels of weapons. This means that I can exercise judgement on who would be armed and who would not when the game starts. It also means it's OK if your PC is not combat oriented.

Ship-to-ship weapons are only available to the military. End of story. Some of the more cunning pirates have figured out alternatives, but military-grade anything is not in the hands of the plethora of merchant traders travelling the interplanetary lanes.

The Galaxy is NOT a fighting ship. It is a trading ship. At most, some of the crew may get into scraps, or enforce security on board ship. That does not mean everyone needs to be a soldier on the ship. Non-combatants, as even seen on Firefly, while able to fire a gun if attacked by Reavers, have no aim (lack training, in the form of a WP), or will hesitate to fight other humans (you know, the 'but killing's wrong' thing). It is the same here. If your character is not the type to pick up a lead pipe at the first sign of trouble, that is perfectly fine.

[Renekin Skywalker]

Well... it really is a lot like Firefly, where the ship is sort of the staging point for adventures, including smuggling, scavenging, shinnanegans and such like.

No companions, though.

OK. I've decided: you're all humans. "Humans?! Boring old 3D6 for 8 attributes human?" Yep, the same. "But what about choice?"

Here's your choice.

OCCs for Space game
*: new added as an after thought

Mutants in Orbit
Astrologer OCC (Mutants in Orbit)
Cyberjack/hacker (Mutants in Orbit)
Defense Officer (Mutants in Orbit)
Energy Specialist (Mutants in Orbit)
Guard (Mutants in Orbit)
jack of All Trades (Mutants in Orbit)
Medic (Mutants in Orbit)
Miner (Mutants in Orbit)
Space Pilot (Mutants in Orbit)
Research Scientist (Mutants in Orbit)
Salvage Expert (Mutants in Orbit)
Freebooter (Mutants in Orbit)
Ship Engineer (Mutants in Orbit)
Survival systems Technician (Mutants in Orbit)
Trader (Mutants in Orbit)

HU2
Hardware: Mechanical Genius (HU2)
Hardware: Weapons Genius (HU2)
Hardware: Electrical Genius (HU2)
*A normal, educated person on HU2 skill rules, with the 8 attributes as normal and then select an education as normal, thinking about what you'ld want the fellow to do.

Rifts
City rat and variants (NO cybernetics. NONE! Don't ask. If they're there, I take'em off the sheet and your PC's a cripple) (RUE/Main book)
Operator (non-psychic) (RUE/Main book)
*Body Fixer (Cybernetic medicine skills refer to biosystems... See later comment on cybernetic/biosystems/cloned parts)
Sports Man (Rifts: Australia)
Technologist (Rifts: Australia)
City trader (Rifts: Australia)
Smuggler (Rifts: Mercenaries)
Gunfighter (Rifts: New West)
Justice Ranger (retired from active service) (Rifts: New West)
Sherriff/Lawman (retired from active service) (Rifts: New West)
Preacher (Rifts: New West)
Spacer (Phase World)
Runner (Phase World)
OCCs from an organized military (Since this isn't actually Rifts Earth, such people would have the skills, but not the social background, so a CS Grunt wouldn't actually be from the CS) (retired from active service)

Beyond the Supernatural
Bounty HUnter
Communications Engineer
Computer Programmer
Computer Technician
Espionage Agent (retired from active service)
Fire&Rescue
Medicine: Medical Doctor
Medicine: Paramedic
Police: Undercover
Police: Others (retired from active service)
Professional Driver
Security Specialist

Odds are, if it's not there, it's not gonna be. Also, where possible, try and orient the PC to a space-faring skillset.

[Renekin Skywalker]

Now, I'm sure you're all thinking: "If this is a space game, which is in the future, why are there no cybernetics allowed?" Well, biosystems, I suppose would be allow, though I'm sure the cloning of live organs would have been determined as the better medical process in space, since cybernetics are resource-intensive where as cloning is not as much... or won't have been.

So, this means, instead of getting a cybernetic heart to replace it, you get your own heart. Instead of a bionic hand, you get a bio-systems hand - or a hook, big shiney hook what for killing Peter Pan - instead of a cybernetic eye, you get... you get... an eyepatch. A pretty one, with flowers embroidered on it, since it's difficult to work with nerves.

[Renekin Skywalker]

The Galaxy is a business, not just a setting. Any PC that can't be good little employees best be rethinking offering their services.

[Renekin Skywalker]

Also:The Galaxy

Since the link is now defunct... here's the plans, again:

[Renekin Skywalker]

Here is deck 1, with the guest berths (4 bunks per room), and a guest rec-room. As well are the hydroponics bay, the medical bay, the main airlock, and the main floor of the cargo hold.

Attachments:

[Renekin Skywalker]

Here is deck 2.

Rooms of note include the galley and the crew berths. One crew per room, and these are the rooms for McKenna, Xavier, Mensk and McKenna, and Foreman.

Attachments:

[Renekin Skywalker]

Here is deck three

Rooms of note include the bridge, the captain's quarters and officers quarters. Tawfeek inhabits the captain's quarters, Jessica has one of the officers quarters, and uses the other as her weapons room. There is also an internal control room that was used by an earlier crew, but functions now as an observation dome.

Important notes include that the Cargo hold is completely sealed off from the other parts of the ship, including the hallways going to engineering, since the hold is often exposed to outer space.

The secondary, dorsal airlock is here, as well.

Attachments:

[Renekin Skywalker]

Here is the exterior of the ship.

Attachments:

[Renekin Skywalker]

Some important updates on the setting

I recognize that I have been somewhat vague on how the setting works, and, in some cases, that vaguery is giving me a headache.

The first issue is speed (I’ve posted about it, before, but here it if formally). The Galaxy, as with most ships, has basically 2 speeds: a lunar speed and an interplanetary speed. While these speeds vary, based on the quality of the ship, for the Galaxy, lunar speed (the speed for moving between a planet and its satellites), is 63,000 km/h. Interplanetary speed (the speed for moving between planets) is not the maximum, but is a second gear for ships, and possible strain, and for the Galaxy is 630,000. Yes, it is 10 times more, but that is more an issue of convenience.

Regarding the breadloaves: yes, the impact of a breadloaf at 600000+ km/h would tear out someone’s spine and leave a mile down the road. However, the ship’s armour is made for those kinds of situations, which is why they’re not dead, right now.

The second is the technology level of the setting. Besides Mutants in Orbit, which is the game setting, Out in the Galaxy has three primary influences: Firefly, Starhunter and Red Dwarf. All three series are very low-tech and simplistic, and often low-budget in their implementation. In most ways, This game is more like Firefly than any of the others: very blue-collar, entrepreneurial, and a “previously used” kind of environment. No transporters, forcefields, talking computers, or super-fantastic technologies that people dream up and then invent later. In fact, the technology level of the Galaxy would make it little different than a modern-day ship: there’s a hull, a propulsion, and a crew. Simple as that.
For Earth to be able to implement the super-high star trek technology, life would become so expensive that people would become abjectly poor Earth hermits. I ran through the economic food chain, injecting the costs of super-tech and all I got were class wars, poverty, and all kinds of nastiness. Low-budget spaceship concepts are therefore better.
Returning to Mutants in Orbit, this really is the basis of the setting (with the Flash/Cataclysm, and mutants, etc. removed; there’s enough to do without it) and technology levels presented there are not super-high. To be more specific, it is not the fantastical Phase World setting, either.


The third issue is economics. The Galaxy is a legitimate[/i] business venture, as are probably 99% of all businesses run in the day. Criminal organizations, while somewhat romanticized, are just that. Jessica, for example, is actually a career criminal trading in black-market weapons. Tawfeek lets it slide for his own reasons. But her personal dealings do not affect the business as a whole (she keeps the weapons locked up and/or hidden), or its employees. If Tawfeek does anything like smuggling or black-market work, he may not inform the crew if he does not feel he can trust them, or that it will protect them.

Instead, Tawfeek, as a businessman, would rather work with legitimate businessmen, who would be more willing to work in the grey market – accepting barter, counter-offers, etc., to make a sale and profit. In these cases, the only law broken is tax law through undeclared incomes and sales. Since it is more or less a free-market system, pretty much anything that is not illegal, such as drugs, weapons, or movies starring Rob Schneider, can be obtained legally (price, delivery, local availability notwithstanding). As much as possible, Tawfeek will pursue legal routes for his supplies.

Look for more as it comes.

[Renekin Skywalker]

On batteries:

After the "battery" came the much more compact, poweful "gimmule" (pron. "gihm-mule"). Lithium-based, the size of a grown man's thumbnail, and able to run an LED spotlight for 20 straight years before recharging, it was said to be the way of the future.

Unfortunately, as with all advancements in the human endeavour, after the military demands it, science makes it possible, and inventive corporations make it commercialized, the adult entertainment industry got in the way.

Turns out, people like a little heft in their personal electronics.

The gimmule, then, went on to have a productive life lighting flashlights, powering phones, and, eventually the descendents of Hubble.

But, it could never replace the battery.

[Renekin Skywalker]

Technology Update:

Removing the air from a space in a ship is not the same as venting it into space, or taking on or dumping ballast water from a boat. The air is simply sucked into tanks to be reused later. Otherwise, the cargo hold would have to remain depressurized until it could be filled up again.

Weigh stations loved this idea, naturally.

Earthicans were not so fond of it. So, rather than let their air get wasted in space, the president of one of the wealthier, air-dependent countries paid for a project that showed (inconclusively, they said) that a pressurized cargo hold held all sorts of psychological and business-related benefits.

Unable to combat the strength of Earthican business-related benefits, the Weigh stations backed down. Well, at least until they realized that wastage always occurs and ships will always need top-ups.

[Renekin Skywalker]

The AEVAS, or Armoured Extra-vehicular activity suit, saw brief popularity about 50 years previous. Eager for a new market, powered-armour manufacturers had convinced various governments and stations that what works on Earth works in space. AEVAS quickly became the go-to policing, raiding and military tool in space. As a natural result, AEVAS transports – ships designed to carry the armoured suits and launch them into conflicts – became prevalent among the space lanes.

Two insights arose from the AEVAS conflicts. First, if ship manufacturers build hallways no taller than 9 feet, then AEVAS movement is restricted or even prevented on-board ship. The decision went against a rule-of-thumb permitting AEVAS access, but went on to save trillions in the global economy. Second, AEVAS conflicts proved incredibly wasteful; vessels were often literally torn to shreds, excessive lives were lost and the space lanes were becoming littered with debris.

What works on Earth doesn’t always work in space.

Thus, as quickly as the AEVAS rose to prominence, they faded into obscurity. The last remnants of their existence are the few remaining transports – easily converted to cargo and passenger ships – and their mimics. Naturally, having an authentic transport, compared to a modern knock-off is a matter of taste. Especially where your taste is in military-grade armour and functionality.

[Renekin Skywalker]

Docking Lounges: The Crumple Zones of Freedom's Spaceport

What are labelled lounges are really just rooms (about 20 feet by 20 feet) with some windows and mildly comfortable chairs (or folding tables if you book advance) that bridge between the exterior airlock and the station itself. Freedom implemented them as a risk mitigation against airlock failures and pilot error. The lounges are, in effect, meant to fail when put under extreme stress. When a docking lounge faces significant stress related to the ship it is attached to, then then it is sealed off from the rest of the station, until repairs can be made. Naturally, it saves all sorts of problems.

This PSA brought to you by the Freedom Historical Society.


The more you know...