Birdy
Nov 3 2003, 04:11 PM
I am a die-hard fan of Jerry Pournelles "CoDominion" Universe. For those who don't know it:
a) Space travel
Mankind developed a faster-than light engine (Alderson drive) that travels along "fault lines" between certain jump points. FTL travel is relatively cheap.
Mankind did not! develop a cheap method of slower-than-light engine, still relying on rocket systems. And the Alderson points are far from the inner solar system.
Result: Space transport is costly
b) Inhabitable planets
There are few planets and searching for one is big business, done both by nations and the big business. Even barely habitable planets (hot swamps, arid deserts, thin air) are inhabitat. Colonies are few (less than 30)
c) Nations
The original universe assumes that the two superpowers decided to split the world and make sure no one could rise enough to challenge them. To that end they restrict scientific work and heavily control their citizens.
The US is basically ruled by the big coorporations through their bought proxies in the government. The population is divided into "taxpayers" and "citizens". The first are:
Living middle class and above
Are allowed to vote
Can get a resonable public or even private education
Eat mostly natural food
Is forbidden the cheap drugs
Often emigrates to the good (rich, nice environment) colonies
The second group:
Is housed in urban ghettos
Is fed industrialy produced food
Is given free drugs/booze to keep them calm
Is subject to involuntary resettlement, even off-earth, by BuReloc
Ends up in the lousy colonies when send out, often as contract workers
Cyber-Warfare (Cyber-Ninjas) exist as do:
Clandestine operations
Large mercenary units
Organised crime
Dark, deep shadows
Naturally, this is a world without Tolkien monsters. But that's just a minor problem. And given that you fly to the battle in a starship and march to the front on your boots (HighTech&Vehicles are scarce away from earth) even Troll-soldiers have a point.
The question is, can the dark future on earth with the constant threat of BuReloc sweeps and the devil of cheap drugs be used as an alternate background for Shadowrun? The background itself is playable (run a Merc:CoDo campaign once).
Michael
Cray74
Nov 3 2003, 05:56 PM
The setting is absolutely playable with SR. The question is, do you want the magic angle or not?
If not, no problem. You just remove a few priorities. I've used SR's mechanic for non-magical, non-SR settings.
You have to toss SR's history in any case, but the CoDominion has a readymade alternate history.
Birdy
Nov 3 2003, 06:47 PM
| QUOTE (Cray74) |
The setting is absolutely playable with SR. The question is, do you want the magic angle or not?
If not, no problem. You just remove a few priorities. I've used SR's mechanic for non-magical, non-SR settings.
You have to toss SR's history in any case, but the CoDominion has a readymade alternate history. |
If I use the SR system, I'll use the magic. For "pure" CoDo (no magic) I'd rather prefer the Traveller:The new Era (Twilight V2.2) rules set that are my normal house rules or Cyberpunk.
Michael
Cray74
Nov 3 2003, 07:19 PM
| QUOTE (Birdy) |
| If I use the SR system, I'll use the magic. For "pure" CoDo (no magic) I'd rather prefer the Traveller:The new Era (Twilight V2.2) rules set that are my normal house rules or Cyberpunk. |
Alright. If you're using the magic, how much of SR's history are you planning on using? Just some of the high points? ("Magic appears in 2011," "Trolls and orcs goblinize in 202x,") or as much as possible while still keeping two super powers around?
Or are you completely tossing the CoDominium features (like two super powers) and borrowing SR's balkanized setting?
Birdy
Nov 3 2003, 08:10 PM
| QUOTE (Cray74) |
| QUOTE (Birdy) | | If I use the SR system, I'll use the magic. For "pure" CoDo (no magic) I'd rather prefer the Traveller:The new Era (Twilight V2.2) rules set that are my normal house rules or Cyberpunk. |
Alright. If you're using the magic, how much of SR's history are you planning on using? Just some of the high points? ("Magic appears in 2011," "Trolls and orcs goblinize in 202x,") or as much as possible while still keeping two super powers around?
Or are you completely tossing the CoDominium features (like two super powers) and borrowing SR's balkanized setting?
|
Not sure yet. The whole idea came while preparing for a 2300AD game next weekend.
Option 1:
Just add the drive somewhere around 2030 (Mega X decoding some Area51/Hangar18/Stargate stuff) and keep the more balkanised setting.
This makes the last deviation to the common history but makes things like BuReloc harder to fit in.
Option 2: (Fitting in with my SR baseline)
The world is closer to Cyberpunk 2020 with no exteritorial corps (They make no sense i.e. in the german setting) but rather powerful corps bribing and blackmailing the politicos (just like today) and gaining power by threats and money ("I'am the majors personal friend officer. Do you like your job?")
Again keeping much of the rest (working fine without that AAA = nation stuff). Makes it easier to stuff in the "strong armed state". In this case I would also get a Sowjet superpower once more (After the Euro Wars)
This is the most likely option for me. The EEC won't have died but rather became a controlled state, US is close to anarchie with multiple states in rebellion etc. UdSSR is big into Stalin style purges et all.
Michael
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