Idea: The Wave of Humanity

[Wes]

Fleeing from the NMX and coming from parts unknown, a large wave of humans enters the Kikyo Sector in YE 33, setting up low-end colonies on vast amounts of worlds on mostly the southern part of the map. These worlds would be known to be populated, but their occupants usually won’t be described until a plot ship visits the system…allowing for maximum GM freedom. The purpose is to create a “frontier” of tiny independent nations where the main Empires have little influence and the independent plots can thrive, and to make normal humans common again.

 

[Nashoba]

Okay, so in YE 33 hundreds of "Fleeing from the NMX tyranny, warships lead a ragtag, fugitive fleet, on a lonely quest—for a shining planet known Bob" (yes paraphrased Galactica OS and Titan AE) come in and start grabbing up worlds.

Aren't the Nepleslians suppose to be our bastion of humanity?

So these star systems are basically going to be populated by diverse, people with only whatever tech they managed to bring with them, living in tents and huts while they struggle to tame their worlds...

No problem. Until I see a player wanting to submit a character that is supposedly from those worlds who wants to be in the SAOY or DION.

 

[Firebrand]

I like it, though this should be a discussion mostly among the GMs.

And Nash, it isn't much of a stretch for the SAOY or DION to allow people to enlist who aren't technically nationals. In the modern US, immigrants who join the military are actually naturalized faster.

 

[Nashoba]

You missed the point completely Five.

They do not know about the SAOY and DION. They are out on the frontier, so until a world has contact with a faction there is no 'realistic' excuse for them to suddenly arrive on Yamatai saying "Hey you guys are cool, I want to fight for you."

 

[Wes]

So basically, we need:

- A list of common tech used by these dudes
- Clear rules either allowing these refugees to join the big faction armies OR rules specifying it's not an option in character creation (I'd rather have the former).

As for the Nepleslian thing, these would essentially just be a lot of Nepleslians, but without a national affiliation. They'd speak trade (English) or other Earth type languages and they'd be able to communicate fine once they arrive in the system...allowing them to find the big nations and for some to even enlist.

 

[Nashoba]

Since the proposal was for these to be out there for the Indpendent plots, I say keep the inhabitants limited to those.

At least until ICLY a system is contacted and some sort of formal relations with a major faction takes place.

After all, it isn't not realistic that a colony of say 50,000 people who just had their world destroyed are going to pick a planet and then want their people flying off. They are going to want them to stay, to build, gather resources, preserve their culture, make babies, etc...

 

[Fred]

I'm not very thrilled about this. Implying a great mass of frontier colonies implies the lack of actual alien civilizations we could later introduce.

I don't want this. Not in the way its implied to be very widespread.

 

[Zack]

Ira and I talked about this a while back. There would be the issue of 'where these guys come from' because it is certainly something that they would know even if it is not something they would want to tell other factions. They might also require GMs or at least someone to do the upkeep unless the societies were very low tech and don't have the star ships to interact with the rest of the setting.


If this were to be done I'd rather just have the colonists be independents who decided to leave Yamatai or Nepleslia to set up their own governments on fringe worlds. This sidesteps the need for a new CCG for 'other humans' and works around the problem of what these people may know of old earth.

Alternatively colony ships could start arriving from some interstellar empire, one that is way to massive to be shown on the current starmap. This way we could start hinting at the next big bag and perhaps give a new reason for the NMX war (the NMX being pushed out of their old worlds by said new empire).

 

[Ira]

Indeed.

In order for this work we would do better by actually not involving the NMX. But even so,as Uso said. We would probably have to get a better history written up on these guys and where they came from.

I have no problem with regular humans rolling in. But if it does happen I suggest taking the hard road, and actually making them well fleshed out, work applied to them idea, as opposed to "Give them some common tech, and the NMX drove them here."

 

[SentientRace]

I like this idea. But why make them humans?

Like Nash said, Nepleslia is already the bastion of humanity. Aren't Nepleslian regulars supposed to be entirely human? Sure, a lot of them get cyborg implants and many of them are clones, and surely the majority has a lot of genes from genetically enhanced soldiers of the past, but for all intents and purposes they are humans as human can be in this day and age.

We also have too many humanoids in the setting. Yamataians, Geshrins, Nekovalkyrja, Elysians, Nepleslians, ID-SOLs, Freespacers, Jiyuuians (if those still count), Iromakuanhe, Abwehrans, Loraths and up to a certain extent the Azoreans and the Kohanians are all humanoids. They are all also the only Role Played races, just about (except for the Misshuvurthyar, but those are Role Played exclusively to have enemies in the setting).

I think we should start promoting other races that aren't humanoids. The lack of variety is making the setting get stale, in my opinion. There should be other alien races that get role played that have no human predecessors (as most of these pseudohumans do) and are not humanoid at all.

I vote there be another race that fits this role. It could be any race. Personally, I would like to use my Checztians for the task; though they might require some tweaking to fit the task at hand (particularly when it comes to their history). If not, then at least any other non-humanoid race.

The setting is looking too much like Star Trek, really...

 

[ShotJon]

Well I think this is pretty good idea. It also makes sense. There would be a lot of refugees from Nep-land, Yamatai and probably even from UOC. Maybe some of them thought "Hey guys let's fly somewhere where nobody is. We won't be bothered there." This thought spread between refugees who found it like a good idea and flew there.

So at the beginning you would have small colonies each colony would at start of course had a tech from the world they ran from. So Nepleslians would have Nepleslian tech. And of course once these colonies would develop they would probably start making its own tech, its own culture and all.

What I think is that these people wanted to break off from their respective empires and want to be left alone. If they would want remain Nepleslian, they would stay in Nepleslia controlled area. So I am not sure if discussion about them joining SAOY or DION is really needed. They probably could, but I think they don't want to he anything to do with these big empires. I think they would just want to be left alone to build their colonies and live peacefully.

As far as their current tech. I think right now they would only have what they brought with them. So several big starship (probably cargo ships modified to have a lot of people on board) and male maybe some small ships that flew with them. (Maybe a deserting military starship or two? ) But that of course depends on colony. Some maybe small and some big. Some maybe purely Nepleslian of Origin while other may be mixed. I think it will depend on GM and his fantasy.

So like I said, I think this is really nice idea. I also think we have enough different races on SARP so modifying those and playing around with those that we have is much better. I am not sure we need more player races that no one will play with...

And about what Fred said. Well Fred how exactly the Kikyo sector looks and what is there will still be unknown. I think it is possible that if someone wants he can just borrow a world or two that have not been discovered yet. Also for that newborn race if it would get players there would be a lot to do, since their neighbors would be colonies. Also these colonies would mean pirates and that all.

 

[Gabriel]

My only comment. Didn't Wes go through Project Exfoliation for the simple purpose of removing little-used cultures, civilizations, and races. I think having these colonies would just bring back these same problems, that you would have severely broad and undetailed descriptions of these planets, that would rarely be used, except for the thrill of their discovery, and they would slowly be pushed to the back of the wiki until we remove them.

This is just my thought, but I feel like they simply wouldn't be used, and would repeat past problems.

 

[Ira]

As I said, I support this idea. But that support is conditional(Not that my support will really influence anything that comes from this idea)

1. The idea be original, and interesting, anything else will cheapen this great forum.

2. A level of actual work is put into them.

 

[Doshii Jun]

Wes, can you explain the idea a little more? Why you pitched it, where it came from, what you want to achieve with it, so on?

 

[Cora]

I'm a little more concerned that he's outright ignoring the people who are voicing opposition to this idea and blazing ahead with it anyway, regardless of input.

Isn't this similar to the thing that caused that massive snarl that made Strangelove estranged from this place, not to want to dig up old ghosts.

 

[DocTomoe]

The setting is looking too much like Star Trek, really...

This is my concern as well. What ended up making Star Trek look absurd at times was the frequency in which 'humans' were run into in places where they were not expected. "Oh! This is a colony of humans from 21XX!" or some rot like that made for some very questionable quality. Personally, I find the notion of random humans to be questionable, because that would lead to the dreadful question of; "Where did they come from?"

I really recommend just saying that the 'humans' that are around are simply Nepleslians which did not stay put during the settling of Geshrinthral and Nepleslia. If they have to be 'mystery humans', at least try to come up with a cohesive story for them.

PS: Dibs on being an Admiral William Adama.

 

[Frost]

Why not have an alien species or two (and by alien I mean, you know, something that hasn't been born out of humankind) instead of a wave of Humanity.
That way some good exploration RP, new Tech RP, and Politik RP can happen, instead of one stop worlds which will only undoubtedly used for War RP for very specific factions

 

[Exhack]

I'm not really interested in this idea, but I don't really have an emotional investment in it since the systems being considered aren't anywhere near Iroma space.

I will say, however, that I've personally gotten a lot more RP mileage out of ancient space ruins and exotic space megafauna, with much less time spent detailing a culture that'll probably be absorbed into a given faction later on anyway.

 

[Cy83r K0rp53]

I have three points to make, and the last one isn't quite so polite but I think it needs to be put out in the open.

1) We have small colonial factions of alien species/races already approved and one or two more in the works. Why are we pushing for more humans when I've been told earlier that we want some starfish aliens to add color?

2) If they're just refugees they would mostly likely seek asylum under a powerful nation rather than set up another small and ill-defended camp. What makes these new humans special enough to not be gobbled up by the SAoY and SMoDIoN?

3) Wes, I don't think many of us like the idea of you running around with yet another interstellar power that fits your fancy; the NMX and Yamatai are drawing enough ire as is for their own reasons. Why not give the multitude of player-initiated factions a chance to bloom instead?

 

[SentientRace]

So like I said, I think this is really nice idea. I also think we have enough different races on SARP so modifying those and playing around with those that we have is much better. I am not sure we need more player races that no one will play with...

Oop!

I see a jab thrown my way!

Personally, I would like to use my Checztians for the task; though they might require some tweaking to fit the task at hand (particularly when it comes to their history). If not, then at least any other non-humanoid race.

The setting is looking too much like Star Trek, really...

Note the bold-italics text. I was referring to any non-humanoid race, existing (in SARP) or not. There's a couple of existing SARP alien species that have gone mostly untouched because of lack of popularization. The Kodians, the Sourcians, the Qaktoro (sure, they're supposed to be an NPC race, but I see no reason for them not to be PCs).

I also don't see why we can't add some more races into the setting. If only one or two. CadetNewb's Ottyo seem extremely promising, as do Cy83r's Llranni. I only put my race on the desk because I didn't see anyone else doing it, but by all means if you're not going to use mine, use someone else's.

Point being, if there's no reason to keep adding other player races, there's even less reason to keep adding more humans (which might as well be another player race, since they're not part of any faction anyway). There's too many of them by now, and it's starting to get stale. If you're going to make a 'wave' of something, please, please, please, pleeeaaassseee don't use humans?

Think about the children. :c