Post Apocalyptic Sol Frontiers

jedion357's picture
jedion357
August 25, 2014 - 8:12am
Just had an idea that would/could make this setting idea slighty more managable. The solar system has been widely colonized by man. MARS and Luna had significant colonies. And there were out posts on the moons of Saturn and Jupiter as well as a major space station in Earth orbit. Natually earth still exported a lot of material to the off world colonies however a cataclysm occurs to earth, whether an extinction level meteor strike or nuclear war Earth goes into a totally melt down cutting off the rest of humanity in the system. The struggle to survive puts the Sol system into a Solar Dark Age for a few centuries. But eventually colonies on Mars and Luna recovery enough to return to space. The PCs operate in this time in a setting of lost and derelict outposts, stations, and ships. The solar system is wild, dark and dangerous. With caches of lost tech and mysteries to explore. Earth of course is a dangerous place but could also hold vast treasures. Any AIs date from before the cataclysm and would be very quirky/ dangerous to deal with.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!
Comments:

jedion357's picture
jedion357
August 25, 2014 - 10:41am
There could be rising antagonism between Luna and Mars over resources with Earth being the prize. Mars has managed to bootstrap back into space more than the moon. The moon colony has been using Space 1999 style eagle landers which means that while they are closer to earth they are unable at present to capitolize on the close proximity. Mars does have planetary landers but expeditions to earth are harder due to distances involved. Station at a lagrange point is run by an AI with some human inhabitants but its not neccessarily safe to visit (Shades of Paranoia rpg). Fuel is always a major concern in setting.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Tchklinxa's picture
Tchklinxa
July 31, 2015 - 11:07am
Well it sounds good... In the TSR stuff there are things you can pilfer, Mars could be human + 1 non-human race (the TSR one was reptilian). There could be some no go areas on Mars & Luna, stations/bases that are too messed up or dangerous.

The movie Moon has a man being cloned over and over, Apollo 18 had those deadly moon rock creatures in one area, 2001 space odyssey.

There should be plenty of left over but heavily damaged stations, might be even a few space stations still functioning or one of the colonies wants to get up and running say for agricultural use and so on. It seems to me Luna might be perfect for some Bio-Domes for ag if the right resources had been brought to it and at least maintained in some sections. Floating Ark ships of plants & animals could be out there with robots/androids caring for the life on them.

Any Space Station with the name Gamma seems to always be doomed in old movies or crew up to no good... and it seems to me the plague station in GW, was Gamma something too... I do have stats for that plague done.

Luna could have humans and a mutant race on it? 

There would be abandoned or salvaged luxury places as well... we all know there would have be a Las Vegas of Space or Disney/Amusement Park someplace in the system, could be on a planet, moon, or massive space station? Club Med of Jupiter?

There could be old mining operations and refineries in space.

So if we assume pockets of human, mutant, alien, and artificial life (androids, AI & automated robotics) spread across the whole system there might be a very dangerous, slow but necessary trade & exploration activities going on by several groups... fuel, food, batteries, need parts and raw materials would be traded for, money would be pointless unless trade was constant... so figure the system ship merchants/explorers /pirates are a big deal when they show up at any port. They can bring much needed supplies to trade with these on the edge communities or trouble as raiders, invaders, disease and so on just like the old days of sailing ships. If you use currency it might be between say Luna & Mars or specific to just inside the colony... so you would need probably a barter trade list in say X fully charged battery type = X Mars Credits, so once you set how much say a space suit costs you can sell it for X credits or X batteries.

I think the best way to grasp the colonies of survivors is to look at the difficulty places like Greenland, Jamestown & Iceland had when ships didn't come or did but where not friendly.

I would imagine lots of abandoned (mostly) places, ruins... dangerous, spooky but with great potential rewards for the brave few who go to these places to scavenge, explore and bring back their finds to "civilization" for trade & profit. 

Earth Mega Cultures... figure there where independent colonies in space and not independent colonies, probably some "international" neutral places as well. You could pilfer GWs old timeline for nation ideas or make new ones that seem logical to you.

I always found the idea of Brazil becoming a superpower amusing & somehow getting a leg up on the other nations on space travel. 

What if some country we as Americans ignore out raced everyone and they had the resources, then you could use their language and culture as the dominate one on space stations, ship building plants, space culture and so on?

There is also all that great Pulp fiction stuff of "Space Nazis" fanatical super Germans in Space.









 "Never fire a laser at a mirror."

jedion357's picture
jedion357
July 31, 2015 - 9:19pm
Originally, I was toying with just a humans only setting. Sol Frontiers has only humans as the logical sapient species. However the title is Sol Frontiers so what if the timeline wrote in the core four visiting the Sol system OR adventures introduced the other members of the core four to the setting - the default setting would be humans only but 2 adventures or campaigns (3 modules equivalent) introduced first vrusk & deals then yazirian. There are currently 20 launch facilities scattered around the earth and I think one of these facilities (non US or Russia) would survive as part of a re-imagined renamed nation. Currency would be Lunar credits, Martian credits and the super rare kugarands (nod to present day gold currency of South Africa and some of the super cool African sci Fi that has come out)
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

jedion357's picture
jedion357
August 6, 2015 - 9:58am
OK: general timeline (no dates) covering colonization of the Sol system leading up to major comet strike on earth. Then dates AC covering 3 centuries leading up to the present setting with Sol system being a place for adventure and mars and Luna are major powers and lost outposts in outer system. Locate some NASA maps of Mars and Moon and photo shop on cities and locations. Skip earth till later as the topography should be changed after the comet strike. 
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

TerlObar's picture
TerlObar
August 6, 2015 - 7:50pm
The only thing to keep in mind is that the outposts have to be self sufficient.  At least as a group.  If they are dependent on anything from Earth they won't survive past when their stockpiles of that item are depleted.  Or this is a race to develop a new source.  And if they lose space travel, then they have to each be independently self-sufficent with local soruces for all their resrouces.  A true dark ages in space = death.
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jedion357's picture
jedion357
August 7, 2015 - 7:12am
Your correct. I guess both the moon and mars need to be sulf sufficient. outpost in the outer system would be tombs after 300 years.

However, one ag station has managed to survive and scavenge for some time and when they encountered individuals with little to no scrupels who had a ship they became a pirate outpost out around either saturn or jupiter.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!