I recently ran a one-shot which for various reasons did not continue (reasons worth a future blog post I suppose), but the actual game was a lot of weird fun. Here's the write-up used as the premise for the game...it's not a precise recreation of what went down, but was the foundation for it:
Setting Concept: The Domain
Universe Campaign
Premise
Earth has become a “game reserve” managed by aliens called
the Recorders, who have maintained a special archaeo-construct created in the
ruins of old earth, where they have been methodically attempting to reconstruct
portions of the old world for their archaeological record. The Recorders are
machine intelligences, who have taken to attempting to recover the memory of
lost species, particularly biological species, which they have found evidence
of throughout the galaxy. Their reasons for this are seemingly benign if
unexplained, but it is suspected that they are attempting to decipher their own
origins, seeking their creators. The Recorders call this experiment on earth
the Incunabulum, after the old Latin meaning of “the cradle.”
The recorders appear to be “alive” in that they have
biological functions of a sort, but they are in fact immortal synthetics made
of complicated but ultimately simulated tissues. They use complex nanomachines
to reconstruct lost sites, along with a process of “Temporal Reconstruction”
using extradimensional physics to recapture portions of the past in elaborate,
nearly complete simulations. The simulations will eventually deteriorate and
fail, but until they do, they can learn a great deal by looking at an accurate
snapshot of the past.
The Incunabulum on Earth is such an attempt, a
reconstruction of Los Angeles in 2231, right when the Warp Drive was first
created and tested. There is a theory among their kind that the manifestation
of their species started with the manufacture of artificially intelligence
space probes long ago, from a developing life form. They know Earth was
successful, for a time, in advancing in to interstellar space as they have
encountered hundreds of colonies which became isolated during a time now called
the Cataclysm, when an unknown species or entities appear to have attacked and
badly disrupted the sprawling commonwealth of humanity, rendering most of
Earth’s colonies either extinct or regressed to the stone age. Worse yet, this
appears to have been done to dozens of sprawling ancient interstellar
civilizations, across nearly seventy million years of time. There is a
suspicion that something eludes their detection in the galaxy and beyond, which
deliberately seeks out and destroys Type II civilizations. The recorders feel
it is only a matter of time before they are targeted, and seek to learn more of
their own origins as well as clues to how to prevent this extinction from
happening.
The Recorders are not the only current active species in the
galaxy. There are dozens of other species, most pre-interstellar, which have
been encountered. When a healthy species is discovered the Recorders intervene
to assist the new species in understanding the risk of their interstellar
development, and provide resources to work with the Recorders to advance into
space at a slow and guarded pace. Some such species include:
Kellik – insectoid coleopteroids who are driven by
intellectual curiosity and engineering skills
San – a race of polymorphic semi-liquid entities with
low-gee adaptation
Dessur – a species of tall semi-humanoid warriors with seven
eyes and heavy chitinous natural armor, who renounced war after nearly wiping
themselves out in a system-level nuclear conflict
Pelladri – pale skinned humanoids who look similar to humans
but are seven feet tall on average with mottled white and black skin, believed
to have been a case of parallel convergent evolution, but their DNA is not even
remotely similar to humans.
Orions – the strongest recovered human colonials, the Orions
were approached by the Recorders and invite into the Interstellar Union. The
Orion Confederation is aware that the Recorders seem to be unusually obsessed
with the ruins of their civilizations of old, and the Orions independently are
seeking their own answers as to how the Old Empire of Humanity fell.
Setup:
1. Character Generation is Tier 1 beginner, and any
background listed for Modern, Historical or Hard SF setting options is
permitted (Expanded Worlds and Core genre sections).
2. You can take equipment picks from any of those genres,
too.
3. The setting default: Los Angeles, 2231, an era of
expansion in to the solar system, hub of the Tether, a massive Space Elevator
used for easy transportation of material resources to and from space, and
colonial expansion has traveled throughout the solar system. You may or may not
have left earth before, but all of you are currently in L.A. in the Tether
District, a high tech area dedicated to the space program run by the United
Coalition of Earth, the ruling "superbody" representing Earth
interests among the larger space conglomerates.
4. Though not well known, it is believed that the
Coalition in conjunction with three Orbital interests have developed a working
warp drive that would allow FTL travel. You might all be privvy to or involved
in this research in some way, through the Bering Institute, an independent
Research Group which is funded by multiple nations and corporate interests for
a common good.
5. Aside from all of this, each of you knows and works
with a cool sentient bioform AI, an artificial intelligence occupying a
synthetic body grown in a vat who calls himself Recorder. Recorder is
ostensibly here to observe your work on the monumental new Warp Drive project
or associated jobs.
Initial Scenario
The PCs are working in the simulation known as the
Incunabula when an odd person with a thick and unplaceable accent named Alana
Cord approaches one or more of them with questions about who they are and what
they do. It seems like an espionage issue, but when Recorder seems to take an
unusual interest in her she departs quickly. Before she goes, she slips an
information drive to one of the players and tells them “The key is in the data.
And the key will set you free.”
Unknown to the players, Alana Cord is an agent of the Orion
Survey Group, the OSG being the organization which is attempting to reconstruct
the pieces of the old Human Empire, and to map it out as they do. Many
questions are unanswered and the OSG seeks to find those answers, including:
--How much time has passed since the Collapse? On Orion it
is believed that the collapse happened twenty seven thousand years ago, and it
took this long for humanity to recover fully.
--What or who caused the collapse? Did the Recorders have
anything to do with it?
--Why does the collapse target interstellar civilizations?
--How many other human colonies have recovered, or remain waiting
to be found? Why have the Recorders been so reticent to discuss what they have
found?
The Thumb Drive
Alana Cord, if no intervention is forthcoming, will seem to
disappear, but if they PCs investigate the thumb drive they find a wealth of
strange information:
--She explains to them that they are living in a complex
simulation operated by a combination of temporal mechanisms and nanotechnology
--She explains that the Recorders are not utility and
assistance droids but are the actual machine controllers masterminding this
recreation
--She explains that the PCs are genuine recreations, ghosts
pulled from the “shadows of time” captured by the temporal mechanisms, bodies
sustained by nanotechnology, but that they cannot exist for long outside of the
simulation, and the Recorders could decide to turn the simulation off at any
time.
--To survive outside the simulation, she tells them her
vessel is located beyond the westernmost approach along the security wall in
sector C118, and provides the access code. She says there are medical pods
which will offer permanency to the forms of the “simulants” that the PCs are,
but they have to get through the wall, first. She says her ally, Syphon, can
help….”seek the water.” Syphon is a San, one of many who have also questioned
what the Recorders tell them.
Survival
The simulation that runs is a combination of extracted
temporal data and nanotech rendering physical the ghosts of the past. The
process “recreates” a precise simulation of an ancient time period, but the
Recorders cannot actively manipulate the data without risking a deterioration
and failing of the simulation. However, with the intervention of the OSG
agents, a certain amount of deterioration is beginning, which in turn tips off
the Recorders that their experiment may need a reboot.
Temporal arcs are a form of dimensional warping caused by
manipulation of the fundamental vacuum energy known as Dark Energy in some
circles. This allows for the utilization of otherwise quantum or collapsed
dimensions to impact and even warp time as well as space in strange ways. The
stabilization mechanisms in the Incunabulum keep Ancient Los Angeles stable,
but leaving the field causes a deterioration, as does any major deviance from
what came before; the past is only as
stable as its behavior in the present, and so no simulation can run for more
than a few decades before experiencing total collapse due to the build-up of
quantum variance over time.
In this case, the destabilization causes horrific moments
when the temporal field falters, causing terrifying field distortions that rip
apart the previously stable environment and people in gruesome ways before the
“ghosting” that created the simulations evaporates, leaving behind simulated
“meat” from the nanomaterial underlying the physicality of the recreation.
Worse yet, once the Recorders realize the recreation is
destabilizing, they will (humanely, from their perspective) shut the simulation
down, leading to an escalating “brown out” of the environment followed by
monstrous recycling machines entering the now dead site to begin collecting and
reconstituting the nanomaterial for re-use.
Encounters
1.
Group is doing its work for the Bering Institute
when Alana Colt approaches them, asks to meet in private
2.
Group either meets or grows suspicious…encounter
plays out
3.
Alan flees but gets drive to PCs before doing
so.
4.
PCs decrypt drive and find bizarre information
on it. May investigate C118 and meet Essuary.
5.
Further investigation means they are “off
script” from temporal ghosting and strange things start to happen.
6.
Destabilization event….people and things are
coming apart; future history flashes forward; the grim end of the human race
places out in accelerated time
7.
Each PC finds themselves touched, warped, in
ways unexpected, as their nanomaterial and temporal fix begins to waver
8.
The recyclers arrive and begin trying to recycle
all!
9.
Group arrives at the C118 wall and the fountain
where the San named Essuary aids them in a quick escape to the scout ship
10.
The group arrives, and the medical bays stabilize
their forms, then “write” their temporal shadows on to their physical bodies,
making them permanent. They are now all living beings made of biosynthetic
material.
11.
Outside, they see the real world for the first
time: a blasted land of the dead, with primitive scavengers, mutant monsters
and a sprawl of ancient relics from an age undreamed of that collapsed
thousands of years after the era they come from.
12.
Essuary asks them to help free Alana Colt, who
has been taken to a Recorder prison in the Yellow Fields, where they maintain
their observation base, the infamous Glass Tower.
13.
Afterwards, he promises, questions as they learn
about the Orion Survey Group and the mission of mankind’s first restored
colony, as well as the mysteries of the fallen empire.
Alien Species in the
Domain Universe
The Recorders (level
3 average; Level 5 Enforcer; Level 7 Abstractor)
Health 9
(recorder); 25 (enforcer); 70 (abstractor)
Damage by level;
melee generated weapons, ranged lasers or projectiles grown from body
Special: can
repair damage done to their forms over time, at the rate of 1 health/hour. Must
be destroyed or take damage equal to negative health or will be restored.
Synthetic lifeforms, the Recorders appear to be an evolving
form of synthetic life created from an unknown source, operating a vast network
they call The Domain. Their bioforms are clearly engineered, and it is not
impossible they originate from a transgenic society which migrated from
bioflesh to augmented “sleeves” long ago. Their mental capacity is immense but
they seem to be “locked” AI, which is to say they have been engineered to serve
as general purpose AI and not develop in to ASI attributes, though many feel
that the undisclosed “homeworld” of the Recorders may be dominated by such an
advanced artificial intelligence.
The humanoid body pattern appears to be a default and has
led many to suspect they are patterned after humans, including possibly the
Recorders, who seek out evidence of their origins on human colonized lost
worlds.
Kellik (Level 2;
warriors are level 4)
Special: 1 point
of natural armor, primary claws deal level in damage
The insectoid coleopteroids who are driven by intellectual
curiosity and engineering skills are an early ally of the Recorders, and
regarded as untrustworthy by many. Their tendency toward hive minded groupthink
makes them hard to predict, oddly. They have been allied with the Recorders for
a thousand years, and maintain a very low “warp” footprint to lower detection
risk. The kellk are convinced a species of “civilization killers” exist out
there.
San (Level 1-7
depending on size)
Special: This is
a race of polymorphic semi-liquid entities with low-gee adaptation that makes
them easily menaeuver in space. A San gets 1 asset in their favor when engaged
in zero gee stunts and movement.
The San are closely allied with the Orions and have long
suspected the Recorders as being inimical to their own existence. They are
blob-like polymorphs, capable of taking their boneless- single-muscled body
that is not unlike a free-flowing mass of fluid and shaping into almost
anything they want. Their adaptation is due to their incredibly low gee moon
homeworld around the gas giant in Eti Orionis.
Dessur (level 4
normal, level 6 warriors)
Special: 2 points
of armor, exceptional eyesight (asset)
The Dessur are a species of tall semi-humanoid, reptile-like
warriors with seven eyes and heavy chitinous natural armor, who renounced war
after nearly wiping themselves out in a system-level nuclear conflict. The
Recorders are regarded by many dessur as saviors to their kind, bringing wisdom
and illumination in the wake of their own near destruction. Unlike other races,
they regard the Recorders as kindly and helpful rather than suspicious and
controlling, and feel that the evidence of a catastrophe across the galaxy is
proof that war leads to self-destruction. Their species as a whole has forcibly
adapted to a pacifistic way of life, which has been enhanced by genetic
modification to reduce their biological predilection for conflict.
Pelladri (level 2-4)
The Pelladri are pale skinned humanoids who look similar to
humans but are seven feet tall on average with mottled white and black skin,
believed to have been a case of parallel convergent evolution, but their DNA is
not even remotely similar to humans. Unlike humans Pelladri seem to have
developed two brains with distinct separate cognition, and appear to maintain
as a natural state separate personalities and “minds” within their collective
heads. The notion is difficult for unaugemtned humans to follow, but seems
exceedingly natural to the Pelladri, who find the notion of “one voice”
anathema.
Like humans the Pelladri are often suspicious of the
Recorders, but many of their kind have willingly gone into service to the
synethics, with the notion that their machine intelligence is ultimately
superior to biological intelligence. This obsession with machine perfection is
unusually typical of pelladri belief.
