Join the Party -- The Utility of Jammers (Content)

A Wanzer, from Front Mission -- an inspiration for the Jammers. 

One thing I have discovered about my writing is that I do my best stuff when I am working with someone.  I find new energy when I can bounce ideas off of people, and my prose is more direct when someone else can call out my crazy ideas and pull them back.  Part of the reason I am doing this blog, and airing my ideas for all to see, is that I am hopeful a handful of you out there will see merit in The Difference Equation and decide to help out.

Luckily, I have had a number of people step up so far and help.  I pitched my core setting concept to a bunch of friends, and they gave me initial feedback.  Since then, I have asked a couple published rpg writer friends to look over the core catalog and timeline to see what they had to say.  The setting has evolved considerably since those first few collaborations, to the point where I think many of the original group would be surprised to see how far things have progressed.  Its a better, more exciting setting specifically because of those first key pieces of feedback.

...and now there is Brandon.  Brandon is a buddy I met on the Dream Pod 9 forums.  I am convinced he is responsible for at least half the hits that come in to this blog -- and he single-handed carries on a conversation over on G+ that pushes me farther and farther into the setting and forcing me to make smart and critical decisions about the direction I am taking the game.

Brandon has been so helpful, he went so far as to start tentatively writing some content.  His stuff is really good.  Real good.  I am happy to have him and his insights on board.

So, I'd like this, the last content post for the week, to focus on one of Brandon's contributions.

The Best of Bad Options: Jammers in Modern Warfare:  The few major capital ships built by the SCEs and major powers of the Solar System are often leviathans that carry firepower strong enough to cause major damage to colonies and enough reaction mass for sustained combat burns.  Their downside, however, is their enormous mass and detection signature.  In space, it is nearly impossible to hide a ship due to the advancements of sensor technology.  Mass detection devices are used regularly by every colony and ship as a means of observing asteroids, comets, and other debris that might come dangerously close to impacting with stations.  The tremendous velocities of these naturally-occurring projectiles makes them a viable threat to all. The mass detection devices are also used by the powers to montior each other's naval shipyards, allowing nations to be made aware within hours of when a ship is departing from a specific area.

For this reason, any unannounced departure of capital ships from their dockyards is tantamount to an act of war by all powers concerned, and the space command structures often announce at least a day prior of any patrols in order to avoid provoking an international crisis.

With this current state of affairs, Jammers have become a vital necessity for the powers.  Their small mass allows them to be transported aboard most any ship available, and it is not uncommon for them to be given specialized ships designed expressly to be innocuous-looking, even ragged in appearance, while actually housing an entire team of Jammers and the facilities needed to maintain them.

Due to Newton's Third Law of Motion, mass-drivers and railguns using kinetic energy projectiles are limited in distribution among space-based Jammer squadrons, and their ammunition typically includes a self-destruct mechanism contained within their spikes so that if they do miss their target they do not present a threat to innocent travelers in the area surrounding a hot zone. Missiles, while slower on initial launch, are also safer, and include the same self-destruct mechanisms, often made tamper-proof so that industrious pirates do not attempt to retrieve the weapons after they have been armed and launched.  Lasers, meanwhile, have become the long-range weapon of choice, but their enormous power requirements typically mean that a Jammer must be equipped with an auxiliary power system to maintain the weapon for prolonged skirmishes.  To offset this, Jammers will also carry aerosol chaff that can be used to diffract the laser's intensity and lessen its pinpoint killing power.

Space-based Jammer squadrons on deep space missions typically use a highly-reflective armor skin, like silver, which helps to avoid visual detection when further away from the sun's light. Nearer to the gravity wells, this is changed for a brighter color scheme allowing visual recognition from friendly units and also from civilian ships passing in the area. Planet-borne Jammer squadrons will typically use a mimetic skin that can be charged or heated to change and adapt its colors to the surrounding terrain.  Due to the enormous firepower carried by most Jammers, deep space combat is short and vicious, with pilots using stealth and surprise to overwhelm their opponents. Any engagements that last longer usually occur near stations and other large objects that provide cover and concealment and also mask the mass of the Jammers from enemy sensors.

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Awesome, right?  I edited a bit, but not much.  90% of the above is his - and is the result of some very smart and intuitive mental leaps on his part.

If anyone else out there has ideas they want to contribute, please do so -- here, over email, or on G+.  If I can get this setting and game to a point where it gets published, I promise you will get the credit you deserve.  This isn't me just trying to steal other people's ideas -- this is me trying to open up my playground so other people can play on the jungle gym.

...and selfishly, like I said, the more interaction with others I have as I hash out ideas, the better my stuff becomes.  So, for that and many other things, welcome aboard Brandon!

The Consummation Of Empire and Others (Inspiration)

Now, for something different.  Inspiration.

The Difference Equation (TDE) was born of a number of inspirations - from a lot of different media.  I studied political science in college and practice a form of it in my day job.  So, of course politics and the study of politics would play a big role (and you can see it in the types of things I focus on while developing the setting).  Music has also been important - I turned to edgy, experimental stuff that is a bit out of my comfort zone in a couple instances to see what emotions they brought on and where it would drive my writing.

And art.  Obviously paintings/illos and graphics are an important part of the inspiration process.  When I am stuck at work and need some time to myself, I often lean back and explore what the Jammers and ships and planets of the setting look like.  Similarly, I will pop on DeviantArt, find a pic I like, and follow the links to see where it takes me.

And art.  There are a series of painting by Thomas Cole - some of my favorites really.  They depict the rise and fall of the an empire though the lens of an ancient civilization through the lens of American-centric sentiments.  Its wonderfully complicated, with imagery and themes that fold in on themselves.  Its an imaginary city - not unlike Tarshish or the remnants of smoldering Haifa.  It also depicts the roll of time, and a critical aspect to the Difference Equation where the introduction of the PCs to the setting should have immediate and significant consequences that unfold over time.

The setting of TDE is an exploration into a lot of things -- power politics, the ascendancy of economics, dominance, identity, ethnicity, the cost of independence, hope, the march of history, unintended consequences... and more.  These are things, I believe, the Course of Empire series deals with - and when I look at them, they inspire me to new directions with the setting.  If you can, take the time to view each in the Course of Empire series and see if it draws out the same thoughts/ideas/emotions in you.

The series, in order:  The Savage State, The Arcadian State, The Consummation of Empire, Destruction, and Desolation.

The Savage State

The Arcadian State

The Consummation of Empire

Destruction 

Desolation 

Want to know a bit more about the series or Thomas Cole?  The wikipedia article is
here:  The Wiki Entry 

Next up, lets do a bit more on the Jammers.

The Defining Moment of a Future History (Content)

Lets move on to a bit of history for The Difference Equation.  I'm designing this setting from the gorund up - starting with the modern day and advancing it to 2191.  I'm a detail and history guy, so burying into the details is where I like to work. That said, I got some great advice from a writer friend of mine that told me not to get too buried in the minutiae of the project -- too much detail will stymie the players creativity and, at some point, too much detail yields diminishing returns.  So, my struggle is to focus on generating new content for the setting and ignore my burning desire to go into the monthly updates of the future-history.

I've seen a lot of timelines as a roleplayer, and many of them leave a lot to be desired.  History defies easy categorization - so when I see a timeline that arbitrarily has one major event per year - the historian in me reels back in disgust.  Likewise, too many events bunched up and appears like the writer got lazy.  There is a happy middle ground out there, and the middle makes a lot of sense.  Why some rpg designers ignore history class and their instincts to create wonky timelines I will never understand.

Where does that leave me?  It leaves me working on the broad brushstrokes of the setting, and dropping hints here and there of the deeper history (with the intention to get back to it later - if all goes well).  That said, there are a handful of periods where I treat myself and dive in - spending some time to detail the specifics of the hows and whys.

One of the most important events in the future-history of The Difference Equation is the devastating Population Overshoot of the 2090s.  Looking back on how the setting has come together, the Malthusian Crisis is the major event that defined the future of The Difference Equation.  The legacy of that event lasts well into the starting date of the game, and provides a useful macguffin for the colonization of the System.

Without further adieu:

The Population Overshoot of the ‘80s:  In the end, Thomas Malthus was (mostly) right.  The rapid population growth of the 2060s and 2070s brought with it a sudden catastrophe in the 2090s as food stores and crops proved insufficient to maintain the population level.  Anagathics and improved medicine made it so fewer and fewer people did.  Much of the world focused on the financial impacts that the "Methuselah" generation created, and few paid attention to the handful of scientists warning of a pending ecological disaster.  With estimated yearly growth worldwide of nearly 5%, the estimated census recorded the population at just over 20 billion people in 2099 -- about the maximum the planet’s food and water resource could handle.  Unfortunately for humanity, it had to learn the hard way the upper end of the population that Earth could support.  

For the first time in over 1600 years, the world’s human population drastically retracted and decreased in a few chaotic years.  Along with the amazing strain placed on the environment, numerous animal and plant species, once thought relatively safe from environmental pressures, died off in mass extinctions – further endangering the biome.  All told, mass starvations and unchecked diseases claimed over 3 billion lives from 2099 to 2116.  It would be two more decades of concerted effort by numerous organizations to stabilize Earth’s environment.  Many cultures and ethnicities that had survived into the new millennium died out - unable to cope with the rapid planetary changes.  Still to this day the UN maintains a strict vigil over the environmental and agricultural resources of the planet and each nation and independent corporation employs strict financial and legal penalties for exceeding family growth quotas.  While the devastating threat of the turn of the century is no longer, its legacy lives on in a much more conservative mindset.  Interestingly, this Malthusian Crisis led to an increase in the reputation of farmers, nutritionists and pharma experts.

Another unintended effect of the Population Crisis was the rapid acceptance and advancement of off-world colonization.  Colonization is now seen, at worst, as a necessary process to relieve the population stresses on the planet.  In fact, more than any other single effort, the standardization of off-world colonization and the eventual affordability for much of the population was critical in drawing down the Earth population and giving the biome time to heal.

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Next up? I think its time to talk about inspiration. Its about to get heavy.

A Title- At Last!

The Difference Equation

There it is.  Thats the name of the setting-that-had-no-name.

I wanted something that emphasized the nature of the game - grounded in mundane science fiction, but surrounded by a plotline and vibrant world that is anything bu mundane.  A Difference Equation, according to wikipedia is:

"In mathematics, a recurrence relation is an equation that recursively defines a sequence, once one or more initial terms are given: each further term of the sequence is defined as a function of the preceding terms."

The Difference Equation RPG.  

Difference Equations are the root of Fibonacci numbers, and is a process used to calculate populations, digital communications, and economics -- all of which play a central role in the setting.

"Difference Equation" also harkens to a related term "Differential Equation" -- which is the hart of all sorts of maths that would make the setting go.  Physics, propulsion, engineering, biology, economics...

But, most importantly, is the inclusion of the word "Difference."  As I envision it, that is what the PCs are -- the difference between a static world and a dynamic one.  The difference between chaos and order, activity and entropy.  The PC's very existence is what will kickstart the setting into overdrive.  Ready/Steady/Rock!

So, yeah.  Love it.

There it is.

Finally.

The Fires of Faith and Science -- Mercury (Content)

I meant to stay away from the Blog one more day - to give myself some time to recharge.  But I can't.  I had a couple good writing sessions this weekend and I figure I should keep the content flowing.

Battered and Bruised, Mercury Still Has a Few Tricks Left...

So, next up is Mercury.  I really like Mercury and how it will play a pivotal roles in the politics of the Solar System.  The concept behind Mercury was developed partly as a reaction to the disservice too many other SF games give faith and religion.  I don't want to ram anything down anyone's throat, but all too often SF games simply do away with religion as a relic of the past.  Just as disappointing, many SF games decide to replace religion with science -- making it a zero sum game of belief.  I don't see it that way.  Discarding faith as point of an SF setting is boring, lazy and unrealistic   More importantly,keeping elements of faith and religion make for some wonderful plot elements to use for some challenging and fascinating stories.  Anything that helps drive good storytelling stays in this setting.  Done deal.

Just like any other element in the setting, I wont shy away from the bad and the good - and that includes faith.  Its a tricky subject, for sure, but I have never been one to back down from a creative challenge.

The closest planet to the sun has a lot going for it.  Its an amazingly tough place to live, but the rewards are enormous as well.  Heavy metals, antimatter, and harnessing solar energy have all played a role in making Mercury an economically attractive place.  How it became the second home of the Roman Catholic Church was due to an odd series of circumstances.  Now, the Church, which considered its introduction onto Mercury as a bit of a windfall, is discovering that nothing comes without a price.

So, we have Mercury, the new Vatican (of sorts).

The Fires of Faith - Mercury:  Mercury is an isolated polity, dominated by a number of small and isolated mining and research communities that either stay in the planet’s shadow, huddle in the shadow of the polar regions (with its dwindling water reserves), or embedded well into the crust.  Many of the communities are examples of innovation married to cutting edge technology - the result of existing in such an extreme environment.  The largest city, Tarshish, is built on what amounts to huge rails, and travels along the sun-line eliminator at a leisurely 14 km/hr, staying within the very narrow band of hospitable temperature ranges.  

Tarshish has a population of about 100,000, well in excess of the next largest community which is a habitat in orbit in mercury’s umbra.  Tarshish serves as the nexus of Mercurian trade and society and is the only large downport that can handle bulk Trans-A freighters.  The history of Tarshish, and much of modern Mercury, began with a series of small venture mining firms who established a presence in the Mercurian well.  While most stayed conservatively in orbit and the poles or only set down on Mercury for a few hours at night to harvest heavy metals and trace He-3, the Moors Company successfully lobbied and purchased a large band of land circumnavigating the planet’s equator for a relatively inexpensive price.  

Plans were put in place for a traveling city that would serve as Moors’ headquarters for their expanding planetary interests.  However, shortly after the tracks were laid, Moors went bankrupt and the rights to its territory passed legally to the OCRI Administrator who would serve as trustee and arbiter on which bids would assume ownership of Moors’ Mercury holdings.  In a wholly unexpected move, the Administrator transferred the Moors’ land rights to the Roman Catholic Church (RCC).  Despite numerous legal suits against the Administrator personally, and OCRI in general, the transfer stood (largely due to the sweeping powers Administrators were granted by OCRI and the General Assembly).  

While the RCC had put in a bid as a pro forma exercise, it did not expect to win the Moors’ holdings.  Mercury had, through happenstance, a disproportionately large number of active Catholics and Catholic-friendly Orthodox Christians working the mines and research stations (which is theorized part of the reason the Administrator made his decision).  With the rights to the region, the RCC contracted the CSE BR/BP Distributions to continue construction of the Moors facility.  In 2085 the new city, Tarshish, came online and almost immediately became a significant economic windfall for the ailing Church.  

Besides the booming He-3 trade, Mercury enjoys a number of other economic windfalls.  It's the ideal place to build a near-solar power system.  Huge microwave antennas and solar-powered lasers clutter the space in Mercury’s umbra - beaming light to solar sailcraft and microwaves/radiation directly to the inner planets for ever-increasing energy demands.  Mercury’s close orbit is also a major strategic issue for OCRI, as the huge microwave antennas and powerful lasers could do some damage in the wrong hands.

During the fall of 2028 Tarshish-based geologists announced they had found evidence of fossilized life buried deep in the mantle of Mercury.  In 2030, biologists and paleontologists from four different Earth-based research institutions, sponsored by the Vatican, confirmed the recovered rocks did carry what was clearly bacterial and nematode-like extraterrestrial life.  

In 2031, Tarshish is a veritable boom town of scientists, the curious, and watchful priests.  back on Earth, the Vatican closely controls access to Tarshish, the fossil records, and the Moor’s holdings.  Thus far, despite significant efforts, no other fossilized records of life have been found on Mercury.  Tarshish also serves as the central hub and frequent downport for off-planet trade - especially in the increasingly valuable antimatter trade (for which Mercury is the largest supplier).  Successful large-scale testing of antimatter powered capital ship drives has recently driven up anitmatter prices particularly for antihelium.  
 
Notably, despite controlling access to one of the most profound scientific discoveries of all time, the RCC has refused to officially comment on the discovery of extraterrestrial life.

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I think I finally have a name for the setting.  I will sit on it for another day, to mull it over - but I think, finally, we have a winner.  Stay tuned.

My Best Gaming Buddy To Be

I think I am going to take a day off and talk about being a dad and nerddom.  I'll return to the setting-with-no-name after the weekend when I can hit you all up with organizations and inspiration and whatnot.  'Till then...

Being overseas for a large part of my adult life means that I have had to really search for gaming.  The internet has been a huge boon, allowing me to stay in contact with my gaming buddies back home.  Going back the the States once a year of so for our annual mini-Con, Nerdapalooza, has also helped.  But, real gaming is about getting together on a semi-regular basis, spilling soda on character sheets, and trying to explain complicated combat manuvers through a mouth full of pizza.  I dont get those moments a lot lately.  Probably wont as long as I am in my current (busy) job.  C'est la vie.

So it was with great pleasure that I watch TV shows with gaming elements.  As of late, I discovered Adventure Time, which is pretty much a catalog of all the goofy stuff I did when I first discovered roleplaying.  Adventure Time is quite witty and engaging, all sold on the veneer of a simple cartoon.  The thing is, due to my life situation, Adventure Time and similar shows are things I normally watch solo.  My wife isnt in to SF or fantasy - and cartoons are straight out.  I tried to get her on to Samurai Jack once.  That didnt work.  Nor did Avatar:tLA.

So, I (suffered) enjoy(ed) in silence.

Until the last couple weeks.  My daughter, Elliot, stumbled across Adventure Time when I was looking for something to occupy her.  She loved the show.  Tracie hated it (she calls it "that cartoon with that dog and the weird arms").  It makes me very happy as of late because in the mornings, while my wonderful wife sleeps in, E and I sit on the couch together and watch Adventure Time.  She is awesome.

What is best in life, Conan?  Watching cartoons you enjoy with your daughter.


Better yet?  I ventured forth with Samurai Jack.  E loves it as well.  She comes up to me every so often, tugs on my shirt, and flawless asks for "Saumrai Jack."  It makes sense, when you think about it.  Samurai Jack is not only visually appealing and (normally) filled with action - but the attention to sounds and music must make it that much more appealing to a really young viewer.  I have to be a bit more careful with Jack than I am with Adventure Time, just because the baddies in Samurai Jack, and especially Aku, are a lot more scary than anything Finn fights.  I cherry pick which eps of Samurai jack we can watch together.

Next up in E's nerd education?  Candyland!  Can't wait.

Stymied Growth - The Lunar Commonwealth (Content)

Alright, so now that we have some of the technology defined (Jammers, AIH Clones), I think it is time to get back to the political beasts of the setting.  Doing a quick wordcount, I see that I have just about 8,000 words written.  Thats about an eighth of my eventual goal - but its a good start.  Of those 8,000 words and 20+ entries so far, notably absent are the primary "protagonist" and "antagonist" -- Mars and the U.N.  I find that fascinating - its not for lack of thought or definition that they haven't been written up yet, its that other ideas pop in my head and I rush to get them into the catalog.   Further, I am finding that as I fill in other details about the setting, I am also defining the peripheral facts about Mars and the U.N.  There is a lot going on in this setting (potential energy), and a lot of it hooks into the brewing conflict between the U.N. (which is desperate to reassert its authority and quiet the questions about its ability to project power) and recently independent Mars (which sees its best defense against Earth as a strong offense that undermines its off-planet interests).  So, I heed Orson Scott Card's advice and sit on my ideas to allow them to ferment and germinate.

An example of defining the U.N. and Mars through the other entries is Luna.  It was developed, in part, as a quick thought exercise of each stage of Lunar colonization -- exploration, then mining, then as a vector for material movement, then as a colony profitable on its own, then as a tax/financial haven, and finally as a sophisticated society that can stand on its own (though, because of political considerations, doesn't .

Luna is also a good example of the complexity I want out of the setting elements.  I want every entity to have good and bad points to it.  I want conflict.  I want dynamism - I want the writeups and descriptions to paint a picture of societies in motion -- moving, evolving, and changing.  The content entries are supposed to be snapshots - and with Luna we have a colony that has hit its natural limit of subservience.  For it to keep growing it will have to make a hard decision - continue to be stymied by prioritizing Earth interests  or try to cast off the colonial shackles and go it alone.  Comfortable status quo or the lure of even bigger profits of change.  Invest in steady blue chips or a promising start up?  And as much as the SCEs control Luna, they will need the support of the people on whatever path is chosen.  Of course, freedom for Luna isnt necessarily a guaranteed paradise - in fact, the way the government and social support is structured, independence may be a very bad thing for the residents and citizens of Luna...

The Financial Axis – Luna:  Luna is the home of the Lunar Commonwealth, a corporatist government that has built its success by bending over backwards to serve the Sovreign Corporate Rntity (SCE) agenda.  Luna was originally settled as a more convienant launching base for further exploration and colonization.  Additionally, the relatively large amounts of Heluim-3 in the regolith made harvesting a profitable endeavor for the handful of corporate interests that had the resources to establish a permanent presence on the moon.  Over the years and decades, the population of Luna grew - starting with a few homesteaders and eventually blossoming into a full fledged population.  

As the population grew and stabilized, so did Lunar economic interests.  Mass drivers were created to help move valuable materials across the inner system.  High powered lasers and masers were established under Lunar corporate oversight to help power the early growth of the solar sail trade.  In time, these material interests yielded to digital interests, with Luna leading the way in financial, solar web, and broadcasting interests.  Where once there was the moon of scientists and miners, there is now one of the most savvy and sophisticated societies on the System.  

In 2131 the Lunar Commonwealth is powerful, not due to its unity of purpose (it has none) or its military (which is laughably small) -- the Commonwealth is filthy, stinking rich and only getting richer in the current age of uncertainty.  As of 2131, the Commonwealth includes most of the Lunar city-states as well as a majority of habitats based in Earth’s L1 nd L2.  

Citizenship and due process in the Lunar Commonwealth is a tricky thing.  The Charter and subsequent legal codes that formed the Commonwealth was drafted over a decade, with competing interests constantly working to get their own loopholes codified.  Everybody had to get their share.  The end result was a document that falls just short of “hideously complicated” and “disastrously vague.”  However, the complicated legal and governmental structure serves the various corporations and their allies well, since they have the budget to hire the army of lawyers required to parse the various legal codes of the nation.  Its not surprising that with that sort of confused birth, the Commonwealth remains disorganized and politically schizophrenic.  

Citizenship in the Commonwealth is secured through paying a minimum amount of taxes.  All people that live in a city-state or habitat that has formally joined the Commonwealth is taxed by the Commonwealth, but only those that voluntarily increase their taxes beyond 50% of their income are granted suffrage.  Similarly, to qualify for the Commonwealth's extensive social welfare program, a member has to pay at least 30% of their income in taxes for five years.  This means that while the Commonwealth claims over 400 million members, less than a quarter vote and less than a third receive social support.  Still, the quality of life in the Commonwealth is generally quite high, meaning there are strict intake rules for the many prospective immigrants.  

The government of the Commonwealth is composed of 15 “seats” held by the taxpayers who pay the largest amounts.  This means, of the 15 seats, 13 are held by the leaders of corporations.  The Prime Minister position, which selects the government, is voted on by the Council seats.  Since a simple majority within the Council can oust a Prime Minister, government changes are frequent.  This leads to the schizophrenic reputation Luna so rightly deserves.  

Complicating things further is the fact that the Commonwealth acts, for all intents and purposes, as a sovereign state but still is technically administered by the OCRI with an appointed Administrator.  However, with the amount of money that flows through Luna, and the fact that everyone seems to have a direct stake in ensure the situation remains stable (and profitable), OCRI is under unstated orders to give the “colony” wide latitude in its own dealings.  One area where the Commonwealth's status as a colony is glaringly apparent is that it is only allowed to maintain a small self defense force and host a handful of OCRI bases (most of those bases are, not coincidentally, located near the many mass drivers located across Luna).  To their credit, most Lunans (and ‘Grangers) stifle their lingering resentment of the Crimson helmets.  The Commonwealth's status as a colony also precludes it from a seat in the United Nations and most inter-Solar bodies.  

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Next up, I think its time to talk about influences and priorities.  What do I hope to get out of the setting   What issues do I think need to be discussed?  I'm open to any feedback so far before I jump into dissecting my own motivations - so please, comment away!