Nephon Sector
The Nephon system, as far as its inhabitants know, is a relatively isolated system, orbiting a medium-sized star approximately 1.2 Sol in strength. Scientists suspect the star has unique magnetic properties; there are many planets in orbit, and many of those orbits are highly irregular. Furthermore, 'magnetic corridors', a phenomenon not well understood, connect several of them, enabling fuel-efficient travel between points in the system.
Life in the Nephon system is difficult for those on the Frontier. The Toko government claims dominion over the entire system, but has not the military might nor the unity to enforce it. In either Core Cluster, such as Toko or Koto, the presence of the phenomenlly wealthy government is palpable. On the Frontier, the government pays little to no attention, and as such, the safety, livelihood, and society is essentially up to those who live there.
Contents
Space Travel
The Nephon system is unique, or at least unusual, in that magnetic corridors connect lagrange points across the system. With appropriate hardware, these corridors enable efficient travel between such points. It is on freighters and passenger liners that run these corridors that the bulk of shipping or travel takes place.
Ships with more conventional drives exist, and are about as fast as travel in a corridor, but must expend significant fuel in their acceleration or deceleration. Given that the contents of Corridor Freighters and that travel on a Corridor Liner is strictly regulated by the government, many find that passage on a free ship is more desirable.
Though few in the Nephon System make use of them, Jump Docks enable much longer-distance travel, by creating a stabilized wormhole between two points.
Astronavigation is essentially a very difficult and complex physics problem; as such, navigators are well-versed, formally or otherwise, in both classical and quantum mechanics, mathematics, etc.
Ships
There's a large range of ships in common use throughout the Nephon System. Many of them are quite old, and while ship technology hasn't advanced radically in some time, human ingenuity cannot be contained, and as such modifications ranging from silly (hong pipe, rear wing) to life-saving (irradiated gas engine boost) are common. Those who own ships or regularly travel on them are often posessed of a certain enthusiasm to talk shop, which almost always bores the snot out of others in the immediate vicinity.
Example Ships:
Law Enforcement
The Toko government makes an attempt to spread its culture and the "rule of law" to the outer systems, which, through greed and distance, see little of the prosperity that Toko's jump gates bring to the central systems. As such, 'lawmen' are dispatched to patrol the reaches, to see that those upholding the law and Toko culture are rewarded, and that those who flaunt them are punished. Their role is analagous to the Ronin, but from more of a state-sponsored angle. They are not always welcome, however.
Ronin
The counterpart to the Lawman, the Ronin is a "private" (though many are funded by regional governments) citizen who has a ship capable of inter-system travel. Distinct from professional cargo crews or militias, the Ronin is ostensibly a privateer, beholden to no particular system, government, or corporate interest.
Ronin are often relied upon to assist outlying systems in critical tasks, such as obtaining food or medicine, too critical to trust to the Toko central authority. They are also often called upon to complete illegal or dangerous acts. Since the life of a Ronin is one of constant struggle to upkeep their ship and maintain their tenuous freedom, many Ronin will take whatever job comes across their bow.
Topography
poorly-drawn map to come.
Planets
These are the major planets in the Nephon System
The Core
Toko Cluster
- Perrisport - said to be the major port for the Core before the Jump Gates were moved to Toko
- Newton
- Spectrum - a new, crowded, settlement that many describe as 'prefab'
- Darkriver - a part of the Core
- Toko - the seat of the central authority
Koto Cluster
- Mamba
- Koto
- Nago
- Kansei
The Frontier
- Kite
- Bath
- Sephore - Famous for its alcoholic beverages, this system lies next to the Hoked Nebula
- Hero
- Hermit - Orbiting Hermit is the famous Floating World pleasure station
- Toro - an old settlement with respected agriculture
- Edge - munitions and armament factories
The Unknown
- Hoked Nebula - a mysterious and largely unexplored place
History
Government
The Nephon System is governed from Toko. Toko administration is rather opaque to those outside it; it's known that there is some sort of parliamentary body, but its workings are not privvy to the public, or at least not publicized beyond Toko itself. It's known that the highest position of authority is called the "Sho", and that the current leader is known as "Gossho". He never appears in public. It is said that the office is either hereditary or elected by members of the shadowy parliament.
The decrees of the government are few; much of Toko Law is extremely broad, and rather than change it explicitly, the Toko Authority prefers to interpret it differntly in different regions. To a passive observer, it would appear that the only thing the Government does is set the taxes, every three years.
The Prime Minister
The government official whom all residents of the Nephon system are familiar is the Prime Minister; he is elected by system-wide ballot any time the office is open. At times such as these, austere figures who are assumed to be members of the secretive Toko government, always different than any who've surfaced before, and never named explicitly, throw their support behind one candidate or another. The procedure is baffling to any who are not insiders, but accorded a great degree of respect. Pronouncements made by these invariably ancient men are digested with gusto by local news agencies, and the whole affair has something of a festive atmosphere to it. Citizens of the Nephon System will often chat about the latest developments of the campaign amongst each other.
Once elected, the Prime Minister's duty is to relay important information from the government to the people, and, supposedly, to communicate the will of the people to the government.
Regional Governance
Regional governments are given a great deal of autonomy so long as they fit conform to Toko Law. This means two things, primarily: That government varies wildly between planets, and that Lawmen, as those who interpret Toko Law, have an incredible degree of authority.
Tech
The tech level of the Nephon System is relatively low; especially out on the Frontier, where the latest advances in out-system technology haven't reached. While the Toko government holds incredibly advanced tech, it hoards it, rightly thinking that advanced out-system technology is a threat to its authority.
Pseudoscience Background
Weapons
Projectile weapons are the most common, given the fact that they're still lethal enough. Energy weapons of all sorts are rumored by rarely if ever seen.
Ship to ship combat on the frontier is rare, but when it happens, it's mostly with kinetic (read: non-explosive) guided missiles, since their range is long enough to end most conflicts before they close to more dangerous ranges. For those without missiles, mass drivers are sometimes used, or thrusters themselves are employed as improvised weapons.
The bulk of free ships are unarmed, as it's illegal to carry weaponry unless permitted by government grant. The punishment can be severe: weaponry on a non-military/non-government craft constitutes a threat to the safety of lawful citizens and the government operatives themselves; they are authorized to arrest, impound, or destroy any ship that so breaks the law.
Military ships are known to have arsenals of surpassing firepower, encompassing magnetic pulse, plasma, beam, and perhaps other, more deadly technologies.
Prosthetics
Medical technology is advanced enough to supply replacement limbs of all calibers, from vat-grown tissue to military-grade reinforced prosthetics.
One-shot
Look here: Nephon Sector One-Shot
Philosophy and Motivation
I figure I should lay out the atmosphere and what makes me want to run this game.
First and foremost, this setting is meant to facilitate a "space western". The players have a ship not because flying is cool (I mean, it is, but that's not the point), but because they don't fit in normal society; they have to find a way to fit in the in-between.
It's set in "Sengoku-in-space" because that era of japan was pretty lawless and crazy, and makes for a good place to set a game about wanderers (Seven Samurai being the prime example).
I always feel that the best science fiction has a grounding in a familiar fictional meilieu. For me, I'm making that a Western. It's in space, so it's not all six-gun shootouts, and I'm not gonna demand you guys ride horses around, but you can expect other staples - poker, bar brawls, hookers with the heart of gold. I'm not aiming for genre tropes; the game's not *about* those things. It's *about* (and I hope this isn't giving things away, but let's have the cards on the table) the things classic Westerns were about - isolation, the wanderer's life, a home that's not the best, but it's still home, moral ambiguity (good, bad...), finality (I'm the guy with the gun), the struggle of the common man.
I hope it doesn't sound like bullshit, and I'm far from an expert on the Western genre itself. But I figure I should clarify my aims before people say they want to play; I mean, if people are like "space western, that's bull hockey", then likely what I'm cooking up ain't gonna cut it for them.
Also, I should add: if people are looking for a "player-directed" game, Nephon's not a good bet. While player actions will obviously be a part of Nephon, I'm going to be setting up scnearios for each session or few sessions. While the seeds of the scenario will come from the actions players have taken, and while debate over the stakes or neccesity of a scenario should make for good roleplaying, ultimately each scenario will have a hook that the players *have* to respond to, one way or another, to keep the ship flying. The part where the players decide, 'well, what do we do next?' will take place at the end of the night, after the session's done, and the next session, while ostensibly about their plans, might get interrupted by something else.
I'm not saying I don't like those kinds of games; I'm just saying that I have specific ideas of what I want to run, and that I should lay them out so when choosing time rolls around people are informed.
More than likely, a lot of this isn't coming out right, but again, I want the game to be appropriately represented when you all decide if you want to play it or not.
System
White Wolf
I'm leaning towards using White Wolf, maybe the Adventure system minus all the special powers. You'd get Inspiration, which you can use for crazy stuff (I'm thinking up a system for using this, where you state what you want and then negotiate with the group as a whole) like altering actions that have already happened, or superhuman efforts, or plot twists, those kinds of things.
I'd like to incorporate some kind of "traits"; I'm not sure how I'd do it yet.
We'll use the Aeon character sheet; it's all futurey.
Inspiration
This is like it was in Adventure; Inspiration is a resource for altering the game in any of three ways:
- spending a point of inspiration can alter the system mechanics for one conflict (ie set of stakes); this means you can re-roll dice, change difficulties, or even propose a unique mechanic by which to resolve the conflict.
- spending a point of inspiration can alter the immediate narrative, by bringing new elements into play (the classic "there's a shotgun behind the bar" example), altering existing elements ("Captain Yu reveals his pegleg!"), or retroactively modifying the immediate past ("The bullet crashed into my lucky Pocket Ten Commandments Slab").
- spending a point of inspiration can escalate an action, which means the conflict will automatically resolve in favor of the player who spent the inspiration, unless other participants in the conflict also spend an inspiration. The player who spent the inspiration should describe the inspired action that takes place.
Spending Inspiration can be offset by the introduction of Consequences for the character that spent the Inspiration. Consequences must be similar in magnitude to the change effected by the Inspiration. If a character didn't want to lose Inspiration in preventing their death, then the Consequences would be something of a similar order - a fundamental shift in the character's operation, like having to be rebuilt with cybernetics, or losing the ability to speak, or something similar. For a smaller thing, like getting a re-roll on some dice, Consequences can be minor, like also giving a re-roll for an enemy to use in the immediate future.
The mechanic for regenerating inspiration is something I'm still thinking about. I want to encourage proactive (rather than reactive) use of Inspiration, so the mechanic won't be too punishing, but I also want to encourage Consequences, so it can't be too lenient. Maybe one point every three sessions or so.
Every character starts with 3 inspiration. I'm not sure if i'll let you get it with freebies.
Traits
Instead of having advantages or disadvantages, I think I'm going to take another page from DitV, but messed up to better suit our group. You may choose a number of Traits ( you get one for free; taking more costs freebies ) to describe your character's unique strengths and personality. These Traits can be rated from 1 to 5 dice. In circumstances where the Trait plays in your favor, you may add those dice to your pool. In situations where the Trait plays against your favor, though, I take the dice and they either roll to subtract successes or add to the enemy's dice pool. The Trait's definition must account for this; there's no "I'm a good shot every time it's in my favor 5 dice" traits. As such, your Traits must meet with GM approval.
Every character will get 5 points of Traits. The maximum rating for a Trait is 5.
"Ferocious fighter" would, for instance, be an appropriate trait; it would come into play against you when you're trying to fight without harming someone, for instance, or trying to snipe the one guy but not hit his prisoner.
A Trait may also be brought into play in an 'inappropriate' context by spending an Inspiration point, or you may spend an Inspiration point to negate the negative effects of a Trait for one scene.
