SDNW5 Preliminary Discussion Thread

[OmegaChief]

Well from a standpoint of my nation they've only had hyperdrive (And thus a player on the big stage) for something like ~500 years, so it's just a case of sticking them in the timeline then.

From an OOC perspective, setting us somewhere between 3000-4000 probably makes the most sense, with humans having spread out for ~1000 years, this probably gives just enough time for things to fall into the 'Mists of history' as it were, without being so ancient that it's no longer relevent at all for those who want to use the stuff.

[Simon_Jester]

Skywalker, think about how long it took to colonize the Americas. The pre-Columbian population pretty much disintegrated under waves of epidemics, crashing from something like 50-100 million to a few percent of that. But the sheer numbers of people being moved in, first by sailing ships and then by steamships, combined with rapid population growth as people expanded into the natives' land, allowed populations of about nine hundred million to appear within five hundred years... and for much of that time that was with high pre-modern infant mortality.

Moving people by hyperdrive ship from Earth to most of the colonies on this map won't be that much harder than moving them by ship to the Americas was in the 1800-1900 era.

With modern medical care, the doubling time of a human population with no reason not to expand is a century at most. I think a thousand years is roughly sufficient time.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Okay then...I vote for one thousand years (give or take). Should we put it up to an actual vote or not?

[Esquire]

A short prologue in the form of a slice-of-life piece; something grander may follow. I'd like to second the millenia-ish of spacefaring history, though it also doesn't really matter for the Hellenes. I can adapt to any time that's agreed on.

Relating to my prologue - it's supposed to sound unnatural and overly formal. Even I know that contractions are a good thing.

[Panzersharkcat]

I'm tired of everyone's country name being "The [generic form of government] of [place name]. In real life there are a lot of places that just get called "France" or "South Africa" or whatever, not "the People's Proletarian Republic of Kadgradistansky..."

It's a bit hard for the Bastian Star Empire as it's only called that because Bastians make up around 60% of the population and the Emperor is a Bastian. I suppose it could just be referred to as Bastet at risk of offending the other 40% of the population.

Whatever works. It would hardly be the first time a large group got a name offensive to some of its members- think about all the Indian tribes that got referred to in English by names assigned them by their enemies. For example, "Comanche" is the name that this culture of horse-mounted light cavalry raiders has in the language of their neighbors. "Comanche" was those people's word for "those horsefuckers who fight us all the time."

Which is actually a pretty good fit for the Comanches, since they were pretty tough, but still, life is funny that way. To pick another example, how often are people of Britain get called 'English' by ignorant or indifferent foreigners?

Yes, but British people aren't ten feet tall with eight-inch-long claws. Point taken, though. Bastet it is. Just make sure to not call the whole empire that, at risk of impalement.

Anyway, I originally went with ten thousand years from the very first forms of faster than light travel but I shrank it down to four thousand, plenty of time to expand and incorporate two other species and elevate them. Oh, and have one of them supplant the original masters.

[Akhlut]

Well, if the game starts in the 3000s, then the Grays have had FTL travel for at least 3000 years. So, to that end, I don't particularly care when the game starts, as the Grays have had a relatively static culture from a combination of long lives and a fairly conservative culture.

[White Haven]

Now I'm picturing a meeting between Marcus and Director Naismith from the previous STGOD. I think the two would...understand one another.

[Imperial528]

I'm good with it starting in the 3000s, since I was envisioning my people having been around for about 600 years, and their parent state a century or two more than that. Gives enough time for some geneticist and his buddies (read: an entire research institution) to make a few (read: thousands of) artificial lifeforms and then go far, far away.

[Darkevilme]

Around one thousand years since the development of hyperdrive is fine by me. Though if needbe I can just tweak how far back I set 'chapter 1' of the Chamarran prologue. Just so long as they get a few hundred years it's all good.

[Scottish Ninja]

Heh. Reading your nation description thingy, Ninja, I fully expect your national order of battle to be a very very long and complicated document compared to most.

That depends on if I can't get away with just saying "assume sectors have points of military forces proportional to GDP and I'll just make it up as I go along." Otherwise, well, I guess I'll just have to see how arcane and convoluted I can make it.

Sure, although I want to stick you between or reasonably close to at least two other countries, so that people get to squabble over the sick alienoid of the galaxy.

Of course.

As for date - I have no objection to the roughly 1000 years number - though I'm equally happy with "indefinitely old"; my idea of Volscia is partly influenced by the old Han Solo and Lando Calrissian trilogies, so either, or anything in between, works for me.

[Panzersharkcat]

I'm just going to assume the Neithians, in their first few thousand years, put more effort into biological research than in FTL travel, which only really exploded once they incorporated the Bastians and the Sobekians into their civilization. I'll work out the whole military thing once the rules are out. I'm planning more on a number of independent planetary militias as the first line of defense with the Imperial Army itself deployed to reinforce them when needed.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Hmm...looks like the 1,000 year mark works. Now I just have to wait for the military rules and I will be done with my background for now. The prologue will be late though, either a couple hours from now, or (much more likely) tomorrow morning.

[TimothyC]

Well, if the game starts in the 3000s, then the Grays have had FTL travel for at least 3000 years. So, to that end, I don't particularly care when the game starts, as the Grays have had a relatively static culture from a combination of long lives and a fairly conservative culture.

Oooooh, a long Krypton-Gray cold war perhaps?

[Panzersharkcat]

How about we make it a three-way from back in the days of the Neithian Union? It'd be a potential motivation for Brainiac-analog to try to blow up Krypton.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Well assuming you did that I would just continue trading, but the Arcadian's wouldn't get involved. We take the Swedish route to foreign affairs...trade with a select group of people, while building up a military that can make any attack a costly victory. Obviously not strong enough to beat the stronger powers, but strong enough to make any attack too costly to comprehend (so yes Arcadia=Sweden in SPAAACE for foreign affairs...at least it is somewhat unique).

[KhorneFlakes]

The Screworlders could potentially be an observer in such a conflict. They've been around long enough. It's just that they couldn't contact any other civilizations because when they did, it involved explosions, kamikazes and high-powered lasers, and only after four centuries did they realize it wasn't working.

[Panzersharkcat]

Well assuming you did that I would just continue trading, but the Arcadian's wouldn't get involved. We take the Swedish route to foreign affairs...trade with a select group of people, while building up a military that can make any attack a costly victory. Obviously not strong enough to beat the stronger powers, but strong enough to make any attack too costly to comprehend (so yes Arcadia=Sweden in SPAAACE for foreign affairs...at least it is somewhat unique).

I was thinking police state Switzerland in SPAAACE for mine, with the exception of the Greys and Kryptonians, and a fairly long-standing alliance with the Braxian Collective.

[Skywalker_T-65]

^ Hmm...ironic. Sweden in SPAAACE is trading partners with Switzerland in SPAAACE. Funny how that happened isn't it?

[OmegaChief]

Sure, although I want to stick you between or reasonably close to at least two other countries, so that people get to squabble over the sick alienoid of the galaxy.

Of course.

Hey, a neat idea maybe, what if we put the Authority (A vibrant young ever expanding but small and not so strong polity) as a neighbour of the Volscians (An old fraying but vast and extremly powerful polity), the juxtaposition and story potential is there, not just for the small vs large and new vs old conflics, but for teh possibility of other powers taking advantage of the almost institutional niavity of the Authority to manipulate it into attempting to set the stage for other powers to almost costlessly (Hypothetically) to themselves carving chunks out of it.

I mean if everyone thinks it would be a neat idea.

[KhorneFlakes]

If that happens, the Screworlders will probably highly suspicious of their name. Their preferred term to refer to the ancient empire responsible for putting them in our galactic arm as the Authoritarians. Though there are other names for them as well.

[Simon_Jester]

Well yeah, but the Screworlders probably get suspicious and pull a bazooka out of their back pocket when they hear about the "Metropolitan Transport Authority," too. So meh.

EDIT: Oh, one thing, Timothy- if you want Kryptonians to have been a major power in the past, you'd better have a pretty good explanation for why they're a micronation now.

[Simon_Jester]

Oh, another thing:

Rabid rolled a 6.

[Rabid]

Thanks.

[Simon_Jester]

By the way, what with your people being nomadic, we may need to stop and think about how to adjust the usual model of nation creation (with planets and a concentrated territory) to apply to them.

[Imperial528]

I've been in RPGs with nomadic nations before and every way I have seen it handled (and handled it myself) is that there is a range of territory that the nomads move around in, and for purposes external to the nation itself that territory is treated as any other.
It may be possible to adapt that here.