MTU: The DJverse

[DangerousThing]

Strangely enough DJverse stands for "The Dangerous Journeys Universe," and has nothing to do with my initials.

While there are some aspects of the OTU that I've used, it will mostly be

A. The Basic History

1. The Republic of Humanity

Mankind was originally intending to colonize a nearby star through a wormhole that was out past the orbit of Pluto. This wormhole connected to (some nearby star that has a planet that is almost livable - mars-like). The system was explored with small ships. Four Arkships were built to colonize the system. All the people and frozen fetuses were genetically modified for health and intelligence.

The journey through the wormhole was long. The fourth ship had a problem and slid into the side of the wormhole which destabilized and dumped the first three ships out into unknown territory. They found each other after a few months and headed for the nearest promising star. Two years later they arrived there to find a system with a planet much like Earth before pollution had its way. This planet was named Prime.

With the jump drive they had created while traveling STL, they explored other systems. Most of these also had planets that man could live on easily. Soon an interstellar government was created with idealism and freedom for all, the Republic of Humanity (called the Republic). This lasted a few hundred years as more and more planets were absorbed.

Then gradually at first the rich started taking over. And with them, the old (those who have extended their lifespans well beyond normal were called Methusalahs, or just Meths). In another thousand years the Republic was clearly divided between the rich and the poor. In another couple hundred years the republic self-destructed in a flaming civil war.

The entire jump-gate network was destroyed. This meant that the core planets couldn't get enough food to eat, and they fought among themselves for scraps. The rim planes were more self sufficient, but didn't have an industrial complex large enough to keep the jump ships going and without the services provided by the Republican Interstellar Survey Corp the jump ships didn't have enough data to jump safely.

2. The Phoenix Empire

Jump past a 1,200 year dark age and the Phoenix Empire rose. This depended on the Hyper drive, different from the jump drive which was also rediscovered a bit later, in that it could be steered and had no one-week limitation.

Laws were put on the books by the first emperor to restrict the economic power of the Meths, mainly by an age linked tax on unearned income (interest and such).

Fast forward 4,000 and two campaigns and the Empire ended again in death and destruction. This time the Empire was healthy until Cthulhu and his ilk came back from being banished. They were fought to the death by a number of individuals including one who used to be one of their own. What the former mortal who killed them didn't realize is that the power she was using was the life force of the galaxy. Everybody within 100 parsecs died. After that the effect slowly dissipated. Within a thousand parsecs it only killed the least healthy 90%, and it decreased every 1000 parsecs. Why, you could barely feel it another galaxy over...

Something that was related and happened at the same time was that all hit tech electronics were also destroyed a few days later, if they were within about 200D of a planetary or stellar object.

3. The Confederation of the New Dawn

If anybody has a better name, please let me know.

I'll speak more on this later.

 

[DangerousThing]

3. The Confederation of the New Dawn

About 600 years before the end of the Empire terrorists used a bio-weapon against the mainworld of the Weber system. This was a microscopic parasite which mutated extremely quickly and was air born for about a month (after that you could only get it from blood of the infected). It had a survival rate of about 1 in a million. (If you've read _The Armageddon Troll_ by David Weber, this will sound familiar.) Something happened and the parasite evolved into a symbiont. The survival rate for new infections is still about 1 in one thousand, but there are advantages.

Webers, as they are politely called (wormers if you're not polite) heal quickly, have improved characteristics (+2 on physical stats and +1 on mental), can stay awake for several days with a lot of stress on their systems, and are as far as they know immortal unless killed. Their one major weakness is that they need about twice the food of a baseline human. One side effect of the symbiont is that Webers have a tendency to cooperate with each other.

The Webers had several colonies throughout the Empire. They had small colonies on the fringe of the Empire when the Shattering struck. The Webers survived, most of the baseline humans didn't.

After a raider attack (a former Imperial Naval Cruiser and escorts) took most of the prepared food and easily available spare parts, the survivors decided that they wouldn't be easy meat. They hired a couple of free traders and talked with the remaining colonies (five within reach). They created the Confederation and the Office of Population Control (OPC).

For a couple hundred years, the OPC was the main branch of the government, followed closely by the Office of Technology (OT).

The OPC carefully monitored births and encouraged women to have more children, as the food supply increased. They also carefully kept a record of genetics and arranged things so that the population had as much genetic diversity as possible. They also arranged (very quietly and carefully) for all baseline couples to adopt Weber children rather than have children of their own, and infecting baseline infants with Weber blood (infants have about a 50% survival rate). This was viewed by the elders as a necessary evil, and most of those responsible for these decisions have either committed suicide or disappeared by the present day.

Fast forward about 500-600 years to the present day. The population is in the millions on most of the systems of the Confederation and the TL is from 8 to 14 (8-9 for everyday items, 10-11 for personal weapons, 11-12 for starships, and 14 for computers).

Their plan was to get back into space well armed as soon as possible, and to do this they needed the people to support a technological infrastructure.

However, the Shattering had some other consequences. In the dark places, some legends, dreams, and nightmares came back. Each planet is different, but most of the Confederation is home to the Fey. They are a minority, but they are here.

One planet is a bit different, probably because they've always had a mystical tradition. They have mystics who can do magic (think anime warrior monks, perhaps Dragonball and such).

Psionics seems to have disappeared, mainly because use of psionic abilities will kill their wielder in less than a year (more powerful psionics die faster). Magic seems to be different. (Yes, magic is dangerous, but for totally different reasons.)

The year at the start of the campaign is 000-737 (Confederation dating).

4. The Kingdom of the Righteous

Now, there are other polities in the universe. The Kingdom of the Righteous has been waging a cold war on the Confederation for at least 200 years. The Kingdom is, theoretically, a religious dictatorship. It is also extremely secretive, it only does trading in a habitat in a system it otherwise only uses for mining.

The other oddity is that their navy is TL 13 and nobody in the Confederation's intelligence community knows who is selling them the tech. Luckily their navy is smaller than the Confederation's...

OK, this is pretty much it. Comments and discussion and even outright criticism are willingly accepted.

 

[BlackBat242]

My initial reaction to your thread title (and opening sentence) was that you had merged Traveller with

Dangerous Journeys is a fantasy roleplaying game created by Gary Gygax, the co-creator of the original Dungeons & Dragons system.

Created after his departure from TSR, the 1992 publication of this series of books by Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) was met with lawsuits by TSR, which ultimately saw the production of the game system cease.

Well, they both are (were) GDW games!

 

[DangerousThing]

My initial reaction to your thread title (and opening sentence) was that you had merged Traveller with ...

I'd never heard of that one before. I just liked the name and was going to use it for a web comic someday.

 

[DangerousThing]

Technology in the DJverse

Since I'm using T5, I'm using most of the technology from there. However, there are exceptions.

The battery technology in the DJverse is such that it is possible to power a starship solely from batteries if you can guarantee recharges. This is how the Republic and the Phoenix Empire worked. However, the Confederation is in a time where the expected maximum TL is 5, as most people haven't clawed there way up to orbit yet. Though there are exceptions.

Weapons Technology

1. Lasers are available if a character wants them, however, they are gas charged lasers which means they need 10mm shells (the gun contains the battery; military weapons usually have a battery in the clip as well). And yes, there is the large pump-action laser rifle, as well as the double-barreled laser rifle; both these use 18mm shells.

2. Most other weapons are sug-throwers of various sorts.

3. There is work on a useable plasma gun rifle and pistol. Likewise with shells. Right now the R and D people say it works, once. Then they have to drop the gun because of overheating and partial barrel melting, and get a new one. Yes, the first disposable rifle. The crazy boys in R and D are also working on a pistol version. Any bets on how many of these people lose a hand?

Drive Technology

1. The H-Drive. The Republic used the Jump Drive and a variant. However, the Phoenix Empire was born with the Hyper Drive (the H-Drive). This sends the ship into Hyper Space, different from Jump Space, and extremely chaotic (IMTU Jump Space is extremely tranquil, and it absorbs all non-protected energy and matter).

The H-Drive allows the ship to steer and come out at any time with no minimum time, like the J-Drive has. So I can do a micro dive and come out minutes or seconds later. Essentially the number (i.e. H-4 the number is 4) indicates the maximum number of parsecs that could be traveled per week. However, if you have an H-4 drive and only travel one parsec, you get there in a bit under two days. It is possible to sense gravity from hyper space, but not much else.

The H-Drive (and similar drives) can be followed. It makes a "wake" in Hyper Space which is visible for an amount of time proportional to both the size and the speed of the original ship. This is also a feature, because routes that are traveled more become easier to travel; when they stop being used, the chaos of Hyper Space starts moving in like grass and weeds on a dirt road.

Unfortunately the Shattering made Hyper Space more difficult. So the Confederation scientists created the Hyper Sail Drive (S-Drive). This uses a smaller H-Drive plus a force-field set of "wings" and uses the chaos of hyper space to help drive it onward.

 

[DangerousThing]

Magic in the DJverse

Yes, there is magic, sort of. So far it's not very powerful compared to DnD, more like psionics. However, it's more directed than psionics. In the Confederation the Mystics of Ryzowzki do the magic. Don't think mages, but rather anime warriors like in Dragon Ball, though less powerful.

There is ritual magic, but that is the realm of evil NPCs so far.

And yes, there are magical creatures that appeared shortly after the Shattering. Many of them would be useful, but most can't travel in a starship. Only a few (the Shidhe can if properly prepared). However, they have a way to travel that most people can't use (the ways - a way one can walk through passages accidentally created by the Elder Gods) but isn't extremely safe.

One of the players is a Kitsune, a Japanese fox-fey. Another is a mystic, a Warrior of the Void.

Another group of creatures that came back or out of hiding is the Lovecraftian Mythos creatures. They are still mostly in hiding, but they are there in the background. For the most part, these are the bad guys. Or rather the bad things.

There are other types of magic and magical creatures that will be found when the players go looking.

 

[DangerousThing]

Rule Changes

I'm basically using T5, and I'm changing as little as possible.

1. The major defense for ships is the Force Field. This can stop missiles and beams. Like armor, shields come in layers.

2. The S-Drive and H-Drive. Both of these drives require at least one layer of force fields in order for the ship to survive hyper space. The S-Drive also requires a specialized force field to provide wings.

3. Fission plants (U-Drive) powers the Confederation's ships. Some have batteries also, some don't. Exploration ships usually have a backup fission plant and a fuel purifier (put in enough ore and a rod casing and get a rod out, eventually, along with a lot of leftovers that you have to dump). These aren't useful unless you're a trade pioneer and expect to be away from civilization for a long time. Note: a U-Drive can't power a J-Drive because the power is needed all at once, but it will power an H or S-Drive quite well because the power need is gradual.

4. Extremely efficient batteries with near zero leakage are a major technology. Vehicles use them and need them recharged once a year or even more. At TL 12 the Confederation has Ultimate batteries, and TL 13 has Energy Cells which are *much* more efficient than batteries as well as much smaller. But that's another 20 years down the road. Or less if they can find the lost graveyard of the Phoenix Navy (more later).

These batteries mean that energy weapons don't need backpacks, that vehicles can run for years on a massive charge (though giving it that charge is expensive and time consuming).

5. I handle skills a bit differently to encourage specialization. There are Skills, Knowledges, Specialties and Sub-specialties, each with a limit of 6.

6. Martial Arts. Yes, I've defined them, and if people want it, I'll clean it up and post it here.

 

[DangerousThing]

The Campaign

The campaign will be starting up once we get back in town after Lee's surgery - more important than starting a campaign, and it will give me more time to get my ducks in a row.

The campaign is about the three E's: Exploration, Espionage, and Enterprise.

In other words, they have to explore (the old star maps were on computer media which was destroyed in the Shattering) and chart systems and get as much data on the systems as possible.

There is a cold war brewing between the Kingdom and the Confederation. What data can they get on the Kingdom? Why does the Kingdom have a TL 13 navy composed of new ships..

And they need to make money to pay off their subsidized ship. The Confederation needs trade and information, but they don't give out something for nothing. They will also be Trade Pioneers.

If they make any big finds in the first two, they can get payments paid off.

A verified raider kill (that is, a raider ship that has attacked or stolen from Confederation ships) will get them a month's payment plus whatever they can salvage their kill for.

There is believed to be a hidden Phoenix Empire naval mothball base. If the characters can find it, they get get the entire ship paid off, plus an exchange with technologies from the ships. These would be TL 14-15 ships and have technology much greater than the Confederation.

Some characters have some of their own goals and orders, but mainly this is it. Any questions, suggestions, and slaps in the face will be accepted.

 

[DangerousThing]

Oh yes. This is a small ship universe, primarily because nobody is up to building large ships any more. The large ships may come in time, but for now, the 5,000t Prince Edward is large enough for a Dreadnaught.