Where are the Frontiers

[rancke]

rum.

You're right, that is quite peculiar.


Hans

 

[Timerover51]

I think the question is does the OP mean frontier as in "boldly go" unexplored frontier or "wild west" type frontier which is explored but often lawless.

If it's the first then I'd say either go up (with a nebula in between to hide details) or back in time and TL.

If it's the second then people who feel logic dictates a big ship universe but still want a Wild West feel in some of it need to think of a way to reconcile having a big ship universe and a Wild West universe side by side.

One way to do that is crank time back to before the mega systems exist - so only the start planet has a very high population and the rest have only been colonized for a few centuries.

Quite simply, an unexplored frontier, not a "Wild West" one. That can be done on existing planets and systems. A subsector or series of subsectors that have star systems located, with some idea as to planets, but no more data than that for the players. Somewhat like a modified Leviathan scenario.

 

[Frankymole]

For the real unknown frontier, places no known intelligent species has explored, you have to keep in mind that jump ships are common transportation in this setting. It would be like in our current day saying lets get in a plane and go explore the frontier.

Some of the JTAS articles on the system/worlds beyond the Mainworld are interesting in this regard. Even in quite developed sectors there can still be sparsely-populated, harsh environments with many unknown dangers, lost expeditions, etc... Could be well worth the players (especially those with their own ship, whether owned or chartered) having some exploits or explorations in those areas.

 

[RandyB]

Wait.
Have we reached a point in the conversation where exploration and science fiction don't mix?
Because what the hell.

Not quite what I was aiming at, now that you point it out. More that exploration would be different than our historical models. Less "we don't know what's there" and more "we know X, go get more details."

 

[WistfulD]

So the main problems that we have are:
1) Technological advents since the 1970s have shown that we can map all the stars with respect to actual position related to other stars, major features of stars, and what size of planets are around them.
2) Very recent technological advents suggest that in the future, Earth sized planets can be detected, and possibly even life detected from quite a ways away.
3) The big ship universe means that there are ships everywhere, and even potentially underfunded government projects like pure research exploration (which you might think would be underfunded, but boy is the scout career popular) would have the resources to send extensive planetology teams to every star within several jumps of the current Imperium boundaries
4) The official boarders of the imperium appear to be bounded on all 2-D sides by known entities.

 

[GypsyComet]

3) The big ship universe means that there are ships everywhere, and even potentially underfunded government projects like pure research exploration (which you might think would be underfunded, but boy is the scout career popular) would have the resources to send extensive planetology teams to every star within several jumps of the current Imperium boundaries

Just the number of XBoats needed to keep daily service running is quite astounding. The rest of the IISS budget is probably pretty sedate by comparison.

 

[BillDowns]

Quite simply, an unexplored frontier, not a "Wild West" one. That can be done on existing planets and systems. A subsector or series of subsectors that have star systems located, with some idea as to planets, but no more data than that for the players. Somewhat like a modified Leviathan scenario.

This is a fun kind of scenario, but setting-wise, I've always felt like it needs to be non-3I, or place it in the expansion period of the 1st Empire.

 

[salochin999]

Go up.

(through a blinding nebula)

or down

(but not too far down or you might bump into Khorne or Slaanesh )

edit:

Somewhat like a modified Leviathan scenario

The Leviathan could work as the Enterprise in this. If you have 50-ish NPCs in the crew then the players always have access to any specialist NPCs they need for the away team on each planet/anomaly visited.

 

[whulorigan]

Go up.

(through a blinding nebula)

or down

If a GM is willing to add the complexity of dealing with a third mapping dimension (in one of several ways), going up or down creates a number of exploration options, as well as creating any number of (sub)sectors that are guaranteed never to be overwritten by "canon".

In fact, if you have a particular well-known star or cluster that intrigues you, find out its actual direction & distance from Earth (including its Z-dimension above/below the mean galactic plane) and have your exploration campaign move out along that vector. Then all you need to do is detail how the starting subsector relates to the OTU subsector from which you are departing. As you radially move toward your target cluster, the distance above or below the plane of the OTU map increases (because of the angle between your course projection and the OTU-plane), and you do not have to significantly deal with how your new subsectors and/or sectors relate to the OTU sectors.

Place dark nebulae as needed.

 

[flykiller]

If you have 50-ish NPCs in the crew then the players always have access to any specialist NPCs they need for the away team on each planet/anomaly visited.

earlier someone offered the game technique of having several sets of pc's for a given ship. one is the command set, another is an "away team" set, with several other sets thrown in. the players simply switch between pc sets to follow the developing game action. it seems a very flexible system.

 

[salochin999]

earlier someone offered the game technique of having several sets of pc's for a given ship. one is the command set, another is an "away team" set, with several other sets thrown in. the players simply switch between pc sets to follow the developing game action. it seems a very flexible system.

That's probably a very good idea especially if using a much larger ship / crew than usual for players.

If the ship is going to be the "Enterprise" equivalent then I think you'd want the players to be the command team so they can make the big decisions but then you probably wouldn't want all of them on the away team at the same time - so a command character and an away team character per player might make sense.

 

[aramis]

earlier someone offered the game technique of having several sets of pc's for a given ship. one is the command set, another is an "away team" set, with several other sets thrown in. the players simply switch between pc sets to follow the developing game action. it seems a very flexible system.

I've done that, but not with sets.

In a largish Star Trek game (13 players) most players had 2 characters.

Character A was either a department head or assistant department head, or in two cases, department CPOs, and one was the COB/SCPO. The other was either a junior officer in department or a petty officer.

It worked astonishingly well. Most players showed up (A large party like that almost has to drop into LARP mode), and I let players freely switch depending upon the needs of the story. The sciences department was well represented. Most non-ensign officers on the GSC USS W. R. Byrd's sciences staff were accounted for as PC's. Including the Chief Nurse.

As away teams were formed for various missions, players would work with the harlequin to provide support from ship.