SDNW5 Preliminary Discussion Thread

[Simon_Jester]

...Why would you need two gates in a single star system? Interplanetary transit times aren't (or don't have to be, anyway) all that high.

Or do you mean two gates in a single sector?

[OmegaChief]

I mean single system, as to why, well just got my shortform history stuck up as to the reasoning behind that, I just thought it was neat.

Culuture and Phisiology and so on are all in the works and... oh my I can write a lot it seems.

[Karmic Knight]

I would like to jump on board with a dice roll at the earliest convenience.

[Simon_Jester]

EDIT:

Karmic, you have a 7.

I mean single system, as to why, well just got my shortform history stuck up as to the reasoning behind that, I just thought it was neat.

Culuture and Phisiology and so on are all in the works and... oh my I can write a lot it seems.

It is neat, and I like it.

The only thing that might be problematic is that you have written the "gravitational lenses" as providing transmitter-to-anywhere teleportation. To quote Larry Niven:

The Assumption: We don't need a transmitter. Our teleport receiver will bring anything to itself, from anywhere. Limitations may exist as to distance or mass of cargo.
The Result: Thieves capable of stealing anything from anyone in perfect safety. Such machinery was discovered by Seaton, and later by DuQuesne, in "The Skylark of Space". In practice, anyone who has such machinery is king of the world. If many men have transmitterless receivers, society falls apart. When society stops making parts for the machines, the machines fall apart, and everything starts over.

The Assumption: No receiver is needed. Our teleport transmitter will place its cargo anywhere we choose.
The Result: We can put a bomb anywhere. The idea was used at least once, in "The Person from Porlock". In practice, a government that owned one of these would--again--own the world. Two such governments would probably bomb each other back to a pre-teleport level of civilization. Presumably it could happen any number of times.

So. What do we do about this?

One obvious suggestion is that the grav lenses' transmitter-to-anywhere effect be both short-ranged, and either incredibly dangerous or comically inaccurate.

There wouldn't really be a problem with you being able to beam objects anywhere within fifty light years of your home system, with a circular error probable of several light-days and/or a 50% chance of never making it to your destination at all because they were eaten by space gribblies. And yet it would act as a glamorous and intriguing phase of your interstellar colonization: the Age of Kamikaze Portalling.

Over longer distances, your gravitational lenses might well act as purely normal warp gates- they work well as long as there's a gate on the other end. Come to think of it, we could even assert that using the apparatus as a normal warp gate requires both lenses to operate in synchrony... which would mean you only have to spend 1 NCP to get the warp gate functionality. The only real reason to spend 2 NCP on two separate warp gates in one system would be if you're willing to sacrifice a lot in order to teleport things from one side of the system to the other. How's that?

[OmegaChief]

Hmmm, that works, or we could have the initial lense system (As it wasn't really designed as a method of FTL) indeed be woefully dangerous, I did note that there are a lot of unnacounted explorers sent through the initial system after all, and then they're modified into more traditional warp gates for integration into the galactic network once the rest of the galaxy is 'discovered'.

I'll do some more thinking as I finalise the section on culture (And work a bit more on the more detailed history) if I want to free up an NCP for it or not, glad you found the concept neat though! Hopefully the rest of the stuff will be too.

[Simon_Jester]

By the way, I understand that people may object to White Haven's nation idea. They are free to do so, and I will give them a fair chance to express their views. I personally am willing to accept them, but I don't have a right to make that binding on someone who finds "nation of combat espers" to be that serious a problem.

If the League of Thought is unacceptable to a large enough part of the SDNW5 playerbase, White Haven may have to pick something else.

[OmegaChief]

No objection here, I like 'em, they should make make things more fun.

Hmmm, I should probably work out if I'm going to have any Espers in the Authority, or have that as another area they're lacking in...

[Imperial528]

Is there any sort of specific format for nation descriptions, or specific things I should touch upon when writing mine?

[Simon_Jester]

NCP distribution by sector matters. Basic overview of history, origins, and nature matters.

You can draw up a starting military by taking your known GDP and assuming the SDNW4 rules apply, but you would have to revise it if there are differences, and I expect differences at least in the carrier rules.

Once we draw a map, I'm going to insist that people put some thought into how their interactions with their neighbors have gone. And I'm going to get annoyed at people who say "oh well we've just been sitting here for five hundred years not really bothering anyone." You should have friends, allies, spheres of influence, peers, rivals, longstanding pacts and trade relationships (modeled with NCPs or otherwise), mortal enemies, probably at least one significant war per century, unless you really want to portray a civilization so peaceful that it probably would have trouble handling a war now if it got one.

But all that hinges on having a map, so it's going to wait a while.

[Simon_Jester]

Oh, by the way. Remember that you can have a trade route running to someone, without having a trade route running back. This is a lot more profitable for the exporter than for the importer, but it's still a win-win relationship, just not as win-win as a bilateral trade would be.

[KhorneFlakes]

Well, that's nice to know. I talked to Vanas about my trade route, and so we decided that my trade route would go to his nation.

Still nice to know. Wasn't sure if trade routes "worked" without asking someone to connect to it.

[Simon_Jester]

The other guy has to consent to the trade route, but doesn't have to reciprocate with an NCP of his own.

However, you might want to hold off on deciding who you're trading with for a while, until the map's firmed up. And I'm hoping to get some more players trickling in if we give it some time; it's only been about two days since I started putting up the discussion thread and stuff.

[KhorneFlakes]

Yeah. I'm putting in my motivation for the game into writing prologues and backstory while we wait for some more players to come.

[Panzersharkcat]

OK. I'm pretty sure I have reciprocal trade relations with the Screworlder Collective, the Braxian Collective, the Bees, and the Hellenic Confederacy. I'll probably leave the other two open for new players who will trickle in.

EDIT: Corrected for plurals.

[Demiurgas]

What was my roll?

[Simon_Jester]

Oh, right. Sorry.

Six.

[Zor]

In as the Unified Imperium. I have some fluff cooking up.

Zor

[Simon_Jester]

Am I missing any would-be micronation players? Or for that matter macronation players?

---

Akhlut:
Hegemony of the Gray Kritarchy
5

Beowulf:
Noun of Adverby Noun.
4

Darkevilme:
Chamarran Empire
10

Demiurgas:
Eagleland
6

Esquire:
Hellenic Confederacy
9

FaxModem1
Empire of Tweed
Micronation

Feralgnoll
Braxian Collective
6

Force Lord:
Centrality
7

Imperial528
Confederate of Cerna
8

Irishmick
Republic (?) of Telkin
(Micronation? Macronation? I DO NOT KNOW! AAAAH! [replodes])

KhorneFlakes
Screworlders
6

Lonestar
Grand Dominion?
7

OmegaChief:
Capellan Authority
4

Panzersharkcat:
Bastian Star Empire
10

Romulan Republic
??? (Possibly a republic of Romulans?)
Micronation

Scottish Ninja
Volscian Confederacy
12

Shinn Langley Soryu
Holy Empire of Haruhi Suzumiya?
10

Shep
Shepistan
9

Simon_Jester:
Technocracy of Umeria
7

Tanasinn
Federal Union of Enslaved Subjugated Stuckenated Independent Worlds
7

TimothyC
Somethingorother of Bird Plane Krypton
Micronation

Vanas:
An Entire Great and Bountiful Empire of Goddamn Bees
6

White Haven:
League of Thought
8

Zor:
A Unified Empire
8

[Demiurgas]

So which is it? 3 or 6 NCP?

[Simon_Jester]

Crap. Sorry.

Forgot I'd already rolled for you.

Fixed.

[Shroom Man 777]

I did not consent to the usage of my creation, and the nation I used in SDNW4, the Bragulan Star Empire.

[Simon_Jester]

It was Shep's idea to have them in as an NPC, I assumed he'd cleared it with you. I apologize.

So far, there is nothing but the listing and the roll. Shall I remove it?

[Shroom Man 777]

When he said Bragulans, I assumed he meant a handful of Brags making cameo appearances doing whatever or something, which would be fine by me, not the BSE.

Remove it.

[Simon_Jester]

Hmph.

All right.

[The Romulan Republic]

Romulan Republic
??? (Possibly a republic of Romulans?)
Micronation

I hadn't planned on playing Romulans, but I like the idea. Mind if I borrow it?

More to come shortly.