Unnamed Mothership Setting

Ismail Inceoglu

There's a bright and shining center to the universe, and it's a long ways out from here. Door's been closed for ages. No trespassing, no solicitation, no visitors without an appointment. The future went on ahead without us and left us behind, with all the dust and the rust and the dinged-up hand-me-downs.

It's a big, old, empty, beautiful universe. Little islands of people trying to get by, and a whole lot of black between.

(Mothership is a fantastic game, people.)

Space Travel

Ship's engines of 30 or below are considered sublight drives.

Engines greater than 30 are considered warp drives.

Engine Stat	Ship Speed	Per Light Year	Time Dilation	Time Debt
10	0.75 C	456.56 days	321.42 days	135.14 days / LY
20	0.85 C	420.04 days	226.45 days	193.59 days / LY
30	0.95 C	383.51 days	120.53 days	262.98 days / LY
40	12 C	30.44 days	N/A	N/A
50	24 C	15.22 days	N/A	N/A
60	36 C	10.15 days	N/A	N/A
70	48 C	7.61 days	N/A	N/A
80	60 C	6.09 days	N/A	N/A

Jump drives are rated according to how many decaLY can be traversed in a single hyperspace jump. The standard shipboard time passage is 3 days / light year. Hyperspace travel is highly irregular on the observer side: roll 1d10 - on a 9-10, multiply the travel time by xd10 (x=Jump rating) and multiply it by travel time to determine any delay. 

Extraterrestrial Life

Life is out there, and it's not even particularly rare. There's carbon/oxygen-based life, methane-based life, ammonia based life, chlorine based life. Most of it is microbial, and of the larger organisms found none have shown any signs of technical prowess beyond simple tool usage. There are a great many dolphins, apes, and elephants among the stars, but man is still alone. The stars are as quiet as they have always been.

Technological civilizations of the deep past are still a matter of debate. No direct evidence has yet been found, but certain paleontological digs (Epsilon Eridani d in particular) have garnered some popularity in the scientific community.

They Might Be Giants

Posthumanity (that is, those humans who digitized themselves long ago and all their offshoots and descendants) is a not-quite-sleeping giant. By population and spread, the digital gods dwarf humanity's interstellar civilization by orders of magnitude, but they play no real part in the lives of folks like you and me. The gulf between is too great to bridge. This has actually worked in humanity's favor.

They prefer habitats to planets, building dyson swarms around red dwarfs set to last trillions of years and filling up Oort clouds with supercomputer processors. They typically ignore humanity entirely, save in those cases where they feel the need to swat away intruders. Communication with them is non-existent, but it seems that for the time being posthumanity is content to let its forgotten brethren go along its own way.

I Owe My Soul to the Company Store

Outside of collective communities (and sometimes even then), it's a gig economy out there. The Company posts a job, freelancers with a ship take it. It's rarely a friendly relationship: the Company provides nothing beyond pay upon completion - any other support is going to come from the assorted unions, collectives, religious organizations and co-operatives out there.

While there are, of course, thousands and thousands of interplanetary and interstellar companies out there, spacers will invariably just call them the Company.

Some Notes on Tech

• Hyperspace communications are invariably fucked every time they are attempted. News travels as fast as the fastest ship.
• Self-improving AI and digital upload tech are quashed hard by posthumanity. They don't want competition. Weak AI will get a pass.
• Timekeeping still runs on the 365.25 day Earth year. Exactly what year it is is not supremely important.
• Cybernetics and biotech are out there, but are usually for cosmetic and health purposes.
  

Sung Choi

Solar Gazetteer

Human space is an irregular, blobby sphere stretching outwards from Sol. Thousands of systems have been explored and hundreds permanently settled, but in the scope of the final frontier that doesn't mean much. Even with faster-than-light travel, space refuses to be any less big.

Most populated worlds are within 50 light-years of Earth - beyond that margin colonies become progressively more widely scattered and independently-minded. Out past 250 LY it's mostly nothing but out'sters and posthumans and "here be space dragons".

I'll be putting up a companion post soon detailing a sandbox of 18 nearby solar systems, plus a scattering of other exoplanets to throw down wherever you might wish.

Stuff Outright Stolen From Eclipse Phase

For more goodies, I recommend the Farcast, Seedware, and H-Rep blogs

Name	Description	Source
1. A Thousand Words for Fire	Open-source extreme life-achievement challenge.	Farcast 212
2. After-Eden	Commune that celebrates preventable medical disfigurements.	Farcast 57
3. Ageshift	Medical treatment to induce outward signs of a specific age.	Farcast 259
4. Anthropomorphism	Mindhack; subject anthropomorphizes everything.	Seedware 133
5. Asshole Geese	Even in the future, they are assholes. Semi-reliable guards.	Seedware 291
6. Bonsai	Fun hobby when you have lots of time and no gravity.	Seedware 262
7. Boomfruit	Exploding fruit. Harmless, usually entertaining.	Seedware 302
8. Bouncerfeet	Flexible feet with opposable toes, can hold objects.	MRG 13
9. Break Bread	Nutrient-rich bricks; add water and last a week off of one.	Farcast 96
10. Brownies	Out-of-sight domestic cleaner bots.	Seedware 95
11. Bruixera	Possibly-legendary den of iniquity.	Farcast 225
12. Burning Plague	Engineered virus; causes flammable tumors.	Farcast 201
13. Cancer Dreams	Engineered disease; stress-generated cancers.	Farcast 245
14. Case	Cheap, poorly-made android models. Off-the-shelf.	MRG 15
15. Catal Hayuk	Neolithic historical recreation habitat with permanent population.	Rimward 63
16. Catopia	Popular VR MMO. Everyone is a perfectly normal cat.	Seedware 281
17. Cheshire	Hairless cat breed with chameleon skin. Freaky as hell.	Seedware 13
18. Church of Luminous Saints	Militant post-Christian sect; really likes themselves some WMDs.	X-Risks 74
19. Coiled Canines	Friendly like a dog, wriggly as a ferret, long as a snake.	Seedware 110
20. Common-Sense Network	Low-pop. anarchist collectives running local direct democracy.	Rimward 175
21. Cubehive Corp	Makers of affordable ultra-compact housing and habitats.	H-Rep 147
22. Designer Synaesthesia	Popular mindhack among artists and unorthodox scientists.	Seedware 231
23. DIY Shipyards	Enthusiastic anarchists build anything to order if you help out.	Rimward 86
24. DNA Chaff	Grenade filled with organic dust; throws analysts into a tizzy.	Panopticon 150
25. Drooga	Mind-altering vodka-variant; tends to start sizable riots.	Farcast 133
26. Dummy Barrier	Insulation between a hacker and	H-Rep 60
27. Earthcon	Convention celebrating Earth and its old cultures.	Farcast 337
28. Elysian Fields	Habitat dedicated to those dying in peace and dignity.	Sunward 137
29. Engineer's Womb	Exowomb implant; safe, quick, comfortable.	Seedware 119
30. Eusocial Monkey Butlers	Exactly what it says on the tin. Popular with the rich.	Seedware 81
31. Exonaturals	The business of getting alien resources from here to there.	Farcast 215
32. Faceless	A faceless sphinx of black stone; popular 'net rumor.	Farcast 145
33. Francesca's Cheese & Wine	Hole-in-the-wall vender-fabber; no one knows who Francesca is.	Seedware 208
34. Fur Coat	Actually a living organism that you wear.	X-Risks 157
35. Gardener Bees	Programmed and modified beehives. Guardwasps available.	Panopticon 154
36. Get Your Ass to Mars	Spaceship fleet hosts anarchist olympics.	Rimward 173
37. Glowstick Fungus	Grows about a foot and a half, glows green-yellow.	Farcast 308
38. Gold Ballast	It's basically worthless for anything else.	Farcast 298
39. Grendal's Loop	Hyperspace coordinates that send you back where you started.	Farcast 218
40. Gut Macrofauna	Some people just want to be a hive. For art.	Seedware 52
41. House of Screaming Bricks	The worst prison in human space. No one owns up to it.	Farcast 29
42. Hypothetical Handbook	Popular series of "what-if" guides, from mundane to mad.	Seedware 16
43. IP Enforcement	They aren't above sending someone with a gun.	Rimward 65
44. Jellybone Suit	Vacuum-sealed goo-suit for extreme environment protection.	Farcast 4
45. Jester Virus	Engineered virus; causes uncontrollable laughter.	H-Rep 211
46. K-Flask	Add water and some organic primer, get milk. Ferments well, too.	Farcast 67
47. Kaiju Therapy	Put on VR, pretend to be a monster, feel better.	Seedware 190
48. Language Synthesis	The art of building a functioning language from scratch.	Farcast 159
49. Laughing Policeman	Interrogation drug; target induced to openness and cooperation.	Firewall 175
50. Liangamish	Giant genitalia-themed temple complex.	Farcast 288
51. Lick Me I'm Delicious	Ship fleet out to visit every human-settled world.	Rimward 173
52. Lilith Sequence	Genemod; Allows reproduction via parthenogenesis.	Farcast 126
53. Livestock	Non-sapient humans modified for food; popular with the rich.	Seedware 142
54. Maintenance Rats	Smart rodents modified to actually fix the wiring.	Farcast 235
55. Manna Tree	Nutritious high-water fruit, aspirin bark, rot-resistant wood.	Seedware 86
56. Meathab	Space station made out of meat. Probably alive.	Rimward 77
57. Medicrabs	Cute little robot buddies to stitch you back up.	Seedware 44
58. Medusa Locks	Muscular dreadlocks, a replacement for hair.	Seedware 205
59. Minervan Fleet	Wandering ex-military fleet looking to find enemies fight them.	X-Risks 78
60. Mme. Bleu	Android fixer / crime boss. Bodies found across human space.	Farcast 65
61. Mobile Greenhouse	Precisely what it seems. A touch of nature on barren worlds.	H-Rep 34
62. Mood Lizard	Therapy animal. Quiet, good at cuddling, skin responds to owner.	Farcast 151
63. Moon Worms	Add water and sugar, it generates alcohol.	Seedware 68
64. Mortal Diamonds	The remains of war heroes, compressed into diamonds.	Farcast 285
65. Nanobrush	Little blue pellets that will clean out your mouth. Minty fresh.	H-Rep 178
66. Neptunium Skull	Legendary cursed / radioactive artifact, Holy Grail of thieves.	Farcast 172
67. New Day Corp	Developers of neanderthal genome splices.	Panopticon 121
68. Nostalgia Cigarettes	Drug; induces feelings of nostalgia.	Seedware 199
69. Pearls	Painful side-effect of glitching internal nanomachines.	Seedware 237
70. Pod Variants	Typical human-presenting models for androids.	Corebook 142
	1) Ayah - Caretakers, teachers, nannies.
	2) Basic - General-purpose androids.
	3) Pleasure - Sex-change module + pheromonal control.
	4) Security - Not quite extra muscle, but same principle.
	5) Vacuum - Built for space work; 0-G and stellar radiation.
	6) Worker - Sturdy and solid, good for manual labor.
71. Programmers Without Borders	Charitable organization of hackers and devs. They'll fix you up.	Farcast 317
72. Red Five Advanced Hueristics	Advertising firm dealing with stolen military programming memes.	X-Risks 86
73. Relationship Mapper	Software to map out and detail someone's entire social web.	Panopticon 156
74. Remnant Garden	Gardens grown around corpses.	Seedware 280
75. Rep Day	Holiday for giving gifts to people on your rep network.	Farcast 263
76. Robo-Mule	Everyone's favorite six-legged luggage-hauler.	Gatecrashing 162
77. Rocket Rhosa	Traveling armorer, weaponsmith, and whiskey-chugging veteran.	Farcast 290
78. Rust Hound	Dog breed, originally modified for Mars. Big and red.	X-Risks 160
79. Sharkteeth	Removable tooth, grows to a dagger in mineral-rich water.	Farcast 88
80. Shiprot	Object lesson in entropy; the wear and tear of a ship in use.	Farcast 306
81. Shipslug	Vacuum-adapted; often used for exterior ship repairs.	Farcast 144
82. Shut-In	Drug; induces feelings of melancholy, focus, and introspection.	H-Rep 96
83. Slitheroid	Robotic-presenting android model with serpentine lower half.	MRG 91
84. Soma Fruit	Fruit bred to carry low-intensity social drugs.	Farcast 326
85. Spigipede	Kinda like a pig and a worm, popular food among spacers.	Farcast 287
86. Survivor's Yeast	Add it to nearly anything organic for edible, unpalatable sludge.	Seedware 267
87. Tasping	Mindhack; pleasure/reward centers linked to a specific action.	Seedware 140
88. Tentaball	A ball with tentacles. Used as a ranged restraining device.	Seedware 101
89. Terracotta Warriors of Mars	Once-popular android design.	Seedware 236
90. The Conch	Refugee ship given over to three Company scions. Bad news.	Rimward 137
91. The Holy See	The pope, in space. Also a woman. Jesuits in space too.	Rimward 46
92. To Be Tuesday	"Game" in which players control the same android for one day.	Farcast 192
93. Transbovine	Modified cows; includes superauroch beefslugs.	Farcast 63
94. Translucent / Bioluminecent	Common cosmetic biomods.	Seedware 18/19
95. Vengeance of Enki	Engineered disease; targets ability to comprehend symbols.	Farcast 140
96. Virtue Plague	Engineered disease; subjects become high-empathy pacifists.	Seedware 203
97. Void Sisters	Shadowy sisterhood with plans on shaping the future.	Farcast 268
98. "Wait, That Was You?"	The typical outcome of being the feature of a viral meme.	Panopticon 147
99. Wild Artificials	Robots with animal-level AI, loose and able to reproduce.	Sunward 177
100. Winterist	Genemod, sexless, save for short monthly periods of fertility.	Rimward 189

 

Social Networks

Rep Network	Who's Online	Source
@-rep	Autonomists	Corebook 286
*-rep	Space Marines	Farcast 211
B-rep	Androids	Me
C-rep	Civic / Corporate	Corebook 286
E-rep	Ecologists	Corebook 286
F-rep	Media	Corebook 286
G-rep	Criminals	Corebook 286
H-rep	Homebrewers	H-Rep 4
K-rep	Kindness Network	Farcast 36
P-rep	Video Games	H-Rep 184
R-rep	Research	Corebook 286
T-rep	Teamsters	Me
X-rep	Explorers	Gatecrashing 148

Cowboy Bebop