Once upon a time, over the gravity well and far away, there was a magical land where they had no kings, no laws, no money and no property, but where everybody lived like a prince, was very well-behaved and lacked for nothing. And these people lived in peace, but they were bored, because paradise can get that way after a time, and so they started to carry out missions of good works; charitable visits upon the less well-off, you might say; and they always tried to bring with them the thing that they saw as the most precious gift of all; knowledge; information; and as wide a spread of that information as possible, because these people were strange, in that they despised rank, and hated kings… and all things hierarchic.
You might call them soft, because they're very reluctant to kill, and they might agree with you, but they're soft the way the ocean is soft, and, well; ask any sea captain how harmless and puny the ocean can be.
NO user PLZ DONT TELL THEM WHERE I AM I DONT WANT TO DIE FROM NANOSWARMS
Joseph Gonzalez
*pulls gun out of hidden compartment*
Oliver Mitchell
>muh egalitarian hedonism BLOOD AND HONOR EMPEROR AND IMPERIUM
Nathan Turner
Inversions was a fun book.
James Rogers
I understood that reference.
Christopher Ward
'Works better with these,'
Kevin Gray
Once upon a time, over the gravity well and far away, there was a place where men had given up on life's worth. They built machines, and their machines seemed very clever, so they decided that they didn't need to think anymore and relied on their machines to do so for them. They lived long, and their days were filled with idle pleasures, but few of them ever experienced anything meaningful, borne from endeavor or forged in struggle. The word "gravitas" became a word to ridicule. Though they seemed content with their feasts and song, their worlds were as a prison, for those in that realm were subject to the whims of their machines.
Sometimes they sent ships to other lands, bringing their machines with them, convincing the nations they met to join them, by words or by gold or by cloak and dagger. Their machines told them that it was all for the best, and they believed it. The machines were clever, after all.
One day, however, they became aware of a different land. A place under a different sky, with people who looked very different from other men, but their souls shone brightly, as they had been touched by God. Their lives were all their own, and their machines served them instead of being their masters. They were the Idirans, who looked upon the Culture in disgust, and razed their soulless Orbitals in righteous fury.
Isaac Jackson
That's some of the first Idiran art I've ever seen, neat (though the Idirans IIRC believe that only THEY have souls).
In the sense that we understand it, yes. Xoralundra's line to Horza, I think, is to laugh in his face and say "Whoever heard of a mortal creature with an immortal soul?"
Easton Reyes
Is this a motherfucking Culture thread? Nice.
I'm running a savage worlds Sci-fi game and have been shamelessly lifting concepts from the Culture series. It's so much fun to plan and run.
Next session the players are gonna meet a SC operative (in everything but name). I've built him with a ton of useful mods, but I have time to improve or change things. What sort of bullshit should he be capable of?
James Moore
First we need to know what he can already do and his role before we suggest new things.
Jason Davis
Sure I can give specifics. Subdermal armor, increased reflexes, augmented vision, subdermal energy weapons and a pair of knife missiles hidden under his clothes. He's a plant inciting and organizing a resistance against a totalitarian regime.
As I said I'm using Savage Worlds for my game; the point of bringing it up was to start a conversation about rules systems and space operas.
If you were going to run a Culture themed game how would you do it? Can it be fun? I felt the need to tone the power level down in order to make player action actual mean something. Seeing as how they arn't Minds.
Brayden Ward
Ideas: >various types of pheromone glands to influence people >clothes or skin made of a material that acts as a phased laser array, used as a hologram projector and to blind people (also projecting memetic viruses) >sound box that can emit a huge variety of sounds at a massive range of (potentially lethal or deafening) volumes >lightweight matter converter in his stomach: eat matter, convert it and vomit it up as something useful like converting basic materials into a powerful liquid explosive block >glands that create paralysing venom, injected through fingers >nanofilament wires that can hook into stuff discretely to directly hack/effect it (like through someones ear into their brain). Basically a shitty close range Effector that can be easily stopped, if you detect it.
>If you were going to run a Culture themed game how would you do it? Members of the Culture/contact/SC investigating a mysterious mega-structure left behind by an Elder species, this way you can give them lots of fun high tech gadgets but keep it balanced by throwing equally high tech bullshit and out-of-context problem at them. Hell, the players could even be Minds.
Carter Torres
Some solid ideas. I really should give him an effector unit now that I've nailed down hacking rules.
Yeah the ancient megastructures angle is one I'm pushing too, although the game is taking more of a Consider Phlebas approach due to the players murdering the captain of their little pirate ship and setting out for fortune and glory amidst an interstellar war.
I have one player who is essentially a Mind-in-development, an AI trying to become the best damn ship he can be.
I would love to have the Uber tech of the Culture in play in full force, but if my memory is correct that usually results in the instant and violent death of the protagonists whenever they encounter something Out of Context...
Ian Torres
>Actually good Idirian art that isn't some shitty 3d model Wow, that's great.
Camden Gonzalez
They believe that only they have IMMORTAL souls, I don't think they would entirely exclude them from other species like the Homodans.
Justin Sullivan
Then for all their zeal and "purpose" they got their butts kicked in and their trainwreck of an Empire go reshaped in the Culture's image.
Aiden King
I know bugger all about this, could you explain the Culture universe in short? Could one call them "heroes"?
Jonathan Allen
"TheCulture seriesis ascience fictionserieswritten by Scottish authorIain M. Banks. The stories center onthe Culture, autopian,post-scarcityspacecommunistsociety ofhumanoids,aliens, and very advancedartificial intelligencesliving inanarchisthabitats spread across theMilky Waygalaxy. The main theme of the novels is the dilemmas that an idealistichyperpowerfaces in dealing with civilizations that do not share its ideals, and whose behavior it sometimes finds repulsive. In some of the stories, action takes place mainly in non-Culture environments, and the leading characters are often on the fringes of (or non-members of) the Culture, sometimes acting as agents of Culture plans to civilize the galaxy" en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series
James Stewart
Cool. I always imagined them like,insanely bulky but the saddle-shaped head is a hard visual to do and both of these take a good shot.
That mantis-like Idiran is some funky shit.
Henry Powell
Now we just need the Affront.
Leo Evans
This one is pretty good.
Leo Mitchell
I like this one
Connor Watson
So, how do I get onto this ride? It sounds decent. Where to start?
John Myers
I didn't realise they were so huge. Mind you I thought Idirans were pretty much too.
Evan Fisher
Just start at the beginning, read Consider Phlebas.
Jaxon Bell
The best intro novel is Player of Games (also an extremely Veeky Forums novel). You can kind of go anywhere from there but I'd say:
>Great Use of Weapons
>Good Excession Inversions Look to Windward The Hydrogen Sonata The State of the Art
>Decent-to-Not-So-Decent Consider Phlebas (first one published) Matter Surface Detail
Benjamin Rodriguez
>tfw you didn't get into this series until the year banks announced his cancer
We shall never see his like again.
Jacob Howard
I generally recommend people start with either "Excession" or "Use of Weapons".
Angel Roberts
Consider Phlebas is fun, but it's not really representative of the rest of the series, so a lot of people say to start with The Player of Games.
