Diaspora Worldbuilding

So I'm guessing I'm pre atomic, one planet, and shit resources

There are tables. I'll try to get them into a copy/pastable form

But for you,
Tech: Industrialization.
Basically everywhere from the investion of the steam engine to the automic bomb.
Energy can be created from natural resources and transferred, production can be mass produce.

This is the top reproducible tech, not necessarily the top tech present btw.

Habitat: One garden world and several hostile worlds.
One of your planets is well suited for human life. Most of it can be inhabited by people with no technological assistance.

There are several other worlds with atmosphere, stable tectonics and gravity. But those worlds can't be lived on without technology help for even basic tasks.

-2 Resources
Needs Imports.
Without importing basic resources from another system civilization will start to collapse, and quickly.
If the civilizatin can find something to offer in trade, getting those imports is possible, but they have no real excess of any material resource.

to clarify, this isn't really about 'winning' or anything with these stats, it's about creating an interesting story setting.
Personally I find worlds with more negatives to be more interesting.

Brief summary of stat results:

T+4 is call 'verge of collapse'. You're getting tech that lets you start breaking the hard sci-fi setting, but there is something that is currently or soon will cause society to fall apart.
T+2 is where you get slipstream, ie FTL tech. If no world rolls this or above the shittiest system gets bumped.

1= exploiting space, 0= exploring space. then automic, industrial, metal, and stone ages.

Habitat:
Worlds are rated as Garden: earthlike to paradise. Great for humans
Survivable: People can live here, but it sucks and at least some tech is needed.
Hostile: Has the 3 basics, atmo, water, and gravity, but at least one of those isn't the what humans need to survive. Think Mars or Europa.

Barren: It's a rock with okay gravity and little to no atmo.

0 is a garden world, below zero you go down that list, above zero you add several other worlds going up the list.

Resources are the easiest to define.
0 is your okay, but you don't have anything much extra.
-1 your needing help, +1 you have more than you'll need.
+/- 2 there is something special and useful you have or really need.
+/-3 the same but several things
+4 can supply an entire splitstream cluster. The very space between planets contains valuable resources.
-4 at this point something unnatural must have sucked all the resources out.

...

Rolled 3, 3, 2, 1, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1, 3, 3, 2 = 27 (12d3)

I'll bite

Alright, so if i've done this right, then it's
>Tech:1
>Habitat: 1
>Resources: 1
Hello there, incredibly generic but well above average system.

Welcome to Remus, local garden world, head of the Laurel system, and home to a vast continent of rolling hills and wide inland seas. In the last few centuries the planet's finally clawed itself back from the brink, with an end to conflict essentially being bought with the vast riches of the star system flowing from the power that got up there first. While the areas around those seas, save one, usually have a fairly cozy climate, ranging from lush jungles to a pleasant Mediterranean, the inland of one vast chunk of land tends towards the arid. Not much out there.

As for the other planets? Not much to write home about. Via's a bit too small and... eternally scorched by Laurel to ever be more useful than spurring the youth into astronomy whenever it transits over the star. Tiber's got the water, sure, but it's kinda out there. That glorified icebox can't do much for us. And as for Romulus...?

We, uh, don't reall know what happened with Romulus. Lost to time, yeah? Probably wouldn't have noticed a thing if those craters weren't suspiciously well placed and well shaped, and for that matter matching that one particularly crater-like sea back on Remus. Later expeditions revealed a few twisted girders, the occasional tomb, and not much else. The world's dead, and has been for longer than we can know.

Rolled 3, 1, 1, 2, 3, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2 = 20 (12d3)

Giving it a shot. Rohirum Sector incoming

Tech:-1
Habitat:-2
Resources:-1

Rohirum, a red behemoth of a planet that rotates around a dying sun. The world is cold, but humanity has found a way to artificially warm its atmosphere enough to maintain livable underground shelters.

Soon, the world will run out of nuclear material. Without much hope, the Rohirum sector grows more cold and still by the day. Their underground complexes losing the capacity to hold population as energy rations grow stiffer.

>system that has a few inhabited worlds, but needs to figure out how to get between them to supply their needs. Needs trade in the long term
>system of one inhabited world whose hegemon essentially bribes the subservient regions into obedience with resources carved from the rocks of the system
>system of a inhabited world that is in desperate need of nuclear materials, among other things
>not sure which one of the two -1s gets bumped up to TL2

I feel like Laurel might hold a somewhat large amount of sway in the sector, being the only ones with excess resources and all.

Rolled 1, 3, 1, 3, 3, 1, 3, 3, 3, 1, 1, 3 = 26 (12d3)

Trying as the Senones republic.

>Skabra: -1 resources
>Unnamed System: -2 resources
>Rohrium: -1 resources
>Senones: 0 resources

>Laurel: 1 resources
How can systemlets even compete?

wow was not expecting this thread to still be up.

And wow this cluster is resource poor. Looks like there is going to be conflict over resources.

One more system and I'll set up the cluster connection and possibly have to pull out the Slipstream Guarentee, as right now no one can travel between systems.

Rolled 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2 = 32 (12d3)

Bonertown here I come!

Tech +2
Environment +3
Resources +3

Bonertown principality looks like the big dick of the setting. I like it!

well, fuck. Looks like we found the top dog of the setting.

The resources is actually good for the whole cluster thought, we're now at neutral so the cluster can be supported, if we want.

Also, just to clarify/repeat, +1 resources means you have more than enough of everything basic. +2/3 means you also have something special or exceptional. Multiple things for +3.

Tech +2 means you have FTL, but can't really invade or wage offensive war against Tech+1, even Tech+0 is hard.

Now to make the cluster.

I don't think there's much warfare in the cluster, because the Bonertownians are the only ones having something worth taking, and others lack means to wage war on them.

so I mix up the starting postion, because that effects how clusters can connect. After randomizing and such here's how the cluster looks.

oops forgot the update the aspects. Ignore them for now.

and Rohirum has the wrong listed habitat level.
Luckily for them, they're pretty well connected. Now they just have to convince someone to help them take advantage of that fact.

Bonertown also looks pretty connected.

Skabra is a little isolated, though not terrible. It just needs to convince some crews of freighters to ply their system.

Bonertown and Laurel have a proxy conflict on Senones, influencing the locals. In theory they could do it in Rohirum too, but it's too much of a shithole for either to care for it.

Now those are some NOICE rolls.

>every system Laurel connects to is one Bonertown is also connected to
I mean, I guess cornering markets as a resource 1 world was already out of the question, but it's going to be an even tougher sell than it would be otherwise when you're trying to compete with the local powerhouse.

Also: If Tech -2 is "Industrial", what does that make -3? Straight up Age of Sail?

Corollary to that: Bonertownians are too comfy and self-satisfied to influence other systems as a public policy. Instead it's private corporations meddling in foreign affairs looking for quick profit. They're peace loving and lazy people who just happen to be the biggest weapons exporter in the cluster.

Skabra just needs traders. They aren't desperately poor, but their system survival needs them to be able to move goods around the system and they don't have the means to do it.

They aren't centrally located, and neither system they connect to has any real resources either, so they have nothing to draw legitimate traders to their system. So their stuck attracting illegitimate traders.

Providing staging points, entertainment, and other services for the smugglers, pirate, and other scum of the clusters.
Spaceport cities are the only real source of economic advancement, and foreigners there bring in money. But they're dangerous, dirty, and social blights on their planets.

Aspect: Shelter for scum.

metalic age.
Anything from bronze age up to age of sail.
Tools can be manufactured with other tools, limited ability to generate power from readily available natural resources (horses, sails, rivers).

-4 is straight up stone age.

as resource 1 you still have resources to trade. Maybe not as many as Bonertown, but especially as Bonertown is corporate based you'll have people willing to pay for your good.

And Tech 1 is exploiting the system, you can fully mine and process all your systems resources without aid, so you can maintain your own presence in those trade dealing if you want.
You're right that you won't dominate, but you can definitely be real factor.

Could still be done, Bonertown is focused primarily in its internal politics. The standard of living the general populace has accustomed to is ridiculously high, and as a result even minor inconveniences become major fucking affairs to them. Whatever they use to contact other worlds is well equipped and supported, but always almost an afterthought in numbers and hampered by bureaucracy and public opinion.

One thing that bothers me is that the tech level eras get longer inversely proportional to the frequency which with they occur.

Tech -1 lasts less less than a century, tech -2 is only a few hundred years longer. Tech -3 however is pretty much all of recorded history, and tech -4 is millions of years of hominid evolution.

Projecting this in the other direction it would make sense if technological advancement slows down again as the positive tech levels represent stable plateaus of technological development, with T4 representing Utopian stasis or total collapse (Indistinguishable from T-4)

But this would present us with a cluster full of apes and angles, with T0 representing a fleeting moment in a civilizations development. Instead it's the most common.

>apes and angles.
Derp

>with T4 representing Utopian stasis or total collapse
that's basically correct. T4 is threshold of collapse.

And while that's the time length in our history, it's different in diaspora, as society grows and collapse over and over. -1 might not represent the short century of advancement, but several centuries of slow collapse.
Tech -3 or -4 could have come from a sudden collapse.

Also, in all cases, there can be elements of more advanced tech. Tech is just the highest level they can reproduce. A Tech -3 world could have old giants spaceships at the center of their cities. etc.

What I'm saying is there should be more "Old giant spaceship cities that nobody knows how to rebuild", and "Established space empires who are still building giant spaceships, than there are T0 societies who are just now re-discovering space travel.

I mostly agree.
I do like how rare +/- 3 and 4 are, as those should be rare, but I wish +/- 2 where more common. But I don't know how to make that happen.
I have considered using alternate stat generation, but wanted to try it again oldschool as I'm out of practice running these.

I just wish there was a way to generate a bathtub curve. Fate dice are pretty much designed to make as perfect a bell curve as possible with 4 dice.

so I've got an idea
Do the D6-D6 roll, but modified. That creates a -5 to +5 range, so we shift it slightly
+/- 3 goes to 2
+/- 4 goes to 3.
and +/-5 goes to 4.

Another idea might be to just turn the results inside out.

a zero is no civilization. Usually this means there was a civilization at one point which went extinct, but it could also mean no civilization ever. (Maybe you just aren't looking hard enough)

Positive results still mean high tech, and negative results still mean low tech, but they are now reversed with respect to their absolute value.

>-4 means a civilization with atomic power, about to start exploring space (T-1)
>+4 means a T1 civilization that has just discovered space travel (T1)
>-3 means an Industrial civilization. (T-2)
>+3 means a civilization with basic slipstream use (T2)
>-2 means Feudal primitives (T-3)
>+2 means a mature space-faring civilization. (T3)
>-1 means Tribal primitives (T-4)
>+1 means a decadent space-faring civilization (T4)

This would mean that angels and apes are the most common type. Not quite what you are looking for, but definitely a different setup than the overly normalized Defaults. It also means there will be a lot of empty systems to colonize.

I don't understand. Are you guys still doing new systems, or just fleshing out the ones already here?

Also, I should point out that this scheme can be further hacked by re-arranging the values as needed. If you want T4 civs to be less common, you can always un-invert the positive values so that T1 civs become as common as Tribals, and T4 civs become as common as atomic power.

You can also put the old T0 back if you want. This creates a sort of rolling distribution shaped like a saw, and implies that history is cyclical, an important theme in Diaspora. Once you get to T4, the counter rolls over to zero, and counts back up negative until you reach -4 and reset again.

>+4 Decadent interstellar civilization
>+3 Mature interstellar civilization
>+2 Basic interstellar civilization
>+1 Basic Interplanetary civilization
> 0 Tribal primitives (old T-4)
>-1 Feudal primitives (old T-3)
>-2 Industrial primitives (old T-2)
>-3 Atomic primitives (old T-1)
>-4 Information age primitives (old T0)

right now fleshing out.

I'll run another one in 8 hours or so.

We're talking about other possible generation methods because this is the closest thing Veeky Forums ever gets to a Diaspora general.

just to point out, T0 is a bit more advanced than that.
We're still definetly T-1 on earth now. At T0, manned missions to the out planets are definetly a thing, and maned space stations are more common. If multiple planets are habitable, there can be trade between them.
It's right at the edge of astoroid mining being real economic prospect.

I understand that T0 represents shit like Planetes, or The Martian, but personally I don't think that thematically it's worthwhile to separate that shit from T-1 and T1, when T-3 covers everything from the bronze age to the industrial revolution.

I'd just as well have T-1 cover everything from the fist satellites, to the first manned mars mission. And I usually use the T0 points scale when designing rocketpunk type spaceships.

Lastly, by removing T0, you add room for the complete absence of civilization. A very important distinction from the stone age primitives found at T-4. You can fight or trade with primitive humans, but the option to be completely alone with no infrastructure or communities is a different challenge entirely. Antarctica vs the Amazon.

I think how the gameplay is supposed to happen after the game setup makes the T0s not as bad.
As the players are supposed to be on a ship with T2 capacity minimum, so T0s are fairly primative civilizations that can still interact with the players in terms of being in space.

If I was actually making a PC party game i'd definetly stick to the standard generation, but I basically never do that so I will try an alternate scheme for the next generation.

I'm still not convinced there is much difference interacting between a T0 and a T-1 civ that can't be better handled by aspects. Either way T2 PCs can either outmaneuver them or flat out destroy them with T2 civilian ships.

And remember, T2 civs are still protected by the slipstream grantee, so players will have them no matter what. And a bathtub distribution actually makes it more likely they'll have T3 or 4 ships, making T0 even less important.

hmm, thinking about something like
then.
I don't think T+1 is a problem. It's pretty clearly stated, and the stats work out, that T+2 has an advantage over T+1, but if you're in a T+1 system the homefield advantage matters more.

I'll think about it at work.
I'll run another at 23:00 EST tonight.

I like T+1, I just think that T0 and T-1 aren't different enough from the perspective of a T2 force. The problem was never T1 but rather T0.

Remember T0 and T-1 forces will only ever encounter themselves, or T2 invaders. Barring extraordinary circumstances there is no reason for them to ever fight T1 foes.

Mechanically speaking they are "T1 but worse." I don't think we need more than one level of that. Esp when we already gloss over thousands of years of history in T-3.

>Skabra is a pirate/smuggler staging ground
>connects directly to Rohirum
>Bonertown ships are probably avoided by pirates to avoid rousing the wrath of Bonertown (and perhaps avoid losing their corporate arms dealers?)
>which means Laurel ships are likely bearing the brunt of pirate raids
fug

>t. Remus

Threads still up?

Nice. Lets try again if anyones interested. Still doing 12d3s for rolling but I'm changing what Tech -1 and Tech 0 means.

Roll them to find out what they are.

Rolled 1, 3, 3, 2, 1, 3, 1, 2, 3, 3, 1, 3 = 26 (12d3)

Once more, I'll bite.

Tech +1, so the new stuff remains a mystery.
But at least this time your fairly wealthy at R+2.
That enough to not only be rich, but have one significant export that you have a lot of and everyones going to want.
T+1 is enough to extract it, and possibly even defend it.
H 0, so one garden world (Nice), but everything else is a gas giant or a barren rock.

oh, so remembering a bit more about what T+1 means.

At this point you've got fusion power. Or stuff like that. It's still pretty big, and a little dangerous, but you're able to get huge amounts of power without too much worry.
Colonies are a thing you can support, though with H0 those are on barren rock or open space so kinda constrained there. But you can do it.

Space travel is expensive, but something that a reasonably well off person can afford to do without going broke.

But you can decide from there.

Rolled 3, 3, 1, 3, 3, 2, 1, 3, 3, 1, 3, 3 = 29 (12d3)

rolling because I can't stop myself.

Room for more btw, lets get some more players.

T+2, H+1, R+2

This cluster is starting out much richer.
Now to think up what my export is. And other stuff.

Elium is a near idyllic world, with a temperate climate. It's cities are towering gleaming spires, but without the pollution as advanced technology in industry and air scrubbing keeps the air fresh.

This idyllic status is maintained by having any potentially disruptive elements sent off planet. The smart ones leave quickly and peacefully, joining one of the many space trading companies, using Slipstream to trade the systems good across the cluster.

The more foolish or stubborn are sent to work the mines and heavy industries on the hostile planets of Hera and Cyphus, whose natural atmosphere is so toxic that pollution is not a concern. These work forces provide the raw material for trade and the manufacturing on the Elium.

The most valuable resource on the system in harvested neither by convict slaves, nor produced by citizens. The moon of Ossun is the most hostile of the habited environs of the system, but the ecological protections are even more strict than on Elium. For it is the precise warmth held in by the thick methan blanket, and balance of heavy metals that allows the Ossun rose to grow. The componds in the flowers are impossible to replicate. The tending and harvesting of these plants is done by a religious order, whose operation, and proselytization, is funded by the government in return for shipments of Ossun roses.

Let's see if I can get in this

Rolled 2, 2, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1, 3, 1, 3, 1, 2 = 22 (12d3)

let's try that without derping

tech +1, the rule changes remain a mystery.

Habitat -1, one survivable world. Survivable means humans can live there with the most basic tech, but something makes it hard and/or unpleasant.

Resources -1, Almost viable.
Your economy almost works, it's so close. There isn't anything major that you have nothing of. But you don't have quite enough of a few things to keep your society working.

You can make up for it with trade, at a disadvantage unless someone is generous, or will slowly slowly, start falling apart.

so am I a stone age society or current earth tech

neither.
Tech +1 is called "exploiting the system".
You've got the technology to travel your own system and harvest it's resources.

see and I realize I might have been unclear about the tech changes.
Those will only change the results for Tech -1 and Tech 0.
Tech 4 is top tech: "treshold of collapse".
Tech-4 is stone age. Same as base rules seen
stat summaries.