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Thread: Campaign Stuff

  1. #1
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    Campaign Stuff

    Well, Styro suggested I post this...

    STAR TREK: ATHENA

    This is the current campaign for our game. Set in 2382 on the Akira -class ship, Athena. The ship is sentient, with the latest computers Starfleet has to offer. The ship is tied to an avatar that is made from meidcal cybernetics, making her seem just as 'real' as normal humans (we're using Julie Strain for the body/face -- she has that kick-ass goddess feel to her, or so the computer thought when she chose the body form for her avatar.) He brain is a more advanced positronic with biogel pack memory. She packs 8x the computational ability of Data.

    Athena is the latest design out of Daystrom, which cracked the positronics problem in 2376 with the first android, Isis. There are more androids on the way, and Starfleet is still trying to decide about the praticality or safety of sentient starships. They can't legally stop the manufacture of new androids -- it is the equivalent of reproduction for Isis...they can't deny her right to 'have children'.

    There's a building problem between organics, who fear that this new 'species' -- much more intelligent, adaptive, and resilient than any other species in the Federation might rise to the top of the sociopolitical food chain. Some see the 'human-like' creatures as a diminution of the worth of humans. Why is being human important when machines are as smart, have feelings....perhaps even souls? Religion is starting to rear it's head in response to these social disturbances...

    Meanwhile, in the Kelinan Reach, Athena & her crew are exploring. They will come into contact with the series bad guy: a machine race that views the biologics as not lesser, but obsolete, life forms. These critters are composed of nanotubule-type machines that make these creatures a 'unified organism'. The anotubules can be used for processing, motor function, 'skin', etc. They can change their appearance to fit anything. They can communicate almost instantaneously with each other. They are individuals, but can operate in hive style. They reproduce by combining programming. They can be gaseous, solid, or fluid in form, can combine to form a larger entity -- up to starship size. They can infect biologics and break down the organic material for nanotubules -- turning them into machines versions of the biologic (they can map and replicate the memories and personality of the people.)

    These guys will wind up working to liberate their machine counterparts in the UFP, as well as bring the weak, slow organics into their machine fold.
    "War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

    John Stuart Mill

  2. #2
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    The events of Voyager never happened in this campaign. The Borg are still around, but the machine creatures (the Kelinan?) would very them as inferior. The combination of organic and synthetic is not very effective.

    I'm going for a lot of post-human questions: what is it to be human? When machines are sentient, does that devalue sentient biological life? This was easy to answer when the intelligent machines were represented by Data alone. Once you've got a bunch of these critters -- able to evolve faster and more effectively than organics -- I think you'd see serious social anome.

    On the machine side, what duty do you have to your creators to improve their lives -- even if it runs counter to the wishes of those creators? What responsiblity do you have to your own kind?

    Comments?
    "War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

    John Stuart Mill

  3. #3
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  4. #4
    Perrryyy Guest
    Interesting idea, and I like the social message. It also sounds a little like Andromeda vs the Borg, which doesn't sound too bad.

  5. #5
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    I'm also more interested in the social-political stuff with the rise of machine intelligence in the UFP, Perry.

    As for the Andromeda parallel, I guess that works -- though we've been doing ship avatars long before that show aired ( in Traveller if I recall...

    The Borg similarities work -- and I think for a normal Voyager inclusive camapign, Styro's ideas work well -- the difference being there is no attempt to incorporate the organics into the fold. This is an us vs. them thing -- organics are viewed as obsolete, but also dangerous. There ultimately should be a way for the characters to find rapproachment with these guys, if they live long enough...
    "War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

    John Stuart Mill

  6. #6
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    As a non sequitur, I'm happy to see another Athena out there. The best long-term Trek game I was involved in, I played the captain of the USS Athena, a Galaxy-class vessel. It was loads of fun.

    I like the idea of a sentient ship with an avatar. Takes the Minuet idea from TNG to the next level.

  7. #7
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    Originally posted by Ineti
    As a non sequitur, I'm happy to see another Athena out there. The best long-term Trek game I was involved in, I played the captain of the USS Athena, a Galaxy-class vessel. It was loads of fun.

    I like the idea of a sentient ship with an avatar. Takes the Minuet idea from TNG to the next level.
    Yeah, the Andromeda stuff aside, I always though the stuff with Minuet and Moriarty, and the engineer chick Geordie has recreated pointed to a sort of consciousness on Enterprise looking to manifest itself. Especially when the characters started acting outside of their programmed personalities...I didn't see that as holographic intelligence, but the an intelligence in the machine that created them.

    The computational power of these starship would almost seem to require a jump to sentiency at some point.
    "War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

    John Stuart Mill

  8. #8
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    Indeed. As a matter of fact, there's a short story in one of the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds anthologies that has the Enterprise-D as a near-sentient or sentient ship. It was an interesting read.

  9. #9
    Wasn't there an episode where the Enterprise actually gave birth to a life form?
    Portfolio | Blog Currently Running: Call of Cthulhu, Star Trek GUMSHOE Currently Playing: DramaSystem, Swords & Wizardry

  10. #10
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    Originally posted by C. Huth
    Wasn't there an episode where the Enterprise actually gave birth to a life form?
    "Evolution"

    Thankyou so much for reminding me - I'd nearly managed to forget that one!

    (It ranks somewhere near "Threshold" in my personal pantheon of Trek demon episodes...)
    Jon

    "There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea is asleep and the rivers dream; people made of smoke and cities made of song.
    Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, and somewhere else the tea is getting cold. Come on, Ace, we've got work to do."
    THE DOCTOR, "Survival" (Doctor Who)

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