Sphere:Longshots

It's 2170. About 100 years since founding, and hundreds of light years from Earth. You don't really care. They've barely spoken to some of you, and all the rest have are second-hand tales from trade caravans, about FTL failures and killer drones. They call it 'the Rim', but you just call it home.

Longshots Signup Sheet

Base Infrastructure

• 150 population
• 300 PIP
• 200 CIP
• 200 wealth
• 150 delta dust
• 12,500 military

History Paths

What Happened?

A1) Origins

Pioneers (+60 pop)

Some people petitioned the posthumans with the pure spirit of adventure. With no frontiers left on Earth, only longshots could satisfy the human drive for exploration and discovery.

Seperatists (+1250 military)

Others left to escape persecution, real or imagined. Distance from Earth would shield them and let them start anew.

Idealists (+morale)

Still others held in their minds an ideal for society. By travelling to a new land with like-minded people, they could make a better life, on sound principles.

A2) Colonists

Baseline (+60 pop)

Mixed (+10 transgene, +5 SP)

Transhuman (+20 transgene)

A3) Destination

Garden World (+60 pop)

Tolerable World (+10 SP)

Hell World (+morale)

No World (+shipbuilding)

B) Historical Events 1

Quiet (+60 pop)

Digging (+100 PIP)

Crisis (+1250 stockpiles)

Nationalism (+morale)

Military Action (+1250 military)

Artefact Find (+100 dust)

Improvements (+20 transgene)

C) Historical Events 2

As B.

D) Historical Events 3

As B.

What Now?

E1) Political Stance

Keep On Keeping On (+60 pop, +10 SP)

It's the 100th year since founding and we still haven't gone crazy. Pretty good for the neighbourhood.

Grand Ambition (+2500 military, +FTL application, -relations)

To the power-hungry, the isolation and fragmentation of the Rim is an opportunity, not an obstacle.

The Podunk Union (+relations, +FTL application)

Others look to soft power and cooperation against the challenges of deep space.

Open for Business (+100 wealth, +FTL application)

Despite the distances, trade can still be lucrative and many worlds focus on advancing opportunities.

Ideological Purity (++morale, +100 PIP, -relations)

Worlds based on certain ideologies can be extremely sanctimonious about them.

Get Out (+1250 military, +doctrines, +defences, -relations)

Worlds with bad experiences or things to hide take a tough line with outsiders.

National Security (+1250 military, +100 PIP)

Even less paranoid ones find it wise to invest in security.

E2) Economic System

Get Digging (+200 PIP)

Hard work and strong backs wean colonies off fabricators and onto their own two feet.

New Gilded Age (+1250 military, +200 PIP, -morale)

Get back to work, scum.

Fabricator Rations (+500 fabbers, -100 PIP, -200 CIP)

You had more than your share of fabricators, and your economy never graduated from dependence on them.

Social Management (+morale, +20 transgene)

Without annoying moralisers and lawyers looking over your shoulder, a rationally organised society can be set up.

Transistor Mines (+100 CIP, +100 dust or drexlers)

Sophisticated structures of posthuman or alien origin can be torn apart for components to be used in other technology.

Crossroads (+60 pop, +100 wealth)

Worlds at convergences of trade routes reap dividends.

The Pirate Bay (+1250 military, +100 wealth)

Other worlds decide to take them by force.

Slumlords (+120 pop, +1250 military, -morale)

When population outstrips government and infrastructure, black markets and mean bars spring up.

E3) Military Doctrine

Able Spacemen (+shipbuilding, +fleet doctrines)

A focus on a solid and reliable fleet is key to defence in the depths of space.

The Low Road (+ground application, +ground doctrines)

Ships are hard. It's better to focus on a strong army to defend.

Swarms (+aerospace application, +aerospace doctrines)

Making effective smallcraft is a challenge for rim states, but pays dividends.

Death Spiral (+tech, +200 applications, -100 wealth)

Some worlds are desperate to gain any technical advantage they can, but without substantial research infrastructure this takes a severe toll.

Into the Darkness (+FTL application, +100 dust)

Effective interstellar travel is crucial to trade and power projection.

Lord's Army (+2500 military, +morale, -doctrine)

Enthusiasm and mass will carry the day.

Chaotic Events

Freaks (+radical morphological change, -pop)

Some populations took dramatic steps to deal with the challenges of their environment.

Populism (+morale, -relations)

Shout louder, that'll do the job.

Resources

• Wealth represents a variety of valuable materials or tokens backed by governments, although only the most powerful states have currencies worth much beyond the neighbouring systems.
• Delta Dust is reality-editing nanotechnology of precursor or posthuman provenance, mined from their relics.
• Theta Dust is improved - or repaired - dust, rare and valuable and much more potent for those who can master it.
• Drexlers are sophisticated yet mundane nanomachines used in Velan technology, which can rapidly construct devices.
• Nephilim Armour is drone cladding, impossible to replicate with human science but tough and resistant to drone plasma.