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 you, save for 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
Longshots NPCs
Longshots Applications

Base Infrastructure

• 150 population
• 100 fabricators
• 300 PIP
• 200 CIP
• 200 wealth
• 150 delta dust
• 12,500 military
• 15 SP

History Paths

What First?

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)

Not just transgenes sought their destiny in the depths of space.

Mixed (+13 transgene, +5 SP)

Some brought baselines with them.

Transhuman (+25 transgene)

Others did not, or uplifted all children of the colony.

A3) Destination

Garden World (+60 pop)

The lucky few travelled to new Edens.

Tolerable World (+100 PIP)

Most worlds targeted for settlement needed a little extra effort to get going.

Hell World (+morale)

The worst homes demand that everyone do their duty and strain their back.

No World (+shipbuilding)

An absence of a home demands that people work to make one.

What Next?

B1) Early History

Knuckle Down (+60 pop, +100 PIP)

Quietly establishing infrastructure and the new generation is an unglamorous but vital activity.

Buccaneers and Beasties (+1250 military, +doctrines)

Conflicts with feral drones - or other things - lead to the early establishment of military infrastructure and professionals.

Tech Failure (+100 PIP, +100 CIP, +morale, -100 fabricators)

Recovering from a fabricator breakdown demands special dedication and innovation from the populace.

Artefact Find (+100 dust, +100 applications)

The remains of greater powers demand extraction, and the discovery of the means to use them.

Falling Out (+2500 military, +doctrines, -morale or -60 pop)

Early disagreements in the fabric of a colony can balloon into conflict, which will result in painful reconciliation or a brutal purging.

Fabber Queens (+200 fabricators)

The New Men (+60 population, +25 transgene)

B2) Later History

Military Action (+1250 military, +doctrines)

In all times and all places mankind will find excuse for evil.

Gotta Get Ahead (+100 PIP, +morale)

Fear of the foreign, the Core and the unknown is a powerful motivator.

Reconnection (+100 wealth, +50 dust, +50 applications)

Once jumpdrive technology spreads and spatial geometry is mapped, exploration and trade can begin.

Bright Idea (+100 CIP, +100 applications)

Once things are up and running effort can be put into getting concepts from the laboratory to the factory.

Revolution! (+1250 military, +morale)

Not every initial colonial government was organised wisely.

Off The Rails (+2500 military, +doctrines, +60 pop, --morale) idealists only

Many longshot colonies were based on a utopian plan for society, and many of these ran into a certain problem: The plan was stupid.

The Magrathea Project (+100 PIP, +60 pop) tolerable world only

Many Core explorers were shocked to discover the inventive ways Rim worlds found to make their worlds more liveable.

What Now?

C1) 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.

C2) 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.

The Middling Classes (+100 CIP, +50 wealth, +50 applications)

Some more developed economies have a population of skilled (and better paid) workers.

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, +25 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.

C3) 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.

The Silence of Space (+stealth application, +fleet doctrines)

Nobody can hear you scream 'Open fire!'.

Supermen (+25 transgene, +doctrines)

The divergent nature of Rim humanity means a focus on establishing and exploiting personal superiority can be useful.

Supermarionation (+electronics application, +100 CIP)

Without the advanced countermeasures of the Inner Sphere, remote craft are more viable.

Chaotic Events

Freaks (+radical morphological change or +25 transgene, -60 pop)

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

Populism (+morale, -relations)

Shout louder, that'll do the job.

Pod People (+60 pop, -100 wealth)

All longshots with significant population owe it to early exowomb usage, but some have continued this policy and expanded the relevant infrastructure.

Active Machinery (+theta, -100 dust)

Most posthuman objects are inactive when discovered by humans, but some are more modern and pursuing some inscrutable purpose.

Ye Shall Be As Gods (+theta, -60 pop)

Ye Shall Be As Gods Ye Shall Be As Gods Ye Shall Be As Gods Ye Shall Be As Gods Ye Shall Be As Gods Ye Shall Be As Gods

Ministry of Love (+morale, -60 pop)

Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

SP

10 PIP

10 fabricators

8 CIP

8 wealth

10 dust

10 theta (minimum production 100)

10 drexlers (minimum production 100)

5 population

125 military

125 stockpiles

10 Application Points

2.5 Transgene Points

2 Doctrine Points

one tenth of a +morale

Tech Indices

Do not exist.

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.

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.

Technology

Longshots Applications

Railguns are the standard weapons technology.

Electrochemicals are used by powers that do not have the native electronics industry needed for modern railguns.

Fission is a popular power source, as the reactors are much simpler and cheaper to build than fusion. It is the most common civilian solution.

Fusion is used in warships.