EITV
From RainGamersWiki
Contents |
Embers in the Void
The Pitch
You're an Ember.
The void is vast and dark.
You've got an orange Tasker's uniform, so you can be spotted in a crowd.
You've got an orange Tasker's spacesuit with a bright orange beacon light, able to be seen from a very long way away.
Just in case.
You're a brightly-burning mote of certainty in an endless sea of ambiguity and apathy.
You're one of thousands on a colony ship headed for Barnard's Star. You are part of a task force dedicated to keeping the society of the ship healthy. It's your job to make sure the ship's people make it to the destination and the colonies they form succeed.
You have been trained in space to have the finest-honed skills you can. You have weapons and you know how to use them.
Just in case.
The mission MUST succeed. Earth is in trouble. It will last maybe another 500 years. You must succeed, or humanity will fall. Nothing can be allowed to stand in your way. Anything can be sacrificed to ensure the success of the mission.
Anything.
The Role of the Players in the Setting
The player-characters are members of a Tactical Stability Control unit, also known as a TaSC Force. Its members are commonly known as "Taskers" or as "Embers", so called for their red-orange identifying uniforms and the orange signal beacons on theirspace suits.
There are a total of 10 teams of Taskers on board. One is assigned to the Control Core, six are assigned to the Colony Modules, and three are assigned to the Science and Engineering Modules.
Tasker teams are put into cold sleep after the colonists are, when the ship is safely under way. On a rotating schedule, a few Tasker teams will be revived from cold sleep and stay awake for a period of one year, to make their rounds, resolve problems, and maintain order. It is the job of the TaSC Force to ensure that the colony ship arrives at its destination with a healthy society fully formed on board during the journey. The entire venture could be a complete failure if the colonies collapse under the weight of their own disputes or carelessness. Individual lives are subject to sacrifice for the good of the society as a whole.
Taskers are also revived in emergency situations as needed.
Setting
The Near Future
Early in the 21st century, the global war against terrorism escalates. Shooting wars break out in terrorist hiding places around the world, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia, India, and west Africa. Paris, Tokyo, and London are all under heavy attack by terrorists. Growing world tension escalates already existing ethnic conflicts in Israel, Africa, the Balkans, and South America. The world erupts in war.
In the wake of a United Nations that is beyond useless with infighting, bureacracy, and diplomatic standoffishness, a new world government is formed. NATO, the European Union, the African Union, and the Asian Union bond together into EarthPact.
In response, the largest terrorist organizations around the world conglomerate into the Alliance for Purity and Truth.
After most of the conflicts have settled down into border wars and ongoing occasional bombings, the world is largely at peace and ready to refocus on other pursuits. With most of the first world banded together and sharing technology, the pursuit to get the most support from international cooperation is space exploration. NASA and all other space agencies around the world are incorporated into a new global agency, EarthPact Space Exploration and Administration, or E.P.S.E.A.
Takeoff
Late in the 21st century, after the unexplained failure of two probes to the Centauri system, the third of NASA's old Space Interferometry Mission probes, sent to nearby star systems to detect human-habitable planets, reaches Barnard's Star and reports back. It found not one but two likely hospitable planets and a third moon possibly capable of being terraformed. All of EarthPact rallies around this new discovery, and EPSEA received funding like never before.
Five years of development result in designs for the first ever interstellar craft -- a generational spaceship to carry colonists, pre-fab colonies, hydroponic gardens, and terraforming equipment to the worlds around Barnard's Star. Construction begins in Earth orbit. After fifteen more years, the ship is finally completed and christened the Wayfinder. Most of its equipment was built inside the ship while under construction. Loading of colonists and crew begins.
Over the next few years, the project faces budget and resource problems, bureaucratic hassles, and even several attacks from APT missiles. Despite these setbacks, the Wayfinder is completed and launched, in search of new worlds. At 6 light years away, using its Bussard ramjet to accelerate and decelerate, the entire trip is planned to take 94 years.
Campaign Notes
- Several standard adventures occur, dealing with the problems of the residents, one or two inter-team conflicts among the crew.
- The Task team is put back into suspension.
- Then... disaster strikes! (more later)
