Please Sir, Can I Have Some More Star Systems?

One of the major issues I've run into while developing this setting is there are far too many stars out there. There's about 50 star-systems within 15 LY of Earth; a fine number of locations for an RPG setting. Particularly given that some are going to have full-fledge histories and some will be unremarkable and barren. For a number of gameplay reasons I want players to be able to travel a few lightyears in a day or so (i.e. interstellar commerce wouldn't be feasible if it took years). That said, if we can travel from one end of known-space to the other in a mere 10 days (30 LY / rating 3 SLIPP-drive = 10 days out-ship time) one would assume we'd have explored further in the 25 years we've had FTL technology.


So I really need a good reason to keep humanity relatively contained to the aforementioned 15 LY sphere around Earth. I decided to simply make it expensive and dangerous: SLIPP-travel requires extremely careful mapping of gravity-wells and tracking of any moving objects, even in deep-space. That work is done by scouts who expect to be well-paid for risking their lives for months at a time out in deep-space. The Trans-War also helps this explanation - as new exploration usually takes a backseat to making war on one's enemies.


On top of this, of course the 50 given system are just those with publicly available astronav data - there's plenty of story-hooks that can start with 'corporation XYZ has some unpublished nav data on a valuable new system....' Or the players themselves can venture-out to the unknown. It should add some possible story-hooks for GMs.


Hopefully this explains a bit more of WHY the slight plot-hole exists.

The Blockade at Whiterock Station

You and your crew are a little down-on-your-luck lately - cargo runs just haven't been as profitable as they should have been.  A run-in with the law around some illegal trade deals with New Eden means there’s a big outstanding fine that needs to be paid-off. Much more cash than the crew could come-up with on short notice. In response, the crew is laying-low in a bar in Gliese 1061 - a mining system that’s off the beaten path.

That’s when the news hits the datasphere - the nearby Whiterock station is under attack by Pirates! While pirate attacks certainly common around these parts, it’s a little odd that they’re actually attacking an entire station - something doesn't quite add-up here. You don’t have much time to ponder this new development when Vix - a cargo-broker you've done business with calls you on your comm-terminal.


Here’s the run-down on Whiterock Station:


Kapteyn's Star and Whiterock Station

Kapteyn’s Star is an otherwise unremarkable red-dwarf star roughly 13 LY from Sol. Initial surveys of the system showed little to no mineral resources, but more recent scans found a small number of asteroids very rich in valuable metals. This has lead to a mini-gold-rush, culminating with the construction of Whiterock station by StarTram Inc.

Whiterock, a large asteroid in the middle of Kapteyn’s asteroid belt, presumably gets its name from the chalky-white calcium-ore deposits that cover it’s surface. The rock itself has no atmosphere, little gravity (0.09 g's) and is quite cold. This does make moving cargo a bit easier to deal with.

A modest-size commodities and docking base has been built on the dark-side of Whiterock, including a drydock for extended repairs. In addition to the usual metals, Kapteyn’s large calcium-oxide deposits make for plenty of Duracrete exports. The station is well-defended with a defensive missile array, a railgun emplacement, and a pair of fighters in case the stationary guns don't solve the problem.

Whiterock station is unfortunately within Kapten's gravity-well minimum-SLIPP-distance, ships must accelerate a significant distance away from the star before jumping out-system. However, this does give local security forces a bit more time to prepare in the case of pirate incursions.

The station itself is very small, something like a big truck-stop from the late 20th century. They cater to the miners in the system, and the cargo-haulers who bring their goods to off-system markets. There’s food and fuel, a couple of beds if you’re tired of sleeping on your ship’s bunk, and a bar to either celebrate a big strike, or to drown your sorrows.

>>>>> Kapteyn DOES have serious potential for long-term mining - just not quite enough to attract the attention of the big-three, as a result, plenty of independents have claimed the bulk of the rocks. <<<<
~Starfisherman

>>>>> The tonnages are there, yes, but you’d be stupid to believe that it’s going to last more than 5 years. The operators of WhiteRock are probably hoping the price of Duracrete stays high, ‘cause that’s the only thing they’re going to be exporting by 70 IE. <<<<<
~Dr.Cash

>>>>> Another ghost-town for sure. Big booms mean big crashes. <<<<<<
~TheSmilingBandit

Please, No Aliens

I decided early on that the Interstellar Profiteer universe would have No Intelligent Alien Races. 

• No warlike yet honorable empire of humanoids constantly on the edge of invading the peaceful humans
• No enigmatic mysterious ancient race that occasionally divulges some mystery of the universe yet is beguiled by our human spirit.
• No all-consuming insectoid race driven by a hivemind for us to overcome with our individually.
• And above all else, no fucking space-elves.

Why? Not only am I bored to tears with the existing alien-race tropes, I'm perpetually underwhelmed by the lack of 'alien-ness' (for lack of a better word) of the stuff that's out there. Klingons, Narn? Based on the Japanese. Warlike, honor-based society? Sounds suspiciously like imperial Japan of the WWII era.  Vulcans, Eldar, Protoss, Silfen, Minbari? Yep, all of 'em are basically Space-Elves. 

Another reason is to stay in-sync with the Fermi Paradox - given that in the present-day real world we haven't been contacted, there's little reason to believe there's aliens in the local stellar neighborhood.

Either way, I'm taking another page out of Joss Whedon's book and putting a hard-line on No Aliens. Alien life is a definite - I'm going for a panspermia vibe, where we find single-celled life (or the remnants of it) on a handful of likely planets. But it is of little consequence to most of the game. 

Perhaps if I extended the timeline out a hundred years or so and we explored the whole Milky Way there might be a couple intelligent races out there (many Drake Equation estimates put the number of intelligent races at a dozen or so in our galaxy) or maybe some interesting artifacts of a long-dead race.