It's About Time!
It's been a few years since I posted here. Not since 2017, apparently. Time flies, apparently, when you're doing other stuff and not paying attention to your own blog.
Anyways, it's a long road, both behind and ahead. But I'm not here to talk about the past; instead, I'm here to talk about the future, both near and far-flung. So, without further ado, let's see what's
Coming Soon!
So, I've got plans for this blog in the next few months. Cosmic plans, one might say. Starting today, The Phantom's Belch will be dedicated (mostly) to my GURPS space opera setting, the Ventureverse. Yeah, I know, the name sucks; I'm open to a new one. Inspired by various science fiction, science fantasy, and planetary romance settings such as Star Wars, Babylon 5, Star Trek, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Wing Commander, Traveller, and BattleTech, as well as Mailanka's Psi-Wars setting, and named after a novel I attempted to write back in the mid '90s, The Andromeda Venture, the Ventureverse is a swords-and-spaceships-and-psionics-and-mecha setting set in the early 26th Century
So What is the Ventureverse?
Humanity has spread to the stars and has encountered several alien species. War is brewing in the 20 lightyear radius around Sirius, with various factions clamoring for either unification or independence; wars fought with starfighters and mecha. Several orders of psychic warrior exist; some seek enlightenment, while others champion causes heroic or villainous. There is profit and adventure to be had whether you're in the Sirius Sector, out on the Frontier, or possibly out beyond it.
Of note, none of the aliens in the Ventureverse are the "humans with funny makeup" types. No Vulcans, Klingons, Twi'leks, Narn, or Minbari types here, sorry. There are catgirls, though! (It seems those are a contractual obligation for GURPS settings!😸) However, the catgirls are not aliens; they're genetically engineered from Human stock. And they're not just catgirls, but Space Pirate Amazon Ninja Catgirls! Yep, they're SPANCs! (No catboys, however; the catgirls require Human men to procreate.) There are also have warrior theropods, greedy and conniving semi-aquatic hexapods, floating telekinetic rocks, graceful butterflies, talking snakes, and crabs. Oh, and plenty of robots.
Starfighters, tramp freighters, space carriers, exploration cruisers, and non-transforming mecha fill the setting
The Central Conflict
Every space opera setting requires a conflict, so what is the Ventureverse's? As noted above, war is brewing in the Sirius Sector, a sector 20 lightyears in radius around Sirius (chosen by interstellar treaty as the center of the sector, and by extension the explored galaxy), a Unification War. In 2500 CE, Earth finally united under a single government, and United Earth has set their sights on unifying first the rest of the Sol system and then the Sirius Sector under their governance. This of course does sit well with everyone else in the system and sector, particularly among those extrasolar colonies who had to be effectively independent from their founding and the alien nations in the sector.
At present, the state of the setting is one of a cold war between United Earth and the NATO-like collection of former colonies who form the Self-Determination League. Not everyone in the League is opposed to unification, however; they just don't want Earth to be in charge! And caught in the middle are the Colonial Defense Force, a UN-styled peacekeeping force for protecting colonies out in the Frontier - the sectors beyond the Sirius Sector starting from 20 lightyears to between 60 and 100 lightyears distant from Sirius - who can't protect themselves; the K'Hissh Imperium, whose emperor, the K'Hissh'ran, rules the entirety of the K'Hissh species (the afore-mentioned warrior theropods); and the Pondrur Free Trade Guilds (the afore-mentioned semi-aquatic hexapods).
And hiding in the shadows are a number of organized criminal syndicates as well as the Outlaw Technology Zone. The OTZ is looking to destabilize the Sirius Sector for their own purposes, but no one is truly aware what those purposes are. At some point in the past the OTZ took full control of the Fomalhaut Sector in the Frontier but was defeated and believed destroyed. They may or may not be behind the scenes of the Unification of Earth; most notably, they provide pirates and insurrectionists across the Sirius Sector and the Frontier with ships and weapons via intermediaries, as well as engage in acts of sabotage all over the place, usually blaming someone else.
One thing of note, however: The setting has not had a full-fledged interstellar war for over a hundred Earth years, and the technology has gone up a full tech level since. Because of these factors, everyone is rusty, and no one knows what will or will not work when the shooting finally starts. This means that everyone is going to try their own things while keeping an eye on what everyone else is fielding. One person on the GURPS Discord server compared it to the start of WWI, plenty of new technologies and old tactics.
Psionics and Mecha, huh?
That's right! I wanted to add not-Jedi-really to the setting, but without the usual mysticism of the Force (or Psi-Wars's Communion), so psionics were pretty much a given. One thing is that psionics arose in the setting (except for the floating telekinetic rocks) following the development of the hyperdrive, and are much more common in extrasolar colonies than on Earth or the Sol System as a whole, to the point that those on Earth don't believe that psionics are real until they encounter them.
I also had the idea to add various types of mecha to the setting, most notably mecha that are not wholly humanoid. I much prefer BattleTech style mechs (particularly the Jenner and Timber Wolf designs, although the Urbie has a place in my heart as well) to Gundams or Macross-style transforming mecha, and have a soft spot for quadruped and hexapod mecha as well. So the combat mecha will not be humanoid.
So what's coming next?
Well, there's a lot to cover, but I want to get started on the starfighters fielded by the Human nations and colonies in the Sirius Sector and the Frontier. However, there are a few bits and pieces of the technology that need explanation before I do so.
Ventureverse Technologies
The Lightspeed Drive and the Hyperdrive
Faster-than-light travel in the Ventureverse relies on the hyperdrive, which forms a hyperspace or subspace wormhole between two points and pushes the ship through it as the wormhole collapses behind it. The ship itself does not travel at faster-than-light or even relativistic speeds while in the wormhole; it's "faster-than-light" in the sense that the ship is taking a shortcut between two points. The typical speed is six lightyears per week, so it still takes a few days of travel between Sol and Proxima Centauri. This lends itself to the Sirius Sector and the Frontier being decentralized. And for some unexplained reason, directly viewing hyperspace is known to lead to insanity; however, viewing hyperspace via camera feeds do not lead to insanity.
An older drive that's commonly equipped on in-system craft is the lightspeed drive, a drive which causes the ship to travel at exactly the speed of light through a vacuum, during which time, because of time dilation, the passage of time on board the ship appears to stop.
Reactionless Engines, Afterburners, and Pseudo-Velocity
The superscience reactionless engine - which turns electricity directly into thrust, violating modern physics - is the standard thruster in the setting. To keep these from becoming relativistic velocity planet-killers, the setting uses pseudo-velocity to limit the top speed; this also permits the setting's starfighters to act as aircraft. The top speed in miles per second is based off the engine's acceleration rating multiplied by a factor of 10; f'rex, if the drive is listed as doing 2G acceleration, the top speed will be 20 mps, while one with 10G acceleration will have a top speed of 100 mps. Extremely slow craft using Rotary Reactionless Engines from GURPS Spaceships may have speeds of 0.5G/5 mps or less.
In addition, in order to make the setting more cinematic, any craft equipped with what Spaceships calls Hot Reactionless Engines are equipped with "afterburners" by default; this permits the craft to double its acceleration and top speed for up to several minutes before needing to recharge the capacitors. Standard and Rotary Reactionless Engines may also have afterburners, but these cost extra.
(The Super and Subwarp Reactionless Engines don't exist in the setting.)
(The Lack of) Faster-than-Light Communications
In order to keep the decentralized nature of the setting intact, FTL communications are basically a no-no. This lends itself to mail courier ships making the trip between systems; Pony Express, Inc. is the most notable of these interstellar mail couriers; even pirates (generally) won't attack Pony Express ships.
No Ship Has a Cloaking Device
Sad but true. Cloaking devices don't (officially) exist in the setting. (The OTZ, however, has tech no one else has, so personal cloaking devices may at the GM's discretion appear there.)
Don't Beam Me Up, Scotty!
Also, matter transporters, such as those used by Star Trek, likewise don't exist in the setting (outside anything potentially used by the OTZ). So, in the grand tradition of Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and Aliens, shuttles and dropships are used to travel between ships and the surface of planets.
So What Does Exist?
I know, I know, all these things that don't exist make you wonder what does, besides the FTL and reactionless drives (with afterburners). Well, obviously the standard space opera supersciences: Artificial gravity, contragravity/repulsorlift hover vehicles, force field tech, and holographic technology (though the holographics aren't generally known to be of high enough quality to disguise anyone outside those used by intelligence agencies).
Weapons-wise, the most common ranged weapons are UV and rainbow lasers (for space and in atmosphere, respectively), blasters, plasma, and sonic weapons, although electromagnetic disruptors (colloquially: ion weapons) are not uncommon. Force swords (commonly called "beam sabers" in-universe) come in a variety of styles, and force shield bracelets are likewise used, although full-body force shields are not generally known. Missiles and other warheads are still common, and will probably never go out of style. Guided/homing mini- and micromissiles fired from man-portable launchers are available in 15mm, 18.5mm, 25mm, and 40mm sizes, and have all but fully replaced unguided munitions.
Armor comes in a variety of styles and materials. Ballistic fabric armor is not as common as it was, but still used to provide a minute amount of protection; what GURPS Ultra-Tech calls Monocrys is most common in the Sirius Sector, while the less protective Nanoweave is more widely known out in the Frontier. The most common armor worn by soldiers, mercenaries, and bounty hunters, however, are more rigid, coming in three grades of protection: plasteel, battlesteel, and durasteel. Rigid armors come in chestpieces, full suits, and helmets; both the fabric and rigid come in environmental and non-environmental designs.
And then there are the robots, colloquially known as "droids". Yeah, the Star Wars influence is very apparent there. Common droid chassis come in humanoid, insectoid/spideroid, and astromech designs, though other designs may appear. Whether they are used for warfare remains to be seen.
That's it for today. I'll be going into more detail on the species, polities, psionics, weapons, armor, and various vehicles in later posts.
