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Four Pioneers

Four Pioneers

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Mongoose Publishing is in the process of producing a new Traveller-derived RPG, called Pioneer, set in the near future and centered around a New Space Age in which player characters (called “Pioneers”) are engaged in the development and colonization of space. Written by Sandy Antunes, it’s very much on the “hard science fiction” end of the spectrum.

For those of us who backed the project, a pre-release draft of the Pioneer core book was made available a few days ago, and I’ve been poring through that ever since.

First impressions: this looks like it’s going to be a very neat game, and I’m looking forward to making use of the finished product. I might be developing some Pioneer adventures for future convention visits!

On the other hand, it really needs a copy-editing pass before final release, and I suspect it’s going to be a tough game to referee unless you’re already comfortable with some space science. The core book tries to present both an engaging RPG and a primer on space science and engineering, and it may be falling between two stools in the process. On the other hand, the final release is apparently going to include two full campaign books, so that might help get potential referees over that hump. We’ll have to see how it turns out.

In the meantime, I spent some time today putting the Pioneer character generation sequence through its paces, and I ended up with a team of four ready-to-play Pioneers. These are loosely inspired by my own “Human Destiny” universe, although I don’t plan on taking these specific versions of the characters as canon.

Dr. John “Jack” Carter

Age 38 (born 1992) – current residence Baltimore, Maryland, USA
STR 8 (+0), DEX 9 (+1), END 9 (+1), INT 13 (+2), EDU 13 (+2), SOC 8 (+0)
Skills: Athletics-0, Charm-0, Computers-2, Engineer-0, Explosives-0, Heavy Machinery-0, Investigate-1, Language-1 (Spanish), Media-1, Medic-0, Navigation-1, Perception-1, Persuade-1, Science-4 (Life), Space Suit-1, Survival-1, Zero-G-1
Social Assets: Rival x2
Benefits: 540 Influence, Lab

Jack Carter graduated from the University of Tennessee in 2014, and earned his PhD in biology from Oxford University in 2018. He has earned widespread renown and multiple awards for excellence in the sciences, and is recognized as a world-class expert in life support technology and the adaptation of biological organisms to long-term space travel.

Dr. Carter currently teaches at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and also does commercial research for several space-industry firms. He is a close personal friend of Nathan Walker and is a likely candidate for Walker’s growing space ventures.

Besides, with a name like that, he’s doomed to be selected for an eventual Mars expedition . . .

Major Melissa Chen, USAF (retired)

Age 34 (born 1996) – current residence Houston, Texas, USA
STR 5 (-1), DEX 9 (+1), END 6 (+0), INT 10 (+1), EDU 11 (+1), SOC 6 (+0)
Skills: Charm-0, Combat-2, Computers-2, Electronics-2, Heavy Machinery-0, Language-1 (Mandarin), Leadership-1, Navigation-1, Orbital Mechanics-1, Perception-0, Pilot-1, Profession-0, Remote Operation-1, Science-1 (Planetary), Space Suit-1, Survival-1, Zero-G-1
Social Assets: None
Benefits: 80 Influence, Secret Clearance, Advanced Tech

Melissa Chen attended the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) in Colorado Springs, where she earned recognition for both academic and leadership excellence. Despite facing systemic prejudice for being a woman, and a second-generation immigrant whose parents came from a rival nation, she had an outstanding military career which ended in a nomination for astronaut training. She recently retired from the service in order to pursue long-time ambitions in space.

Ms. Chen has been married to Robert Mitchell since 2020.

Robert Mitchell

Age 42 (born 1988) – current residence Houston, Texas, USA
STR 7 (+0), DEX 9 (+1), END 8 (+0), INT 12 (+2), EDU 7 (+0), SOC 3 (-1)
Skills: Admin-1, Advocate-1, Athletics-1, Charm-2, Computers-1, Deception-0, Electronics-3, Engineer-2 (Electrical), Language-1 (Mandarin), Leadership-2, Mechanic-1, Pilot-1, Profession-1 (Roughneck), Streetwise-2
Social Assets: Ally, Contact x2
Benefits: 120 Influence, Plane

Robert Mitchell was born to a very poor family, and never had the opportunity to gain much formal education. However, he has spent his life working twice as hard as anyone around him, and educating himself with every available resource. The result has been a successful career as a networking specialist, working his way up from freelance contractor, to team leader, to head of engineering for medium-to-large firms. Much of his work has been adjacent to the growing space industry, where he has many contacts and potential allies now that he is consciously aiming for a role as a Pioneer.

Mr. Mitchell has, among other things, taught himself to be a skilled backpacker and small-aircraft pilot. His occasional vlogs about his expeditions into deep wilderness have made him a minor social-media celebrity.

Mr. Mitchell has been married to Melissa Chen since 2020.

Nathan Walker

Age 30 (born 2000) – current residence Palo Alto, California, USA
STR 6 (+0), DEX 8 (+0), END 6 (+0), INT 9 (+1), EDU 10 (+1), SOC 12 (+2)
Skills: Admin-1, Advocate-2, Charm-1, Computers-2, Deception-0, Electronics-1, Explosives-0, Jack-of-all-Trades-1, Language-1 (Russian), Media-2, Orbital Mechanics-1, Survival-1
Social Assets: Ally, Enemy
Benefits: 200 Influence, Board Position

Nathan Walker has two very important assets: he was born into a lot of money, and he has an immense talent for loudly claiming credit for successful ventures (while moving silently away from unsuccessful ones). Space is his latest hobby, and he has enormous ambitions for his new startup venture (Ares Enterprises). He hasn’t quite reached the position of being able to carry out his own launches and missions, but his money and his media presence have gotten his foot in the door with both national and commercial space ventures.

Mr. Walker and Dr. Carter are close friends. Mr. Walker is also acquainted with Ms. Chen, who led the rescue mission when one of his highly publicized adventures went badly in 2024.

The “Great Lands” Master Map

The “Great Lands” Master Map

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Okay, here’s another map for the “Great Lands” setting. This one is focused more closely on the Great Lands themselves – that is, proto-Europe. The map was produced using Wonderdraft, with a carefully selected excerpt of the world map applied as a tracing image.

You can see that Europe hasn’t been fully assembled yet – with Africa still moving northward and rotating slightly counter-clockwise, the Italian and Balkan peninsulas haven’t merged in with the main portion of the continent. You can also see that the Atlantic Ocean is a bit narrower in this epoch – that’s a piece of Greenland in the far northwest, and the Americas aren’t too far off the western edge of the map.

The “Sea Kingdom” is an ahistorical bit, a subcontinent springing up along the mid-Atlantic ridge. I need a Númenor-analogue, so there it is.

The most notable feature of this pseudo-Eocene world is the climate. The planet is a lot warmer and less arid than we’re accustomed to, and sea level is quite a bit higher. The Great Lands have a humid subtropical climate all the way up into parts of what will eventually be Scandinavia and Russia. Warm, wet summers, cool winters with occasional snow, and the natural biome is either dense deciduous forest or highland prairie. Only in the very far north do you start getting a humid continental climate, with cool summers and bitterly cold winters.

People living in the Great Lands are not going to look or dress like medieval Europeans – they’re going to be generally olive to dark brown in complexion, and they’ll tend to dress pretty lightly in the summertime. I suspect the Tremara (the pseudo-Indo-European people that my protagonists belong to) are going to rather resemble Indians (as in, people from the Indian subcontinent, not Native Americans).

This part of the world will be home to several hominid species at once, each analogous to one of the Standard Fantasy Races found in (e.g.) Dungeons & Dragons. “Common-folk” (humans) can be found just about everywhere on this map. “Elder-folk” (elves) mostly stick to the western Great Lands, and keep to themselves. “Smith-folk” (dwarves) set up holdfasts wherever there’s copper, tin, or iron ore to be found, especially in hilly or mountainous regions. “Sea-folk” (halflings) come from a set of tropical islands far to the east, although a fair number of them have traveled on Sea-Kingdom ships to settle in the Great Lands. “Nomad-folk” or skatoi (orcs) mostly hang out in the colder northern regions, although they like to go raiding into the Great Lands on land or by sea.

Developing lots of neat ideas for this new version of the setting. More to come!

New Maps for “Great Lands” Setting

New Maps for “Great Lands” Setting

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A few years ago, I did a bunch of worldbuilding for an Iron Age fantasy setting that I call “the Great Lands.” I even wrote a full-length novel set there, which got self-published and is currently still available in ebook format on Amazon: The Curse of Steel.

The novel got almost no engagement in its time, and the sequel I had started ran into a plot block, so I eventually set the whole project aside. Lately, however, I’ve been thinking about reviving it – reworking the worldbuilding, pulling the novel down and doing a minor rewrite before republishing it on Royal Road or a similar outlet, and so on.

An early step in the worldbuilding part of the project was to build a new “historical atlas” to settle the back-story of the setting. Which meant, among other things, revising the old master world map. At which point I ran into a snag.

The problem is, I’m too picky when it comes to my worldbuilding. I have to be able to believe in the world, which means I have to pay attention to the earth-sciences part of it, even if none of that is ever going to be too obvious in the finished stories. I know the techniques for developing a constructed world, starting with the plate tectonics and working my way up through the landforms and climate. Yet I’ve never been satisfied with the results when I do that. The worlds I build end up looking too . . . too bland.

I’ve also experimented with random planetary generators – there are plenty of those available, if you know where to look – but none of those come up to my standards. They always end up being too coarse-grained in their details, or if they’re fine-grained they give us naturalistic-looking worlds that make no sense if you examine them more closely. Nobody seems up to the challenge of simulating plate tectonics for a randomly-generated Earthlike world with any degree of fidelity.

So for the past few weeks I’ve been tinkering with worlds, sometimes getting to the point of a world map to start with before throwing the whole thing out, sometimes not even getting that far. Until I had An Idea: if one wants to build a world that’s much like Earth, that clearly evolved under the same physical regime, but isn’t actually our Earth . . . one thing we can do is look at Earth of the distant past.

My original design for the Great Lands involved a Europe-like subcontinent where much of the action would take place. Easy enough. To the south of this, a “Sailor’s Sea” that would allow easy travel from west to east, and then another continent where exotic creatures and cultures might dwell. More continents off in the distance, which might or might not ever become significant to the story.

What I realized was that Earth was actually like that once . . . back in the Eocene Era, before the continent of Africa moved a bit further north and started colliding with Europe and Asia. In that time, what would eventually become the Mediterranean Sea still connected freely both with the (narrower) Atlantic Ocean to the west, and to the Tethys Ocean to the east, an ocean which would eventually become the Indian Ocean once India itself finished making its way north to collide with Asia.

Okay, suppose I work with Earth in the Eocene, about 50 million years before the present. Is it possible to build decent world maps of that era?

Turns out we can. Let me briefly describe my workflow, with pointers to where you can lay hands on similar data and tools if you’d like to fiddle with Earth’s deep past in similar fashion.

The primary resource here is the PALEOMAP Project, work done by the prominent geologist Christopher Scotese. The link will take you to a paper he produced in 2018, describing a set of DEMs (Digital Elevation Models) that he and his colleagues have laboriously assembled for the entire planet Earth in different past eras. This is a monumental data set, with over 110 different maps stretching over half a billion years into the past. There’s a link in the paper that will give you access to the entire data set.

The PALEOMAP models are in a specific file format (NetCDF) that’s in common use in the earth-sciences community, but which I needed specific tools to work with. There’s a NetCDF viewer called Panoply that’s very good for reading the individual files in the PALEOMAP corpus and visualizing the results, but by itself that wasn’t fine-grained enough. I needed to convert the NetCDF files into a different file format like GeoTIFF, so it could be processed by professional cartography software like QGIS.

Fortunately, I was able to locate MyGeodata, a online utility that’s designed to convert geolocation data from one format to another. I was able to convert the two PALEOMAP data files I was most interested in to GeoTIFF with no difficulty. It cost me a few dollars – the size of the datasets were above the site’s threshold for free use – but the results were superb.

I was able to load a GeoTIFF file for the Eocene period (50 million years before present) into QGIS, and work with that to develop a nicely colored elevation map of Earth in the appropriate era. Output from that went into Affinity Photo, and a couple of hours later I had the completed “master world map” at the head of this post.

You should be able to see the differences between Eocene Earth and our present day. The Atlantic Ocean is narrower, and none of the continents have quite reached their present-day positions. The Tethys Ocean is still there, full of islands and island chains that will make it a nice “Sailor’s Sea.” The sea level is noticeably higher than in the present – the Eocene was a rather warm period in Earth’s history, with very little permanent glaciation. Even Antarctica doesn’t have much in the way of ice caps yet. I suspect if I run with that, the “Great Lands” (proto-Europe) are going to be subtropical – but that’s okay.

I’ve added one feature that didn’t exist in our own Earth’s past – an island subcontinent in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, straddling the mid-ocean ridge. Kind of like Iceland, if it had appeared a few million years earlier and was a different shape. That’s going to be the “Sea Kingdom” in the fantasy setting I’m building, the current highest point of human civilization and the source of world-spanning oceanic adventures.

Okay, so I have a starting point for rebuilding “the Great Lands,” and I ought to be able to proceed from there. Chalked up some neat experience with working with geolocation data and professional-caliber cartography tools, too. Fun!

Notes on the Structure of Interstellar Civilizations

Notes on the Structure of Interstellar Civilizations

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I’ve just published a PDF document to my Kofi page, free for current subscribers:

Notes on the Structure of Interstellar Civilizations

This is a collection of assumptions, a bit of mathematical modeling, and lots of commentary on the prevalence of interstellar cultures in the Human Destiny setting. Even if you’re not interested in that setting per se, it may be of some interest as an example of deliberate world-building on a very grand scale.

There’s going to be a follow-on project, involving making some maps of the Human Protectorate’s primary volume, and of the immediate galactic neighborhood around Sol in the Human Destiny universe. Not sure if I’ll turn to that immediately, but it’s in the critical path for my project to re-think that setting, so probably sooner rather than later.

Rethinking the Human Destiny Universe

Rethinking the Human Destiny Universe

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My Human Destiny universe has a fairly long history, for a setting that’s only had a few stories published in it.

Back around 2005-2006, I was working with James Cambias to write a new edition of the Space sourcebook for the Steve Jackson Games GURPS roleplaying game. One of the original plans for that book was for us to write three short treatments for space settings, as extended worked examples. One of those treatments was to be set after a more-or-less-benevolent alien empire had conquered Earth and integrated humanity into their civilization as a (very junior) partner.

In the end, the book was so over-stuffed with other material that those three setting treatments never got written. The only visible remnant of that specific setting is in the vignette that Jim wrote for Chapter 7 in the published book. Yet the idea stuck with me.

Over time, I developed the idea for the Khedai Hegemony setting, or what I more generically call the Human Destiny universe. The idea remains the same: about a generation from now, at the point where we humans seem about to wreck our home-world and end civilization for good, an alien interstellar empire suddenly arrives and conquers Earth.

The Hegemony turns out to be a highly competent overlord, reasonable and benevolent, and majestically impartial in how it treats all humans. Humans are not enslaved, nor are the resources of Earth or the Sol system plundered. If anything, most humans come to enjoy a standard of living and even a degree of personal freedom unprecedented in our history. The only thing of which we are deprived is our right to choose our own collective destiny. Like it or not, we are now bound to a vast interstellar culture that has its own governance and its own purposes . . . and what that means for us in the long term is not at all clear, because the Hegemony steadfastly refuses to reveal its motives, the reasons for why it rules us the way it does.

I have to admit, this universe tends to get more attention from me at times when we humans seem to be having a lot of trouble getting our act together. I did a lot of worldbuilding in this setting in 2014-2018, and that was also when I wrote most of the finished fiction that’s so far been set there. I also wrote a lot of setting material for the beginnings of a “bible” and possible RPG sourcebook. Then, for several years I spent most of my time on Architect of Worlds, and development of Human Destiny slowed.

Of course, human folly seems to be on the march again of late, so my Muse has been focusing on this universe again. My taste in interstellar-fiction settings has changed a bit, though, and so I’m considering making some significant changes to this universe before I publish more material for it.

This blog post should serve as a tentative summary of how “new Human Destiny” (2025 and onward) is likely to be different from “old Human Destiny” (the setting as I developed it in the 2014-2018 timeframe).

Structure of Interstellar Societies

My original concept for the Khedai Hegemony, the interstellar empire that integrates humanity into its rule, was that it would occupy a rough sphere about 500 light-years across, with Sol at its rimward edge. The khedai themselves, the dominant species of the hegemony, would occupy thousands of worlds of their own, and would have roughly 15-20 client civilizations at any one time. Beyond the borders of the Hegemony would be two or three rival cultures, and a great deal of howling wilderness. An unwritten implication was that humans were very fortunate that the Hegemony was in a position to notice our existence before we drove ourselves into extinction.

For a variety of reasons, I’ve decided to move to a model for interstellar cultures in which the Galaxy is fairly well-known, if not fully explored at any given time.

The purpose of interstellar civilizations like the Hegemony is to “rescue” new cultures from a Gaian bottleneck – the fact that young high-technology civilizations almost invariably drive themselves into extinction, by failing to manage their own ecosphere properly, before reaching a stable plateau. Why existing interstellar civilizations bother doing this is an enigma that is not explained to young client cultures like humanity.

In any case, interstellar civilization in the Galaxy is very old – billions of years old – and very little of the Galaxy can be considered uncharted wilderness. A typical star system will be left “fallow” for many millions of years at a time, unvisited but loosely monitored from afar. A new techno-culture like 21st-century humanity won’t appear without being noticed, triggering an intervention from the closest patron civilization. Instead of having a compact sphere of control, the Hegemony is in charge of a substantial stretch of the Orion Spur.

I’m also leaning toward making the khedai themselves a bit more enigmatic. Instead of occupying thousands of their own worlds, they’re more or less nomadic, only a few of them living in any given star system at a time. They’re the ultimate decision-makers for their Hegemony, but the work of exploring and possibly colonizing the stars is left for the younger client civilizations.

Interstellar Travel

One major change is that I’ve decided to drop the notion that starships can manage FTL travel on their own. The old setting had something like the Alcubierre warp drive, but over time I’m finding that less attractive as a model.

Instead, I’m leaning toward a bimodal distribution for interstellar travel.

A very few star systems in the Galaxy – fully civilized systems, with high population densities and full technological development – will be linked by a network of artificial wormholes. Sol will be linked into this network, as of slightly before the conquest of Earth. The network provides “shortcuts,” allowing ships to sidestep dozens or hundreds of light-years of normal space at a time. Travel times are short, and there’s no time-dilation effect. Human adventurers might be able to visit the great worlds of the Hegemony and return home again, all without getting too far out of synch with the home-world clock.

However, building a wormhole bridge into the network is horrendously expensive, even by the Hegemony’s standards. It requires enormous “fixed” facilities that can only be built and supported in a well-established star system.

Exploring and colonizing new worlds has to be done using a near-light-speed drive that allows starships to maintain normal-space velocities just below those of a photon. Traveling aboard these ships, your subjective clock may only register a few days or weeks between stars, but you’ll slip out of synch with the home-world clock. Fly to Alpha Centauri for a three-or-four-month mission, and it will feel to you like just a few months away, but when you get back to Earth you’ll find that nine years have passed. For a science-fictional reference, consider Poul Anderson’s novel Starfarers.

The effect this gives me is that those humans who go on exploration or colonization ventures are going to end up isolated from home-world society over time. Going to the stars will mean a significant sacrifice, and most humans won’t be motivated to do it. It fits some of the themes I’m after.

Incidentally, I’m thinking that travel through normal space will be taken care of by an effective reactionless drive, of which the near-light-speed star drive is an ultimate development. No rockets! On the other hand, I’m seriously considering forbidding any kind of “artificial gravity” inside a ship or station. The reactionless drive affects the entire ship as a unit, so even when it’s accelerating through space the crew and passengers are effectively in free fall. Unless the ship has a spin habitat, of course.

What About Those Wormholes?

Recently I was thinking about those “star bridges” based on wormholes, when I realized that a very similar technology could solve another problem I was having with this setting: the assumption that conquered Earth would be under almost constant and universal surveillance by the Hegemony.

The idea here is reminiscent of Isaac Asimov’s short story “The Dead Past,” or the more recent novel The Light of Other Days by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter. In the novel in particular, microscopic wormholes become an effective surveillance method. Anyone can watch any point in the world at any given time, and privacy becomes a thing of the past. The wormhole technology can also be used to view locations very distant from Earth, and (due to an equivalence between distance in space and in time) it becomes a past-viewer as well. The novel examines the implications of both a loss of privacy and complete access to the historical past.

Great! So let’s assume that the Hegemony has access to similar technology, and applies it in several different ways:

  • As an “ansible” communicator, tying starships and colony worlds into a real-time communications network. The colony on Alpha Centauri may be four-plus years away by travel time, but messages can still be pushed back and forth with minimal delay. The bandwidth limits on this remain to be determined. One limitation is that a starship in flight can’t maintain its wormhole connection back to home base, but has to re-establish a connection once it reaches its destination. Another limitation is that these “ansible” connections require a substantial facility at each end – so we have no hand-held devices reaching directly across light-years.
  • As a remote viewer, which doesn’t require a facility at both ends, but in this case information only flows one way (from the remote point to the viewer). The required facilities are pretty massive and require a ton of computational power, so one person (or one starship) can’t carry the necessary equipment. Even a colony world can’t manage it. On the other hand, a high-population world like Earth can use remote viewing to place everyone on the planet under constant surveillance. The same facilities can monitor locations in deep space out to a few hundred light-years, and can also delve a few centuries into the local past. This is used to carry out low-level monitoring of nearby “fallow” star systems, and to do historical research.
  • Given a truly enormous investment in energy and computational power, a wormhole connecting two remote points in space can be forced open wide enough to permit the passage of spaceships, and then wedged permanently open. These are the star-bridges mentioned earlier.

Rewriting Existing Stories

I think the changes I’ve outlined above actually support the themes I want for the setting a little better than the “old” assumptions did. There are still a bunch of details to be worked out, probably in my next revision of the setting bible over the next few months.

I can see a few places where some of the existing fiction in this setting will need to be reworked. I think the novelette “Pilgrimage” needs only some minor adjustments, but the novella “In the House of War” will need a substantive rewrite.

More broadly, I’ve been working out a “future history” of human exploration of the interstellar neighborhood, along with a detailed “career profile” for my protagonist Aminata Ndoye, based on the new assumptions. That should help guide a rewrite of the existing stories, as I pull them down from Amazon KDP and republish them to my Ko-fi shop. It will also give me a framework on which to hang more stories.

More to come over the next few months. I foresee Human Destiny being the main focus of my effort for at least the first half of 2025.

A Hero for the John Carter of Mars RPG

A Hero for the John Carter of Mars RPG

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As of today, I’m suddenly enjoying an outbreak of freedom. I’ve finished my work on university courses for this academic year, and all my major creative projects with deadlines are done too. I still have a pile of work to do for the office, but other than that I’m remarkably uncommitted for the next few months.

So this evening I decided to let my muse pester me a bit, and sat down to tinker with the John Carter of Mars RPG from Modiphius. What follows is a character who appeared unbidden in the back of my mind a few days ago. I’m still trying to decide what to do with him. Some Edgar Rice Burroughs fan-fiction? Probably not, but we’ll see if my muse will let me leave this Verginian on the shelf . . .

Marcus Verginius

Disciplined Earthborn Soldier

Marcus Verginius is a very old man, although he does not know how old he is, for he remembers no childhood and has not aged as other men do. His earliest memories are of a farm in the Latin hills, in the time of the last war against Carthage. Whether he was born there or simply remembers living there long ago, he cannot be certain.

For as long as he can remember, Marcus has been a soldier, serving in the legions of the Roman Republic in war after war. Most recently, he was primus pilus and then praefectus castrorum in Legio XXVII, one of the legions raised by C. Julius Caesar for his war against the Pompeian faction. After Caesar left Egypt, the legion remained behind to support the rule of Rome’s ally, Queen Cleopatra VII.

A few months later, while leading a punitive expedition against Egyptian brigands, Marcus vanished and was never seen again (at least on Earth). Instead, after a bizarre adventure, Marcus found himself naked and alone on a strange world: on Barsoom, over 1900 Earth-years before the arrival of John Carter.

Attributes

  • Daring: 7
  • Cunning: 4
  • Empathy: 3
  • Might: 8
  • Passion: 6
  • Reason: 6

Stress Trackers

  • Confusion: 6
  • Fear: 7
  • Injury: 8

Talents

Battle Valor (Grade 1)

You are a true warrior and steadfast soldier, at home in the chaos and carnage of war and always willing to meet your fate with sword and pistol in hand.

  • Circumstance: When suffering Fear damage in combat.
  • Effect: You may ignore the first 2 points of stress inflicted to your Fear stress track taken during combat. You suffer Fear damage normally after this during a combat scene or from other situations.

Break the Line (Grade 2)

Your skill with a sword is such that no lesser foe can hope to stand against you. In past battles, you have often been the first to break through an enemy’s line or shield-wall.

  • Circumstance: When wielding a sword.
  • Effect: You automatically defeat 2 minions as part of your action. You may spend additional Momentum to defeat more at the cost of 1 Momentum per additional minion.

Earthborn Strength (Grade 3)

You are tenacious and your Earthborn strength and years of experience give you a substantial edge in battle.

  • Circumstance: In melee combat.
  • Effect: You can always use Might for melee attack and defense and you do an additional 1 die of damage with melee attacks.

Leaps and Bounds (Grade 2)

Your Earthborn muscles allow you to leap great distances and perform great feats of strength while on Barsoom.

  • Circumstance: When moving on Barsoom and planets with similar gravity.
  • Effect: You may close one range category automatically, ignoring any obstacles or intervening terrain as long as you have clearance and space to leap between your starting point and destination. You may spend 1 Momentum to move an additional range category.

Logical Orator (Grade 2)

You have the benefits of a top-notch Greek education, and are accomplished at using both reason and rhetoric to convince others.

  • Circumstance: When attempting to persuade or convince an audience.
  • Effect: You can always use Reason to aid in a persuasive attempt. In addition, you can roll 1 bonus d20 on the test.

Flaw

Code of Honor

You lose 3 Momentum if you break your word, refuse to defend the innocent form harm, or otherwise act dishonorably.

Renown and Accolades

Renown: 0

David Kano

David Kano

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David Kano (150 points)

David Kano is in his late 30s, a burly man with dark skin, close-cropped black hair, and brown eyes.

  • ST 11 [10]; DX 10 [0]; IQ 14 [80]; HT 12 [20].
  • Damage 1d-1/1d+1; BL 24 lbs.; HP 11 [0]; Will 14 [0]; Per 14 [0]; FP 12 [0].
  • Basic Speed 5.5 [0]; Basic Move 5 [0]; Dodge 8.
  • 5’ 10”; 170 lbs.

Social Background

  • TL: 9 [0].
  • CF: Western (Native) [0].
  • Languages: English (Native; Native Language, -6) [0].

Advantages

  • Military Rank 3 (World Space Commission) [15]; Wireless Neural Interface/TL9 – Telecommunication (Radio; Reduced Range, x1/10, -30%; Secure, +20%; Sensie, +80%) [17].

Disadvantages

  • Bad Temper (12 or less, *1) [-10]; Light Sleeper [-5]; Low Empathy [-20]; Truthfulness (12 or less, *1) [-5].
  • Quirks: Proud; Refers to Computer as “she”; Tends to trust Computer’s output too far; Uncongenial; Uninterested in romance. [‑5]

Skills

Administration (A) IQ-1 [1]-13; Astronomy/TL9 (Observational) (A) IQ-1 [1]-13; Beam Weapons/TL9 (Pistol) (E) DX [1]-10; Brawling (E) DX+1 [2]-11; Computer Hacking/TL9 (VH) IQ-1 [4]-13; Computer Operation/TL9 (E) IQ+3 [8]-17; Computer Programming/TL9 (H) IQ+1 [8]-15; Electronics Operation/TL9 (Communications) (A) IQ+1 [4]-15; Electronics Operation/TL9 (Sensors) (A) IQ+1 [4]-15; Electronics Repair/TL9 (Computers) (A) IQ+1 [4]-15; Free Fall (A) DX [2]-10; Games (Backgammon) (E) IQ [1]-14; Games (Chess) (E) IQ+1 [2]-15; Leadership (A) IQ-4 [1]-10 *; Mathematics/TL9 (Computer Science) (H) IQ-1 [2]-13; Navigation/TL9 (Space) (A) IQ-1 [1]-13; Piloting/TL9 (High-Performance Spacecraft) (A) DX [2]-10; Savoir-Faire (Military) (E) IQ-3 [1]-11 *; Shiphandling/TL9 (Spaceship) (H) IQ-2 [1]-12; Spacer/TL9 (E) IQ [1]-14; Vacc Suit/TL9 (A) DX [2]-10.

* Includes -3 from Low Empathy.

Biographical Information

David Kano was born in 2011 in St. Andrew, Jamaica. He came from an impoverished family but showed considerable talent with computers at a very young age. He earned a full scholarship to study mathematics and computer science at Stanford University in California, earning his doctorate in 2043.

While at university, Kano became involved with early experiments in brain-computer interfaces. He volunteered to be one of three test subjects for a highly experimental wireless implant. The experiment was nearly a failure; the other two volunteers suffered severe neurological damage, but Kano emerged with the ability to interact with computers almost by instinct.

After earning his doctorate, Kano joined the World Space Commission and served in several postings on and near Earth. Early in 2049, he was transferred to Moonbase Alpha as the new head of the Technical Section.

Kano is a somewhat eccentric genius, very comfortable with computers and computer networks but awkward and standoffish with people. His colleagues in Main Mission rely on his technical skills, but he is rarely put in a command or leadership position.

Kano is very aware of his intellect and accomplishments; he sometimes loses patience with the slowness or clumsiness of others. He makes few friends and appears to have no interest in romantic attachments. He is quite fond of strategy games and sometimes challenges his colleagues to a round of backgammon or chess.

Sandra Benes

Sandra Benes

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Sandra Benes (150 points)

Sandra Benes is in her mid-20s, petite, with a round face, black hair, and brown eyes.

  • ST 8 [-20]; DX 12 [40]; IQ 14 [80]; HT 11 [10].
  • Damage 1d-3/1d-2; BL 13 lbs.; HP 8 [0]; Will 14 [0]; Per 14 [0]; FP 11 [0].
  • Basic Speed 5.75 [0]; Basic Move 5 [0]; Dodge 8.
  • 5’ 2”; 125 lbs.

Social Background

  • TL: 9 [0].
  • CF: East Asian [1]; South Asian [1]; Western (Native) [0].
  • Languages: Burmese (Accented; Spoken) [2]; English (Native; Native Language, -6) [0]; French (Accented) [4]; Hindi (Accented; Spoken) [2]; Mandarin (Accented; Spoken) [2]; Portuguese (Accented) [4].

Advantages

  • Appearance (Attractive) [4]; Military Rank 3 (World Space Commission) [15].

Disadvantages

  • Combat Paralysis [-15]; Curious (12 or less, *1) [-5]; Pacifism (Self-Defense Only) [-15]; Shyness (Mild) [-5].
  • Quirks: Attentive; Emotionally delicate; Imaginative; Nervous around doctors; Strong aesthetic sense. [‑5]

Skills

Administration (A) IQ [2]-14; Beam Weapons/TL9 (Pistol) (E) DX [1]-12; Computer Operation/TL9 (E) IQ+1 [2]-15; Computer Programming/TL9 (H) IQ [4]-14; Electrician/TL9 (A) IQ [2]-14; Electronics Operation/TL9 (Communications) (A) IQ+1 [4]-15; Electronics Operation/TL9 (Electronic Warfare) (A) IQ [2]-14; Electronics Operation/TL9 (Security) (A) IQ [2]-14; Electronics Operation/TL9 (Sensors) (A) IQ+1 [4]-15; Electronics Operation/TL9 (Surveillance) (A) IQ [2]-14; Electronics Repair/TL9 (Communications) (A) IQ [2]-14; Electronics Repair/TL9 (Computers) (A) IQ [2]-14; Electronics Repair/TL9 (Sensors) (A) IQ [2]-14; Engineer/TL9 (Electronics) (H) IQ [4]-14; Free Fall (A) DX [2]-12; Linguistics (H) IQ-1 [2]-13; Literature (H) IQ-1 [2]-13; Mathematics/TL9 (Applied) (H) IQ-1 [2]-13; Poetry (A) IQ [2]-14; Savoir-Faire (Military) (E) IQ-1 [1]-13 *; Vacc Suit/TL9 (A) DX [2]-12; Writing (A) IQ [2]-14.

* Includes -1 from Shyness (Mild).

Biographical Information

Sandra Benes was born in 2023 in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. Her father was the world-famous engineer and inventor Lawrence Benes, developer of the Interstellar Transmitter system for deep-space communications. Her mother was Nan Sanda, a Burmese journalist and poet.

As a young woman, Benes lived in many places around the world, speaking six languages fluently by the age of twelve. She studied electronics while working in her father’s lab, and earned a doctorate in electronic engineering from Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) in 2048. Benes joined the World Space Commission early in 2049, and was quickly assigned to Moonbase Alpha as the new head of the Communications and Telemetry Section.

Benes is a brilliant and extremely competent technician, a talented natural linguist, and a self-taught expert in several fields of human literature. She has a strong aesthetic sense, and is often first of the Alphans to remark on the beauty to be found even amid the dangers of deep space. She tends to be underestimated in person; she is physically petite, and is rather shy and unassuming in social situations. She has been known to “freeze up” or faint outright when subjected to sudden stress or shock. Only when working in a professional capacity does she become assured and confident. Even so, she is a critical member of Alpha’s command crew, often involved in scientific investigations or first-contact situations.

Alan Carter

Alan Carter

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Alan Carter (150 points)

Alan Carter is in his early 30s, with boyishly handsome features, light brown hair, and bright blue eyes.

  • ST 10 [0]; DX 14 [80]; IQ 12 [40]; HT 10 [0].
  • Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lbs.; HP 10 [0]; Will 12 [0]; Per 12 [0]; FP 10 [0].
  • Basic Speed 6.00 [0]; Basic Move 6 [0]; Dodge 9.
  • 5’ 6”; 160 lbs.

Social Background

  • TL: 9 [0].
  • CF: Western [0].
  • Languages: English (Native) [0].

Advantages

  • Fearlessness 5 [10]; Military Rank (World Space Commission) 4 [20].

Disadvantages

  • Code of Honor (Soldier’s) [-10]; Honesty (12 or less, *1) [-10]; Overconfidence (12 or less, *1) [-5]; Sense of Duty (Large Group; Moonbase Alpha Inhabitants) [-10]; Truthfulness (12 or less, *1) [-5].
  • Quirks: “Send me in, Commander!”; Aromantic (lost love); Cocky demeanor; Congenial; Proud. [‑5]

Skills

Astronomy/TL9 (Observational) (A) IQ-1 [1]-11; Beam Weapons/TL9 (Pistol) (E) DX [1]-14; Beam Weapons/TL9 (Rifle) (E) DX [1]-14; Brawling (E) DX [1]-14; Climbing (A) DX-1 [1]-13; Computer Operation/TL9 (E) IQ [1]-12; Driving/TL9 (Automobile) (A) DX-1 [1]-13; Electronics Operation/TL9 (Communications) (A) IQ [2]-12; Electronics Operation/TL9 (Force Shields) (A) IQ [2]-12; Electronics Operation/TL9 (Sensors) (A) IQ [2]-12; Electronics Repair/TL9 (Communications) (A) IQ [2]-12; Electronics Repair/TL9 (Sensors) (A) IQ [2]-12; Engineer/TL9 (Spaceship) (H) IQ-1 [2]-11; Free Fall (A) DX [2]-14; Gunner/TL9 (Beams) (E) DX [1]-14; Leadership (A) IQ [2]-12; Mathematics/TL9 (Applied) (H) IQ-2 [1]-10; Navigation/TL9 (Space) (A) IQ [2]-12; Piloting/TL9 (Aerospace) (A) DX [2]-14; Piloting/TL9 (High-Performance Spacecraft) (A) DX+1 [4]-15; Piloting/TL9 (Light Airplane) (A) DX-1 [1]-13; Riding (Equines) (A) DX-1 [1]-13; Savoir-Faire (Military) (E) IQ [1]-12; Shiphandling/TL9 (Spaceship) (H) IQ [3]-12; Spacer/TL9 (E) IQ [1]-12; Survival (Plains) (A) Per [2]-12; Swimming (E) HT [1]-10; Tactics (H) IQ-2 [1]-10; Vacc Suit/TL9 (A) DX-1 [1]-13.

Biographical Information

Alan Carter was born in 2016 in Sydney, Australia. He grew up on an Australian cattle ranch, where he spent most of his time outdoors and on horseback. From an early age he demonstrated talent as a pilot, earning his license as a pre-teenager and flying his family’s light aircraft all over the country.

In 2034, Carter joined the Royal Australian Air Force, serving in the Pacific War and flying many combat missions. After the war he applied for an astronaut’s position with the US/Australian Space Cooperation Program, later serving in the World Space Commission. He advanced quickly, commanding the third manned Mars expedition in 2047. Early in 2049 he was assigned to Moonbase Alpha as the Reconnaissance Section lead, and was the lead candidate for command of the upcoming Meta expedition.

Carter is a superb athlete and pilot, a natural-born adventurer who is proud of his abilities. He insists on being the first to venture into any dangerous situation, and he has the skills and the sheer courage to survive them.

Although Carter is widely respected and admired among the Moonbase Alpha crew, he is not known to have any interest in romantic relationships; female (and male) crew members who sound him out are all politely rebuffed. In fact, Carter was bitterly heartbroken in his youth, when a young woman he passionately loved was killed in a terrorist attack. Unwilling to risk such a loss again, Carter has transferred his passions to adventure, flying, and protecting his friends and colleagues.

Paul Morrow

Paul Morrow

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Paul Morrow (150 points)

Paul Morrow is in his early 30s, with handsome features, light brown hair, and brown eyes.

  • ST 11 [10]; DX 12 [40]; IQ 13 [60]; HT 12 [20].
  • Damage 1d-1/1d+1; BL 24 lbs.; HP 11 [0]; Will 13 [0]; Per 13 [0]; FP 12 [0].
  • Basic Speed 6.00 [0]; Basic Move 6 [0]; Dodge 9.
  • 6’ even; 165 lbs.

Social Background

  • TL: 9 [0].
  • CF: Western [0].
  • Languages: English (Native) [0].

Advantages

  • Military Rank (World Space Commission) 4 [20].

Disadvantages

  • Gregarious [-10]; Honesty (12 or less, *1) [-10]; Pacifism (Cannot Harm Innocents) [-10]; Sense of Duty (Small Group; Friends and current love interest) [-5].
  • Quirks: Fond of playing the guitar; Homesick for Earth; Mild womanizer; Outspoken; Responsive. [‑5]

Skills

Accounting (H) IQ-1 [2]-12; Administration (A) IQ+1 [4]-14; Astronomy/TL9 (Observational) (A) IQ-1 [1]-12; Beam Weapons/TL9 (Pistol) (E) DX+1 [2]-13; Brawling (E) DX+2 [4]-14; Computer Operation/TL9 (E) IQ+1 [2]-14; Computer Programming/TL9 (H) IQ-1 [2]-12; Driving/TL9 (Automobile) (A) DX-1 [1]-11; Electronics Operation/TL9 (Communications) (A) IQ [2]-13; Electronics Operation/TL9 (Security) (A) IQ-1 [1]-12; Electronics Operation/TL9 (Sensors) (A) IQ-1 [1]-12; Free Fall (A) DX [2]-12; Gunner/TL9 (Beams) (E) DX [1]-12; Leadership (A) IQ-1 [1]-12; Musical Instrument (Guitar) (H) IQ-1 [2]-12; Navigation/TL9 (Space) (A) IQ-1 [1]-12; Piloting/TL9 (High-Performance Spacecraft) (A) DX+1 [4]-13; Savoir-Faire (Military) (E) IQ [1]-13; Shiphandling/TL9 (Spaceship) (H) IQ-1 [2]-12; Spacer/TL9 (E) IQ [1]-13; Survival (Plains) (A) Per-1 [1]-12; Vacc Suit/TL9 (A) DX [2]-12.

Biographical Information

Paul Morrow was born in 2017 in London, in the United Kingdom. As a young man, he studied administration and data science at the Imperial College London. In his spare hours, he pursued music, women, and the occasional brawl in London’s pubs. Even so, by 2039 he earned a master’s degree with distinction. A lifelong interest in the space program led him to apply for a position with the new World Space Commission.

Morrow was first posted to Moonbase Alpha in 2043 as a senior administrator. By 2049, he had been promoted to Main Mission Controller, essentially the base’s second-in-command, serving first under Anton Gorski and then under John Koenig.

Morrow is a competent administrator, technician, and pilot. Despite his para-military position, he has the demeanor of a lifelong civilian. He has a habit of speaking his mind, and has more than once come into direct conflict with Commander Koenig. Even so, he is a valued member of the command staff, and the Commander relies on him in a crisis.

Morrow has settled down considerably since his wild days of youth, although he still enjoys playing cards or chess or making music. He is often engaged in a polite and discreet pursuit of one or another female colleague. Under the surface, he finds existence on the runaway Moon to be stifling and alienating. He is often homesick for Earth. Whenever the Moon passes an even remotely hospitable world, he is often a strong advocate for Operation Exodus – the abandonment of Alpha for a new settlement.