Building a System

I've been kicking around the idea of a Space exploration/adventure game, where the players take on roles on a ship. The system piggy backs off of L5R, since it is basically the only one I am all familiar with, but I'll be editing it to bring in some more personalized and fun elements.

Firstly, there are two character sheets. The personal, which concerns your character, and the Communal. You earn XP like usual for your character (say 5-8 XP) however your "Schools" are only half powered, encouraging players to mix and match what they hope will be effective. [I'll be working on those Rolls soon]

On the flip side of that, everyone earns communal XP (3-5 XP) that you have to spend on the systems of the ship. To raise an Aspect, you spend three times the number you are raising it too. So, for 2 Targeting to go to 3 Targeting you pay 9 XP. The Ring stays the lowest number. However, Power is unusual in that it's the total of all of the other rings combined. Spending 2 of that total equals 1 "void" point and can overcharge a system, however Ship "Skills" (Which concern the specialist equipment, e.g. Teleporters, Nanomachine Medbays, general stuff like that) only work if there is an equal amount of Power.

Life Support, Heat Exhaust and the general systems of the ship are all 1-2 Power, with weapons generally being 3 and 4 and specialised equipment going upwards from there. If a crew spends 3 Power Points on a ship with 8 power, the ship effectively shuts down. Power is raised by raising the Rings of other systems.

EDIT

Another system which seems pretty cool, suggest by Dave, is that for characters to have direct outcome on the way dice are rolled their personal skills become the keep dice. This would do away with the L5R Ring system for the ship.

Power would remain as the amount of die you roll when attempting something, with systems requiring a minimum amount of power. The system (Skill) would handle the quality of the dice you roll, while the characters own abilities in the vessel being the keep dice. For example:

Ship has a Power output of 6. A system/skill would be at it's a lowest a D4 and at it's very highest D20, but can never go beyond the Power output at the same time (So no D6). Let's say the skill we're using is laser cannons 1 at D4. A crew member has rank 3 in the skill for firing those cannons. 6 rolls (power) of the four sided dice(Quality), keep three of the total.(Character skill).

Power points can be redirected to increase Quality, but at 6 and D4 you'd end up with 5d5, which depowers the rest of the ships systems. 8 power with 4 sided dice could be lowered to 7d5.

Ship:

Name - (Place holder) The Cosmonaut's Bones.

Integrity - Shields, Hull
Engines - Thrust, Maneuverability
Armament - Charge, Targeting
Sensors - Navcomms, Cyberwarfare
Power - Total of all Rings, spending +2 Power brings an Aspect up by 1. Any ship skill below this total is unusable.

Ship skills: (EXAMPLES)
Laser Cannons
Rockets
Teleporter
Things of that nature

EDIT

Linked to Dave's idea from above. A simpler idea that places more responsibilities on Characters.

Power = 2 paid character creation points per power.
Hull = Essentially bought in character creation, determines ship "HP."

Skils
Teleporters
Cannons
Controlled Drones
Automated Internal Defences
Shields
ect

Ship Positions:

Pilot - Rolls dodging for the ship, speeds to get places, precision rolls to get close to important places. On Ship Rolls, they would handle the Maneuverability and have some Navcomms skills. Mostly a passive class on the personal scale.

The Captain - Intimidating/chatting with aliens or other Captains. They would be social and grant boosts to ship skills, so most of their skills are personal.

Ambassador - Social rolls mainly, best outfitted for buying systems (weapons, rooms, automatic functions). Like the Captain, but much more diplomatic and without the ship altering skills.

Engineer - Rolls for the repair of systems and the halting of critical breakdowns. Works like the Medic for Constructs. (PHYSICALLY). Will generally be rolling for Integrity with Thrust.

Manufacturer - Can build/improve the working of systems with dedicated rolling, build Drones and Turrets. Drones work off of Charge and Targeting, while turrets are more personal weapons that can be deployed on board to halt incoming enemies.

Cybercomm - Handles communications and searching for other vessels with the ships sensors. If an attack is coming, they're the first to know. Medic for Constructs. (MENTALLY) Also has some impressive Linguist skills. Obviously handles Navcomm, with language abilities and some social skills. They are not as delicate as the Captain or Ambassador but they are serviceable. They also have Defence Cyberwarfare abilities.

Hacker - Disrupts enemy systems in ship to ship combat and can hack the Drones/Constructs under enemy control, making them allies. Rolls on the ship level with Cyberwarfare, and personally with WiFi skills to affect personal Constructs.

Security - Handles the boarding of enemies onto the ship, shooting with laser pistols/rifles, taking the most damage. Deals with mainly physical attributes personally, but has some rolling for Hull (If a door needs to stay closed while you vent oxygen and bad guys into space, they're the guys to keep it sealed).

Gunnery - Handles the ships actual weapons. Rolls for shooting at the enemies weak points, decides what to destroy. They mostly deal with Charge and Targeting the enemy, but have some Navcomm skills.

Medic - Pretty obvious, rolls for healing people. Can do this in the Medbay (if there even is one) or can apply it in the field. Mostly completely personal, however they gain boosts with Medical bays, which run off Charge(?).

Scientist - Generally the most knowledgeable of all of the groups, has the most Lore skills but also knows a thing or two about Cyber/Comms/Engineering. Mostly a mix and match of not as powerful skills of other classes.

Infiltrator - You specialise in doing underhanded things, more subtle then the Captain or Ambassador. Some skills in Hack/Security/Manufacture. A more offensive version of the Scientist, but again, most of the skills (ship and personal) are lowered.

The "Classes" would work like half families, with some skills and a overall bonus. At the first level, everyone get's a rank in both, however as you level up you may chose only rank 2 in one or the other.

Possible Playable Races:

Humans (Cyborgs applicable)
Robots/Holos (Artificial Intelligences) - Race name; Construct
Amphibian Alien-Human hybrids, Right off the bat -
Lizard/Insect Alien-Human hybrids, Right off the bat
Sentient Goo, Right off the bat

Races would like Families, giving a boost to certain schools. However, they have Racial Advantages and Disadvantages and I imagine the only two playable races will be the Amphibian and Lizectoids.

SO I've still been working on this in my own time for fun, mostly focusing on the Science Fiction of the new universe, some of the Geography of New Earth and some more elements. Not complete and subject to probably HEAVY editing dependant on how people like/dislike it. More details about specific technologies, races and political/economic systems probably incoming.

The Universe:

Late 2020s
Consumption of raw natural gasses and industrial/precious metals has left the earth a tense place. Populations were growing weary of their governments while clandestine political battles and proxy wars were being fought over the last few pure resources.

Early 2030s
Sol enters a very active phase and releases a huge Geomagnetic Storm unexpectedly. Anything bigger then a mobile phone was knocked dead, with power lines and transformers exploding violently while generators burnt out. Entire continents went dark while satellites were fried beyond repair in space. It's said that the International Space Station went up in flames, but no one could really tell with the world wide aurora.

Slang Termed for the first major incident; The Night of Light

Late 2030s
Nuclear stockpiles of weapons had been scavenged for their energy and turned into makeshift reactors. Oil had been confiscated from the public, with many nations adopting full on Military rule. Food shortages, medical care and general luxuries of the twenty first century were being reclaimed, but it was an incredibly hard uphill battle.

2040s to 2110s
Nations turn against nations, friend turns against friend. Stockpiled weapons and trench warfare become more common place as the more flexible armed cavalry runs dry of Oil. Communications are still knocked out and confused, with harsh magnetic activity scrambling radios. Lines move slowly, trenches cut along each other, weapons become recycled antiques passed from hand to hand. Nuclear resources are deemed too important to use by many, but still some weapons are deployed against adversaries after the twenty year mark.

Four major nations form through seventy years of war. The African Coalition (Africa and most of the middle east), The States of the Western Hemisphere (Both North America and South), The Unified Empire (Europe, the Mediterranean and east Asia) and the Oceasia Alliance. (Oceania/most of Asia). All four factions are bitterly entrenched on all lines and they rarely push forward or back. Some wide areas, the size of nations, are completely deserted by populations because of spent chemical and nuclear strikes. The ice caps are halfway done with melting and the atmosphere has been steadily poisoned and warmed by 4 degrees Celsius.

Early 2100s
Sol's active phase has been slowing steadily and finally draws to an uneasy end. A single facility on Earth has enough power to make note of it. They do not make note of a series of anomalous readings from the edge of the solar system. The States of the Western Hemisphere succumb to civil war and starvation, while the Oceania Alliance get's into a long invasive campaign with the Unified Empire and the African Coalition. A nuclear strike occurs in the middle east and the history books fail to reflect which side fired it. It may have been accidental or terrorism.

Late 2100s to 2120s
Large, jellyfish like ships of alien origin arrive over the Atlantic Ocean. The structures appear to be open to the elements and seem to be damaged or fossilized in places from space debris. It is unclear where they originated from but they clearly display sophisticated energy shields under experimental fire. Artificial satellites of alien origin are put into space around Earth, forming a protection against some of the stronger reactions of Sol. Large metal spires are built on Antarctica, which work as industrial pumps to cool the atmosphere and sink poisons into the ice sheets. There are long forgotten rumours of remote villages going completely empty after a alien ship passes over.

Widespread rioting and demands of answers from starving and wary civilians cripples the remaining superpowers beyond repair. The satellites began broadcasting digitized humans into major population centres, whom explain the Algites and what they wish to do with Earth. A semi-religious political group is formed out of the remnants of society and slowly but surely Algites position themselves in a seat of authority over Humanity.

2130s
Constructs and civilians have been clearing land, cleaning the environment and recycling materials. Tanks, planes, ect ect have all been going into producing homes and rebuilding cities, as well as more workforce. Land has been cleared and tilled by joint effort, with food production sky rocketing. The pockets of pure human civilization either die out through lack of resources or succumb to joining the political powerhouse that is the Algite-Human Compact. A genetic anomaly begins to effect 1 in every 5 children born with horrible life threatening mutations. The Algites theorize it might be genetic damage from the effects of the harsh sun activity, or the generations of nuclear fallout in the atmosphere. Humans volunteer for treatment and are informed that genetic "patchwork" done by the Algites involves alien genetic structure.

The world is very different: While some water has subsided, it is a long term effort to repair the world. North America is a desert below the Canadian border, stretching down to Chile and Argentina. France, Germany, Poland and the Ukraine all border a bone dry desert, The middle east is a dust bowl and the Sundanese Savannahs have been suffering a permanent draught. The Sahel remains one of the only green places around the Equator, densely packed with forests in an attempt to replenish some of the world's lost oxygen. The last green places in Asia exist only above Mongolia and North Korea, or can be found on the very tip of India. Australia's north and west coasts remain green enough to support populations and New Zealand is intensely farmed. The majority of Earth's populations live in compact, high rise cities in Canada, Scandinavia, The Uk, Northern Russia, Greenland and Siberia and the most densely populated region of earth is surprisingly Western Antarctica, which has become a lush temperate ecosystem. Energy is supplied by forests of large solar arrays to most house holds, built from scrap and encompassing most of the dry areas on the globe before being relayed up to Satellites and redirected back down to Earth.

2140s
Now, 2 in every 5 children born display non-humanistic characteristics. The first and most populous second race are Amphibian like; their skeletons are segmented and much more lightweight, with their skins damper then humans. Gills and lungs are side by side, allowing limited breathing underwater (and Earth's oceans are now more friendly to life, thanks to continue Algite terraforming). The populations react xenophobically, most haven't even seen an Algite in person. Communities are set up around cleaning facilities on the coasts of Chile and Argentina. These areas sustain most of the Amphibian population and continue to be the most populated region of earth they come from.

A second mutation begins soon after in a third of every two non-human children, giving them joint lizard and insecticidal characteristics. These creatures are much more hardy and solid then the Amphibians or their human parents. Quietly the Compact moves them to the dryer areas of Australia and Asia, where they seem to prefer the harsher conditions. Many of them adopt previously abandoned military ideals in the strict conditions and sometimes make it back into the Human populated regions where they serve as bodyguards or private police.

2150s
Recognising the fact that unless more resources are acquired, population restrictions would remain in place and humanity would be stunted, the Algites propose a privately funded effort to begin the colonization and farming of resources from Space. Under careful consideration, the old United States of America is chosen as the first industrial space port and ship designing and technologies are mostly supplied by the Algites, while private construction companies (Amphibian, Human and Lizard) work to building the first ports off world.

For the next thirty to forty years, development of Earth's solar system is the only thing on people's minds. A Space Elevator is constructed and built in mexico while ships continue to launch and land from the dry and arid America. Three separate space stations are built in orbit, with an additional six or seven built in the Kepler belt or around Gas Giants. Currency on earth is rendered effectively useless as billions of dollars worth of metal is scavenged relatively easy by Constructs and miners. The state is easily able to construct anything a citizen would require and begin simply building added appliances into new homes with no extra charge. The corporations continue to turn a profit simply because they no longer lose money having to pay for construction materials or fuels, the only place they lose money is in paying for labour. The Algites decide to shift Humanities economy to a less individual stage.

Personal currency becomes an antique. The system to pay or earn wealth is now assigned to groups, like corporations, families or communities. The quickest easiest way to go from standard living to opulence was to wait for a state appointed ship and strike out against the universe.

2200s
The population of Earth has gone from a second dark age to a new era of enlightenment in two hundred years. Long range Faster Then Light engines are finally released by Algite scientists. Private exploratory groups begin investing in the next source of wealth; Extrasolar activity. As an ember to this smouldering keg of exploration and rebuilding of the race, Amphibian astrologists claim to have located a sustainable, lush garden world some forty six light years from Earth.

A huge wave of ships are being built and outfitted with the new FTL cores in an attempt to be the first one there, whether to stake private mining rights or even claim the planet for political reasons. Every corporation with half a brain is going to be sending out expeditions and if the right group with the right ship was able to strike claims first, they'd likely be some of the most significant people in human history.

2212 to 2220
The year your crew and vessel gets the hell out of the Solar System for Adventure. Prepare to find out the Galaxy is filled with Aliens and interesting scientific curiosities.

So I was looking over this stuff today and kind of wanted to start mocking up some suggestions for an archetype, but I realized that we hadn’t nailed down a basis for skills and emphasis yet, so I switched my initiative over to that instead.

I went through and listed all of the skills in l5r below. I put a * next to ones that I feel probably won’t see much use given the setting, though we can argue over their inclusion/exclusion. As for others, they fit well into the setting but don’t have a proper designation, in these cases I put alternative names or ideas for what do with them in parentheses after each.

Acting* (add to Perform macro-skill)
Animal Handling*
Artisan* (add to the Craft macro-skill)
Athletics
Battle (Strategy)
Calligraphy*
Commerce
Courtier (Social, possibly eliminate/turn into macro-skill)
Craft
Divination*
Engineering
Etiquette
Forgery
Games*
Horsemanship*
Hunting (Tracking, add to Investigation as an emphasis)
Intimidation
Investigation
Lore (Knowledge)
Medicine
Meditation*
Perform
Sailing*
Sincerity
Sleight of Hand (add to Stealth as an emphasis)
Spellcraft*
Stealth
Tea Ceremony*
Temptation

Defence
Iaijutsu*
Jiujutsu (add as Swords to the Weapons macro-skill)
Weapons (this will likely need a complete overhaul)

• Chain Weapons
  
• Heavy Weapons
  
• Kenjutsu
  
• Knives
  
• Kyujutsu
  
• Ninjutsu
  
• Polearms
  
• Spears
  
• Staves
  
• War Fan

Here’s my thought process behind a few of these decisions as well as a few things that went unexpressed while making this list;

Engineering: This skill would have to be overhauled, given the idea that in l5r engineering is typically used to plan and build large stone or wood structures. In SPACE it’d probably have to mean the building or repair of small technical devices.

Hunting: This skill is expressed as something that hunters do to animals, and while we may end up running into animalistic aliens while up in the black, I don’t expect that our characters as people will have much experience or interest in learning how to shoot elephant guns at jaguares. So in order to keep this skill relevant I say we change the name to Tracking, and make it apply to all patterned sentient creatures. We could take the extra step though, and just turn it into an emphasis of the Investigation skill, the purpose of both are essentially the same after a certain point.

Sailing: So some of you might be thinking “this is a game all about ships, sailing is the perfect skill for this game!” but I disagree. In l5r there are a small handful of skills that are only attainable by a group. Sailing is one of these; by pulling together and throwing down some sailing rolls you can accomplish the task of sailing a boat. Is this how we want the game to be paced? My conception is that each person on the ship is important because they need to perform their specific job; having sailing as a skill implies that we can fly our spaceship by all taking the same skill and letting all of our rolls fall into the warm embrace of that skill. If that’s how we want it then keep it, but if we want something less singular I say throw it out.

Courtier and the social skills: L5R is unfortunately a very clunky system when it comes to the social side of characters. Parts of it are very sound, designating things like Etiquette as “social defense” and most of the rest of the social skills (Temptation, Intimidation, and Sincerity) as various forms of “social offense.” It praises Courtier as a very essential “social offense” but I typically don’t like this idea. As you guys can see above, offensive combat is divided among the various weapon skills with the skill Weapons being a macro-skill for all the others, in this way you cannot simply excel at “Weapons” but must pick something to specialize in. The idea of specialization is to make combat more exciting; each weapon brings something different to combat such as immobilizing or tripping targets, being more accurate, doing more damage, or hitting at short or extreme range.

In stark contrast, “social combat” is skimped over by having Courtier be a skill that you can excel at. In the end Courtier ends up being more versatile, and therefore more useful, than any other social skill. One well placed Courtier roll can in theory accomplish the same thing as a Temptation, Intimidation or Sincerity roll, and still has the added effect of allowing characters to navigate Rokugan’s complicated court systems. I realize that “social combat” isn’t nearly as acutely monitored as it’s physical counterpart, but I feel the need for more balance, and dislike the idea that one roll can cover something so massive while still generally rendering the best results.

My suggestion? Turn Courtier into a macro skill for all of the social offense skills to fit into. However in the end, if this game ends up putting less emphasis on social stuff then l5r we may not need to worry about it.

Brand new skills for SPACE: Lets face it, we need to expand on this list to help redefine the game from being set in feudal asia to the final frontier. I don’t really have all of the answers for this one, so I’m counting on other people to make sure we cover our bases. Here are a few of my suggestions though:

Operation: Used to control the ships more technical systems (radios, teleporters, etc.)
Piloting: Flying the ship, duh.
Navigation: Typically this would fall under the Lore skills, but I think we should consider making it a stand-alone skill.

Some more dumb fluff. All of course subject to change woooooo


Geography

Many ecosystems are very different: While some water has subsided from melted icecaps, new oceans deeper in land still exist. North America is a desert below the Canadian border, stretching down to Chile and Argentina with inhospitable dunes, drought land and mountains. France, Germany, Poland and the Ukraine all border a similar desert while the middle east is an abandoned, sizzling dust bowl. The Sundanese Savannahs, in southern Africa, have been suffering a permanent draught. The Sahel remains one of the only green places around the Equator, densely packed with forests in an attempt to replenish some of the world's lost oxygen. The last green places in Asia exist only above Mongolia and North Korea, or can be found on the very tip of India. Australia's north and west coasts remain green enough to support populations and New Zealand is intensely farmed. The majority of Earth's populations live in compact, high rise cities in Canada, Scandinavia, The Uk, Northern Russia, Greenland and Siberia and the most densely populated region of earth is surprisingly Western Antarctica, which has become a lush temperate ecosystem. Energy is supplied by forests of large solar arrays to most house holds, built from scrap and encompassing most of the dry areas on the globe before being relayed up to Satellites and redirected back down to Earth.

Very few wild animals remain on Planet Earth, the sudden shift in environment and poisoning of the seas having undone millions of years worth of evolution. Most creature that remain simply survive because they depended upon humanity and humanity depended upon them too. Cattle, sheep, chickens and pigs are fed the waste that can't be reprocessed of everyday life and provided needed fertilizer and soil enricher. Hardy breeds of Dogs were likewise preserved, mostly for their usefulness in defence and aggressive attributes.

Pest species have also continued to flourish, growing smarter in the exploitation of the food that supplies the world. Crows and Seagulls battle over trash piles and steal food from the domesticated farm creatures. Horror stories of aggressive packs of rats stripping pigs and chickens circulate among some farming communities and Cockroaches continue their long love-hate relationship with Humanity.

The Oceans, many now an acidic soup, have lost a wide amount of diversity. Coral reefs have been eroded away and the few fish that remain are generally species preserved through battery fish farms, re-released into the "scrubbed" oceans, or genetically modified jellyfish that keep the seas mostly parasite free and fresh through their mass movement.

The majority of Earth's oxygen is produced by thick rainforests in Africa and some more healthy oxygen farms in Antarctica and Siberia. Sustainable wood farms produces very rare furniture, however the resource has been mostly phased out of demand. A few genetically modified "Toxin" sink trees are planted around clean up facilities, however most plant diversity was also lost. Anything that wasn't useful for humanity was against it, choking weeds in the crops or taking the nutrients from the soil.

On the upside, without any sea ice in the northern pole, The Arctic Passage is open all year long for shipping. The last few places to have Ice is Greenland and the mid-to-east part of Antarctica, kept cool through large industrial atmospheric heat sinks.

Electrical storms, mountainous dust cyclones and intensive hurricanes are more common in the warmer regions about the earth. East Asia is most heavily affected by large cyclones crashing against their shores, bringing heavy winds that stir up huge warm dust clouds that can carry for miles in land. Heavy winds can also affect North America's western shores, driving up towards Canada and Greenland. To combat some of the affects, some storms can be seeded with light as air polymers that absorb the fresh water, falling down to dissolve safely in the oceans. Lizard communities decline the offer, however, preferring to test their defences and use lightning rods to attract the electrical discharge from large scale storms.

Artificial structures, like Cities or towns, are also very different. The oldest buildings are of course Human, mostly in the Northern Hemisphere. Hundreds of thousands of acres of farm land sprawl out from what appear to be small compounds dotted around. Most human structures are reinforced and expanded upon civilian bunkers built below the surface; living quarters are usually cramped one-room-fits-all apartments with bigger spaces dedicated to public spaces, food silos and processing plants. Large networks of rails join some settlements, with hyper trains spanning from east Canada, through to Siberia and along all the way to the UK, built after the arrival of the Algites and with materials from the deconstructed military armaments. Some settlements powered by relatively clean nuclear reactors, but many receive power from Satellite relays. The interiors are generally lit up during the day by large mirrors which carry light down in fibre optics and some more expensive human settlements have been able to build subterranean parks.

Algite cities are much more impressive and alien in Western Antarctica: the newly green landscape is broken by artificial hollow mountains. Giant metal beams, interconnecting and climbing into the sky, holds aloft entire city districts which pivot around super skyscrapers. The land below continues to get a steady supply of light through transparent walkways and the large empty space between beams. Inside the cities are a celebration of colour, neon and bright plating making up the vast majority of the streets. Homes or apartments tend to be much more elegant and expansive then elsewhere on the globe, with some taking up to three floors. Transportation occurs in Trams, which climb vertically or horizontally along the beams and through the suspended plates. The steady reinvention and reclamation of human culture has built some theatres, restaurants and libraries, although things are still very underdeveloped. There are three major Algite cities, with smaller pyramids popping up nearer the coasts and glacier fields.

Amphibians enjoy peaceful coastal communities. Their buildings tend to have an emphasis on bringing light and the few remaining plant life within; many apartment complexes, which never go higher then four stories, have lagoon like courtyards. Bright blues and green fabrics tend to be included with the glass and steal approach, blending in with their interest in water features and plant life. Most official buildings of business are placed on dry land, however some homes are built out on the sand bars with submerged lower levels which allow the Amphibs to enjoy their own natural element. Some fish/coral farms stretch out away from their private beaches which some tend, however much more open water swimming is discouraged because of large jellyfish swarms further out and health hazards. Most Amphibian settlements have their skylines dominated by environmental cleaners, many out in the ocean or on the beaches. Travel occurs mostly on foot, from water to land, or on boats and pontoons.

Lizards are driven by an odd instinct to distance themselves from others of their own kind, which means their communities are much more widespread and isolated. So much so that the Compact Government had to insist on "Reservations" areas, to make sure they don't simply pack up camp and wander out for miles into the desert. Architecture doesn't exist as an art form so their homes tend to be flat pack structures, rectangular and oddly without roofs, allowing wildlife, natural sunlight and the extremely warm weather conditions into their personal areas Their lands have been described as "Lawless" but as long as respect is deferred to their boundaries, lives are very quiet. Travel is undertaken simply by foot or with some highly personalized vehicles, only to get to more official ports before they can leave the continent or area all together.

Some notable artificial structures are the State's Space Ports, huge industrialized shipping yards filled with working Lizards, Constructs and humans. Construction of ships on the planet is a dying industry, with many plans going into effect about building off world industrial sectors, however until then the entire human races specifications for technology come from here. Pocks in the ground indicate the moors, with large factories dotting the landscape and even larger piles of junk metal, which is in need of recycling. The horizon to the south is dominated by the mega-structure of the Old Mexico Space Elevator, which has a base much similar to the Algite pyramids but with a much taller centre spire which continues up through the atmosphere in segments. The station itself is completely solar powered and works as a specialised workshop or docking port.

The biggest off world station, Achievement, supports some seven hundred thousand citizens and appears to be very Algite, mostly built from their specifications and direction. It is the closest to Earth. It's culture behaves in much similar ways to those in the capitol on Earth, with perhaps the added elements of mining management and shipping handling. It is compulsory to admit yourself to medical testing and documenting here, the moment you leave Earth for the first time. The Compact Navy, no more then a policing force, bases itself here. The second space habitat, Horizon, was a joint Human-Construct-Amphibian venture, supporting some two hundred thousand and built in a geosynchronous orbit. Unlike Achievement, Horizon has a much more relaxed less official feeling to it, focused on the enjoyment of space rather then the processing of new sailors. It employs many of the "open glass" feel of Amphibian architecture, with huge vistas of the star fields outside of the Solar system. Many of the Megacorporations that mine the asteroid fields keep their CEOs here, with their working officers on Achievement. The final station wasn't officially recognised for some years; a series of junker ships have been welded together by Lizard miners, who devote some of their own resources to develop it more in the orbit of Mars. The entire mess, simply named Nest, is devoted to the suckers who enjoy working in the mining fields or want to have some fun while off Earth. There are rumours of some slightly illegal unions or gangs, but many simply ignore the mess.

Some stuff about skills!

Engineering obviously has to be a much more Sci-Fi orientated thing in the game, it works as a way to heal up mechanical devices/beings. Some new emphasis would be fun and interesting, maybe Manufacter to replace special parts or Coupling to implant new systems into ship once they've been scaveneged. Maybe have some emphasis for building a new part out of scrap you can find on your travels. This skill will be vital for the health of the ship, so someone should have it.

Tracking seems reasonable enough, but I think it could be opened up a little bit from just following sentient tracks. Sometimes it can be applied to following after ships who have rabbited away, or via tracking through codes from sent messages.

Sailing should be swapped out with Piloting, yeah. Nothing wrong with that.

I'm not so sure about Courtier. Rather then macroing it, I think maybe you could break it down a little into some more base parts that fit alongside Intimidation, Temptation ect ect. But that can be something discussed further perhaps.

Let's try to sort out some of the *'s here.

Acting: I think it could remain, but I can see why you'd want to slip it in there with Sincerity so I won't put up too much of a fight for that. Maybe if we cut up the Courtier skill, we can make it more of a Bluff skill. Bluffing would be very useful and we can take it out of the Sincerity (Deciet).

Animal Handling: I think this could be swapped in with some Lore skills.

Artisan: Yeah, I doubt this'll see much use.

Calligraphy: Honestly! I think this should be swapped out with Coding. Not like Navigation or anything, but if someone is skilled in Coding they can cover their tracks when they send a message, or pretend to be another vessel. Forgery would be swallowed up by this, but I think it'd be cool.

Divination: Yep, gone.

Games: I think this could stay. It'd be really fun to have a Holodeck maybe on some ships, and this could deal with playing around with those on the very base levels. It seems like a fun thing to keep around.

Horsemanship: Yep, fine with going. Although it could be a shuttle type skill, as in simpler machines with simpler piloting. This would make sure the very important pilot doesn't always have to shuttle someone from one place to another.

Meditation: Gooone unless it has a mechanical skill later on.

Spellcraft: Swap this out with Cybercraft! Cyberwarfare would come under this. You want to do something against an enemy ship? An enemy Construct? You can use Cybercraft to launch hacking attempts, maybe confuse enemy units or make them hostile to other things. Spells in this system should be just Codes. Or, we could open it a little wider to have some cyborg implants give off sudden effects. Like subdermal flamethrowers or electricity ejectors under the fingertips.

Tea Ceremony: Swap this out with some Ambassidorial skills made when breaking up the Courtier skill?

Finally some stuff with Lore?

Lore (Xenobiology, Xenoarcheology, Xenotechnology, Underworld) - A bunch of skills about space travel, maybe some Physics stuff can be thrown in here too to explain some unnatural things occuring. Might need some brand new skills dealing with Knowledge instead.

I'll probably add more sometime soon.