SettingGeneralSpit

Setting (Spitball) -> General



General Setting Information (Spitball)
This page is for ideas and notes that pertain to the setting in general.


 * Tone
 * Seeds
 * Planet
 * Interstellar Travel

Names that Need Naming

 * What is the name of the Homeworld?
 * My thought is that this planet will be similar to Earth, but not actually be Earth. Though, an alternate Earth would be fine. Do we want this planet to have been named Earth? If not, what should we call it?
 * What is the name of the game world?  What about the gas giant it orbits?  What about the system?
 * These things would have been named by the humans before the first colony ship was ever sent. I imagine they would be something hopeful.
 * What is the name of the power source that fuels the Automatons' existance?
 * This would have been named by the humans as well. Current thought is that this is stored directly in energy form or perhaps in a plasma state. It also is made more reactive or energetic by the magic of the planet, which caused the crashes.
 * What are the names of the various factions and cities on the game world?
 * At the moment we are looking at having 3 or 4 different factions, most likely with each in their own city. The original Automatons, the second ship's Automatons, a break way faction lead by a cruel visionary, and likely one or two other groups.
 * What is the name of the lost civilization that once populated the planet?
 * Only the occasional ancient ruins mark the existance of this long dead civilization. It's the mechanism by which the Automatons gather whatever knowledge about magic that they have.

Automatons
A world that no longer has sentient life. In much the same fashion as the movie 9, the only sentient inhabitants of the world are the results of the creations of a lost biological species. The players would be automatons of some sort that are capable of independent thought. this world could still be a fantasy like environment even, but the players would be upgradable and possibly near-impossible to permanently kill. This would change all sorts of dynamics in the game, while re-skinning many others to the mechanical rather than biological. I think this concept could be overlayed on a lot of standard fantasy elements seamlessly, giving them an entirely different feel to the players. --Whitefennec (talk) 13:21, June 7, 2013 (UTC)

This idea could apply seeds as the "souls" of the automatons; perhaps a CPU or a magical version there-of. Destroying these would be the only way of permanently killing the creature, as they would be irreplacable. Party members could extract enemy seeds and, as the only way of increasing populations in a location, sell them back in town. --Whitefennec (talk) 17:39, June 8, 2013 (UTC)

Perhaps the automatons are from a crashed space ship sent ahead of a biological species to set up a colony on an alien world. The ship crashed on the planet (maybe because the planet has magic), which has caused the whole stuation to have evolved differently than was originally plan. This would allow the TL to be as low ans 3 or 4, since the more advanced technologies may no longer be producable without the ships facilities in tact. With a crash event, it would make it possible for characters to find wonderous upgrades to there character later in the campaign that wouldn't be available in the begining. It would also create the opportunity to find disconnected individuals (or their seeds).

This idea would live things wide open for sentient biologicals to show up some day expecting that their creations will fall into line as good little machines. Or maybe they never managed to get their colony ships to the planet and they will never arrive. Maybe the ship didn't even crash on the planet it was supposed to be going to. The campaign could take place shortly after the crash or a great deal of time might have already passed and the automatons may have a well established society of their own. --Whitefennec (talk) 02:56, June 9, 2013 (UTC)

The Automatons could be designed to be vessels themselves for their biological masters. After the long journy to the colony planet by the ageless machines, humans could have their minds transfered by an energy beam at the speed of light and then downloaded into a Automaton to serve as a body.

Three Laws Compliance
Should the automatons be allowed to act entirely of their own free will? At least initially there will be no humans to be protected or obeyed, but it seems likely that such creatures would be engineered to be unable to harm humans willfully. It has been brought to my attention that a group of Automatons when suddenly turned to slaves by exposure to humans that suddenly arrive would remove a lot of fun from the game. There are other options available.

Asimov's "Three" Laws of Robotics
These laws are directives ingrained in the mathematical coding of the Asimovian Robots' positronic brains. The robots are incapable of willfully violating them. For our purposes we could soften the adherence a bit, and allow automatons to break the laws for whatever reason. Perhaps given enough time without proper human fiddling, the Seeds loose the imperative.


 * 0. A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.


 * 1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm as long as such protection does not conflict with the Zeroth Law


 * 2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the Zeroth or First Laws.


 * 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the Zeroth, First, or Second Laws.

Only Asimov's First Law
In Asimov's early writing the robots only had the first law (and it said nothing about inaction). The other two were added over the course of several stories and the Zeroth Law was prepended even later. Using only the First Law would be an option that would add that sense of realism, without endangering the enjoyment of the party should human's ever arrive.

Roger MacBride Allen's Four Laws

 * 1. A robot may not injure a human being. (No inaction clause)


 * 2. A robot must cooperate with human beings, except where such cooperation would conflict with the First Law.


 * 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First Law. (Not superseded by the Second Law)


 * 4. A robot may do whatever it likes, as long as such actions don't violate the first three laws.

This would make the Automatons partners with humanity rather than slaves to it. A much softer approach which would be less restrictive to player's should it ever come into play.

Tilden's Laws of Robotics
Or if we really don't want anything about humanity involved, we could still add these for flavor.
 * 1) A robot must protect its existence at all costs.
 * 2) A robot must obtain and maintain access to its own power source.
 * 3) A robot must continually search for better power sources.