Starfinder Campaign Guide project update / minor help needed.

[MeepTheChangeling]

Hello everyone!

Progress on making a working Campaign Guide for playing the TiTS setting in Starfinder is coming along well. I've been able to get a hold of some charts and data points which let me make items balanced to the base game, and as a result the finished Armor, Weapons, and Personal Shields items and rules are finished and stated appropriately. I've also come up with a simplified way to do transformative items and stated all of them I know of up.

Armor and Weapons are simple enough. The items are stated according to in game damage, with things like the slut ray and starter pistols being level 1 gear, and things like the samorian railgun being level 20 gear. In order to make bows worth... anything I've stated them as sniper weapons (this way they have very good range and are precision weapons). TiTS lacks anything else that would be sniper weapons since the Rail gun, the only thing with notably high range, is more of a heavy weapon due to its sheer size and damage output. I've also done my best to have the items descriptive texts dictate their stats, notably special properties.

As an example the Arc Caster has the Flexible Line property so it actually can draw arcs between specific points in range like the fluf says.

Personal shields are stated such that they will protect you from 2.5 hits from any weapon the same level as the shield on average. They work like they do in TiTS, recharging out of combat over like a minute or so with feats or items needed to restore them in combat. For balance purposes they have limits to how many times they recharge between combat in a given day.

Transformatives were difficult. For race transformative items a random system was created where you take the item, roll a specified die, and then that many features are changed at random. This is to emulate Trials in Tainted Space's random selection of what features change when you take a transformative item.

As for what the changes do in game I settled on making it optional for GMs to come up with very small perks fort having a given feature changed for species transformations, with something equivalent to a feat or race feature given to players when they get a full "set" for the furry TF items, and swapping race stats for the proper race transformations. Other TFs have specific effects listed. All TF items are categorized into "General", "Gender", "Species", and "Adult" categories.

I have a good chunk of the species stated up as well. They need to be reorganized (I am going to just folow the codex's organization in game this time. That's the best way.) and I need to get to the rest of them, but what's there is finished. What I want to do next is get some of the GM info done. Specifically, notable figures int he Galaxy. I learned while doing species stats that the Wiki is garbo for current and accurate lore. Which brings me to a simple request.

Can someone here provide me with a list of all the important NPCs in terms of "people with real power" and "People everyone knows of" types so I can get some world info done? I'd also like to know if there's any named political figures. I know the Asur have a "Star-King" but the current one is not named. I'll make something up if I have to, but I want to keep that kind of thing to a minimum.

I would appreciate the help so I don't have to navigate through the like 120 named character pages and the 40 or so planet pages to make sure I've covered everyone. Thank you!

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For those interested in taking a look at the project as it stands now, you can get access to everything from this document.

Planed features include:

1. The old planet generator I came up with so GMs can quickly knock together a good planet for those random Warp Gate trips.
2. A sci-fi adventure idea generator.
3. An adventure module for 1st level players to get people started.
4. A short guide on how to come up with interesting alien races/cultures with an example.

 

[TheShepard256]

Can someone here provide me with a list of all the important NPCs in terms of "people with real power" and "People everyone knows of" types so I can get some world info done? I'd also like to know if there's any named political figures. I know the Asur have a "Star-King" but the current one is not named. I'll make something up if I have to, but I want to keep that kind of thing to a minimum.

There aren't any major political figures who are explicitly named; the closest we have to that would be leaders of individual nations (or equivalents) on each Rush planet (and the primitive areas of Uveto VII), plus Nastizia who AFAIK is the future ruler of a relatively minor planet (but since she's backers only for now, I don't know her story in detail). As for other people everyone knows about, the only ones I can think of would be the megacorp founders & CEOs: Victor Steele (Steele Tech), Jarvis (Xenogen), Tamani (TamaniCorp), Bethany Carver (Carver Catering Company) and Kiha (KihaCorp), though it's ambiguous over whether the last of them even existed in the first place. I should also point out that not everyone will know who they are, but given how omnipresent megacorps are and how much effective power they wield, most people should at least recognise the names.

New errors (like before, I don't know which of these are genuine and which are for balancing purposes):

Armour:

• Zil Chitin Armour: once again, you've misspelled 'zil' as 'zill'. Also, I don't recall any references to zil moulting their chitin, only retracting it in certain (usually sexual) situations.
• Frostscale armours: the Uvetan government probably doesn't even know frostwyrms are sapient, let alone have any sort of anti-poaching measures in place to protect them (including those RFID chips). Not that they need such measures; the only plausible threats to them in-universe are this one tribe of korgonne who specialise in hunting them, and a particularly powerful Captain Steele, though it is implied that the species is possibly going extinct.
• Naleenplate Armour: naleen are solitary hunter-gatherers and the closest they have to technology are stone spears and creating campfires (or similar) for cooking food. I highly doubt they ever experienced a Bronze Age, let alone have dedicated smiths or warriors.

Transformatives:

• General I: TFs that normally remove vaginas cannot do so if the womb attached to that vagina is pregnant.
• General II: some of the racial transformatives (specifically, Zil Rations, Naleen Nip, Kerokoras Venom, Sky Sap, Ruskvel, Goblinola, Nyrean Rock Candy and Korgonne Snacks) won't work without a Synthetic Immune System that is capable of mutating the user when they ingest things that are normally not safe for their consumption.
• Catnip: shouldn't it be 'users with a Synthetic Immune System are able to enjoy the accelerated application of this transformative', whatever that means? In-game, Steele's microsurgeons interact with this TF to allow them to choose one body part to be affected rather than having several body parts at random be affected.
• Cerespirin: this one actually has some TFs which are more masculine (bark skin, antlers and the Resin ability) and others which are more feminine (plant skin, flowers on various body parts and the Pollen Veil ability).
• Foxfire/Frostfire: the tail-adding effect actually occurs regardless of if it's been used before, so long as it's been applied to the user's tail (or where their tail should grow from). This effect occurs after ears and tail have been turned vulpine, but before other non-genital body parts.
• Horse Pill: this one can also reduce Intelligence and Willpower; to match this, and for balancing purposes, I'd recommend a penalty to INT and WIS (-2 each?) to the 'when the TF is finished' effects.
• Leitha Charm Necklace: the TFs from this are actually not reversed if the wearer takes it off, and I don't know why the in-game description itself implies otherwise.
• Siren's Bounty: this is actually a suula TF, and should transform the user into a suula the same way as other racial TFs do.
• Lupinol: this is just a standard TF, with the only thing of note for it being the Alpha Scent perk.
• Sterilex: the second dose actually just extends the duration by 24hrs; it's the third dose that causes permanent sterility. It also deals 5HP and 20 Energy damage to pregnant individuals instead of its normal effects.
• Estrobloom: the removal of body hair doesn't include hair/fur that's natural to the user's species (e.g. ausar forelimbs, kui-tan's whole body), right?
• Condensol: it's actually the second use that reduces size by 75%; the first use decreases it by 50%, and the third use restores it to normal then shrinks all cocks by a few inches. The cock removal also doesn't happen while either of those size reductions are in effect.
• Breeder's Bliss: shouldn't the effects include fertility/virility enhancements as well? Also, the effects can't become permanent in-game and can't be obtained by sexless individuals, the female effects can be enhanced by a second dose and the heat/rut lasts for one week (which can be extended by one week per extra dose taken).
• Honeyizer: myr don't have larvae; they reproduce just like other humanoid egg-layers (so babies look like miniature adults), with the sole exception that gold non-queen females are naturally unimpregnable.
• Mighty Tight Pill: doesn't actually remove anuses.
• Milk Caramel Gushers: doesn't actually give the caramel taste/colour, though given the name I think it should.
• Omega Oil: the effects are anus-specific, and the anal heat stuff isn't transmissible (nor is it as bad as you've written) but can become permanent if overused.
• Ovilium: the eggs can be "fertilised", increasing their size once laid. Note the quotation marks; this isn't proper fertilisation as no babies are made as a result of this.
• Pussyblossom: as the description suggests, can't increase vagina count above three, and doesn't affect other orifices.
• Thicc&Shake: is applied to the buttocks as a paste, and isn't a drinkable milkshake.
• Dumbfuck Pill: the effects (accompanied by a sneeze) actually occur upon each orgasm experienced while under the pill's effects.

Which reminds me, is there going to be some system based around Taint?

Also, and I've no idea why I didn't point this out last time:

Planetside settlements are more luxury resorts than homes, though people do live in these paradoxical estates. Most people live amongst the stars on countless different kinds of space stations, or aboard their own starships. Not by need, but by choice.

AFAICT, most people still live planetside; this isn't explicitly stated anywhere, but I think it's a reasonable assumption based on the following information:

• Kaede, Cass and Ilaria are the only characters confirmed to have been raised on a space station; everyone else with a known place of origin lists a planet (or sometimes a moon) as that place (a very unexhaustive list: Anno, Syri, Erika and Lerris are from Ausaril; Shade is from Rosha; Astra is from Uveto VII; Reaha, Amma, Ellie, Big T and most other New Texans are from New Texas; Steele, Bianca and Fisianna are from Earth; Luca, her sisters and Brandt are from Mars).
• Part of the reason the Gryvain Heartland Republic is so good at terraforming (i.e. making planets able to be lived on comfortable) is to help avert overpopulation from the gryvain being relatively fast breeders for their long lifespan; if most people lived in space stations, terraforming wouldn't do much to avert that overpopulation (so they wouldn't be so good at it) and the main limit would instead be how fast they can build more space stations.
• Lots of work still happens planetside, and since it's reasonable to give the workers (and their dependents, significant others etc.) accommodations close to the work site, it follows that most people who work planetside live on the same planet.

 

[MeepTheChangeling]

There aren't any major political figures who are explicitly named

Darn. Well, I'll just have to compare names of a given species and make new names then. Markov chain, here we come! (gotta know this kind of basic stuff for GMing purposes)

Zil Chitin Armour: once again, you've misspelled 'zil' as 'zill'. Also, I don't recall any references to zil moulting their chitin, only retracting it in certain (usually sexual) situations.

I'll fix the spelling asap. As for molting, Well, TiTS is like a medium-hard Sci-Fi, what with its use of ballistic weapons, no FTL engines, and statements in the writing guides on what is and isnt okay. With that in mind, Zil are buggos within the Hymenoptera taxa... or uh, at least, they resemble that. Basically they are bee people. Bees, wasps, and related insects, all molt as they grow but stop when they reach their adult size. Buuuut for a humanoid insect that has a lifespan of decades not months or a year or so, if they stopped molting they would die very very soon. If they didn't molt, any damage to their exoskeleton would have no way of healing at all. Ever. So they would be leaking hemolymph (buggo blood/hydrolic fluid) forever. All cuts, nicks, gouges, and scars would be permanent. Sure they can clot and the wax on the outside of their exoskeleton will help fill in gaps, but it's like sticking mud into a pressurized hole... just a wet mushy plug keeping fluid in. So if Zil do not molt, they can't be very long lived as primitive jungle dwelling stone age hunters. But they are long lived, so they have some means of healing from punctures. It would make the most sense if this was a molting process every few months, since they would molt already while growing as children to adults. Also... if they don't shed their chitin at some point in life the only way to get Zil armor is to kill one. Some players might want ethically sourced Zil plate.
(Sorry for nerding out. I like bugs :3)

Uvetan government probably doesn't even know frostwyrms are sapient

I... super remember this being a thing? Is this not a thing? I havent done the frost wyrm stuff for a very long time. I'll have to grind a new save up to the Frostwyrm stuff to check. I mean it's clear no one knows they are sapient, but I swear they were a protected species which is why the quest to get some parts of one for that one scientist dude was so shady and on the downlow.

Naleenplate Armour

This is a bit of creative license, based on the fact that some of them do in fact have metal spears and-- *checks wiki to be certain* Oh god dammit. I confused Nyrean and Naleen again >< Darn similar sounding names. I need to remember one is primitive jungle cat-snakes and the other is primitive underground... wasps? Can't think of many other insects related to ants that lay eggs inside other buggos.
TLDR; This should be Nyrean Plate Armor, and I mixed them up with the jungle cat-snakes. New lore inbound. (also the Nyrean do appear to have metal working to a small extent, but not like, steel. As they have metal spears and chain armor. If they have chain, they have metal working, or had at one point, and it's likely they would have plate armor too, given their exoskeletons, and I wanted to make up more armor to pad out the list.)

TFs that normally remove vaginas cannot do so if the womb attached to that vagina is pregnant.

Oh yeah! Thanks. I'll put that in.

won't work without a Synthetic Immune System

Good point. I'll make a note of that.

n-game, Steele's microsurgeons interact with this TF to allow them to choose one body part to be affected rather than having several body parts at random be affected.

Is that what the blurb means? XD I've never used Catnip. Oh hey that is what it means. Corrected!

Cerespirin

Fixed.

Horse Pill

Good point on balance. Added it.

Leitha Charm Necklace

I super remember it doing that waaaaay back in the day. I guess that was removed?

Siren's Bounty: this is actually a suula TF

Holy cow it is! How did I mangle it this bad? >< This is why you check things ><

Sterilex

So it does! My bad.

Estrobloom

It does not. This has been clarified.

Condensol

Oh. Thank you. I've never used it. It is the opposite of my fetish >>

myr don't have larvae

They don't? (unsterilizes character to check) They dont. Booooo :c *dissapointed bug-fan noises* Corrected.

Mighty Tight Pill

Well, not explicitly... But it implies it will since it also works on anuses and will remove a vagina if it gets too tight. I've always assumed Fenxo just didn't want to code/write that one.

Omega Oil

Corrected. Could have sworn it was an SSTD.

Milk Caramel Gushers:

Yeah, this one was intentional because... why does it not? It should!

Pussyblossom

>.> It totally *should* let you just keep adding them tho *coughs* Fair enough on the other point.

Thicc&Shake

WHAT?! But it's expressly described as a milkshake in the text... I... okay!

Which reminds me, is there going to be some system based around Taint?

Yep! Going in with the adult stuff. I have adult transformative son that list temporarily because if you're going to sit down and do all of the TFs in a day, you might as well do ALL OF THEM. ... hopefully I didn't miss any?

most people still live planetside

Realy? That's kind of odd given the otherwise hard-scifi core to the setting. Megastructures and the like tend to be the hard SF answer to "where will people live in the future?" I just figured they were going for the "left Earth for the stars!" backstory on why most people were where they were when steele found them. Ah well. Corrected!

 

[Atlas1965]

Realy? That's kind of odd given the otherwise hard-scifi core to the setting. Megastructures and the like tend to be the hard SF answer to "where will people live in the future?" I just figured they were going for the "left Earth for the stars!" backstory on why most people were where they were when steele found them. Ah well. Corrected!

Honestly, it could be that megastructure stations were too vulnerable to one bad actor whipping a starship up to .9c and ramming them - a planet has a much larger surface area, and much larger heat capacity, for power generation, sensors, shields, and point defense weapons. Thus, it's easier for a planet to detect an incoming RKKV and blast it into atoms than it is for a megastructure to do the same, unless that megastructure is on the scale of a planet in terms of available area to begin with. As IIRC there's no mention of ring worlds/Dyson spheres, it's possible that megastructures are limited to those species that can genuinely afford to build both the megastructure itself, and the defensive hardware to defeat RKKV attacks. The reason Zheng Shi is able to get away with being a "station" is due to Zheng Shi being built into a large asteroid/small dwarf planet, IIRC.

On a related note - something that should probably be a thing for if players travel into civilized (ie., non-Rush) space would be the inclusion of much more extensive traffic control and range safety - ie., if you're arriving on the edge of Sol, you're going to be interacting with the space-faring equivalent of Air Traffic Control, and straying out of the trajectory they assign you, unless it's to avoid a collision, would be a fast route to being blasted into atoms by the defenses around Sol's planets. A good thing to look at would be the Atomic Rockets "Quasi-Military" page - in particular, the sections on Launch Guard (tasked with making damn sure that any incipient disasters either get resolved or get blown up before they become actual disasters, ala modern range safety officers for space launches) and Spaceguard (equal parts inter-orbital range safety personnel and asteroid deflection specialists - their job is to make sure any would be KKVs, naturally occurring or man-made, don't wind up on a collision course with anything important, and to deal with those KKVs if they do).

 

[MeepTheChangeling]

Honestly, it could be that megastructure stations were too vulnerable to one bad actor whipping a starship up to .9c and ramming them

While this could be done, it does say it takes Light Drives a long time to get up to speed. And light speed isn't as fast as people think. If there was an asteroid at the surfice of the sun that was somehow fired at Earth at a velosity of 1C, it would take 8 minutes to hit us. It stands to reason that most stations would have weapons for blowing up metiors at conventional speeds and for pirate attacks... I do think they would be able to see most of those relativistic kill missile incidents coming and shoot them down well in advance. After all, if your ship is moving at .9c that just means if you hit something there's a minimum of .9c worth of kenetic energy to go bang so even hitting one with a 9mm bullet would destroy the threat. What's more, while planets are bigger and tougher than space stations, they can't be moved in an emergency and welllll...

An object a mere 353 million tons (~the mass of the Grate Pyramid of Giza, so reasonable for a large-ish star-ship) moving at .99 c would have enough energy to overcome the Earth's binding gravitational forces on impact. In other words, it would literally destroy the planet, core and all, reducing it to rubble on impact and create an asteroid field for 10s of 1,000,000s of years until the ex-Earth's mass caused the planet to reform. Smaller ships would easily eradicate biospheres on impact. Now, TiTS lore prevents this by saying that Light Drives do not function in gravity wells because it's a hard physics NO. But that means anything in orbit around a planet or moon, or what have you would be safe from relativistic ramming speeds.

That said, yes. 100% there would still be safety lanes and the like, because even the non-Light Drive speeds can be fast enough to do serious damage!

 

[TheShepard256]

{stuff about zil moulting}

Based on how they reproduce (live birth with breastfeeding), I'd say they're mammals rather than insects, and their chitin is more like armour than part of their skin, so bleeding haemolymph or whatever from it wouldn't be an issue. The 'no way of healing damage' thing is a good point, however, and I'd accept that as justification for them moulting (though the same logic would also apply to the myr, nyreans, tarratch and other chitin-clad species).

I... super remember this being a thing? Is this not a thing? I havent done the frost wyrm stuff for a very long time. I'll have to grind a new save up to the Frostwyrm stuff to check. I mean it's clear no one knows they are sapient, but I swear they were a protected species which is why the quest to get some parts of one for that one scientist dude was so shady and on the downlow.

I don't remember anything anywhere about frostwyrms being a protected species, and I haven't made any real progress into the Frostwyrm's content myself, but here's what the code has to say about that mini-quest you're referring to (which requires being lovers with the Frostwyrm to unlock):

Spoiler: drLessauFrostwyrm()

output("You ask Lessau about the frostwyrm, the planet’s apex predator.");
output("\n\n<i>“Ah, those...I can’t tell you how much I’ve wanted a blood sample from them. Unfortunately, based on what native legends say of it, the blood crystallizes shortly after being exposed to the air, or on the creature’s death the moment its psionic field breaks down. We know it possesses an enormous amount of savicite in its bloodstream, and its DNA would be immediately ruined by the crystallization. In order to get a sample you would have to subdue...one...alive.”</i>");
output("\n\nThe chimeric doctor trails off and sighs, using one of his hands to facepalm. <i>“And now you’re going to go do it, aren’t you.”</i>");
output("\n\nYou just whistle innocently.");
output("\n\n<i>“Well, I certainly can’t stop you, so here.”</i> Lessau taps at his console for a few moments, summoning a drone which hands you an object a bit like a metal frisbee with a glass dome in the middle. <i>“Take this sample extractor. Apply it to an open wound and let it fill up, it will extract the blood sample and apply regenerative foam to the injury. Hopefully that will keep it somewhat pacified. If you do decide to face it, be careful. I would hate to lose you over this.”</i>");
output("\n\nYou tell the doctor that you’ll do your best, putting the extractor away.");

Spoiler: frostwyrmQuestSample()

output("Just as you begin to settle in, snuggling up against [frostwyrm.name]’s warm body, you remember the device the good Doctor Lessau had given you, along with the mission of extracting some Frostwyrm blood for him to study. You’re excited to pitch the idea to [frostwyrm.name], of her giving you some blood in the name of science – but you hesitate. It would mean wounding her.");
output("\n\n<i>Your mind is troubled,</i> she notes. <i>You know I do not read your thoughts beyond definitions, for your respect, my Qal. If your Qim can ease your mind, you may ask.</i>");
output("\n\nYou bite your lip. Well, you figure, what’s the harm in letting her know?");
output("\n\nYou pull away from her and tell her that you’ll be right back. You head to the affects you had discarded in the corner of the lair, searching through your gear for the device: a long, flat, circular metal disc, with a glassy dome in its center. This is it.");
output("\n\nReturning to [frostwyrm.name], you show her the device, flipping it over and twisting it between your hands for her inspection. She leans in close, her four eyes scanning it studiously, as you explain that there’s a colony of others of your kind not far from the coast where you and she had met. In that colony is a scientist – a fancy word for a scholar, which itself is a fancy word for someone that is well-learned and is ever in pursuit of knowledge for the benefit of their species – that gave you this device.");
output("\n\n[frostwyrm.name] listens to your very carefully, her undivided attention on your every word. You tell her that this scientist had told you that he was interested in studying Frostwyrms like herself – the apex predator of the planetoid – and would love nothing more than a sample for him to study.");
output("\n\n<i>What would you need of your Qim?</i> she asks you");
if (flags["FROSTWYRM_KIP_COUNT"] != undefined) output(". While your attention is on [frostwyrm.name], you’re acutely aware of the eyes of your offspring on you both, listening just as intently as [frostwyrm.name] is");
output(". You answer curtly, and preface by saying that she shouldn’t feel pressured to say yes just because you’re her mate. You’d need her blood. Enough of it to fill this device.");
output("\n\n[frostwyrm.name] remains still; she shows no outward emotion, though her eyes are trained on the metal device in your hands. <i>And you say my sample would further the knowledge of your kind?</i> she asks you, and you reply positively. ");
if (flags["FROSTWYRM_KIP_COUNT"] != undefined)
{
output("You both hear the occasional suggestion from your daughter");
if (flags["FROSTWYRM_KIP_COUNT"] >= 2) output("s");
if (flags["FROSTWYRM_KIP_COUNT"] == 1) output("she thinks her Qim should offer it. What purpose would their Qal have for lying?");
else output("they’re unanimous in the opinion that their Qim should offer it. They all trust their Qal whole-heartedly; what purpose would you have for lying?");
}
output("\n\nShe lets out a heavy sigh and comes to a silent decision. Still laying on her platform, she extends her right forefront leg forward, and then cranes her long neck down and harshly bites into it, flinching as she does so, her triple-layered teeth skewering her own scales and flesh like wet paper. <i>Quickly,</i> she tells you as she pulls away, her blue-green blood running rivers down her fresh wound.");
output("\n\nYou waste no time in pressing the disc against her bloody wound, and you flip a switch on its side. The device hums and vibrates, quickly working to suck the fresh blood into the glassy dome on its surface until it’s full to the brim with the bluish-green ichor. With that done, it makes a clicking sound, then a whir, as it sprays a sealing, restorative foam on the wound. When it’s finished, it falls to the ice, clanking loudly – and in the wound’s place is a fresh scale, already regenerated.");
output("\n\n<i>My sample comes with a condition, [pc.name],</i> she warns you as you pick up the device, weighted heavily with her blood. <i>You must inform me what your ‘scientist’ learns of it. I would be as informed on my own kind as you and yours are.</i>");
output("\n\nYou tell her that, as soon as the results come in, she’ll be the first to hear about it.");

Spoiler: drLessauFrostwyrmGiveSample()

output("You place the filled extractor on Lessau’s desk as you walk in, a triumphant grin on your face. Lessau for his part looks downright stunned.");
output("\n\n<i>“You continue to amaze me, [pc.name].”</i> Lessau manages after a bit. <i>“I’ll have this looked at right away.”</i>");
output("\n\nYou also inform Lessau about the frostwyrm’s telepathy, which if anything is even more shocking to him than the blood sample.");
output("\n\n<i>“You mean to tell me these creatures are sapient? No hunter has had communication with a frostwyrm before now, we’ve only been able to guess at their level of intelligence. If they can communicate at a humanoid level, it changes things greatly.”</i>");
output("\n\n<i>“I’m sure the whole team will be ecstatic to work on this project, but we will need some time to process the sample and develop a transformative agent. I’ll ensure you’re notified immediately.”</i>");

None of which mentions any legal problems. There's also the email you get afterwards that you may find interesting:

Spoiler: drLessauFrostwyrmTFEmail

eText += "[pc.name],"
eText += "\n\nI’m pleased to inform you that the clinical trials for Frostwyrm Ichor have begun, and the test subjects are delighted with the results. You can come acquire some from my office whenever you like."
eText += "\n\nI’ve reached out to Anyxine about opening diplomacy with the frostwyrms in light of their sapient status. It may be difficult, not to mention dangerous, but their sheer power and what knowledge they may possess of this planet’s secrets make the possibility of an alliance too tempting to resist. If you discover any information that may be of assistance, feel free to speak to either of us about it."
eText += "\n\nI’ve also sent a memo to corporate informing them of your contribution. They are very impressed with you, [pc.name]. Keep up the good work."
eText += "\n\nDr. Lessau"
eText += "\nHead Researcher, Uveto"
eText += "\nSteele Tech Biomedical Division"

I super remember it doing that waaaaay back in the day. I guess that was removed?

Probably. Besides, in a medium-hard magic-less sci-fi setting like TiTS, it wouldn't make any sense to have changes to your physical form (especially one that gives you six legs compared to your original two) be instantly revertible just by taking off a necklace.

Well, not explicitly... But it implies it will since it also works on anuses and will remove a vagina if it gets too tight. I've always assumed Fenxo just didn't want to code/write that one.

Fair enough.

WHAT?! But it's expressly described as a milkshake in the text... I... okay!

Which text?

You squeeze the bottle, releasing its contents onto your hand. It is a very slow process due to how thick the substance is. Sitting heavy in your palm, the cream gives off the aroma of sweet cake batter. As you spread it on your [pc.hips] and [pc.ass], you feel like you are encasing yourself in liquid dough rather than a creamy lotion.

Realy? That's kind of odd given the otherwise hard-scifi core to the setting. Megastructures and the like tend to be the hard SF answer to "where will people live in the future?"

I don't think space-based megastructures are necessary, depending on how many people you want to support and how many planets you're given to support them. While researching this, I came across a video that concludes that, given some technological advancements that have definitely been met in TiTS, Earth could definitely support a trillion people more comfortably than people live today, and two more that conclude Coruscant (the poster child for ecumenopoli) can support a minimum of hundreds to thousands of times more than that.

 

[MeepTheChangeling]

though the same logic would also apply to the myr, nyreans, tarratch and other chitin-clad species

Naturally. I planed on making it a race-trait for all insectoid species. Also, some insects do nurse their young. Notably Tsetse flies. Also plenty of insects giv elive birth notably aphids but enough specie sof insect do it that they have their own class "viviparous insects", and as I looked into it, turns out that not all of those insects reproduce via larvae either. Some just make smol buggos. So the Zil could be entirely insect based still!

There's also the email you get afterwards that you may find interesting

Whelp! Looks like I am redoing the forstwyrm stuff. Thanks for the assistance. (Not being sarcastic. I want this to be correct.)

Probably. Besides, in a medium-hard magic-less sci-fi setting like TiTS, it wouldn't make any sense

I disagree. If the neclass was like a nano-hive that housed all the nanites that kept your body as a lethian, removing it might be a "command word" for them to revert you to a prior state... Then again how advance is nano-tech in TiTS?

Which text?

Swear the wiki's page said it... I blame being exhausted this week.

I don't think space-based megastructures are necessary

Necessary? No not at all. BUT they exist in TITS. Tavros Station counts as a megastructure. It's a city or town in space. We've established people live where they work, they probably also live where they go to school, right? Well several college students live on Tavros that implies there's a college there. There's residences, likely several decks of them since apartments all start with a 1xx, which implies there is more than one residential deck, otherwise it would just be xx with no need for a floor lable. There's enough space for a starship dealership in there (you can buy ships and such there) as well as enough space for you to keep a hanger of what 10 ships? You're just one person. There has to be hanger space for the station itself, residents with ships (not all but some), and cargo docking too. Tavros even has a whole shopping mall in it, complete with artifical beach! Heck, it has at least 92 decks based on that one mission, it's got to be a Megastructure!

I can't imagine that Taavros is unique in its scale either. After all, a pirate gang could build Zheng Shi, which also should classify as a megastructure. If pirates can make such a place off of profits from raiding in the Fringe, then there's got to be plenty of massive space stations out there.

You may be (probably are) right in that most people live on planets. But I maintain that I am right in that megastructures exist, and there are plenty of people living on them. (I hope that dosnt come across as combative).

As for Earth, it's defently fully recovered from being a eco-colapsed craphole by now. It probably does have a ton of people living on it. But we also know tons of humans don't live on it.

 

[TheShepard256]

I disagree. If the neclass was like a nano-hive that housed all the nanites that kept your body as a lethian, removing it might be a "command word" for them to revert you to a prior state... Then again how advance is nano-tech in TiTS?

That would be a possibility, and I can see it being within the realms of what TiTS nanotech can accomplish. I still think the Leitha Charm Necklace's effects being permanent TFs makes more sense, since a) doing the nano-hive thing would be a lot harder, and b) it's the only leithan TF we know of, and having it be temporary where all other racial TFs are permanent sounds weird and unfair to me.

Necessary? No not at all. BUT they exist in TITS. Tavros Station counts as a megastructure.

I wasn't arguing that they didn't exist, just that they're not the only hard sci-fi answer to "where will people live in the future" and planets are a viable alternative answer. And the two aren't mutually exclusive, either.

We've established people live where they work, they probably also live where they go to school, right? Well several college students live on Tavros that implies there's a college there.

Correct; Aina mentions a college on Tavros (though she doesn't attend herself), and Kaede, Cass and Ilaria were all friends from the same school which is presumably on Tavros.

There's residences, likely several decks of them since apartments all start with a 1xx, which implies there is more than one residential deck, otherwise it would just be xx with no need for a floor lable.

Also correct, though your reasoning is faulty; there could be more than 100 apartments on the residential deck Aina, Fisi etc. live on which would necessitate three-digit numbers, but there is a more upper-class residential deck where richer residents (e.g. Ashinari Rhenesuune) live that's currently only seen in Downtime.

There's enough space for a starship dealership in there (you can buy ships and such there) as well as enough space for you to keep a hanger of what 10 ships? You're just one person. There has to be hanger space for the station itself, residents with ships (not all but some), and cargo docking too. Tavros even has a whole shopping mall in it, complete with artifical beach! Heck, it has at least 92 decks based on that one mission, it's got to be a Megastructure!

There's also a floor dedicated to a park, and another for Steele's nursery.

I can't imagine that Taavros is unique in its scale either. After all, a pirate gang could build Zheng Shi, which also should classify as a megastructure. If pirates can make such a place off of profits from raiding in the Fringe, then there's got to be plenty of massive space stations out there.

Also correct. Ever heard of wabeships (or wabeshifts)? AFAICT, they (or at least larger ones) are effectively Camarilla versions of Tavros-like megastructures that double as spaceships.

 

[MeepTheChangeling]

I still think the Leitha Charm Necklace's effects being permanent TFs makes more sense

Not only does it make more sence, it is canon. I've updated it, along with everything but the frostyrm stuff. I'm gonna get to that later today.

just that they're not the only hard sci-fi answer

I didn't mean to say that I thought there would only be megastructures in the future. My apologies. I'm just used to the general idea for hardscifi is everyone in the future thinks planets are yucky due to the sci-fi writing groups I hang out in most of the time. Since TiTS leans hard SF and has megastructures, I assumed Fen leans in the "fuck planets!" direction. (Personally, I would 100% leave Earth for a space station if I could. But I get some people like nature. We'll always have some planet dwellers.)

Correct; Aina mentions a college on Tavros

That's right she does! I was thinking of the jogger lady next to the racist cop in the mall.

your reasoning is faulty; there could be more than 100 apartments on the residential deck

Mmm, good point. Though the lack of moving sidewalks, people movers, or turbo lifts makes me think there isn't more than 100 per floor. Still, if there's at least 2 residential decks, given the sheer size of Tavros, I's reasonable to assume there are many residential decks with varying size apartments and suites.

Also, there's a park? Neat! How do you get to it?

Also correct. Ever heard of wabeships

I was gonna say no, but then I remembered that I did hear about them from Issac Arthur when he was talking about things you can do with O'Niel Cylenders. ... Speeking of, why have we not seen one of those in TiTS yet?

 

[TheShepard256]

Also, there's a park? Neat! How do you get to it?

On two of Fisianna's dates.

I was gonna say no, but then I remembered that I did hear about them from Issac Arthur when he was talking about things you can do with O'Niel Cylenders. ... Speeking of, why have we not seen one of those in TiTS yet?

We have, kind of. They're mentioned in several places, all related to Camarilla-aligned locations (i.e. Uveto Station) and NPCs (i.e. some toves).

 

[Atlas1965]

An object a mere 353 million tons (~the mass of the Grate Pyramid of Giza, so reasonable for a large-ish star-ship) moving at .99 c would have enough energy to overcome the Earth's binding gravitational forces on impact. In other words, it would literally destroy the planet, core and all, reducing it to rubble on impact and create an asteroid field for 10s of 1,000,000s of years until the ex-Earth's mass caused the planet to reform. Smaller ships would easily eradicate biospheres on impact. Now, TiTS lore prevents this by saying that Light Drives do not function in gravity wells because it's a hard physics NO. But that means anything in orbit around a planet or moon, or what have you would be safe from relativistic ramming speeds.

Fair enough - although I would likewise argue that, precisely because of all this, we don't see megastructure stations because it's rare for them to be seen in orbit of a world of the sort that Victor Steele's probes were sent to - namely, the more or less unexplored worlds of Planet Rush #14. As for why the Gyrvain prefer planets, it's possibly because IIRC they're heavyworlders by nature - ie., their home planet is naturally larger and heavier than most others. Thus, their comfortable gravity (at least for those native to their homeworld/ideal colony worlds) is inherently higher than most other species, which in turn makes it harder for them to make megastructure stations that can reliably produce that level of gravitation.

I was gonna say no, but then I remembered that I did hear about them from Issac Arthur when he was talking about things you can do with O'Niel Cylenders. ... Speeking of, why have we not seen one of those in TiTS yet?

Wabeships are mentioned in the Tove codex entry - as far as I can tell, they're a mix of Tove space habitat, colony ship, and flying shopping mall. We likely haven't seen them because the Tove, as far as I can tell from reading their codex entry, are almost 100% uninterested in exploration on the whole - and thus, the vast majority of Wabeship captains would prefer to make a tidy profit plying the tradelanes between established worlds rather than risking damage to their ship in the unruly regions of Rush Space.

 

[TheShepard256]

As for why the Gyrvain prefer planets, it's possibly because IIRC they're heavyworlders by nature - ie., their home planet is naturally larger and heavier than most others. Thus, their comfortable gravity (at least for those native to their homeworld/ideal colony worlds) is inherently higher than most other species, which in turn makes it harder for them to make megastructure stations that can reliably produce that level of gravitation.

You recall incorrectly. Vendiko's gravity isn't explicitly stated to be higher than Earth's; you may be thinking of the moon's thick atmosphere (yes, it's a moon, not a planet), which helped the gryvain evolve the ability to fly. High gravity would hinder both their flight and being taller than humans on average (gryvain are typically 5'10" to 7'2", humans are typically ~5' to ~6'). In fact, it's stated that it's impossible for them to naturally be capable of true flight under standard Earth conditions, so it'd make sense if Vendiko's gravity was similar if not lower.

BTW, thick atmosphere and low gravity aren't mutually exclusive; the real-life moon Titan has a surface atmospheric pressure of 1.45x Earth's and a surface gravity of 0.138g.

 

[Frogapus]

Wabeships are mentioned in the Tove codex entry - as far as I can tell, they're a mix of Tove space habitat, colony ship, and flying shopping mall. We likely haven't seen them because the Tove, as far as I can tell from reading their codex entry, are almost 100% uninterested in exploration on the whole - and thus, the vast majority of Wabeship captains would prefer to make a tidy profit plying the tradelanes between established worlds rather than risking damage to their ship in the unruly regions of Rush Space.

Oh my god, I never thought of that! And I came up with them! That's a perfect in-universe reason for not having seen them. I believe that Uveto Station is a repurposed Wabeship, though, but it's definitely not a typical one. (Though the glimpse you get of the interior when you romance Xotchi IS the standard working interior for belowdecks Wabeships.)