Call for your Sci-Fi Imagi-Nation

[Maj Guiscard]

My own Imagi-Nation project is heavily influenced by the Emperor and Elector blog, which is really a good directory for 18th century Imagi-Nations.

Do you have a Sci-Fi Imagi- Nation/Sector/Universe/World for your minis to inhabit? I would include any iteration of the idea in this question (military unit histories are included). Big Tent! So...,
where is it?
when is it?
what is it?
...and who is in it?

Maj Guiscard

[David the Kiwi]

I'm setting my 15mm Science Fiction gaming within the sector or so of space that forms the background for my Classic Traveller campaign. Development work is chronicled on my blog here http://waystarhighport.blogspot.co.nz/2014/02/armed-forces-of-outrim-alliance.html.

I was going to link to my website, but this seems to have broken ... hmm, where's my spanner?

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

A friend and I have been playing Fantastic Worlds (by Rattrap), which is Retro-sci/fi. He runs it mostly, but I might snag a corner of it to run stuff as well. It is basically a Flash Gordon sort of setting with "Drang the Dreadful" taking the place of Ming. It is on the far side of the galaxy from Earth and there is a rebellion helped by a few humans from the crew of an Exploration vessel that somehow got transported there (can't recall the details.)

We have had numerous adventures, including one in which the heroes are trying capture Drang's new Dreadnought. They managed to sleep gas most of the crew and then fight their way out of an ambush in the Control Room to victory in the end. After it was over we rolled percentiles to see how many of the crew actually favoured the rebellion and I rolled '99'! In other words, basically all the crew we had put to sleep! 

[Myrmidont]

I have a fairly needlessly elaborate imagi-nation for my sci-fi troopers.
The universe as a whole incorporates many elements from 40k and the Mantic Games Warpath/Dreadball/Deadzone universe, among others. As I described to some players in a Flying Lead game I ran for them:

The Empire of Humanity
The Empire provides Humanity with its patriotic and spiritual needs. Some say the Immortal Emperor was predicted by the world’s dying religions as an incarnation of the Son of God. First leading a spiritual, then military revolution on Terra, His trinity of Holy Military Orders – The Imperial Marine Legions, The Imperial Guard, and The Knights of the Holy Orders – swept across the stars in a fervour to re-colonise what was once lost. This was a millennia ago; in many places, the crusades still burn while the Emperor dictates their stratagems from Terra.
To go against the Empire is to go against the Emperor, and to go against the Emperor is a crime against God.

The Corporation
Like the shadow of the Empire, wherever the Empire of Humanity spreads, so does The Corporation. Providing the economic, financial, and material needs of the Empire, it owns the vast conglomerate of hyper-corporations which compete for the various contracts set by the Empire or its citizens. Most of the masses don’t realise that there is only one Corporation in Imperial territory: Every other legal corporation and business from the largest beverage mega-corps to the lowliest second-hand street merchant is merely a legislated subsidiary of this vast organisation.
It controls much of the manufacturing and servicing of the technology that the Empire relies on: the datanet, warp drives, positronic brains, high energy weapons, FTL communications. Even Imperial expeditions often have Corporation liaisons, mercenary muscle, or service crews for classified technology.

My chaps are from a planet (Daast) that has been cut off from The Empire and The Corporation due to a decades-long war in the surrounding space, and since the place was basically written off and forgotten, have thrown their lot in with the archtypical Rebels and Separatists you get when monolithic organizations rule the place.
Despite their neo-Germanic aesthetic, they're actually rather open-minded chaps, and have had their exploratory fleet joined by several other similarly-minded species and factions.

They consist of a core of Neo-Reich soldiery (Eisenkern Stormtroopers, Warzone Bauhaus, and when they get here, Raging Heroes Iron Empire), with allied rebel elements from any other sci-fi game line I feel like collecting .

Since 'current' technology is something they are lacking, their primary goal is to hunt down any advanced tech they can find - hence their uninspired name, 'Tekjaegers' (Tech Hunters).

[zemjw]

I've been comptemplating this very question recently, and it's still very much a work in progress...

The technology is fairly hardish SF, so I'm taking cues from Traveller for spaceships, jump drives etc. However, I have quite a lot of alien figures (Tau, Zombiesmith, Vargr types etc), which is more major alien races than you normally expect somewhere like the Spinward Marches. I'm currently planning to "borrow" some ideas from B5, and have the aliens as a League of Non Aligned Worlds kind of group, with the Tau as the major alien culture.

I have humans figures from a number of manufacturers, so they suggest armies from different worlds, or multiple corporations (or a combination of the two). I also have vehicles from Revell Star Wars, GW, Pig Iron and others, so again, multiple worlds seems the direction to go.

As for "when is it", I'm leaning towards an "on the cusp of war" setting, as that seems to offer the most gaming opportunities.

[shandy]

Ah, so you have guessed my new project? 
I'm starting with 15mm sic fi and we will base the games in our own background - something like a cluster which is about to be colonized via a wormhole. This explains why the tech level of the planets is rather primitive, think Firefly but with less cowboys and horses and more aliens. In fact, there are a lot of aliens, K. and I were so blown away by all the great figures out there (esp. Khurasan) that we have only ordered a handful of humans. My main guys will be Zombiesmith's Quar, political exiles (Crusaders) out to colonize some planets, while K. has some of the new Brunt and the small desert folks whose name I don't remember. Both factions have colonization as their main objectives, but both also have some hidden agendas that will lead to some nice scenarios… I'll be posting a more detailed outline of the project on my blog in two weeks or so.
It's great to hear of other people's ideas!

Cheers,
Shandy

[Predatorpt]

Some of you may have seen the topic about my setting:

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=56123.0

My idea is having a setting where you can play from near-future battles to far future ones. I'll borrow from GW; Traveller; 2300AD; Alien Universe; Battletech plus much more, including sci-fi novels that I really like. As for figures, I'll use anything I can get my hands on! 

In that topic, there's some stuff from the beggining of the setting but I already had some tidbits written on other topics. Here's a sample (not up to date, I'll have to rewrite most of the stuff )

It's the year 4001 and the know universe is in turmoil. A civil war has decimated the Terran Empire and the Emperor is dying, entombed in his Golden Throne. The High-Lords of Terra (aka Earth) rule in his name, with the support of the Imperial Guard (raised from the habitants of the colonies, or at least the loyal colonies), Imperial Navy, the Space Marines (that in this case are more akin to the Master-Chief from Halo than normal WH40k one. All of them are from the Solar Colonies and Earth) and the Ecclesiastic (who is "fighting" to turn the Emperor into a God, who can be worshiped by the masses). There’s also a force called the Mechanicum, a "scientific cult" who worships the Ancients who once ruled Mars. They are neutral, selling weapons from their Forgeworlds to both sides of the war. Of course they are doing this to further the goals of the Ancients...

Opposing the Terran Empire we find the Fringe Colonies, who are trying to gain independence from Earth. The have their own Revolutionary Guard (aka Traitor Guard), a Navy and their own version of the Space Marines (more low-tech than the Empire ones). Their numeric inferiority is compensated by their alien allies - the Tau - who lend them troops and logistic support. Sometimes the Eldar also help, but they are a dying race and they can’t afford to loose more members of their race.

But there are other races in the mix  From the fringes of the galaxy come the Xenomorphs (aka Tyranids/Aliens) and their all-consuming Hive Fleets, laying waste to anything they can find. The Terran Empire tried stopping them using a Mechanicum-created biological weapon. Unfortunately that weapon evolved into the space-fungus infestation know as the Orks…

There’s also the reptilian KarackZar; the Skrulls and lots of similar small alien races who see in the Terran civil war a way to expand their domains.

Unknown to most of them, an even older race is stirring in its tombs and vaults. The C’ton (worshiped as the Ancients by the Cult of the Mechanicum; other races legends and stories call them Cy’lons) are coming back and planning on, once again, cleaning the galaxy of all organic life forms. Some worlds have already seen their “touch” – the most well-known case was the Cameron colony, practically wiped out when its central computer (aka Skynet) was subverted and decided to terminate all humans. The planet is now a Deathworld, ruled by Skynet.

Some turistic places to visit

The Eye of Terror (aka The Bleed; The Maelstrom; The Veil of Tears) - This region of space, near the edge of our galaxy, is simply the largest known rift in reality. It serves as a portal to access the multiverse and within the normal rules of reality don't apply. Several neighbor planets are considered Deathworlds, being lost several decades ago to a strange zombie infestation know as "The Reality Dysfunction". Space travel is severely limited due to the impossibility of using warp engines or building warpgates in the vicinity of the zone. Even so, several Imperial expeditions tried to explore the Eye and the multiverse that lies beyond. Most of them were lost, but 2 brought back disturbing news - there are other realities similar to the Imperial one, where mankind fights alone against all odds. Contact was established with two of them, but never official diplomatic relations. The other realities tend to frown upon the idea of an Empire ruled by a dead Emperor...

A little known fact is that the Eye was caused by a Human weapon. Both sides of the Terran Civil war denied using it, but someone detonated a massive bomb nicknamed "The Neutronium Alchemist". The weapon destroyed two planets and their sun and opened the rift in reality.

     

[mcfonz]

Hmmm. Well I have a 'make it up as you go along' universe! 

It's essentially meant to be gritty sci-fi. Set after humankind has started to colonise the worlds. A bit like Firefly.

Only that the worlds have a grading system that marks them out as a primarily resource world and so a mining/refining/industrial world or a class 1 which is essentially the most desirable world to live on in that you don't have to live in hab-domes or enclosed environments (essentially like earth). Some are terraformed.

At the moment the theme is that the industrial type worlds are splitting off and rebelling against the ruling class 1 worlds. Two main forces vying for power being the Nova Fed and the Alliance of Colonial Planets.

Not everyone supports the two and the game I am putting on at Salute is based on a world that had tried to stay out of the fight then invaded by the Nova Fed. The Resistance Fighters are targeting an influential VIP who is visiting a Nova Fed troop base in a moral boosting show of strength in his motorcade.

[Vermis]

Nice work. For the 40K tweaks: I always thought the imperium would be more interesting with other non-imperial human colonies and governments alongside, nestled in the gulfs between imperial worlds and warp routes, or beyond the borders. There were hints in 3rd ed, when I discovered 40K: a exploratory fleet's log in the big rulebook, and the Tau ally gue'ela (?) from Chapter Approved. But nothing much came of it in the face of yet more varieties of space marine.  (Kind of interesting that the recent knight fluff has knight worlds as basically independent of the imperium, but I don't think that'll have much impact either, and I digress)

Good stuff too, McFonz. I remember reading that before.

Don't have much myself, apart from much less far-reaching modifications of 40K, with kroot that are a bit more technological and independent from the tau, not hobbled by silly Anghkor Prok oaths or bluey's hand-me-downs. Wouldn't mind seeing a topic like this on the fantasy board, though. I'd have much more to say.

[The_Beast]

Never really understood imagi-nation...

However, for Full Thrust, I'd set up the loser in an interstellar corporate war.

The Texaco Free Trade Zone.

GZGpedia entry

Never did fill in the blanks; was always supposed to be Illuminati-esque. In the few battles in which they appeared, they were mostly spoilers.

Doug

[Ironworker]

Yes.  It's called Solar Empires.  It's actually four national factions and several other factions.  It's set in the 31st century in our own solar system.  Here is a big block of text that seriously needs updating and artwork describing the setting:
http://ironworkersminiatures.blogspot.com/p/solarempires-nathan-miller-2013.html

[baldlea]

Our group background primarily focuses on factions that each left a dying Earth on an ark ship to set up home in the M67 globular cluster.

More details are in the link below. It's got pictures and Ant's New Commonwealth text is really cool.

https://sites.google.com/site/system15mm/home

[Conquistador]

I started with the GZG Tuffleyverse as a base - had the Major 4 powers cripple themselves in generational war...

then I took the idea (from a European gentleman whose name I just blanked on) and had the High to mid tech Latino LLAR not lose/emigrate from Earth but I deemed it a bloody draw (with a long memory) with 1)  a breakaway LLAR group for one of my nations, 2)  a mid to High tech Native People's Circle (Meritocracy in most respects,) 3)The Mid to low (for SF) tech "Dark Grey hat" banished from the Solar system Christian Communist Holy People's Republic (from an excellent Atari ST game "Stellar Crusade,") and others influenced by the Atari ST Star Command game.  I still have both games and the old non-functional Atari ST out in the garage...  with lots of old PC, Apple II, and other Atari games.

Introduce a sea dwelling native species/race undetected during exploration (or at least unreported) and an infestation of "Bugs" and simmer for years.

Gracias,

Glenn

[Brummie]

WARNING S**T-LOAD OF TEXT, I SORTA GOT CARRIED AWAY TRYING TO SIMPLIFY THINGS

My sci-verse is mostly veering towards hard-sci fi, but I had to just throw in some far-fetched elements (like FTL) just so I could justify having a multitude of Aliens and worlds.

For a brief review, it sorta goes like this;

The basis of my sci-fi verse is its based about 400/500 years from now and takes of from where my Modern very near future conflict ends.

A mass of wars by 2021 (World War 3 only more a number of wars happening at the same time, as opposed to two distinct sides) plus economic/environmental collapse causes the near total breakdown of current civilisation.

Two major factions arise from this: The American Federation (A union of the entire American continent) and the Co-Prosperity Sphere (a union between China and the rest of South East Asia). Russia collapses into dozens of tiny warring state-lets. Europe is always on the brink, with constant civil wars, coups, and revolutions etc. Out of this mess arises the Commonwealth, an Alliance that -loosely- covers what is currently Britain, Ireland, South Africa and Kenya. They effectively become the Heavy Socialist element (not quite communist, with an 'Athenian' style democracy, and only administrators, politicians practically become extinct for them). There are of course many other factions i'll get around to.
 
During the first century, the CPS and the Federation are in the midst of a Cold War. The Commonwealth rapidly expands across Africa and the Indian sub-continent, and makes some headway into Europe (only to be rolled back). However no one is powerful enough to challenge CPS and Federation military/economic power. The Cold war twinned with the need to find new resources and beat back environmental catastrophe etc speeds up the development of new technologies. Within a century Asteroid mining is financially feasible and is followed up by orbital industries, colonisation of the Moon/Mars. The CPS and Federation are the big boys when it comes to these industries/projects, but the money and resources allows for rapid rebuilding of Earth's infrastructure, and helps 'fix' Europe. Other factions join in, but are largely barred from colonising other planets in the solar-system. The Scandinavian Federation gets an edge when it starts harvesting water from Jupiter's moons and selling it to rejuvenate Earth's oceans and to keep the taps running on Mars. The Commonwealths calling comes in the form of effective Terraforming and Renewable Energy resources. Although it faces fierce competition with the latter, its terraforming tech places it in a powerful position to mend Earth's atmosphere.

By the Second century, Earth's economies are booming and the world is enjoying relative peace. Then the CPS invades the numerous Siberian Republics, and moves west, before being stopped by a European/Muscovite Coalition. It invades Afghanistan and fights with the Caliphate for a bit, before invading the Indian sub-continent, divided between a dozen or so countries, who invite the Commonwealth in to help. The Commonwealth does, beats back the CPS, but is then drawn into Regional politics (and being unable to really grasp what's going on), eventually overthrows the local regimes, bar its single ally; the Bengali Republic who join via Political Union. Robots become widely accessible to people across the Solar system (do your cooking, walk your dog, take out the trash, that kind of robot). However public opinion of A.I is made fragile when a Super-computer tries to hijack the Federations Orbital defence systems. By the end of the century an International Research effort believes to have discovered a way to create a ship that goes Faster than light. Three are made, with internationally recruited crews and are launched by the turn of the 23rd Century. One vanishes under mysterious circumstances. Whilst the other two meet their targets, and one even discovers a habitable planet.  

For the majority of the 23rd century, things are relatively peaceful. Medical Tech allows for Humans to live for around 200 years. There are some insurgencies in South America, and a few conflicts on Mars between the CPS and Federation (and renewed Wars between the State of Moscow and the CPS). A fresh water supply from Europa causes widespread illness in a number of Moons Dome-cities. The result is an expedition to research deep into Europa's oceans resulting in the discovery of microscopic life. Exo-planet exploration and colonisation and FTL starship production also sees a huge boom in productivity.

By the 24th century though things become dangerous. The race for Inter-stellar colonisation eventually results in all out war between the CPS and the Federation. The CPS collapses, creating Neo-China and the Federation funded Pacific Confederation. CPS Russia revolts and becomes independent, unifying with Moscow, establishing the Union of Eurasian Socialist Republics, backed by and later aligned with, the Commonwealth. The Federation faces bankruptcy, and is bailed out by Federation based Corporations, who remove all power from the elected Governing body, and start calling the shots. However its clear that the new Federations aims are rather dark.

In the 25th Century various planets attempt to break away from the Federation, resulting in a series of conflicts, known as the Colony Wars. The Commonwealth and UESR, back the Anti-Corporate Rebels, creating a new Cold War between the Federation and its allies and the two main Socialist powers. The 'Crime' wars begin; the Federation and some of its more developed colonies become hotspots for large Crime gangs resulting in all out war between the Federation Police and the Cartels. It is later discovered though that the Cartels are being armed by the Federations corporations to create an unstable situation to keep weapons sales and weapons tech development going. Federation colony of Callisto, one of Jupiters moons, rebels. The Federation invade but are defeated, and threaten to destroy the Habitat domes protecting Callisto's cities. This pushes the Commonwealth to declare war (who were fanning the flames), and is later joined by the UESR, Scandinavian Federation, The Sphere and a number of Rebel planets. The Corporate Wars last for nearly thirty years before the Federation is defeated. Its elected officials are handed back power, however many planets secede from the Federation. South America also secedes with those planets that closely associate with it. The running and security of Federation space falls into the hands of the newly established Earth Defense Force (a large Mercenary force that just so happens to be funded by a number of organisations that profited from the Federations defeat). The EDF comes under heavy criticism by the Commonwealth and UESR, who withdraw funding, when it is revealed that Neo-China and none-Federation corporations are heavily invested in the new security force. The 'Galactic' Economy comes to a halt with the Federations collapse, and exo-planet colonisation slows considerably.

By the 26th Century many states begin to suspect the EDF. On Mars the locals rebel against an Ex-Federation Corporation that claimed control of the planet soon after the Corporate Wars ended. The EDF arrived and defeated the Corporate forces, but only after masses of Martians had been slaughtered. The Federation takes over most of Mars but allows a small independent state to be established, which rapidly comes under the control of a Rebel leader turned wannabe Dictator. The EDF also begins to crack down on planets that technically seceded from the Federation but were not strong enough to defend themselves. The old Federation frontier also becomes utterly lawless, EDF interstellar 'sheriffs' often either too corrupt or to few to enforce order. By the middle of the century, there is a Second revolt of Mars with Commonwealth backed rebels overthrowing the Martian Dictator, however the rebellion is short lived as EDF forces quickly roll in and take over. Many Ex-Federation planets rebel/declare war against the EDF, even pushing the EDF back to their headquarters orbiting Earth, isolating Mars. The Federation takes the opportunity to remove the EDF from planets still under its control. Mars undergoes a Third Revolt followed by a bloody insurgency, removing the EDF from power and becomes independent. EDF Generals/Representatives are put on trial for war crimes (some flee to the frontiers).

We then come to the 'current day'.

That pretty much sums up the MAIN plot line thus far. Plenty of Factions left out, with expanded stories I will get to when I do them.

The 'current' stand point is, the Federation is beginning to do a 'come back'. There is a powerful/nasty Fascist regime that has arose on an old Federation Planet, and a new Cold war between the Commonwealth/UESR and Neo-China is about to go hot. Numerous powerful alien factions are starting to discover humans (and vice versa) as they spread across space; its speculated that most Governments already new about Advanced Alien civilisations a century back, only they chose to ignore them. Old Alliances are also breaking down, with the UESR becoming more extreme in its ideology, whilst the Commonwealth remains moderate. European states are becoming more influential; France, The Iberian Coalition and the CEA (Germany, Austria etc) in particular. France having the distinction of being the first country to try and colonise a planet with Intelligent beings who don't want them there (something to do with the food).

But uh yeah... A bit long.

[Connectamabob]

I have a multiverse of sorts. I wanted to play around with the idea of travel between parallel universes a bit, a-la Sliders, Bioshock Infinite, etc.

My concept is a bit... harsh, though. It's based on the old quantum dividing universes thing, so nigh infinite new universe are being created every instant. Once you leave your home universe, there's no longer a specific home universe to go back to, just an exponentially growing number of forks. And that's provided you can even find a derivative of your home universe: it's astronomically more likely that you'll end up in a universe in which, say, humans never existed (the fork from your continuity is 3 billion years back, say).

Travel between universes is also very energy expensive. The way it pretty much has to be done is by provoking a fork into existence under controlled conditions so you can capture and consume an entire universe's worth of energy as it forms. Every time you jump, you split, and one of you dies instantly (along with everyone and everything else) as your whole universe is "burned" to fuel the jump for your twin. There are technical limitations too: free electron surfaces will collect waste energy during the jump, so craft, equipment and personnel have to be designed, prepped, and selected very, VERY carefully. The effect is very, very slight in technical terms, but in practical terms a single amalgam tooth filling will burn your jaw in half. A 4"x4"x1/32" piece of metal will turn to plasma and flash heat the inside of your craft to oven temperatures. As you might imagine, this forces the development of a lot of alternative materials and technologies apart from the actual universe-switching device(s) in order for a universe-switching craft to ever be built (and it has to be a space ship, basically, because no matter where you jump from, odds are almost certain you'll arrive in deep space).

For these reasons, travel between universes is uncommon. Uncommon... but inevitable, given an infinity of forking realities, and each traveler produces an infinity of themselves in every instant they're in a given universe, so it's not that strange that travelers might encounter others... or themselves. Some have even formed traveling communities of sorts, and there are all sorts of social conventions and even cultures that have evolved around the uncertainties and such of inter-universe living which continuity bound non-travellers would find alien.