Coup D'etat - Session 01, "Union" Epilogue

Cass, Razka, Al, Pron, and Luke are on the Celestial Wind with The Voice of the Deep.

You've left orbit without incident and crossed the poorly-patroled border into KAMATAS space, further from Slemmgraise law enforcement (A concern for some of you.). The Voice of the Deep begins to mull things over: 

"My knowledge of The Spines is limited. I was designed as a general for the war against the Slemmgraise and their incursion into our universe happened before my experiences. However, there may yet be old places, remnants of the PROTECT, and our builders, the Zurai, which might have information on them.

"The history of The Monliths indicate that they would not wholly support such wanton destruction as you have attributed to them. It is likely that those you encountered were part of a group separate from the monolith culture based on Monoliths' Favorite World. Contemporary references support this; the churn of subcultures reported across the galaxy have long contained unrelated references to spines, silver leaves, and the monoliths, but limited information gleaned from the Sur-Et Rim indicate an above insignificant upward trend, both in their prevalence and connection, though the silver leaves are by far the strongest element. They speak of The Predator from beyond the stars. Possibly a messianic figure from their the same universe as The Spines, or from beyond the galaxy.

Collaborative Campaign Setting: Coup D'etat, Day II - Styles

I've worked up general styles of ships and architecture that distinguish each of them from the others. I'm open to more ideas or modifications, as you prefer.

Slemmgraise

Architecture: Slim grey metallics with blackened orbs in them. Long architecture. Ships that tend to rotate and "stand" on the horizon like rockets.
Many of their "ships" are stations built of asteroids or meteors that they teleport around in groups.

Pris
Volcanic red with inner light coming from the seams. Ships with central bodies and jutting "wings." Exosuits (eeze) tend to have the same colors.

KAMATAS (S'Szera)
Premier shipbuilders. Spindly ships. Crumble-white, hexagonal nacells with arms for six more "pods." Some of the largest, most versatile, and well-armed vessels in the galaxy. Also make common cargo ships and passenger vessels. Their primary attack craft from from fighter pods filled with rocket-propelled, spider-like individual exosuits.

Collaborative Campaign Setting: Coup D'etat, Part II - Enhanced Groundwork

We're doing a new RPG, a Mutants and Masterminds game currently codenamed "Coup D'etat." In order to make sure everyone knows the general layout of the setting, we all jammed to hammer out the foundations of the setting. Before we play again Saturday night, I've got a lot of setting work to do, so I'm posting regular updates. Here's today's:

Characters

-T's: Hellworld native. Lives on a lunar station orbiting his home planet

-J's: Shapeshifter from a planet in a rim sector.

-D's: Teleporter from the Infusers Alliance

-R's: Shipborn. His whole life. Supersoldier.

-Space Voice: Finding it in an old, neglected area or something.

-KT: Ship pilot. Roguish.

Geography

-The ship itself and its geography.

-Our headquarters: Space Voice leads them to the headquarters. Abandoned because no one else gets it to work. Base on an overlooked planet in a busy solar system.

-"Serious Nebula": Base of operations or home for one or more species. With planets with species.

-"Variety"

-Timeworld for teleporters' home.

-Worlds with specific resources with difficulties concerning extracting those resources

-Primitive natives vs resources

-Shapeshifters are from a specific planet. There are less sentient ones. They find new resources and leverage to get more from those resources. 

-The empty sector. Probably in Pris, KAMTASA, or Free Alliance areas

Collaborative Campaign Setting: Coup D'etat, Part II - Relations

Infusers/Slemmgraise
The two are engaged in a cold war and have been for some time. From the center of the Slemmgraise Alliance to the cobble streets of the Infuser's planets, agents, plans, codes, and all manner of information is exchanged so that both will have a technological edge on the other should their mutual mistrust and suspicion come to cause a galactic conflagration. The Slemmgraise have multiple interests, but chief amongst them is protecting their genetic code and the technologies based on it. The teleportation is the centerpiece of their hold over their alliance and even though it has already begun to crack, they will keep it together at all costs.

Monday's Pitch: Collaborative Star Trek

There is a collaborative board game based on the new Star Trek movie where you try to get a planet to join The Federation while averting a civil war, warding off Klingons, and...doing one more thing that I can't quite remember right now. I imagine it's a lot like Shadows Over Camelot, partially because I just got through playing several rounds of it, but also because it sounds like each of your objectives is analogous to the quests from SOC and you're trying to beat them all before time runs out, though ST: Expeditions[1] as an artificial time limit of 30 turns instead of just being designed to slowly push your head below water until you simply can't breathe anymore (like SOC and Pandemic).

But I was pawning through some cards from the terrible, terrible, terrible Star Trek CCG[2] and I was thinking about how the character development, mission accomplishment, dilemma overcoming, interpersonal relationships, and point-based victory (instead of defeat-based paradigm) is a great way to do Star Trek. Don't get me wrong, the ST CCG was [3], but it failed by being too thick with flavor and not enough with game. It was a game people enjoyed, but it just didn't play well. They had missions right. They had dilemmas right. They had winning with points via accomplishing Star Trek things instead of just destroying stuff. They had skills that drove the system; not just job skills and technical skills, but things like 'youth,' 'empathy,' and 'music'; humanitarian things[4] that made people who they were. Also, barbering[3].