Spies In Space Campaign

Introduction: Espionage in Space

Background
The campaign starts a little over 50 years from now, in 2047. Mankind has expanded across the solar system and has established (small) outpost colonies on about 20 nearby star systems. None of the worlds that have been found to date support life wholly on their own, and no aliens have been encountered. The solar system is littered with special purpose habitats and stations.

Most of the countries present today still exist. There are two loose clusters of countries, the North Atlantic Federation (NAF) and the Asian Prosperity Sphere (APS). The dividing line is not as clear as the names indicate; for example, France is part of the APS, while North Korea and the Philippines are part of the NAP. (It's a long story.) There are a lot of unaligned nations (e.g. most of Africa), but they do not act together as a block. The UN operates about the same as today, a place for countries to argue in peace and the central agency for humanitarian aid. In general, the extra solar colonies are treated as independent countries, although most are allied with one of the two federations. About 25 years ago, there was a war between the NAF and the APS which took place mostly in space ("the Starwar").

This is not to say that the countries act the same as they do today. One of the effects of the rapid expansion into space was a "brain drain." Surviving in space is fairly technical, and, like many frontiers, attracted the more energetic, dissatisfied-with-status-quo people. This has left the countries on Eart more ... hidebound. (For example, the current president of the US is a Baptist minister.) Fourteen years ago, the independent space-based colonies formed a military force to stop a significant problem, and declared themselves independent. This force was called the Star Corps; the political organization of the space-based colonies has never been formally named. Colloquially, they are known as the "Spacers," most political observers say it works more like a federation than a confederacy or a union. The Star Corps has grown to encompass needed administrative functions as well as the military.

Seven years ago, there was a "medium intensity conflict" between the Star Corps and the APS. (Spacers refer to it as the Second Starwar; on Earth it was seen as a minor dispute.) It was recognized after the conflict that the military intelligence needed to be expanded to include classic espionage, in preparation for the next conflict. Being Spacers, however, this hasn't been carefully codified (or even formally named), so this office gets all kinds of jobs that need to be done but can't be identified as someone else's responsibility. Some of the names for this group are G-2, Intelligence, Department of Leftovers, and Oddjobs. The Player Characters are members of this organization.

Technology
There are lots of little differences, but here are some of the major game effects:

1. Spaceships that travel between stars are very small. No one has found a way to make them big. It typically takes about a week to travel from here to there. Ships have to be well removed from gravity wells to travel faster than light; therefore most of the transit time is spent maneuvering in normal space.
2. Sublight ships can be as big as required or desired.
3. Life support is a big difficulty. The basic supplies of oxygen, etc., are well understood, but getting the trace elements right has never been completely solved. No successful second biosphere has yet been established.
4. There are no force fields (well, maybe one...), but ways to propagate fields through materials have been developed. As long as it is powered, it is incredibly strong. Virtually all spacesuits, and all hulls, are made with this stuff.
5. All the projectile weapons currently in use are, of course, still available. And, since they are the cheapest, they are the most common. The gyroject (caseless rocket rounds) are more available than now, because they are low recoil weapons and thus very useful in space. The best hand weapon is known as the "blaster." As it fires an intense energy pulse. It is used by elite military (which includes most Star Corps officers): the primary restriction is in the cost of the "ammunition" for the weapon. All these weapons are covered in the "common firearms" group.
6. It is very cheap to lift mass into orbit. Power from fixed or large installations is also very cheap. Portable power can still be expensive.
7. The maximum acceleration of most spaceships is less than 1-G, although it can go up to a few G. There is no artificial gravity, so most space habitats spin.
8. The oldest person born in space is about 45 years old.

"Introduction" copyright 1996 P.Shea. The contents of this site are copyright 2004 Sheryl A. Knowles unless otherwise specified. All rights reserved.