Principles

This is a project to create a sci-fi setting with elements like Star Wars and Dune that is full of various sorts of adventure, the notion being to produce a world suitable and compelling for RPG play. Those participating in creating the world are not obligated to play in the world. But the hope is that it will be inspiring enough that some of the participants in creating it will, in fact, want to play in it.

Grand Setting Ideas

Life

Humans

Humans exist, though in myriad forms.

Human Culture

At least one major human culture has devolved into feudalism as a result of the struggle to control archaeo-tech resources (see below). In addition to the various noble houses, the schools that teach the psionic powers necessary to control certain archaeo-tech are also important players.

Non-Human Sapient Life

Non-human sapient life-forms exist, but none of them are at all “humanoid” in any way. If it looks at all human, it came from human stock at one point.

One type of monstrous opponent is the squid-monkey, often encountered in sub-space.

AI

Full AI does exist as a result of archaeo-tech, but due to it being imperfectly understood, AI's are always “uploaded” human psyches, with all of the foibles of the human so uploaded.

Technology

With so many kinds of humans and other intelligent life forms, technology varies considerably. We will enumerate what definitely does exist somewhere, or does not exist anywhere.

If Archaeo-tech has “replicators” nobody has been able to find one that works. Currently humanity is nowhere near this tech.

Archaeo-Tech

Long ago humans had a very high level of tech, but something happened, and society collapsed, and there was a long dark age. Since then humans have been going around trying to relearn how to use these technologies. But it has taken centuries to get them to even a barely useable level.

Employing these technologies, where possible, can give the humans capable of doing so a wide array of potential powers.

Travel

Wormholes

Travel for long-distances, and by any sizable ship, is only possible by expensive to construct stabilized archaeo-tech wormholes. Wormholes were placed at specific locales because they're thought to only be possible from one point to another based on synchronicity in specifics of the gravity wells involved.

Qs:

How long does a wormhole transit take?

Does it require a trained psionic navigator?

Are there any issues with wormhole transit?

Can any size of ship go through or is there a max limit?

Are some wormholes larger than others in terms of what can transit it (perhaps due to the size of the gravity well in which it is found)?

If so, are they the same size both ways, or can their size vary between A to B transit and B to A transit?

Do wormholes require a ring or other structure to stabilize them at some point?

Non-Wormhole Transit FTL

Travel between systems not linked by wormholes is possible only by smaller ships that ride on wormhole energy (about 5 LY per hour? Less as you reach the end of the wormhole effect horizon), which drops off fairly precipitously around 13.4 light years from the nearest wormhole, making the systems around each wormhole their own little neighborhood, reachable only by the wormhole.

Larger ships go slower because of square cube law.

Dropping out of FTL, the ship operators may re-enter normal space at any vector with a velocity less than the speed of light.

No Teleporters

Qs:

What is the largest size ship that can use this method of travel (mass, persons carried)?

What is the ratio of mass to velocity in LY units?

Do these ships require a trained psionic to operate?

Weapons?

Crystal swords (mainly swords with some variations) called Starblades that are only use-able by those who have the psionic talent to be able to use them properly. For those who can, these swords can defeat otherwise un-defeatable archaeo-tech defensive technologies.

https://www.pinterest.com/mikeholmes7311/sci-fi-rpg/starblades/

Psionic powers given by other archaeo-tech are usable as weapons as well, at least against those without archaeo-tech defenses.

Qs:

What do archaeo-tech defenses look like? Are we going with something like bots that intercept attacks?

Life-Tech

Genetic engineering and cybernetics are human techs that exist, which give humans edges over each other; but they are frail enhancements compared to what archaeo-tech can provide, and thus mostly only matter to those who do not have archaeo-tech.

Locales

The travel tech creates “Nodes” (maybe a better term is needed). Inside of nodes there are systems with planets, etc. Wormholes always emerge in gravity wells of stars or black holes, but those systems may or may not have populations that live in that system (outside of a population that inevitably lives right at the wormhole).