Worldships - A Perfect Addition to your Campaign (plus a generator!)
Introduction
Worldships are a perfect addition to any setting. We need more stories that are either set on them, or at least include them.
Why exactly are the Worldships perfect for your campaign?
- They work differently than the world we know. Regardless if they are Generation Ships (with whole cultures arising and dying during their journey) or Popsickle Ships (with the whole crew on ice for the trip) they use different rules than planet-side civilizations. The fleet has to be almost completely self-sufficient for the length of its journey, with only rare stray asteroids and rogue planets serving as sources of needed resources and energy.
- They are believable For all we know, the speed of causality (aka the speed of light) may not be breached, just like you can not make it so that 2+2=5. We also know that sapient species that have grown on to dominate their biospheres will probably want to expand to the stars. The Worldships are an obvious solution, as a ship that is to survive an interstellar journey has to be large enough to host an ecosystem (even if it is fragile).
- They allow you to change the scope of your story In many fantasy worlds you may forget about the stars above your head. When your party is focused on a single aspect of the world, they may force them to engage with the entirety of the (now rapidly changing) world!
- They bring change and hope to the world. While the meeting of an advanced civilisation may be terrifying and dangerous, it is also a great opportunity to re-examine how the world that you have created will react to such a great change. And with just a bit of good-will and cooperation (or maybe with a lot of warfare) the strange new-comers may actually become a new group inside of your world.
- They are F_____g Cool!
1d6 ways to include one in your setting
- Place your setting inside a worldship (or a fleet of them).
- Make the people of your setting the descendants of an ancient Worldship
- Put one on the orbit of your world - it has arrived 3d100 years ago, and has already made first contact.
- Put one on the orbit of your world - it has just arrived, as a strange new star that brings newcomers with it.
- Make your setting take place in one (or several) worldship(s) that have forgotten their purpose
- Crashland one in your world (this may also serve to decrease the advantage that the people from an arkship may have).
Worldship generator
Worldships (or Worldfleets) may be described using several characteristics: Population, Tech Level and Culture
Population
How many people can the ship/fleet support (excluding those on ice)? d100*100000. A single ship can have the capacity anywhere from 100 000 up to 1000000 Generally a fleet will have ~10% of its capacity as crew during their start, and will breed/clone additional crewmembers during their movement. If they approach the maximum population, most cultures will start producing contraceptives and other methods to curb the population growth.
Tech Level
I divide technology that may be used by a Worldship into 4 categories: biotech (includes medicine as well as agriculture), silitech (electronics and electrics of all sorts), nanotech (nanotechnology, and other such "in-built" technologies), psychotech (sociology, psychology and other "soft" sciences). Roll d6-2 for the level of each by the end of the journey. Alternatively, take the level of their starting civilisation and modify it by either -1, 0 or 1. 0 is the minimum level needed for building and maintaining a generation ship. For any tech at a -1 level, divide the final population by 2.
| Level | Biotech | Nanotech | Silitech | Psychotech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -1 | While the knowledge of essentials (such as germ theory and hydroponics) remains, it is only in the form of rote behaviours. When anything is out of the ordinary, you are boned. Life expectancy is low due to cancer from space radiation. | Making of anything smaller and more precise than a rifle's mechanism is difficult. Replacement of Electronics is impossible. Measurements are limited to tapes and thermometers. | 1950's electronics - enough to get to orbit and back, not enough to run doom or keep track of all the moving parts of a worldship. | People do not understand how to work together - this does not mean anarchy - this means something worse. Murder is common, both individual as well as by organisations. Madness consumes the people, as most culture is lost. |
| 0 | Enough to build a bit more hydroponics basins and algae vats, as well as to diagnose and treat most illnesses, as well as provide birth control if it is needed. Life expectancy is still a bit lower than Earth's, due to the inherent dangers of spacer life. | While the precision required to make nanomachines still eludes your grasp, you can make complex materials and components required for most electronics. You have microscopes and other modern sensors. | 1970's electronics - enough to help manage the ships, still not enough to run doom. | The people have some methods of conflict resolution and organisation. Maybe it means referring to an Overlord and their magistrates. Maybe they have elaborate rituals of "burying a conflict". While they still sometimes suffer from wars and mismanagement, they are unlikely to self-destruct. Mental health is mostly a mystery, but may sometimes be managed. |
| 1 | Everyone and everything is genetically modified to survive the trip (or to produce more resources). Life expectancy is ~200 years, which may allow a person who was a member of the starting crew to survive to the final destination of shorter trips. | While you still can not create full nano-machines, you can make machines the size of bugs. You can also create simple self-healing materials. You also gain access to advanced sensors, such as an electron microscope. | 2000's electronics - enough to mostly manage the ships on its own, can finally run doom. | The methods of conflict resolution and organisation finally allow for more complex societies. Maybe you have a citizen's republic. Or a constitutional monarchy. Or a large bureaucracy. You may understand how the human mind works, and help most mentally ill people. |
| 2 | Telomeres may be lengthened, allowing both the cloning of crew as needed, as well as indefinite life extension by cellular regeneration (and the implantation of neural tissue as needed). Some illnesses still exist, but death is rare. People don't have a life-span - they have a half-life. | Nanomachines, father? - while you can not change things overnight, everything can be rearranged as needed over many weeks. Beware of the waste heat! Nanomachines may also be used in medicine. | Electronics that can help almost every aspect of life - the cutting edge of the current world (at the time of writing, which is 2024). | The people mostly understand themselves, and each other. At this level, people know how to better their minds and technology/culture are unlikely to be lost. Parts that are no longer useful, however, may be outgrown. |
| 3 | Humanity is more of a suggestion. Sapience may now be bestowed to any animal, as well as to plant-based life. Food is grown in abundance, using every last bit of available energy. Death is mostly eliminated, except for rare cases. | Nanomachines, son! - nanobots are not magical, but they sure seem like it. You may create complex structures over days, as long as they are provided with both a source of energy, as well as a method to get rid of their waste heat. A human being may be rebuilt, as long as they were previously scanned. | Electronics that can think. They may all be networked, ruled by The Overmind, or exist without hierarchy, on a peer to peer basis. Enough to run some digital minds. | The people understand each other more and more. While they mostly remain separate, they don't need to use as much speech as they used before. It may be an authoritarian nightmare, or a utopia, but it rarely needs to use its conflict resolution mechanisms. |
| 4 | All the matter that makes up the spaceship (except for the outer hull) may be changed into efficient biomass. The Word for World Is Forest. Even a single death is a tragedy. | Nanomachines fill every aspect of your life, now. Crystaline matrixes make almost all technology minimizable, with most complex electronics growing like on trees. | The whole crew could be uploaded minds, and it would still have enough space for billions of people more. The issue now is power generation. | The need for a state has withered away. Maybe the society is completely decentalised, with everyone taking care of their part. Maybe everyone is held in control using words of power and poison. In either case, their social organisation is nothing like what we may currently see on earth. |
Culture
Remember - a Worldship may be created by the civilization it comes from, but its culture changes over time, and time is held in abundance while moving through space. Look at the material conditions of the society. Don't think of it as of a single town - think of it as of a city-state, or even a state as a whole.