help with books selection and plot details

[Nightmask]

If you're using Chaos Earth's setting Mutants in Orbit's Rifts section would give you an idea of what the pre-Cataclysm community was like (including a Moon colony trying to recover from the failure of ARCHIE-4 and creating its replacement).

[Talon Starblade]

On the books and skills:
I’d recommend adding Dimension book 3: Phaseworld Sourcebook, start at page 104 (large ship combat rules), fighters and smaller would be covered by most main manuals (like Chaos Earth). Follow that up with Dimension book 13: Fleets of the Three Galaxies. It expands the normal rules and expands roles and other features. I’m not sure if the rules really make the combat a “team sport” but any large ship usually requires a crew to work together, so no one system (if disabled) takes out the ship. For that, just give them a ship that requires systems to be manned. Use their skills to your advantage. Read Sensory and Weapons Systems are major skills for this, so may determine who works where, and whether they get bonuses or not. Repair skills may only come into play. I never really knew how well Weapon Proficiencies apply to Starship weapons (if at all), although I would consider Targeting as a possible add. As Nightmask said, Mutants in Orbit would be a great book.

On the story:

I generally find myself asking questions at this point, so here goes:

1. The Earth –

a. When they left, when was it dying? What year?
b. Is Earth a distant memory for any of the players or relatives, or just old images on a screen?

2. The Ship –

a. While the ship was “one of several” sent to this new world, were all of them using a “slow” FTL system?

i. Just how far away was the target planet form Earth?
ii. How long was the journey supposed to take?
b. At what point did the other ships lose contact?

i. Was there actually any contact prior to the accident?
ii. Did the FTL drive impair or impede communications?
iii. Was the only communication possible actually a sub-light system?
c. Since the ship was sent out 3 centuries prior, was it intended to be a “Generational” styled ship, or a “sleeper” ship?

i. Did they have to work to convert from one to the other?
d. How far into the voyage was the accident?

i. Were they carrying prefab equipment for the colony or portable factory systems?
ii. What other active resources do they have available? Tools, Weapons, water, growing material?
e. They’ve spent years working to repair the engines, has it been five, ten, generations?
f. Was the Covenant built to be a kind of standalone ship with just shuttle pods, or did it have a small protective and support fleet?

i. Are any such subordinate vessels FTL equipped?
ii. How fast and what kind of range do they have, FTL or no FTL?
g. What’s the population like?

i. Numbers?

1. Are they carrying people in stasis?
2. Are they planning on cloning from genetic materials and stored memories?
ii. Diversity?

1. Were they just a single nation or drawn from many nations?
iii. Livestock?

1. Just food herds or wide diversity (Noah’s Ark kind of thing, Or Titan AE style)?
iv. Plant life?

1. Just growing seed or wide range of Earth’s plant life (Likewise stored as generic material or actual seed stock)?
h. Just how self sufficient are they, with only light and the occasional dusty ice ball to add to the supplies?

i. Just what kinds of long term generators do they have?

1. Nuclear?
2. Plasma?
3. Fusion?
4. Solar?
5. All the above?
ii. Do they have the ability to build more?

3. The People –

a. Do they have access to tools beyond technology?

i. Super Soldiers/Eugenics?
ii. Their own Cybernetics program?
iii. Meta human abilities?
iv. Psychic abilities?
v. Magic?

4. The Station –

a. Was it from some old “human” conflict, or was it alien?

i. Do the computers have any data logs or history tracks about the conflict they were being “configured” for?
ii. Since some data and skills were being implanted directly into their brains without a data link, was historical data on the conflict and/or the enemy being installed as well? (Something to think about, since the Literacy program can be installed)
b. Just how compatible are the implants` really with Humans?
c. Was the station a part of the conflict with the “Zombies,” or their own independent war?
d. Can the players salvage the satellite for more supplies than just the interesting implants?

i. IS there more that can be found?
ii. Would it be worth shuttling others to the Sat for the upgrade?
e. Is there information on other satellites that might be processing asteroids and other stellar material into weapons, armor and other machines of war?

i. With the implants, are they now the only ones able to use these possible resources, assuming they exist?
f. Just how much interplanetary information is there?

i. Was data on the planet all there was?

5. The planet –

a. What was the psychology on the Xenocide?

i. Simple intolerance?
ii. Eminent Domain?
iii. Independent or Religious sect?
b. Has the complete population of the planet been converted?

i. If there are survivors, will the players rescue them or leave them?
ii. Is there room to rescue survivors?
c. Are there resources that could be salvaged from the planet than just the FTL power source?

i. Just how compatible is that power source?
ii. Could there be side effects from using it?

1. Mutations in plants or animals? In people?
d. What kinds of tech might be available on the planet?

i. The old transmitter might be salvageable?
ii. What kinds of weapons might be there? Ammo?
iii. Starships?
iv. Would it even be worth the risk or the challenge given the Zombie problem?
e. How did the aliens cause the Zombie plague (differing methods can take the situation into many different directions)?

i. Viral?
ii. Magic curse?
iii. Nanite attack?
iv. Combination?
v. Is it transmissible back to humans?

6. The other Humans (insert their chosen designation)–

a. Why did they leave the Solar system to begin with?
b. How has the group differed from their late comer cousins?

i. Culturally?
ii. Religiously?
iii. Technologically?

1. Have they stayed with pure tech?
2. Have they gone Bio (ala Splicers)?
3. Cyborg society?
4. Combinations?
c. Do they look at the other humans differently?

i. Do they feel they’ve “evolved” more than their cousins?
ii. That they’re morally superior?
iii. Do they see the late comers as interlopers, reinforcements, or just raw materials?
iv. Have they physically changed over the centuries, naturally or by self modification?
d. Do they utterly control the region or are they still locked in an interstellar war?

i. Having a lack of stellar transit of their own may motivate players to join the war and defend their ship.
e. The disposition of the Earlier Colonists can tip the direction of the players.

i. If your players like the light side of morality plays, they may choose to defend the ship and perhaps even side with the aliens.
ii. If the players prefer the darker side of life, they could willingly choose to side with the other humans.
iii. If the other humans prove to be a threat regardless, then the players may work for their own self interest.

1. Again, if the shuttle is lightly FTL capable, or they find something they could fly, they might say adios to the Covenant.
2. If the only chance they have of interstellar travel is the Covenant, then the Early Humans would likely be enemies no matter what, and they would need to defend her.

7. The Aliens –

a. How will they respond to the Humans? Any Humans?

i. Will they see the differences? Will they care?
ii. Is the Enemy of my enemy my friend?
iii. Are the translators really working?
iv. How compatible with the aliens are Humans?

1. Tech?
2. Culture?
3. Sexually (You know SOMEONE will ask)?

I know this seems like a lot, but if you start by looking the questions over, and maybe running a few passes with random answers, ideas will gel. Don’t like one version, try another. You already have some ideas that can take the players through quite a few game sessions, you just need to plan out how hard you plan on making it and how many sessions each chapter might go, and be ready to improvise.

Be advised that crossing Zombies with MDC tech can result in lots of Zombie bits and not a lot of player terror, unless you take the tech to advanced SDC levels, or upgrade the Zombies to minor MDC ability, then they will become insanely frightening, especially without armor. Watch the balance issue, it could prove a real bear (believe me, I’ve seen it go really bad).

[Akashic Soldier]

VAMPIRES BABY

SPACE VAMPIRES!

I'm not even kidding, they're the source of the undead and they control this sector of space. The Covenant is exactly the kind of thing they've been looking for FOOD... plus the crew are alive... which means they can capture a bunch of them, teach them how to be SHIFTERS (See Rifts Ultimate Edition) and then get to Rifts Earth and SPREAD!

Have the PC's struggling to survive (a lot of the Vampires are little more than zombies because they've become so weak) but as they feed they gain power and the Alien Intelligence behind them is stirring from its slumber. After they capture some of the PC's friends (or maybe even one of the PC's) and turn them into Shifters (its a magic using class encase you didn't know) they use them to open a Rift and ferry them through to Rifts Earth. The PC's aren't far behind but a temporal disturbance upsets their passage and they arrive on Rifts Earth (in Mexico) in the year PA 109 (modern day by Rifts standards). Hundreds of years AFTER the initial Vampire's crash landed.

What they do now... is entirely up to the PC's but for (whatever reason) they have something from before the massive shift that the Vampires do NOT want their enemies to know about... something that might be able to defeat them...

[DhAkael]

VAMPIRES BABY

SPACE VAMPIRES!

I'm not even kidding, they're the source of the undead and they control this sector of space. The Covenant is exactly the kind of thing they've been looking for FOOD... plus the crew are alive... which means they can capture a bunch of them, teach them how to be SHIFTERS (See Rifts Ultimate Edition) and then get to Rifts Earth and SPREAD!

Have the PC's struggling to survive (a lot of the Vampires are little more than zombies because they've become so weak) but as they feed they gain power and the Alien Intelligence behind them is stirring from its slumber. After they capture some of the PC's friends (or maybe even one of the PC's) and turn them into Shifters (its a magic using class encase you didn't know) they use them to open a Rift and ferry them through to Rifts Earth. The PC's aren't far behind but a temporal disturbance upsets their passage and they arrive on Rifts Earth (in Mexico) in the year PA 109 (modern day by Rifts standards). Hundreds of years AFTER the initial Vampire's crash landed.

What they do now... is entirely up to the PC's but for (whatever reason) they have something from before the massive shift that the Vampires do NOT want their enemies to know about... something that might be able to defeat them...

Space vampires are actually a staple of sci-fi from the very begining.
Although in a couple of cases -ahem- it's not just blood they're after (Re; 'The Space vampires' basis for the movie 'Life Force')

[Talon Starblade]

I'm glad you liked and that it helped with some of you ideas. It's all part of why the community is here. Good luck with the campaign. Have fun.