This cluster was generated at the Crazy Squirrel RPG Meetup in October 2010. Will, Brian, Bryan, and Scott participated, each creating two planets.
I didn’t drag home many notes, so this is incomplete. If you have additional information, particularly for the two worlds you created, please expand on them in the linked pages. (In fact, Sojurn and Xori are hazy recollections of the actual names–if I blew it, let’s fix them!)
Cluster Overview:
The cluster is in a 1950s style cold war, divided between the two slipstream faring powers, Creche and Wheeler.
Creche is the home of organized humanity, at least in this push since the last collapse; its corporate structure and viewpoint is stamped on all of space faring culture. The generally low tech levels in the cluster suggest that Creche and Wheeler attempt to retain their technological supremacy, and collude to keep technology out of the hands the other worlds. (This may be because of Wheeler’s successful breakaway/independence; they want no significant rivals.)
Access to anti-aging drugs on Xori is a major source of rivalry and competition between corporations, both on Creche and between Wheeler and Creche.
Worlds of the Cluster: Austeria, Boulders, Creche, Desolation, Pilgrim’s Rest, Sojurn, Wheeler, and Xori
An article about the session is here: http://www.gnomestew.com/specific-rpgs/diaspora-cluster-generation-in-action
Austeria
(T1,E2,R-1). Slipstreams to: Boulders and Creche
– Playground of the rich and famous
– Large Ag plantations
Boulders
(T-1,E-3,R2) Slipsteam links to: Austeria and Creche
– Life is hard and short; most who come here want to leave.
– Mining colonies are scattered across the system-wide asteroid fields.
– Many miners are prisoners from Creche, sentenced to hard labor.
The penal asteroids have a docking platform that ties into the original starting point of the mining operation. The first stage of building a penal mining facility is to create the tunnels and chambers that will make up the actual prison facility. This will contain administration, operations, and security. The chief administrator/warden is directly over the operations chief and security chief, who act as assistant wardens over those areas. Penal mines are placed only on the largest asteroids due to the stability and space required for such prisons. Mines that are played out can still be used as maximum security facilities or turned over to corporate council for a multitude of other purposes. It is rare for corporate to waste the facility once it has been established. All prisoners from Creche are implanted with a tracking/explosive device at the base of the neck. Once the prisoner reaches their assigned asteroid, the explosive device is activated. There is a grid of transmitters and relays across the prison facility. If a prisoner travels beyond 4 km from the grid, the explosive device will detonate and kill the prisoner. The devices can also be triggered by a Warden using a special code, but there must be exigent circumstances and the specifically input concurrence of the operations and security chief for summary execution to be carried out. These explosive charges are removed upon completion of sentence or parole. The tracking device remains during the parole period, after which it too is removed unless parole has been violated.
Creche
(T2,E-1,R-1) Slipsteam links to: Austeria, Boulders, Desolation, Pilgrim’s Rest, and Sojurn
– Corporate bureaucracy stifles everything.
– Struggling to maintain its colonial empire.
– The world is like a downtown; the place you go to work and make money, but not where you want to raise kids or retire.
Desolation
(T0,E-1,R-2) Slipsteam links to: Creche, Pilgrim’s Rest, and Wheeler
– The desert makes them strong
– They fight to earn what they lack
– The contract is king
Pilgrim’s Rest
(T-1,E1,R0) Slipsteam links to: Creche, Desolation, Sojurn
– The “quaint” first colony–nothing goes on here.
– Those with skills or ambition are drawn to Creche
Sojurn
(T-1,E3,R1) Slipstream links to: Creche, Pilgrim’s Rest, Wheeler, and Xori
– One gas giant is orbited by several lush moons
– It’s a balkanized neutral zone, with the moons divided between various corporations (including Wheeling)
– Temp World: Employees are only permitted to serve for four years before they’re shipped out
– It’s the gateway to Xori
Wheeler
(T2,E2,R3) Slipstream links to: Desolation and Sojurn
– Wheeler II is lush, ripe for exploitation; with factories concentrated in domed outposts on Wheeler I and III.
– “We’re close knit, cunning rebels, resisting Creche’s tyranny”
– Striving members of the Corporate Council
Wheeler is a large lush system with several worlds, dominated by the Wheeler Corp “family council”. The system was discovered by Wheeler Corp after a “mis-jump” from Desolation . It has been quietly developed by Wheeler over almost a century since its discovery; a limited population and insular culture remain among the remaining challenges.
Despite abundant resources and habitable space on both Wheeler II (a beautiful shirtsleeve world) and Wheeler III (a world of domed encampments, to retain warmth and oxygen in human compatible concentrations), Wheeler Corp restricts immigration to limit subversion by the other corporations of Creche.
In style, Wheeler’s relation to Creche is something like the relations between Britain and the US throughout the 19th century, and limited proxy wars/scuffles with Creche’s corporations. In general, Wheeler Corp is larger than any of the individual Creche Corporations, but is dwarfed by the human resources the Creche Council can command as a whole.
Xori
(T-3,E-1,R1) Slipsteam link to: Sojurn
– We drive out men into the forest; only the strongest return
– Only the priestesses know how to refine the anti-aging drug
– The spice must flow
– It’s a matriarchy, led by ancient but physically youthful women, who practice the old ways.
