Merchant Masters and their Psionic Abilities

Continuing to build out my original Space Opera science fiction setting here are the specific class abilities for the 

Merchant Masters (any class); requires both an Empathy and Psionic score of 15 or greater.    

A Merchant Master is defined by their level of Psionic ability. The field of psionics practiced is Telekinesis and the Psycho-Kinetic Crystals are a physical object they all possess. The PK Crystal is what the Taakar have provided to make them what they are, possessors of advanced science which represents only a minuet fraction of the power coursing through the otherworld entity of the Taakar. Merchant Masters begin the game psionically awakened and have access to their full talents. 

The psionic talents level 6 and above are changed in the following ways: 

Morass/6; is now called Dissolution, and instead of making physical materials “soft” it destroys the material entirely. The percentages and volume figures should be interpreted as the amount of materials terminated as the atomic structure is unwound. 

Mind Touch/6, Life Sense/6, and Psychic Force/7 remain unchanged. 

Energize/7; is now the ability to bring any type of powered equipment to full charge/power. 

Magnetoscreen/8, Negafield/8 and Radshield/8 remain unchanged. 

Battlescreen/9; is now called Cosmicscreen, a protective shield which provides a complete life support system for the adept against electromagnetism, anti-matter, radiation, and the cold vacuum of space. 

Power/9; is now limited to increasing the power of a Crystal Ship. 

Maneuver Drive/9; is now the ability for a Merchant Master to set an interstellar course with 100% accuracy, subject to the standard modifiers. Since this is a level 9 talent there are only two standard modifiers, +100% for Maneuver Drive/9 and +200% for Maneuver Drive/10. Well, then how do they fail? As far as a Merchant Master is concerned, they do not. It will be up to the PCS and SM to create such situations. The actual translation into tachyon hyperspace is completed by Quantum Weavers. 

FTL Drive/10; is now the ability for a Merchant Master to transfer into the Taakar at the center of the Spica solar system and conduct audience. This is usually only every fifty years when they need to be infused with the drug of immortality, but they may have to make this translation at any time based on the will of the Taakar or a Merchant Master’s current needs. If transfer is attempted within the Spica system from a Crystal Ship success is automatic. If transfer is attempted withing the Spica system not on a Crystal Ship, there is a 3% chance of failure. Transfer attempts within the Sardis system while on a Crystal Ship has a 5% chance of failure. Without being on a Crystal Ship chance of failure is 11%. Chance of failure from Tharon are 9% and 18% respectively.

Lizardman Diaries Megaslum NPC Generator Automated

Michael Raston over at his Lizardman Diaries blog regularly writes up split tables for all sorts of interesting gaming content. What I like about the lists he posts is they usually are four separate categories or more. This makes them ripe to plopped into Last Gasp's random generator creator. I just copy the content, put it in the html engine and wa-la, I have a new button in my bookmark bar for instant content available for my online game session in real time.  

His current random generator is for Cyberpunk Megaslum NPCs. Always handy for any sc-fi, cyberpunk game I'm running. Feel free to bookmark this page to keep Michael's table handy!

Megaslum NPC Generator

Avodad Evuu, First Merchant Master

Merchant Masters (any class); requires both an Empathy and Psionic score of 15 or greater.

Avodad Evuu was the first Merchant Master come the arrival of the Taakar. It is recorded he and a scientific team of 20 boarded the Naval vessel Kliest Rain and set out to investigate anomalies on the sun’s surface which had been picked up by Spica orbital satellites. The Kliest Rain took orbit around the stellar primary at 6 million kilometers and Evuu’s team launched probes into it.

21 days prior, routine satellite scanning beamed back to Spica City unusual sunspot activity which grew daily into gigantic circles of blue radiance. By the time Spica authorities had decided who and what would go an investigate these changes to the sun had turned completely into a blue radiating surface. No changes in temperature from this anomaly, no changes to Spica’s atmosphere could be detected as this transformation completed. Outside of the optical change in appearance the system’s sun behaved as normal.

On the third day of close observation the sun increased in visible magnitude 1,000 times and knocking out all communication between the Kliest Rain and Spica. When the sudden explosion of light cleared away the Kliest Rain was no more. In addition, the original M Type star which stood sentinel over the Spica system for billions of years was gone. Erased in an instant and unbelievably… replaced! What was once the life-giving sun of the Spica system was a swollen globe of blue purple twice the size of the missing primary. The citizens of Spica were horrified to see in their viewing platforms spiraling arms writhing out for a million miles in all directions. Purple flesh like appendages as thick as a small moon coated in a viscous milky-red liquid. The pliant undulations traced by planet-side recording devices showed these liquid structures were both unaffected by the cold void of lifeless space and the apocalyptic heat which radiated from the large globe’s surface.

Leadership was paralyzed, floundering for what to do. Thousands of years humanity had poked, prodded, and explored the unfathomable reaches of space encountering all sorts of strange and terrible sites and alien entities, but this explosive transformation of a star into something so alien had never been encountered. Never recorded in the annals of creation by themselves or any other species of the universe. The system’s full force of might, Federation Starfleet, ringed the monstrous thing, massive batteries of towering Nova Guns charged, Megatorp warheads activated. Historical records tell of the miracle which, after an impasse of 21 days, the “Anomaly” released 3 gigantic, brilliant crystal globes, equidistant from each other and rotating in a steady triangle formation. Avodad Evuu returned to Spica, appeared it is agreed, in the council halls of the Federation, much changed and full of the radiance of Taakar. He had come from “the Heart of all things” and gave the Taakar’s message of hope and its terms.

The council was horrified at the change in humanity’s destiny Avodad Evuu declared was inevitable. But once the armada of the Federation was vaporized in a crystal rain of plasma from the alien orbs, humanity’s acquiescence was assured and a course of peace, harmony, and eternal life was delivered to Spica by Avodad Evuu and the transformed members of his team which first contacted the Taakar. These are what would become known as the Merchant Masters and Quantum Weavers.

Of course, there was resistance, and the incredible psionic powers of the Masters, and Weavers could only resist so many forces arrayed against them without resorting to planetary annihilation. The fierce natives of Kia Howie were courted, converted, and made into the spear of the Masters. The Sword Minds were born, and with the technology of the Quantum Weavers all Federation resistance was destroyed. 

The Crystal Ships

 In the previous post I am jamming out the text for my FGU's original Space Opera setting and last night I sketched out the ships which the Merchant Masters use to travel between the three remaining systems of humanity; Spica, Tharon and Sardis. 

Space Travel

All in-system, sub-light starship designs are available, and the TISA Maneuver Drive is in common use. It will not possess defensive armaments or armor but may have shields to protect the ship from fast moving debris. Of course, if PCs want to try and get a ship with defensive armaments and battle armor they should be allowed to try. Building an armed starship would be a dramatic adventure arc in itself filled with all sorts of dangers and excitement. 

Ships with FTL capabilities are the province of the Merchant Masters and these ships are designed around schematics drawn up two thousand years ago by the first Quantum Weavers after their contact with the Taakar. More correctly, after their contact with the Taakar they became the first Quantum Weavers who were capable of building what they had been given. 

These ships are shaped like globes consisting of clear, facetted crystal. They are the size of a small asteroid, 21 miles in diameter. They are not affected by gravity wells, and they are 21 times faster than terrestrial jump ships. A ship rated at a 21Warp factor will travel 21 LY in 24 hours. The ships made from the knowledge of the Taakar travel this same distance in an hour. They do not appear to have sub-light capability, the Crystal Ships appear in orbit of their destination, a systems’ Primary. From this orbit the sub-light ships of the system approach to receive the goods the Merchant Masters have delivered. Cavities appear on the surface of the Crystal Ships which become the berths for the terrestrial ships. Goods are then marshaled into their holds by crew in contra-grav harness under the watchful eyes of a Sword-Mind. If there is to be a meeting between leaders, they will be received within the halls of the Crystal Ships. The Merchant Masters only leave the Crystal Ships when home, on Spica, the seat of their power under the unblinking flame of the Taakar. These transits are completed in sparkling sub-light ships which have been built to the Quantum Weaver’s specifications. 

The Crystal Ships have no apparent weapons, why would they need such things? No screens or EW/ECM energy have ever been detected from the Crystal Ships.