[h1][center][color=coral]Through the Gateways: Inhumanity[/color][/center][/h1][center] [img]https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/002/889/899/large/jakub-grygier-002-wormholes-ab.jpg?1466928243[/img] [sub]In the centuries between Earth and now, how have you changed? What have you become?[/sub] [/center] Earth is gone. It passed away with a whimper, not a bang, in the throes of nuclear war, famine and pestilence. Whatever is left of that travesty can barely sustain life. But it did give us one last gift before the end. Desperate world governments, equipped with the best of human technology and working in a bid for survival, threw the last of their resources into the making of the [color=coral]Gateway[/color]. A massive artificial wormhole, leading to countless different potentially habitable worlds. The creation of the Gateway was no less than a technological miracle, and it has never been replicated. Colony ships from all nations and cultures and peoples were sent haphazardly through, in the hope of finding another home. Humanity was scattered like seeds across the Milky Way: separated from each other, lost, but determined to survive. And now, five hundred years later, we've found one another again. [hr] [center][h2][color=0072bc]General Idea[/color][/h2][/center] For me, the most interesting part about NRP has always been the interactions between different cultures. How does the warmonger from a brutal world react when he sees a pacifist utopia? What happens when a group of religious faithful meet a society of militant atheists? That's what I want to focus on in this RP. We'll each be taking on the role of a different colony established by Earth about five hundred years ago. We were sent through an artificial wormhole generator to our current homes, but after the fall of Earth, the generator ceased to function, leaving each colony completely cut off from the rest of humanity. Now think about how your colony might have evolved during this time. Did they land on a harsh world, and use cybernetic enhancements to survive? Are they ruled over by a technocratic dictator, by an incomprehensible alien authority, by a gene-modded racial hierarchy? Do they even consider themselves to be human anymore? I want this to be heavily divergent, so your imagination is the limit. Now, for reasons unknown, the Gateway system has started to function again. All at once, an artificial wormhole has appeared again in the system of each of our colonies, and that Gateway leads both back to Earth and to every other system. For the first time in five centuries, our poor little colonies will be sending their ships across their Gateways and finding one another. And personally, I think it could be pretty fun to RP these early 'first contact' interactions. Seeing how our different people respond to one another. And I'm not opposed to anything; war, trade, diplomacy, or whatever else. To conclude this overview, I'll leave you with a quote from my co-GM, Enigmatik: [quote]This is primarily an RP about [i]cultures and nations interacting with one another[/i]. In the hundreds of years since the closing of the Gateways, each colony will have developed and changed in unique and variable ways. Although nominally one people, humanity is now split into countless fragments, each led in different ways, speaking different languages, with different beliefs. In this RP, it is up to you if your people will face this new galaxy with optimism, or a smoking gun.[/quote] [hr] [h2][center][color=sandybrown]Prior Iterations and Theme[/color][/center][/h2] I wouldn't be surprised if the title of this game or this OP feels vaguely familiar to you. This is not the first Through the Gateways RP. Coming up on 4 years ago, I posted [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/185726-through-the-gateways-humanity-closed/ic]Through the Gateways: Humanity[/url]. About another year later and my co-GM from that game created a second RP, [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/188005-gateways-the-next-generation-closed-and-concluded/ic]Gateways: The Next Generation[/url]. (There was also a brief [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/187484-through-the-rifts-progeny-open-co-gm-run/ooc]fantasy spin-off[/url] that I'm only slightly ashamed of.) Both prior Gateways games were fairly successful, with a dedicated player community. But! This is a new game, starting fresh, and I'm hoping to emphasize the voices and ideas of new players in this one. So if you're joining for the first time, consider yourself very welcome. This is not a sequel. You won't need to know anything from the previous games to write with us. This is a fresh start. The first Gateways game was named "Through the Gateways: [i]Humanity[/i]" because I wanted to explore how human culture would have changed after centuries away from Earth. That is still a central idea here. However, this one is "Through the Gateways: [i]Inhumanity[/i]," because a secondary theme I'm hoping to emphasize in this iteration is how humans might have had to modify ourselves, integrate with aliens, or develop completely new ways of living. So feel free to come up with your strangest ideas about what has happened to the colonists since leaving Earth. It is not at all necessary that all nation sheets fit this theme, however, it is merely one potential idea to start off your worldbuilding. [hr] [h2][center][color=darkseagreen]On Joining and Leaving:[/color][/center][/h2] If someone wants to join after the game has already begun, I will simply say that the Gateway leading to their colony has only now opened. Likewise, if someone leaves or goes MIA, we can say the their colony's Gateway just shut down as mysteriously as it had reactivated. In this way, the Gateways NRPs have always been able to accept new players whenever, and survive losses without grinding to a halt. [hr] [h2][color=ec008c][center]Interested?[/center][/color][/h2] Nation Sheet below. [hider=Nation Sheet] [code] [center][color=coral][h2]Nation Name Goes Here[/h2][/color] [img]Flag or other representative image can go here[/img] [h3]"If your nation has a flavor quote/motto, it goes here"[/h3] [color=00aeef]Government Form[/color]: (Presidential Democracy? Anarcho-whateverism? Caliphate? Whoever collects the most edible food is in charge? Or anything else you can think of.) [color=00aeef]Population[/color]: (Across this much time, and with the vastly different environments that colonies may have ended up with, population is almost impossible to guesstimate. I'm including a size scale here to function as a broad standard, but it's possible to have a nation that is much lower or higher than these recommended numbers so long as there is good reason for it. In general, it's easier to get an unusually small nation approved than an unusually large one. The size scale is as follows: Hundreds of Millions: Small 1-3 Billion: Medium 3-5 Billion: Large More Than 5 Billion: Very Large [color=00aeef]What is humanity?[/color]: In keeping with the theme for this RP, I'd like you to consider what your nation thinks of humanity. Just a short one or two line answer. You are always free and encouraged to expound more upon their philosophy in the culture section. --- [/center] [color=39b54a]Planet/System Name and Description[/color]: (So where did your Colony end up? What's the environment like? This is the place to include both the planet(s) they inhabit and also any information you want to include about their star system. If they went through the Gateway only to find there was no habitable world here at all, this is also the place to talk about how they've survived that) [color=39b54a]Demographics[/color]: (For talking about how much of the population belongs to different groups/ethnicities/religions/whatever. This space can also be used for describing genetic/cybernetic modifications your people have done, subspecies that have been created, aliens that may have been integrated, and so on.) [color=39b54a]History[/color]: (What happened after your Colony landed? This can be as brief or detailed as you like. Just try to give us a feel of the nation) [color=39b54a]Culture and Society[/color]: (How do they live? Anything from ritual cannibals, to a surveillance state dystopia, to an integrated hivemind.) [center] --- [/center] [color=f7941d]Governance and Politics[/color]: (Like the government form field, but more room for detail. If your Colony has changed in such a way that it doesn't even have a government or politics anymore, this is also a good place to talk about that.) [color=f7941d]Technology Overview[/color]: (What have your people invented? Or have they forgotten anything?) [color=f7941d]Military Overview[/color]: (This is the space to talk about any offensive capabilities you have. Given that most of these Colonies have been essentially stranded by themselves for five centuries, I don't imagine anyone has a large "conquer other planets" level fleet yet. But maybe your Colony has been in civil war for a hundred years, and has built up an impressive military in that time. Or maybe they even had to fend off a genuine alien invasion.) [center] --- [/center] [color=ec008c]Additional Info[/color]: (Anything else you want to include that there isn't a spot for up there.) [/code] [/hider] Feel free to add new sections or change around NS formatting as needed. Joining the Discord is [b]strongly recommended[/b], even if you don't intend to talk often, as it's where the majority of planning, news and OOC interaction about the RP will take place: https://discord.gg/6zAXNgzPWS [hr] [h2][center][color=662d91]Technology Guide[/color][/center][/h2] [hider=Tech Guide] Over the previous Gateways games, the standard level of technology shifted. We started off rather soft sci-fi, and then became harder over time as the community around the game developed its own rules. Now we have slowly settled into a middle-ground. As a rule of thumb: you don't have to be hard sci-fi, but try to keep it plausible. Standard sci-fi tropes which improve player ease-of-use, like artificial gravity aboard spaceships and FTL communications, are generally accepted. If you feel uncertain about something, feel free to ask in the Discord. P.S. Don't be too surprised if the technology level between different colonies feels a little inconsistent. Within the RP, these colonies have developed independently for 500 years, so some may be more advanced/unadvanced than others in surprising ways. And outside of the RP, players have different concepts they wish to focus on for their particular nations. Expect the tech level to feel like multiple different settings colliding. [/hider] [hider=Gateway/FTL Guide] Limitations regarding the Gateways and FTL travel as a whole are below. 1. FTL travel other than the Gateways does not currently exist. The reasoning here is just so that our colonies have not spread too far beyond their own star systems, putting everyone on the same footing and preventing anyone from starting the game with a massive galaxy-spanning empire already in place. 2. Every Gateway can lead to every other Gateway. Each system has a Gateway control platform on its end that uplinks with any ships still using technology even vaguely descendant from Earth, allowing them to choose their destination. This means that every Colony can get to every other Colony, so that none of us are prevented from interacting with one another because we're not close enough together on a map. It saves a lot of time. 3. Since the fall of Earth, the technology to create more Gateways has been lost. Similar reasoning as the first one. This is just to prevent anyone from already having spread too far from where they started. 4. One may only communicate through the Gateways with colonies one has already met. This is to encourage meeting other nations by visiting them, rather than only talking through the Gateway. However, it's assumed that after you've met that you can communicate across the Gateways with one another. [/hider] [hr] [center][h2][color=0054a6]FAQ and Rules[/color][/h2][/center] [hider=FAQ] Q: Is space magic allowed? A: Broadly speaking, no, but Clarke's Third Law is in full effect. Q: Can we meet other Colonies through methods other than the Gateway? A: No. We do not have FTL other than the Gateways, and humanity is spread out across an unimaginable distance. It would take centuries of travel to bump into another human settlement. And more bluntly put: the theme of this RP revolves around the Gateways, so naturally other forms of travel are limited. Q: Can we communicate through the Gateways? A: Yes, but only with Colonies you have met already. Q: Are aliens allowed? A: Yes, although the colony itself must have been founded by humans. Q: The technology level seems inconsistent. A: It is. Within the RP, these Colonies have developed independently for 500 years, so some may be more advanced/unadvanced than others in surprising ways. Q: Can we have multiple Colonies? A: Up to 2 at a time. But if one is destroyed or you choose to take it out of the RP (which can be done via the Gateway closing), then you can create another one. A possible option if you get bored of your colony. Q: What happened to Earth? A: A combination of environmental disaster, political strife and nuclear war. The first and last one especially have left the planet uninhabitable. Q: What does Earth look like now? A: It's been described like: [quote]Verdant green has been choked by brown, azure blues replaced by overcast greys. The clouds that swirl and storm across its surface are sickly and off-coloured, as the rock that human beings once knew as their only home slowly decays, rent asunder by humanity's own hands. Poisoned. Sickly[/quote] [quote]A defeated lump of clay[/quote] [quote]Ashen. No blue. No green... Not even the white of clouds.[/quote] Q: How close together are the colonies? A: All colonies exist within the Milky Way galaxy, thus keeping them somewhat close together on a universal scale, whilst still insurmountably far apart on a human scale. [/hider] [hider=Rules (Don't worry, these are very basic)] 1.) No godmodding, or controlling other player's characters/Colonies A basic rule in any RP. You know it, you love it. 2.) Cannot fully conquer other player's colonies without permission. You can go to war with another player. But you will need the a-okay from them before I allow you to completely exterminate/assimilate/remove another nation from the game. 3.) If conflicts cannot be decided, the GM will arbitrate. This goes for IC and OOC conflicts. I always prefer for people to work things out mutually. Ideally, everyone can agree about who wins/loses wars, or who has the upper hand in trade, or so on. Compare your sheets if you need to. But if you can't agree, me or Enigmatik will step in to try playing judge fairly. 4.) Everyone just play nice. please? [/hider]