Eclipse Phase.

>>8892678
Eclipse Phase in transhuman, this is more Asimov or Heinlein

>>8892669
The theory of conceptual metaphor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_metaphor) is taken as a given in this setting. The idea is that as our understanding is linked critically to our bodies, aliens are truly alien and bodiless AI is akin to something from the Cthulhu mythos. AI done on quantum computing is even weirder, and AI that is the product of other AI (technological singularity) rapidly evolves out of human understanding and enters a fourth dimension of space (hyperspace, which is also used for FTL travel by humans). Human built AI cannot really communicate with people, unless it isn't really sentient (like machine spirts in 40k). Human uploads are also bad news; ones imprinted into 4D space are basically Yog-Sothoth or the Colour Out of Space. There are Great Old Ones, but these too are the result of alien invention. Alien computers, or alien uploads, or some sort of postalien, now removed from bodies and utterly incomprehensile even by alien standards.

In the far future then, nobody remembers AI or uploading, and the technologies are unknown. Although science is still practised, it is no longer the revolutionary force that we know today but a much slower refinement of past achievement. Because of this, societies heavily resembles science fiction seen during the 40s-70s, espiecally Foundation.

>>8892688
Societies exist in three states: Primitive (20th to 21st Centuary), Current (Lasers!), and Atomic (like the Foundation in the Foundation trilogy). Atomic, in this setting, is more like a word for nanotech. Not the magical nanotech that fixes everything, just machines that build with atomic precision. Some genetic modification has made mankind slightly more resilisiant, but the effects aren't that great - in game terms characters recieve +1 to their physical stats and to intelligence. Cybernetics also exist, and can offer great stat bonuses but they also drain the cyborg's sanity. The greater the change the more sanity is lost.

I intend to add all kinds of groups; ancient conspiracies, cults, military experiments on captured Great Old Ones now taken over by that Great Old One, Three Laws Robots from the depths of ancient history.

There are two major religions: the Galaxy Spirit and the Church of Technology. The Tech Priests work exactly like the red priests in Foundation - so basically a 40k AdMech that loves science and is a little more wary of cybernetics. The Galaxy Spirit is a religion centred around a galactic spirit that watches over the galaxy.

What do you guys think? How can I make it even more Cthulhu-y without being too much like the Cthulhu Mythos, and what kind of awesomely cool stories should I tell in this setting?

Although I'm still a little unsure what kind of adventure to run, at the end of the game I think the players will have to make a choice - do they attempt to become like the Great Old Ones and imprint themselves in 4D space? Do they force humanity to evolve into some sort of alien hive mind so that they will be able to comprehend the universe? Or will they continue to fight for understandably human values in the face of utterly incomprehensible horror?

There's storyline potential in the Church of Technology possibly knowing a little more about ancient history and AI then they let on; and I know that I have to reference Seldon and Second Foundation but I have no idea how. I don't think I want any psychics in the game.... but hyperspatial creatures could do ANYTHING.

The hyperspace idea came from a YouTube video I saw about how a being existing in four spatial dimensions would interact with three dimensional beings. It was crazy; anything like that would have to be Cthulhu-esque. Only a tiny part of it could be visible in our dimensions at once, as it moves through multiple 3D spaces at the same time.

>>8892704

I think its a cool idea, but please, Please come up with a good reason for why cybernetics drain sanity.

I'm a cybernetics student (Yep, we exist), and games where mechanical augmentations just drive you insane for No Reason really, really fucking bug me.

Perhaps the computing systems within the limbs impinge on 4d space, the warping harming the users mind? Or perhaps its like human uploads, the cybernetics and computational systems required to run them, linked up to the human brain, make it a little like an AI, drawing the human into the 4d space, and away from "sanity"

>Cthulhu in space

This better have the protagonists crashing a spaceship into Ghroth.

>>8892753
Think of it like this, when you are on hallucinogenic drugs your mind is bombarded with impressions, sometimes far to many then you can handle or comprehend.

Now imagine if cyberware sometimes glitched and all that data that is usually just sent to neurotransmitters subconsciously reached your higher brain functions and converted it to an audiovisual experience, now imagine if the elder gods could somehow manipulate that stream just by being in proximity.

It's just an excuse yes, but when dealing with elder gods you can't really bring regular physics into the mechanism :)

>>8892753
Basically it's just an ingame reason to not have people overload on cybernetics.Think I should drop it? I'm no technophobe and I suppose it isn't like a cyborg is going to much to a Mythos-inspired beastie anyway.

Extreme implants, like neural lacing, brain modification, and extra limbs, DO have an explanation as they modify the mind or suitably alter the physical make-up to change somebody's interpretation of reality.

>Call of Cthulhu IN SPACE
That's basically what Mass Effect was, except it didn't have the horror element.

I had an idea for Cthulhu in space once, but the idea I had was to let the players be settlers, traveling in a massive starship that would colonize a planet. Only cultists throw a wrench in the machinery, some horribly mutated (I love horribly mutated :3) people kill off some of the settlers and chaos breaks lose on the ship, it crashes on the surface and breaks beyond repair but most people made it alive.

The planet is mainly exotic jungle, the survivors have the means to set up camp with the few self-constructing building modules that didn't break and there's a military escort.

Only they counted on wild animals, not horrible otherworldly monsters.
The real progression would be made in discovering ancient ruins and eventually the people that still survived on the planet generation after generation.

Story would be something like they managed to summon an elder god back in the days, he fucked up the planet and moved on and left shoggies behind.

>>8892762
Wow. I haven't read Ramsey Campbell's stuff, but I looked it up just now and that is actually not a bad idea.

I'm not going to directly reference the Cthulhu mythos, but a potentially sinister worldmind has much potential.

>>8892829

There's plenty of reasons not to load up on cybernetics. Power consumption, the fact it has to be repaired rather than healed, the vastly increased vulnerability to electromagnetic effects, the chance you might be hacked etc.

Perhaps drop or mostly decrease it for purely physical augmentations, as any augmentation is still part of a body, and therefore affects the brain. For neurologically focused however, go all out. Destroy their minds. Eventually.

c'thulhu should always be survival horror imoho, once you add mecha-thulu robots with teenager pilots like Cthulhutech then you might as well stop calling it c'thulhu.

>>8892838
You're going to hate me for this.... but I never played Mass Effect. My PC sucks and I haven't got round to buying any new consoles for quite some time. It was basically either a choice of keeping up with /v/ or continuing to buy /tg/ related stuff.

>>8892866
Well it sounds like he's just trying to stirr up some shit anyway, just ignore it.

>>8892862
>inspired by the works of Isaac Asimov and his contemporaries
>teenage pilots fighting Old Ones with mecha

Son, I am disappoint.

>>8892862
Within the context of the Cthulhu mythos its certainly feasible that some people would try to enslave shoggoths to fight other eldritch creatures, so making shoggoth based mech suits seems logical.

>>8892859
That sounds like a really good idea, I hadn't really thought of it.

Interesting thought - if most of the Great Old One entities are actually extra-dimensional AIs or Uploads, then they should be able to hack cybernetics pretty easily ESPECIALLY if they are human made Great Old Ones or descended from human made GOO.

Sounds a lot like Simmons' Hyperion to me. But you're attempting to integrate a lot of literature and 40k shit. That can easily backfire when your players are familiar with it and have their own ideas as to how that would fit together.

That is not to say that your setting is bad. Just that it seems rather intricate at first glance and requires a fresh mind to get into. Don't mention your inspiration at all, you'll never live up to it anyway. (And how could you, between Lovecraft and Asimov you can round up half the Fantasy/Scifi genre.)

The problem with complex drawn out political plots and myths is that they date your universe. Most RPG worlds are static, if not they have to reboot with every new campaign. If you're a storyteller-GM that can convey a sense of immersion even with rapidly changing scenarios that could work. But if you're anything like the average once a week GM with Cheetos and Mountain Dew, your players will have problems following the big picture implications of their actions after a while.

Ways to avoid this without turning it into railroading are handouts, maybe a MotD or regular newsfeed that analyzes the events beyond the PC's perception. But that goes down once the adventure plot becomes classified, which is a given in Cthulhu.

>>8892877
I know the US Army has been working on goo shaped robots.

However, I doubt a human could properly pilot a shoggoth shaped mech suit and a self-aware robot shaped like a shoggoth would be an eldritch horror as per the settings literal endorsement of Lakoff's conceptual metaphor theory.

>>8892888
Handouts is a good idea. I've done that for some of my games in the past too. Newspaper clippings in a steampunk game, for example.

I find that by the time that the player's stories become classified they either know enough about the setting or have easy access to somebody who can explain things to them quickly.

>>8892891
Nah, not a shoggoth shaped, a shoggoth powered.

I say keep cybernetics, but let the data stream carry with them the whispers of the great old ones.
Do this in combat situations "You can't really focus your aim because there's a voice among the static, minus 5 to combat rolls this round."

Maybe do it like a 1d20 to be rolled during stressful situations, if you roll 1 you'll get some kind of interference (varies) for your second augmentation it happens on a roll of 1-2, third upgrade 1-3, and so fourth. (meaning 20 cybernetic upgrades and you'll constantly hear the voices of the maddened gods.)

Then your players will think again about getting that extra augumentation

>>8892669
Call of Cthulhu plus Foundation? Sign me up.

>>8892891
No man, they aren't shoggoth shaped, they are using shoggoth biology blended with mechas, basically it's mecha robots with tentacle faces.

I sense no Cthulhu here whatsoever, but a lot of Evangelion.

Are you sure you're not just writing down authors you liked, and in fact your inspiration is a NGE expansion?

>>8892904

My eyes!

>>8892923
Seriously though. Cthulhu is about the fear of the infinitely powerful unknown. Not about putting Old Ones into giant robots.

>>8892928
In the far future, spambots can damage your SAN.

>>8892932
would you prefer the canonically feasible approach of shoggoth trainers who have wisecracking talking cat sidekicks?

>>8892942

"Enlarge your penis !"
3d100 San check

>>8892956
>>8892932
Please my friends, it is easier to just debunk OPs whole idea, but lets together try to find a good c'thulhu in space setting that we can all enjoy, yes?

>>8893004
Been done. And done well.

Nx'Ugalac. The name is not a true rendering of this being's name, but it is the closest that our human tongues can come to pronouncing it. We find references to the entity throughout the ruins of Polana-7. Though our translations are incomplete, it is believed that Nx'Ugalac (lit. "(man) Again Created") was the diety of the race we have dubbed the Nix.

Judging by recovered alien artworks, Nx'Ugalac was some sort of malevolent diety who existed as part of the supreme watcher god, who slew him and took his place. After devouring the Watcher alive, Nx'Ugalac enslaved the Nix. The disturbing monolithic architecture dotting the planet is attributed to his rule.

Eventually, Nx'Ugalac disappeared and left the Nix alone. For a thousand years after that the Nix performed bloody, unspeakably depraved rituals at the base of each monolith in order to keep Nx'Ugalac from ever returning. It must have been brutal; blood sacrifice on a global level. As you might have guessed Nix literature, what little we have translated, is highly disturbing. I do not advise any of you here today read it without a great deal of preparation - there can be no doubt that the Nix were not in the least bit human. By our standards they were all completely insane.

Most survivng Nix literature appears to come from just before their fiery extinction. Other relics however have survived from far more distant times. The Nix appeared to have created a society comparable to our own, although for whatever reason they never saw the need to expand beyond their society. After a short period of prosperity, the Nix degenerated almost to pre-industrial levels - this is the period after the coming of Nx'Ugalac. By the time the Nix drowned themselves in atomic fire, their society was again becoming quite advanced.

>>8893045
The greatest puzzle, something that has caused me more than a few nights of lost sleep, is why the Nix destroyed all of their ancient literature but made such active attempts to preserve their more recent art. They must have known that the end would come - every part of the planet hides a museam protected against atomic weapons filled with reminders of their once great civilisation, and then terrible pictures, representations of Nx'Ugalac.

We will never know why the Nix did what they did. We can only know this: these creatures were not our brothers. They were strange, terrible creatures. Violent and superstitious, distant and loathesome.

>>8892838
Glad somebody else noticed this too.

srs you guys, this is not about mecha fighting Cthulhu. This is about the nuclear science fiction of the 40s-70s meeting Cthulhu. Nihilistic horror on a galactic scale.

It takes elements of postcyberpunk literature and turns it into the basis for a new mythos of horrible monsters.

>>8893060
I have to admit, I haven't played it but the concept of the Reapers is pretty good and probably would fit in really well with this setting. Especially if they really are just sentient ships or bodiless AIs.

A thousand or more years ago Hari Seldon used mathematical concepts to predict the end of the galactic empire. This is a common fact accepted by everybody.

What people don't know is that Seldon also predicted exactly WHAT would destroy the Empire - and it sure as Galaxy wasn't human.

Tell me son, you ever thought about just what it is that lurks at the heart of the Milky Way, past the radiation soaked core stars? Seldon found out, and that's the other reason why the Second Foundation has had to keep to the shadows. There's something out there that doesn't want them to succeed.

>>8893070
Reapers are more then that, they are pretty much gods with our standard.
They are the highest evolved lifeform in the known universe, creatures that have lived for millions of years, they are machine-like yes, but not of any kind that we can replicate or even begin to understand.

(although that will probably be reconned in ME3 :P)

>>8893096
Fuck yeah, now we're talking.

>>8892739
heh, I kind of missed this post because of all the text.
I'm lazy like that.

For your adventure, how about making players agents of the second foundation? Trying to solve a mystery on a space station of colonized planet (to be honest I haven't read Asimov in like 15 years so it's not fresh knowledge)

Have basic cybernetics to be pretty much mandatory, kind of like cell phones in our world. You can be without them, but everyone will laugh at you for being stone-age.
These cybernetics can pick up signals from the great old ones/elder gods/what will you like I suggested previously.

Since the players are far away from earth, like an outpost somewhere, they are more receptive.
They are investigating murders where the perpetrator have afterward killed themselves in gruesome ways (bashed head again wall until cracked, stuck their fingers into their brains to cause bleeding and neural damage) and they have to find out the reason behind it.

So like, a c'thulhuesque murder mystery in space.
The friendly old man they interview can a day later be an insane murderer and so on.

>>8892739
>The hyperspace idea came from a YouTube video I saw about how a being existing in four spatial dimensions would interact with three dimensional beings.

Holy shit. Do you still have the link to that Youtube video? I'd be EXTREMELY interested in seeing it.

Few know about the ancient times, when man lived in but a single solar system. More than a few have heard of robotics, but "Artificial Intelligence" in its original sense has been lost.

There is a good reason for this.

The dreams of Man 2.0 proved wrong - deadly wrong. The first supercomputer brain appeared not to work and was unable to communicate with mankind. The project was deemed a failure, and so artificial intelligence was shelved until the development of mental uploading. Uploading - a science far more terrible and quite rightly even more obscure today. Of it I will not speak, only to say that it cost us dearly.

We now live throughout the galaxy. We are content but restless and imprisoned. Strange beings beyond death lurk in the dark corners of every world - beings of alien and human construction.

Of these elder creatures I know only of one. A dark wanderer, eons old and born long before the galactic empire was even a dream. It looks something like a monstrous cat person - perhaps it might once have actually been a cat - but its form is ruined by terrible implants neither truly biological nor mechanical. This being of unlife stalks us, just able to interact with us, attempting to shape our society to its own malignant desires.

For what purpose does the wandering cat manipulate us? Perhaps only for mad desire, as it is said to grin wickedly at every opportunity. It is called the Power of the Distant Stars, for it works for far-off alien masters said to resemble coloured spheres...

>>8893196
Here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDaKzQNlMFw

Handy for figuring out what the fuck Grant Morrison and Olaf Steepleton are talking about sometimes.

>>8893235
So in the future we're all slaves to Aibo?

>>8893254
It's a reference to Aineko, the Sony robo-cat turned weakly godlike intelligence from Charles Stross' Accelerando.

>>8893262
funny but weak.

The more fluff I write for this setting, the more it seems to be Old Science Fiction desperately fighting against New Science Fiction.

I wonder if there's a way to Cthulhu-up the Culture?

>>8893289
Remind me, what is The Culture?

>>8892762

IT MUST BE DONE.

Hmmm, see it does feel like a potentially awesome idea that will need a little work to do right, hence why I'm here asking the fa/tg/uys.

How about robots, how should they be treated? Conspiracy of ancient Three Laws robots whose manufacture is now forgotten? A regular day-to-day technology that for some reason hasn't revolutionised society? A regular day-to-day technology that HAS? An obscure technology only used by the most advanced atomic-level societies to free themselves from work? Agents of Cthulhuoid horror or drones created by hyperspatial godlike intelligence?

>>8893293
Hyper-advanced society of hedonistic transhumans loosely governed by a collective of bitchy AIs that exist partially in hyperspace.

>>8893306
To an extent I think robots are pretty good as mi-go or ghoul analogues. I know it goes against most of Asimov's stories but a hostile group of robots goes in hand with Lovecraft's vision and the idea of advanced-AI-is-Cthulhu.

If this setting is about old science fiction fighting new science fiction, then what about when that old sci-fi was new and interwar science fiction was fighting against it? Or when 1920s science fiction was new and Victorian science fiction was fighting against it?

Shit I best write these down. Victorian inventors with re-engineered Martian heat rays travelling through time to battle the anarchic Council of Science! and their ray-gun bubble helmet henchmen.

>>8893306
Robots should imoho be like in the old school communist sci-fi, they are silent workers, doing manual labor. But rich people owning robot servants like a status symbol.
This being said I still stand by my idea of higher technology and AI being receptors for elder god influence.

Based on asimov's 3 laws, but sometimes one of them pick up the whispers of an elder god and it starts to slowly override their programming.
In the end you'll have robot cultists.

>>8893343
>robot cultists
BRILLIANT

>>8893343
Thus the robot cultists would have to kill people who discovered their secret, and the big reveal of supposedly Three Laws safe robots secretly killing people. Then the reveal that there is a Man Behind the Man controlling them.

That is awesome.

>>8893343
Asimov's Three Laws were open to interpretation. For example, I believe he had a story wherein two robots were conversing and concluded that only they were human, thereby allowing them to do whatever they pleased. Elder Gods would probably go after that vulnerability.

>>8893369

Add a robot named Razorbeard eating human souls and you are good to go : >

The Ghroth idea was actually pretty cool espiecally because it is a break from the idea that Great Old Ones in this setting must be bodiless AIs or uploads. Even if the Ghroth analogue IS itself a postalien or AI it does serve as a reminder that these unknowable constructs can take any form, they don't have to be something recognisably a computer.

>>8893387

>>8893369
And if you want to take it further, have an advanced humanoid sexy woman robot accompany the adventures through the party.
And when they get a grasp of what is happening the robot goes something like "analysis: an external force is re-writing robot programming. The force is not a virus as we know it and therefor undetectable. Thus no one can tell if a robot is infected until it starts killing humans. Is this statement correct?"
And then it either goes on a spree to kill every single robot since they can all be affected, or simply rips her own head apart and crush her cpu with her own hands to prevent herself from getting infected.

Just brainstorming, don't take it to serious.

>>8893343
>>8893369
>>8893379
One of Aismov's 3 law robot stories had one with THAT station. Essentially, human techs would be sent to a space station designed to collect sunlight and beam it elsewhere in the solar system, the station was entirely "manned" by robots. The robots had formed a cult based on what the sensors told them, and that their god was communicating through the sensors. They didn't believe in humans or that humans had made robots since robots were physically superior to humans. The techs were sent by their god to test them. Also their god was happy with them for maintaining the station so it sent them new robots on schedule.

The techs left the station as it was since it was technically operating within designed parameters and sending power correctly. They weren't able to convince the robots that they were made in factories on earth though.

>>8893466
that's a bit disturbing especially if its a waifu-bot

>>8893484
Found it. "Reason"
>Powell and Donovan are assigned to a space station which supplies energy via microwave beams to the planets. The robots that control the energy beams are in turn co-ordinated by QT1, known to Powell and Donovan as Cutie, an advanced model with highly developed reasoning ability. Using these abilities, it decides that space, stars and the planets beyond the station don't really exist, and that the humans that visit the station are unimportant, short-lived and expendable. It invents its own religion, serving the power source of the ship (Master), concluding that it must become the Prophet of the Master and disregard human commands as inferior. It asserts "I myself, exist, because I think -". The sardonic response of the humans is, "Oh, Jupiter, a robot Descartes!"
>The humans initially attempt to reason with it, until they realize that they can't convince it otherwise. Their attempts to remove Cutie physically also fail, as the other robots have become disciples and refuse to obey human orders. The situation seems desperate, as a solar storm is expected, potentially deflecting the energy beam, incinerating populated areas. When the storm hits, Powell and Donovan are amazed to find that the beam operates perfectly.
>Cutie, however, does not believe it did anything other than maintain meter readings at optimum, according to the commands of The Master. As far as Cutie and the rest of the robots are concerned, solar storms, beams and planets are non-existent.
>Powell and Donovan realize that there is no need to do anything for the rest of their tour of duty. Cutie's religion cannot be eliminated, but since the robot performs its job just as well, it really doesn't matter. The only difference is that, as far as it is concerned, it doesn't do it for the benefit of the humans, but for its deity. The humans even think about how they might spread this to other groups of robots which need to work as teams.

>>8893492
Well the reasoning goes that if no robot can be sure that it is infected since elder god reprogramming isn't a virus, then all robots must be assumed to be infected.
I'm pretty sure this turned the poor robot mad :(

If I recall in Asimov stories where robots are tricked into killing humans or indirectly are responsible, they suffer nervous breakdowns and go insane. In The Naked Sun a robot whose detachable arm was used to bludgeon someone to death becomes a mute and effectively shuts down.

So yes, insane robot cultists could definitely be done.

Somebody in the city is killing robots. Is it those neo-luddities the medievalists?

No, actually its another robot who has realised that any robot could become the target of an attack by insanity causing extradimensional beings and has decided to kill as many robots as possible before terminating itself.

That right there is a REALLY good plot hook.

So, will cybernetic implants make people susceptible to elder gods influence just like robots, all depending on how much cybernetics their bodies have?

Because I think we can all agree on that insane robot cultists is the way of the future.

But isn't part of the point of Asimov's stories that robots permanently change their society for both good and bad? If there was a galactic empire, now fallen, how has the widespread use of robots affected it?

>>8893602
Definitely depends on how much implants and what kind of implants they are.

Hyperpace communicators = definitely hear the voices of the Outer Gods.
Robot arm = might be vulnerable to possession

And whatever you do don't back-up your mind into a cyber brain. What comes online might not necessarily be the person uploaded into it...

>>8893627
Hadn't thought about that last part, but I like it!

Wormholes are to be avoided.

Well I'm off to work, thanks for a nice discussion, now I feel like running a sci-fi rpg scenario in the foundation with robot c'thulhu cultists as well :)

Ah I was just shaving when I had one more idea to share before I go.

Consider if a human found out about a robot c'thulhu cult, with robots being re-programmed by elder gods in a way that no virus detection system will ever be able to find since it's not really a virus.

Wouldn't Three Laws robots if they heard about this come to the conclusion that since such a thing is impossible it must mean that these humans clearly suffer from paranoid delusions, paranoid delusions usually leads to self-harm or violence, so the best Three Laws solution would be to take care of the humans and make sure they get the best possible treatment.

And now GM twist, which would be to apprehend and sent them to the new state of the art all-robotized mental hospital ;)

That can either be a closer, or the beginning of a new adventure.

Ok now I really have to go.

>>8894016
that sounds like the plot to a fucked up sixties sci-fi short story, and it makes me happy to be alive. This thread is full of fuckwin.

Another idea: going by the robots logic in some of Asimov's stories, wouldn't a transhuman be more entitled to classification as 'human', and a posthuman be entitled to even more classification as 'human'? Since the robots eventually decide that the highest cognitive ability is what makes a human human (in case they must decide between two human lives) then wouldn't that make some sort of collective consciousness turned Yog-Sothoth the most valuable 'human' in existence?

YOU NEED STARFISH ALIENS!

>>8893709
In the distant pass such things as wormholes were acceptable - the first interstellar society used them to great effect after they fled the Thing that their mother planet had turned into.

But as wormholes spread, the entities that exist above and around our reality began to take notice. A wormhole must warp space in strange ways, then punch through it. An Outer God, inscribed onto the fabric of extra-dimensional space, cannot stand for this interference.

So the Age of Wormholes came to an end.

>>8892704
I think the greatest stories you can tell in this universe are ones about coping with it all.
A small "primitive" world is the vassal state of an "atomic" world. The Prime Minister (king) of that world is married to the daughter of the Director of Security (i.e general) of the atomic planet. As a personal favor, the king asks the general to help him with recent slaver attacks. These raid lonely settlements with stealthy, fast ships, and kidnap the innocent towners. This is causing political unrest.

The general sends the players. First, they must deal with the corrupt kingdom police. Then they find the slaver's destination, a criminal "hub" asteroid/spacestation in some other system/same system/whatever. After dealing with the scum and the wretched, they find the final destination of the slavers - just empty co-ordinates in some random system.

When they finally reach the place, they find a strange, AI build station. The slaves are all inside, most under the control of the AI, mutilated, experimented on, and such. Probably cybered-mind controlled-drugged, all for some mysterious reason.

The players have to deal with the AI and save as many slaves as possible, and maybe bring something back with them for profit/proof.

>>8893343

I'm just remembering Charles Stross' Accellerando, which has already been referenced in this thread. Alien races don't contact humanity because they undergo their own Singularities and evolve into postalien intelligences, where they end up devoured by their creations; in the end their environments are only populated by pyramid schemes, spam, and soulless programmes designed to trap as much creative power as possible for use as currency. Aineko discovers one group of aliens who for some reason didn't fall into this trap, who are apparently attempting to DDOS the fabric reality.

20-30,000 years is a long time, enough for Aineko to meet these unnamed aliens. I was just thinking, are these potential Elder Gods?

>>8893607
How about this: robots are all used for manual and "dirty" labour, and have been restricted to those jobs for as long as anybody remembers. Humanity itself takes all the jobs above that; everything creative and managerial, and any physical labour that people feel better with having a human do.

Humanity has essentially turned into a parody of 1950s America and the American Dream.

>>8894922

I used to suspect Stross was a faggot, now I'm sure of it.

>>8895094
I assure you that Accelerando is just depressing, not faggotry. Alternatively read Saturn's Children you... you... DOUBLE ROBOT

>>8895295

Predicting that the future will basically just be the internet?

That's like a 1930s SF author writing about a future under the iron heel of the BBC.

>>8895333
But if he'd included loads of new branches of science that may or may not be possible wouldn't you hate on him for including "rubbish superscience"?

>>8896221

No, not really. I think SF authors should possess an imagination.

There was some site called rocketship or something that was vaguely affiliated with stardestroyer dot net, I hate those faggots. It was all about how real science applies to SF and claiming that you can't have a cloaking device EVAR because ships put out so much heat.

Which, sure, is true for the foreseeable future.

They also had some sort of article about replicators which completely failed to understand the implications, but perhaps they're merely stronger on science than economics and not total ignorant aspie blowhards.

Best robot.

>>8896379
I am writing about science fiction and society as part of my post graduate dissertation, and I have to say....

You kind of make a point. Science fiction really suffers because it is dominated by retards and pathetic fans who need to step off their hugbox and go outside. The whole genre is incredibly important to literature, but it just isn't taken seriously by academics because the fanbase is so incredibly insular and self-congratulating.

>>8896416

Do you read Ansible?

>>8896488
No, I've not heard of it before.

>>8896541

It's an SF 'fandom' newsletter. I suppose it might be useful for your learnings.

http://news.ansible.co.uk/

Transmission: Earth-subjective date March 3 2334. Temporal distortion estimated at 235 years.

This file has been corrupted. Attempting repair.

Repairing.

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Complete. Video data irrecoverable. Audio data partially recoverable. Play? [OK]

*Click* Montressor-subjective time, January 13, 2146. We've arrived at Px7-6. Initial scans indicate a proliferation of life, although the atmosphere is extremely hostile to Terran-friendly life. Methane, carbon monoxide, hell, even sulfuric acid. At least it's too far from its sun to be burning up from the greenhouse gases. It *bzzzLIAJDFOEJDOIADclick* Febru *oijdoifnfeindskfdaSDNclick* Found some odd stone shapes that may be indicative of an older civilization. No life found on the planet, except for the plants...tests on the ship are inconclu *BZZZclick* I miss *click* dated to over a billion years of age. How could plants have digestive systems? *oijofejdJIUIUHGYUGiunlclickclick* were they...engineered to survive there? How did *clickclick* We think we've found some kind of nutrient in the soil of the caverns. Testing will commence shortly.

Transmission end. Replay?

Do you mean Cthulhutech?

>>8898891
Please, you are either a troll trying to stir up shit (in a thread that died like 6 hours ago at that) or just lazy and didn't read the posts where we clarified that this is by no means CT bullshit.