ZAON news and links

[ZaonDude]

Hey y'all !

I'm back ;-)

I'm still at work on ZAON, and have implemented a number of changes to help spice up the universe since we began talking last fall. I'm still looking for significant pervasive themes or myths help from anyone who might come up with some ideas to solve this issue needed in order to make ZAON significantly more unique and less bland.

And, I'm also perhaps interested in partnering with a dedicated writer to help produce future ZAON supplemental material—someone who could help shape the universe and pour heart and soul into it.

Some updated materials:

Here's a link to my recent needs for the story/universe where I'm discussing new ideas/changes to implement: http://www.zaon.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=658

Here's a link to the RPG page where the .pdf of the game can be downloaded complete with maps, star charts, character sheets, and full 288-page game: http://www.zaon.com/rpg/default.php

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And here's some direct links to some of the latest add-ons to ZAON since we last spoke here:

All-important species artwork (conceptual) is now underway. And, of course, space scenes are also being developed continually for the RPG and forthcoming wargame variant. Some links to latest artwork:

Wrekiri Player Species Conceptual Drawing 1
Wrekiri Player Species Conceptual Drawing 2
Wrekiri Player Species Conceptual Drawing 3

A ZAON Player Character Sheet. PDF, 485 kb.

A ZAON Imperium Phalanx-class Space Superiority Starfighter in a garrison base docking bay.

The Titan-Sector Star Map (3d).

A United Earth Nations Resupply station.

A typical PC ship; Starspinner Class Blockade Runner.

Deckplans to a ZAON Imperium Customs Frigate (PDF).

Full DVD-quality/VHS MOVIE segment of the above Customs Frigate landing downtown on a small border world. The file is a self-extracting, self-playing, .exe movie with original sound for Windows machines and is free of viruses, trojans, and all spyware. 7mb.

More information on the ZAON RPG (and complete downloads of it) here: http://www.zaon.com/rpg/default.php

[Mike Holmes]

Cool art. Is there some way to tell depth of systems on the maps that I'm not seeing? Hey, cool, there's a system with my name on it in the United Earth Nations zone! Not too far form the triangle!

Can you point out the new "spicy" material? So we can check that our straightaway? Otherwise it might be a lot of hunting.

Mike

[ZaonDude]

Hey Mike, yeah, when you have tens of thousands of worlds to name there tends to be a lot of naming coincidences! ;-)  But also, Rusty Holmes is a guy who helped in the initial playtesting stages, so most such folks got a planet named after them ... seemed only fair LOL.

The newest stuff has to do with changes to the setting. There is a blurb inset in a box on the first Introduction page that contains 'to-do' items yet to be worked into the setting. Also, telepathy has been significantly scaled back to include only scanning/blocking for the most part, and mind speech, and new material has been added such as a complete cybernetics chapter for making cyborg characters. It also takes longer to get across the galaxy now, and some other layout/map changes have been made. Character creation might be a little more streamlined now as well.

And, IMPORTANT===> On the zaon.org website forums we're currently discussing additional changes to the galactic setting, including a special myth surrounding humanity. Basically, we're looking to include some perhaps even 'spiritual' tie between humanity and some factor in the universe that no other species has. Perhaps linking humans to the ancients, and making this hinted at but not overt in the book. Furthermore, certain older races and galactic nations seem somehow aware of this fact and have attacked earth and other human colonies out of fear or for some other nefarious purpose. This is the current point to finishing up the play setting with strong myth and a unique premise/theme for the game which will hopefully make v7 of the rules/book the last revision prior to press.

[ZaonDude]

The ORCA deckplans were designed by us for the ZAON RPG, but we encourage you to use them for personal use with any other sci-fi RPGs such as Star Wars, Traveller, etc., where a ship of this type would fit in as a play aid. The Orca is a commercial freighter vessel (capable of being outfitted as a blockade runner as well) currently undergoing digital design by our studio.

It makes a good ship to base PCs on or as part of an adventure that characters must board.

Note that because this ship employs interior module sections that can be swapped out for various duties, crew quarters would normally be fitted on Deck 3 and/or Deck 4. We'll include plans to various optional modules soon.

Here's the free download: http://www.zaon.com/rpg/downloads/ZAON_DeckPlans_Orca.pdf
(a printable .pdf document; 561 kb).

Also, the deckplans to the much larger Imperium Customs Frigate are also available here: http://www.zaon.com/rpg/downloads/ZAONdeckplans_ImperialCustomsFrigate.pdf  (2.4 mb)

Enjoy!

[Mike Holmes]

... we're currently discussing additional changes to the galactic setting, including a special myth surrounding humanity. Basically, we're looking to include some perhaps even 'spiritual' tie between humanity and some factor in the universe that no other species has. Perhaps linking humans to the ancients, and making this hinted at but not overt in the book. Furthermore, certain older races and galactic nations seem somehow aware of this fact and have attacked earth and other human colonies out of fear or for some other nefarious purpose. This is the current point to finishing up the play setting with strong myth and a unique premise/theme for the game which will hopefully make v7 of the rules/book the last revision prior to press.

What's the theme? Forgive me, but this seems a bit overused. The idea of humans having some special place sounds like Babylon 5, Star Trek, Traveller, lots of sci-fi stuff.

What makes this take original?

Mike

[ZaonDude]

Mike, that's what we're busily trying to figure out ;-)

Our existing setup lacks the originality/uniqueness we'd prefer to have in the game. So, we're dumping a lot of extra time and energy into setting right now and dicussions surrounding it.

[Walt Freitag]

Hi ZDude,

Here are the beginnings of some ideas. If any of these seem to be leaning in the right direction, let me know. (Pretend I'm the "more like this" link on Amazon.com. Tell me which ones you'd click on.)

humankind's mysterious cosmic origin and destiny
 Yawn. As Mike said, it's been done; but more important, how would this affect the player-characters, most of whom (judging from the relative amounts of material provided) aren't humans? A myth that suggests humans are destined to rule the galaxy? Hello, look at the map, they already do. A myth about the humans being the special chosen people of the ancient gene-meddlers? Well, duh, maybe that's why they rule the galaxy. A myth about the ancient ones returning and toppling the established order? There's precisely zip anybody can do about that one way or the other, so wake me if they show up.

imperial power
 Is the oppression of the Empire preferable to the chaos that might result if it fell? This is only an interesting question if there's some chance that it might actually fall (and that the player-characters could be in a position to do something about it, either way).

religion
  You have a universe whose main features are: recent reunion of long-separated human societies; contact with alien species and cultures; recent runious catastrohpes, some of mysterious origin, fresh in memory; warfare on a vast scale; enormous repressed underclasses; and to top it all off, a government that bans religion. Having religion not be a major aspect of this setting is like having fire not be a major aspect of the setting, if the setting were an Everest-sized mountain of dry twigs in a 60%-oxygen atmosphere during the Great Flamethrower War. The setting could not have been better designed to set up religion as the preeminent and fastest-changing social force.

overpopulation
  Fits real well into the history. Generations of putting all priority on breeding to expand power, and the enemy never showed up and now there are too many people, and they're still breeding. (But, um, they could just stop then, right? Unless there's something continuing to fuel the breeding drive, like maybe a religion.) Shortages, crowding, Soylent Green, the whole works. The downside is, basically, yuck. Not fun, not uplifting, not solveable by individual heroism, just a backdrop to make everything else grimmer.

big shake-up
  The setting now: downtown Tokyo. The setting as it should be: downtown Tokyo, with Godzilla. Something is shaking up all the old trends and stalemates, giving individual protagonists more of a chance to matter. A cosmic string is moving through the galaxy, rearranging star systems. The Instantaneous Drive has just been invented. A hyperspatial warp distortion effect has set in, causing ships to break down, largest ones first. A species-crossing plague is plaguing cross species. A new alien power is expanding, something truly alien that's not just another Somename Somethingity with a space fleet, like the Borg or a nanobot swarm or a colony of giant fractal space worms or something. All the nonhuman species are turning telepathic.

fight the future
  Someone's looked through a future-o-scope and saw, 83 years from now, only a big black hole where the galaxy used to be. No way to get any further information. Also, the laws of physics as understood in Zaon prove that what was seen in the future-o-scope must be highly probable but cannot be inevitable. Many theories about possible causes. An experimental weapon gone wrong? A trans-lightspeed chain super-duper-nova effect in the galaxy's core? Meddlesome super-aliens cleaning the slate? An ancient alien doomsday device? It makes every secret weapon and mysterious artifact rather more potentially signficant. No wonder the Zaons are such annoying control freaks. How else to stop a catastrophe whose cause isn't even known? Gives a bit more weight to a Zaon-as-present-day-USA metaphor.

xenoculture
  It's all about the cultural memes. In a crowded galaxy where everyone has at least three major group-identities (species, planet, and territorial government), a lot of cultural borrowing and transmission goes on. Just for instance, in the Star Trek setting, we don't hear about colonies or societies of humans who attempt to emulate the Vulcans, mimicking what they know of their customs (which might or might not be accurate), renouncing all expressions of emotion and so forth. But they could certainly and very plausibly exist; it could even be a major cultural phenomenon. How would the "real" Vulcans regard these human "Vulcan wannabes?" How would human society at large perceive them? What place could they find or make for themselves in the Federation? How would their microculture diverge over time from both their human heritage and their adopted Vulcan template? Now raise that issue to the power of the number of contactible species you have in Zaon. The result could be pervasive cultural introspection, an identity crisis on a galaxywide scale, with effects that impact on every level from the highest levels of diplomacy and warfare to the everyday lives of ordinary citizens. Some effects: fascination with all things alien on the part of some; reactionary cultural intolerance of others;  migrations and civil wars; idealists and terrorists of every stripe; and seeking to get a handle on it all, a xenocultural art whose practitioners would be a combination of psychologist, detective, folklorist, diplomat, linguist, and artist. The xenoculturists would be in universal demand by all who interact with other planets, species, empires, or societies, regardless of whether the goal is fighting, trade, diplomacy, exploration, science, or anything else. This would put xenoculturists in a position of relative power; if there were organized schools or hierarchies of them, then the leaders of such groups could amass significant influence behind the scenes. Especially if the individual schools were cross-species and cross-empire. Do these groups merely observe and study the memetic stew of the Zaon era, or are they actually the ones stirring it, with their own agendas in mind? (Hari Seldon, meet the Bene Geserit).

I'd choose the xenoculture option (but I'd throw religion into the stew as well), and I'd make every player-character, in addition to their other talents, a xenoculturist. Then I'd make sure xenocultural abilities and skills were influential (able to yield key needed bonuses) in all forms of character interaction, right down to combat.

- Walt

[ZaonDude]

Hi Walt!

First, here's the buttons I'd click on (followed by some comments) ;-)

[humankind's mysterious cosmic origin and destiny] [imperial power] [big shake-up]  [fight the future]

I'd like to include several 'layers' or ideas, connected or not, and weave them into the setting. I think the human destiny could still be done without being overly trite so long as it's done tastefully and isn't all-powerful or unbalancing for the game since, as you noticed, ZAON is heavy with species diversity.

I do definitely want to come up with something that surrounds turmoil in the Imperium. Perhaps various groups, factions, separatists (I want to be careful with 'separatists' for SW concerns) at odds. For example, yes, life in the Imperium is oppressive under the Za'aan, but the Za'aan Lords to keep the peace. So, I can see people wanting the peace and freedom (freedom until they try to leave LOL) the Imperium offers, while others will seek routes of terrorism (fits well into modern culture) to ensure their desired way of life.

I like the idea of more conflict. Perhaps entire fleets of humans at war with one another and Imperium fleets.

The 'Big Shake Up' idea is always one I've loved. In addition to (perhaps trite, but I really want it) having a 'wormhole' or 'gate' link our galaxy with a very distant one full of a whole new set of races and empires (supplement will introduce this) I want ideas for other forms of conflict in the existing setting (see above).

There has always been three ancients for this game. Yet, I do not have purpose for two of them. The Za'aan are ancients, but are actually the youngest of the three ancient races. They in fact learned from one of the other ancients (turned on them, as a matter of fact). The other two ancients have not been defined yet, though one of them most certainly exists in the Banyan Rift (where that ancient has eliminated all conventional FTL travel modes by disrupting the quantum fold layer of space thereby making it impossible {because it'd take thousands of years} to travel deep into their territory)—they're isolationists for some reason. What reason? Dunno.

Then, I want to have another set of ancients that still operates here and there out in the 'Tartarus Expanse' eliminating by force vessels that travel to that part of the galaxy. Why? Again, no clue. LOL.

I'd also like something (a plan of one of the ancients perhaps, or their agents) that spells doom for *some* folks or worlds... your fight for the future. No clue as to what, though.

The xenoculture idea is one I'd like to hear more about, but ONLY as a side issue. It's not the sort of theme I'm looking for in a mainstream game, but it could be inserted neatly for those who appreciate those social dynamics.

Overpopulation is an area I don't even want to get into.

Religion, though I am willing to explore it somewhat in alien cultures, is something I want to more or less simply not address in ZAON for political, social, and sales reasons. It's the wrong political climate for sales in that area right now given what's going on in the real world. Not open to discussing this.

Also, Walt, do you mind if I copy your above post (and my reply) to the zaon.org forums where it fits the current discussion there and may help spark some ideas in folks conversing there?

Thanks!!

[Mike Holmes]

Then, I want to have another set of ancients that still operates here and there out in the 'Tartarus Expanse' eliminating by force vessels that travel to that part of the galaxy. Why? Again, no clue. LOL.

I assume you laugh because of the irnony. Many games have stuff like this. Some force is included just for the kewl factor, and then the rationale is left for later.

The problem with this is what I'll term the X-Files Syndrome. The problem is that eventually you'll want to produce the underlying rationale. And you'll think about it a lot. And them some more. And then even more. Because the reason has to be suitably significant to make it a cool secret.

Know what? Your secret will be lame. Just like the last episode of the X-Files. Where we held our breath and waited for the culmination of many years of episodes for the revelation of the "truth" that was out there the whole time. And it was weak.

By building expectations like this you set yourself up for failure.

Have the reasons set out before hand. If you don't have suitable reasons, then don't have the aliens at all. Or make them less of an enigma.

Or are you smarter than Chris Carter? And all the other smart people who've made the same mistake. :-)

Mike

[Jonathan Walton]

Religion, though I am willing to explore it somewhat in alien cultures, is something I want to more or less simply not address in ZAON for political, social, and sales reasons. It's the wrong political climate for sales in that area right now given what's going on in the real world. Not open to discussing this.

I know you said you're not open to discussing this, but trying to have myth without religion is like trying to have magic without magicians.  If your setting's myth is going to be supported and propogated in the world, it has to be done by someone, and that means religion.  I mean, if you don't want to have organized religions or a state-supported church, that's fine.  No need.  But myth requires an ideology of some kind, and preferrably a spiritual one.  That's what sets the myth of Star Wars (with the Force) apart from Star Trek (which has a kind of faceless humanism at its core).  Without addressing any kind of spirituality in your setting, I think your quest to find a myth for Zaon might be seriously hampered.

I also think you're wrong about the sales issue (recent releases: Demon, Engel, tons of d20 material on clerics and gods), but that's your perogative as a publisher, so I won't argue that point.

Later.
Jonathan

[Walt Freitag]

First of all, feel free to copy any of my posts on this thread to the zaon.org forums. I may join in there.

Turmoil in the Imperium, mysterious threats, terrorism, more conflict, entire fleets at war.

But it's all just distant backdrop as far as the player-characters are concerned, isn't it? Reading through the list of adventure seeds, there isn't one of them that wouldn't be just as plausible with or without a big upheaval going on. The hard part isn't coming up with reasons for mega-scale upheaval and conflict to exist, it's coming up with reasons why any of it is important in play.

That's the problem you already have with your current large-scale conflicts. There are about a dozen shooting wars going on in the galaxy in your current present day, one of which has been going on for 300 years. (Is either side really trying?) Zaon capital ships are "defending" tourist resort planets that apparently aren't under enough threat to scare the tourists away. Many different alien species are offered for players to choose for their characters, with no discussion at all to the effect that it might be a good idea to make sure all the PCs aren't each other's mortal enemies. All of this just reinforces the idea that perpetual universal warfare is business as usual and unimportant to the player-characters, except as the particular (but interchangeable) background reason for carrying out a given commando mission or smuggling run. Based on the char gen instructions, it doesn't appear even to matter whose side anybody is on. The game's not about interplanetary wars or interspecies relations, it's about a group of odd compatriots scratchin' and survivin,' like so many other games. Which is fine, it's not original but it's a solid proven formula. But it also means that who's allied against whom, or who's going to be fighting whom five years from now, is reduced to "izzat so?" status. As in:

"A new Quantum Gate opened from another whole galaxy. Izzat so? Wonder if that means we can go there and refuel without paying the 10% sales tax."

But if you still want mythical resonance and originality, here's my next try:

Your current background description is the galaxy as it existed yesterday. Today, the first day of the game, Titan was vaporized. Kaboom. Gone. Want to know how? I'm sure you do, but since the witnesses are dead and the communications grids damaged and overloaded, which of the dozen conflicting rumors are you going to believe?

This isn't the fall of the Imperium. At least, not yet. (And anyway, there are plenty of settings based on picking through the ruins of some one-great empire.) Zaon still has plenty of power. But the Senate is gone (except for a few off-planet individuals) and the Imperial Family is gone (ditto), the generals are arguing about chains of command, enemy fleets are massing to take advantage, and inhabitants of more than a few of the more reluctant subject worlds of the Imperium are dancing in the streets. Can the Imperium survive, recover, and restore the old balances? Will it fall into tyranny from within, or enslavement at the hands of its enemies? Or is there an opportunity to replace it with something better?

Who are the player-characters? They can't be just anybody, or we'd be back to scratchin' and survivin' with the Titan catastrophe becoming just more background. (Makes some services less reliable, now you may be dealing with local warlords or revolutionary fleets instead of Imperial bureaucracy but when it comes right down to it, scratchin' and survivin' is still scratchin' and survivin'.) I'd tell my players to create one of the following types of groups of characters:

- An Imperial diplomatic courier ship of some sort, with a senator, an ambassador or two from a rival power, and maybe a distant Imperial Family relative aboard. They're all PCs, as is the ship's captain and perhaps other officers.

- An assortment similar to the previous but without the ambassadors, in a more powerful ship with a division of marines aboard (NPCs). How best to use them: defend the current post, move to counter likely border threats, or head toward the remaining capital worlds to help restore order?

- The captain and officers of the private mega-passenger transport liner I mentioned in a previous discussion thread. (The ship has no weapons and is slow, so the lack of ship vs ship rules would not adversely affect play.)

- An ISA team left without an immediate chain of command, who must decide where to put their loyalty among the conflicting claims of legitimate Imperial authority that inevitably arise.

How's that for turmoil and conflict, with themes of imperial power, big shake-up, and a threatened future? (No mysterious cosmic destiny here, but you could still have it in the background.)

- Walt

[dalek_of_god]

Even though I'm totally not qualified, let me try to roll some of the above thread into a single useable concept.

At the heart of the galaxy there is, or rather was, an enormous black hole. This immense singularity was connected through a cosmic string/wormhole/hand waving here to the singularity at the heart of another distant galaxy.

Something has changed, however, and the connecting wormhole has swallowed up the anchoring masses at either end. No longer fixed at the galactic core the mouths of this wormhole form swirling vortices in their respective galaxies. Vortices that lash violently through space like a runaway firehose. Vortices that swallow up any solid matter that comes in contact with them. Vortices that grow.

Eventually, the eye of these vortices will be large enough to travel through. But not yet. At the moment these vortices merely trace out a chaotic pattern through the galaxy. Disappearing from real space and reapearing elsewhere according to some complex equation. With sufficient study the location of the vortex in each galaxy can be predicted. Such study will reveal voids into which the vortex does not travel, the largest of which coincides with the Tartarus Expanse.

The existance of this vortex will not be immediately apparent. Low level conflicts that have continued largely unchanged for centuries will take a turn for the worse with the distruction of strategic planets by the vortex. Both sides will likely be convinced that the other has developed or is developing a superweapon.

Start characters off after the mysterious disappearance or destruction of something of personal importance. Maybe their homeworld is no longer there, or they've been left penniless after the disappearance of the space station they banked with and all of its records.

Anyway, just a thought. I didn't finish reading the Zaon pdf's so I'm not sure how well that fits in with the overall setting, but maybe it will help a little.  Oh, and I'd have to agree with Walt on the religion thing. A few good cults and mythologies would probably help. I think you may be equating religion with belief in the supernatural, that doesn't have to be the case.  People have treated economic theories as a religion after all, and any government that bans religion tends to become one itself.


Dwayne