Wushu Skidoo

Parallax

The planet stretches out below him like a turquoise dome as his ship slams into atmosphere. The war drum pulses through the deck, building towards a crescendo as they approach the drop point and then... he leaps. The black veins beneath his skin beat with pale light; their magic shields him from the heat. This is what he lives for.

Some time later, he strikes like a comet. His magnified mass punches through a building and pulverizes the earth. Dust and ash blast skyward, blocking out the sun. He can feel the tremors caused by his soldiers as they rained down from heaven. They will take everything of value from this ball of dirt and leave nothing in their wake but ruin.

Parallax began as an image in my brain: a bunch of savages in loin-cloths charging through the halls of a starship with their spears raised high! Over time, other images were added to the mix: super-powered pirates leaping from low orbit, space cowboys with crank-powered gatling guns, and robot shamans with feathers and fetishes tied to their antennae and actuators. These fever dreams saw their first incarnation as "Stardust," a setting write-up on my website. Parallax is a revised version of that material, written with pick-up gaming in mind.

The Diaspora

Humanity never discovered the secret of faster-than-light travel. Late in the 21st century, pessimism about the long term survival of the species spawned a curious social movement called the Diaspora. Wealthy individuals and organizations built spacecraft to seed the galaxy with human life. Those with ideological axes to grind (i.e. all of them) programmed their ships to cultivate civilizations with certain technology levels, economic systems, forms of government, and religious beliefs. Each hoped that theirs would become a perfect society, the kind they had failed to create on Earth.

How many eons have passed since then, no one can say, but the Diaspora has born fruit beyond imagining. The galaxy teems with human life of every description, from stone-age savages to industrial empires. There are theocracies, meritocracies, monarchies, communists, capitalists, anarchists, and some new forms of social organization so exotic that their progenitors did not have words for them.

Though mankind found the universe uninhabited, it was not always thus. Many of the star systems colonized in the Diaspora were already littered with abandoned, alien technology... including starships. The recovery of these vessels has brought about a clash of countless civilizations.

Alien Technology

No trace of mankind's alien predecessors has ever been found. No one knows what they looked like, how they lived, or even how many species there were. There are no corpses, no images, no hint of who they were or where they have gone. It is as if they simply vanished from the universe, leaving their machines behind.

Their technology comes in three flavors, but all share two limitations: First, FTL communication seems to be beyond them. This leaves even high-traffic systems relatively isolated, and ships in the depths of space are completely alone. Second, none of them has access to the scientific knowledge behind their construction. It appears that humanity will have to discover those secrets on its own.

Consequently, Parallax characters will not be familiar with most of the information contained below. All the average person knows is that Quicksilver is a shapeshifting metal, SymbioTech grows like a plant and kills people, and Tachyonics is something crazy Gremlins use.

Quicksilver

This miraculous technology is more a substance than a device. It is composed of quantum dots that can mimic the electromagnetic structure of any element. Simply put, it can become anything from air to water to wicker furniture. It cannot communicate with humans in any way they understand, but it tries its best to anticipate their needs. Their owners treat them like animals, because that's how they behave. The captain of a Quicksilver ship usually stands in a holographic projection of the local system, points to the star he wants to visit, and screams at the top of his lungs until something happens. It's every bit as reliable as it is dignified.

In their natural state, Quicksilver ships are seamless sculptures of liquid metal. They achieve FTL travel by enveloping their contents in a quantum “skin” that separates it from normal space. It then slips into “hyperspace,” where distance is not quite so straight-forward. This is the safest form of FTL travel, because nothing is done directly to the ship’s passengers, but it is also the least reliable. The shorter the trip, the less accurate it gets, so Quicksilver drives are best reserved for interstellar journeys.

Symbiotech

These synthetic organisms are the most common breed of alien technology for one, simple reason: they can be cultivated like plants. It makes installation a breeze. They draw their power from the gravitational field, which is also how they change the equations that govern mass and acceleration. FTL drives don't provide their own propulsion, but they make it possible for conventional drives to achieve FTL velocities.

Symbiotech can be implanted in the body, but it's a fool's bet. The pulsing veins beneath a synthorg's skin form a kind of inertial armor that boosts strength and makes them practically invulnerable. It can keep the body alive without food, heat, or even air, but only by causing rampant cellular mutation, also known as cancer. There are treatments, but they're rare and they don't work forever. Only power-mongering Reapers take Symbiotech into their bodies.

Tachyonic Hubs

Strangest of all are the Tachyonic Hubs. Their AIs draw limitless energy out of empty space and use it to form virtual matter. Something from nothing. They can also convert normal matter, including themselves, into tachyonic particles that travel faster than light. It's teleportation, the fastest form of travel in the galaxy. All it costs is your sanity.

The Hubs are intelligent, but not in any way that humans can comprehend. They "communicate" by rewiring the brains of any who board them, forcing data into their minds like a river into a thimble. Those who survive are never quite right in the head. Most become Gremlins and leave their old lives behind. Hub AIs seem as ignorant of their own origins as humanity is. The Gremlins' quest for knowledge may actually be the hubs' quest, passed on to humans they choose to remake in their own image.

The Screeds

Humanity's most successful civilizations are defined by their approaches to alien technology.

Heirs of Avalon

These self-proclaimed Lords of All Creation believe that their god created the universe just for them. Therefore, they own everything in it. Their seed ship was programmed to automate the production of food, shelter, clothing, all of life's necessities. They have, quite literally, never had to work a day in their lives.

Though their colony is young, some of their automated systems have already begun to break down. Rather than learn how to fix them, the Heirs have started replacing them with slaves taken from other planets. They can travel the stars and enslave entire worlds, yet they still need "primitives" to bake their bread.

Always remember: whatever an Heir might say to your face, he already considers you and everything in your possession his rightful property.

The Ferrymen

Inside their territory, only Ferrymen starships are allowed to carry passengers or cargo. They've locked millions of people into contracts that forbid them to 1) set foot on any vessel not owned by the Ferrymen or 2) interfere with any Ferrymen on "official business." It's like giving diplomatic immunity to a corporation.

Their technology is post-industrial, mostly clockwork machines, steam engines, and gunpowder. Their cities and starships are clanking collections of iron and brass, protected by thin skins of Quicksilver. Their weapons (rifles and pistols that use cartridge ammunition) are among the most formidable in known space.

Outsiders who wish to travel through their territory must endure a truly epic degree of harassment. Their ships are intercepted and their crews detained for questioning. If they are cleared to continue, escort fighters shadow them every step of the way. Though outsiders are allowed to purchase supplies on Ferryman worlds, they are forbidden to sell anything, pick up passengers, or to carry any alien technology off their ships. Failure to comply provokes immediate and overwhelming violence.

The Rails

The collectivist counterpoint to all this clutching and grasping is a network of automated starships commonly called The Rails. No one knows how the programs that guide the ships actually work, not even the Psykoteks who invented them, but Evangelists are happy to share them with anyone who wants to join the Great Work.

Each railship travels a set route, makes planetfall for a set length of time, and takes off again whether anyone is on board or not. There are strong social norms against interfering with a railship; passengers usually find a room in which to make camp and keep their hands to themselves. Reapers and Ferrymen do occasionally attack them, but most railmen are more than willing to sacrifice themselves to protect their vessels.

However, the truly dangerous ones are the Evangelists. When they're not putting a new ship on the rails, they're stealing alien tech from the Ferrymen and assassinating Heirs who take slaves from planets under their care. On railworlds, they act as mediators and are treated like rock stars. Many are Psykoteks or former Gremlins, but anyone with the right aptitude can become a techno-shaman.

The Breeds

Lesser groups are bound by common lineage or lifestyle.

Scavages - Humans of the Diaspora must have considered industrial technology the root of all evil, because so many seed ships were programmed to create hunter-gatherer societies. Getting their hands on some alien tech doesn't change their way of life as much as you might think. Their name is a concatenation of "savage" and "scavenge," which is how they usually make their living.

Psykoteks - These androids were programmed with only partial access to their own systems, producing a race of remarkably human-like machines. They experience their sensor data as clairvoyant "visions," use arcane "rituals" to repair and upgrade their hardware, and interface with other computers as if they were communicating with spirits.

Gremlins - That's not what they call themselves, of course, but the name is apt. Gremlins are the brainwashed crews of Tachyonic Hubs. They teleport aboard other people's starships and sabotage their alien tech in the name of science. Their goal is to unlock the secret of FTL flight for all mankind, but they're still madmen with limitless power.

Reapers - Might doesn't just make right, it makes everything. Having no worlds of their own, Reapers survive entirely on piracy and extortion. They use inertial armor to drop onto unsuspecting worlds, smash the hell out of them, and take whatever they want. Only their prodigious, Symbiotech-driven mortality rate keeps them in check.

Pick Me Ups

An Evangelist and her sidekicks set out to expand the rails with a few "previously-owned" starships. There are only two problems: 1) the previous owners are still onboard, and 2) they don't want to sell. Whether their target is one of Avalon's Quicksilver castles or a clockwork Ferryman nightmare, the railmen will be both outnumbered and outgunned. Better be persuasive.

A crew of Gremlins slips aboard a Ferryman or Avalon vessel and starts screwing with their engines. The nature of the experiment isn't really important; just give the players random tasks and throw opposition in their path. They have the power to muscle their way through, but that's not the Gremlin way. Rather, they should use teleportation to misdirect the crew, set loose any captives, and generally cause a lot of entertaining chaos.

Gremlin hijinks allow a tribe of Avalon slaves to seize control of a Quicksilver starship and space their captors. Now, they must stay one step ahead of Avalon slavers and Ferrymen "recovery specialists" as they explore an extremely bizarre galaxy. Their only guide is a half-mad Gremlin who got separated from his hub during the mutiny. They have no choice but to rely on him for exposition, but there's no doubt that he gets a kick out of watching them twist in the wind.

Next Up: Quantum Alchemy and the Destroyer of Worlds!