Campaign created Monday, August 4, 2003 10:49:57 AM by Randi

Fugitives aboard a living starship, the ragtag crew of Nolo flee from Peacekeepers and Scarrans. Where do they go? What adventures will they have? Interested? Email Randi.

Farscape is the name given to John Crichton's spaceplane, Farscape I, lost in a wormhole 4 years ago, returned to Earth with his alien friends in the third year, only to leave again. A wormhole to the far reaches of space was open for a time, but Crichton himself closed it shortly after his last visit.

But before he closed it, another mission was sent through, even though against Crichton's advice and that of his alien friends. Then, while they were exploring, the wormhole closed, trapping them in the far reaches of space. You may choose to be a part of that small crew, or you may choose to be an alien.

You do not need to know the Farscape TV series intimately, but it may help. I will provide some guidelines, sample races, etc.

Morality: Shades of gray. Bad guys can be really, really bad -- or they can be greedy bastards who will do you a favor one day and burn you for your last credit the next, if you have enough credits. This will be somewhere between Dark Champions and Four Color, keeping in mind the Farscape SF-Fantasy genre.

Realism: Somewhere between realistic and romantic, leaning towards the realistic. Things should make sense, but sometimes you may be able to get away with the outrageous if it furthers the story.

Outlook: Serious with occasional comic bits. Everything is episodic. Your actions may very well come back to haunt you.

Importance of the PCs: This will depend on your actions. You could be very important, much as Crichton was very important. Or you can do nothing and be, well, nothing. (Yeah, right. I've never known PCs to fall into the latter category.).

Characters will be built as competent normals, 50 base points, plus 50 disads, with 25 points maximum from any one category of disadvantages. Normal Characteristic Maxima is mandated for each character as a 0-point disad. Some races normal characteristic maxima may vary. A Scarran, for example, will have a higher Strength, Constitution, Body, Presence, PD and ED, but they will have correspondingly weaker stats in Dexterity, Int, Ego, Com, Speed, and possible others (details are to be worked out as need be.).

Equipment will be allowed at no cost, but will be closely examined by the GM. If it will unbalance the game, it will likely be lost. All equipment will be considered "Independent" Foci.

Limited powers will be allowed on a race-by-race and case-by-case basis. Some races will not be allowed. For example, you may not be one of the members of the race that excels in wormhole technology and use (the ones that gave Crichton his wormhole knowledge.).

Languages and Time-reckoning of the Farscape Universe

Most races speak their own languages, but they have translator microbes that magically translate all languages, enabling them to communicate with each other. There are some races that are immune to the microbes, but they are rare. Additionally, the people on that side of the universe have some euphamisms that don't seem to translate well, but you'll eventually come to understand the meaning of such words as Frell and Dren.

In addition, time is measured in units similar to, but different from our "cycles" (years), "arns" (hours), "microts" (seconds), etc.

Races of the Farscape Universe (there may well be others not listed here)

Acquarans - human-like natives of the planet Acquara, worshippers of Hynerians.
Banik - Human-like in some regards. Stark was a Banik with some dramatic psi powers.
Delvian - A long-lived, highly spiritual plant-like race.
Human - They look Sebacean, but have poor eyesight and lack the Sebacean susceptibility to heat.
Hynerian - short, stubby, smart little bastards who would cheat, betray and use you rather than look at you.
Ilanic - humanoid race, mostly traders.
Interon - humanoid race with a scream that can melt metal.
Kalish - humanoid race, typically servants of the Scarran, can cling to walls and reattach lost limbs (their own, self only).
Luxan - strong, tough and ornery, subject to fits of rage, and equipped with a 6' tongue and venom that renders many species unconscious. A warrior race, they all carry huge honkin' swords that double as RKA ray guns.
Nebari - pale-skinned humanoids, dextrous, emotional -- they come from a repressive society.
Plokavian - human-like race.
Scarran - Dragon-like humanoids, very strong, tough and ornery.
Scorvian - humanoid race, tend towards intrigue and espionage.
Sebacean - They look human, but have a susceptibility to heat.
Sheyang - a violent, fish-like scavenger species.
Sykarans - humanoid, natives of planet Sykar, growers of Tannot root, an addictive drug.
Tavlek - They look human, and carry around power gauntlets that make them strong and mean, and shoot like blasters.
Vorcarian - Blood Trackers; the females have keen senses of smell.
Zenetan - pirates.

The Characters from Farscape - I have included these for those not familiar with the series. While I do not expect any of these characters to show up in-game, it is remotely possible. I do not want anyone to actually play these characters -- you should make up your own. But the information below should give you some flavor for the series.


Commander John Crichton - Commander John Crichton is a IASA scientist who invented the Farscape module, which brought him to the other end of the Universe. His irreverant and colloquial sense of humor and inherent "human-ness" alternately amuses and frustrates the rest of the crew aboard Moya. Although not a warrior, Crichton has proven himself to the others as a scientist.

While testing his experimental module during a shuttle mission, astronaut John Crichton was shot through a wormhole and ended up... somewhere else. A good ol' Southern boy, he has made some friends, but more enemies, and now he's the Most Wanted ... being ... in a very un-Spielberg-like galaxy far, far away. Crichton has spent the last four years running from the Human-appearing Peacekeepers, and chasing after wormholes, trying to get home. He's been tortured, captured, and cloned, but he's survived -- barely. Now he may finally have unlocked the secret of wormhole travel, but at a price he may not be willing to pay.


Officer Aeryn Sun - Aeryn Sun was a member of the Peacekeeper Corp, a common soldier, until she was "contaminated" by spending too much time with an alien -- Crichton. A fugitive from the Peacekeepers, Aeryn is aggressive and sure of her skill. Aeryn Sun no longer has a home she can return to, so she joins Moya's crew. It is an uneasy alliance.

Aeryn Sun was the perfect Peacekeeper soldier, born and bred to fly, to kill, to die. But she was caught up in a prison escape and ended up on the run with a ragged band of renegades, in exile from the only life she knew. She learned about love from John Crichton, and about grief and loss as well, when her lover died in her arms. Now she's trapped on Moya with a price on her head and secrets she's not telling anyone -- not even her dead lover's twin.

Joolushko Tunai Fenta Hovalis - "Jool" is a young alien, an Interon, supposedly related to the human race. She's extremely intelligent, but had been pampered outrageously. When she awoke from cryostasis to discover her world had changed, she didn't take it well. Watch out for her scream; it melts metal.

Moya - The Peacekeepers captured Moya -- a living Leviathan ship -- to serve as a prisoner transport. The escape that pulled in Crichton and Aeryn was hers as much as her crew's, but she didn't escape unscathed: the Peacekeepers had impregnated her with a hybrid child. Her son Talyn was born with a complement of weapons, and eventually sacrificed himself to destroy the Peacekeeper wormhole project. Carrying a crew of escaped prisoners has meant pain and grief to this gentle soul, but it's still better than slavery.

Talyn - Moya's son, a Leviathan modified by the Peacekeepers to be a gunship. He died, along with Crais, destroying a Peacekeeper command carrier.


Ka D'Argo - Ka D'Argo is a young Luxan warrior formerly imprisoned upon Moya. D'Argo is fierce and impatient in a "Klingon" kind of way, but occasionally surprises the rest of Moya's crew with soft-spoken wisdom.

Luxan warrior Ka D'Argo dreamed of being more than just a soldier. He wanted to settle down with the right girl and raise kids on a peaceful farming world. But the right girl was a Sebacean, and that was taboo to the xenophobic Peacekeepers. D'Argo was convicted for killing his wife, even though her Peacekeeper brother was the murderer. Seven feet tall and prone to fits of uncontrollable rage, D'Argo is now the elected captain of Moya's notorious -- and fractious -- crew.


Chiana - Chiana is young and brash, and also the newest addition to Moya's crew. She always gets what she wants, whether she has to lie, cheat, steal or seduce to get it... but Chiana is starting to turn over a new leaf. Stealing for the greater good...

Chiana's teenage rebellion ended when the Nebari leaders handed her an engraved invitation to leave her homeworld, a place where everything is very calm, very nice - or else. Chiana made herself a new home on Moya. But she didn't settle down: she's still able to kick, kiss, or sashay her way through trouble. At least until those disturbing new visions start getting in the way.

Captair Bialar Crais - Captain Crais rose up from a backwater farming community to captain his own Peacekeeper Command Carrier. His passions are strong and his methods are ruthless in the pursuit of the one thing he wants: John Crichton, dying in his hands.

Noranti - Noranti came aboard Moya after the destruction of Scorpius' Command Carrier, no one knows quite why. She doesn't bathe, she's a lousy cook, and she thinks the best way for John Crichton to cope with stress is to dose him up with drugs. Her third eye seems to give her special insight, but whether she's working with the crew, or against them, remains to be seen.

Pilot - Pilot is mentally and physcially connected to the leviathan Moya. His race has perfected the multi-tasking ability that allows him to monitor all her systems and act as a go-between with the crew. Pilot has a dry sense of humor that often comes out when he speaks to John. And despite his connection to Moya, Pilot can still be surprised by her actions.

Four-armed and slightly neurotic, Pilot is bonded to Moya as guide, interpreter and protector. Pilot controls the ship, but only to the extent that Moya wills it. Since his bonding to Moya meant the death of her former Pilot, he takes his blood-debt as protector very seriously. The ship comes first, then the crew who travel aboard her. If only the crew weren't sometimes so damn annoying...

Pilot is an independent entity, but he operates symbiotically with his Leviathan (Moya), and the upper half of his torso, the part that we see, is the only part of him that is entirely his own. His much larger lower half is made up of neural tentacles which thread through and fuse with Moya's systems. Pilot is, to Moya, some combination of operator, bodyguard and partner. Because of this symbiotic fusing, he knows when she's scared, eager, excited, or sad, and he communicates Moya's thoughts to Crichton and the others. He and Moya are made complete by their ability to serve the members of the crew, but they are in no way obligated to follow the desires or needs of the crew if their own agendas disagree. Pilot is most often polite and respectful to the crew of Moya, but it's clear that his loyalty is to Moya first and the others second.

Rygel - Rygel XVI is the exiled royal sovereign of Hyneria, deposed by his brother. Obsessed with food and sumptuous possessions, Rygel is unused to doing anything for himself. Despite his capriciousness and greed (and a tendency to bite) Rygel has proven himself a skilled diplomat and barterer.

Rygel the 16th ruled over six hundred billion Hynerian subjects before the Peacekeepers took him prisoner and put his cousin on his throne. One hundred and fifty cycles of imprisonment didn't make Rygel any less of a schemer, but he knows he needs more than smarts and a glib tongue to win back his throne. What he has is Moya's crew, when what he needs is an army. But with his treacherous history, he's more likely to be running from an army than leading one. And that's only if the rest of the crew don't toss him out an airlock for betraying them along the way.


Scorpius - Scorpius is a half-Scarran, half-Sebacean hybrid. He's obsessed with acquiring wormhole technology... and therefore obsessed with John Crichton.

The product of a forced breeding, Scorpius was supposed to combine the most desired attributes of the Scarran and Sebacean races. Instead he's a brilliant but brutal creature who needs constant medical care to stay alive, and who wants vengeance against the entire Scarran race. When John Crichton destroyed Scorpius's wormhole project, the Peacekeepers turned on Scorpius, and he barely escaped with his life. Scorpius turned to Moya's crew for asylum -- and now Crichton, Scorpius' former victim, is Scorpius' only hope to defeat the Scarrans for good.

Stark - A member of the Banik slave race, Stark has the ability to ease the pain and suffering of those passing over to another realm. This trait, inherent to the Stykera -- a particularly special breed of Banik -- made him a highly sought after test subject for the Aurora Chair. Stark gained his freedom after helping Crichton to survive the Chair and escape from Scorpius' Gammak Base. Stark later developed a special relationship with Zhaan and both were able to use their mental powers to communicate extraverbally. He also played a major role in making D'Argo's reunion with his son, Jothee, a reality.

Sikozu - Sikozu Shanu was a genius with a skyrocketing career harvesting Leviathan neural tissue, until she got too good at her job. That pretty much ended her career, earning Sikozu a black mark that her Organization isn't going to forgive anytime soon. Sikozu can go without eating for weeks, walk on walls, and reattach severed limbs: all useful skills for a group of interstellar renegades. But the only one she seems to trust is the dangerous half-breed Scorpius, and he has his own plans for Moya's crew...

Zotoh Zhaan - Pa'u (or priest) Zotoh Zhaan is an 812 year old Delvian, a blue-skinned, highly spiritual race. Striving towards perfect understanding and unity, Zhaan often acts as a mediator aboard Moya. She is highly sensual and only occasionally impatient.

The (very abbreviated) story so far:
American astronaut John Crichton is lost on the other side of the galaxy, or maybe even the universe. He's on the run in a living ship full of aliens -- escaped prisoners who are now, after three years, also his friends. He's been hunted by the military, tortured by experts, and had his head messed with in too many ways to count. Along the way he's learned how to survive in this strange new world -- primarily by being tougher and smarter than anyone in his way.

Shortly after Crichton came to this part of the universe, some mysterious aliens gave him the ability to understand and manipulate wormholes. Unfortunately, they didn't tell him they'd done so, and the information remained locked in his subconscious until he was captured and tortured by Peacekeeper scientist Scorpius. Scorpius was also interested in wormholes, and when Crichton escaped, taking his wormhole knowledge with him, Scorpius set out after him, and spent the next few years doing everything he could to get inside Crichton's head.

Since that time Crichton's been shot, decapitated, driven insane by the presence of Scorpius' "neural clone" inside his own brain, has killed his comrade and lover Aeryn Sun while under the clone's influence, and has seen her resurrected at the cost of another crewmate's life. Finally, and most annoyingly, Crichton was twinned by an insane scientist on a dying leviathan. On the run from the Peacekeepers, one of the two Crichtons went off with Aeryn Sun on Moya's unstable son Talyn, while the other Crichton stayed on Moya.

The Crichton on Talyn finally managed to consummate his on-again, off-again relationship with Aeryn, and shortly thereafter lost his life keeping the Scarrans from obtaining wormhole technology. His twin, left behind on Moya, picked up the responsibility for keeping wormhole technology out of dangerous hands. Through the self-sacrifice of Moya's son Talyn and the exiled Peacekeeper captain Bialar Crais, Crichton destroyed Scorpius' Command Carrier and shut down the Peacekeeper wormhole project forever.

But Crichton didn't make any friends in his heroism. Season Four opened with Crichton and the rest of Moya's crew on the run again -- from the Peacekeepers, the Scarrans, and anyone else they'd managed to annoy. They picked up some new crewmembers and lost a few others, and finally got around to imposing some order on themselves by electing Ka D'Argo their captain. They've even accepted Scorpius as a resident of Moya, although no one actually trusts the Scarran half-breed -- particularly not Crichton.

But they're still in trouble. All these interstellar empires want wormhole technology, but only Crichton fully understands how truly destructive wormholes can be. The mysterious aliens who gave him the wormhole knowledge want him to keep anyone else from developing these weapons, and they've given him some tips on how to use the knowledge safely. The most important lesson is that wormholes can take you backwards in time or into new realities if you're not very very careful, and the mere fact of your presence in these new realities can cause catastrophic effects. But despite their instructions, Crichton's first experiment in solo wormhole travel doesn't take him back to Moya and his friends like he planned. As episode 411, "Unrealized Reality", ends, Crichton finds himself hanging in space above a blue-green planet that looks remarkably like Earth...

More detailed plot summaries, transcripts, and synopses can be found at Exodus from Genesis (http://www.shriftweb.org/exodus/), the Snurchers' Guide to Farscape (http://www.snurcher.com/index2.html), the Tourists Guide to the Uncharted Territories (http://perriverse.dreamhost.com/farscape/), and FarscapeWorld (http://www.farscapeworld.com/main.shtml).