Campaign created Monday, December 5, 2005 12:08:19 AM by Mastermind

It's the year 2100. Humans have colonized the solar system. Humans struggle for control of Mars. Nanotechnology has transformed life on Earth forever, and gene-enhanced humans share the world with artificial intelligences and robotic cybershells, sentient computers and artificial "bioroids" demanding human rights. Most prosper. For others it is a boulevard of broken dreams...

Introduction:
Normally Transhuman Space uses GURPS 3e rules. However, I will be using the HERO system for this game. This does mean a lot of legwork on my part to translate equipment to a HERO format, but it is not too hard and HERO is flexible enough that viable characters and concepts can be fleshed out.

Campaign Tone:
Morality: Gray. Transhuman Space is gritty and survival sometimes outweighs moral judgment in the depths of space.
Realism: THS offers a very logical technological progression for the next century. This would not be space opera or cyberpunk. However, it does offer many options.
Outlook and Seriousness: Mostly serious, but even serious tones need to be broken up with some light-heartedness once in a while.

Character Building Guidelines:
Heroic
125 Base Points
100 Disadvantages
225 Total Character Points possible
Normal Maximum on Characteristics
50 Active Points, OCV/DCV max 9, spd max 4, skill rolls 14-
def/rdef 10/10 (though this will probably be equipment dependant)
use Everyman Hard SF (pg 40 Star Hero)
EC, MPPs are acceptable but within reason and tight, logical groups
VPPs I am a very wary of unless you have a good sell.

Additional Information
Characters will be field agents of some sort working for one of the large international corporations, all of whom are scrambling to do something (whether good or bad) about the recent tragedy/terrorist attack in Rotterdam

At some point I will begin a glossary.

I will be drawing ideas mostly from Fifth Wave and Broken Dreams, but I am hoping that we will do some adventures in the rest of the solar system. I am definitely willing to work with players who are interested in creaing infomorphs, bioroids or other transhuman entities. I believe a lot of the fun will be in creating and defining characters and their "powers". While this will not be anime-ish, one place for inspiration in character concepts from Cowboy Beebop.

Up to 2010	(Timeline entries up to 2100 are taken from pages 8-17 of THS. Copyright David Pulver, 2002) China embarks on a manned space program, putting several yuhangyuan ("space navigators") into orbit and on the moon. The first human clone is born. The United States commits to a Mars mission
2016	South African conglomerate, Ithemba Biotechnologies distributes a cheap, broad-spectrum AIDS vaccine. China and Taiwan negotiate for a peaceful reunification. China announces its own Mars program
2019	The commercial Aristaeus mission lands several thousand tiny robots on Mars for both science and teletourism.
2020	The genetic testing of unborn children and the use of genetic engineering to "gene-fix" monogenetic hereditary defects is commmon in affluent nations. China lands robot on Mars and Phobos. United States and Russia establish a service station facility at the Earth-Luna L4 point
2023	Tissue engineers grow functional human hearts for transplant. Every organ in the human body (except the brain) is now replaceable.
2024	The US-Russian manned Mars mission is launched. Sergey Zarubayev becomes dictator-for-life in Kazakstan
2025-2028	US-Russian Mars mission ends in disaster. China launches Mars mission and successfully reach Mars. WenXuan Liang is the first human to set foot on the Red Planet. Multiple follow-up expeditions begin arriving on Mars. First baby born in Earth orbit
2032	Vosper-Babbage and Tenzan Heavy Industries being installing mass drivers to move near-Earth asteroids into L4 and L5 points
2033	First baby born on Mars. Biotech Euphrates markets gene-enhanced dogs. First operational fusion reactor goes online. British Columbia and Alberta separate from Canada.
2035	India builds orbital facility. The first low-sapient AI is created, with near-human intelligence
2037	The first asteroids arrive at L4 point. They provide raw materials for habitat construction and space factories. First baby born on Luna. Russia establishes a colony on Mars
2048	Violence errupts on Mars between pro- and anti- terraforming partisans after China and the US decide to halt efforts to reverse the Ares Plague. Anglo-German expedition reaches Venus. Duncanite exiles begin a program to alter their descendants for long-term survival in microgravity
2039	Ares Conspiracy begins illicit terraforming of Mars. A comercial D-3He fuison reactor goes online in Japan
2041-2043	Ares Conspiracy discovered and members flee Mars to asteroid belt settling on Ceres, renaming an abandoned mining base Silas Duncan Station after their founder. Martian Sympathizers follow and swell their ranks. Anglo-American expedition reaches Mercury
2049	China celebrates centennial on Earth and on Mars. Moderate Arab states led by Saudi Arabia establish the Islamic Caliphate. A mulitinational science mission lands on Europa. Ice-penetrating "cryobots" explore the subsurface ocean and discover primitive life
2051-2055	The Andes War. Even though the U.S. uses orbital weapons and teletroopers, the Peruvian government collapses and the U.S. withdraws. During that time, 'slinky' experiences (shared surface thoughts and senses through sensory-link brain implants)become a new mass media. EU builds Research Station Aphrodite on Venus.
2056	Genetic Regulatory Agency is established by the EU to police abuses of human HuGe technology.
2057	Fusion-drive spacecraft begin carrying colonists to Mars. First baby born on Mercury
2061	"Fauxflesh", vat-grown meat, goes on sale after a decade-long battle with the ranching industry. Similar products are artificial hides, horns, and fur, and vat-grown wood and pulp. Dr. Raymond Garcia founds the Christian Hyperevolutionist Movement
2064	Russia's small Mars colony declares unilateral independence. First baby born on Venus. USAGS sends a manned mission to Saturn's moon Titan. Wealthy Christian hyperevolutionists purchase second-hand space stations at Lagrange 5 and found Seventh Heaven.
2066	LOGOS, the first sapient AI is created. Valles Marineris on Mars is flooded. Chinese cybershells explore Pluto.
2074	Transpacific Socialist Alliance formed by Indonesia, Peru, Thailand and Vietnam. They are founded on the principle of open access to nanotechnology and dubbed "nanosocialists" by the media.
2076	Since 2072 the U.S. has been making plans to colonize Titan. Building of bases on the moon to mine helium-3 begin this year. Gilbert Stokes becomes the first human to have his mind emulated or "uploaded" into software. Term "infomorph" becomes popular, referring to any digital mind, AI, or emulation.
2080-2081	Transhumanist Kazuhiro Nishimori is the first healthy human to undergo destructive uploading. Antimatter production begins on Mercury. As the first helium-3 shipments from Saturn reach L4 collection points, Nishimori's ghost visits Triton via laser transmission to a cybershell. Green Duncanites begin seeding life on Europa.
2083-2085	Pacific War. After Chinese demands to inspect TSA nanoweapons are not met, saber-rattling escalates to a hot war. By the end of the war, Thailand's nanosocialist regime tumbles. Martian space elevator is completed (2083). Construction accident at Shackleton Station on Luna kills hundreds and forces the city's evacuation (2085)
2087	Martian Triads begin manufacturing pleasure bioroids. First "xox cult" appears, in which followers are monitored by a low-res mind emulation ("shadow") of their leader.
2089	"Crime war" between rival factions on Mars secures independence of Martian Triads from Earth-based crime lords.
2091	Xoxing (making multiple self-aware mind emulations of a person) is made a felony in China. Similar laws are soon passed elsewhere. Muldoon expedition reaches KBO112434 Shezbeth and discovers a primordial black hole inside of it. EU courts determine that sapient bioroids and infomorphs are "persons" under the law, resulting in an outright ban on bioroid manufacture and ownership in the EU.
2093	Work begins on the Olympus Project, and Earth to space elevator extending from near Nairobi, Kenya
2094	Rust Chinese police barely prevent Negative Growth terrorists from destroying the Mars space elevator with a nuclear device.
2097	76 people in Shaoxing, China are forcibly uploaded by a rogue "emergent intelligence". Chinese trace tritium used in Negative Growth bomb to the Trojan Mafia. PLA Navy Space Force mounts a punitive strike against Liang Mountain, Diomedes using space dominance vehicles.
2098	EU begins using military force to supress "bioroid slavery" in areas without national government. Preservationist radicals calling themselves the Europa Defense Force arrive on Europa and begin launching attacks agains the Avatar Klustercorp operations. Called the "War Under the Ice". French Foreign Legion commandos raid bioroid factory in L5.
2099	March-GRA investigations links bioroid trafficking to Martian-Triad controlled gas staions in the asteroid belt. Royal navy Space Service sends a squadron to the belt to suppress the activities. September-Slinky superstar Xu Fang Shan is kidnapped and xoxed while vacationing in Spain. Black market mind emulations of her are sold throughout the system. October-Fighting reported between Nanodynamics and Exogeneisis over a property rights dispute in the asteroid belt. November-Royal Navy raids Martian Triad factory at Morrigan's Rock.
December 12, 2099	The Disillusion begins...Pope Zachary II announces that he will not receive any rejuvenation treatment citing the inequalities in bionanotechnology between rich and poor nations as the reason. Joint GRA-FBI task force raids an undergroud, illegal bioroid facility run by the Hong Kong based, Snake Triad
December 13, 2099	Double murder of Detrick Pressman and Erika Rose-thorn in the Vrijstaad. Vlaardingen Riot later that day
January 2, 2100	Burial of Lady Arwen
Jan 10, 2100	DBB/Kulterkampf clash in Bonn. Three warehouses burned to the ground
Jan 11, 2100	Terrorists led by Omirtai Yuberbayev explode at least two biological weapons in the Greater Rotterdam Metropolitan Area
Jan 12, 2100	As the a new dawn breaks on a cold morning, reports of 'zombies' flood the airwaves. The biggest concentrations are near Erasmus University, Vlaardingen and Winterswijk in eastern Holland; Satellite communications in HEO and LEO are offline. Reports suggest a small-scale nuclear detonation in HEO. Current memes blame Negative Growth for the biological attack, though no one has come forth