Galaxy Command: Heavy Future

         Here's a look at something I started writing last night. I wasn't getting anywhere with my Sectaurs inspired setting, and I realized I'd had this idea percolating in my brain for the last few weeks. Here's an excerpt from the opening text to a new Galaxy Command sourcebook. 

   "Heavy Future is a sourcebook for the Galaxy Command campaign setting. By default Galaxy Command is pretty clean; other than the occasional space-bikini, things are kept pretty all ages. Sex is kept off screen, badguys are clearly marked, adventures are action packed without being excessively violent. In short, Galaxy Command is not the setting you’d expect from the author of Otherverse America and Black Tokyo.

            Heavy Future changes all that, overlays the bright and shiny utopia of the 35^th Century with a thick layer of late 70s sci-fi sleeze. All of a sudden, sex throbs to the forefront of the story, players visit pleasure moons where they pump alien thugs for information in more ways than one, and the setting’s central conflict the war between Galaxy Command and WARSTAR gets dirtier than ever. Heavy Future is inspired by retro sci-fi stories like Barbarella, Star Crash and Heavy Metal, as well as modern sci-fi stories in the same vein, like Brian K. Vaughn’s Saga and Machinations of the Space Princess. Expect kinky and endearingly bizarre aliens, sexy space pirates, strange new monsters, quirky new powers and some of the most bizarre, deadly and tantalizing forbidden weapons in the whole strange galaxy!

No Sex Future

            Galaxy Command brought peace to half the galaxy, united a diverse assortment of races in single purpose, built the first star gates and warp drives, and fought WARSTAR to a standstill on a thousand worlds. But who cares about any of that?

            Command Space may be safe, but it’s sterile and sexless by choice. Everything, on every world is perfect. The benevolent and all knowing Adam Intelligence provides for its citizens on every need and desire. Sex and romance are outmoded concepts, unnecessary for a galactic population that reproduces only through Adam-selected artificial breeding. The human race has long freed itself from base hormonal drives. On Earth, marriages are consummated by psychic transference, an intensely pleasurable telepathic ritual that unifies the couple without all the messy barbarism of actual fluid transfer.

            So naturally, there’s a whole galaxy out there not buying into Galaxy Command’s plastic and polyester utopia. Sure, the unaligned worlds might have to put up with more WARSTAR incursions than Command Space systems, and sure, everybody has to kick up the credits to the Space Mafia to stay safe, but that’s why the Good Lord K’zakkit made disintegrator pistols. Out there in unclaimed space, you still live free, fly by your wits, and stick your input into anything cute, warm, willing and greenskinned when you want to.

The Star Virgin Cultural Template

            Galaxy Command has abandoned sex, and for most civilized spacers, the mere thought of simple kissing with all its bacteriological transfer and hormonal dangers shakes them to their spines. The whole idea of sex, pregnancy and childbirth without using an exo-womb…. those things are horrors best left to behind in the pre-space flight darkness of humanity’s past, like eating meat, warfare and criminal behavior. Characters with the Star Virgin cultural template added are firm believers in Galaxy Command’s chaste utopia, living hormonally suppressed lives that free them to concentrate on enlightenment and exploration. Whether exposure to a dangerous and thrilling galaxy breaks the Star Virgin out of his or her shell, or only strengthens their commitment to Galaxy Command’s ideals, is a question for each character to answer themselves.

Acquiring the Template

The Star Virgin cultural template can be added to any human character who grew up in Command Space during character creation. Star Virgins can give up this template at any time, by choosing actual, physical sex with a willing partner, immediately losing the template’s benefit but also removing its drawbacks.

Ability Score Modifiers

            -1 STR, +1 INT. Star Virgins emphasize the mind and disregard the body. They learn fast but have no real idea what their bodies are capable of. This ability score modifier is lost when the Star Virgin template is removed.

            Hormonally Pure (EX)

            Star Virgins take libido-suppressants and mood-mellowers. Centuries of genetic and social conditioning have bred a race of Chaste and rational humans. Star Virgins are not affected by Charm Person, nor abilities that duplicate it, and receive a +2 racial bonus on WILL Saves against mind influencing effects.

            Flustered (EX)

            Try as they might, Star Virgins can’t quite suppress their instinctive sexual drives. Though they do not practice, they have a preferred gender and sexual orientation, no matter how suppressed. When within 30 ft of any human of their preferred gender with a CHA score of 15+, the Star Virgin is distracted, tongue tied and uneasy for some reason they can’t really explain. The Star Virgin suffers a -1 luck penalty on all skill checks and Initiative checks."

Anyway, expect more Heavy Future previews in the coming days. I figure it should be as well received as Action Galaxy was- a modular campaign plug in that spins the generic sci-fi environment of Galaxy Command in a particular direction. 

CHRIS