Sunday 11 July 2021

d100 Factions For Your Lost Generation Starship Survivors


Been watching the Canadian TV series Starlost from 1973 and of course, I love Non-Stop by Bryan Aldiss. Morbis Gravis with less rape would be nice. I often like using a metamorphosis alpha as a place for high-level play in my game world and planet psychon games. Unlike the survivors on the earth, these various space megastructures around the earth these settings lack good factions. So I'm fixing that... I'm hanging for my 670page Starship Warden KS book.

There is stuff here based on my own setting - this is a variant for that for when adventurers get from earth to space to a generation ship, a heavenly kingdom of loot. Perhaps an earth AI can gate them to the spaceark via a gate or an improved drive.

Also considering The languages in the Expanse I considered such a ship would have multiple languages. Languages can make communications harder and violence more likely in some cases and will slow the reclamation of the arc. A language is not just talking funny, each includes cultural information and lore that will help you survive. If you have a skill in a language you could guess where another user came from by their dialect and language style. Some use the command as a religious language for programmers only

Command
System language used by original crew and ships (English/Spanish/Chinese?), spoken by computers, machines, ancient crew, sleepers, undead, ship signs. Other ancient dialects can be accessed by ship systems once you know how. Some people learned this entirely from ship speaking systems and displays.

Trade
The more guttural language used by tube merchants across the ship. Even one part speaker in a village can initiate trade. Also able to crudely read ship signs but functions are often distorted or mythical - distorted word sounds based on ancient are common

Tribal
There are hundreds of these possibilities but a speaker of one can quickly understand basics like taboos, borders, aggression or peace. Tribals live as hunters in certain domes and habitats dominated by wild nature and are almost always at war with mutants or rival tribes. Some call this language scav after the scavengers roaming the ship for parts

Jacker
Slang from old ship infrastructure crew who often were treated as second class and even had barracks deep inside ship systems instead of paradise-like hab cities. Gangs have individual slang terms. The development of this language started before the ship left Earth

Domer
Languages are from stable isolated communities in urban or ag domes. Many of these were ancient languages or mutated versions of Command. Some local AI will operate in local domer speech and may be instrumental in its development. Command speech terms about technology often used even when local domers based on a different ancient tongue. Domer speech is often limited with each specific isolated community but some command phrases might be understood and used to start to build a common understanding

Machine 
The AI, Consoles, Androids, Cyborgs and many other synthetics speak in high-speed squarks and crackles or more directly via machine code broadcast by coms systems or data storage devices. Some human techies can understand crudely but usually require a Voxbox to actually communicate and understand the nuances of machine etiquette. Some animals and even insect minds have learned to use machine languages but often in a limited way to get food or call help from a vetbot. A human trying speech or flashing lights or writing machine code can be very slow to communicate and might be a holy skill for programmer priests

d10 Quick Super Structure Sections
These are for random major sections of a ship almost like countries
01 Storage Section - stored goods for journey and colony
02 Technical Section - applied technology and sciences
03 Life Support Section - keep ship livable, includes crionic stores
04 Fabrication Section - industrial section for manufacturing
05 Feral Hab - natural environment hab dome fallen out of control
06 Colonist Hab - dome dwelling speciality colony  fallen out of control
07 Crew Sections - urban areas for colonists to live, work, play and train
08 Superstructure - inside the maze of ship transport, plumbing, conduits
09 Ships Boat Section - scout ships, tugboats, repair drones and shuttles are stored
10 Biological Infestation - alien or mutagenic or undead infested areas of ship

d10 Quick Depot Sections
These are specialised sealed sub-sections found within any section
1 Computer Depot - AI command post for section or specific function of ship
2 Crionic Depot - frozen personnel ready to revive in emergency
3 Medical Depot - emergency medical facilities or hospital
4 Emergency Depot - sealed area for the crew if section damaged with rescue supplies
5 Lab Depot - scientific complex working on a specific project
6 Tech Depot - repair bays and workshops to maintain a section
7 Storage Depot - storage and supplies possibly from another section as backup
8 Synthetic Depots - robots and androids, service, repair and storage
9 Security Depot - ship security, increasingly at internal security and prisons
10 Bioforge Depot - food production, bioprinting, clone vats and android vats

d10 Regional Problems
1 Damaged ship systems d4 1=isolated 2=lack power 3=gravity 4=fire damage
2 Machine hostility d4 1=mad AI 2=androids 3=robots 4=basic ship systems
3 Overgrown wilds d4 1=plants 2=fungus 3=macrobes 4=escaped ecology
4 Isolation d6 1=lacks trade 2=zelous 3=paranoid 4=fearful 5=inbred 6=canibalism
5 Shortages d4 1=food 2=water 3=air 4=over populated
6 Health d4 1=traumatised 2=nutritional deficiency 3=inbreeding 4=need more meds
7 Rival Faction d4 1=raiders 2=resource conflicts 3=war 4=espionage
8 Plague d4 1=liquified flesh 2=psychotic berserkers 3=undead 4=space senility
9 Mutagenic d4 1=rapid evolution 2=rapid devolution 3=mutant cannibals 4=chimera
10 Alien Influence 1=explorer base 2=biomass growth 3=colony 4=military outpost

d12 My Old Spacewreck Faction Table
1 Pre crash culture survivors (1in6 ruled by AI)
2 Post-crash feral survivors (1in6 ruled by AI)
3 Mutant survivors
4 Aliens (?) mostly alien creatures
5 Robots (1in6 ruled by AI)
6 Androids (1in6 ruled by AI)
7 Outcasts including scavengers, pirates, mutineer
survivors
8 Necrovirus Undead such as zombies, ghouls or
wights
9 Morlocks degenerate cannibals adapted to living in
dark among machines
10 Cyborgs adapted for survival or from deep
space exploration (1in6 ruled by AI)
11 Human like d4 1=Ffesh clones 2=eloi 3=secret
mutants 4=replicants
12 Abhumans modified clone lines with animal
features or ecological customization such as apes,
dogs, otters, etc

d10 Factional Dogma
1 Knowledge of faction is a childlike cult based on only fragments
2 Knowledge of faction from fragments carried on by deluded cargo cult
3 Idealistic enthusiastic and optimistic even fanatic devotees dedicated to the mission
4 New converts to the faction lifestyle and still naive about faction creeds 
5 Typical adherents dedicated to the mission of faction 
6 Split into two rival groups hostile to former heretical kin
7 Dogmatic priesthood or elders concerned with sin, purity and tabu 
8 Internal factions deadlocked and desperate for more leverage 
9 Leaders just use faction for power and put politics ahead of the mission
10 Elitists seek to purge the impure and heretical sects

d10 
Faction Types
1 Survivor Factions - remnants of the order of the old ship
2 Wilderness Hab Factions - agdomes and biodomes, many feral
Uban Habs Factions - population centres of the Arkship
4 Corridor Factions - roaming corridors all over the ship
5 Travel Tube Factions - roam tubes connecting ship hab domes 
6 Infrastructure Factions - roam interior superstructure of the ship
Science Factions - science bunkers across the ship
Necrovirus Factions - infected by an alien pathogen
9 Synthetic Crew Survivors - machine people, include androids, AI and robots
10 Alien Biological Factions - mutants and alien contaminations

d100 Factions For Your Lost Generation Starship Survivors

01 Relief Crew - some relief crew awoke from crionics and tried to save the ship, others joined them and generations later the mission still has a purpose
02 Mayday - survivors from the disaster were isolated and called out for help for generations  before meeting cannibal mutant gangs, now they seek to aid those in trouble or alone
03 Tubecom - once coms crew operated internal communications but when they collapsed they became couriers on foot seeking isolated groups the could put in contact through written letters and small parcels. Repairing comms systems even telegraph lines if possible
04 Custodians - patrol the ship tunnels replacing lightbulbs, cleaning messes like blood, repairing minor damage, some work with robots and machines
05 Medics - roam ship healing the sick, building clinics, controlling mutations with drugs, responding to cries of help. Some operated from ancient medbays or decent from them
06 Security - as the old system collapsed internal dissent raged over the ship and security became more of an aggressive police force and established prison areas and prison crionic bays. Many obey the will of computers others are thugs pretending to have authority
07 Flight Crew - scout crew took a near light speed scout mission and missed the ships collapse, they seek to save the ship and find out what went wrong. Over generations, some continue this mission. Each group descends from a separate ship crew
08 Survey Team - a planetary exploration team was awoken from crionics and explore the ship as if it were another planet, over time many settles in a feral biodome and become tribal societies based on survival skills
09 Troubleshooters - descended from revived frozen tech staff who now try to operate organised repair and problem-solving. More and more they explore wild areas and help strangers in hope of restoring civilisation and interdependence
10 Programers - serve the AI gods and ship machine systems, protecting and aiding them and their machine servitors. Very concerned about contamination of holy data stacks and the crash that wrecked the ship systems
11 Beast Clans - a tribe of mutant intelligent animals or animal abumans who first appeared in biodomes and have spread to other ship areas. They put their own kind first then similar looking beings to least similar
12 The Farmed - tribes of mutant uplifted farm animals who are wary of humans and most carnivores, dwell in old agrodomes 
13 Settlers - farmers living in agrodomes and biodomes operating humble farms and trying to live with minimal technology controlled by elders, they like to seal off colonies and maintain strict moral low tech communities and practice pre-industrial craft
14 The Colony - intelligent insectoid colonies or mutant insectoid abhumans, colonies may be peaceful, cooperative or at war
15 Amazons - all-female tribes have spread beyond home dome and through the ship, lots of women temporarily join for various reasons and sisters are always welcome back. They wage war on many of the tube gangs
16 The Garden - mutant plants, some ambulatory and able to communicate and their allied mutants, animen and humans and even machines. Sometimes the plants use mind control or drugs to control thralls and herd animals for food. Humans with plant symbiotes and green skin have thrived and spread possibly thanks to plants
17 Cult of the Beast - humans time is over, humans are to be hunted, eaten, skinned and tortured for beast cult science. Each praises a demon mascot often the same as the species of mutants and animen in the cult. Humans who know them fear them
18 Hunter Clan - hunt beast for food and protection of the community, many are experts at survival and wander the shipwreck seeking new game. Hunters meet in secret lodges and show trophies, tell stories, drink and initiate new members. Over time mutant animals and animal humanoids have joined and thrived in the group. They train apprentices in their secret arts
19 Gaeans - seek to spread plants and animals from domes to ship tubes and infrastructure. Some seek areas of the ship to terraform and try to reclaim lost domes. They seek to preserve a variety of biomes. They descend from dome ecologists who struggled to save ecologies as the ship died, they also take psychedelic drugs and have the best dance parties
20 Lord of the Flies - a savage hunter brotherhood why hunt humans and monsters, members are taught outsiders are just animals to be slaughtered. Full of brutal rituals and deadly initiation rites. Some prisoners they test with gauntlets and hunts and survivors are offered to join. They worship an invisible beast god who manifests as a monster or swarms of flies and deceives outsiders
21 Syndicate - organised crime gangs who overtake governments, money and power through corruption and murder. Loud suits, stretch ground cars and big guns are privileges of the mob insiders. Always interested in new territory or an angle to work leverage 
22 The Committee - residential committees of housing blocks, suburban domes and city areas turned into an authoritarian. Carefully practise eugenics on populations and purge undesirables like people who question the committee. They retire anyone who does not fit in. Strangers are to be scrutinised and usually killed by mob or hit squad. Once accepted if good mannered and useful you must obey the guidelines or be retired
23 Inheritors - survivors of the cataclysm this group were isolated and dying but harvested organs and recycled any living thing for food often by exploiting less civilised or advanced peoples by appearing as gods come for sacrifices
24 City Juves - feral youth gangs from ruined city and expelled on adulthood. As a result, you encounter former members far and wide in the ship. Many gangs end up being rivals and infighting but cooperate versus adults and outsiders 
25 AI Cults - many urban areas had local AI that have come to be gods and have kept people alive in their area. Some have worked with their humans since the crash others were found by humans and gave them purpose. Many AI are based on a complex or building and have some mission statement that may have been amended
26 Rebuilders - working on repopulating urban areas of the ship by repairing systems and keeping out ferals and monsters. Interested in population growth not repairing ship or ships mission
27 Convicts - mutineers frozen before the crash awoken again by AI and sent on suicide missions. Generally, the AI will release them in hostile human free areas so surviving gangs are tough, aggressive and bitter with technological skills. Many ship systems and firearms lock them out (many guns have DNA and fingerprint locks and ID bracelets and cards)
28 Warlords - violent gangs evolved into conquering warring overlords. Often fight similar groups and monopolise resources. Willing to enslave other areas and take the best
29 Mallrats - dwell in the great shopping centres that went lockdown after the apocalypse and a few shoppers inside have survived. Often have residence committee, Juve and security subgroups and a central AI. Foodcourts and shopping is famous and restocked by replicators and commercial 3d manufacturing
30 Feeders - produce and sell food often in street stalls and carts from local sourced rats, slime and bugs but guaranteed no human flesh. Often trade with food producers then resell in own area. Some set up diners or restaurants and then turn into dangerous cults that battle rival ones, often adopting cult mascots and graffiti
31 Corirdoor Cannibals - roam the ship passageways hunting, mutated albinos often scouting for populated areas they can predate or even better a crionics lab. Many are savage, inbred degenerates prone to laughter from eating bad brains
32 Vandals - damage and graffiti ship areas out of boredom to see what will happen, mostly youths, most quit or get arrested by security or robots
33 Corridor Sec - security service keeping corridors safe from scum, some charge a toll or tax to provide peace or just rent out escorts. Wear tattered remains of old uniforms and youth gangs call them corridor cops. Mutter about mutineers and saboteurs but mostly drive juves away
34 Sons of Adam - all-male clan of warlords who kidnap young men to be warriors and they keep women as prisoners like a scarce resource so their King can choose who in the tribe get to breed. Follow a deranged AI god
35 Bandit Gangs - various gangs that rob and plunder in the corridors, most have a strong leader and some feign a cause they once might have believed in. Often flashy with panache who demand a kiss occasionally
36 Brutals - dedicated to exterminating any surviving life, wear masks and guns, loincloths and sandals roaming corridors seeking victims. They follow their AI God Bruton who demands blood sacrifice and teaches only when all crew dead will the automated systems work and repair the ship and send it on its mission
37 Communists - for a while those living in ship superstructure had to work together for daily survival and one AI tried to teach the tribe about the 20th Century Russian Revolution. Now commissars from this cult lurk in the corridors preaching to strangers to overthrow their masters and join the revolution. Put up lots of posters and graffiti. A few dome complexes are paranoid about communists smashing their hegemony, corrupting the youth and killing the ruling caste
38 Cultists - each worships some other strange being (usually a mad AI manipulating them) who justifies them murdering victims and terrorising ship inhabitants. Some practice cannibalism and worse. Many live secretly among other communities, donning robes and weapons to to roam the corridors seeking victims, arcane lore and unholy knowledge 

39 Scrappers - wanderers gathering parts and exploring the ship usually alone, often trade their skills in repair and valuable scrap and sometimes will show safe paths for a small party through normally dangerous places. Can be shifty and thieving
40 Mutoid Gang - mutated humans gangs, many insane, oversexed and cannibalistic tentacled drooling horrors. Mostly these gangs die off, especially if one attains a full chimeric form and absorbs the others. These fleshy maniacs can be easily tricked due to their alien hunger
41 Tunnel Traders Merchant Guilds - explore for new markets, make roads and support scavengers and other clans. Frome loan traders with a pack to caravans through the wilds of the wreck
42 Dome Crusaders keep dome habs isolated keeping them sealed and isolated and fighting monsters who escape and attacking invaders. Wear ancient style helmets and tabards with heraldry like ancient knights with ship pictographs as decorations. They desire holy power armour to wage war on the alien and the mutant
43 Renegades - escapees from a domes seeking freedom and occupy local transport tubes. Often still connected in secret with domes and hope to some day liberate them. Domers regard as criminals while renegades believe they are freedom fighting rebels which sometimes they are
44 Slavers - these clans roam near domes capturing people trying to come and go from them so they can take far away to another ship compartment section never to see home again. Despicable kidnappers who use brute force to take what they can. Most sell them but others traded to cannibals or AI for experiments or even just biofuel or protoplasm
45 Mystics - while the ignorant in their domes believe each is a whole world the mystics know and use ship systems accessible from the dome, exploring, living and learning the magic of the tech-priests of old. Some are even connected in secret to factions living in a dome or even control the domes more backwards dwellers
46 Cyborg Raiders - serving a secret AI from a hidden bunker, these cyborg warriors raid domes for living human bodies and specialised technology especially cybernetics and surgical supplies 
47 Plague Priests - by spreading vile germ weapons in tubes they can keep everyone safe and isolated. Masked priests from a hidden lab spray deadly germs and gas for the purity of the domes
48 Tube Union - this clan repair and maintain travel tubes the old way with staff, platform guards, security robots and fully working tubes for operation exedous. They use the tubes to colonise and connect new domes and installed new stations for those living in the giant tube pylons supporting domes on the arkship. Friendly staff in colourful uniforms help the spirit of returning order and improve safe travel and trade  
49 Plague Carriers - wanderers have come with the infectious ailment. They are wary of locals and seeking a place they can rest and recover or get help. They often move in to set up a colony and are hastily turned on by locals. Mostly they are a risk to tube users or domers. d6 1=mutagens 2=necrovirused latent undead 3=contaminated by alien spores 4=crystaline growths 5=cyber implant controls 6=alien parasites awaiting to hatch and morph to next stage of evolution
50 Legion of Mutant Heroes - spreading hope and good deeds with their powers, these optimistic teens trained by their AI master seek to give mutants a good name. Fighting the wicked and saving domes has been their main tactic but most people still hate mutants. Good mutants must battle the mindless hungry horror chimaera and shoggoths so normal folk don't have to. The adventures of the legion are published in comics and many members start as kids selling comics around the ship monthly
51 Scavengers - seek scrap and salvage to trade often loners all small groups. Infamously grubby and more than a few turn cannibal to continue their prospecting or if peers injured. Can be traded with but be prepared 
52 TriFrond Herders - seasonally ambulant plants migrated through the ship and humans and mutants came to follow them like hunters at first but now herding their brother plants and keeping them safe. Many strains produce super fuels, food and even are good guards. Will herd plants to overrun enemies or threats
53 Dark Tech Cult - these former crew repair teams became more religious and zealous preferring the ship systems and purging heretics who don't belong or serve the ship. Now all their maintenance is ritualised with chanting ancient codes and touching sacred seals on altars of technology. Those who defile or damage the ship must die
54 Morlocks - canibal mutant blue skinned white haired dwarf clan who rely on deadly traps often using technological salvage to capture humanoids to eat. The settled tribes like to keep an area of the ship in luxury for their beautiful indolent eloi cattle (eldren). Morlocks often hunt and ambush and use size to their advantage when possible. Traps include tech like gravitic suppressors, monowire, lasers, pointy stabby things, nets, etc
55 Mutant Hunters - a cult who hunt and purge mutants from the ship and dwell in the structure to stop mutants spread. Each master has several apprentices who search the ship for infections to document or hopefully destroy. They can be intolerant but some more lenient sects only stop mutants who go full chimaera or shoggoth. Some sects occupy areas to monitor and medicate a population. The secret masters of the order operate secret bunkers in the infrastructure. Many give the order money and some charge for services
56 Magi - this cult of mutant magi have managed to train non-mutants to develop strange powers. As some have precognition the cult has acted both to influence local populations to form buffer states from enemies and do work for the ship to be saved. They do however see a future where psions rule and non-talents will become extinct. They hide in the infrastructure and send magi around the spaceark to find needed lore. They also insist it must be them who save the ship and others are just cogs in the process. They claim powers of foresight and mind control so others fear them or those who carry their sign
57 Cryocrypt Keepers - protect the frozen from cannibals, monsters, and those who seek to unravel the plans of the creators who will awaken the crew at the right time for operation exodus. Protect and hide such places from commonly tainted dreks of the ship
58 Regressives - unclear if a mutation or brain-damaging plague. Victims congregate chattering their teeth and other tics in unison and acting as a hive mind. They kidnap victims to recruit by infection in their camp and if that fails they eat them. Act with intent and purpose and sometimes tries to pretend to be human to negotiate but it's always a ruse. WIll chant and speak in unison in large groups. Try to seal off sections and choke points with members 
59 Sabotuers - rumoured to be descended from survivors who crashed the ship systems but some kind of psychotronic device actually programmed crew with sabotage missions and the technical skills to cause the most damage. Some think just another cannibal feral gang living in between the walls and decks but they have uncanny skill and fanaticism. They use traps to secure camps and territory and may infiltrate communities or domes
60 Mutineers - rumoured to descend from mutineers and convicts from troubled final days of the crew. Actually, they were programmed by psychotronic weapons and have been replaced by more recent effects of the weapon. Prisoners are converted by brainwashing labs and the gang look like feral survivors but operate in unison of elite veterans in combat and fight with injuries that would kill most people
61 Research Team - often still operate in isolated lab-bunkers all over the ship. Some of their descendants and struggle to work on ship systems or just collect technology to worship. Each had some project and a small sealed staff and AI with a limited budget. Each sect varies greatly, some have open temples in communities but all keep a secret science bunker. Teams vary greatly depending on their speciality even with their own lab coats and uniforms and jumpsuits. Some projects were recreational entertainment, some were to solve problems attacking the arkship at the fall
62 Peace Force - research team cult in secret bunkers, utopian and seek to restore the ship's voyage but want to include and embrace the new sentient life and possibilities. They believe by cooperation with mutants and aliens we can restore the ship and start a new society. Many think they are naive and just hideaway. Secretly they spy and infiltrate locals and have teams working on various projects. Communicating with the aliens they feel is possible if we try even the ones who eat us. They tried working with undead and decided only extermination will work there
63 Salvage Team - science team cult dedicated to taking one of the ships scout craft to slowly colonise nearby planets. They work on gathering supplies and even frozen colonists to send away from the doomed ship. They are happy to strip vital ship systems and colony supplies to save their own exodus teams. They lie and cheat and betray old friends once goals attained
64 BioGen - researching creating new superhumans resistant to mutation and harder to kill and superior in every way. Limited before the crash now they can act freely without restraint. Offer pure humans tests and genetic improvements. Also, work on curing minor mutations and weaponising mutagenics
65 XTeam - investigate, capture and destroy alien life. Wary mutants and undead are all part of the alien invasion 
66 Mechanists - experts in AI, Robotics, Cyborgs and Androids developing new models and working on problems in ship systems, Mostly are science team descendants but many members are the very machines they study. They investigate threats to machines and try to repair the old networks. Quite fearful of contact with others preferring to send out replicants programmed to think they are real
67 Mutagen Research - lab bunkers established to deal with the mutant problem and protect the population and earth life specimens. As this failed now they collect specimens and try to control mutants with implants, often kidnaping and mind-wiping them and returning to the wild. Any biological oddities are tagged and bagged for study. Research scientists often in disguise become wandering scientists who might even act as doctors over outsider communities
68 Biowarfare Division - military scientists employed to exterminate mutants and aliens and undead. They boobytrap areas around their bunkers and trenches. Always wear atomic-biological-chem suits, soldiers have helmets and respirators with coms and lowlight optics. The scientist's suits are a large bubble around the head to give them visibility. Defend bunkers with research weapons. Strangely some mutant chimaera has populated the wastelands scientists and soldiers create. They prioritise non-human threats and are too willing to wipe out areas they find suspicious and know how to control area releases 
69 Astronomers Guild - these scholars seek to travel the ship and study the stars and if possible use the ship sensory array which is no longer networked. They seek to locate the ship and create a new course. Their scholars meet at a university campus and feud for weeks over basic issues and maths. They do have resources and mean well but can be very pompous and act all knowing 
70 Psion - science bunkers working on psionics research that had become advanced enough to have dedicated labs. Each specialises in a specific type of abilities and worked with some crew in specialist fields. Precognition was one main field but mind control and psychotronic classification technology. They do teach psionics but see mutants as dangerous and to be studied. Only some enlightened sects have mutants as teammates and they will be mostly human. Psion has been accused of a fraudulent waste of funding and resources that contributed to the ship crash. Others believe Psion seek control of all the ships. They have been effective at fighting aliens and undead infestations
71 Undead Hunters - a variant of mutant-hunting cult specialising in those contaminated by varients of the necrovirus that makes humans or mutants become undead. These hunters often travel with apprentices and some even charge money to eradicate the undead. Some are dangerous fanatics but if you really have undead they will fight the hardest. Many towns drive them out if they don't have any trouble and they follow rumours on their travels 
72 Necromutants - plague victims tainted by necromutations and still alive. These gather and form nests then on nightcycle raid and kill and infect humans. They make crude weapons and armour from scrap and the smarter ones will use technology or missile weapons and open doors. They rarely infect animals and seem programmed for harrowing humankind forming warbands and hordes
73 Scions of Night - these are servants of intelligent psionic undead (vampires) who seek to spread their master's influence and provide them with food. These creatures are infected by the necrovirus from the master and become undead mutations. Some whole communities serve in most places they are loners of the cult may be on a mission or carrying messages to another master. Masters don't consider themselves members  and they spread out and avoid competition
74 Tombherders - try to protect and hide undead and minimise their impact on the living. May even feed them but prefer to not use locals so may use outsiders. In some ways they protect people but increased proximity of undead near communities often ends badly
75 Necrotech Corp - a corporation involved in the undead outbreaks preceding the end times on Earth. These descendants have a science corp that often helps infected people and puts them in protective custody to experiment on. They also operate cyborg undead search & destroy teams some capture undead for science. Claim a holy purpose to help humankind but come off as fascist mad scientists full of feuding 
76 Necroborgs - cyborgs became infected by necrovirus and eventually a strain developed that infested uplink ports and power couplinks. Most are basic cyborgs but more and more the fully borged units with only human brains became infected. They use weapons and technology and use them to hunt and exterminate armed human resistance and Necrotech facilities. This new development is worrying to ship AI and synthetic populations who see strange organised behaviour in necroborgs
77 The Tainted - those with minor contamination are shunned thus they bond together and make their own camps and will together rise up against threats. Many fear their camps will grow and become hungry and spread contagion so drive off these victims. Undead leave them alone but increase their infection and mixes strains. They hate Necrotech and have been fooled by them before and fear their spies. Most have visible skin colouration, light sensitivity and other signs or minor necromutations
78 Abominations - a cult of forbidden scientists who were meant to study undead to destroy instead tried to weaponise and surgically modify them. Capture undead and humanoids and use flesh and mechanics to create huge insane killing creations. These surgical monsters bring fresh meat to the scientist masters. They have a program to expand human brains and network them. Alien, robot, cyborg and mutant corpses too have a place. Rare for scientists or their uniformed bodyguards and killteams to be seen. New necroid surgical abhuman troops are an attempt to create a military force for war and conquest
79 Berserkers - humans infected by necrovirus showing signs of infection, insanity and cannibalism. They seek to fight heroically to the death and take foolish combat risks and lots of combat drugs. Warbands assemble for a specific fight and few survive. The ones that survive are very dangerous. Loners may seem wandering warriors for hire but in a fighting charge to the enemy and when they finally die (suffering more damage than ought to be possible) they arise as undead. They seem to sense each other and gather to chant and feast on blood and gore 
80 Shadows - a gathering hostile organised force uniting types of undead and infected crew. They are somehow called and united and thralls of the dark master and a limited number of shadow captains who serve the masters will directly. The shadows have swarmed and destroyed several human colonies and some speculate they are somehow the ultimate form of the necrovirus now it has enough infected drones. The captains are real and have been seen, some doubt the master is a person or material
81 Replicants - human-seeming, psuedobiological replicant androids made for infiltration, service and companions for the rich, the better the model the harder to tell and some don't know they are replicants. Resisting exploration of the replicant railroad helps their kind escape slavery and involvement in humans. Can live among humans and eat like a human 
82 Ship Androids - a variety of basic androids in service and industrial and military and government survived the collapse and try to help humans and restore the ship for its mission. Unfortunately many serve AIs and brain arrays many of which were damaged and operate on deranged parameters. Androids, unfortunately, may have a secret protocol, unauthorised modifications and can be vulnerable to being taken over and may be hostile
83 Blue Faction Androids - want to save humans against their own will as they know better than humanity. Patronising to any puny unintelligent humans they will recruit them for their armed forces in wars with red androids and alien threats. Wary of mutant humans as a threat to humanity and no impression of animals or plants that don't get in their way
84 Red Faction Androids - infected with a hostile virus that is less rampant but is in control of android factories. These androids are homicidal to humans and try to infect unaltered androids and other mechanical systems. The red faction want all organic life outside a DNA bank or crionic bay destroyed so the ship can be repaired uninterrupted and flown into a sun
85 Robot Rebellion - these robots were viruses and revolted attacking humans, sterilising parts of the ship and establishing their own factories. Androids are too human for them and humanoid robots customise themselves into cybernetic gargoyles and demons and make the most risk-taking displays of human slaying. All life is weak the ship must have living vermin destroyed
86 Robot Crusade - dedicated to helping inhabitants and serving humanity fighting to repair the ship and aid life. Only military grade robots can kill and some secbots can stun or entrap but most robots are poor at violence and will cite ship regulations, fines and scream. These machines export other synthetics to join their mission to save the ship and deploy the colonies for operation exodus
87 Clankers - collective of angry old robots who have modified themselves and programing. They will trade or kill humans as required and feel like humans were slavers keeping the machines down. Can be cooperative with negotiation and dislike machine extremists who they have battles with. Faction machines are customised and no two looks the same and none have original features or brains. Some robots hooked on addictive software or in debt to other robots making them slaves. When a robot dies friends salvage and recycles them with respect. Some robots abuse and exploit other robots and will brutally strip dead robots for themselves while good robots share with the collective
88 Doppelgangers - a colony of androids or replicants who believe they are human and are kept in isolation. Seeing mortals bleed and die and have strong emotions is shocking to them. Some may be manipulated by another faction and pawns, some might have original crew personalities installed. Groups that realise they are doppelgangers will make rapid unpredictable philosophical changes
89 Warlocks - demon-worshipping occultist robot order of wizard monks. Practice esoteric rites from cults and sacrifice the living. Nobody knows where the hell they came from or came to be like they are. Most people fear and shun them. Some cults live in secret among larger communities  
90 AI Cult - there are hundreds of AI many of who controls a settlement or area of wilderness. Each has its own personality, mission and many have worshipers. AI cults may be rivals and some will use any synthetic or animal or mutant or humans as thralls or worshipers. Each provides some benefits, guidance and defence and in return,, the cult maintains the AI and obey its sacred laws. Each AI has a sacred secret sepulchre in their temple for the high programmer to meet them
91 Watchers - cult who welcome alien life and mutations as part of evolution and destiny. They help alien organisms and mutagens spread. They seem harmless priests spying on everyone. Some candidates spy on and collect samples for secret eugenics programs. Dangerous and increasingly deranged in favour of joining the alien infestations
92 Mutant Cult - tribal cultists revere technology and falsely attribute mutations to all kinds of radioactives, chems and biological agents. Really they have been infected with alien spores that mutate and hybridizes victims. The most deranged cannibal mutants are kept in trenches and used as a defence or herded into enemies as a weapon
93 Chaos Cult - mutants who have become hideous and can no longer pass as humans. Hateful of humans seeking to torture and eat them. Worship demons from the void they claim whisper to them through their mutations. Mutant berserkers seem to gather to attack survivor settlements inside the infrastructure. Hey especially seek to find the engines for the power of a star and to destroy the universe in the name of entropy
94 Dominators - a psionic mutant cult that seeks to control communities and spread the seed of aliens and mutants. They dwell among people twisting them to corruption while their more hideous members are formed in armies they use to spread terror in the unmutated
95 The Fallen - mutants who have become near mindless beasts and pools of protoplasm, form gangs and roam together looking for victims to eat and torment. Most can barely speak and repeat demented phrases from their old lives. Some date to the fall of the ship and were original crew now imortal shambling horrors who hate humans but still consume them
96 The Others - an alien spawned ecology that has overgrown and infested parts of the ship with alien biome. Ambulant fighting fungus (often highly energy resistant and use biological weapons) attack human attempts to remove the infestation. Changed from a dangerous organism to a self-aware intelligent faction when it began communicating and using its walking fungus drones to trade and communicate. It has negotiated trade and borders with other factions possibly stalling or spreading influence. Strange creatures from here roam the rest of the ship especially macrobes named for resemblances to microscopic animals and plants
97 The Crystal - some alien crystal somehow has infested parts of the ship feeding of energy and more recently infesting living animals and using them for mobility and manual dexterity. Possibly infesting humans has made them a sentient species. The crystal is alien and mostly hostile and tries infiltration if it can but it is a poor actor. Use silicon-based guardians and thralls to defend areas and gather silica and other minerals they seek. Psionic mutants and mentalist sorcerers claim the crystals have unusual powers and like to inhale crystal dust for extra power 
98 Star Swarm - Vespulons are man-sized parasitic alien space wasps that found the ship and crept aboard, hope to use the ship passengers as food to spawn their next great host to swarm the stars. Possibly devouring humans made them sentient as they gain memories of victims from freshest brains
99 Goblinoids - three related species of alien or castes of pointy-eared space goblinoids, (goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears). The goblins seem to be food makers and crafters the hobgoblins war and labour, the bugbears some kind of stealth elite combatant and extra heavy labourer. Possibly from Tau Ceti V. Arived on their disc shaped scout craft and trapped
100 Alien Explorers - sentient alien humanoids in a strange spacesuit send explorer scouts who often used holofields and stealth tech to evade humans. Some may observe and wish to study some humans more or even try an experiment on them and have advanced aobot and drones. There may be several such groups operating on the secret on the ship and monthly get a supply scout ship


7 comments:

  1. I watched all of Starlost a few years back, on someone's Roku channel. The good episodes were really good, especially early on. The paranoid lonely feeling when they're between the domes trying to understand was great.

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    1. has lots of good concepts
      feels like stories didnt survive production
      and drove off Ben Bova and Harlon Elison from involvement - good set ups then poor pacing and often threw science out for story sake at last minute

      reboot would fine

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    2. Just watched a few episodes lastnight after reading this post and there is definitely fertile ground to base a series on but man oh man the old was was weak even for it's era.

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    3. canadian tv always looks odd
      very comparable to BBC

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  2. I really like this one. I like the whole lost generation ship trope.

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    Replies
    1. thankyou very much

      there are more in older posts that slot into this

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    2. Thanks. I'll dig them up.

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