An idea

[thebitterguy]

Okay, Terra Primate isn't quite as useless as I first thought. Although inferior to AFMBE (I'm not gonna cry. I'm not gonna cry), it at least gave me an idea.

Say you're a high powered alien. Say you need to run this strange bureaucracy to attain a super powerful mineral. Now, you could just come to Earth, snag every ethnic type on the planet and pop them onto random planets and put them to work.

Which would be Stargate.

Or... Why bother with people? I mean, really, aside from the whole 'brain' thingy, we're pretty lame. All soft & squishy.

But what if you could actually create a race? A race of powerful creatures who would view you as God, and who'd be mostly right? A race that only required a slight manipulation to existing material, a push in the right direction?

A race... Of Intelligent Monkey Jafaa.

That would be so much cooler than the base Stargate setting. Because Apes make things cooler (ask etherlad!). Hell, Adventure d20 even includes a Sentient Ape race.

Yeahh. I think I'll let that circulate for a while.

Comments

[thebitterguy]

PSiberia/The Psiberians: The former Soviet Union had many sins. One of them was the (Russian for “prison of the mind”, unless something else sounds cooler in Russian).

Human evolution and the USSR’s environmental mishaps, as well as their own programs for creating super humans, combined to create an ever increasing crop of paranormal individuals. The overlords of the KGB found that some of their own superbeings were less than 100% loyal to the ideals of the revolution and worldwide communism, much less members of the proletariat who could suddenly melt walls with their minds or vanish into thin air.

A special gulag, more secretive than most, was formed in Siberia to contain dissidents who possessed low to medium grade superpowers (more powerful heroes were either loyal enough to be trusted, defected, or, most commonly, executed for disloyalty). The camp’s commandant was a powerful psychic whose position was as much for the protection of his own superiors as a reward.

The camp was mainly used to hold dissidents, thugs, and other loose cannons. After several decades, a second generation of paranormals was raised within the gulag. XXThe commandantXX has used a combination of his own powers and standard punishments to make his prisoners and their children view him as something akin to a god. The inhabitants of the gulag look upon him with a combination of awe and fear for the paradise he has provided them.

In the waning days of the Soviet Union the gulag began to be a forgotten thing, thanks in no small part to the ministrations of its commandant. The community (it has evolved since it’s founding) Self sufficient, power and food generated by hyper-technology developed by XXThe ThinkerXX, the camp’s resident super-genius.

The fields are tilled by hand, planting genetically engineered crops, and power is provided by a fusion plant far ahead of even a standard superhero universe’s SOTA.

Today: XXThe CommandantXX’s plans are fairly simple. He seeks to protect his children, guiding them in a peaceful socialist lifestyle, with just a little taste of Stalinism thrown in for good measure.

Citizens of Psiberia are all very happy with their lot in life, partially because of supertech providing a high quality lifestyle, partially because of mental conditioning on the part of their commandant.

The Psiberians very rarely interact with the outside world. When it is decided they must contact the outside world, they will send out a People’s Battalion to intervene. There are three groups, each of which is used for a different purpose

Using Psiberia:

The Psiberians will primarily interact with heroes as a third party, interfering on either side of a conflict. If The Commandant and The Thinker feel that the Heroes actions are dangerous, they may submit a People’s Battalion to

A cosmic hero may come to ground near Psiberia. They would be welcomed by XXThe CommandantXX and his followers. The camp may initially seem utopian (appealing to extraterrestrial heroes from Super-Edens, but the lack of choice offered to the citizens, and the strict discipline under which they live, may shock the newcomer, or appeal to them.
A superman level hero with a penchant for order and discipline joining forces with The Commandant may cause heroes to blanche.