The Junkyard: Alpha Doom

Had I enough free time and a new party of brave adventurers, one of the things I'd like the most would be trying out Humanspace Empires. With the sole exception of a couple of Star Wars (d6) games I GM'd quite a few years ago, I've never played a science fiction roleplaying game. And that is a shame, since I'm sure I'd love to do that!

Still, being no expert at all of Prof. Mar Barker's works, I would not play it in the standard setting. Instead, I would have things starting on a sandy planet (like the world of Dune, you know), have some city adventures and then fly away through the galaxy! I really love the "aesthetics" of Humanspace Empires, as I've said before, and I think the awesome images The Drune has collected along with his posts would have a great influence on my star-box.

Here's a couple of ideas and generic design notes:

• The Big City (Metropolis) has its Imperial Academy of Super Science. There the most brilliant offspring of the richest families of the Galactic Empire gather together to unveil the deepest secrets of the universe. (And organize weird expeditions to the mysterious and apparently abandoned Cyclopean City of Algol, or to find the legendary Halls of Celaeno, as well – kinda like At The Mountains of Madness, only in space.)
• Each adventure should be episodic. Long adventures would be broken into several chapters of a mini-campaign. Kinda like a tv series, you know.
• Only humans. There may be some other super-intelligent species in the vast universe, but the Galactic Empire is mostly alone on its journey.
• Droids, though no Androids. Psychopathic AIs, at least.
• The Sisterhood (Secret Society). Beautiful, misanthropic, half-naked girls endowed with psychic powers, conspiring to oust men from the study of science (which is of course a very male-dominated environment) and secretly take control over the Galactic Empire. (And if you wonder why must these girls be beautiful and half-naked, I say of course they use both their powers and heavy cosmetic surgery to seduce men before crushing them.)
• And even more Dune. And I mean, David Lynch's Dune.

I think I'll probably return on this topic again, in the future.