Setting Background

For those who are interested (or are playing an alien race), here is some background on the setting of One Night On The Border. The setting is pretty loose. The idea is to capture some of the feel of 50s & 60s space opera, especially the more serious stuff. The tone owes debts of gratitude to E.E. "Doc" Smith, Poul Anderson, David Weber, Eric Flint and Babylon 5. Hopefully, I've left room for improvisation and spontaneous expansion of the setting.

In the centuries since humanity's expansion out into the stars, they have settled on hundreds of worlds, scattered through this arm of the galaxy. Given the long durations of interstellar voyages, the lack of quick communication and the riches of basic, necessary materials through space, these civilizations have largely been content to form governments no larger than a single system, and to trade with each other rather than fight wars, either of ideology or conquest.

The Terran Commonwealth is the term given to the polity of the majority of human space (except for those who have become willing exiles from their species). In truth, it is not a true political entity, instead being a loose confederation of human worlds united by three loose (and often nearly independent) bodies:

• The Trade Board, who adjudicate the Interstellar Agreements on Trade, and enforce violations of the agreement (ratified in a dozen different versions) through tariffs and embargoes.
  
• The Galactic Communications Service, a corporation whose links to many stellar governments and corporations give them the ability to get messages (nearly) anywhere at (usually) unequalled speed and reliability.
  
• The Commonwealth Defence Forces, a widely-spread and unevenly-financed military body charged with protecting the Commonwealth from exterior invasion (rare), piracy and raiding (far less rare).

A minor (if moderately common) species, found across the majority of Commonwealth space (and originating within it), Bokee are an energetic species, agile and furred, with a long, flexible spine. To humans, they are highly reminiscent of giant ferrets or lemurs. Bokee are capable of functioning as either bipeds or quadrupeds. They typically have a high metabolism, and are prone to bursts of frenetic energy followed by periods of torpor.

Bokee brain structure gives them an incredible, intuitive sense of the workings and potential of technology. At the same time, they find the structures of logical thought and scientific method extremely hard to follow. The result is that they are consummate engineers and inventors, but horrible scientists. Given their bursts of energy, Bokee are prone to tinkering, and many of their improvements work better than outsiders expect. Indeed, many Bokee inventions shouldn't work at all according to conventional science. Unfortunately, when pressed, the Bokee can't explain to those without their quirky relationship with technology how their devices function, as they lack any kind of scientific vocabulary to explain them.

When the Bokee first made contact with humanity, they had arrived at a level of technology roughly equivalent to Earth's Industrial Revolution (though some of their applications of that technology were astounding to the first-contact team). Exposed to to Terran high-energy technologies, the Bokee grasped their potential immediately. Within 25 years (the Bokee year is slightly more than 1.5 years), their base level of technology had caught up with the Commonwealth's, and had in some areas surpassed it.

Bokee are typically found in small, extended family groups called clutches. These clutches live and work together. Clutches found off the Bokee homeworld tend to be nomadic, driven by curiosity and wanderlust.

The Urthani are the most advanced race native to this sector of space. Superficially hominid, they are physically much hardier than humans. Their endocrine system is also much more sophisticated and advanced than humanity's, giving them a naturally aggressive point of view. To the Urthani, competition is a significant enhancer of both physical and mental ability.

This aggressive nature is enhanced by Urthani culture. The Urthani civilization glorifies conquest, focusing their aggressions into an elaborate internal rank system, and a glorification of the domination of other worlds and species. The Urthani are the first race humanity has met which has formed a "star empire". The logistics of keeping an empire united over interstellar distances are Byzantine, but so far the Urrath (Emperor) has managed without having any significant breakaways (that humankind have learned of).