We’re on the verge of a truly exciting moment in the history of OtherSpace. The first of many, I expect.
The reboot crew aboard Ulm Station is about to invent FTL technology!
Back in 1998, when our story kicked off, faster-than-light starships were commonplace. I’d written into the original story that Eduard Ocartus Sr. encountered the Hivers during an interstellar expedition and returned to the Consortium with borrowed FTL technology.
I took some flak when I announced that the reboot wouldn’t immediately feature FTL. Undeniably, the lack of space travel in the reboot universe is a turnoff for some. But I’m so thrilled that a handful of players committed to the new story and trusted me to do right by them during the early phases of this adventure. Thanks to them, we’re about to break open new narrative pathways.
I put a lot of importance these days on giving players in the reboot the chance to do more than survive from crisis to crisis, to defeat the monster of the month, or to fend off the latest catastrophe. I want this to be your story. I want your fingerprints all over it. Ultimately, I want people to forget that my character, Bob Busby, existed in favor of history remembering Maxwell and Tilsworth – inventors of the new FTL tech – and others on the Ulm Station team.
Bringing this tech online won’t result in a flood of ships among the stars, though. We’ve still got to run tests – from simulations to flights (unmanned and manned alike). But after that, it’ll be time to test our luck beyond Sol System. And nothing – NOTHING – says that the worlds we encounter must mirror the original OS storyline. In fact, I’d rather they didn’t. I want participants to feel comfortable proposing ideas for interesting worlds, races, and cultures that they think would make the reboot universe a vital place to explore.
Let’s not be content to settle for yesterday. All the glory’s in chasing tomorrow’s stars.