Idea!
So I had an idea for a sci-fi setting of sorts. Remember those movies and games like Event Horizon where we figure out FTL but the down side is that it sends you through some sort of hell dimension first where you're likely to go insane and mutilate yourself? Well! Take that idea, and fast forward a few centuries. After a few horrible horrible errors, people figure out that the jump drive never sends you to the same crazy alternative reality twice. So on the average you're not likely to find yourself going insane on the other side. And they even figured out some ways to counter that sort of thing in a number of cases (cryo-stasis and such things for the crew except for one guy to make sure nothing goes wrong maybe, and that guy is usually heavily medicate as is). So even when a ship goes to crazy town in its jump, it usually comes out ok.
But sometimes it doesn't.
So FTL usage is very much restricted to either emergencies or getting somewhere very far away (distant star systems), and even then its to risky to provide for real commerce. So most planets are isolated colony worlds with small populations and very at risk for unforeseen things taking them out. So colonial life is risky but can be rewarding, especially since Earth is becoming more and more of shit hole due to poor management and ideological government rather than results based government.
So where's the story? Well I think it might lie in a group of people who have decided screw the FTL rules, we're going to become traders. And the story would follow their attempts at making a life in a harsh and crazy universe with the occasional bit of travel through the cosmic iterations of hell.
This sound neat to any one?
But sometimes it doesn't.
So FTL usage is very much restricted to either emergencies or getting somewhere very far away (distant star systems), and even then its to risky to provide for real commerce. So most planets are isolated colony worlds with small populations and very at risk for unforeseen things taking them out. So colonial life is risky but can be rewarding, especially since Earth is becoming more and more of shit hole due to poor management and ideological government rather than results based government.
So where's the story? Well I think it might lie in a group of people who have decided screw the FTL rules, we're going to become traders. And the story would follow their attempts at making a life in a harsh and crazy universe with the occasional bit of travel through the cosmic iterations of hell.
This sound neat to any one?