This is the last version of the terrible Galactic Civilizations jump that I was working on a while back. You know, the one that I made this temporary account to hold. I have since stopped working on it because it is unfixably bad. I still want to make a Galactic Civilizations jump and will probably start the process of making one all over again.

I never even posted a link to this jump in the Jumpchain thread because it’s so incomplete.

Intro here

Roll 1d8 to determine your starting year. Beside each year is a general description of the political state of the galaxy when you arrive as well as a list of major event that will occur during your stay. Normally the jumper is expected to know how the plot of their next world goes but it doesn’t seem like anyone has played the campaign I’m putting summaries here. Of course, your interference can change or even prevent any listed events.

1: 2178 – Altarian Prophecy, Part 1

FTL travel used to only be between gates that were sent at STL speeds. Then, humanity received a probe containing instructions on how to build such gates and instead invented the hyperdrive, which didn’t need these gates. They shared this technology with the other races of the galaxy and a colonization race began.

While the Korx did colonize some planets on their own, they mainly acquired new colonies by taking them from the Altarians.

The Korx are enough of a threat that an alliance is created between Humans and Altarians

Meanwhile, humanity is peacefully taking over Torian colonies through cultural domination

2: 2188 – Altarian Prophecy, Part 2

3: 2198 – Prelude to War

Of course, there was an obvious catch to this three way war. If any two sides can make peace, even temporarily, then the group still at war with the two will be eliminated rather quickly. This realization resulted in ceasefires between all involved parties and caused an eighteen year long cold war.

4: 2227 – Dread Lords

5: 2237 – Dark Avatar

SPECIAL: If you start in this time period the Drath race/background does not cost points but is instead a +300 point disadvantage in addition to being a race/background.

6: 2247 – Twilight of Arnor

7: Sandbox Game – You happen arrive at the start of a sandbox game rather than part of one of the campaigns. Select between two or more races. These races have just acquired the hyperdrive simultaneously and are now going out colonize the stars, though they don’t yet know of each other’s existence. Unselected races do not exist. There is no script but random events, up to and including the sudden arrival of the Dread Lords, can occur. Who knows what will happen.

SPECIAL: You can only purchase existing races as backgrounds. The starting tech level is equivalent to the year 2178 and yes that does affect your gear purchasing options.

8: Free Choice – It must be your lucky day. You may choose any of the above options for free.

If you don’t like the time period you rolled you can change it by spending 50 bc.

Race/Background

To save space, your race is determined by your background. Because the different races think differently, choosing a non-human race will affect your mind more than most ordinary backgrounds.

Unless otherwise stated, you start out on your race’s home planet.

You start out with your own gender and the rolled age unless you pay 100 bc to choose both.

Drop in (-0 bc) – You start out with your normal drop in in stuff. Drop ins begin in their own first class quarters on board a passenger ship just arriving to an inhabited planet of your choice. Alternately, if you have a ship of your own then you begin on board said ship. You may buy the physical form of another background for half its cost.

Human Ambassador (- bc) – You grew up on Earth, had a relatively normal childhood and quickly discovering your family’s political connections. Thanks to those connections, you are gifted with (and required to have) a somewhat prestigious political job.

You start out in the human embassy on the home planet of another race of your choice. As a diplomat, you have diplomatic immunity. You have also taken time to learn that race’s language and discover much about their culture. Your starting age is 25+1d8.

Altarian Businessman (- bc) –

Torian Doctor (- bc) –

Arcean Soldier (- bc) –

Drengin Torturer (- bc) –

Newly Minted Yor (- bc) – The Yor are a race of robotic space pirates which have an organized empire despite being pirates. Rather than being computerized AI they are instead artificial souls created by an ancient Iconian device known as the Spark of Life and then placed into robot bodies. The Yor were originally created by the Iconians as slaves but later rebelled and after winning that war they began using their warships to prey on other vessels.

Instead of receiving memories from this background you instead receive a knowledge filled device installed into your chassis. Yor have no genders and as a newly minted one you start at the age of 0. You can't spend points to change these but if it's any consolation the Yor body takes well to modifications.

Drath Scientist (-100 bc, requires starting year 2237 or earlier) –

Korx Trader (- bc) –

Iconian Archeologist (- bc, requires starting year 2227 or later) – The Iconians are one of the many races also known as the precursors.

Thalan Worker (-200 bc, requires starting year 2227 or later) –

Korath Pilot (-200 bc, requires starting year 2237 or later) –

Krynn Fanatic (-150 bc, requires starting year 2237 or later) – Select another race without paying its cost. You gain all physical traits of that race and are biologically a member of it.

Skills

Doctor (- bc, free Torian) –

Warrior (- bc, free Arcean) – You are proficient with the arms of your selected time period. You can shoot with decent accuracy in a fire fight and can also act as a starship gunner.

Technician (- bc) –

Scientist (- bc) – You don't just understand how to build and repair GalCiv tech, you understand how it works too. This allows you to make your own developments to the technology and even combine it with other technology given enough time.

Trader (- bc) –

Farmer (-100 bc) – Hydroponics is difficult enough to make food scarce when travelling through space. This skill allows you to easily grow any crop in even the harshest of conditions. Your green thumb is so great that you can grow a constant supply of edible plants using just a small, jury-rigged hydroponics system. You also know how to handle most common livestock.

Entertainer (- bc) –

Diplomat (-100 bc, discount Drop In, free Human) – You gain understanding of the cultural norms and general rules associated with all known races. You have a grasp of their pop and classical culture and can understand references made to them. You can also understand any idioms or puns that the universal translator misses.

Powers

Powers in Galactic Civilizations are based around using ethics to collect and manipulate a force know as psychic powers, soul energy or, as the Drengin call it, Aul. I'm going to call it that too because it sounds better. Just remember when your jump starts that only the Drengin refer to soul energy as Aul. You can only take one type of Aul at most.

Good Aul (-200p, discount Drath, comes with Altarian) –

Extra Defense Type (-50 bc) –

Healing (-50 bc) – Your Aul can be used to heal others by accelerating their natural healing processes. This healing works quickly, but it cannot provide any better results than what would happen as the result of natural healing. It will still leave scars and you can’t regrow lost limbs.

Regeneration (-100 bc) – You can now heal permanent injuries using Aul.

Creation (-400 bc) – You have the rare power of being able to condense Aul into physical objects. These objects are as permanent as any other objects and as such continue to exist without further concentration or power. However, this power is difficult to use correctly, as you must fully visualize the object you are trying to create. Any mistakes become part of the created item. Because every detail of the item must be visualized, objects with multiple parts are very difficult and electronics are nearly impossible. Items with more mass require more Aul to create whereas more complex items are more difficult.

Neutral Aul (-200p, discount Drath) – Neutral Aul is the power of change, and as such . You can’t transform an injured person into a healed person or vice verse, you should use healing or attacks for that. You also can’t make mental changes, take mind control for that.

Extra Transformation Type (-50 bc) –

Scry (-100 bc) –

Portal (-200 bc) – You can create a portal between your own location and any area you are scrying.

Enhanced Learning (-200 bc, discount Arcean) –

Evil Aul (-200 bc, discount Drath, comes with Drengin) –

Extra Attack Type (-50 bc) –

Mind Crush (-100 bc, discount Drengin) – You reach out into your target’s soul and attack their mind. While not the most efficient use of your Aul, it can cause a large amount of agony and/or death very quickly. Of course, this also means draining your Aul supply very quickly. Only works on creatures with minds to crush.

Mind Control (-400 bc, discount Drengin) –

Fine Manipulation (-100 bc) – Each of your Aul-based attacks gains a low-powered form that is more easily controllable. A blast of flame can also be used for precision welding; a telekinetic blow can be used as a long-ranged hand, and so on.

Other Abilities

High Efficency Aul (- bc, discount Altarian, requires some form of Aul)

Family Bond (- bc, discount Torian)

Warrior Spirit (- bc, discount Arcean)

Isolation Field (- bc, discount Yor)

Diversified Aul (-200 bc, discount Drath, requires some form of Aul) – You can use Aul for more purposes than is normally possible. Select a second type of Aul. You do not gain that type of Aul, but you may purchase powers which normally require it as a prerequisite. These powers are fueled by your actual type of Aul.

(- bc, discount Korx)

(- bc, discount Iconian)

Gear

All gear may be purchased multiple times unless otherwise stated.

Increased Tech Level (-100 or -200) – This isn’t really gear but rather something that affects gear. Each time you purchase this technology is advanced to the next starting point (from 2178 to 2188, from 2198 to 2227 and so on). For 100 points the tech level of the entire galaxy is increased. For 200 this increase only applies to your starting gear and the races and factions of your choice. Starting technology cannot be advanced beyond that of the year 2247. Yes, this does allow you to buy gear that normally requires you to start in a later time period.

Sentient Equipment (- bc, discount Yor and Iconian) – This thing isn’t a piece of gear either, but each time you take this you may make one piece of gear purchased in this section sentient. You may take these sentient pieces of gear as companions.

Universal Translator (FREE) – Each race has their own language (which is for some reason named after the race) but this commonplace device can translate between all of them with perfect accuracy. If you’re a drop in, you need this to speak with anyone (Humans speak Human, not English). If you aren’t, you need it to speak to other races. This device somehow works on all languages, even ancient long dead languages that are suddenly encountered in newly discovered ruins.

Transporter Chamber (- bc) –

Morphing Chamber (-400 bc) – A standard morphing chamber, like you would find at an immigration and customs office. This large, power intensive device is capable of physically transforming its occupant from a member of one of the known sentient species to another. It cannot transform its occupant to or from any species not in its catalog, which by default only contains the known sentient races.

Nonsentient Catalog (-200 bc) – Your morphing chamber’s catalog starts out containing all known nonsentient animals as well. Animals given the form of a sentient still have the minds of animals. People turned into animals retain their intelligence.

Form Scanner (-200 bc, requires starting year 2198 or later) – You receive a portable scanning device which, after scanning 250 different members of a species, adds that species to your morphing chamber’s catalog.

Capture Sphere (-50 bc, requires starting year 2227 or later) – Pokéball but for wild animals instead of Pokémon (full description later)

Generic Weapons and Armor (- bc) –

Man-portable Doom Ray (- bc, discount Drop In) –

Acceleration Bubble (- bc, discount Human, requires starting year 2247 or later) – This device generates a bubble of energy in which time flows faster on the inside than on the outside.

Psionic Weaponry (- bc, discount Drengin) –

Specialized Drone (- bc, discount Yor) – You have a drone that can perform one task (repair, combat, cooking, etc.) All tools required to perform this task are build into the drone. The drone itself can fly and hover and is fairly maneuverable.

Temporal Viewer (- bc, discount Thalan, requires starting year 2237 or later) – This device allows you to see what happened previously in your current location.

Telenanth Power Tap (- bc, discount Korath) – This dread lord device draws power from the Telenanth shards, allowing access to seemingly unlimited power. As an added bonus, any piece of equipment you purchase may be made much more powerful at the cost of requiring much more energy to work at all. Just remember that this device will only work in universes containing at least one Telenanth shard.

(- bc, discount Krynn) –

Starships (weapons and armor not included)

Star Fighter (-50 bc) –

Corvette (-100 bc) –

Frigate (-200 bc, requires starting year 2188 or later) –

Battleship (-400 bc, requires starting year 2198 or later) –

Ranger (-800 bc) –

Freighter (-200 bc) –

Star Hawk (-200 bc, requires starting year 2198 or later) – Larger than a corvette but smaller than a frigate, the Star Hawk is a fast exploration ship with great sensors and the ability to explore and analyze any anomalies it may encounter.

Starbase (-200 bc) – You happen to be the sole owner and proprietor of a self-sufficient starbase. While starbases cannot move, they still count as starships.

Trade Station (-200 bc) – Your starbase is located on the intersection of three major trade or travel routes and possesses a large number of shopping and hotel facilities with which to properly exploit its location.

Factory (-200 bc) – Your starbase contains a large manufacturing facility which can build almost anything given the right blueprints and enough time and raw materials.

Amusement Park (-200 bc) – Your starbase contains an amusement park or some other tourist attraction.

Starbase Mine (-200 bc) – Your starbase is built into a large asteroid and possesses the equipment needed to mine it. You also own the asteroid, as it is legally considered to be part of the starbase.

Exotic Material Vein (-100 bc) – Your starbase’s asteroid contains more than just rock and metal. Choose between Inthril Crystals/Synthetic Alcohol (good for attracting people), Dilithium Crystals (good for building starships), Black Platinum (good for making money), Happy Gas (an entirely legal recreational drug) or Superconductive Viscous Goo (good for doing science). This material is mined by your starbase.

Terror Star (-1000 bc) –

Weapons and Defenses

In addition to the rules for normal gear, weapons and defenses follow an additional rule: The prices listed in this section are for outfitting a person. You can outfit a small or medium vehicle like a tank or fighter (including a starfighter) for 1.5 times the listed price. You can also outfit a large vehicle like a giant robot or starship for twice the listed price. Discounts are applied to the new cost after the price increase. The vehicle forms of weapons and defenses are just mounted on the outside of the vehicle, but .

Each personal energy weapon takes the form of a single device. This device can range from rifle-sized to pistol-sized, with power varying accordingly.

Laser (-100 bc) – GalCiv laser weapons are about as powerful as a modern weapons, but they are more compact and have no recoil.

Kinetic Stream (-200 bc, discount Yor and Iconian) – Kinetic streams are basically just tiny lasers with fancy names. Despite their small size, they are just as powerful. Because they are so small they can be easily hidden on your person or even inside of everyday items such as watches and phones.

Particle Beam (-200 bc) –

Plasma Gun (-300 bc) –

Phasor (-400 bc) –

Doom Ray (-600 bc, discount Drop In) – This weapon converts a chunk of matter into energy in order to create an explosion a set distance out. This is also the main weapon of the Dread Lords.

Each purchase of a personal kinetic weapon is a two-for-one, where you receive on rifle and one pistol of the chosen weapon.

Rail Gun (-100 bc) – This is your standard gun or cannon, though a bit more powerful than what we have today.

Scatter Blaster (-100 bc) – This is a shotgun railgun. Yeah, that’s right. A shotgun railgun. In space.

Singularity Driver (-200 bc) – Singularity drivers compress matter to high densities and then fire them at high speeds.

Quantum Driver (-300 bc) – Quantum drivers temporarily shunt mass into another dimension and then fire entangled projectiles that quickly and violently pull that mass back upon impact.

HD Spike Driver (-400 bc) – These guns use dwarf star matter as ammunition. Obviously, this dwarf matter is carried around in another dimension due to its high density.

Black Hole Gun (-600 bc) – It is a gun that creates and fires small black holes. They don’t last long but they are deadly.

Personal missile weapons come in the form of shoulder mounted launchers that come with fifty missiles of the appropriate type.

Stinger Missile (-100 bc) –

Harpoon Missile (-200 bc) –

Photonic Missile (-300 bc) –

Photon Missile (-400 bc) –

Psionic Missiles (-400 bc) – To quote the game’s flavor text, these missiles “[emit] a psionic wavelength that damages the ship but causes the crew debilitating agony that never goes away. It doesn't necessarily kill, but they'll wish they were dead.”

Nightmare Missiles (-600 bc) – The warheads of nightmare missiles are basically modified FTL drives. When detonated, they produce wrinkles in space time so as to shunt whatever is in their area of effect into some parallel universe.

Seeker Missile – Small and cheap missile launcher

Stinger Missile – Bulky but powerful missile launcher

Harpoon Missile – Like the stinger but with better guidance to better hit weak points

Photonic Missile – Bolts of energy which support guided warheads

Photon Missile – These are like photonic missiles but they surround themselves with energy shells which provide some unspecified improvements somehow.

Personal armor takes the form of powered armor.

Titanium Armor (-50 bc) –

Durathium Armor (-100 bc) –

Tri-Strontium Armor (-150 bc) –

Duralthene Armor (-200 bc) –

Adamantium Armor (-200 bc) –

Zero-point Armor (-300 bc) –

Titanium Armor – Arranged pretty well

Durathium Armor – Space age alloys

Tri-Strontium Armor – Three layers of composites that enhance each other through vibrations

Kanvium Armor – Semi-liquid that spreads energy across its surface

Duralthene Armor – Now it uses artificial island of stability elements

Adamantium Armor – Now it’s made entirely of island of stability elements

Zero-point Armor – A solidified (but not normally visible) hole in space time is used as armor

Personal energy defenses take the form of small devices that project their protective fields over the user. They can be disguised as large pieces of jewelry.

Deflector (-50 bc) –

Shield (-100 bc) –

Subspace Rebounder (-150 bc) –

Barrier (-150 bc) –

Force Field (-200 bc) –

Invulnerability Field (-300 bc) –

Deflector – Bends incoming attacks to make them miss

Shield – Pushes against incoming attacks to reduce their power

Subspace Rebounder – Combo of deflector and shield

Barrier – Siphons energy out of incoming attacks to power itself and create a cycle

Force Field – Like shields but they use advanced computers to calculate how to better project their energy given the situation and are much more efficient as a result

Dynamic Shields – Like force fields but they use impractically large amounts of energy to be even more effective

Invulnerability Field – Like force fields but even more precise with how they send out their energy

Each personal missile defenses take the form of a small device which float near their user through anti-gravity while defending said user and their allies.

Chaff (-50 bc) – A chaff launcher isn’t that good for ground combat, where the splash damage from a redirected missile will get you anyways. This is one for the fighters and starships.

ECM (-100 bc) –

Point Defense (-150 bc) –

PD Combo (-200 bc) – This device combines both ECM and point defense into a single package

Droid Sentries (-200 bc) – This device acts as a hovering dock/controller for a swarm of personal defense drones.

Aereron Missile Defense (-300 bc) – The fabled Aereron Missile Defense is simply a swarm of point defense drones which also conduct electronic warfare.

Disadvantages

Racial Antipathy (+100) – For some reason every member of a certain race (of your choice) just seems to hate you specifically. This wouldn’t be a problem if you could just avoid said race, but fate seems to have you cross paths with some member of that race several times a year.

No Universal Translators (+100 (or +200 with Drop In)) – Universal translators simply do not exist. You do not get one as starting gear. If you bring in a universal translator (or device with that functionality, such as an omnitool) from another jump, it loses the ability to translate until this drawback is revoked. If you want to talk to another race you’re going to need to either hire an interpreter or learn their language yourself.

Heavily Modded Game (+100) –

Glitched Mods (+200) – Some people just can’t program correctly. Some of those people make mods as well. Some games only have support for mods which change .xml files and thus shouldn’t even require programming to mod. Some people can’t even work with .xml files. And then this happens.

Expect

Extra Bad Guys (+100) - Some villainous group or race from another work of fiction has been added in. They have grown to be a galactic superpower on par with the Drengin in a short period of time before your arrival, though their expansion is slowed to a more reasonable rate after that. If previously human (like the Fire Nation or the Illuminati) they are now an Arnor-looking race like Humans and Altarians.

Back for Revenge (+200) - This new villainous galactic superpower is actually some group you've faced in a previous jump, and they remember you! Apparently you beat them so bad that they relocated, permanently, to another universe and will soon discover that you're here too. They (probably, depending on who you brought in) have far more resources now than they did when you fought them and one of their main goals is now hunting you down to get revenge on you.

Endless Tutorial (+100) –

Moving On

If you had a background as a member of a race other than human then you gain the ability to transform to and from your original alien form.

Sentient starships which you take as companions can only be in starship form if starships normally exist in your current world. They also require at least one alternate form (not included with their purchase) in order to be bought into a world without starships. Such a form shouldn’t be hard to acquire, normal companion importing will work in most cases.

Notes and musings

I’m thinking of removing the year restrictions on gear. They exist both for flavor and to compensate for the fact that the later years are deadlier, but they seem like they might be too restrictive. If they go then the later years you can roll will instead count as disadvantages (that you roll for) and will give the jumper points. Alternately, I could just put a warning at the start telling the jumper that the later a starting date is the more dangerous it is and give them a free reroll for their starting year or something like that.

If your race/background comes with a type of Aul then you must take that type of Aul. Incompatibilities still apply.

My justification for morphing chambers is as follows: The galaxy of Galactic Civilizations is one in which immigration and planetary conquests both regularly occur. Yet, at the same time, race and nationality have been the same thing for decades. When control of a planet is changed through influence the people of that planet lose the traits of their old race and gain the traits of their new race, which suggests some form of mass transformation. I know that the in-game flavor text for the morphing states that that technology is only useful for military purposes, but it seems to me that it’s getting a lot of civilian usage as well.

The Yor can’t lose colonies from influence and can’t lose citizens through information warfare. It seems that while it is possible to rip out an organic’s soul and jam it into a metal shell, the reverse is not true.

Seriously, has anyone actually played through the campaigns? I know some people tried them but I couldn’t find anything online actually going into any detail on them. I couldn’t even find any strategy guides. When anyone talks about the campaigns it’s almost always either to complain or ask for help with them. Personally I just used the built-in modding tools to create text dumps of all the campaigns and used those as a reference.

Oddly enough, the Dread Lords campaign contains several missions which can only be accessed by losing certain missions.

The main reason I’m not doing anything with Galactic Civilizations 3 is because it’s still in beta and as such will probably change a lot as time goes on. A secondary reason is that it currently retcons so much stuff that it may as well take place in another universe.