Marco Polo...In Space, the future

This is the gist of an idea for a possible Space/Sci-Fi RPG campaign.

"Interstellar Marco Polo"

In other words - its sometime in the near future. Earth/Terra has colonies on planets as far as the Jupiter or Saturn Orbit. Humanity just became aware that there are two or three other intelligent species out there because a reply has been sent to the message that was on the Voyager Probes. (Those plaques and records)

One of these alien races has offered to take a few humans on a "Meet & Greet" journey to several other star systems, maybe more than a dozen. Because of various drive and weight restrictions this journey might take close to a couple of decades and they can only offer passage to a handful of humans - less than 10 but more than 3.

So, its decided that a family should go - several families volunteer.


The player characters would be members of this family.

The goal or 'mission' for the players is to find out as much as they can and try represent humanity and make a good impression with whoever they meet - and oh yeah if they happen to make trade deals on behalf of Earth or aliances to protect Earth from future harm - then thats a goal too.


- Ed C.

doubt I'll have time for anything like this.

Can I suggest that if you grant the family that sort of power, then they should be of some import back on earth. Perhaps royalty or something similar. Also, I can see the "adult" PC's being of much higher power than the child PC's... not always a problem, but could leave them out of some of the decisions.

Sounds interesting though!