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KSP 1 & 2 Lore - Make Up Your Own!


intelliCom

KSP Lore Poll  

67 members have voted

  1. 1. Should KSP 2 have a proper, clear story? If so, please suggest ideas.

    • Yes
      18
    • No
      49
  2. 2. Should the original 4 (Jeb, Bill, Bob, Valentina) have a backstory? If so, please suggest ideas.

    • Yes
      39
    • No
      28


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In this thread, we make up our own lore for Kerbal Space Program.

When posting, add a title to your post in bold to summarise your lore. I'd recommend making your lore explanations at least somewhat comedic. The typical way of doing it is something profound or revolutionary sprouting from something very trivial, but don't be restricted to this kind of explanation; it'd make everything sound too similar to a point of being formulaic. 

Here's some prompts to help. Feel free to use any of these, or make up your own:

  • The Creation of the First Rockets
  • The Reason for Interstellar Travel
  • The Squad Monoliths
  • The Invention of the Telescope
  • The Kerbal Snack Industry

If you're not so keen on writing KSP lore, feel free to also suggest your own prompts and either I or someone else will come up with suitable KSP lore for it.

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i would like more of a backround to ksp. like knowing the past. i would also like that each event has more of a historical meaning. maybe the kirbal to first walk on the moon becomes famous. like a history building maybe. and also for photos. if you could research better cameras that would be really cool because you could make pictures look more like what they would have looked like in that time period. and limiting the amount of pictures you could take(not screenshots) would add some value and importance to them. all this would make important events be rememberd.  

but no i wouldnt want any scripted story. maybe that kerbals have some randomly generated first words or something(like neil armstrongs"one small step for mankind but a big leap for humanity") but nothing that you would try to achieve more things that happen because you did something important to proggress the game

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Jeb, Bill, Bob, Val's back story should be "they survived long enough to train and send off the next "big four" Kerbalnauts. If you want individual stories for them, it should trail off. Jeb: I remember when.... 

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Voted no to both.

Even if there are 'in house semi-official back stories/lore' that they have in mind when placing Easter Eggs and anomalies etc I like that it is not stated anywhere. 

Take KSP1.   We have crashed UFOs, Vall Henge, Desert Temple etc.  As well as the Monoliths.  These could be connected by one story arc, or several, but just like the weird ancient 'anomalies' on Earth (various pyramid types all over the world, and stone circles to mention just a few) we don't actually know the whole truth behind any of them or if there is a connection.

 

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Should I have not put a poll on this? Because most people are talking about the poll instead of making up their own lore about things.

9 hours ago, shdwlrd said:

Jeb, Bill, Bob, Val's back story should be "they survived long enough to train and send off the next "big four" Kerbalnauts. If you want individual stories for them, it should trail off. Jeb: I remember when.... 

With the exception of Jeb, who was originally creating BBQs using a junkyard. These BBQs had a 'special' design; they were essentially giant blowtorches. He was approached by [INSERT NAME OF YOUR SPACE AGENCY HERE] to an engineer. He instead agreed to sell them his blowtorch-BBQs at a 10% discount on the condition that he gets to be a pilot for them. Jeb used the huge influx of money gained from selling his BBQs rocket engines to create and manage "Jebediah Kerman's Junkyard and Spacecraft Parts Co.", while being a pilot on the side.

As for everyone else, that should trial off.

Edited by intelliCom
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20 minutes ago, intelliCom said:

Should I have not put a poll on this? Because most people are talking about the poll instead of making up their own lore about things.

No I think you’re good. Both questions are interesting, and weirdly Im more interested in the theoretical question “to what degree should the game itself sketch a background lore” than what kind of headcannon I’ll devise (I’ll wait and see what the structure is). Inevitably anything written in part descriptions and planetary information is going to create some flavor hints and broad constraints. That’s enough for me. What I am curious about is as you delve deeper into the game what is the character of the set piece mysteries? Is there life out there? Are we studying unique geologies? Are there sociological ideas hidden in the way colonies are built and maintained?

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I'd like the reason for exploration to be more positive than something missing, and much more vague and in the background like the lore in KSP 1. The relics and monoliths are an example of a system that communicates lore effectively and in-world, and they would be pretty cool if they created a fully cohesive system. so, here's what I think:

Similar to the monolith in KSP 1, there is a sculpted rock made out of a strange material that emits some sort of signal by the site of the KSC. Lore-wise, this rock is a remnant of a planetary collision in another star system which scattered pieces across the universe, as well as a few other anomalies.

The destroyed planet almost certainly had alien life, but its nature is unknown as everything from a stereotypical UFO to several anatomically incompatible alien skeletons can be found scattered around. Whoever these aliens were, they seem to have no rhyme or reason to their influence on the universe, and the search for answers that don't exist is what drives kerbals to go interstellar.

At the end of the game, the signals point to a stripped planetary core floating in interstellar space made out of the same strange material and with huge asteroid fields all around. No answers are given, and the search is concluded. Maybe there is a cryptic Kerbal statue or a monolith made of regular stone with a kerbal on it (like the Squad logo was) but nothing concretely explaining what the story is. 

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The kerbals were a generally territorial species and were constantly in some state of war. They eventually wiped out all of civilization  except for a small military base. This base had all the stuff for missile creation, planes, and radio dishes/receivers.  Survivors made their way to the base and the smartest began organizing. Rivals Rocko Kerman and Dyna Kerman set up their own providers "Rockomax" and "Kerbodyne".  One survivor, Wernher Von Kerman quickly organized a science division for the Base. Things were unorganized, the R&D facility was more refugee camp than lab, but the highest ranking kerbal on the base sought to organize things, this kerbal was Gene Kerman.

Gene organized things, he appointed department heads, all ex-military. Walt was seasoned in CBRN and Veteran Affairs, he was made the head of Veteran affairs. Wernher's right hand man, an ex-soldier named Linus,  was made the head of science. An ex-demolition guy, named gus, was made head of operations. Finally, an extremely disturbed soldier and ex-accountant, named Mortimer, was placed as the head of finances. Now with organization, they would begin to shoot for the stars.
Wernher set up a system of research distribution so everyone would get the info and data even if they didn't want it. This lead to all distributed research leading to advancement in every field. Rockets were launched,  things were advanced, until the kerbals had nowhere to go, every planet was fully researched and had bases.

Then, Wernher had an idea, he drew some schematics, looked through the archives, and designed habitats. The kerbals slowly colonized Minmus, then the Mun, then Ike, etc. Point is, they expanded, and expanded fast. they soon had nowhere to colonize. This is when another idea smacked Wernher in the head. He took all knowledge, met up with all the company heads, and made a plan. A plan that would make the kerbal race interstellar. They created "The Ark" in High Kerbol Orbit. It launched to the closest system. DebDeb. 

 

Edited by Rutabaga22
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1 hour ago, intelliCom said:

With the exception of Jeb, who was originally creating BBQs using a junkyard. These BBQs had a 'special' design; they were essentially giant blowtorches. He was approached by [INSERT NAME OF YOUR SPACE AGENCY HERE] to an engineer. He instead agreed to sell them his blowtorch-BBQs at a 10% discount on the condition that he gets to be a pilot for them. Jeb used the huge influx of money gained from selling his BBQs rocket engines to create and manage "Jebediah Kerman's Junkyard and Spacecraft Parts Co.", while being a pilot on the side.

Never realized that Jeb had something of a back story already. Hmm... that explains a lot. :)

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1 hour ago, shdwlrd said:

Never realized that Jeb had something of a back story already. Hmm... that explains a lot. :)

Again, not canon, we're all just making stuff up here.

1 hour ago, Rutabaga22 said:

The kerbals were a generally territorial species and were constantly in some state of war. They eventually wiped out all of civilization  except for a small military base. This base had all the stuff for missile creation, planes, and radio dishes/receivers.  Survivors made their way to the base and the smartest began organizing. Rivals Rocko Kerman and Dyna Kerman set up their own providers "Rockomax" and "Kerbodyne".  One survivor, Wernher Von Kerman quickly organized a science division for the Base. Things were unorganized, the R&D facility was more refugee camp than lab, but the highest ranking kerbal on the base sought to organize things, this kerbal was Gene Kerman.

Gene organized things, he appointed department heads, all ex-military. Walt was seasoned in CBRN and Veteran Affairs, he was made the head of Veteran affairs. Wernher's right hand man, an ex-soldier named Linus,  was made the head of science. An ex-demolition guy, named gus, was made head of operations. Finally, an extremely disturbed soldier and ex-accountant, named Mortimer, was placed as the head of finances. Now with organization, they would begin to shoot for the stars.
Wernher set up a system of research distribution so everyone would get the info and data even if they didn't want it. This lead to all distributed research leading to advancement in every field. Rockets were launched,  things were advanced, until the kerbals had nowhere to go, every planet was fully researched and had bases.

Then, Wernher had an idea, he drew some schematics, looked through the archives, and designed habitats. The kerbals slowly colonized Minmus, then the Mun, then Ike, etc. Point is, they expanded, and expanded fast. they soon had nowhere to colonize. This is when another idea smacked Wernher in the head. He took all knowledge, met up with all the company heads, and made a plan. A plan that would make the kerbal race interstellar. They created "The Ark" in High Kerbol Orbit. It launched to the closest system. DebDeb. 

Problem with this lore is that it's a little too human and not enough kerbal. Kerbals do not seem war-like or territorial whatsoever like humans obviously are. There's no implication of any geopolitics or military existing whatsoever. Not to mention that an apocalypse wiping out most of civilisation is quite dark. Cool concept for a science fiction work, but not for kerbals. I suppose it explains the lack of buildings, but there aren't even proper urban ruins around besides the few abandoned launch sites on Kerbin.

Edited by intelliCom
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I voted no to both too.

My own lore is that kerbals live in an unloaded dimension that is tied to kerbin.  They left the planet to this realm an eon ago to view the planetary garden beauty they had made.  But they dodnt account for the yearing of Experience.

Pilots year to experience the thrill of movement and power and going to dangerous and new places.

Scientists year to experience data that comes from the collection of science in different places.

Engineers year to experience the challenge of building craft that can overcome challenges.

Ultimately there is a desire to understand the very nature of the universe The Code by going to new places and understanding how it all fits together.

But that's me.  For others it will be different 

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The more ‘official’ lore that gets added, the less room there is for players to make their own. Is Kerbin a barren post-apocalyptic wasteland, or did the devs just never add towns/cities/roads/etc.? Is Jeb the same Jeb as the junkyard owner? Which (if any) of the anomalies scattered throughout the Kerbol system are related to each other and which are not? Are the ‘big four’ fresh out of school or seasoned veterans with decades of experience in their respective fields? Why is everyone called Kerman- is it a societal caste system, some political stunt to foster feelings of unity or something else entirely?

I recently did a career report where I decided to make Jeb Val’s younger brother just because I thought it would be an interesting angle that (to my knowledge at least) nobody else has used yet- all the ‘unofficial canon’ about Jeb being accident-prone was then explained by him trying to one-up his equally competitive big sister. Meanwhile we have people writing entire novels based on KSP but with wildly different ideas of how Kerbin and Kerbals work- for example, in KSK’s First Flight much of the plot is driven by Kerbals’ symbiotic relationship with a species of tree.

Leave the game light on lore so we can make our own.

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2 hours ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

The more ‘official’ lore that gets added, the less room there is for players to make their own. Is Kerbin a barren post-apocalyptic wasteland, or did the devs just never add towns/cities/roads/etc.? Is Jeb the same Jeb as the junkyard owner? Which (if any) of the anomalies scattered throughout the Kerbol system are related to each other and which are not? Are the ‘big four’ fresh out of school or seasoned veterans with decades of experience in their respective fields? Why is everyone called Kerman- is it a societal caste system, some political stunt to foster feelings of unity or something else entirely?

I recently did a career report where I decided to make Jeb Val’s younger brother just because I thought it would be an interesting angle that (to my knowledge at least) nobody else has used yet- all the ‘unofficial canon’ about Jeb being accident-prone was then explained by him trying to one-up his equally competitive big sister. Meanwhile we have people writing entire novels based on KSP but with wildly different ideas of how Kerbin and Kerbals work- for example, in KSK’s First Flight much of the plot is driven by Kerbals’ symbiotic relationship with a species of tree.

Leave the game light on lore so we can make our own.

Absolutely agree. Especially to that last point, since that's the entire point of this thread.

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1 hour ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

Why is everyone called Kerman

I should have added that I think Kerman is actually everyones given name.  Their surnames are Bill, Bob, Val etc.  This makes much more sense.  It works for some IRL cultures, and with the backwards Spanish for Kerblish.

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the most extended amount of "lore" i would want to see, is the way "dank pods" does microphone tests... good luck understanding what happened, and good luck piecing it together.. kerbals are timeless and shouldn't need a concrete time line or a believable enough line of events, the lore or what "lore" can be at most be is the most random stuff that at BEST can give you the "shakes head up and down, *yeah that makes sense*" type of vibe.

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Without stepping on anyone's toes I will just say that I hope KSP2 will have set and setting, a good story, vast and interesting lore and a lot of mysteries to uncover.

From a creative content point of view KSP1 is an empty and lonely game which only hints at greatness but never fulfills its destiny. The anomalies suck, the boring lifeless emptiness sucks and the monoliths are the worst.

Anyone who likes to read knows the value of the worlds on the pages. You don't buy an empty book, look at the blank pages and pretend you're inventing Shakespeare.

We are free to invent any small LEGO inspired stories we want, but they can only expand the Kerbal universe, not build it.

 

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43 minutes ago, Vl3d said:

From a creative content point of view KSP1 is an empty and lonely game which only hints at greatness but never fulfills its destiny. The anomalies suck, the boring lifeless emptiness sucks and the monoliths are the worst.

We are free to invent any small LEGO inspired stories we want, but they can only expand the Kerbal universe, not build it.

KSP 1 did just fine without a story, though I will admit that it was a little too empty in some parts. Barely any personality going on with the Kerbals except for the splash screen images and confusing Kerbal 'emotion system'. However, the descriptions for parts and celestial bodies add way more to the game's lore than you realise. Here's two examples to demonstrate what I mean:

  • 'Pol' was originally thought to be a piece of pollen stuck on a telescope until the kerbal using it decided to track the 'pollen grain' and found it to be a moon. Demonstrates that Kerbals make discoveries on accident.
  • The XL3 rover wheel was built in total secrecy. When revealed to Kerbal Motion LLC's chairman, he died of a heart attack. Proves that corporations exist in KSP's lore and that Kerbal Motion LLC has some crazy engineers in it.

I think what KSP 2 really needs is a decent abundance of subtext, (i.e., descriptions of parts and celestial bodies, experiments, unique anomalies) but no explicit story being told like "The kerbals went for interstellar travel because Kerbol was going to explode" or "The kerbals went for interstellar travel because Jeb lost his sandwich". Coming up with your own ideas may not 'build' KSP's world, but fan-made ideas can flourish so much more without the restrictions of a main story. Take Brad Whistance's "Odyssey by Bill" series. It's probably the best window into KSP's world even though it isn't canon, but it not being canon means no one else's ideas get invalidated. It's the perfect solution.

1 hour ago, Vl3d said:

Anyone who likes to read knows the value of the worlds on the pages. You don't buy an empty book, look at the blank pages and pretend you're inventing Shakespeare.

We're talking about KSP here, not Hamlet. It's really not that serious. Whatever story ends up being told will have no influence on my experience or yours whatsoever. I just know that a lack of an explicit story will allow fan works to flourish more. Minecraft being the biggest example of this; the amount of good fan works with their own stories is ridiculous. The only restriction they have is their voxel artstyle and objects/creatures should be shared. That's it.

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1 hour ago, Vl3d said:

Anyone who likes to read knows the value of the worlds on the pages. You don't buy an empty book,

Luckily for us KSP isn't a book.

 

KSP needs character and a hint of culture and quirks here and there, that's sure, but not a fixed story.

Not everything needs a story, there's plenty of games both videogames, boardgames and physical games that don't have a complex backstory or a fixed narrative and they work just fine. They usually also are the most replayable and long lasting ones.

 

8 minutes ago, intelliCom said:

We're talking about KSP here, not Hamlet. It's really not that serious.

The beauty of not having a fixed canon and relying on your own imagination and/or Fanfiction is that it can totally be, it that's the mood you want to go for that specific save, another time around you'll roleplay our the silly and epic quest of recovering the Lost Sandwich.

 

9 minutes ago, intelliCom said:

Minecraft being the biggest example of this; the amount of good fan works with their own stories is ridiculous. The only restriction they have is their voxel artstyle and objects/creatures should be shared. That's it.

In the server I used to manage we had a whole wiki with hundreds of thousands of words or lore, we even had someone inventing a whole imaginary language for our setting.

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Hey everyone!  I wanted to jump in for half a second to say I think this thread is awesome!
For the record, I am NOT going to comment on the responses... I don't want to influence anything. I am very curious to hear what you, the players, think about all this.
Cheers
Jim

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9 minutes ago, Just Jim said:

Hey everyone!  I wanted to jump in for half a second to say I think this thread is awesome!
For the record, I am NOT going to comment on the responses... I don't want to influence anything. I am very curious to hear what you, the players, think about all this.
Cheers
Jim

Thanks, Jim. At the very least, we hope you could consider a thing or two said in this thread, even if none of it is to be responded to or even implemented. Food for thought, really.

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6 hours ago, Vl3d said:

Without stepping on anyone's toes I will just say that I hope KSP2 will have set and setting, a good story, vast and interesting lore and a lot of mysteries to uncover.

Honestly, me too. But that doesn’t mean it has to be a concrete story, or a specific type of setting, or that the lore and mysteries have to be conveyed in traditional ways. Large stories and text logs are two separate things. 

6 hours ago, Vl3d said:

From a creative content point of view KSP1 is an empty and lonely game which only hints at greatness but never fulfills its destiny. The anomalies suck, the boring lifeless emptiness sucks and the monoliths are the worst.

I agree with your statements about KSP 1 and the way its lore is done, but there is a big point to be made for stark emptiness. Lifeless worlds can tell just as much of a story as one’s full of life, and cresting a hill and seeing a thousand kilometers of unending basalt flats can create just as strong of an emotion as cresting it and seeing ancient crashed ships scattered around. Just because it isn’t a positive emotion doesn’t mean it isn’t a good story. 

And, worlds and words are also two different things. Anyone who loves to read knows the value of when a book doesn’t hand-hold its audience and does worldbuilding by revealing details and allowing the audience to fill the rest in. Finally, big stories and cohesive stories are also separate things. Minecraft is undoubtedly a giant exploration and adventure game, and it has lots of lore hidden in almost every feature. However, it is unclear whether this lore is cohesive, or if it is, what the story is. Despite this, it is still a great game with a strong, if open-ended, story. 

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6 hours ago, Vl3d said:

From a creative content point of view KSP1 is an empty and lonely game which only hints at greatness but never fulfills its destiny. The anomalies suck, the boring lifeless emptiness sucks and the monoliths are the worst.

There have been some little bread crumbs and hints from Nate, mainly saying he didn't want to give anything away on this front, but I think if KSP does have a 'story' a rich set of anomalies could be a really great way to construct it. KSP1's anomalies really were just easter eggs, a random assortment of cute/random things with no real integrated gameplay or thoughtful through-line. I'd love to see the anomalies be a little less toy-like and a little more sciencey, like big unique features in the vein of Breaking Ground's surface features that become not just cool set pieces but important landmarks whose discovery and study helps advance your program. I don't think it needs or wants to be too descriptive about what your program is, dictating to the player for instance "You are the United Kerbal States" or "You are Private Space Inc." and you have this and that competitor. Let players do that. But if the anomalies over time were an aid in understanding different planets formation and history and maybe started getting into a broader story about the search for life those themes could be interpreted by lots of players in lots of ways.  

So I guess I agree with @intelliCom that the key word here would be "subtext"a kind of background atmosphere and mystery that leaves lots of negative space for players to fill with their own stories. 

Edited by Pthigrivi
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