Original Sci-Fi?
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@tinuviel said in Original Sci-Fi?:
@auspice How did you know that tonight is taco night?
Uh, Taco Tuesday. Duh.
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@auspice There's also the technobabble problem. If it was reality, yes, all the science would have to make sense, and you'd need all the nitty gritty technical details to function in daily life.
We are not all technicians, programmers, etc. and for some, myself included, feeling like an engineering degree is required to get through a basic setting document turns something into an immediate 'not just no, but hell no'.
Just like people playing doctors on a modern day game need not know the technical ins and outs of heart surgery, there needs to be some leeway for handwavium.
You, RL, may or may not know exactly how your phone works down to the circuits and signals and so on, but you do know how to call on it, tinker with an app, send a text, and so on. This is the best 'target', I think, for people to stick with in terms of defining tech, and the best target you can expect players to understand. (Ex: 'Phone: makes calls, sends text messages, sends email, sometimes has silly games or other generic utilities available on it.' 'Zapper: small hand-held self-defense device resembling a RL TV remote control that emits a brief pulse of energy at settings of warning shock, stun, injure, kill.' And so on.)
Too many folks (and by this I really mean even one of these on your game is one too many) want to pry into how the circuit board is laid out and will not for the love of all things holy ever let it go until there's some specific answer that better check out as legit engineering and... this is really just not helpful, unless they want to come up with something cool that adds to the game world in a nifty way without giving them some kind of IC advantage (Ex: 'maybe that special fuel is the stuff that's only found in the caves on my character's property in alien land!' and so on), and contribute it to the game files.
It just makes things difficult, and I really wish there was some sensible solution to it.
Oh fucking well.
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@surreality said in Original Sci-Fi?:
You, RL, may or may not know exactly how your phone works down to the circuits and signals and so on, but you do know how to call on it, tinker with an app, send a text, and so on.
Magic blue-black smoke and pixies.
He/Him
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@tinuviel Mine is an iphone. Clearly it runs on cider. Gods, don't you know anything?
<ducks and runs>
Oh fucking well.
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I've always been fond of the games that allow players to sort of 'create' their own tech. Set the level of advancement, then allow people to be free. Bonus points if it's grounded in RL.
Examples I've used on games before:
- Having a drone-like device that had 360-degree cameras. I based this on an item that exists today: a ball that has 360-degree cameras. It can't fly, but you throw it up in the air and it snaps photos at its apex. If we have that now, logic dictates that in the future there could be one that does video (that part's easy) and manages to fly. We've seen similar things in movies, so why not?
- A 'mesh' that could be put under the skin to display whatever... For changeable/animated tattoos, essentially. Already in RL, they're working on small screens in the skin to be used for medical purposes. So again, down the line in the future, why not be able to get a 'sleeve' implanted that you can program to display whatever?
And wikis easily allow people to share the things they've come up with.
But yeah, the technobabble thing is an issue and I think it's on both Staff and players of any game to foster an environment where handwavium is the norm.
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
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@tinuviel said in Original Sci-Fi?:
@auspice How did you know that tonight is taco night?
It could just as easily be frank and beans night.
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Steak and BJ night.
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One thing I've had a lot of luck with (again, mostly in tabletop games, because I've never run a MU) is the concept of modular 'black box' technology. Posit that at some point in the future, stuff just gets too complex for even repair people to handle.
So your tech comes in two forms: Average, everyday tools that are perfectly engineered and darn-near indestructible. That would be your kitchen knives and garden tools, screws and hinges and all that.
But the complex stuff is sealed up in little boxes that are attached modular-style to an also sealed power pack. The difference between a laser scalpel, a blaster and a mining laser are just a couple of universal components. Your character doesn't really understand the tech because nobody outside of the AIs and a few super-genius humans actually understand it. They don't need to, the same way we don't need to know how a combustion engine actually works.
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@auspice said in Original Sci-Fi?:
But yeah, the technobabble thing is an issue and I think it's on both Staff and players of any game to foster an environment where handwavium is the norm.
To a point, but handwavium can be an obstacle too. Like, yeah, you shouldn't need to know detailed cardiology to RP a doctor, but knowing what's possible with the tech is important. And often that means knowing a bit about how things work so you can fill in the blanks between the things that are explicitly spelled out. Having one group of folks "handwaving" modern level tech while another group "handwaves" skin weaves and nanobots gets to be pretty darn immersion-breaking. At some point you have to stop handwaving and ground your tech in something players can sink their teeth into.
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@faraday said in Original Sci-Fi?:
@auspice said in Original Sci-Fi?:
But yeah, the technobabble thing is an issue and I think it's on both Staff and players of any game to foster an environment where handwavium is the norm.
To a point, but handwavium can be an obstacle too. Like, yeah, you shouldn't need to know detailed cardiology to RP a doctor, but knowing what's possible with the tech is important. And often that means knowing a bit about how things work so you can fill in the blanks between the things that are explicitly spelled out. Having one group of folks "handwaving" modern level tech while another group "handwaves" skin weaves and nanobots gets to be pretty darn immersion-breaking. At some point you have to stop handwaving and ground your tech in something players can sink their teeth into.
Oh, for sure. But we don't come down on people not knowing the specific names of drugs, exact dosage amounts, or the latest-and-greatest in medical discoveries on modern-day games ("oh em gee they introduced X last month you should know that!").
So there is a grounding, yes, but the handwavium comes in not needing the fiddly details.
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
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I still want to do a sci-fi game that is set on a ship that's gone dark, sort of like Pandorum, but without the funky people have evolved to live on a ship where the only food source is other people thing.
I was contemplating using a version of CoD without any of the supernatural merits for system but, it doesn't really do high tech very well. So am still fishing around for a system I like and will translate well.
Hello! Long time listener, first time caller...
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@auspice On the one hand, sure. Not knowing exact names and doses is whatever. But not doing any kind of research whatsoever... at least watch some Greys Anatomy or ER if you want to play a doctor.
He/Him
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@auspice said in Original Sci-Fi?:
So there is a grounding, yes, but the handwavium comes in not needing the fiddly details.
Yeah, I agree. But different people have different tolerances for what constitutes "fiddly details" versus what constitutes "appropriate RP knowledge" like @Tinuviel alluded to. But we had a whole giant thread of people flaming each other over that, so probably no need to rehash it again here.
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@lithium `
Tri-Stat might be a good option. I know it has gadget stats and omni-powers, both of which are approaches to high tech that would probably work well on a MU.
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@tinuviel said in Original Sci-Fi?:
@auspice On the one hand, sure. Not knowing exact names and doses is whatever. But not doing any kind of research whatsoever... at least watch some Greys Anatomy or ER if you want to play a doctor.
This is much more reasonable in the modern day, when those actual answers exist.
When you're talking about a sci-fi setting, you're talking about tech that doesn't exist yet, and may not even be theoretical. There is no reference book or Dummies guide for how things work in 2354AD. This means someone has to make the answers up.
It's entirely reasonable to set a maximum level of detail for those answers past which handwavium (which can be recorded for later for consistency), or 'it doesn't matter' (because sometimes it doesn't) applies, or staff will be spending an exponential amount of time explaining the nuts and bolts of how and why communicator circuits work even through lead walls that ten people will immediately pick apart and scream, "That isn't real science!" about ad nauseam.
If you want a recipe for staff burnout at light speed, it'd be that.
Oh fucking well.
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@surreality That was part of my 'not enough or too much lore' issue. You're either expected to read a billion wiki pages to understand how to reload a laser gun, or you don't have even the slightest clue that laser guns exist.
He/Him
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@tinuviel Exactly.
Hence the phone example. For most, 'it can make calls, send text based messages, and use little widgets, and you need to recharge it every so often, is breakable especially if dropped in liquid' is all someone needs to know about 'phone' to get by day to day, really.
Oh fucking well.
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@surreality Unfortunately the 'it can make calls' part is showing your age a bit there.
He/Him
