It's nowhere near done, but people keep bringing the setting up, so I guess it's worth mentioning: this is in the (slowest of slow) works. It's built on Ares (with help from @faraday, thanks lady) and will use FS3, but not in any especially crunchy way -- more as a flavor supplement to RP for those of us who like a little bit of chance mixed in with our RP.
Trying to avoid spoilers for anybody who watches the show and isn't finished with watching season 3: the game's timeline is set following events that happen late in s3, with Medina Station as the central hub/factional melting pot. (The scope of the setting is the entirety of the Sol system, however, with some lightweight handwaviness for travel time, because this is a MU* and the point is to RP.)
There will be no FCs. The crew of the Rocinante has been written out of the story (as much as I love Amos, RIP). At the moment I'm planning to leave some major factional NPC roles filled with canon characters (examples: Avasarala, Dawes, Johnson), but they won't be played -- more as plot devices when big faction decisions are necessary. Ultimately, having those roles become occupied by PCs instead would be ideal.
Stuff that's going to take a while to complete:
-
Overhauling FS3's default BSG loadout to appropriately reflect this setting. I'm the first to admit that statbrain is not my strength. For that reason, this is probably going to take the longest of any task on the list.
-
Finishing out the wiki and all of its player resource pages: there are fiddly (read: boring) things to compile like the pre-game timeline, and less fiddly but equally necessary things to sort out, like how to organize player contributions to theme (pop culture, player-run factions, etc).
-
Gridbuilding: This isn't going to take a terribly long time and it's partially in place, but I do need to do things like 'set up weather zones so that there isn't a warm spring rain happening in the cold vacuum of space.'
-
Metaplot. This piece will probably wait until a soft open so that I know wtf kind of characters are even going to be on the grid, and can figure out what people might enjoy and be most interested in engaging with, for those people who like metaplot.
Right now, the staff consists of...me. Hence the creeping pace of development! There's information on the web portal about the kind of game this is intended to be, and in an ideal world it would attract people who like to run plot when they have the freedom to do that, in a lenient setting that allows for a whole lot of flexibility and large-scale storytelling.
On a personal note, in the last few years I've kinda come around to feeling as though being able to say 'yes' to players who are motivated and active is a critical part of a healthy game, and that those sorts of players are happiest when staff can just help them do their thing, and then get out of the way. I've gotten weary of Fun Police stepping in to discourage things that don't actually actively damage the theme or anybody's actual IC experience. I'd like to try to create a game that is mindful of that, and encourages people to blow things up and make messes, as long as it creates RP for other people instead of hindering it.
It's probably going to be a work in progress on that front, and I've seen enough games open (and close) that I know there's an element of luck/chance involved with the playerbase a game draws when the doors open, too. Those are my intentions, though.
I'm actually going out of town this weekend and that makes this timing awkward I guess, but I'm happy to answer any questions that I actually have firm answers to at this point!
(Side note for the curious: If you were on BSG:U toward the end of its life, you might have seen me wandering around that grid as Ines.)
Amos. Just, <3.