I've been loving the Expanse lately, and with the news of the Trappist-1 exo-planets, I've been thinking of Firefly as well. Then, today, I caught the preview for the new Alien movie and it got me thinking about kind of mashing all these into a setting for a mush.
Arc 1 could be the actual settlement of some of the planets of a new system. Establishing colonies on worlds that have different atmospheres, and possibly alien life.
Arc 2 would be ten or so years later, with the worlds being factionalized as some planets are better for life than others. PLUS ALIENS! or something getting loose that threatens the whole system. We'd also need Predators and rogue AIs in there somewhere if things get slow.
Would anyone be interested in a game like this? I imagine it'd be pretty easy to toss together with FS3, and a bit of digging on a grid.
Earlier this week I was thinking more along the lines of Borderlands, with each home ship having a NewU device, and seeing how that would affect society, but that might not work with the other setting influences unless it was like a Cylon sort of thing with banks of clones that PCs get downloaded to when they die.
I would be.
I was into this, until you said FS3. Not that it matters, my playtimes are horrible when it comes to being involved in anything. I don't even get home from work until around 1AM EST.
Hello! Long time listener, first time caller...
Love FS3 or not, it cuts down heavily on the overcomplicated sheet management systems, as well as people dicking around trying to find unbeatable feat/merit/etc combinations.
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I think you'd want to be clear ahead of time if it's a SPACE HORROR game. One cool idea, IMO, would be to have each "season" be a new setting with new characters and an established end-goal, run credits, etc.
Season. 1 could be like an ALIENS plot with plenty of char death/danger
Season 2: Space colonists find something under the ice
Season 3: Body snatchers a-la The Thing
Season 4: Everyone loved season 2 so staff introduced a sequel.
@Ghost said in Generic sci fi game.:
Love FS3 or not, it cuts down heavily on the overcomplicated sheet management systems, as well as people dicking around trying to find unbeatable feat/merit/etc combinations.
Back to Topic
I think you'd want to be clear ahead of time if it's a SPACE HORROR game. One cool idea, IMO, would be to have each "season" be a new setting with new characters and an established end-goal, run credits, etc.Season. 1 could be like an ALIENS plot with plenty of char death/danger
Season 2: Space colonists find something under the ice
Season 3: Body snatchers a-la The Thing
Season 4: Everyone loved season 2 so staff introduced a sequel.
I for one wouldn't want to play an anthology game where every 'season' I have to start a new character. Its basically a new MUSH every season.
I like American Horror Story but wouldn't want to play it.
@ixokai To each their own. I'm just that guy that is of the opinion that part of the problem on far too many games are that there's very little harvesting and a whoooole lot of old, tired, ancient character nonsense.
On a lot of these games it's just plenty of ancient characters with sheets so maxxed out that they've started to have to take stuff like Skill Focus: Underwater Taxidermy, and far too many players are comfortable doing really stupid heroic things IC on the belief that your character will never die until you choose for them to die.
Creating a new character every season is attractive to me because it would be challenging and keep games from becoming stale.
@Ghost said in Generic sci fi game.:
@ixokai To each their own. I'm just that guy that is of the opinion that part of the problem on far too many games are that there's very little harvesting and a whoooole lot of old, tired, ancient character nonsense.
On a lot of these games it's just plenty of ancient characters with sheets so maxxed out that they've started to have to take stuff like Skill Focus: Underwater Taxidermy, and far too many players are comfortable doing really stupid heroic things IC on the belief that your character will never die until you choose for them to die.
Creating a new character every season is attractive to me because it would be challenging and keep games from becoming stale.
I'm very aware of the dinosaur problem, but there's other ways to address it. I want my characters story to begin and end in a meaningful way, not end in an arbitrary point because a meta-story is now done, even if my personal story has gaping holes I didn't fully address or solve.
Add elements of that newfangled Valerian movie or whatever the hell it's called. I LOVE SCIFI. Scifi games sound amazing.
@Sonder said in Generic sci fi game.:
Add elements of that newfangled Valerian movie or whatever the hell it's called. I LOVE SCIFI. Scifi games sound amazing.
I'd be down
@ixokai said in Generic sci fi game.:
I want my characters story to begin and end in a meaningful way, not end in an arbitrary point because a meta-story is now done, even if my personal story has gaping holes I didn't fully address or solve
That's why I think that a story that actually ends would be the one to grant you a beginning, middle, and end.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that a very, very small number of char-stories actually resolve in this hobby. Most games either get shut down, or people leave, flake off, characters come and go, or IC romantic partners disappear for 4 weeks and come back having made an alt to bang some PC with A HEMSWORTH as a PB.
In theory, if done right, an anthology game, with some planning and care/consideration, could assist players in finding ways to make their arcs in the "season", so to speak, being meaningful.
Edit: I'm just throwing out ideas. New formats. Things people could try. That's all.
If I ran/GMed for an anthology game, I'd have players state information about what kind of arc/story they're angling for. Perhaps they apped in with someone else as a married couple. If the season ran, say, 6 months, staff could help throw some things their way to challenge/involve that relationship, and then provide room in the end for resolution.
@Ghost said in Generic sci fi game.:
@ixokai said in Generic sci fi game.:
I want my characters story to begin and end in a meaningful way, not end in an arbitrary point because a meta-story is now done, even if my personal story has gaping holes I didn't fully address or solve
That's why I think that a story that actually ends would be the one to grant you a beginning, middle, and end.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that a very, very small number of char-stories actually resolve in this hobby. Most games either get shut down, or people leave, flake off, characters come and go, or IC romantic partners disappear for 4 weeks and come back having made an alt to bang some PC with A HEMSWORTH as a PB.
In theory, if done right, an anthology game, with some planning and care/consideration, could assist players in finding ways to make their arcs in the "season", so to speak, being meaningful.
I can speak only for myself, but if I don't find regular character growth-- the development and resolution of my characters faults, issues, complications and what not-- then I have no interest in the game and quit quickly. The issue with an anthology game is characters will join at different periods: they'll have different understanding of the metaplot. They'll develop independantly of that metaplot. Some resolutions and growth will be at different paces. By timing out characters according to the metaplot, you're putting an effective deadline on growth. If I happen to be in right away that's one thing, I know in theory how long the metaplot lasts: but there's a constant pressure of knowing how long I have to solve and grow my character. If I come in two thirds in, this is a drastically different situation. I can either make a wildly less complex or interesting character, or I can make one I think can 'resolve' by the ending.
All luck to you but to me, this coupling of characters with an arc in an anthology situation? Totally turns me off. But maybe others would love it! I generally get a lot more out of games from my personal character growth and involvement with other characters then I do the 'metaplot'.
@Lithium said in Generic sci fi game.:
I was into this, until you said FS3. Not that it matters, my playtimes are horrible when it comes to being involved in anything. I don't even get home from work until around 1AM EST.
Yeah, I'll toss my hat into the ring here. I've tried a couple of FS3 games (and have a bit on one now). I really, really, really, really do not like it. There'd have to be a whole lot of pluses to the game to counteract that huge, neon minus of FS3.
I like FS3. The only issues I've had is with staffers who for some reason think its impossible to use the entire range of the skills. 12 Shouldn't be impossible, dammit. If you want super epic villains, you can always make them extra badass. But the skill scale exists to be used.
10, 11 shouldn't either, for that matter.
Are there other plug and play systems out there that aren't DSS or D20? Is there a current D6 Space chargen floating around? That's probably my favourite.
An anthology could definitely work. EUbananer did that with his mush.
I like FS3. I think new version is leagues better than the current one, but that one is only being used on one game currently
I plan on using the new version of FS3 when it becomes open to use. Much more flexible and optimizable then the original one.
Love the idea, love the prospect of a game with structured arcs. It's not for everyone, but if you're upfront about what you're doing and get a handful of players who buy into it, it can make for great stories. I like FS3 just fine.
I like FS3 as a system meant to supplement RP. nWoD, D20, you could say they drive it more than the story drives them (there are exceptions). FS3 seems more fluid (especially the latest iteration) and is good for games that are RP-heavy, but need dice in just a few situations.
I've a game in mind that I think it would work brilliantly for. I think most other systems would be limiting (for what I've got knocking about in my head).
I think a generational colony ship game would be really fun. A giant colony ship that's been traveling for a couple hundred years or more, and the people living on it have just arrived at their colony planet.
"If you stand for nothing Burr, what will you fall for?"
-- Hamilton: An American Musical
@Cupcake said in Generic sci fi game.:
I think a generational colony ship game would be really fun. A giant colony ship that's been traveling for a couple hundred years or more, and the people living on it have just arrived at their colony planet.
Oh now I'm imagining playing that person who has only ever grown up with stories of what a planet is like.
Just for the joy of those 'holy shit what is that' moments, I'd likely start such a game a few weeks before 'landfall,' just so folks can get into their chars and then have those first experiences scenes.
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
@Cupcake said in Generic sci fi game.:
I think a generational colony ship game would be really fun. A giant colony ship that's been traveling for a couple hundred years or more, and the people living on it have just arrived at their colony planet.
Then the horror to realize the place they were going was already settled. "Oh yeah, a couple years after you left, we had a breakthrough with hyperspace technology..."
Love the idea, love the prospect of a game with structured arcs. It's not for everyone, but if you're upfront about what you're doing and get a handful of players who buy into it, it can make for great stories. I like FS3 just fine.
