Generic sci fi game.

Monogram

@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..."

That would be cool as hell.

Ghost

(If you're polling for interest) I, for one, would NOT be interested in a space colonization game unless it involved some other larger overplot, such as something survival horror, war, or other action-based dramatics.

Not really looking to get stuck in a sandbox of boys and girls playing HOUSE in a space setting. I would need more than playing house and the assumption that one-on-one relationship "character building" is a worthy substitute for my time and effort.

Auspice

@Ghost said in Generic sci fi game.:

(If you're polling for interest) I, for one, would NOT be interested in a space colonization game unless it involved some other larger overplot, such as something survival horror, war, or other action-based dramatics.

Not really looking to get stuck in a sandbox of boys and girls playing HOUSE in a space setting. I would need more than playing house and the assumption that one-on-one relationship "character building" is a worthy substitute for my time and effort.

<looking, slowly, towards the full trailer for Alien: Covenant.>

Monogram

@Auspice Or hell, Alien Isolation.

I /still/ have a hard time playing that game because that damn thing can pop out at any given moment and eat my face off.

SG

@Monogram those goddamned bottles and cans on the floor give me heart attacks!

Ghost

I second the planet already being colonized and/or alien covenant.

I don't wanna RP SPACE HOUSE without the distinct possibility that I might have to bury my SPACE WIFE because she failed a clutch roll and ended up dying due to SPACE MOLECULAR ACID eating off her SPACE FACE.

But, in the interest of gender equality, I'm more than comfortable to let my SPACE WIFE wear the SPACE PANTS

Monogram

@SG I was always more concerned with other NPCs doing something stupid and drawing the horror to us.

But yes, the fact that just about anything could bring the alien to you bordered on OP. Like the damn thing had godlike hearing. But only in regards to YOU, not the other nitwits on the station.

Auspice

I'm really digging on the 'it was already colonized,' except the colony is gone.

Space Roanoke.

Fields of crops left untended.
Homes abandoned in various states of disarray.

Monogram

@Auspice Isn't that just replaying the story of Aliens at that point?

Not that I'm COMPLAINING. I'm not, seriously, I'm not.

SG

Okay, so,

Alien Shores: The Mush

ARC 1: Lost In Space. Generational ship finishes decelerating after 100 years to find out that Jump Drives are a thing. All of the deeds and land titles and what not have been tossed aside because Corporations now own the system. The Earth that they left with the spirit of exploration and discovery is now long gone, it's full on dystopia.

ARC 2: Situation Critical: Relegated to the shitty planet that nobody wanted (the atmosphere converters started to fail and the company was busy with other projects), they're allowed to settle there. They get established a little bit THEN OH SHIT SPACE BUGS! WTF!?

Like Klendathu or LV426 depending on the mood of the playerbase.

ARC 3: Red Light: Survivors GTFO. Sure, Jump Drives are a thing, but it still takes months to get to a different system, and weeks to get to another planet. The survivors of the death world get to become the unwanted immigrants on one of the more established planets. It's COMMUNIST REVOLUTION TIME!

ARC 4: It Ain't Love Anyway: Interplanetary Warfare. Our SPACE COMMIES have had enough of these shitty corporate monsters and want the whole system ~~under the thumb~~ in the fold of their space comradship. Can they take on the system defense forces?

ARC 5: Crying Over You: The Corporation Comes Calling. In this final stage, our band of Space Commies has to fend off the fleets of the Corporation. Will they be able to contact the UN and gain independence? Or will they be crushed under the paramilitary forces of Wayland Yuanti?

I kind of want to squeeze in the silicates from Space Above and Beyond now, too.

I also just realized that ever TP I do is somehow based on a shitty 80s song names, why not make a mush based on a shitty 80s Album?

SG

@Monogram said in Generic sci fi game.:

@SG I was always more concerned with other NPCs doing something stupid and drawing the horror to us.

But yes, the fact that just about anything could bring the alien to you bordered on OP. Like the damn thing had godlike hearing. But only in regards to YOU, not the other nitwits on the station.

I kind of love how by default it turned on any mic pluged into your computer so if you screamed IRL, it counted in game. I don't know if they patched that away due to privacy concerns or not, but it's so cruel-cool.

Monogram

So long as I can, at some point, play out the knife game, I'm completely on board.

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Sparks

@Auspice said in Generic sci fi game.:

@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.

While MMO RP is often obnoxious (because most of it ends up taking place in Google Docs, which is a terrible tool for keeping a scene going with any degree of speed), this was actually seemingly what a lot of the early RP around WildStar was like.

Ghost

@SG I think it's a workable premise.

One thing I do when I run TT (or if I ever had the time/nerve to run a MU) is I never let the characters get too comfortable. Comfort equals players falling back on fulfillment through 1-on-1 TS/relationship roleplay, simulating relationships as a primary form of RP, and IC relationship drama that spills out into OOC drama because there isn't much to do. Worst of all, that kind of boredom comfort RP isn't largely something the Playerbase can share with each other, and god knows how so many of us hate BAR SCENE #43444223

So, whatever you do, think ahead of time about defined roles for characters. What would their responsibilities be? What kind of plots would involve these roles, and what range of PrP or daily life stuff within these roles be pertinent enough to keep the players from focusing solely on who they're sleeping with.

The Battlestar games had a good heading on this. There was, at times, plenty of training, flight simulators, mechanical, planning, brig, etc RP. Best yet? There were no private quarters or eating spaces, so plenty of bunkhouse and cafeteria roleplay, hell even communal shower time roleplay, was shared.

Roles. Responsibilities. Stuff to do. Go in with a plan for this stuff.

SG

@Ghost said in Generic sci fi game.:

1-on-1 TS/relationship roleplay

Rest assured, only headstaff will have private quarters.

Ghost

I have this d20 pre-Saga Star Wars RPG book that has 100 adventure ideas in it. I still use it, or something like it, to keep ideas fresh. I will roll a d100 and make it work.

One thing I might ALSO suggest is getting some spreadsheets together, or use Google sheets to share them with staff, that contain similar concepts for your roles.

Guards/Security
Command
Medical
Engineering
Agricultural
Etc

Make a list of as many 1-week or more plot ideas for each group. Example:

Medical
1 - a flu sweeps through the ship
2 - an NPC breaks a limb and something worse is discovered in the x-rays
3 - an NPC goes out into the wilderness and comes back with an unknown sickness that must be researched, potentially quarantined, etc

Then, on a fixed timeline, roll some dice to randomly select weekly plot ideas, make an IC report from the Captain (or whatever) and keep people roleplaying. Keep them from being comfortable. There's WORK to be done, and they are not guaranteed to pass each test. Sometimes the guy in quarantine needs to die to give them something to obsess on being ready for next time, or reach out to command, guards, and agricultural staff to try to find the source of, etc.

With a good Playerbase, this'll keep em busy

SG

@Ghost I like that. I was actually thinking of using something like Arkham Horror as the basis for the colony, with each week being like a game turn, the portals opening up to show places that are infested etc. Then have players do PrPs to close the portals and reclaim portions of the colony. It's only when all the portals are closed that they're able to focus on repairing the ship to get off the planet.

Auspice

@Monogram said in Generic sci fi game.:

@Auspice Isn't that just replaying the story of Aliens at that point?

Not that I'm COMPLAINING. I'm not, seriously, I'm not.

You know you would love the fuck out of a game inspired by the Alien franchise, but tweaked to be more compat long-term (I mean, the movies kind of make a thing of 'one or two of us were lucky to get out alive').

Monogram

@Auspice said in Generic sci fi game.:

@Monogram said in Generic sci fi game.:

@Auspice Isn't that just replaying the story of Aliens at that point?

Not that I'm COMPLAINING. I'm not, seriously, I'm not.

You know you would love the fuck out of a game inspired by the Alien franchise, but tweaked to be more compat long-term (I mean, the movies kind of make a thing of 'one or two of us were lucky to get out alive').

Yes, I love it so vigorous and hard, like a one night stand. Considering the events I like to run(and I point to the few horror ones I ran on 5W that I still look fondly on), that'd be right up my alley dark sci fi Lovecraftian horror stuff.

Miss Demeanor

@Auspice So... AVP? runs away very very fast