Gauging Interest
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If you make this Doctor Who game I will immediately app on it. Let's goooooo!!!
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@Botulism said in Gauging Interest:
There can also be more than one Time Traveler in a Crew, but only one time travel device
What makes a Time Traveler character a Time Traveler if they don't have access to their own device? How does this work with independent Time Traveler characters that run a story for a Crew that already includes one?
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Also I'm assuming that people in different crews can be in the same plot.
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@Wizz said in Gauging Interest:
What makes a Time Traveler character a Time Traveler if they don't have access to their own device? How does this work with independent Time Traveler characters that run a story for a Crew that already includes one?
I presume their own device is elsewhere(tm) while they're running stories for the other crew. A common theme for Dr Who time travelers is also that they're mostly immortal and have access to technology mostly indistinguishable from magic.
What is obvious to you may not be obvious to me and vice versa.
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@Groth said in Gauging Interest:
I presume their own device is elsewhere(tm) while they're running stories for the other crew.
This just creates, IMHO, some weird logistics and seems like a restriction on the kinds of stories you can tell.
Like, say for example an independent TT char is the sort that is not exactly benign and runs stories about time-hopping Hijinks that the Crew is supposed to stop, prevent, or counteract? Only one time machine per story creates a clunky barrier that you then have to work around.
@HelloProject said in Gauging Interest:
Also I'm assuming that people in different crews can be in the same plot.
Another perfect example of why this would be a difficult rule. If two Crews get involved in the same adventures, do they need to contrive some reason for one or the other time machine to be inactive every single time?
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Reasons for time machines to not work, or losing access to them for the duration of an adventure is a staple of the genre, really. That and characters just deciding to stick through the current incident until it's over. It's less of a restriction than, I dunno, a story element? A means of creating tension and conflict? Episodic adventure tends to roll that way. If you have wilder ideas, could probably make them work on your own or run them by staff or something.
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Those are fair points. I'm trying to keep groups together, but yeah.
Stat-wise, Time Travel will be a skill only TTs can have, Companions would be Incapable. I will let all TTs have access to their own device.
Thanks for the feedback! I DO listen!
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I'll be putting something together soon, MU and wiki, and post in the Ads thread when it's up.
And no, I won't call it TITS. Other ideas were Tales Across Time And Space (TATAS) and Tales Involving Time Travel In Expansive Space (TITTIES).
I'm just going with Across Time And Space.
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@Botulism You know it's gonna get called TITS anyway, right?
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@SilentHills Of course!
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All I want in this world is TITS.
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Introduction
We are an Ares-powered FS3 game of high adventure, chilling horror, and everything in between set across all of space and time. Historical romps and dark dystopian futures await. Here you can explore space and tell stories of strange aliens and robotic monstrosities. You can also meet titans of history and help preserve the timeline from treachery. Even modern day Earth is full of surprises behind the curtains. Anything and everything you can come up with can be worked into play with a little effort.
Think of the game as a giant sandbox where all of time and space is in your toybox. You can tell stories of any genre, on any planet, anywhere in time We've made character creation very easy and you can be approved and RPing in as quick as 5 minutes. We are based around troupe RP, so group apps and bringing friends is highly encouraged, but not required. This helps make sure you have RP partners to play with, but we'll do our best to find you a place in the stories.
Hey, Isn't This Doctor Who?
Yes and no. While the game is set in the universe of the Doctor Who TV series and related media, it is not a Doctor Who game. For starters, unlike the show, The Doctor is not the star of our game, or even a playable character. This game is about your stories, and can have little or nothing at all to do with the Whoniverse. Time travel stories of all kinds can be woven in, like Legends of Tomorrow, Sliders, Stargate, or pretty much anything else along those lines. We frame it all in a Doctor Who metaverse,sure, but it's a BIG metaverse, and there's room for everyone. You can have as much or as little Whoniverse involvement as you like. It's all up to you.
What You Can Be
Honestly? You can be just about anything here: humans, dozens of different ready-made aliens, your own original creations, or even a robot or android. Characters can be from Earth's history or future, or from modern day, or not Earth at all. There are very few limits on the kinds of characters you can make.
Types of Characters
There are two classes of characters here - Time Travelers and Companions. A Time Traveler is someone with access to technology that allows them to travel through, well, time and space. Companions are everyone else, those who are taken on by Time Travelers and join them on their adventures. Human, Alien, or Robot, they come from all walks of life. A player may only play one Time Traveler at a time, but may play unlimited Companions with one catch we'll get to in a bit.
Time Traveler Requirements
Anyone who plays a Time Traveler must try to run stories for others, ideally 2 scenes a month. As a Time Traveler player you're being asked to help carry a bit of the burden of running the game and entertaining others. Playing a Time Traveler here is a responsibility as well as a privilege.
Time Travel Crews
Whether a TARDIS in Doctor Who, the Waverider in Legends of Tomorrow, or any of a number of other examples, there's a cast of characters working together – a Crew – and this is what we are basing our troupe-oriented design on. To help keep players clustered together instead of all spread out through everywhere and when, we want to organize people into Crews so you have some guaranteed RP partners. Whether you and some friends come in together as a Crew, or we help hook you up with others, the goal is to get you situated with people on at similar times as you and, hopefully, with common interests and tastes. You aren't required to be in a Crew, but being an Independent means you're on your own to find RP and get involved in stories.
Since RP is centered around the Crew, the Time Traveler who leads it is expected to tell stories for the group, as mentioned above. Obviously you get to be in those stories with them, but we ask that you share the spotlight and let them all be stars in their own right. Anyone can run stories, of course, you can never have too many stories! But Time Travler players have requirements.
There is no hard cap on how big a Crew can be, though ideally it would be 4-6 players so that the scenes aren't too big and overwhelming to play in. There can also be more than one Time Traveler in a Crew, but each Time Traveler must tell stories, either for your Crew, for Independents wanting stories of their own, or for other Crews where the Time Traveler(s) wants to just play sometimes. Teaming up with the other Time Travelers in your Crew and 'co-running' a scene doesn't count for your individual requirements, or else everyone would just do that. Only one Time Traveler per scene gets credit for running it.
You can play as many Companions as you like, as mentioned before, but can only play one per Crew. That's the catch. Companions and 'extra' Time Travelers can come and go, changing up a Crew's membership over time. It need not be static.
Independents
If, for whatever reason, you opt out of joining a Crew, that's okay. Time Travelers on their own still have to run scenes, though, and Companions may find some success 'freelancing' with various Crews for a story but not staying long-term. Another idea is to pick one of the static locations in the game - 'public' areas that are set in a certain time and place - and call it home. Now when Crews come through, you get to be the locals they interact with. A few of these are provided for you.
Independent Time Travelers get a time travel device and can do as they please, but again, you are expected to run stories.
Meta-Story (Seasons)
In addition to the stories you run for each other, the Showrunner and Writers will run a meta-plot that impacts the whole game called the Season story. This is a longer-term, far-reaching plot, but you are not required to participate directly if you don't want to. Each Season will span 4 months RL, and will be a mix of scenes run for Crews and scenes open to everyone.
A Crash Course On Time Travel
If you're looking for a hard-sci-fi take on time travel, this game isn't that. We're more high adventure in time and space than straight Science Fiction. It plays fast and loose with paradoxes and the like, but it does follow a few basic rules. Most of the time.
Rule #1: You Can't Change Your Own Timeline
Each time you make choice, your timeline branches onto a new path. Somewhere out there, though, are alternate dimensions or realities where you made a different choice. In fact, there's one for every choice you could have made. You exist in your timeline, the one you've chosen, because this is who those choices made you.
Your characters cannot alter their past. Changing your past makes you someone different, and then the you that changed it never existed. It's a paradox. Touching an earlier or later version of yourself can be catastrophic. Time Travelers can break the rules (sometimes), but those changes don't always stick and often come with harsh consequences.
Rule #2: Certain Events Are Fixed Points In Time
Along the same lines, there are certain events in time that are so big and important that even Time Travelers can't change them. Some things will always happen a certain way. These are fixed points in time.
We'll start with an obvious trope: going back in time and killing Hitler. Hitler's death is a fixed point. Things during WWII can be altered, lives saved here or there, but the war ends only with Hitler killing himself in that bunker, and any attempt to kill him before that simply fails.
What we encourage instead for stories in game is to make up history that didn't happen and have the heroes stop it so it goes the way it's supposed to. An alien invasion in Shakespeare's England obviously never happened, so imagine everyone's surprise when it almost does.
Rather than breaking history, use your stories to save it.
Rule #3: When A Time Traveler Encounters An Earlier Self, The Earlier Self Forgets
Sometimes Time Time Travelers cross their own timeline, but they are somewhat exempt from the rules above. This doesn't create a paradox, and they can even shake hands without blowing up reality, but there are side-effects. When two versions of the same Time Traveler meet, the younger (as in earlier) one will always forget as soon as they part ways. They cannot remember the meeting and therefore carry no spoilers going forward. Remembering something like that might cause them to act differently after, and that would change their timeline, and well, see above.
Try to keep these things in mind in your stories, and fudge where you have to. It's just a game.
Making A Character - Newbies
In order to make the game as accessible as possible to as many people as possible, we're avoiding any and all Doctor Who material until we get specifically to that section. This means that you can log in, make a character and start playing without ever having seen an episode and without having to read about it. This includes character creation. Those who WANT to play a character grounded in the Whoniverse will want to skip this section.
The first thing you need to decide is if you're playing a Time Traveler or a Companion. Time Travelers have time travel technology and experience using it. Companions don't. As a Companion, you're someone who is along for the ride. Time Travelers start with more AP, higher caps on things, and the aforementioned time travel tech. Companions get less AP and have lower caps on what they can spend it on. For these reasons you can only play one Time Traveler, but many Companions.
Time Traveler Creation
To start, you need to decide WHAT you are – human? Alien? Robot or Android? If human, are you from Earth? Modern day? Some other place or time? Work out who you are, where you came from and when, and how you became a Time Traveler. You can use existing Alien races listed on the wiki or make your own. Original Alien races can be taken from pop culture as long as you aren't playing a canon character.
Time Travel tech comes in many flavors. Sometimes it's a ship, like the Waverider in Legends. Sometimes it's a stationary object, like a Stargate. Sometimes it's an item you carry or wear, like a Vortex Manipulator. Figure out what yours is and how it works. Once you have an idea of who you are and how you get around, you're ready to make your character.
Time Travelers get 60AP with which to make a character. They can spend up 12AP on Attributes and up to 40AP on Action Skills. They get 6 free Background Skill points and 3 free Language Points. They get the Advantage: Time Travel Tech (Basic) for free.
Time Travelers have a cap of TWO Attributes at 4. They may have THREE Action Skills at 5+, TWO at 6+, and only ONE of 7+. There are no caps on Background Skills, Languages, or Advantages.
Companion Creation
As with Time Travelers, you need to work out who you are and where you came from. You don't, however, need to work out any time travel tech, but instead need to determine how you first got dragged off through space and time. If you're coming in with a Crew, you likely have this all worked out. If you're a new player on your own, you might want to see about finding a Crew looking for Companions and put together a scene or story to get picked up. Of course you could also pick a static place to be a local and let it all happen IC! When you decide which track to take, you can make your character.
Companions get 45AP with which to make a character. They can spend up to 10AP on Attributes and up to 30AP on Action Skills. They are Incapable of buying the Action Skill Time Travel. They get 4 free Background Skill points and 3 free Language Points.
Companions have a cap of ONE Attribute at 4. They may have TWO Action Skills at 5+, and ONE at 6. They cannot buy over 6. There are no caps on Background Skills, Languages, or Advantages.
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Anyone good at Ares wiki design/setup? Willing to pay if needed.
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@Botulism said in Gauging Interest:
Anyone good at Ares wiki design/setup? Willing to pay if needed.
Unfortunately not yet, as I haven't started working on my Ares MUSH yet.
Also this new writeup is great, gives me ideas.
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@Botulism said in Gauging Interest:
Anyone good at Ares wiki design/setup? Willing to pay if needed.
Check on Ares discord, a lot of folks there have delved there css/inspected the elements to know what to do in the css. Someone may be willing there too.
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Much of it is filled in. Some parts need finishing. Please don't make characters or connect to the game yet.
ETA: I think I'm about done with the wiki and stats customization. Chargen works. Just need a bit of a grid for the two static locations.
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I read stuff.
I already have my concept figured out.
Now I'm just waiting!
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Open now!
