Freelance Henchman said:
Techlevel-wise, I'd definitely want no teleportation, no psi powers, no "gravity generators" and let's say also no FTL travel with hyperdrive or such. Cybernetics-wise I'd rather avoid ubiquitous human-level AIs in the form of chirpy robot sidekicks: if they exist at all, keep "true" AIs limited to rare, highly experimental prototypes. Apart from that though computing power and networking would be an extrapolation of what we have today, but of course far more powerful (but not yet magical). Nano-technology as seen in Deus Ex and such tends to be too often a stand-in for magic, but on the other hand it *will* likely become reality more and more and it does seem like it could be immensely powerful, so I'm on the edge with this. In any case I'd limit access to it in some way or make it too expensive at least to use all the time.
In all other aspects technology has progressed a lot, and advances in computing technology have influenced everything else, especially "non-intelligent" but sophisticated robotics. As an example there might be an "auto-doc robot" which aids an actual human doctor in surgery, but it's not clever enough to just do everything itself. It can do the cutting and sewing and whatnot with a sortiment of tool arms, but you still need a human doctor to tell it what it has to do. Construction and manufacturing are also cheaper than ever due to powerful specialized robots.
The Internet still exists too, but its current, advanced form has pervaded everything and has replaced traditional media and even communication devices completely. Access to it is so important that at the very least everyone has a mobile device for that. Some people even get implanted devices for convenience, necessity (their job) or sheer coolness factor.
I think that, if you want to center your game around human interaction, then the choice of what science can and can't do should have more to do with the theme of your game and what you need it to do, not what is plausible. I don't mean you should throw plausibility through the window, but it should take a back seat. If a technological fact could help your story, but is hard to accept given current knowledge, try to explain it somehow first, instead of just discarding it.
Freelance Henchman said:
Where would this be set? I did say earlier that there's no FTL travel, so it can't be just anywhere in the universe, it has to be at least somewhat close to Earth or in our own solar system (or would allow traveling inside that range). It could of course simply be on future Earth, but I'd like something more exotic. That leaves some space station, a base on another planet in our solar system, an interplanetary "cruise ship" or an interstellar spaceship accelerating towards another star. I like the last option the best. Let's say it's an RPG set on a huge generation ship flying at sub-light speeds towards a nearby star where an Earth-like planet was detected. Discounting horrible crap like "mining Unobtainium" I'd prefer that the mission of the ship is simply exploration and possibly colonization: somehow humanity got its shit together and managed not to ITZ itself out of existence and instead pooled resources to send a ship full of people out into the void. The ship was the result of the collaboration of many governments, major religions, corporations looking for goodwill and prestige and even some super-rich dreamers with a taste for the fantastic. This setting has drawbacks too of course, but I hope they are outweighed by the possibilities.
The flight will be a "Constant Acceleration" one, with the engine accelerating the ship towards the star for the first half of the journey, then turning around at the middle point and decelerating for the second half until the destination is reached. I'm too stupid to figure out the exact physics, but let's say that despite time-dilation effects that effectively make time pass slower inside the ship when it reaches a substantial fraction of lightspeed the in-ship time to travel the 10-50 light years to the destination will be at least a dozen generations, let's say 500-600 years.
I think this is much more "pulp" than what you are aiming at, but
here is a review of one of the earliest RPGs, which is also set inside a generation ship. I know that at first glance, this may look like the opposite of what you are aiming with your game. But these early games centered a lot in what I like to call open ended puzzle solving.
By that, I mean challenges in the form of problems that don't have an specific solution thought up ahead. Instead, the players use whatever they can think up to try to overcome the problems and the GM arbitrates whether it works or not. This kind of open ended puzzle isn't really feasible in a computer (unless you add to it more complex subsystems than Dwarf Fortress), but it can give you ideas for layouts and good, old fashioned, multiple solution puzzles.
Freelance Henchman said:
So, let's say the beginning of the story is always as a young ship's inhabitant who has just finished his education as, well, something. There is no place for slackers on the ship and everyone must have a profession. At the very least I imagine they must learn one of the following professions:
1) Administrator - learn about the political, judicial and economic systems of the ship, these are the lawyers, political leaders, judges, bankers etc. Learn how to sway people with rhetoric. Can request acquiring special information from Earth. Higher ranks allow viewing of classified data?
2) Doctor - anything medicine-related, includes veterinary medicine for the farm animals on the ship. The only ones that can use an auto-doc for mending major injuries. Can declare medical emergencies.
3) Scientist/Tech - knowledge of higher physics, mathematics and relevant aspects of biological/mechanical/electrical/civil engineering, computers and the ship's systems. Have ability and authorization to modify machinery and control ship's systems.
4) Police - technically the "military", the only group that is taught and legally allowed to own and use weaponry, but also adept at non-lethal incapacitation. They also learn about criminology, detective work and psychological intimidation and iterrogation. Have access to criminal records, can arrest people.
5) Artist - study literature & history, and are trained in acting, painting, singing, playing instruments and such (including the "erotic" arts), can also be but need not necessarily be good at charming people (in any case they get some sort of bonus to "fame" that makes people more likely to talk to them because they know their work). Along with the Administrators have the most detailed knowledge of culture back on Earth.
I don't really like class-based systems and would prefer something skill-based instead. In game terms, the professions open up and increase various specialized skills of course. I'm not sure about the details, but every profession allows to increase some skills to their maximum which would otherwise not be possible (you can make a singing policeman, but he won't be quite perfect at it), but also require a minimum ranks spent in some skills. This might require higher minimum investment in some compulsory skills so that less points are left over for freely assigning: a doctor must have a pretty damn high ranks in pharmacy, surgery and whatever and little time left over to invest in trombone playing. On the other hand a policeman might well have time and the opportunity to learn more about administration skills, but not to the highest degree. I'm also not sure how detailed I would make the sub-skills (is painting its own skill or is there only a general "art" skill?).
This blog post explains the concept of positioning, which your professions are an instance of (by the way, read the other posts in the blog too, Vincent Baker has some awesome insight in the process RPGs are played). Basically, in his post Vincent explains what role this kind of character division should play in your game. You seem to already have a good grasp of it, since you mentioned a few relations between positioning and effectiveness (the limits on the skills, for example) and relations between the fiction and the positioning (for example your tidbit about administrators and artists having good knowledge of earth culture).
But you see, it is here that a lot of the design will rest. The third relationship Vincent talks about is the most important, how your jobs, your skills, your resource (like money, fame, items, and even stuff like special abilities and wounds) and their relations relate to the fiction. Stuff like how a character's skills relate to the challenges you will present the player or what kind of effects does using the singing skill to raise fame affect the world are all included in these relationship.
So, from what I gather, you want to make a very socially heavy rpg, since a lot of skills seem geared to influence people. In fact, two of the 5 jobs will probably excel in just that. So, try to think about where each skill will be useful. Can, for example, the player use artistic skills to slander someone and lower his political powers? Can he use bureaucracy to effectively command someone to do his bidding? Would this have repercussions?
One last thing I want to say is that you should be aware that more important than skill checks is the effects of these skill checks. The importance of skill checks is to give meaning to the player's choice during character building. But that is not the end of it, you want to give meaning to other choices the player make during the game. So, don't make all your skill checks straightforward. Sometimes, a past bad decision may make a skill check fail no matter what. Other times, it may add complications.
Freelance Henchman said:
Next problem is that this setting doesn't really have a use for "adventurer" types, there's simply nothing to explore as such and you can't go looking for treasure and riches. So what's the actual game about? One possible hook for game would be that the ship has a small "secret service" that keeps a close watch on the general mood of the 10,000+ inhabitants, always seeking signs of discontent that might have catastrophic consequences. The secret service, let's call them SPECTREs haha no, how about the "shipwatch", always look for likely candidates for their small but select numbers that will observe and report what they see as they do their normal day jobs.
After character creation the PC is at first free to move around the public areas of the ship, which of course has various small sidequests and such that may or may not have something to do with the overarching plot (that I'm not sure about). This would include a job board that lead to other areas of the ship with various types of work to do ("do something about the sick animals on farm #241", "help the air filter repair team" etc.). The jobs have various skill requirements so that not every character can do every job on all playthroughs. Some of these jobs may reveal some clues regarding the overarching plot, but not necessarily so. If at some point the PC has discovered enough clues that something strange is going on, the shipwatch (though under the guise of private contractors) will contact the PC with one or more new job offers (though I'm not sure if that's a good idea, how would they know what the PC did?). The type of the jobs will depend on the skills of the PC, which would require a minimum in at least one skill (because it might need a doctor to work in a hospital or a tech to work at the engines). A character that has many high skills might be able to choose between several jobs.
The "job" will have appropriate skill challenges and NPCs to talk to, sway and interrogate. There should be different ways to fulfill the main objective of course, and while the "apparent" main objective may be fulfilled the character may still fail to fulfill a "hidden" objective which is what the shipwatch is looking for and that may only become apparent if the PC spoke to the right person at the right time, looked at the right document or noticed sabotage on a ship's system or such. The PC is not told upfront what the hidden objective is or that he even should look for anything suspicious. If the hidden objective is completed, the shipwatch will reveal themselves to the PC and offer to join them (in this case the PC can even fail the main objective completely, but will receive less XP than if he fulfilled it too). On the other hand if the PC spoke and acted in a certain way (not necessarily "evilly"), an antagonist group might contact him too with a counteroffer to join *them* instead.
My only complaint is that it seems possible for the player to simply fall into a case of not attracting the attention of either group. In that case, maybe you should allow the player to go independent? For example, as whatever crisis makes up the main quest unfurls, let the player who didn't align himself with either group investigate on his own. In fact, I can't help but think it could be interesting if instead of the factions goading you on, a lot of the game depended on the player investigating what is going on.
Also, if you are willing to make something more risky, I would recommend you to take a look at
storytron. This is a system by Chris Crawford to dynamically generate stories using verbs and actors. If you are willing to implement such thing in your game, you could allow the PCs's influence over NPCs to be dynamic, rather than a pre-calculated issue.
Freelance Henchman said:
Haha, alright, guess it is really old and played out. Back to the drawing board I guess.
No! Think of it as having ample works to draw inspiration from! If you would rather work on something else, then go ahead, but don't give up on your work just because it's theme is already pretty common.
hiver said:
Thing is - you need a interesting overarching plot to pull it off and that you dont have - and even if you did it would suck balls compared to many works of science fiction, like Greg Bears Eon or Gene Wolfes Books of the Long Sun etc.
I agree the reason for the voyage, and its fate, are an important would be an important part of the game's story. But his story for this game seems to concentrate more on something that happens during the voyage itself. If Freelance Henchman is willing to make this into a series, he might explore the overarching plot more deeply only later.
