Game News Colony Ship RPG Update #1: Setting, Character System

[Unbeliever]

Not sure I like the religious angle here - seems a bit strange that evangelical Christian types would be interested in exploring new worlds rather than preaching the Good News to those on Earth who have not been saved. I suppose it seems odd to me because we live in an increasingly secular world and that generally those who would have the scientific know-how to even begin to consider what it would take to carry out such an ambitious task would likely not be super-religious folks to begin with. I don't know, it would depend on a lot of things (i.e. what sort of place Earth has become), so perhaps my misgivings are not correct here. I could see an unhinged Howard Hughes type doing something like this as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sparrow_(novel)

 

[Vault Dweller]

Given that this is such an ambitious, idealistic undertaking carried about by a bunch of people who are - at least among the first generation - fully dedicated to The Cause, why isn't it a state of the art ship?

Money? Only a state like the US or a combined effort of Europe would be able to launch a state of the art ship pouring nearly unlimited resources into such a project. Anyone else would have to go with a "budget" colony ship.

If you are willing to consign yourself and your progeny to living in a fishbowl for the next few centuries, why would you cut so many corners? Sure, you might not necessarily have the resources or the expertise to build the Mothership that sends your people to Hiigara, but if it's going to take forever for the ship to reach its destination and there are many dangers along the way, why not take the time to do it right? Of course, I acknowledge that at some point you'd have to let go of Clevian perfectionism and launch the fucking ship at some point.

It's not a question of time, it's a question of money.

As for people, look at how many people signed up for Mars One. They don't know the living conditions, they will be stuck in a tiny fishbowl for the rest of their lives and it doesn't stop them.

Not sure I like the religious angle here - seems a bit strange that evangelical Christian types would be interested in exploring new worlds rather than preaching the Good News to those on Earth who have not been saved. I suppose it seems odd to me because we live in an increasingly secular world and that generally those who would have the scientific know-how to even begin to consider what it would take to carry out such an ambitious task would likely not be super-religious folks to begin with. I don't know, it would depend on a lot of things (i.e. what sort of place Earth has become), so perhaps my misgivings are not correct here. I could see an unhinged Howard Hughes type doing something like this as well.

Because the Christian organizations have money (factor #1) and motivation.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Not sure I like the religious angle here - seems a bit strange that evangelical Christian types would be interested in exploring new worlds the New World rather than preaching the Good News to those on Earth in England who have not been saved.

Perhaps VD could name the ship the Neo-Mayflower to really rub the analogy in

Speaking of which:

"By 1620, the Mayflower was an aging ship, nearing the end of the usual working life of an English merchant ship in that era..."

 

[hivemind]

There is one big plothole tho.

How do you justify the founding fathers not losing their Christian faith once they reach on the orbit and are able to clearly see that Earth is not flat ?

checkmate christians

 

[Gondolin]

There is one big plothole tho.

How do you justify the founding fathers not losing their Christian faith once they reach on the orbit and are able to clearly see that Earth is not flat ?

checkmate christians

How do you calculate Easter and Christmas outside Earth's 7-day/12-month cycle?

Checkmate Christians!

 

[DSW]

Because the Christian organizations have money (factor #1) and motivation.

Could you estimate ROI of colony ship project for Christian organizations? Power they will gain? Generation ship can be only saving human race project. No pillage, no colony ship. That is believable motivation. Nobody will fly to Moon or to Mars until ROI calculation promises zero result.

 

[Infinitron]

Vault Dweller Any chance of another, more advanced ship from Earth catching up with your ship, like what happens at the end of Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series?

 

[Forest Dweller]

No, but you will make contact with Agathoth.

 

[Irenaeus III]

No, but you will make contact with Agathoth.

Sorry, bro, I killed him.

 

[Forest Dweller]

You only killed his avatar on that world. I'm talking the real deal.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Because the Christian organizations have money (factor #1) and motivation.

Could you estimate ROI of colony ship project for Christian organizations? Power they will gain? Generation ship can be only saving human race project. No pillage, no colony ship. That is believable motivation. Nobody will fly to Moon or to Mars until ROI calculation promises zero result.

I don't think there could be any return to speak of considering the length of the flight. Even if all predictions come true, it would take at least thousand years before the ship returns to Earth. It's a pure faith-based undertaking, hence the religious angle.

Vault Dweller Any chance of another, more advanced ship from Earth catching up with your ship, like what happens at the end of Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series?

No. I have a different endgame in mind.

 

[felipepepe]

The colony ship arrives at the planet and finds the ruins of a dead, highly advanced ship. Turns out they invented faster-than-light engines back on Earth, got ahead of the colony ship and arrived at the planet decades ago, but their data was wrong and the planet isn't inhabitable.

Credits roll - BOOM! - directed by M. Night Shyamalan appears on screen.

 

[Norfleet]

Melee: Fist, Bladed, Blunt

Firearms: Pistol, Shotgun, SMG

Energy Weapons: Pistol, Rifle, Cannon

I have noticed a LOT of games go this kind of route, having extremely specific fighting and shooting skills. This is, frankly, both kind of obnoxious to gameplay and unrealistic. Gameplaywise, you're forcing a player to pigeonhole himself practically from the beginning of character creation. Despite not knowing what, if any, of these weapons exist and are good to use, you want him to pick to use one and never touch anything else again. Realistically, it just doesn't make much sense. Somebody who has trained extensively with a pistol to become an expert pistol marksman doesn't pick up a shotgun and rifle and have no idea how to use the damn thing, shooting like he's never picked up a gun before. He still understands how to shoot. An expert knife fighter doesn't know absolutely nothing about how to be in a fist fight or use a club. You can't just use ONLY your knife in a knife fight, that's how bad knife fighters fight: They forget the rest of their body exists and fixate on their knife. Someone who is good as a knife fighter is good as a fighter, period. This is in direct contrast to the typical game where you take ONE combat skill and pump it like crazy, or else you create a character bad at everything.

 

[StaticSpine]

No, but you will make contact with Agathoth.

You will make contact with Miltiades.

 

[Jaesun]

No, but you will make contact with Agathoth.

You will make contact with Miltiades.

 

[Severian Silk]

There is one big plothole tho.

How do you justify the founding fathers not losing their Christian faith once they reach on the orbit and are able to clearly see that Earth is not flat ?

checkmate christians

How do you calculate Easter and Christmas outside Earth's 7-day/12-month cycle?

Checkmate Christians!

Christmas and Easter should only happen once a (local) year, regardless of what planet you're on. On the bright side, you may get more Christmas presents in the same period of time.

 

[thesheeep]

Melee: Fist, Bladed, Blunt

Firearms: Pistol, Shotgun, SMG

Energy Weapons: Pistol, Rifle, Cannon

I have noticed a LOT of games go this kind of route, having extremely specific fighting and shooting skills. This is, frankly, both kind of obnoxious to gameplay and unrealistic. Gameplaywise, you're forcing a player to pigeonhole himself practically from the beginning of character creation. Despite not knowing what, if any, of these weapons exist and are good to use, you want him to pick to use one and never touch anything else again. Realistically, it just doesn't make much sense. Somebody who has trained extensively with a pistol to become an expert pistol marksman doesn't pick up a shotgun and rifle and have no idea how to use the damn thing, shooting like he's never picked up a gun before. He still understands how to shoot. An expert knife fighter doesn't know absolutely nothing about how to be in a fist fight or use a club. You can't just use ONLY your knife in a knife fight, that's how bad knife fighters fight: They forget the rest of their body exists and fixate on their knife. Someone who is good as a knife fighter is good as a fighter, period. This is in direct contrast to the typical game where you take ONE combat skill and pump it like crazy, or else you create a character bad at everything.

I'm not saying that it will be like this, but this can be solved:
Just have synergies similar to what Underrail does. Something like "Pistol skill adds 30% of its value to shotgun skill.".

Another solution would be to assume that everyone can use every kind of weapon at an "amateurish, but ok" level, and the actual skills are just added on top of that.

And I am sure there are more ways to solve this.

But I will always prefer specialization in skills to big skill groups, even if it isn't super realistic.
Choices in character development > realism. Within limits, of course.

 

[One-and-a-half-Ivan]

There is one big plothole tho.

How do you justify the founding fathers not losing their Christian faith once they reach on the orbit and are able to clearly see that Earth is not flat ?

checkmate christians

I know it's a joke, but the Bible never states that the Earth is as flat as your gf's breasts

 

[HobGoblin42]

Regarding the massive decline of Christianity in the last decades, such a prominent role in a future Colony Ship wouldn't be very believable for me.

I would like to see a logical and presumable extrapolation of the current world. Such as a large Muslim faction (split into two hostile parts, Sunnis and Shiites), Hindu, American Baptist Preachers, Chinese Confucianism Mandarins, the Russian Orthodox bloc, radical atheist European Technocrats. Of course, that's only the setup when the ship launched, any faction could evolve into a even more bizarre direction during the flight.

 

[Irenaeus III]

Regarding the massive decline of Christianity in the last decades, such a prominent role in a future Colony Ship wouldn't be very believable for me.

 

[SniperHF]

I'm not saying that it will be like this, but this can be solved:
Just have synergies similar to what Underrail does. Something like "Pistol skill adds 30% of its value to shotgun skill.".

Another solution would be to assume that everyone can use every kind of weapon at an "amateurish, but ok" level, and the actual skills are just added on top of that.

And I am sure there are more ways to solve this.

But I will always prefer specialization in skills to big skill groups, even if it isn't super realistic.
Choices in character development > realism. Within limits, of course.

AoD already had this. The problem is in AoD it was largely inconsequential* because there were several types of weapons within a category that covered the various tactical situations. So switching to a different weapon for tactical reasons using a synergy usually didn't work because having a lower skill number was rarely worth the tradeoff.

*There were some situations it was useful, one of them was actually using the synergy to buff your primary weapon further to beat really tough enemies like the final "boss". Also I'd say that in older pre-release versions synergies were actually more viable because each weapon type didn't have as many tactical options from within.

Regarding the massive decline of Christianity in the last decades, such a prominent role in a future Colony Ship wouldn't be very believable for me.

I would like to see a logical and presumable extrapolation of the current world. Such as a large Muslim faction (split into two hostile parts, Sunnis and Shiites), Hindu, American Baptist Preachers, Chinese Confucianism Mandarins, the Russian Orthodox bloc, radical atheist European Technocrats. Of course, that's only the setup when the ship launched, any faction could evolve into a even more bizarre direction during the flight.

I'd think of it like this. If in this setting Christianity declines and becomes a minority in say the United States, those remaining would likely be even more devoted and not necessarily lose their financial resources if there were still major benefactors.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Regarding the massive decline of Christianity in the last decades, such a prominent role in a future Colony Ship wouldn't be very believable for me.

Precisely why. The numbers are declining but the Catholic Church is the biggest financial power in the world and I don't mean just the Vatican bank. Thus they have the means and the reason.

 

[thesheeep]

Sounds logical to me, as well.

America was colonized to a large part by European religious minorities (in the beginning, at least).

Of course, I'd not like to play on a ship where everyone is some kind of annoying preacher, but I suspect the writing will be more diverse than that

 

[Vault Dweller]

It won't be a ship of religious zealots and preachers. You'll understand it better when we introduce the factions and the timeline.

 

[HobGoblin42]

Ok, a scenario, where US-American neo-cons are building an ark to flee the earth sounds plausible.

But unfortunately, as catholic, I couldn't take a strong catholic faction serious because in reality, the Roman Catholic Church lost her authority, self-respect and power a long time ago. Recently, they even covered antique nude statues because of the visit of the Iranian president Rohani