Spacepunk RPG called Dark Soviet. Kick my games rear.

[Del]

Hey there, please crit this. I have some specific questions at the end about where I'm headed with this.

RPG Name: Dark Soviet

Synopsis: A spacepunk near future RPG where characters fight to survive in a solar system of totalitarian Soviets, corporate lords, and rebels who oppose both. Setting includes genetic engineering, planet to planet faster than light travel, and cybernetic lifeforms. Set in '05 Post Earthfall.

Note: Material in the gamebook that is setting *story* specific is clearly marked for GM's who want to create their own histories (and leave the Dark Soviet story elements out of their games)

Outline:

Dark Soviet

A: System: simple d6 resolution - "rules light"

B: Characters

i - loose class system

1 - Fighters Type (adjustable skill class)
2 - Mechheads Type (adjustable skill class)
3 - Politicals Type (adjustable skill class)

ii - Hybrid humans and risen (intelligent) animal species

iii - AI and full cyborgs

   1 - Black Servers (intelligent machine entities that cultivate cyborg followers)
   2 - Cyberneticals - cyberspace operatives

iv - Soviet

    1 - Citizens
    2 - Army, officers, and internal security
    3 - Ruling Politburo

v - Corporate feudalists -

   1 - Lords and Boardmembers
   2 - Mass Shareholders (corporate citizens)

vi - Rebels

  1 - Protectorate guerilla fighters - Pluto
  2 - New-Sentients groups - (engineered intelligent lifeforms tribe)

B: Places

i - Earth

1 - Pacifica undersea colonies
2 - greater earth wasteland
3 - Western Arcologies

ii - Junkspace - earth habitation ring - greatly populated

1 - Soviet
2 - Corporus
3 - Free Warrens - risen zone, rebel sympathizers
4 - Europa - Contested by Soviet and Corporates

iii - Mars -

   1 - terraformed at polar areas
   2 - Jungles
   3 - Runaway dangerous engineered ecosystem (predatory lifeforms)

iv - Saturn -  Black Server held

v - Pluto - Protectorate Rebel Stronghold

1 - "Good guys"
2 - led by former NATO outfit

C: Technology and Gear

i - Cybernetics

   1 - Inter region cybercom (cybernet) - Non mapped action resolution (no webcrawler taking over half the game to jack into a target server)
   2 - Cybernetic and genetically placed enhancements

ii - Expensive intrasystem FTL

iii -  Zero G activity gear for masses

iv - genetically engineered character traits

v - Weapons

   1 - Beamers (lasers)
   2 - Recoiless weapons
   3 - Genetic and cybernetic character weapons
   4 - Sun Conversion Laser (SCL) - weapons off mass destruction used against earth

vi - Vehicles

  1 - Modular shuttles, gunships, and zeroG Bikes
  2 - Soviet dreadnaughts
  3 - Hydrogen Orbital Spaceways

sooooooo ...

Question 1: I'm gonna mark the story elemants, as I said, so people can pick out the system stuff they like in a homebrew or in a different setting using most the Dark Soviet rules. You guys feel good about that? Would you say use it for a Aliens style bug hunt campaign? (as an example)


Question 2: What am I missing tech wise for a near future geared game?

Question 3: Any red flags I need to see?

Question 4: Come up with your own question 4!

The only thing I need to hold onto is the interplanet FTL (which is a bit advanced for setting) because I don't want to inflict NASA planet to planet navigation on the players.

Thanks for your time! It is now 11 pm PST, I will be writing till around 6 pm tomorrow. Gonna knock this puppy off.

[GB Steve]

Have you heard of Sovok? It's a French game, €10 from East & West Studios. Here's their website and here's a review page. There's a free demo on the E&WS website but only in French.

Here's a Google translation of the review. PNJ is French for NPC.

As for question 4, what do you want the players to do? The background sounds pretty interesting but it's not clear to me what the players' hook will be. That's a problem I have with Transhuman Space. It's a massive background but it's not easy to write scenarios for it.

[Del]

I never heard of Sovok before. I think it's cool there is a french cyberpunk game.

As for question 4, what do you want the players to do? The background sounds pretty interesting but it's not clear to me what the players' hook will be. That's a problem I have with Transhuman Space. It's a massive background but it's not easy to write scenarios for it.

A lot of the scenarios will be built on freedom fighting ala Star Wars D6. I however am not barring organized crime and corporate/Soviet character campaigns. I hope it works so the GM's and players feel that they have choices.

[Del]

Steve yer absolutely right about the overall character role. I modified the synopsis.

Synopsis: A spacepunk near future RPG where characters fight for freedom in a solar system of totalitarian Soviets, corporate lords, and rebels who oppose both. Setting includes genetic engineering, planet to planet faster than light travel, and cybernetic lifeforms. Set in '05 Post Earthfall.

[Eero Tuovinen]

Two questions:

1) How are the setting and system tied together? How they interface?
2) The same question regarding system and technology, especially the scifi kind of imaginary stuff.

Those are crucial to get heavy setting to work in a sim-like exploratory way. No game I know of has been successful.

As for Steve's question, you misread it. He (and I) wants to know what the players do, not what the characters do. I assume from your answer that the players are trying to succeed in these missions given out by the GM, but you aren't saying it explicitly. It could as well be that although the characters are onstensibly fighting this freedom war, the real player issues are about insecurities and morality, like Star Wars.

Also, I suggest that if the player task here is to succeed in mission-based adventures, the setting background will ultimately prove insignificant for play. Although it's included in many games of that kind as a kind of crutch and reading material, you'd get a more elegant design by leaving most of it for the GM to worry about. He'll have enough to do with mission design without having to juggle a prefab setting in the mixture as well. Especially if that setting has predefined NPCs and events, instead of generalities.

Your questions:

1) If the setting/rules interface is so minimal as to allow this, the chances are that you'd be better of with either leaving the setting out or revising the system. As for using the system for something else, impossible to say without knowing the design goals. Some systems are usable without their setting, some are not.

I don't think the rest of the questions are answerable.

[Eero Tuovinen]

Oh, one more thing: there's no such thing as rules-light. There's only rules that have a reason, and rules that do not. Listen to Yoda, and don't make bad rules.

It seems to me from the outline that your primary interest here is the setting. Although settings can be utilized in RPGs, it's a difficult design proposition to make a good game of it and not just second-rate fiction. Unless you have strong design priorities that utilize the setting, it'd be better to go with writing a novel. In my experience the novel form gives the writer much better opportunities for making a setting felt.

[Del]

- 1) How are the setting and system tied together? How they interface?

As the this is a modern+ time setting, the "classes" are geared between three professions that can be adjusted. Otherwise the system is simple to allow greater expansion of tech/planet-settings rather then crunching math to make characters.


- 2) The same question regarding system and technology, especially the scifi kind of imaginary stuff.

See above.

- As for Steve's question, you misread it.

Did I? I don't think I did, but Steve can say.


- Also, I suggest that if the player task here is to succeed in mission-based adventures, the setting background will ultimately prove insignificant for play. Although it's included in many games of that kind as a kind of crutch and reading material, you'd get a more elegant design by leaving most of it for the GM to worry about. He'll have enough to do with mission design without having to juggle a prefab setting in the mixture as well. Especially if that setting has predefined NPCs and events, instead of generalities.

I disagree, you seem to be really uncomfortable with setting building, but I am influenced by games that have succeeded with setting material as long as that material of genre type can be ported overto peoples games that feature a different history. Games like Vampire and DnD Faerun are examples.

- Your questions:

- 1) If the setting/rules interface is so minimal as to allow this, the chances are that you'd be better of with either leaving the setting out or revising the system. As for using the system for something else, impossible to say without knowing the design goals. Some systems are usable without their setting, some are not.

So hey! I give not only a usable rules-lite material, but I give a usable setting for the rules system.

[Eero Tuovinen]

- 1) How are the setting and system tied together? How they interface?

As the this is a modern+ time setting, the "classes" are geared between three professions that can be adjusted. Otherwise the system is simple to allow greater expansion of tech/planet-settings rather then crunching math to make characters.

- 2) The same question regarding system and technology, especially the scifi kind of imaginary stuff.

See above.

Let me elaborate on the question. Either you didn't get it or I don't understand the answer.

So, when you've detailed the Soviet Politburo, what explicit ways does the system offer for handling the effect Politburo will have on the game? Will there be a stat block for the most important members, and the GM then uses those NPCs as hooks to adventure? Or will there be an Oppression statistic for the whole Soviet space, rolled against PC Intrigue scores to see if Politburo will act on whatever it is the PC is doing? Or is there a detailed methodology for a player to bribe this one correct official to get a law passed on some thing or another? That kind of thing. What does the Politburo mean for the game? What would be different if there weren't a Politburo?

Similarly, the technology: What does it mean for the players that there's this defined future tech, say, zero gravity apparati? Will the characters buy these off equipment lists? Can they apply the tech to rig technobabble solutions to their problems? Is there a commercial model on where and how the stuff is available, or is it just GM fiat?

The above questions are IMO crucial for a game with detailed setting, because they will largely control how the setting realizes in actual play. In my experience a setting tends to easily become a thin veneer on just another adventure commando game if there's no points of contact between the setting and the rules. I like your setting idea - it'd be interesting to play soviets against capitalists against activists - but if those things just become labels on good/bad factions, then it's not worth the bother.

In other words, the game needs a focus. What are your players going to be doing?

[Del]

In other words, the game needs a focus. What are your players going to be doing?

The characters fight for freedom in a comprehensive near future setting, as I said. I don't feel a need though to expand the core system, which is a typical action resolution system, down to exclusively fight the Politburo via some meta-rule.

[Eero Tuovinen]

Well, Del, assuming that you've understood my questions and answered with consideration, it seems to me that you're well on the way to making the game you want here. That's altogether a good thing. Your writing outline looks pretty solid to me, considering the goals - that could well be a WEG or GoO book proposal, content-wise. Perhaps add a GMing section, but you'd know if that's part of the plan.

I suggest that you start the writing, especially on setting stuff, as soon as possible. Utilize normal prose writing technique on that - write daily if possible and so on, what authors tend to suggest. Get a good atelier critic, especially if you have no previous experience of the genre you're writing for.

Systemwise, where are you exactly going with the development? If you're just starting, take a look at Fudge and other such simple systems for inspiration. Otherwise, get a playable sketch together as soon as possible and start playtesting. If you write diligently and playtest properly, it's likely that your prose will be ready before the system. To cut the design cycle short, consider using d20 or other available generic systems with some moderate tweaking. They're the right pick for some projects, considering how time-consuming it is to design, test and write a good system.

Other than those suggestions, good luck! I don't foresee large technical problems, game design -wise.

[GB Steve]

- As for Steve's question, you misread it.
Did I? I don't think I did, but Steve can say.

Actually what was I was after was some explanation of what kind of freedom the PCs would be fighting for. Are they part of some kind of revolutionary force, and if so, what are their goals? Apart from some kind of nebulous 'freedom', are they politically aligned with any popular support? Are they heroes or terrorists? Does the media universally condemn them?

Look at Al Qaeda, seen as evil maniacs in the USA and god-driven freedom fighters in parts of the Middle East. Are the Soviet totalitarian masters evil to everyone or do they have their supporters? And I'm imagining they must do, if only to avoid the collapse of their regime.

Or perhaps you want some ambiguity. Most people are happy and unaware of their enslavement, false conciousness is part of the battle.

And then there's what Eero talks about. Is this a gung-ho pulpy kind of game with space battles on the shoulder of Orion, carefree heroes and moustache-twirling snide villains?

Or are the PCs more human? They oppose tyranny because they have something to lose, families and communities. They are bound not just by ideals but also by blood to the struggle and more than just their own lives, their actions put their loved ones in danger too. They could go home to 3 squares and 24 hour 3Dtv and safety but they fight for more than just themselves. In essence, what are they prepared to sacrifice for freedom?

And is victory possible? Is there a Death Star to be destroyed that would signal defeat for the evil overlords? Do the PCs have something else to put in the place of the current régime that might work or is the evil régime the only thing that is stopping some balkanisation and in fighting between disparate ethnic and economic groups?

And if it's up to the GM to decide this kind of thing for their game, will you be offering support that looks at this kind of issue?