Resist the Sunne [Steampunk/Space Opera]

[natfrobinson]

Ah, Richard. Welcome to the topic; I was wondering when you'd show up.

Please, direct all system and combat questions to him.

I am just the setting and Sightless guy.

I suppose you could say its my world, but his game.

[Sovem]

If I could make a little suggestion? "Jupitonian" seems a little clunky... how about "Jovian," instead?

[Thenomain]

Hmm, sorry about being vague.  Let me put it another way:

There are a lot of cultures on Earth that believe in a spiritual other-world, many of those believe in it as purely a place the dead reside.  Pre-modern Egypt and many parts of Africa, and so on, not to mention many monotheists.  Do they all know The Pitch in different ways, are their beliefs purely philosophical (while the Pitch is very real), is everybody right and the Pitch is merely one of many spiritual places, or are you not answering the question in the game?

The deeper reason for asking this was about the theme: Is it a One-Truth kind of game (a Euro-centric Victorian theme), or will spirituality and cultural belief play a larger metaphysical role?

More curious than anything else.

[TwoCrows]

TwoCrows: Thanks, Brad : ) While I'm not sure if I termed the phrase Teslapunk, I must admit that Swordpunk seems to be an incredibly cool concept. Perhaps Mysticpunk is more suitable to the setting?

Hmm. Thanks for the support~

You're welcome.

A quick, and decidedly non-exhaustive Goog-lay search has revealed that Swordpunk appears in the top 5 (referring to the Forge post it was first used in), and the previous 4 refer to screen handles. "Teslapunk" has been used previously to describe various permutations of the Punk genre in a number of forums, but not on any dedicated Teslapunk website.

They're both still way soooo kool!

Regards, Brad

[natfrobinson]

Sovem: Consider it changed. Thanks for the input : )

Thenomain: So far, the culture's viewpoints are only philosophical speculation. However, the Sightless ability Walk in Shadows allows the character to physically enter and explore another aspect of the Pitch, known as the Shadow, which instead of being just one large black field where the dead and ships coexist, is infact another realm that reflects both a) where the Shadow was entered and b) the personal beliefs of the character.

The Shadow is much more dangerous, if that is even possible, but has much larger rewards hidden within its clouds; whether it be metaphysical knowledge, strange powers, items and so on. The Shadow is much more personalized, but only the Sightless may enter the Shadow; it is different to the Pitch in that regard.

As to the theme of the game, largely it remains unanswered. Whatever the Cosmic Master wishes to throw in is acceptable. To recap: The Pitch is just one big afterlife-highway, while the Darkness is an entire spiritual world that often affects the mundane.

Brad: Hmm. Do you reckon there's a subgenre of -punk to describe space adventures such as Man on the Moon or Space: 1889?

Thanks guys!

[Nuthael]

Okay, hello everyone! I've completely overhauled nats original dice system, and recreated it all. This is what I have so far, taken directly from the book:

Combat

An action in Resist the Sunne is always either half-turn or full-turn. Obviously, you may take two half-turn actions per round or one full turn action. Half-turn actions are restricted to sheathing, unsheathing, readying, dodging, deflecting, reloading and shooting (Shooting is a full action for an automatic weapon). Full turn actions are basically everything else (If you have a query as to whether or not a seemingly quick action is full or half turn, you may consult your CM). The first step in every combat is called the reflex action and is restricted to a half-turn action. Reflex actions are all assumed to take place at the exact time of the beginning of combat. After the reflex action, each participant writes their action and hands it up to the CM, who then decides the contests, and asks each player to roll an appropriate attribute roll. Once all contests have been decided, all actions happen simultaneously. This continues until one party either flees or is dead.

Surprise

If a group surprises another, and therefore has knowledge of them before the combat, they get to take a full-turn action in the reflex action.

Aiming, dodging, and deflecting

As all actions happen simultaneously, it can be hard to decide when to dodge or deflect a blow. This is resolved by a player choosing to wait as a half action, then s/he can deflect or dodge after contests have been decided. Doing so adds 1 die to that player's next roll, if that roll is against the one s/he dodged or deflected. Alternatively, a player may aim for a full action, which adds 1 die to their next contest roll, if against the one s/he aimed at, and disallows the use of dodging or deflecting in that contest.

Attribute Rolls

An attribute roll is a dice roll of d10s based on a certain attribute. The dice pool of the roll is determined by halving the attribute score (rounded down) and adding a modifier of double the attribute score. One relevant skill may add dice to the dice pool, and the weapon or tool being used (if the action uses a weapon or tool) adds to the modifier.

[Thenomain]

Thanks for the insight, Nat.  It sounds like one part pure nightmares, one part Jules Verne, one part pulp.  Interesting.

Just to quickly note, Space: 1889 is a Victorian Space Opera, but if you punked it up then the prefixes of Ether- or even Tesla- would apply.  (I'd probably go with Etherpunk since ether is that magic substance that makes weird science and space flight possible.)

[natfrobinson]

Yeah, Etherpunk sounds about right; I just havn't quite included ether/aethyr into the system.  I don't know if it quite fits..

[Alan]

Hi Nat,

...the game will revolve around fighting the Coalition, engaging in the politics of the System, and trying to find the lost planet of Eris, which is guarded by the strange Plutonians and which, legend has it, has the means to win the war. Each planet has its own unique "brand" of super-beings, but no one can quite agree why they came to be after the Martians death; some argue that it was a last defense experiment by the Martians, while others believe that it's their respective planet's trying to evolve and cope with the war.

Sorry for the long post, guys. What do you think? At the moment I'm trying to sort out mechanics and I'm seriously contemplating allowing the other species of the System as playable characters..

It does sound like a cool setting. I think that with such a rich and wonderful setting, you have to find a way to bring in player contributions and not be try to set out a metaplot that they play inside of. You might want to look at HeroQuest, The Shadow of Yesterday, and Burning Empires for examples.

And I agree it's time for you to move on to developing game rules that tie players into the cool things you see them doing. An angle that has worked well for other designers is asking yourself what kind of mechanics will help generate the experience of fighting the coalition, engaging in politics, and searching for Eris?

I noticed the combat post earlier -- it hinted at something like the D&D3.5E system, which has a very detailed tactical combat system. Because that system is so detailed, players in 3e spend a lot of time focused on combat and getting character buffs for combat. How do you feel about that for your own game?

[natfrobinson]

Alan,

Thanks for your advice. At the current stage I'm trying to figure out how best to approach that angle, but it needs a lot more work.

Personally, I believe that the game will be more about dramatics and story then combat; that's just how my games always seem to pan out. If, in the process, Nuthael's system doesn't work very well, then we'll have to scrap it and start afresh.

I've always disliked D&D3.5.. Character buffs and mega-complex fight seens make me ill.

[xiombarg]

I like the setting. But when it comes to stuff like this, we always come back to this question: What do the characters do?

There seems to be a lot going on. Are they supposed to be exploring the line between life and death? Fighting the Sons of the Star? There's a tendency to try to stuff everything you think is cool into a setting. Such settings, while often wickedly cool, usually lack focus. What is the focus of the game? What do you see actual play being like?

[Alan]

Alan,

Thanks for your advice. At the current stage I'm trying to figure out how best to approach that angle, but it needs a lot more work.

Personally, I believe that the game will be more about dramatics and story then combat; that's just how my games always seem to pan out. If, in the process, Nuthael's system doesn't work very well, then we'll have to scrap it and start afresh.

I've always disliked D&D3.5.. Character buffs and mega-complex fight seens make me ill.

Hi Nat,

So what is it you wanted out of this thread? We can tell you that your setting is intriguing, but I don't think that's what you need.

[natfrobinson]

Xiombarg: Thanks for the criticism. I think, in Resist the Sunne, the characters are driven to find the lost planet of Eres, fighting the Coalition and the Sons of the Star as they get in their way; they work extensively to make sure that the Sun will not destroy the galaxy. Several factions, each with their own ideology regarding this issue, are available, including a few "Traitor Factions". Information on these factions can be given if anyone is really interested

Alan: This thread is basically here so that I can receive criticism towards any part of the game. I understand that when you have a two-man team creating an RPG, things tend to be overlooked.

I am using this thread to remain as focused as I can possibly be.

[Nuthael]

Looking over what has been said so far, I just realised that I completely overlooked how much damage would be dealt and how to deal with damage, health and death. Basically, HP (lol, hard to use much else in most Rps, eh?) is rolled at character creation, as an Endurance roll, before skills are bought, and the amount of damage is based on the difference between the offensive roll and the defensive roll. The idea behind that is that your offensive roll is a measure of how strong/successful your attack was and the opponents defensive roll is a measure of how well they defended against your attack.

If you didnt understand that, heres an example:

Your character, Gwern, is a Adventurer with Endurance 7 and Strength 6. At character creation, you would have rolled an Endurance roll, which ended up at 17, which, adding the +14 modifier, gave you a HP of 31. You get into a fight, and roll contest Strength rolls. You roll a total of 32, and the opponent rolls a total of 27. You therefore dealt 5 damage to the opponent (32 - 27 = 5)

Death is rather hard to come across, except in dire circumstances, such as poisonings and suicides. In most combat, having HP from 0 to -5 means that you are too badly injured to fight. Basically you crumple to the ground, unconscious. Any more than that and you are considered dead, or close to dying.

[natfrobinson]

I picture the easiest way to kill a lot of people is to explode their vessals Boiler in space combat.