Peregrine - mixing rpg and boardgame

[Matt Wilson]

There's been a few games I've seen recently that have made cool use of visual aids like a map, and they got me thinking about this vague concept I've had for a space adventure game.

A couple things I'm fishing for is which games have already done some of this, so I can learn from them and acknowledge them. I think this game already bows in deference to Donjon, and probably to Duel of Ages. And of course MLwM makes me want badly to have an endgame. Where else might I look?

The goal of the game is partially to "level up" a la D&D and Donjon and many other games, and also to find the lost planet Earth. That last bit, I think, is an endgame.

Each player is a scout/explorer/scavenger (a Peregrine) sponsored by a faction on the planet Caliban to explore space, find lost technology, fight aliens, and eventually find out "what happened" to plunge the galaxy into a dark age and again, to find Earth. The char sheet would have stats for both the character and for that character's single-person scout ship.

There would be a cool sort of game board that you'd use, with hex-shaped tiles (probably a hex-pdf that you'd print on heavy cardstock and then cut out). The first tile is Caliban, and each additional hex tile is a new solar system, with an adventure waiting. Every hex away from Caliban is more difficult.

When you enter a new system, the player makes rolls to create the scenario, using navigation, sensors, etc. Difficulty to do things in the scenario has to do with the difficulty level of the system. Same with the rewards that the player earns for the character.

Once the scenario starts, then you have the roleplaying portion of the game, with dangerous ruins, angry (or perhaps sexy) aliens, and lost secrets.

I think the board and the territory "captured" by completing scenarios is part of what fuels the endgame. Eventually you gather enough clues to reveal the location of Earth.

There would also be a counter force to the endgame in terms of accumulated danger. There's this bad thing (tm) still out there, and you're going to get its attention if you keep poking your nose around.

[Valamir]

There was a game back in the early 80s called Star Explorer.  It was basically a Star Trek Clone, where you took your ship from planet to planet completing missions.  You'd outfit your ship with various equipment (phasars and shields and teleporters) and crew specialists (botonists, geologists, xenoanthropologists, security, etc).  To complete a mission you could send a number of crew to the planet equal to your teleporter capability, and the goal was to get the right specialists down for the right situation with enough red shirts to absorb the injuries.

It was ostensibly a multiplayer game but in reality it was a bunch of solo games going on simultaneously.  But the mission generation and crew specialty system I think would be very inspirational for your.


There was also the Babylon 5 Collectable Board Game, which unfortuneately suffered from anti-synergy in that it had a lot of really cool ideas (including buildable hex maps) but the overall game was much less then the sum of its parts.  Another good source for inspiration I think.

[Mike Holmes]

Would your hex based design be based off of Twilight Imperium, perhaps? And/or Magic Realm (www.magicrealm.net)? If not, then these are games that you might want to take a look at.

Ralph beat me to Star Explorer, FGU's boardgame version of the RPG called Spacemen & Starships (IIRC?). There was a sorta similar, but much more simple kids game called Strange New Worlds (just for reference - probably not even worth looking up). These come from the age of rolling dice through chartpaths to determine the nature of the progress of play. Typically one play is good enough to hold you for a decade or so.

Starfarers of Catan?

Another GGC would be Galactic Empires, which bears some resemblance to Starfire (which you should be familiar with in one of it's forms).

Mike

[johnzo]

I can see this being very MLWM-ish, with each planetary expedition being like a mission from the Master.  Instead of self-loathing and weariness, your character would accumulate technology and ancient lore and the Bad Thing's (tm) attention.  

Also, with each player out doing their own thing, I suppose you want each expedition to go very quickly.  It might be appropriate to offer some advice about isolating the key bit of roleplaying / die-rolling / adventure (winning the trust of the suspicious natives, getting out of the native museum with the alien artifact, prospecting for improvised fuel supplies, etc)  and then resolving it quickly so the next player can have their turn.

One challenge I see with Peregrine is the common one I see in RPGs with highly mobile characters: since the party is constantly exploring new ground, they'll have to establish new relationships on every planet, which means less fuel for roleplaying.

And what about inter-PC encounters?  Can two characters collaborate on a single expedition?  

zo.

[xiombarg]

And what about inter-PC encounters?  Can two characters collaborate on a single expedition?

For that matter, as has been implied earlier, this could easily work as a Star Trek style game, with all the PCs as the "first contact team", in which case only one PC-run "ship" is doing the exploring, and each encounter can be longer.

[Matt Wilson]

I can see this being very MLWM-ish, with each planetary expedition being like a mission from the Master. Instead of self-loathing and weariness, your character would accumulate technology and ancient lore and the Bad Thing's (tm) attention.

That is a very good way to describe it.

Regarding cooperative missions, I think the higher "challenge levels" might require it. It's still mostly some scribbles on a page, but I can see the competitive aspect of the game having little to do with character interaction. You could choose to be unfriendly, or you could say, let's team up and split the rewards.

And as for new relationships on each planet, I have this idea for two metagame traits: renown and resources. Depending on the world you visited, you can increase these scores, and use them as resource pools. What they mean is up to the player. Resources might be wealth, or fuel, or equipment, or whatever. Renown could easily be used to create relationships. So you're in trouble on planet Y, and you use your renown to have Zippy the Space Troll show up and help you out.

Again, that's all kind of sketchy stuff.

Would your hex based design be based off of Twilight Imperium, perhaps? And/or Magic Realm (www.magicrealm.net)? If not, then these are games that you might want to take a look at.

Magic Realm looks a little more intricate than I was thinking. The boardgame elements of Peregrine would be pretty low impact. The actual hexes wouldn't provide any info. Interesting looking game, though.

[xiombarg]

Regarding cooperative missions, I think the higher "challenge levels" might require it. It's still mostly some scribbles on a page, but I can see the competitive aspect of the game having little to do with character interaction. You could choose to be unfriendly, or you could say, let's team up and split the rewards.

Or, how about this, sort of troupe-style:

There are a number of ships, equal to the number of players. Each player has a character that is the captain of a ship. But each player also has a character on every other ship, in a non-captain position, so each player has a character with a different position on each ship.

This way, when a ship does a mission, everyone is involved. Having a non-captain character help with a mission still nets you "points" for the endgame, just less of them. (This assumes the endgame is different from "finding Earth". Such "points" could also be used as part of a metagame currency -- points earned on other player's ships can help you on your own ship. Using the points as currency would mean you could keep the "Finding Earth" endgame.)

Perhaps each player represents an alien species or political faction in a polygot Empire/Federation, so you're sort of tracking "species/faction prestige" on various exporatory ships...

[johnzo]

There are a number of ships, equal to the number of players. Each player has a character that is the captain of a ship. But each player also has a character on every other ship, in a non-captain position, so each player has a character with a different position on each ship.

What about giving the other players antagonist roles to play during the planetary encounters?

zo.