[Icar] Star Enfocer Setting

[brainwipe]

Last night was the first session of the Star Enforcer Setting. It was going to be the usual fair of character creation and a quick Case. However, many of my players got stuck on a motorway and our time diminished by two hours. We only really just got the introduction along.

The Star Enforcer setting is meant to be a departure from the usual player experience. Most player groups have some sort of Maverick ideal, they make their own social rules and obey with them as they please. The Star Enforcer setting restricts that freedom but gives the ability to impose law upon other people's lives. The Star Enforcers is quite strict. You're not allowed to lark about. Good humour is encouraged, as Enforcers should be approachable by the general public but they should not show disrespect to the upper ranks and be discourteous to the public.

This was a shock for one of my players last night when his character (being stupid, jovial and foolhardy) decided to joke about in front of a senior officer. He was warned but only stopped under sufferance. It's going to be interesting when I 'fire' one of their characters for misbehaviour. I don't normally believe in getting rid of characters just because they are a live wire but the point of this scenario is that they have to work within the rules, that is what makes it new.

I know the argument against was that I put 'Prankster' as a character concept. This was someone who thought being an Enforcer was easy and it was fun. At no point did I mean that this allowed some carte-blanche for breaking the Enforcer rules of professionalism!

Still, we shall see how it pans out.

[brainwipe]

(It should be remembered that I am play testing a new Setting for Icar, called the Star Enforcer Setting - all the things I find out during play is likely to effect the setting document in some way)

Last Tuesday was the second session of the Star Enforcer Setting. The first session was quite short and only dealt with introductions and character creation.

The intention for the setting is to make the characters, be introduced to the setting as a whole and begin on the crime fighting. Hopefully, the player team can leave the first session having made their first arrest. This will let them leave the session with a warm glow and (hopefully) a feeling of excited anticipated for the next. This is to quell the usual fear of the unknown in a scenario. I am running the campaign using the multi-plotline and timeline Icarian model (given in the GM book, the strings).

One interesting meta game feature has reared itself.

Character Restriciton
The Potential Problem
In the past, the player team has been given carte blanche to do what they want. They might suffer terrible consequences but they have been given quite a free reign to solve their problems in their way.

Now they are playing policemen that have been trained all through their formative years. They have been institutionalised into an organisation that expects high standards. It also expects respect for higher ranks and obeying of orders.

There is a reasonable amount of anxiety about whether this sort of scenario will turn out to be fun. How can it be fun if you cannot shoot someone in the face because they look at you funny? I can understand this anxiety - my players are used to a very high level of freedom and autonomy.

Now they have are on the other side of the fence - they have to enforce the laws with very little latitude. If they open fire, they need to make sure that it is right to do so. Fortunately, they have the oracle of The Nexus to give advice and this will avoid many of the mistakes where the players are unsure if it is right to fire or not.

The first night went well and was quite hectic as the first session involves two cases (I won't give too much away).

The reason for this not being a problem
It is actually more of a challenge to run someone down and 'cuff them rather than shoot them from a mile away. Also, the player team are forced to deal with ordinary people (bouncers, hookers and landlords) because they are often the source of information they need. Their old intimidation techniques of 'Cut fingers off until they talk' is no longer valid, so more "roleplaying" based techniques are required.

Also, I think player groups can flounder without clear and defined goals. If they are left to set their own goals, then these goals are too easily mutable. Being a Star Enforcer means that they are given short term goals that might become long term goals (arrest the drug dealers to then find the supplier).

We shall see how it pans out but I think the future is very bright indeed.