Galactic - space adventure fortified with narrativism!

[Sydney Freedberg]

just look at the epic we're drawing on- Star Wars, the original trilogy. 90% of it is referenced in backstory and we're thrust into the middle of everything

Heck, take the original epics of Western civilization: The Iliad and the Odyssey. The latter takes ten years -- the former, about ten days. The Trojan War has been raging for 9 years, Achilles and Agamemnon have already gotten the female captives they're going to quarrel over, and BAM! The action starts. (You don't even get to the end of the Trojan War, either, or even the death of Achilles). That's not the kind of thing most people mean by "epic" but it's there at the beginning: lots of backstory and starting just before the crisis point.

[johnzo]

Coming in late, sorry...

Thanks for the rules suggestions, but for now, I'm looking for thoughts on 1) endgame and 2) what makes something epic.

My favourite epics also feature huge character changes.  At the end of both Babylon 5 and Farscape, all the characters have morphed.  Some have become nearly unrecognizable (hello, Londo Mollari.)  So I would like some character development in my epic, please.

(and here's a mechanical idea, even though you're not asking for any, I'm just excited that I thought of it, so I want to capture it before I get distracted by something.)

I'm picturing some kind of "destiny map" on the character sheet.  During conflicts, you wager movement on the destiny map.  Then, when the endgame happens, the destiny map shows how your character exits the epic -- if she winds up on the revered space, she exits as a saint; if she winds up on the 'doom' space; she exits into some fate worse than death; if she winds up somewhere in the undifferentiated middle of the map, she exits the epic forgotten, lost in the wash of history.  And, because it's an epic, the personal destiny somehow influences the galactic destiny.  The idea is to force players to manage their characters' legacies, while hopefully messing the galaxy up in the process.

[Alan]

Hi Matt,

The word "wager" triggered a memory.  I meant to post this idea and forgot.  

To connect the protagonists with the greater conflict, how about a system of overall resources for the greater conlfict that can be won and lost during play?  The overall conflict would be defined with some resource scores: the resources needed to succeed.  

This grand conflict would start with less than needed.  Each episode, the players would define "ante" which are the resources that can be gained, if they are successful in their smaller mission. The resources need not be directly connected to the protagonists' activities.  Failure would lose the ante, success double it.

Also, during play, the players could wager more grand resources to get personal rerolls or extra dice for a single conflict.

Perhaps, during the initial preparation, the group could define the ideal event arc of the grand conflict, then establish some branches and setbacks.  This event map could be kept simple because it's happening in the background.  Players would then distribute 100 points to be won for succeeding at each conflict/decision point in the map.  Winning the grand campaign would require the players to earn 100 points by going through this event map.  I hope that's not to confused.