[Sufficiently Advanced] Alpha Version

[Colin Fredericks]

Greetings everyone.

I have a new version of my far-future sci-fi game, Sufficiently Advanced. If you like, you can download it from my design journal. It's about 80 pages. I'd be interested to hear any feedback you guys have, especially relating to:

1. The generalized conflict system: does it seem workable to you? Is this more or less complex than it should really be?
2. Core Values. Are these explained enough in the civilization writeups? Are there any which are particularly unclear?
3. The glossary near the beginning: are any terms missing?
4. Plot Scores: are these explained in enough detail? I want them to be the most important part of the game (perhaps along with Core Values), so they need to be relatively easy to use.

Thanks for your help!

--Colin Fredericks

[Starblade]

Greetings everyone.

I have a new version of my far-future sci-fi game, Sufficiently Advanced. If you like, you can download it from my design journal. It's about 80 pages. I'd be interested to hear any feedback you guys have, especially relating to:

1. The generalized conflict system: does it seem workable to you? Is this more or less complex than it should really be?
2. Core Values. Are these explained enough in the civilization writeups? Are there any which are particularly unclear?
3. The glossary near the beginning: are any terms missing?
4. Plot Scores: are these explained in enough detail? I want them to be the most important part of the game (perhaps along with Core Values), so they need to be relatively easy to use.

Thanks for your help!

--Colin Fredericks

I hate to see good work go to waste. Perhaps you should help people see if they want to read the whole 80 pages of gameplay by first offering a summary.

Just my suggestion. You don't have to take it!

[Colin Fredericks]

I hate to see good work go to waste. Perhaps you should help people see if they want to read the whole 80 pages of gameplay by first offering a summary.

Just my suggestion. You don't have to take it!

Not a bad idea.

A quick summary: Players in Sufficiently Advanced take on the role of Inspectors for the Patent Office, a universe-spanning organization devoted to maintaining some semblance of economic unity through intellectual property law. The driving force behind the Office are the Transcendental Artificial Intelligences, computers who can send themselves messages backwards through time, and rather than being about enforcing patent law, the game is really about building a better future. The game is intended to have some of the most advanced technology I can think of, and to actually apply the effects of such technology to society. While characters have "normal" attributes as well, their primary ability is in the form of Plot Scores that they can use to alter what's going on.

Previous threads include the original one and the one about the quickstart manual (the precursor to this version).

--Colin Fredericks

[CSBone]

Collin,

I want to do a more extensive reply but I don't want this thread to get too far down.

1. The generalized conflict system: does it seem workable to you? Is this more or less complex than it should really be?

Without actually playtesting it I can't give you a real answer but my off the cuff assessment from reading it is it looks good. My only real concern is how much span you will see in a single conflict.

2. Core Values. Are these explained enough in the civilization writeups? Are there any which are particularly unclear?

I like them so far. Very cool idea. Need to playtest to see if I've got enough hook.

3. The glossary near the beginning: are any terms missing?

No glaring deficiencies.

4. Plot Scores: are these explained in enough detail? I want them to be the most important part of the game (perhaps along with Core Values), so they need to be relatively easy to use.

hubba, Hubba, HUBBA! The concept is rock solid. Now I want to see how they work in practice.

Guess I need to get a group together...

C. S. Bone

[Colin Fredericks]

I want to do a more extensive reply but I don't want this thread to get too far down.

Thanks. I appreciate it. :) And I definitely look forward to hearing some playtest feedback. One of my friends playtested the quickstart with his group, and some of the alterations (and expansion of the plot scores) came from that. I'm planning on doing some playtesting of my own this spring, but I know all too well the dangers of running your own playtests exclusively. ("What do you mean there's no such rule! We've had that since day one! Oh, wait... it's not in the book. Oops.")

--Colin

[redivider]

Hi,

I've only skimmed so far, focusing on the concept more than the rules specifics. It's a very appealing subject, and from your overview of plot points, they seem like a good complement to the tremendous societal impacts of the technologies you are featuring.

Beyond my overall positive impression, two things that didn't seem right:

I don't like the patent office as the tool for organizing play. Intellectual property rights seem very 20th century and out of place amongst the self aware and self replicating tech of the game. I'd much rather have the player's organization be something like The Joy Division ( as in Bill Joy's 'does the future need us') charged with keeping track of technology with potential biosphere-annihilating power. Or even a generic intergalactic technology regulatory agency.

On a more minor point, I'd consider replacing the art samples you've included with science and technology focused photos and diagrams.  Photos of micromachines and nebula, representations of superstrings, etc seem a better choice for this game than character or society-related clip art.

good luck & I hope you're planning a print version of the game. I look forward to it.

[Colin Fredericks]

Thanks for the comments. I definitely want to do a print version eventually; just not today. :)

Art can be tricky. Photos of nebulae are easy enough to get - nearly all of NASA's images are in the public domain. Modern technology-oriented pictures tend to be copyrighted (though I just found NASA's nanotech gallery...). Some of them might even become recognizable as "old technology" by the time I can publish the game! I'll probably end up paying for a good percentage of the art, as I usually do; I just wanted a few pictures to break up the wall of text and thought the ones I found were evocative of certain civs. And speaking of copyright...

Part of the reason I have the Patent Office in the setting at all is to create an economic standard. You're right that the idea of intellectual property does create some major problems when you're making things that can think and act for themselves. A pretense for the characters to come together is easy to make, though it might not be easy to explain why every civilization trusts or at least works with it. What I really need is this: a believable system by which people from the same or different civilizations can trade useful work they have done for things they need or want.

This assumes three things. First, people are still needed to do useful work. I keep this assumption, not because I think it's needed for an interesting game, but because I think that people will invent useful things to do even if they automate everything we do for work right now. Humans seem to like to keep busy. Second, not everyone has everything they want. This seems pretty reasonable; plenty of pissed-off people would want an antimatter inverter, but no one's going to give them one, even if they calm down first. Third, not everyone has everything they need to survive. This is a little harder to justify, and in some civs it's not true (for example, the Union). Just because this is how it's always been doesn't mean it's how they will always be, after all.

Unfortunately, the economic system in many civs is likely to be something more complex than I can come up with. For the sake of my own sanity, I basically focused the economic system around two things: a preference for human services (e.g. talking to a real waiter instead of a robot in a tux) and an appreciation of creative vision and talent (e.g. having a human architect oversee the design and construction of a building). The latter needs, not necessarily protection of intellectual property, but a reward system for it, lest the architect go hungry.

Anyway, I'm going to stop before I get too far into economic blathering.

--Colin

[joepub]

Hey Colin, I'm slowly chugging through your game.
I have a couple suggestions so far, and will post again as I get further in.

Love the concept, and love the mechanics as I've witnessed them so far.

As far as the introudction to the universe around you, you go into roughly a page (or more) on every single civilization.
While this provides a wealth of knowledge, it is quite a mouthful to be hit with before even getting into the game mechanics part.

I have two suggestions to deal with this. It might just be a matter of personal taste, but I would find the book more easily digested if:
-The descriptions of the civilizations were cut down by 1/3-1/2 of the content. Obviously don't sacrifice anything crucial or anything really cool, but tighten language and avoid any repetition.
-Post 1-2 paragraphs on each civilization, plus their "game rules" text block. Then, at some point AFTER the mechanics have been explained, put the full civ discussions.

Again, that's just how I'd be most comfortable reading it. Maybe I'm off base.

Common Name: The Union
Benefit: Union members must take an additional
Core Value at level 10 or higher. This may
be a cause or a person, but may not be an abstract
concept. They have a total of five Core Values.
Inspector Status: Non-citizen with no rights.
Only slaves are citizens in the Union.
Core Values: Obedience, Order, and one other
of the player's choice (see below).

The Union is a really fascinating civilization for sure. However, something doesn't sit right with their "benefit".

First of all, you are essentially giving a Union player ANOTHER player chosen value - because the player gets to pick that benefit.
This seems extremely counter-intuitive. Isn't the point of the union to represent how LITTLE player decision there is?

I'm just going to throw out a suggestion on this:
-scrap the Union having a fifth core  value
-have the union create 3 "prescribed" values. This means that out of a total of 4, 3 are predetermined.
-create a different benefit for them.

Maybe the different benefit is stat-based (increased cognitech because they are auto enlisted into training/programming activities, etc, etc.)

3
The following is a brief glossary of terms important
to the rules and setting of Sufficiently
Advanced. Those who have not played before are
advised to read through this before going further.

Again, this might just be my personal preferences/etc....
But I had a hard time with piecing together the glossary.

The reason is this:
alphabetical order.
I learn what biotech is before I learn what capabilities are.

Suggestion: group it like:

CAPABILITIES (definition)
-biotech...
-cognitech...
-etc...

PLOT SCORES (definition)
-magnetism...
-romance...
-potential...

If it were organized that way, I think I would have an easier time digesting it and moving on.


Great game, Colin! I love the tone, the backgrounds, and I think you're working from some great inspiration sources too.


I also have to say The Masquerade are pretty badass.