Adventures in Space!! - Freebie RPG

[Zak Arntson]

http://zaknet.tripod.com/hmouse/games/ais.html

Okay, I've put my newest game up.  It's for playing in those cheezy space serials/comics.  Main drive behind game:  Players should have a large part in driving the story, and Words of Science should abound.

The first draft is online, ready for play.  Please let me know of any issues/typos/etc!!

I do realize that I forgot to state the materials needed.  6-sided dice, some paper (called Playsheets in the text).  Best for 3-6 players.

About the game:
I am thinking about picking a premise and designing a pure game around that.  And doing this like once a week to see what happens.  By pure I mean super-simple that drives home the conventions of my premise.  
So I'm reading this Dark Horse Pulp Library book filled with cheezy Space Comics from the 50's and 60's.  I tried to squeeze the essence into an rpg.  Especially the ridiculous science.

I wasn't thinking along the lines of G/N/S, more along the lines of Director-Stance.  I wanted to provide a game where players had a lot of control.  So there are two mechanics.  One is where a player can change the plot, the other is a regular Fate mechanism, but the PLAYER not the GM dictates the results.

As a side benefit, which I didn't think about until later in the design, everything is pretty much a single roll.  One of my pet peeves is that combat is often considered an important aspect of rules needing an entirely separate treatment.  In my Adventures, combat is often a single roll and Player interpretation.

Anyhow, hope you all enjoy!!

_________________
Zak
http://mailto:zak@mimir.net">zak@mimir.net
http://zaknet.tripod.com/hmouse">Harlekin Maus Games

[ This Message was edited by: Zak Arntson on 2001-08-23 11:19 ]

[FilthySuperman]

Heyo,
      You're link didn't work for me.. I'm sure it's somewhere on there if I fiddle with the text of the URL but I didn't have time. Would love to check out your game. Also, it sounds like you've only got it up in HTML format. May I suggest you whip up a .pdf file for it? Alot of us out here play online while at work, then print out stuff to take home a peruse over a few beers and the evening news. I could "skim" over a web page and "pick out" a few details, but I could "read" over a .pdf file and give it a "good" once over. Anyhoo.. I can't wait to check it out.

T

[Zak Arntson]

On 2001-08-23 08:35, FilthySuperman wrote:
Heyo,
      You're link didn't work for me..

Fixed up above!!

http://zaknet.tripod.com/hmouse/games/ais.html

I'm sure it's somewhere on there if I fiddle with the text of the URL but I didn't have time. Would love to check out your game. Also, it sounds like you've only got it up in HTML format. May I suggest you whip up a .pdf file for it? Alot of us out here play online while at work, then print out stuff to take home a peruse over a few beers and the evening news. I could "skim" over a web page and "pick out" a few details, but I could "read" over a .pdf file and give it a "good" once over. Anyhoo.. I can't wait to check it out.

Well, I made a b&w printer-friendly version (ais_print.html), linked to from the original site.  I don't have anything that'll make .pdfs, so hopefully the printer-friendly one will do in a pinch!  I'm growing to like stylesheets ...

[Cadriel]

Sounds cool, I'd say.  I like the descriptors on the dice roll charts--Great Geysers of Ganymede!  :smile:  It also sounds simple, fun, four-colored, and quite different from most RPGs that deal with such four-color topics.

It's pretty spiffy as descriptions go, except that you could use more description of the intended effects of Words of Science.  Descriptions and a good example of play would be helpful, and in this case, fun.  :smile:

-Wayne

[FilthySuperman]

Quote:
Well, I made a b&w printer-friendly version (ais_print.html), linked to from the original site. I don't have anything that'll make .pdfs, so hopefully the printer-friendly one will do in a pinch! I'm growing to like stylesheets ...
Endquote


Send me the text and I'll distill to .pdf for you, if you'd like.

filthysuperman@hotmail.com

T.

[Zak Arntson]

On 2001-08-23 13:13, Cadriel wrote:
Sounds cool, I'd say.  I like the descriptors on the dice roll charts--Great Geysers of Ganymede!    It also sounds simple, fun, four-colored, and quite different from most RPGs that deal with such four-color topics.

I've seen some other pulp games, and they seem to be a little rules-heavy.  My newer philosophy on little indie games is trim, trim, trim!!

It's pretty spiffy as descriptions go, except that you could use more description of the intended effects of Words of Science.  Descriptions and a good example of play would be helpful, and in this case, fun.  

Hee.  If you do a View Source you can see empty TABLES that are labeled "table-example".  I will try and get some examples in today, and expound more on Words of Science

Thanks for the kind words ...

[Ron Edwards]

Scuffs foot a little ...

Zak, I really hate the whole Director/Actor terminology. I really think it connotes stuff that the rest of the game simply doesn't support, and it forces you into explaining the "contradiction" between Actor and Author numerous times.

Can't plain old GM and Player be used instead?

Otherwise, I'm on it. I really like this one, much more than Cthonian for instance. Did ya ever read the Lucky Starr novels by Isaac Asimov? Real 50s boys' fiction stuff, full of clean-fisted adventure, Real Science (of the period), and barely-suppressed homoerotic buddyism.

Best,
Ron

[Zak Arntson]

On 2001-08-23 16:32, Ron Edwards wrote:

Zak, I really hate the whole Director/Actor terminology. I really think it connotes stuff that the rest of the game simply doesn't support, and it forces you into explaining the "contradiction" between Actor and Author numerous times.

Yeah, I wasn't wholly liking the terms either.  I like Hero and Villain.  I'm wondering if I shouldn't just call the GM the Villain and the Player the Hero without worrying about "Player vs. Character" connotation?  It's always frustrating for me to consider FOUR different nouns (Player, GM, PC, NPC) when writing.

I love flavor words (hence Excursionists in Chthonian).  And my big thought was how can I help a Player into Director-Stance.  In retrospect, calling the GM the Director probably wasn't the best idea  I didn't want to use GM and Player since Players have a lot of influence on gameplay.  I wanted to promote the whole "GM as Bassist" angle.

If you (or anyone!) can come up with good names for Players and GMs, let me know!!  I was toying with Writer and Editor, but it doesn't have much serial punch.  I'm picturing the GM as that commercial break voice "Will Johnny Neutron succumb to the forces of Lord Gak?" and teh Players doing most of their playing through expository lines, "What?  The lizards are backing off!  It must be the cesium in our fuel cells!"

Anyhow, honest criticism appreciated ...

Otherwise, I'm on it. I really like this one, much more than Cthonian for instance. Did ya ever read the Lucky Starr novels by Isaac Asimov? Real 50s boys' fiction stuff, full of clean-fisted adventure, Real Science (of the period), and barely-suppressed homoerotic buddyism.

Yeah, I'm big on this game, too.  I really want to play it.  I grew up on Analog magazine and bad sci-fi movies & comics.  I haven't read the Starr novels (in fact, I haven't read much sci-fi pulp novels aside from Analog and E.E. Smith's first Skylark book).  If I were to ever bring this to print, I would probably read up a bunch and sneak in subtle genre essays.

I'm still recovering from your Sorcerer & Sword booklist, but I may hit the Forge up later for a good list of pulp science.

[Zak Arntson]

Okay, I've updated the game with some examples and minor clarifications ...

[Zak Arntson]

Quick update.  Revamped the Words of Science to make things easier to roll (you just throw your Die of Science in with the regular roll), and changed the Director/Actor terms.  Players are Players and the GM is now Space Command!  Whee!

I also clarified where I thought things were muddy.  Now Adventures in Space!! should truly foster fun and easy narrative play.  Enjoy!

[Zak Arntson]

I found a great program (htmldoc) that converts HTML to PDF.  So after some tweaking ... (and Tripod won't let me link directly, so I'm providing the Harlekin-Maus front page):

http://zaknet.tripod.com/hmouse/index.html">Adventures in Space!! (pdf version)

Complete with page numbers, boxed examples, &c.  Now you can print the sucker up and play it 'til your copper ions explode.

_________________
Zak
http://mailto:zak@mimir.net">zak@mimir.net
http://zaknet.tripod.com/hmouse">Harlekin-Maus Games

[ This Message was edited by: Zak Arntson on 2001-09-18 01:52 ]