Hey there, please crit this. I have some specific questions at the end about where I'm headed with this.

RPG Name: Dark Soviet

Synopsis: A spacepunk near future RPG where characters fight to survive in a solar system of totalitarian Soviets, corporate lords, and rebels who oppose both. Setting includes genetic engineering, planet to planet faster than light travel, and cybernetic lifeforms. Set in '05 Post Earthfall.

Note: Material in the gamebook that is setting *story* specific is clearly marked for GM's who want to create their own histories (and leave the Dark Soviet story elements out of their games)

Outline:

Dark Soviet

A: System: simple d6 resolution - "rules light"

B: Characters

i - loose class system

1 - Fighters Type (adjustable skill class)
2 - Mechheads Type (adjustable skill class)
3 - Politicals Type (adjustable skill class)

ii - Hybrid humans and risen (intelligent) animal species

iii - AI and full cyborgs

1 - Black Servers (intelligent machine entities that cultivate cyborg followers)
2 - Cyberneticals - cyberspace operatives

iv - Soviet

1 - Citizens
2 - Army, officers, and internal security
3 - Ruling Politburo

v - Corporate feudalists -

1 - Lords and Boardmembers
2 - Mass Shareholders (corporate citizens)

vi - Rebels

1 - Protectorate guerilla fighters - Pluto
2 - New-Sentients groups - (engineered intelligent lifeforms tribe)

B: Places

i - Earth

1 - Pacifica undersea colonies
2 - greater earth wasteland
3 - Western Arcologies

ii - Junkspace - earth habitation ring - greatly populated

1 - Soviet
2 - Corporus
3 - Free Warrens - risen zone, rebel sympathizers
4 - Europa - Contested by Soviet and Corporates

iii - Mars -

1 - terraformed at polar areas
2 - Jungles
3 - Runaway dangerous engineered ecosystem (predatory lifeforms)

iv - Saturn - Black Server held

v - Pluto - Protectorate Rebel Stronghold

1 - "Good guys"
2 - led by former NATO outfit

C: Technology and Gear

i - Cybernetics

1 - Inter region cybercom (cybernet) - Non mapped action resolution (no webcrawler taking over half the game to jack into a target server)
2 - Cybernetic and genetically placed enhancements

ii - Expensive intrasystem FTL

iii - Zero G activity gear for masses

iv - genetically engineered character traits

v - Weapons

1 - Beamers (lasers)
2 - Recoiless weapons
3 - Genetic and cybernetic character weapons
4 - Sun Conversion Laser (SCL) - weapons off mass destruction used against earth

vi - Vehicles

1 - Modular shuttles, gunships, and zeroG Bikes
2 - Soviet dreadnaughts
3 - Hydrogen Orbital Spaceways

sooooooo ...

Question 1: I'm gonna mark the story elemants, as I said, so people can pick out the system stuff they like in a homebrew or in a different setting using most the Dark Soviet rules. You guys feel good about that? Would you say use it for a Aliens style bug hunt campaign? (as an example)


Question 2: What am I missing tech wise for a near future geared game?

Question 3: Any red flags I need to see?

Question 4: Come up with your own question 4!

The only thing I need to hold onto is the interplanet FTL (which is a bit advanced for setting) because I don't want to inflict NASA planet to planet navigation on the players.

Thanks for your time! It is now 11 pm PST, I will be writing till around 6 pm tomorrow. Gonna knock this puppy off.

Have you heard of Sovok? It's a French game, €10 from East & West Studios. Here's their website and here's a review page. There's a free demo on the E&WS website but only in French.

Here's a Google translation of the review. PNJ is French for NPC.

As for question 4, what do you want the players to do? The background sounds pretty interesting but it's not clear to me what the players' hook will be. That's a problem I have with Transhuman Space. It's a massive background but it's not easy to write scenarios for it.

I never heard of Sovok before. I think it's cool there is a french cyberpunk game.

GB Steve wrote:
As for question 4, what do you want the players to do? The background sounds pretty interesting but it's not clear to me what the players' hook will be. That's a problem I have with Transhuman Space. It's a massive background but it's not easy to write scenarios for it.

Steve yer absolutely right about the overall character role. I modified the synopsis.

Synopsis: A spacepunk near future RPG where characters fight for freedom in a solar system of totalitarian Soviets, corporate lords, and rebels who oppose both. Setting includes genetic engineering, planet to planet faster than light travel, and cybernetic lifeforms. Set in '05 Post Earthfall.

Two questions:

1) How are the setting and system tied together? How they interface?
2) The same question regarding system and technology, especially the scifi kind of imaginary stuff.

Those are crucial to get heavy setting to work in a sim-like exploratory way. No game I know of has been successful.

As for Steve's question, you misread it. He (and I) wants to know what the players do, not what the characters do. I assume from your answer that the players are trying to succeed in these missions given out by the GM, but you aren't saying it explicitly. It could as well be that although the characters are onstensibly fighting this freedom war, the real player issues are about insecurities and morality, like Star Wars.

Also, I suggest that if the player task here is to succeed in mission-based adventures, the setting background will ultimately prove insignificant for play. Although it's included in many games of that kind as a kind of crutch and reading material, you'd get a more elegant design by leaving most of it for the GM to worry about. He'll have enough to do with mission design without having to juggle a prefab setting in the mixture as well. Especially if that setting has predefined NPCs and events, instead of generalities.

Your questions:

1) If the setting/rules interface is so minimal as to allow this, the chances are that you'd be better of with either leaving the setting out or revising the system. As for using the system for something else, impossible to say without knowing the design goals. Some systems are usable without their setting, some are not.

I don't think the rest of the questions are answerable.

Oh, one more thing: there's no such thing as rules-light. There's only rules that have a reason, and rules that do not. Listen to Yoda, and don't make bad rules.

It seems to me from the outline that your primary interest here is the setting. Although settings can be utilized in RPGs, it's a difficult design proposition to make a good game of it and not just second-rate fiction. Unless you have strong design priorities that utilize the setting, it'd be better to go with writing a novel. In my experience the novel form gives the writer much better opportunities for making a setting felt.

- 1) How are the setting and system tied together? How they interface?

As the this is a modern+ time setting, the "classes" are geared between three professions that can be adjusted. Otherwise the system is simple to allow greater expansion of tech/planet-settings rather then crunching math to make characters.


- 2) The same question regarding system and technology, especially the scifi kind of imaginary stuff.

See above.

- As for Steve's question, you misread it.

Did I? I don't think I did, but Steve can say.


- Also, I suggest that if the player task here is to succeed in mission-based adventures, the setting background will ultimately prove insignificant for play. Although it's included in many games of that kind as a kind of crutch and reading material, you'd get a more elegant design by leaving most of it for the GM to worry about. He'll have enough to do with mission design without having to juggle a prefab setting in the mixture as well. Especially if that setting has predefined NPCs and events, instead of generalities.

I disagree, you seem to be really uncomfortable with setting building, but I am influenced by games that have succeeded with setting material as long as that material of genre type can be ported overto peoples games that feature a different history. Games like Vampire and DnD Faerun are examples.

- Your questions:

- 1) If the setting/rules interface is so minimal as to allow this, the chances are that you'd be better of with either leaving the setting out or revising the system. As for using the system for something else, impossible to say without knowing the design goals. Some systems are usable without their setting, some are not.

So hey! I give not only a usable rules-lite material, but I give a usable setting for the rules system.

Del wrote: - 1) How are the setting and system tied together? How they interface?

As the this is a modern+ time setting, the "classes" are geared between three professions that can be adjusted. Otherwise the system is simple to allow greater expansion of tech/planet-settings rather then crunching math to make characters.

- 2) The same question regarding system and technology, especially the scifi kind of imaginary stuff.

See above.

Eero Tuovinen wrote:

Del wrote:

In other words, the game needs a focus. What are your players going to be doing?

The characters fight for freedom in a comprehensive near future setting, as I said. I don't feel a need though to expand the core system, which is a typical action resolution system, down to exclusively fight the Politburo via some meta-rule.

Well, Del, assuming that you've understood my questions and answered with consideration, it seems to me that you're well on the way to making the game you want here. That's altogether a good thing. Your writing outline looks pretty solid to me, considering the goals - that could well be a WEG or GoO book proposal, content-wise. Perhaps add a GMing section, but you'd know if that's part of the plan.

I suggest that you start the writing, especially on setting stuff, as soon as possible. Utilize normal prose writing technique on that - write daily if possible and so on, what authors tend to suggest. Get a good atelier critic, especially if you have no previous experience of the genre you're writing for.

Systemwise, where are you exactly going with the development? If you're just starting, take a look at Fudge and other such simple systems for inspiration. Otherwise, get a playable sketch together as soon as possible and start playtesting. If you write diligently and playtest properly, it's likely that your prose will be ready before the system. To cut the design cycle short, consider using d20 or other available generic systems with some moderate tweaking. They're the right pick for some projects, considering how time-consuming it is to design, test and write a good system.

Other than those suggestions, good luck! I don't foresee large technical problems, game design -wise.

Del wrote: - As for Steve's question, you misread it.
Did I? I don't think I did, but Steve can say.