This is a damn fine definition of Science Fiction, complete with a discussion of the problems in the term.

Negilent wrote:
Hi Joshua,

First off I think you are dead on when you say that this is the first Science Fiction game,  to qoute Wikipedia:
Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology upon society and persons as individuals.

Dead on.

I also like the way you have everything boiled down to what the games is about. Both Issue - Shock and praxis scales.

I read the Actual Play:[Shock:] Digging for Mold in the Company town and I must say I understand it better now.

I'll have to let it stew in the brain before I come back with more concrete feedback. Right now it is late and bed time.

Kaare

I must say, without hyperbole as well....

Shock has literally just rekindled my love of science fiction. I am attempting to write a narrative PBP game set in near future, dealing with social science fiction elements in a war torn world.

And Shock, while most playable elements aren't directly going to influence my game mechanics, the basis for its development is highly inspirational to me.

I just want to say props. While there are some mechanical difficulties still, your accuracy in translating REAL science fiction into RPing is a blessing to RPGs.

joepub wrote: I just want to say props. While there are some mechanical difficulties still, your accuracy in translating REAL science fiction into RPing is a blessing to RPGs.

Yeah.

I haven't done any "actual" play yet, and likely won't get a chance to for a while: I live in a small isolated town with no real gaming community.

Some things I noticed though:
-It is very single-player-at-a-time. Everyone has an individual scene.
-There is only ONE antagonist. In a lot of good science fiction I've read, antagonists switch, conflict.... and even change as the protagonist realizes something more about them.

I think a lot of the game elements I'm trying to work into my game make it very Science Fiction too.

Parts are inspired by your game as well...

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=17893.0

I would be grateful if you took the time to review my progress so far. THANX!

A literary or cinematic genre in which fantasy, typically based on speculative scientific discoveries or developments, environmental changes, space travel, or life on other planets, forms part of the plot or background.

I think that's an unproductive distinction. You're never going to be able to list all of the interesting Shocks in science fiction. The question is what effect those things have on the society. That they're part of the plot or background just makes them window dressing unless they have actual impact.

Science fiction differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically established or scientifically postulated laws of nature (though some elements in a story might still be pure imaginative speculation). Exploring the consequences of such differences is the traditional purpose of science fiction, making it a "literature of ideas".Science fiction is largely based on writing entertainingly and rationally about alternate possibilities in settings that are contrary to known reality.

I'm not sure about that. LIke, "Faster than light" doesn't mean anything. It's as fantastic as dragons. Probably more so, actually.

It's the "literature of ideas" part that's really salient, I think.