I've been bouncing this idea around in my head for a long time. A prison ship crashes on an uncharted alien world.  This alien world is largely populated by a defenseless pacifist race that has the power to heal physical and mental injury.  There are scattered races and monsters on the planet that enslave and otherwise abuse the race of healers.  Enter the criminals from the prison ship; sociopathic killers that get their heads "straight" thanks to the healers and now feel compelled to defend them and seize the opportunity to make amends for their crimes, starting a new life in the process.  Oh yeah, and there's mysterious alien technology scattered all over the planet that nobody really understands.  Most of it is weaponry (chainswords, guns that fire drill bores, etc).  The flavor I'm going for is essentially repentant murderers seeking salvation through using their talents to protect these innocent angelic creatures.  I imagine it being a sort of western-vibe with elements of sci-fi and horror mixed in.  Lots of lawlessness and brutality.  I'd like to have some psychological mechanics but I haven't quite nailed down how they'd work or what they'd measure.  Thoughts, suggestions, system ideas? 

  I really, really like the idea of this setting. I would say in reference to your system ideas you could say that because the aliens are not familiar with the persistence of the human body to attempt to rebound from damage or change, the character could have “triggers” which may cause them to lapse back to their old ways. Possibly the character could have 7 virtues, and seven sins. As the sins are triggered they wipe away the imposed virtues as the character slowly slips back into their old ways.
  Any how that’s my 2 cents worth, love the idea and would like to see what you do with it.
Regards, Seth

Seth wrote:
  I really, really like the idea of this setting. I would say in reference to your system ideas you could say that because the aliens are not familiar with the persistence of the human body to attempt to rebound from damage or change, the character could have “triggers” which may cause them to lapse back to their old ways. Possibly the character could have 7 virtues, and seven sins. As the sins are triggered they wipe away the imposed virtues as the character slowly slips back into their old ways.
  Any how that’s my 2 cents worth, love the idea and would like to see what you do with it.
Regards, Seth

What if their choice was purley fear driven in nature. You could say that each character starts very powerful and begins losing their "powers" as they continue down an increasingly "bad" path. It would almost be like reverse character advancement.

Regards, Seth

I'm working on a similarly-themed project, and so my question to you would be: how is it redemption if the choice to be better people is forced upon the characters mechanically? Punishment -- "do this, or else" -- is usually a bad angle in design, players chafe against the idea unless it's handled very well. Risk versus reward is a much better way to handle things, allowing players to make the choice knowing the consequences and achieve or fail the objective (ie: "I'm unredeemable" and "Guess I should just do what I'm best at" versus "I can be saved" and "My better nature is stronger than my animal instinct").

If the background is just Color, rather than the game itself, and actual play is about characters slaughtering vicious aliens to protect the innocent, then the only rule necessary should be: this is what the game is about, you're either on-board with it or not. And anyone who wants to disrupt play by stepping outside the bounds of the established "What This Game Is About" just doesn't play (like someone wanting to play a non-adventuring merchant in a D&D game: No. You play adventurers. That's the game. Full stop and end of story. If someone isn't on-board with that they need to find a different game).

Also, it occurs to me you'll also need to explain why these healers can't "heal" their tormentors through the same means they used on the prisoners: why do they need protection if they can just remove violent, aggressive impulses from others? Would you want the game to be less about combat and more about cerebral puzzles and civilization-building? That is, these healers are wonderful and everything loves them, but they live in caves at the mercy of disease, natural disaster, famine and so forth because they are stone age barbarians who barely grasp the idea of tool-use and have no natural predators. Enter the prisoners, who want to make life better for these people and help them create a utopian civilization (shades of "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells).

greyorm wrote:
I'm working on a similarly-themed project, and so my question to you would be: how is it redemption if the choice to be better people is forced upon the characters mechanically? Punishment -- "do this, or else" -- is usually a bad angle in design, players chafe against the idea unless it's handled very well. Risk versus reward is a much better way to handle things, allowing players to make the choice knowing the consequences and achieve or fail the objective (ie: "I'm unredeemable" and "Guess I should just do what I'm best at" versus "I can be saved" and "My better nature is stronger than my animal instinct").

If the background is just Color, rather than the game itself, and actual play is about characters slaughtering vicious aliens to protect the innocent, then the only rule necessary should be: this is what the game is about, you're either on-board with it or not. And anyone who wants to disrupt play by stepping outside the bounds of the established "What This Game Is About" just doesn't play (like someone wanting to play a non-adventuring merchant in a D&D game: No. You play adventurers. That's the game. Full stop and end of story. If someone isn't on-board with that they need to find a different game).

greyorm wrote: Also, it occurs to me you'll also need to explain why these healers can't "heal" their tormentors through the same means they used on the prisoners: why do they need protection if they can just remove violent, aggressive impulses from others? Would you want the game to be less about combat and more about cerebral puzzles and civilization-building? That is, these healers are wonderful and everything loves them, but they live in caves at the mercy of disease, natural disaster, famine and so forth because they are stone age barbarians who barely grasp the idea of tool-use and have no natural predators. Enter the prisoners, who want to make life better for these people and help them create a utopian civilization (shades of "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells).

The way this sort of thing worked in UA and NEMESIS was with the madness meter and its failed and hardened notches.  You could streamline this a bit for SpoWorld, where the only real issue is violence.  You can have up to 10 hardened notches.  The more hardened you are, the easier it is to casually decapitate someone and put on a puppet show with the still-bleeding noggin.  On the flip side, the more hardened you are, the HARDER it is to speak with and understand the kind aliens whos aved your life and showed you a better way to live.  Check out the ideas in "Sign in Stranger" -- there are some interesting "I'm confused by this f-ed up alien culture" ideas.

-G.

GregStolze wrote:
The way this sort of thing worked in UA and NEMESIS was with the madness meter and its failed and hardened notches.  You could streamline this a bit for SpoWorld, where the only real issue is violence.  You can have up to 10 hardened notches.  The more hardened you are, the easier it is to casually decapitate someone and put on a puppet show with the still-bleeding noggin.  On the flip side, the more hardened you are, the HARDER it is to speak with and understand the kind aliens whos aved your life and showed you a better way to live.  Check out the ideas in "Sign in Stranger" -- there are some interesting "I'm confused by this f-ed up alien culture" ideas.

-G.