The Ship and the Stars: Notes for a new kind of SF game

Part 1 : Defining the Premises

Introduction

This material grew almost against my own will from a set of design notes to what is almost a full fledged rpg or rpg supplement. I was inspired by the 'space-western' posts of Dev particularly here:
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?p=91030#91030. The type of game was defined by dev as mimicing the type of tv/story series of the following type:

'The lowdown: human-centric Space-Western & Space-Noir. PCs hopping around from planet to planet each episode. (Planet-of-the-week, Bounty-of-the-Week, slightly arc-y threads throughout, etc'

It developed as I thought about what was the biggest
problem with rpgs that try to deal with this theme, and try to turn it into the primary mechanism of the game. I have take inspiration from any number of Forge games, to the point I am thinking of simply doing this as a supplement for a game like the Pool or Prime Time Adventures.


God must have loved the universe because he made so much of it.

I have run many SF games in many systems and the problem all of them has is the creation of background material.
It can be intimidating being the gm of a classic 'ship in space' sf/space opera game because there are potentially thousands of worlds each as complex as our own. It can be easy also, to produce a lot of material for such games that either never gets used because the plot veers in a different direction or the players just don't find it interesting.
Then, too problem of a plausible future history, technological development,new scientific concepts altogether all jumbled together, it can lead to a real 'paralysis of analysis' problem.... or running to the shelter of a 'licensed' campaign universe.

'Hand me the plot device Mr. Spock'
The problem with all this creative angst and all this hard work is that
Its a well known fact that the background in these shows is made up on the fly to justify the plot they want to run,they don't create an elaborate background then try to figure out what to do with it. Since the idea of the space western is of the planet-of-the-week plot structure ,highly detailed backgrounds are unecessary, besides a small amount of color what do you need to know about a planet? What notable things about it that will appear in the scenes in that episode, and nothing more! And I think an sf game should enshrine that concept at it's core.

When I put all of the above together what I am looking at is a game in which setting, ship and characters start out as a set of generic concepts and are developed in a just-in-time fashion in play.



A descriptor based model for defining a game universe

The best way to lift the creatived burden from the gamemaster in a world like this is to give part of the job to the players. First the entire series concept needs to be developed at the outset. I have found the descriptor derivation methon of the Pool system to be extrememly flexible and useable , so flexible that I'm going to be using a LOT of it.
I think the ship show template is flexible enough to accomodate a wide range of superficially different backgrounds. Space westerns whether they are 'big ship' (Star Trek) or 'small ship' (Firefly) are basically similar. They focus on the same number of central characters and the army of technicians in the engine room of the 'big ship' show and the grizzled engine techs lucky boot to the converter are basically different only in their color description. Both are just expressions of a solution to a particular type of problem.

Here is my idea of what a series premise will look like:

Name:-Every series has a name. Choose carefully, it should reflect the essence of the series in a sing short phrase, at most a handful of words. The name has no mechanical value but I assure you it has immense color value.

Metaphor- The series methaphor is a single line 'high-concept' description of the series. It is used to guide the players future creation of elements for the game. Metaphor should sum up the type of adventures, mood, and color the series will have. The metaphor has no mechanical value but it will have immense creative value.

Series premise is generated consensually. There is a short statement of 100 words or less to describe the premise then from this a cluster of descriptors may derived as in the Pool. If the premise is less than 100 words then the group may add to the premise and generate new descriptors thereby without cost anytime in the series.


Here is an example of this approach, for a 'big ship' campaign concept.

Name-Outreach

Metaphor-'Wagon Train to the Stars'

Description- This series takes place in the far future ina a universe with many human colonies. The series deals with the TTA Conestoga, huge transport spaceship carrying colonists to a newly opened planet. The Conestoga carries thousands of colonists of different social and political factions.The players are ranking officers and civilian leaders aboard the Conestoga.

Now from this the following descriptors may derived that are the core descriptors for the series.....

Far Future
Terran Trade Authority(TTA)
Many human colonies
newly opened planet
Thousands of colonists
different social and political factions
Officers
Civilian Leaders

This list of descriptors repesent the core facts about what is going to be important in the series. The developement of the gamworld's logic and elements will essentially involve adding to this list of descriptors and descriptor's to entities that exist lower in this hierarchy of reality that you are creating.

Ship premise

You can't have a ship show without a ship. The nature of the ship should reflect the type of series you are going to have. In shows like these the ship is a character as important as any of the living beings aboard it and deserves just as much consideration in it's creation by the group, as well as being the single post commonly referenced piece of background.
Ship premise is generated consensually. There is a short statement of 50 words or less to describe the premise then from this a cluster of descriptors may derived as in the Pool. If the premise is less than 50 words then the group may add to the premise and generate new descriptors thereby without cost anytime in the series. Care should be taken that the ship premise does not contradict the series premise or previous descriptors.

Name-Again the name has no mechnical value but what you call the ship will be very important to the series. It should constantly call to mind what the ship is about.

Description - 50 words or less with descriptors to be derived.

Name -TTA Conestoga

This is a colony transport vessel, made of detachable modules built around a core which provides power and propulsion. It is up to several thousand feet long and can house thousands of passengers and a huge cargo capacity. It has a number of subordinate craft. never lands on a planet. Has high power ion engines and jump drive. overal power is created by nuclear fusion.

central power module
thousands of feet long
made of detachable modules
Suborninate craft
never lands
thousands of passengers
huge cargo capacity
high power ion engines
nuclear fusion reactor(s)

(and if you are hoping for a chart that will show how many megawatts the force fields consume you might as well finish your popcorn and start moving for the exits right now...)

These descriptors will come into play on anything directly involving the ship, they represent the basic facts about the ship and are often tied to the series premise facts. Like the series premise new descriptors may be added to the list as the series develops.


Character premises
Without characters of course you have no adventures in space. Generally the cast of a show like this represents the job list of the major jobs running the ship (but not always....). But the cast should be based on what the series is about... which may not necessarily have anything to do with the normal ''bridge crew' layout....

A crew premise consists of yet another 50 word descriptor.
a crew descriptor should contain the following elements of a character.
History -description of the character's past.
abilities-things the character does particularly well
function-what the character will be doing in the series
relationships-people (or groups) with which he has some connection with.

The person creating a background has the right to create new facts about the series during character creation. However new facts created in this fashion must be vetted through the usual group consensus. Of course new facts may not contradict accepted facts.

Aram Pteris
Chief operations officer of the Conestoga, he is a highly experienced starship officer, won honors in the Orion cluster war,

COO Conestoga
experienced starship officer

Teela Forest
Chief Translator aboard the Conestoga,she is a telepath and an honors graduate of the Psi institute. Teela is the survivor of an anti-psi pogrom on her homeworld.

Chief Translator
Telepath
Honors at Psi Institute
Survivor Psi pogrom



Please note that these characters have quite a way to go before they are 'full'. That's alright, the player's shouldn't be burdened with working out player background all at once either, since is it part of and should reflect the growing series background.

Now we have the basis for how any give series in Ship and the Stars will develop. Now we must deal with how adventures will be played and world's created for the series. You will learn how a few scenes of funny looking furniture and a few painted backdrops can stand in for an entire world.....

First off, I think the Pool core is the right way to go about this sort of gameplay!

Secondly, there are lots of thematic choices (I'm using the phrase 'tenets') that needs to be decided; you can give out this tenet-creating power through:
* consensus (best for the big Premise / Metaphors)
* individual fiat (anyone can create any tenet)
* resource-based limiting of tenet power.

Which of these techniques do you want to use? While Consensus is good for the creation of the initial scenario, I think the "planet-of-the-week" and tech-jargon are best created through other means (I'd say resources and individual fiat, respectively).

to the point I am thinking of simply doing this as a supplement for a game like the Pool or Prime Time Adventures.

I think Primetime Adventures is the perfect choice for this kind of game. You can provide creation guidelines for the group to make their space setting, metaphor, crew, and ship -- similar to what you do to create the TV show setting, sets, and cast for a PTA series.

I think PTA (like Sorcerer) lends itself well to genre supplements like this.