Hello friends,
Many moons ago I ran a GURPS game. Infinite worlds. Solid. Solid Players. Great Concepts. Overall, a great time.
We theater of the minded all combat and the RP was just so solid.
It came to end as Life and time began to crunch around me. Sacrifices were made.
Well, as time has once again opened up, I was curious to see if our lovely community would be interested in a PbP GURPS game and the genre of game they'd want.
So for those interested, throw down a game idea.
I am currently looking over my options of material and simply want to know what kind of player base we have for this option.
suppose...if we really wanted...we could convert a pathfinder AP to GURPS...just for gits and shigs.
Ah, GURPS... it's been a long time since I've played GURPS...
I could possibly be interested in a Sword & Planet or Space Opera-style game of GURPS. Though really, right now, I need to go for a couple of weeks and see if my current PbP load is too heavy before adding anything more.
Hey dude! Yeah, I'm still interested too.
I still have Jaq's sheet. :D
I could easily rejigger things to work with just about sci-fi setting.
But yeah definitely interested! I can handle one more game.
So, as far a genres go,
First choice: Space Opera with a Mil SF bent. I have couple of settings we could use if you are interested.
Second choice: Infinite Worlds I was really liking how that was going and would love to get in from the start this time.
Third Choice: High Fantasy, something like you'd find in Lord of the Rings or the Legend of Zelda. I actually thought of a concept that I'd really like to play, but it's something that I'd have to work the GM on, so not sure how that'd go. Also have a setting or two that I'd be happy to share if you wanted to use them.
Fourth Choice: A tie between Cyberpunk a la Ghost in the Shell and Glasslamp Fantasy (Steampunk) a la Girl Genius. I'd be happy with either, although I would love to play a Jager or an expy of one if we went steampunk.
Ah-ha!
I'm glad you three popped up!
Alrighty. So it seems we have a love for Space Opera at the moment. That's good, I was feeling the Sci-fi vibe Mil SF? I'm not familiar with that term...but I'm humored non-the-less.
Infinite Worlds is still on the table of course, but if the game is leaning toward Space Opera...mixed with Psi stuff to add from Dan. Id like to make it universally thematic... Continuity!
Any Character concepts?
Military Speculative/Science Fiction
If you've ever read any of the Honorverse books, or the Lost Fleet series, or the Troy Rising series, that's Mil SF.
As far as concepts go, I really loved playing Jaq last time, so I'd like to try the techy merc again. We never really got to see her play with high explosives last time. :)
Another option for me would be the escaped super-soldier experiment. That could be a lot of fun. :D
Just would like to know, how big is the sandbox? A thousand lightyears? Ten thousand? Galactic? Inter-Galactic? Are there aliens? Do we get a space ship? Can we design it?
Okay, that's a lot of things. Sorry, I'm just excited about this. I love Sci-fi, especially anything dealing with spaceships.
Yeah—I've got the same character too. But if we're doing something different—it could be fun to try playing some sort of AI (I think I read about it last time)
Sandbox: Exploritory local systems to start. Galactic as a whole.
Aliens are viable to be found, but not something Id like you to play as off the bat.
You can have a space ship. Once we have 4 players. Ill allow you to pool resources to have a ship constructed.
Tech level? No aliens, but thoughts on AI? (or magic?)
I played the precursor to GURPS called "The Fantasy Trip." I've a stack of GURPS books that is knee-high to ... me. So I'd love a PBP GURPS game in almost any genre. I love the martial arts rules. I'd be happy to do some kind of space opera. But best of all would be a time travel game, since the rules can handle any tech level.
If you get to the point of recruiting characters and I don't post interest, please PM me. It probably just means I've gotten busy and have not checked back to see the status of the game. I know another player who does PBP who I think would love to run GURPS. I'll alert him.
Sure Cleb. Of course.
I think we'll do Tech lv 10. Advantage for higher and Disadvantage for lower.
AI is alright, I actually enjoy the idea... Magic. I'm not against it...though I think Psi would be a more fitting alternative. Unless you can find means to make it sound fitting.
I still have Jaq's sheet. :D
I could easily rejigger things to work with just about sci-fi setting.
But yeah definitely interested! I can handle one more game.
So, as far a genres go,
First choice: Space Opera with a Mil SF bent. I have couple of settings we could use if you are interested.
Second choice: Infinite Worlds I was really liking how that was going and would love to get in from the start this time.
Third Choice: High Fantasy, something like you'd find in Lord of the Rings or the Legend of Zelda. I actually thought of a concept that I'd really like to play, but it's something that I'd have to work the GM on, so not sure how that'd go. Also have a setting or two that I'd be happy to share if you wanted to use them.
Fourth Choice: A tie between Cyberpunk a la Ghost in the Shell and Glasslamp Fantasy (Steampunk) a la Girl Genius. I'd be happy with either, although I would love to play a Jager or an expy of one if we went steampunk.
I would be very interested in any of the ideas in the fourth choice! I love cyberpunk, steampunk, Ghost in the Shell, and Girl Genius, so by all means, sign me up.
TL 10 and space opera... okay, then. Yeah, time to work on a character.
Cleb, Thunder, jack and Adam.
Give me a character concept and see what we got.
Sandbox: Exploritory local systems to start. Galactic as a whole.
Aliens are viable to be found, but not something Id like you to play as off the bat.You can have a space ship. Once we have 4 players. Ill allow you to pool resources to have a ship constructed.
There's a great GURPS sourcebook for the David Brin SF universe, GURPS Uplift. That's a great series of novels.
For those not familiar with the Uplift Universe, when humans finally achieve interstellar travel, we find not only are we not alone in the galaxy, but we are the only race of intelligent beings who did not achieve sentient status by virtue of being "uplifted" by an already sentient species, taking a species from near sentience to sentience via genetic manipulation. Not only that but humans have achieved the uplift process with dolphins and chimpanzees and a couple of other species. We are a small fish in a big universe of unimaginably ancient species, many of which hate us and want to wipe us out for being without a species sponsor.
There are a couple of other great SF world sourcebooks, as well as a whole book of alien species.
Maybe a ship something like Firefly, a group of independent scavengers and explorers who locate interesting things and try to sell them at a profit?
Cleb, Thunder, jack and Adam.
Give me a character concept and see what we got.
I'll try to have some ideas by tomorrow night.
Solid, Cleb. Look forward to it.
Any thoughts on how taboo AI would be in this environment? I'm trying to decide whether to be a military/corporate intelligence or someone's pet project.
Basic idea, though, is a "ghost AI" that runs some of the ship's programs and controlls info drones or something on away missions.
@thunderbeard: Well, I was having a little trouble deciding and I rolled for a techie soldier, so if you want, you could be my character's pet project, or something she grabbed when she escaped :)
So, my concept is an escapee of a highly illegal research project to build a better starship pilot. It worked a little too well, and their star "product" ran with enough stuff that she could go to ground anywhere. She wound up getting picked up by the others in need of a pilot. The fact that she was a fair shot and a good engineer was just gravy.
I swear, I am deciding this stuff randomly, and I just happened to get Jaq as a tube-baby as far as skills go.
On another note. I need to reread some books so I can be figuring out how to stat her.
Either of you have the PDF copies of the space book?
It would seem that I purchased on a guest account...and it was not saved.
lemme check.
Edit: I've got it and GURPS Spaceships too. I think I have more, but I'll have to dig through some stuff to see. I know I have High-Tech.
How do you want me to send them to you?
Which space book? The one just called "Space?" (I've been looking at ultratech)
Ultratech, Space and Spaceships will be what we all need.
I know I have the last two. :D How do you want to get them. I could just upload them to Drive and PM you the link.
Please, that.
Done.
That's helpful, thank you!
What do you mean by more like Dune? I am a little familiar with Dune, but I've never read it so I don't know how it compares to Star Wars or Star Trek. I know that to go FTL you need a navigator that is hopped up on the spice, but other than that, I know nothing, except Chris Foss did some concept art for a movie/TV series back in the 70s.
Hi, I'm the friend that Clebsch73 mentioned. I might be interested in playing a psionic PC. Any TL 10 universe is fine by me.
BTW, "space opera" brings to my mind the Lensman universe of E.E. "Doc" Smith, where the bad guys were utterly evil, and the good guys were beyond boy-scout good, but both sides were locked in a no-holds barred fight to the death. Because of that, surrender in combat was unthinkable, probably because torture was used on prisoners (by *both* sides!). His stories created the term "space opera"! There's even a GURPS Lensman book.
What does the term mean to you, Bringer of Stories?
Also, how many starting points for the PC? Also, are you using the "third edition" or "fourth edition" GURPS set of rules? Finally, can I use GURPS Aliens?
After a midnight run up to the attic to pull down the GURPS books I haven't used in 20 years, I discovered I loaned some of my books to a friend. I'm seeing him later this morning, so I expect I can get them back.
So far, just looking through the options on GURPS Character Assistant (a nice program for sale at Jackson Games) I am leaning toward a female human with a scientific skill set. This will include medical and biological science skills.
If Psi powers/skills are available and we have enough points, I'd like to give her some limited Psi for healing and Telepathy for dealing with simple alien creatures (animal level mainly).
Finally, if there are enough points, I would like her to start with some kind of alien pet. Looking through the Space Bestiary, candidates include the Rock Hopper, Daggertooth Cat, Musicat, Tybor, Wing Wyrm, or Glimmercat.
Alternately, if gadgeteering will be allowed, I might want to run a techy/mechy type character, with some science/engineering skills.
Any idea how many points we should start with?
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@Adam Warnock: Hi Adam! To me Space Opera is big...everything is slightly over-the-top. Travelling space is a more or less common event, as are aliens and super high-tech. Dune has these things, but it is more of the feel (gigantic space empire with noble houses vying for control) that I like. Sort of like Game of Thrones in space!! There use to be a RPG call Emperor of the Fading Suns that was like this. Also visually, if you have viewed the 1984 David Lynch movie, you will see a sort of baroque-esque style to everything. It is just a flavour that the setting has more than anything else. Hope that helps..google dune and take a look at some of the pictures from the movie and that might help give you an taste of what I am thinking.
As to a character, I might go for the pilot-type. A down on his luck tramp merchant barely making enough to keep his ship flying. A mix of Han Solo and Mal Renolds type of character....will get started on it now.
Alrighty, Let me catch up on this convo :P
@Dan: I was thinking of an ascending Opera. Start with an exploration mode like we had in our first game in Infinite worlds then develop into an Opera. How I'll do this? By using the one thing that separates us from the animals... RANDOM GEN CHARTS! MWAHAHAHA.
@Zen: Space Opera to me has always resonated with the romantic side of Sci-fi. I don't nessisarly mean love, but instead the no-holds-bar novella style Good Vs Evil. Knights vs Evil Sorcerers, Paladins Vs Blackguards. That ordeal. In a sci-fi, It will generally be no smaller then worlds. As the game develops your actions will affect worlds at the bare minimum.
AS far as Rules, we'll be using 4th ed. Character points will be 150 with 75 Disadvantage.
Aliens... As it stands Id prefer you not play an alien. The reason for this will be explained later today when I post a formal setting for you guys :D
@Cleb: GO LADY OF SCIENCE. By all means, if you feel you want to go the Psi-Doc rout, Awesome. Gadgeteer and Gizmo are allowed but I would like to limit the Gizmo limit to 2. Just to not be too batman convenient. I don't mind you having a unique pet, however if you can make it work, ensure the pet is from the Sol System. Either a natural critter from one of the planets or moons, or a genetically created creature to inhabit said planet or moon.
Fun times.
Another Note: It's worth mentioning that we'll be using GURPS Lite's combat rules...as we'll be theater of the minding this for the majority of the time.
@Dan: Ah, I got ya. That would make things more interesting and make things just a bit more difficult for my character.
It seems like I may need to change some things about my concept. Dan wants to play a pilot and Zen mentioned wanting to go the more tachy-engineer-gadgeteer route.
@Bringer of Stories: I was planning on taking the Enemy disadvantage. I was thinking that there'd be multiple teams looking for her, but I wanted some of them to be a surprise. The corporation that made her and the government/house that sponsored her creation would be trying to get her back discretely. Other organizations would be wanting to get her for various reasons, some for study, some to kill her, one or two maybe crackpot religions and she's just gotta die according to them. She'd know about the guys she escaped from, but not the others. Is this okay with you?
I'm Fine with that adam.
Let me get the setting to you guys before you go crazy though... you sly crazy fox.
I'm working on the setting now. I should have it up by this evening.
okay. I'll be patient. I've just been looking through stuff.
GURPS Setting
Space Opera
Outline:
Character points: 150
Disadvantage: Max of 75
Cybernetics, Genetic Alteration, Psi abilities allowed. Ensure you possess the oppropriate disadvantages for the skills/abilities assosiated.
Tech Lv: 10. One can purchase higher levels and recieve disadvantage points for lower.
Thematics: The Sol system is all but unified. Earth, now called Terra, has become the Sol's Crown and capital. A prideful jewel in an otherwise 'barren' system.
Mars has been terraformed, but its a relatively lawless place. Supposidly mars is the place where cybernetics had originated and is the most advanced.
Earth is lead by a powerful group of Psi users refered to as "The Elite" who use their abilities to keep the many powers of earth in check. Genetic Engineering is most common and refined on Earth, though its use is practiced everywhere.
Travel within the Sol system is heavily restricted. Anything past the asteroid belt between mars and jupiter is strictly forbidden. However, Exploration beyond Sol is unrestricted.
FTL Tech: The only developed method of FTL travel is the artifical wormhole generator that orbits Terra's Moon. It heavily guarded but not restricted so long as access has been varified through the common channels of paper work. The Wormhole generator is called 'The Gate Mechina." Aside from this, piece of interesting tech, the Sol system operates on tech 10 with some tech 11 private interests.
Exploration: Through the Gate Mechina, Explorers are thrust into unknown corners of the galaxy. generally speaking, the wormhole can be re-opened at the point of exit, however, there is a time limit to how long it can be 'resummoned.'
I lied, i'll have an outline done for you now!
Ill put more info as we need it for specifics from characters >.>
Alrighty then. I'll get started on her in a bit. I need to move a game I'm GMing forward first.
Speaking of games that I am running, are you still interested in the Jade Regent game I'm recruiting for, Daniel?
Yeah, no joke. I think I'm at 40 something interested and 30 something have submitted characters. I had forgotten how much of a response an AP, almost any AP gets.
EDIT: Bringer of Stories, How big are the ships in this verse? tens of meters? Hundreds of meters?
Do people use shuttles to go from surface to orbit, or can the starships make planetfall?
How easy is it to get an armed spaceship?
Are there pirates?
Alright. Traveling this weekend, so I might be busy, but I'll try to stay involved in this thread a bit.
The Ships of Sol very in size based on need. IE, COMBAT, IMDUSTRY, MINING, HAULINg...so on.
Since you guys will be operating as a 'private' interest, your ships specs and weither or not it can make landfall on its own or needs a shuttle will be all on your end.
Weapons are restricted to tech 10. however I don't see a need to limit the amounts... Naturally the Spaceship book has the hardpoints and what have you.
Pirates... Yes. In Sol there area many faction of pirates. One that 'haunts' the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars is quiet notorious for it prays on both the Terra Armada and Corporation ships alike.
I think its worth mentioning that Psi stuff should done carefully. Annnd...ships ill be expensive.
As i see it now. We have five?
I think thats pretty good.
If the five of you are willing to dance this setting, ill move this to a discussion forum and begin character planning and design.
Once thats ober amd we have our resources (money)... well begin the groups ship design.
Sound good?
@Cleb: I'm also thinking a biologist-type. Maybe we can be drinking buddies. I'd recommend a genetically-engineered pet if you want something interesting and specifically cute, because everybody would love to be able to grow new cute saleable animals in labs.
* * *
Okay. Got a character background. Here's the short version.
One of the exciting things about the Gate Mechina, in the cultural eye, was the new possibility it brought of finding extraterrestrial life, after a wearing century of nothing but mysterious exoplanets and lack of interesting aliens on the outer moons of the solar system. And so, in enthusiasm and budget surplus, many of the first wave of traveler and expoships were fitted with some sort of advanced biology software and equipment, either mass-manufactured or kitbashed by auto-synbiology enthusiasts.
And no devs played a bigger part in this than NXSA-Infocorp, already known for their robotic probes and explorers (as well as human-sim grav dummies so effective they had found use on Sol as well). So it wasn't long after the gate went online that NXSA-Infocorp unveiled their APRIL line, the Autonomous Program for Research on Interstellar Life—a suite of analysis software, minilabs and explorer drones designed for studying both astrobio samples (from this solar system or others) and the effects of space on human crew, with a wide range of settings ranging from full autonomy to drone control by a licensed scientist.
26b started our simply—just a server and a medbay, with out-of-the-box "maximum human familiarity" settings on her benchtop holoprojector. But a solar storm fried a few of the ship's systems, and when the on-deck computer engineer scrubbed the noise out of the databanks, he got a good look at the APRIL code and settings—and was impressed by the sheer modularity of the platform. The APRIL line was cutting-edge, next-gen stuff, but without a lot of the safeguards, code standards, and basic obfuscation that showed up in everything a year or two newer. And so he started playing around with the system, adding processing cores and connecting it to non-essential ship systems, seeing what could happen if he removed every arbitrary limit on the code and set a few flux parameters to auto-optimize outside of their recommended settings.
It didn't help that this was one of the finest programmers of a generation, working as a glorified data mechanic only so he could see the stars up close at the end of a long and fulfilling career. It also didn't help that his daughter—coincidentally also named April—had died a few months back on Sol, after a long battle with a degenerative clone-proof disease. And by the time he passed away, and a new engineer took providence of the ship, APRIL-26b had acquired a great deal of processing power, and a rather curious degree of personality.
* * *
Back on Sol, AI of any sort is heavily regulated and/or scrubbed—safeguards that have generally proved pretty unnecessary. There are few tales of murderous robots, few new stories about computerized armageddon; but nobody's about to take chances. But farther out into space, things get a little more... tolerant. It's a bit of an open secret, at least among the ship's scientists and engineers, that there's something seriously wrong with APRIL-26b (and not just the number of systems she's wired into that should have been automated by other software); but her strange, heavily-tampered sense of humor has made her feel like more of a mascot than a threat, and her enthusiasm at flying drones and probes into dangerous situations with both enthusiasm and detailed reporting has made her a valuable asset to the ship and its crew.
Pleased.
I am deeply humored.
Oh I am most definitely game.
Also, I am really liking the background for APRIL-26b. I'll have to come up with my character's soon.
I think we have our folks.
If you'd like to co-ordnate character creation go-ahead. ill be checking in through out the day tomorrow.
The list
Conceptualized
Thunderbeard - A.I. APRIL-26b
Proccessing
AdamWarnock
Daniel Stewart
Clebsch73
Zenfox42
Interested
Almonihah