Alright, well once again I'm open to input from you guys about what you want, but I'll continue to answer with what I had in mind.
Layout of the living areas is approx 2/3s of the ship in 4-6 large, open compartments. I haven't quite been able to decide about gravity, I'm thinking either rotational, or preferably parallel to travel, but the only way I can see that working is if the ship is providing it psionically. It's certainly big and powerful enough to do that, but it seems like a significant drain on it's abilities. It could result in loses of gravity when it needs to divert it's attention towards ship defense.
Illumination is provided by ship through bioluminescent 'veins' in the ceiling that fairly effectively mimic sunlight. The illumination level (and color) changes to a softer bluish light at 'night time'.
As far as cultures, the individual races have their own cultural identities, but there is no strict segregation or anything. The Mantis of course live in their asteroid chunk in one of the middle chambers (though a few have joined the other communities), and I can see the other races each having 'claimed' one of the other chambers and having altered it to suit them, but you can expect to find any of the 5 anywhere on the ship in some quantity at least. If you want a rough population breakdown well... I'd just be pulling numbers out of my butt since I don't know how big a population a space like this could feasibly support, but we'll say total population of 10,000 broken down into 4000 Humans, 2500 Dryads, 2000 Gargoyles, 1000 Mantis, 500 Altered.
Since you mention wars (and a few other similar questions) and the like I'll quote the below paragraph again :p
The races generally get along quite well, there are occasional periods of turmoil, caused by both internal and external forces, but generally the races work together to maintain the ship, and live peacefully. (Unsurprisingly, the campaign will be set at the start of a period of turmoil :p). Think of the ship as a kind of garden of eden and you wouldn't be too far off the mark. There are tales of contact beyond the ship in the past, but many believe them to by simply myths (it hasn't happened in several generations. The ship inhabitants are fairly insular).
It is very much a utopian society where everyone works communally for the greater good (maintaining ship, defending her in times of peril). To these people the Ship is their world, without her they wouldn't exist. At the start of play the only thing 'sci-fi' about this campaign is that they're on a ship instead of a planet, the sci-fi elements will be introduced in the first arc, and things will expand from there. Even when they are introduced this is not going to be a 'hard' sci-fi campaign, because I'm not smart enough to pull that off :p There will be handwaving (technology indistinguishable from magic which is basically what's going on with Ship) so don't expect great complex schematics and mountains of technobabble (or perhaps do on that last part). It will be fairly sandboxy, and again, the first arc will introduce the 'threat', but your characters will not have been aware of it until the start of the campaign.
Any questions or thoughts from the other players? :p Your input is greatly desired.
Any questions or thoughts from the other players?
Heh... sorry boss. I get carried away. I eagerly await the others input.
(and will keep my yap shut til then. :7)
Thanks to the fact that just as we are beginning this particular discussion, I manage to locate my Dragon Storm character cards & am consequently reminded of what a great game it was & how much I enjoyed it; I now have a question, you said that Gargoyles in general do not have wings, but some have been rumored to grow them in times of need?
Haven't heard of that game, but yes it is potentially an option for Gargoyles (cuz ya know... they're gargoyles :p). For some reason I see them as kind of mutable physically. I also saw them as growing in gel pods hanging for a wall instead of standard birthing :p Kind of like an egg-laying species I suppose.
Well, you haven't heard of it because it came out in '96 & died the death of most CCG's when Richard Garfield won the ruling that all CCG's had to pay him a royalty for his 'invention'; consequently killing a hell of a lot of really good CCG's, several of which were actually superior to MtG.
I may have to take a look at Savage Worlds or FATE for a system to play with the world & the ideas.
wut. Hadn't heard about the Richard Garfield thing. Anyway, FATE is looking more likely than Savage Worlds at this point. Probably won't get around to reading the full FATE rules myself (so no idea about armor and whatever else it was you asked about PWO) until the weekend when I can do it at work :p
Well, it happened before WoTC purchased TSR & DnD. In fact, I suspect the influx of income was a big part of what allowed WoTC to purchase TSR. Particularly since prior to that, WoTC had closed their RPG branch, selling off or shutting down the RPG's they had been working on...
Which was why when I first heard that WoTC had purchased TSR & DnD, I was not hopeful.
Yes, I'm that old.
No real questions from me... though admittedly I haven't had time to dig into and really read the info.
Bah! Useless! *steals your citrus hat*
Why does gravity in a plane need to be psionic? Why not just say it is a side effect of the ships biological/biomechanical systems. It digests therefore there is gravity.
Or have it use a gravity drive of some kind. It's movement through space has a side effect of gravity in a plane. You may have to have the entire ship seeming to fall or rise towards it's objectives in order for the passengers to feel the gravity. IE deckplane is _______ direction of travel is ^ or v as opposed to < or >.
Why does gravity in a plane need to be psionic? Why not just say it is a side effect of the ships biological/biomechanical systems. It digests therefore there is gravity.
Or have it use a gravity drive of some kind. It's movement through space has a side effect of gravity in a plane. You may have to have the entire ship seeming to fall or rise towards it's objectives in order for the passengers to feel the gravity. IE deckplane is _______ direction of travel is ^ or v as opposed to < or >.
Hand-waving gravity is fine with me. If we are not going for a hard-science feel then whatever works, works. I am not sure Cash but it looks like you are thinking of acceleration based pseudo-gravity a'la Star Frontiers? It works fine at providing gravity but only so long as Ship is accelerating. With a generation ship under constant 1G acceleration one would hit lightspeed (well one can't really 'hit' light speed but bear with me) in a generation or 2. Mind you this would explain why contact with an apparently inhabited universe has been so minimal. We are simply going so fast the the relativity effects are too severe to overcome. Hmmm not a bad solution for the "Why haven't tech savvy aliens taken over Ship question.
{showing work for light speed calc: 1G=32feet/second. Light=186000mi/sec or 982080000f/s. Light/1G=30690000 seconds of 1G acc to reach light or 511500 hours or 21312.5 24hr days or about 58 years.}
Re: weapons and armor. FATE has an interesting way of dealing with these. It largely ignores them. This is very unusual in rpg's where the minutia of caliber and cutting edge are frequent rule fodder. It is refreshing and freeing to see this attitude. Gear mainly allows you to use your skills. A gun lets you use shooting an axe lets you avoid your opponent tagging you with the unarmed aspect. Really good gear may have helpful aspects built in like sheathed in steel for plate armor or made to fit through gaps for a stiletto. I am still getting my head around this and finding the breaks and exploits but it looks sound so far.
AS far as propulsion I was thinking it would have a sort of giant 'frill' that would act as a solar sail. It probably wouldn't get to the speed of light but yeah, right sort of idea. It spends a lot of time in the voids between stars living off of ambient radiation and whatever debris drift's it's way. It's an omnivore in the truest sense of the word.
Will be working on read full rules and typing stuff up at work the next few nights, but you guys should have enough to create characters if you'd like :) Would help give me ideas as well. You can feel free to create your own racial aspects if you'd like, I'll let you know if it gets too outlandish.
Well first question is FATE Core or FAE?
I vote core as I think the addition of skills is a good thing.
I'd definitely go core eventually, but it might be easier if we start the first section with FAE? Does core have any instructions for converting a FAE game? I can't imagine it would be too difficult. If not it'll just take a bit longer to get this thing started.
Core is my vote as well.
It doesn't look too hard to turn FAE characters into FATE ones. Skills replace Approaches and there are more aspects and stunts. It might be better to go core from the get go esp if there are Extras available.
Are you doing the Humans skill with biotech as an extra?
Something like: (stolen from the magic system in core)
Extra: Biotech Training
Permissions: One aspect reflecting that you've been trained mysteries of Ship.
Costs: Skill ranks, specifically those invested in the Craft skill.
People who are trained in Biotech are able to use their knowledge
to perform supernatural effects, adding the following actions to the Craft skill:
o Overcome: Use Craft to prepare and implant bio-creations as well as answering relevant questions.
c Create an Advantage: Use Craft to create spores/enzymes that alter Ship's environment or place mental and physical impediments on a target,
such as Slowed Movement or A Foggy Head. Characters can
defend against this with Will.
a Attack: Not normally used to attack directly. Created/implanted things enhance other skills.
d Defend: Use Craft to prepare/implant biotic structures/parasites that can defend against hostile biotic/environmental effects.
Can't really answer that till I get a chance to read the full rules, but if they're that much more robust then Core is probably the better option.
So game/character generation.
Scale: Start local at the village or personal level and then move to epic as time goes on? (pg 21 FATE core)
Issues Currant: Coming of age quest? Trade mission? Hunting/gathering trip?
Issues Impending: Reserved for Peanuts
Faces and places:
Our Village, if we all come from the same one. Proposed name 'Hill House'. It is a warren of rooms and passageways climbing up and through a limestone-like rise in a more open area.
Alright, so had a chance to look over the first third of the book or so (up to chapter 6 I believe). I think what I want to do from here is open up a recruitment thread and find us one or two more players and then we can go through the world and character gen processes together. It may be a little slow but I think it will make for a better campaign in the long run. I just have to learn to say yes a little more and not be so stingy with info :)
I will try to get said recruitment/interest check up tonight before work (wouldn't hold my breath on that count though :p) or else some time over the weekend.
Hmm, almost finished reading the whole thing now and... the book has rules for adding superpowers. Would you guys be interested in converting Necessary Evil to FATE and continuing (or at least trying it out)? I think it would solve some of the problems I was having. I'd still like to do the ship one now that I've been working on it, and you're all welcome to join it too :)
I do have an interest in continuing playing Necessary Evil in general and Cash Out in particular.
well the characters would likely change a little in the process, and it'll take me a while to figure out how I want/we should convert it exactly, but I'm up for it once I've gotten the other game off the ground.
What about the rest of you?
Oh, and recruitment thread will be going up in a couple hours. Will post a link here when it's done.
Ta-Da! Please proceed to the recruitment thread in an orderly fashion :) Then ya know, read and make a post or something.
Thinking about how to adapt NE to FATE core.
I think a major question would be how you want to to work the Extras.
Will we be using Interface?
Armor and weapons?
Wealth?
Will we get extra refresh for super-powers?
At random I propose 3-6 refresh for powers/other extras. Using interface and wealth but severely limiting weapons and armor to control the zero-sum issue.
Weapons and armor proposal.
All human weapons are weapon 0
Well made/HEROKILLER/Man portable heavy human weapons are weapon 1
V'sori man portable/sidearms are weapon 2
Human non-heavy armor is armor 0
Z-belts and the super kevlar are armor 1 or 2
Armor and weapon 0 devices are still useful as they can have aspects. Either built in, ex Uzi has Rapid Fire so spraying the room is easier, or they allow one to build in aspects/activations using craft.
Thoughts?
Don't think I read Interface, so would have to go back and check that out. Wealth, considering you can just steal stuff with relative ease it's probably not worth a subsystem for it. Armor and Weapons yes, extra refresh yes.
If everyone can please head over and post in the recruitment thread for the ship game then I'm just going to push forward with world creation on that. Doesn't look like we'll be getting any more players, but maybe once we start establishing the setting proper then it might draw some interest.
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2q0qz?Recruitment-for-a-game-of-space-exploraio n
VoV/Musad/Mark I understand you've got your own recruitment thread, but if you get the chance then I would appreciate your input alongside everyone else's, world and character creation is probably going to take a while anyway.
Interface is on pg 283. It simulates the interface power and allows for the kind of hacking that DA does.
Also are you using the basic skill list? Well with the possible addition of interface with the right aspect.
Yeah sorry about that - apart from the normal I've got a review ongoing with an international team coming to Malaysia and the Hari Raya holidays over the next couple of days - so won't have a huge amount of time.
I'll pop in when I get a chance.
Well I've posted on the other board now. This site wasn't letting me view today and yesterday. Not certain what was going on yesterday but today the tests didn't show the information available. Weird.
Board went crazy yesterday. Seems better now. I am slowly making brogress on converting DA to FATE core.
Some aspects under consideration
"The remora eats as well as the shark."
Use positive: Sneaking, gathering/finding what was forgotten. Tailing/shadowing. Stealth. Flattery.
Compells: Dislike the limelight/center of attention. Appears weak and unimpressive. Adds difficulty to flashy actions.
"Combat is wasted overhead."
Use positive: Avoiding/running from fights. Finding a way to end a fight other than direct combat. Negotiations. Long term planning.
Compels: Cowardice. Hard to burn resources for short term advantage.
More as it occurs to me.
Well those are a little on the flowery side :p Took a look at what I might do for Necessary Evil and how I might convert some of the powers your characters have. I likely won't bother to convert everything, and powers like Attack, Melee and Ranged and some others I'll need to discuss with people since they'd work a bit differently.
But that will have to wait for now until Sunday morning or so.
Hrm. Cash out would need Stealth +4, Notice +3, Shoot +3, Burglary +2, Lore Cryptology +2, Contacts +2, Provoke +1, Rapport +1, Lore Battle +1, Empathy +1
Stunts
So stealthy I'm invisible
Master Rifleman
Supersenses
So I was bored over the weekend and came up with a PBP char gen hack for FATE
The phase trio is a lovely idea and a great way to flesh out characters and settings but it is rather dynamic for a PBP. So I fixed it.
The 'Adventure phase' is as the book reads. You detail an adventure and gain an aspect related to it. All good. The changes come in the 'Crossing Paths' phases. Instead of having other characters detail how they interacted with your base adventure you detail how your path crossed each of theirs and add an aspect related to this.
I think this hack preserves the interactive/shared history aspects of the phase trio but makes better use of PBP's more contemplative nature.
What do you think?
Here ia DA as an example
NAME: Devil's Advocate
HIGH CONCEPT: Villainous IT and karmic conscious.
TROUBLE: Cannot resist and unopened box.
~PHASE TRIO~
PHASE 1, ADVENTURE: Seeking to re-establish the contact network shattered by the invasion DA arranges for a shipment of V'sori arms to be 'diverted' to a warehouse controlled by Willie the Fish or another smuggler/gang. It was a trap and DA was played. The arms were real enough but the 'buyers' were a V'sori capture team and the warehouse an elaborate trap. DA managed to destroy the arms and most of the warehouse before capture. Was Willie the Fish/other gang involved? Da is quite interested in finding out.
RELATED ASPECT: Trust no one, yourself least of all.
Created Setting/Story elements: Smugglers. V'sori capture teams.
PHASE 2, CROSSING PATHS - BELLADONNA: Well before the invasion Belladonna contracts DA to provide support and overwatch for her operation against a G20 meeting. The operation is a success though DA is 'forced' to kill a security guard who showed too much personal initiative. While there was limited monetary reward for the op DA was able to successfully mount a massive Man-in-the-middle attack on the G20. Before it was uncovered this attack netted DA a great deal of information on the Delegates and lasting backdoor access to interesting parts of the NSA and GCHQ.
RELATED ASPECT: The remora dines as well as the shark.
PHASE 3, CROSSING PATHS - MUS'AD: Using a cut-out DA contracts the Kashmiri Camel to hit a bullion shipment as it passes through a specific tunnel on New Dehli. DA, again through a cut-out, also alerts the police and military that the shipment will be attacked. Mus'ad begins a reasoned discussion with the forces of shaving and order and the resulting chaos, and the destruction of several formerly secure buildings, allows DA access to the one time pad controlling the internet-spine for most of south Asia. Incidentally, Mus'ad avoided capture and made off with most of the gold.
RELATED ASPECT: Violence is wasted overhead, useful wasted overhead.
PHASE 4, CROSSING PATHS - CASH OUT: {char transcript begins}
:FAUST: Good morning Dr. Mal'ia
:DMALIA: WHO ARE YOU> THIS IS A SECURE SYSTEM!
:FAUST: No need to shout doctor. I have found that the security of a system is in inverse relation to the usefulness of that system, this system is quite useful.
:DMALIA: I will alert security.
:FAUST: That is an option. It will take security approximately 36 seconds to locate my access point. Ten seconds before that their trace worm will encounter files detailing exactly what you were doing in Paris immediately after the invasion. <compressed image file attached>
:DMALIA: How...
:FAUST: Irrelevant.
:DMALIA: What do you want?
:FAUST: Better. You are involved in studying the earth's metahuman population. In two days at exactly 16.45 the metahuman assassin known as CASH-OUT will exit a coffee shop and fall unconscious. Pick=up will be simple as there is plenty of parking.
:DMALIA: Why are you telling me this?
:FAUST: You have access to the SPECTROS logistic control system. Direct shipment 1x237A/1147 to location tag 36 2x3y7 116.37. As soon as the diversion order is logged I will provide you..
:FAUST: Thank you doctor, you are learning. <map file attached>
{end transcript}
RELATED ASPECT: With the proper lever one can move the world
Created Setting/Story elements: Dr. Mal'ia. SPECTROS V'soti logistic control system.
I was planning to do the phases a little differently myself. the ideas I had however were for...
High Concept: Super/Villain Type (eg: Evil Mastermind bent on World Domination, Seductive Siren of Saskatoon, Vindictive Energy Blaster)
Trouble: Based on one of your Major hindrances (eg: As Dumb as he is Ugly, Didn't learn from the Cat, More ornery than a rattlesnake with hives)
Phase One: Origin Story (When/What/Why/How did your powers manifest)
Phase Two: Villainy in a Nut-Shell (What was your character's biggest/most impressive job? An incredible heist? A devastating attack? What put his name on the map of villainy. Good place to slot in other PCs)
Phase Three: Invasion Day (What was your character doing when the V'Sori showed up? How does he view the V'Sori? How did he get captured?)
Not sure what you mean by "karmic conscious"
High Concept: Super sniper for hire
Trouble: I can do it all
Phase One: Military Invisibility Experiment that crossed dimensions
Phase Two: WIP
Phase Three: Aspect: Surgical experimentation has left me scarred
Stealth +4, Notice +3, Shoot +3, Burglary +2, Lore Cryptology +2, Contacts +2, Provoke +1, Rapport +1, Lore Battle +1, Empathy +1
Stunts
Supersenses
Might be covered in Phase one: So stealthy I'm invisible
Might be covered by High Concept or phase 2: Master Rifleman
I will say that I'm also happy for you guys to tweak your characters in the process or even change characters completely if you're bored or sick of your previous ones :) I know I get like that sometimes.
I am happy with DA.
So how are we dealing with weapons/armor? Just as story elements? As things to attach aspects to, or are we going the full weapon rating route?
In am divided on the subject but can see how a simplified weapon/armor rating system could work. Say all earth weapons default to +0 with things like HK ammo/plasma guns hitting +1 or maybe +2. Same with armor +0 for flak. +1 dura weave/z-belts. +2 ablative/military combat armor.
V'sori tech does the same thing but starts at +2 for standard guns/armor and then +3/+4 for the heavy stuff.
Thoughts?
Now a more DA focused question. Do you think Crafts or Lore would be more apt for hacking/computer use? I can see it going either way.
And speaking of Crafts I can easily see DA using Create Advantage with Crafts to augment the cell's weapons and armor. EX. Take Cash's glock into the lab for a tinker {and a success with style on the Create Advantage: Crafts roll} and hey presto the glock now has the aspect of Custom hand grips or Perfectly balanced with 2 free invocations which DA passes off to Cash. The invocations will eventually get used but the aspect will stick around to be invoked until something happens to the gun.
What are folks thoughts on this? It appears to be a normal use of the Crafts skill and one I will really enjoy but is other folks find it annoying.......
Hadn't looked into it too deeply to what would be different categories (as stated previously, was mostly focusing on the Ship game, which didn't get the response I was hoping for...), but was planning to go with weapon and armor ratings.
As far as Craft and Lore I've actually looked at diversifying/mashing some of the skills for this setting. Let me find my notes...
Err, okay think they must be on my other computer and can't be bothered getting that out right now. From what I remember I had smushed Lore and Craft together (to represent both practical and theoretical knowledge), and then split them into different areas of expertise. From memmory I think they were Computers, Mechanics, Science!, and then Alien Tech or something like that.
As to the weapons thing, yeah that's a perfectly legitimate use of Create Advantage. Of course if you fail... :p
Phase 2: New job. Some joker wanting to shape the world in their image. Give me the money. Ruling the world is too much responsibility. So they have me working with some time jumper. Assassination target. Specific instructions on how to take the guy out. I have to time my shot to coincide with the decoy. Should be easy. It's so easy to avoid detection. It's like everyone is asleep. Just a few more minutes now and the motorcade will be in sight. Ah there it is. First shot. Second shot. In my sights just a moment now. Squeeze and timing exact. On the third shot. Good kill. Now to get off this knoll and back to the time traveler and to get my money. Don't know what advantage they think they will get by having Kennedy dead.
Aspect(idea any rate may need to change): For the money.
Phase 1 and 3 aspects already listed. Story see Cash Out background.