This is an interest check to see if there are any players out there who might be interested in playing an indie game called Flotsam by Black Armada Games.
Flotsam is a roleplaying game about outcasts, misfits and renegades living in the belly of a space station, in the shadow of a more prosperous society. The focus of the game is on interpersonal relationships and the day-to-day lives and struggles of a community that lacks the basic structures of civilisation.
Imagine the Belters of the Expanse watching as Earth and Mars shape their lives; the civilians in Battlestar Galactica living with the decisions made by the military; and the folk of Downbelow in Babylon 5, abandoned to destitution and squalor by those who built the station.
This game is about characters like that.
You can get a copy here or alternatively here.
This is very much not a ‘hard’ sci-fi game – it has mystics and psychics and weird AIs and spirits and in fact is more about exploring the social side, with a hard emphasis on role-playing.
It’s a fun game and I’m hoping to find a few players willing to play it with me.
Sounds intriguing. Would it be play-by-post? I assume I would need the pdf you linked to draw up a character? No handy website or wiki with the ruleset online?
Thanks for posting and yes - it will be PbP, on this forum.
Sadly there's no SRD - it's an indie game so you would need to purchase the pdf, unfortunately.
That said, I'm happy to provide an outline of the rules for you so you know what you're getting into, but it would have to be later once I'm off work.
Alright, this is a bit wall-of-text but should provide you with some ideas on what the game is about and how it is played - feel free to ask questions!
Flotsam is part of the Belonging Without Belonging genre, and the No Dice, No Masters school of gaming.
When you play, sometimes you’ll focus on portraying your PC and making decisions for them. Sometimes you’ll play a constellation of problems and threats, called a Situation, and focus on making that Situation feel real and putting pressure on the other players’ PCs. And whichever of those you’re focusing on, you’ll also help describe the world, making it feel real and colourful; and you may sometimes frame scenes, deciding where and when they happen and what they should focus on, and take on NPCs, bringing them to life.
Basically, you share the GM duties with the other players, each of you taking responsibility for portraying a particular Situation. Therefore, unlike in most RPGs, there is no GM – everyone plays a PC and the responsibility for running the game and deciding/agreeing on what happens is shared.
PCs are created using Playbooks:
—— The Thunder, a gang leader or law enforcer.
—— The Spider, a trader, spy, or criminal.
—— The Voice, a cultist, community leader or demagogue.
—— The Cast-Off, a drifter and freelancer.
—— The Sybil, a prophet with uncanny powers.
—— The Hybrid, a blend of human and something else (AI, alien, god).
—— The Scum, an ordinary person with connections in the community
—— The Outsider, someone from outside the station now trapped here.
—— The Vapour, an AI, spirit or demon.
When you choose a Playbook, you get to choose three Strengths and two Weaknesses. For example, the Thunder could choose the Strength "empowered with official authority" which makes them more than just a gang leader; and/or they might choose the Strength "skilled warrior" and the Voice could choose the Strength "can bind and banish spirits"
The Thunder might choose a Weakness "a rival gang disputes your territory" or "you love your gang like a family" and the Voice might choose a Weakness "you are arrogant and overconfident" or "you passionately believe your own rhetoric"
Situations are:
—— The Community’s social strife and internal divisions
—— The relentless effects of Poverty
—— The Gangs who run things down here
—— The Above, a more prosperous and powerful society
—— The Spirits who inhabit this place
—— The people and things that come and go from Outside the station
—— The Resistance to forces oppressing the Below.
—— The effects of a War that is raging near the station.
When you choose a Playbook, you should also choose a Situation that you would like to be responsible for. When that Situation comes into play, you will act as the GM in that case and will be mainly responsible for dictating what happens and/or asking questions from the other players so that everyone gets to chip in.
Conversely, if there is a particular Situation you would like your character to experience and struggle with, you should ask one of the other players if they are willing to be responsible for that Situation – it’s difficult to play a Situation and your PC at the same time!
Instead of dice, the game runs on Tokens. If you really want to get something done without complications, you leverage a Strength and spend a Token. You can leverage a Strength without spending a Token, which will allow you to get stuff done but other players may suggest complications that occur as a result. If you spend a Token, you bypass the complications and showcase your character’s awesomeness.
You gain Tokens either by (i) being vulnerable, opening your character to their Weaknesses and Flaws; or (ii) by asking something of another character – what you ask of them will depend on their Playbook. For example, if you rely on the Thunder to protect you from a dangerous threat, you gain a Token and the Thunder player gets to mark the relationship (effectively a form of XP). If you act in the name of the Voice, or in support of their cause, you gain a Token and the Voice player gets to mark the relationship.
So, is this game PvP or collaborative? Yes.
The way Situations work, and the way the game plays out is based on the struggle for survival and the allocation of scarce resources. Each of your characters may have differing ideals and ideas on how that works in the Below - and that may well lead to conflict.
However, that conflict should be agreed between the players and needs to be played out collaboratively. If the other player isn’t interested in having conflict with your character over that particular issue, you will need to find another way to resolve it (possibly by introducing an NPC who acts as a shared enemy you can join forces against, or possibly by another player stepping in to be the focus of the antagonism).
Just as you wouldn’t have your PC pursue a romantic relationship with someone else’s PC without getting that player’s buy-in, you shouldn’t pursue a conflictual relationship with their PC without getting buy-in.
A little difficult to wrap my brain around coming from more traditional number-crunching RPGs. But I think I could catch on and manage with some guidance.
I suppose the most relevant question to ask about this sort of game is: What sort of story do you want to tell/experience with your PC? What type of situations?
Also who says: "Good job, you get a cookie token!" XD
The sort of story you want to tell is up to you and the group as a whole, it's very collaborative/guided. When someone plays their character in a scene, you can essentially respond in three ways: "yes, and..." or "yes, but..." or "rewind."
YES, AND
"OK, I think my character is going to visit the local fixer, Squillex, to get a read on where they stand in this situation."
"Yes, and when you get there they're clearly torn between glad to see you and annoyed. 'What kept you?' they snap. 'I've got a job for you.'"
YES, BUT
"OK, I think my character is going to visit the local fixer, Squillex, to get a read on where they stand in this situation."
"Yes, but when you finally get admitted to see them, they are not happy to see you. 'You've got some nerve coming back here after last time!' they snap. What did you do that pissed them off so badly?"
REWIND
"OK, I think my character is going to visit the local fixer, Squillex, to get a read on where they stand in this situation."
"Wait up. Didn't we previously establish that your character doesn't know Squillex?"
The Rewind is also used if the scene goes in a direction you aren't happy with, for whatever reason. "Nope, no snakes. Make it a spider and I'm fine."
As for Tokens, it's generally done by consensus: "OK, this seems like a good time for my character to give in to their Weakness here, how do you think that plays out?" Someone else might throw in an idea, you tweak it slightly and the scene moves forward.
(sorry for delayed reply, btw - I did some off-grid pre Christmas travel)
Sounds a lot like improv. Thank you for explaining.
But I meant my question to be more specific than general. You are hoping to play with this system, what sorts of stories do you want to tell? What obstacles would you want to see your PC overcome?
Ah, I see what you are saying - good question.
My preference is for 'slice-of-life' type gaming rather than full-on space opera, so war as a theme is less interesting to me than life aboard a space station where there's a truce, however uneasy: more Babylon 5, or even Absalom Station in the Starfinder universe, than Battlestar Galactica. In terms of my character, I don't see them as someone who wants to rise to the top - they're a peacekeeper of sorts, trying to ensure both that resources are shared around and that none of the squabbling gangs do too much collateral damage to the community (or communities, tbc) around them.
Does that help?