The plan is to use this blog to post various RPG related stuff, most likely pertaining some designing, house rules and stuff like that. Basically the same stuff I might as well post on the EN World forum, though with a less tighter focus on D&D only stuff.
You might see material I would usually hide on my hard disk and not bother to discuss on the forums, since it's to specific or not formulated well enough yet.
It's just an experiment, and we'll see if or when I give it up.
You might see material I would usually hide on my hard disk and not bother to discuss on the forums, since it's to specific or not formulated well enough yet.
It's just an experiment, and we'll see if or when I give it up.
Campaign Setting - Caprica and the 12 Colonies? (Part 2/2)
Posted 4th May 2009 at 08:36 PM by Mustrum_Ridcully
This is the second part of Campaign Setting - Caprica and the 12 Colonies
I am a great fan of Battlestar Galactica.
Unfortunately, the show is over.
Fortunately, the makers are actually creating a new series - and it is set in the same "setting", but before the first Cylon War.
The show is called Caprica and the pilot is out on DVD. I watched and enjoyed it, and I am looking forward to the series so far.
(In related news, I am looking forward to the soundtrack, since I love Bear McCrearys work on BSG, Terminator and now Caprica.
)
I know there is a BSG RPG out there, but I always felt that Galactica was too confined to make me feel comfortable with the idea of running a game there.
But Caprica is another matter. You've got 12 worlds colonized by humans. It is not Earth, it's not a colony of Earth. The setting is science fiction, but it's not a space opera with large Empires, full of aliens and anything. In many ways, it is still Earth, except with a different history, different cultures and religions, and a little more advanced technology. Sure, they can travel space faster than light, but they don't really go far.
And so I thought - hey, Caprica might actually make a decent Campaign Setting. The humans and many details are still like on Earth, but the history is different and less well known, giving a DM and players more freedom to redefine things.
That was the first idea. The 12 Colonies have enough stuff to explore - be it the Colonial history, the relationships between the Colonies before the Cylon War, the role of large corporations and criminal organizations, the appearance of Cylons, the first Cylon War, the struggles of the 12 Colonies after the first Cylon War, the Faith of the 12 Gods and the "One True God" - There's lots of stuff to explore.
But then I thought a little further - how about adding ideas from Dark*Matter? Or how about adding my ideas for a "spacefaring" Mutants & Mastermind game?
There are a few games set on Earth or based on Earth being the origin of mankind. How about replacing Earth with Caprica (or the 12 Colonies)? Earth, its history and its customs, they are not relevant. Earth is just a myth from ancient religious strictures, at best a side-line to the 12 Colonies and definitely not the origin of mankind.
But we still have a setting full of people "like us" with a few twists. One could run a superhero game set on Caprica. Or how about Shadowrun? Dark*Matter is obviously possible, too. (One might replace the Grays with "Angels" perhaps? Or with the 12 Lords of Kobol?)
There are a lot of interesting possibilities. Even as I am writing this down, I find interesting concepts (I came up with using Shadowrun while composing this blog entry!)
I don't know yet if I will actually go this route. I might do it, I might not. My Dark*Matter/Aerth idea actually used elements of our recent history, and it wouldn't work so well on Caprica. But other stuff might work great!
I don't know if the creators of the Battlestar Galactica Game will also create a Caprica game, or if there ever will be one. I kinda hope someone will pick it up.
Generally, I'd love to see the BSG:TNS/Caprica world to become a real "franchise" (though we might have a very small timeline to work with, unlike in Star Wars or Star Trek), but at least Caprica could become a good and interesting campaign setting.
It would be cool if someone would also make it work with different genres. Just like the authors of the show of Galactica and now Caprica are using it as a vehicle to tell their stories, others could use it tell their stories. With the right mixture of fleshing out details and leaving them open, one can create a setting that can be used for everything one could use on Earth - but remove most of the stuff one doesn't like. (Of course, it might be more interesting for writers that want to explore politics and philosophical thoughts that are harder to talk about if you refer to real world nations, cultures and religions. You get freed of "political correctness", and also gain a new angle on a topic).
From the Gamer angle, one of the advantage is that many elements of the campaign setting are still understood, and even if not - the world is still very similar to ours, at least in the "every-day" situations that we'd almost feel at home - but are still prepared for surprises.
So, what do you think? Wanna create your own [Genre] Caprica game? Or rather stay on Earth? (Or on Oerth, Eberron or Dere?)
I am a great fan of Battlestar Galactica.
Unfortunately, the show is over.
Fortunately, the makers are actually creating a new series - and it is set in the same "setting", but before the first Cylon War.
The show is called Caprica and the pilot is out on DVD. I watched and enjoyed it, and I am looking forward to the series so far.
(In related news, I am looking forward to the soundtrack, since I love Bear McCrearys work on BSG, Terminator and now Caprica.
)I know there is a BSG RPG out there, but I always felt that Galactica was too confined to make me feel comfortable with the idea of running a game there.
But Caprica is another matter. You've got 12 worlds colonized by humans. It is not Earth, it's not a colony of Earth. The setting is science fiction, but it's not a space opera with large Empires, full of aliens and anything. In many ways, it is still Earth, except with a different history, different cultures and religions, and a little more advanced technology. Sure, they can travel space faster than light, but they don't really go far.
And so I thought - hey, Caprica might actually make a decent Campaign Setting. The humans and many details are still like on Earth, but the history is different and less well known, giving a DM and players more freedom to redefine things.
That was the first idea. The 12 Colonies have enough stuff to explore - be it the Colonial history, the relationships between the Colonies before the Cylon War, the role of large corporations and criminal organizations, the appearance of Cylons, the first Cylon War, the struggles of the 12 Colonies after the first Cylon War, the Faith of the 12 Gods and the "One True God" - There's lots of stuff to explore.
But then I thought a little further - how about adding ideas from Dark*Matter? Or how about adding my ideas for a "spacefaring" Mutants & Mastermind game?
There are a few games set on Earth or based on Earth being the origin of mankind. How about replacing Earth with Caprica (or the 12 Colonies)? Earth, its history and its customs, they are not relevant. Earth is just a myth from ancient religious strictures, at best a side-line to the 12 Colonies and definitely not the origin of mankind.
But we still have a setting full of people "like us" with a few twists. One could run a superhero game set on Caprica. Or how about Shadowrun? Dark*Matter is obviously possible, too. (One might replace the Grays with "Angels" perhaps? Or with the 12 Lords of Kobol?)
There are a lot of interesting possibilities. Even as I am writing this down, I find interesting concepts (I came up with using Shadowrun while composing this blog entry!)
I don't know yet if I will actually go this route. I might do it, I might not. My Dark*Matter/Aerth idea actually used elements of our recent history, and it wouldn't work so well on Caprica. But other stuff might work great!
I don't know if the creators of the Battlestar Galactica Game will also create a Caprica game, or if there ever will be one. I kinda hope someone will pick it up.
Generally, I'd love to see the BSG:TNS/Caprica world to become a real "franchise" (though we might have a very small timeline to work with, unlike in Star Wars or Star Trek), but at least Caprica could become a good and interesting campaign setting.
It would be cool if someone would also make it work with different genres. Just like the authors of the show of Galactica and now Caprica are using it as a vehicle to tell their stories, others could use it tell their stories. With the right mixture of fleshing out details and leaving them open, one can create a setting that can be used for everything one could use on Earth - but remove most of the stuff one doesn't like. (Of course, it might be more interesting for writers that want to explore politics and philosophical thoughts that are harder to talk about if you refer to real world nations, cultures and religions. You get freed of "political correctness", and also gain a new angle on a topic).
From the Gamer angle, one of the advantage is that many elements of the campaign setting are still understood, and even if not - the world is still very similar to ours, at least in the "every-day" situations that we'd almost feel at home - but are still prepared for surprises.
So, what do you think? Wanna create your own [Genre] Caprica game? Or rather stay on Earth? (Or on Oerth, Eberron or Dere?)
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