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TIPS Sought for Sustainable Sci-Fi (not Star Wars) Gaming
Unlike fantasy genres, where the violent & often lawless nature of the world support the adventuring party, science fiction typically brings constraints (as well as opportunities!) that are unavailable in the fantasy genre.
I’ve run various sci-fi campaigns over the years using a variety of systems. While most of them have been successful, none of them have had the longevity that my fantasy campaigns have had.
Unless you’re doing Post-Apoc sci-fi, chances are good you’ve got an interstellar society with laws, police, advanced technology, etc. In other words, it’s a little harder to run a sustainable campaign for free-wheeling adventure-types. Usually, there’s a theme/subgenre utilized to allow the PCs to have those gunfights, explosions, and … well, adventures. Methods I’ve used include:
1. Military Campaign.
Everyone is a member of the military – and authorized to carry a gun.
Pros: Missions are assigned. Lots of high-tech toys.
Cons: Chains-of-command can be problematic in “adventuring parties”. Players sometimes feel freedom is limited. Easy to make missions repetitive.
2. Troubleshooters.
PCs work for corporation or are freelancers for hire.
Pros: Supports “Adventuring Party” style play.
Cons: Characters are criminals/must work outside the law. Genre setting “conceits”, i.e. cyberpunk.
3. Space Cops
See Military Campaign, just focused on law enforcement. More relaxed chains-of-command.
4. Space Merchants
Classic Traveller-style tramp freighters trying to make a buck.
Pros: Character-freedom to choose adventures.
Cons: Firefights attract authorities. The merchant side of life usually isn’t as interesting. Nobody wants to play Space Accountant.
For 1 & 3, the characters work for the establishment and it’s generally benign/neutral. In 2 & 4, if the PCs are “good guys”, the establishment is often corrupt or evil.
In my campaigns, I’ve opted away from the corrupt establishment as it seemed too reminiscent of Star Wars’ Empire. However, given how well the BBE Alliance works for Firefly/Serenity, I’m starting to think that is a mistake.
Thoughts? What Sci-Fi tips do my fellow EN-Worlders have for long-term sci-fi campaigning?
Part of the trick is knowing what kind of sci-fi setting your players want to adventure in- hard science? space opera? Getting inside your players' heads and internalizing their desires to a certain extent by putting that stuff in the campaign can be key. They'll connect more quickly and thoroughly.
Also, the more Sci-Fi you read, the more campaign types you can design...and mix & match!
For instance, Kristine Katherine Rusch's Retrieval Artist novels are an excellent series in which the Humanity is the NKOTB in an interstellar confederation of dozens of races, and they are learning the hard way about the interactions between local and interstellar laws, esp. with interspecies conflicts.
In a sense, imagine the galaxy in which every culture has a mutual extradition treaty with every other. Thus, if you commit a crime in one race's zone of influence, their law enforcement officers may lawfully arrest, extradite or even execute you anywhere else, depending on the severity of the crime...and as in RL, ignorance of the law is no excuse.
Unfortunately, some things humans do on a regular basis, or by accident, are capital crimes in the eyes of other species. Planting a certain kind of plant of the wrong color might be an offense against a particular religion, for instance, or perhaps one makes a comment or gesture towards the recently deceased? Death penalty time.
Understandably, many humans find this fundamentally unfair, if not outright insane, and opt to Disappear or aid in the Disappearances of scofflaws. And of course, that means there is a need for those who can find the Disappeared...either to bring them to justice or to clear their names or just bring them vital information. Those who do this job are called Retrieval Artists.
(Yes, this is a lot like that episode of ST:tNG in which Wesley Crusher gets the death penalty for falling into a flower bed...but on a much larger and more involved scale.)
In such a setting, PCs could be law enforcement, military, Retrieval Artists, Disappeared, Alien Bounty Hunters and so forth.
Besides the Retrieval Artist books, other good SF books & series to read:
1) Bova's Grand Tour
2) Stirling's Lords of Creation and The Change (Nantucket and Emberverse)
3) Brin's Uplift
4) Dickson's Dorsai
5) Niven's Known Universe and Dream Park with Pournelle
6) Heinlein's Starship Troopers
7) Asimov's Nightfall, Robots or Foundation
8) Donaldson's Gap
9) Bear's Way or Forge of God series.
All of them have either classic elements that show up all over sci-fi or present unique twists that your players may not expect at all.
Just because its sci-fi, doesn't mean you can't have good, old-fashioned huntin'-and-killiin'-stuff-for-their-stuff type adventuring:
1) Even in the most organized of societies and advanced nations, there are "Badlands."
The same applies even moreso to the vastness of space. Despite the seeming orderliness of many SF settings, undoubtedly there are places where the rule of law is tenuous, if not completely absent. Places where the only law is what is yours is whatever you can hold onto.
Places like abandoned colonies, interstellar backwaters, DMZs & war zones, or even abandoned portions of a huge domed city or continent-spanning arcology (see Logan's Run, David Wingrove's Chung Kuo novels or the Paranoia RPG).
2) One of the big archetypal sci-fi settings is one of exploration. The PCs take the role of personnel or civilians aboard a ship or in a convoy on an exploratory mission. See Star Trek or the later seasons of the Gil Gerard version of Buck Rodgers.
3) The party are colonists on what appeared to be a lush and welcoming world. However, after the dropship left/they landed and cannibalized their ship to build their settlement according to plan, the world proved to be less hospitable than previously thought. Perhaps there are nasty critters heretofore unknown. Perhaps its an alien race's breeding/burial/sacred planet.
4) A close cousin of the post-Apocalyptic game is the survival fiction game. The party are survivors of some kind of alien (from space or another dimension) invasion, passing raid, or visitation on their normal migratory pattern. Perhaps spores from space released alien plant life intent on eating all the humans around (The Thing,Day of the Triffids, The "Seeds of Doom" episode of Dr Who), or they animated the dead into something resembling zombies.
Society is still somewhat intact, and some places are almost as well off as they are today. However, those places are the exception rather than the rule.
5) The PCs are alien abductees who are enslaved or hired to serve an alien race in some capacity- police, infantry, babysitters, "hunting dogs," living proxies for gladiatorial bloodsport games or whatever.
3) The party are colonists on what appeared to be a lush and welcoming world. However, after the dropship left/they landed and cannibalized their ship to build their settlement according to plan, the world proved to be less hospitable than previously thought. Perhaps there are nasty critters heretofore unknown. Perhaps its an alien race's breeding/burial/sacred planet.
Aw, man, I was just about to post something along those lines. A lot of different kinds of frontier planet situation could be developed for the kind of long-term, freewheeling campaign common to fantasy RPGs. It's not hard to picture a world in the early years of colonization as being a D&D 4e-style "points of light" setting, where you've got settlements with some degree of safety and supplies and laws--at a sort of Old West level--while the rest of the planet is dangerous wilderness full of alien beasts, intelligent natives of various dispositions, criminals or dissidents cast out by the colonies, and lots and lots of potentially lucrative resources. The PCs could be the law--with little to no oversight by higher powers--or they could be surveyors, prospectors, settlers, or any number of other things.
Depending upon tech level and system size, the planet could have had multiple colonizations by different races.
If you're using David Brin's Uplift as inspiration, the colonization could be in the form of illegal colonists on a world that was designated to lie fallow (due to its being the past home of an intelligent race or the current home of a race that is trying to devolve).
Heck, Star Trek is full of episodes in each series that involve colonists getting into trouble with heretofore unknown intelligent life forms and so forth.
Which reminds me...
6) Adventures on a Space Station. Similar to a colonial setting, space stations can get you all kinds of fun adventures. Besides Trek, Babylon 5, and a number of novels and short stories feature the venerable space station as a focal point.
7) The Caravan. A variant of the Explorer setting, the space caravan is either running away from a foe (Galactica) or towards a goal (countless SF stories).
8) Lost in space. Yet another Explorer variant, except this time its entirely involuntary. Besides the show and movie that had this as its name, there have been others. The most recent incarnation that I can think of is Star Trek Voyager.
9) Still another variant of the Explorer setting is Leaving the Nest. It could be at the interstellar level- see Star Trek Enterprise- or as early as the final stages of exploring and exploiting the solar system. While the latter rarely has intelligent aliens, they don't need to be completely absent.
An example of the latter would be the aforementioned SM Stirling Lords of Creation series, as well as ERB's classic Barsoom books.
An excellent example of the former would be the aforementioned Ben Bova Grand Tour. No intelligent aliens, but who needs them when you've got a "Darkest Africa" meets "Wild West" approach to exploring the planets and exploiting them? Especially in the asteroid belt!
When it comes to sci-fi that includes a lot of space flight time (for example a typical Traveller game) a good source of ideas and inspiration is novels and stories of tall ships during the 14th through 19th centuries. And even a lot of modern day shipping too. It fits a certain type of Sci-fi, in which FTL isn't easy or instant. Each planet like a harbor with a unique culture and environment. When you're out in the black it's like a ship out to sea.
Thanks for all of the tips and suggestions thus far! Definitely some great ideas to explore further.
One clarifying question, though. What have you found works best as the hook/premise for the PCs? A lot of the examples given utilize a PCs-as-military as the reason for the mission/adventure/exploration, etc. (I find military-style sci-fi much more accessible for scratching my gamer side as well.) Is that really the best format, though? I think the chain-of-command & less free will to pursue player's interests contributes at least a little to hurting sci-fi campaign longevity.
What PC party dynamics/set-up have been most successful for you? (Even if it's strangers meet in a bar...)
It's pretty likely that PCs will end up in service to some entity/group in a sci-fi campaign. The military, an intelligence group, law enforcement, or even a merchantile syndicate.
If space travell is or might be a key component, take a look at some of David Drake's novels (especially the "Reaches" series, "Cross the Stars", or "The Voyage"). These are modelled on various ancient recordings (the life and times of Francis Drake for the Reaches; the Odyssey and the Argonautica for the other two) and emphasize travel, conflict, exploration, and the psychological effects of living in a war zone. If you'd rather do mercs in space, "Hammer's Slammers" is some good stuff with similar themes.
Good luck.
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You can also merge some of your concepts... for example, the PCs could start out as military types and run missions, until some event (for example they desert because they get a mission they are morally inclined not to follow; or they could be cut off from their support (i.e. kinda like ST:Voyager); etc) forces them to adopt to a new situation, where they might become merceneries/merchants looking for scrap parts to keep their ship going, or something like that, until they finally get home, only to find out they missed the alien invasion and now have to... and so on.
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If space travell is or might be a key component, take a look at some of David Drake's novels (especially the "Reaches" series, "Cross the Stars", or "The Voyage"). These are modelled on various ancient recordings (the life and times of Francis Drake for the Reaches; the Odyssey and the Argonautica for the other two) and emphasize travel, conflict, exploration, and the psychological effects of living in a war zone. If you'd rather do mercs in space, "Hammer's Slammers" is some good stuff with similar themes.
Good luck.
Yes! Drake's series is very good. He wrote a similar book for Tor that would make a great SF game adventure: The Forlorn Hope
Azgulor, I always found the mercenary company to be a good framework for sci-fi. It can be run with a titular head, but tends to be more democratic in the long term, much like the colonial pirates did back in the golden age of piracy. That should give the players the equal status they need to feel satisfied with a long term game. Also, mercs are easier to put in varied situations - they don't have a government backing them up/reigning them in and their "employer" will change from job-to-job. Don't neglect the chance for "between jobs" adventures as well. It will be easier to break the rut you mentioned about repetitive missions.
Unlike fantasy genres, where the violent & often lawless nature of the world support the adventuring party, science fiction typically brings constraints (as well as opportunities!) that are unavailable in the fantasy genre.
Fantasy genres generally only have violence & lawlessness because they're set on frontiers, or in times of strife and war. Think of Westerns -- Deadwood & Tombstone in the 1870s might've been lawless regions, but New York, London, Paris, etc. all had plenty of law. So set your SF games in those lawless areas -- rim worlds (like Tatooine in Star Wars), borderlands between multiple interstellar powers (such that no one of them dominates, and no one local is much interested in law or order), and just plain old corrupt worlds -- or during wartime (e.g., Casablanca). Then there's Firefly -- the Serenity's crew are pretty much the definitive PC party, and they got up to no good all the time. Meanwhile, there was plenty of law and order -- elsewhere.
Chris Bunch's Last Legion books and Walter Jon Williams' Praxis novels are all set in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the gigantic interstellar government, and all the various greedy & power-mad types are scrambling to set up their own fiefdoms. That leaves plenty of room for PCs to adventure.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Azgulor
2. Troubleshooters.
PCs work for corporation or are freelancers for hire.
Pros: Supports “Adventuring Party” style play.
Cons: Characters are criminals/must work outside the law. Genre setting “conceits”, i.e. cyberpunk.
Nah, it doesn't have to be cyberpunk -- you don't need dystopia, a computer matrix, cybernetics, or most of the cyberpunk trappings to have corporate troubleshooters. Plenty of non-cyberpunk SF have powerful corporations, in settings that are transhuman or space operatic or otherwise not very c-punk.
The PCs don't have to be criminals, either -- posit a world where interstellar corps have vast legal rights (a la cyberpunk games), and let the PCs work for such a corporation. Or take Stross's Iron Sunrise -- the PCs can be troubleshooters for an extra-governmental organization, a la the Eschaton or the like.
Heck, see also modern day PMCs -- they operate a lot of places, with lots of military weapons, and aren't generally considered criminals (though some of 'em seem to get up to no good). So let the PCs be members (perhaps the whole outfit) of a licensed security/military/troubleshooting corporation, and they can get hired by whomever to do whatever. Legally.
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When it comes to sci-fi that includes a lot of space flight time (for example a typical Traveller game) a good source of ideas and inspiration is novels and stories of tall ships during the 14th through 19th centuries. And even a lot of modern day shipping too. It fits a certain type of Sci-fi, in which FTL isn't easy or instant. Each planet like a harbor with a unique culture and environment. When you're out in the black it's like a ship out to sea.
That is a good idea well expressed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Azgulor
One clarifying question, though. What have you found works best as the hook/premise for the PCs? A lot of the examples given utilize a PCs-as-military as the reason for the mission/adventure/exploration, etc. (I find military-style sci-fi much more accessible for scratching my gamer side as well.) Is that really the best format, though? I think the chain-of-command & less free will to pursue player's interests contributes at least a little to hurting sci-fi campaign longevity.
What PC party dynamics/set-up have been most successful for you? (Even if it's strangers meet in a bar...)
Well, it depends.
Even with a full-military campaign, you can have wild adventures. Even soldiers take holidays, for instance. So the platoon gets a little shore leave and decide to pool their resources to go on a shrabhoon hunt on Proxima 4...only the robotship taking them down to the hunting grounds goes all goofy on them ("Hal"-goofy, "Holly"-goofy, "Terminator"-goofy or just simply non-functioning is all up to you) and they wind up far away from where they're supposed to be.
So, now they're on some alien planet, all kitted out for a shrabhoon hunt, and they're not even where they're supposed to be. Maybe not the right planet. Or Solar system. Their equipment may not even be useful for the area in which they've landed.
They may not even be aware that something is wrong for a while into their hunt.
"Hey guys?...Shrabhoon are nocturnal, right?"
"Yup."
"How do you get nightfall in a binary star system?"
"Uhhhhhhh..."
At least the ship's emergency transponder works...right? It does work, doesn't it?
On the flipside, even the most free-spirited PCs can wind up in a situation where undisciplined actions could get you killed.
Imagine vacationing on a pleasure planet when a Space Tyrant shows up to make it his base of operations. The natives, while sybaritic by nature, are still willing to fight for their freedom.
All you brought was some SPF 300 and a banana-hammock made of semi-translucent force-fields...and you're stuck in the middle of a coup attempt.
Imagine vacationing on a pleasure planet when a Space Tyrant shows up to make it his base of operations. The natives, while sybaritic by nature, are still willing to fight for their freedom.
All you brought was some SPF 300 and a banana-hammock made of semi-translucent force-fields...and you're stuck in the middle of a coup attempt.
LOL!! That's brilliant. At least one's banana has forcefield protection around it.
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You can also look at the privateer angle - similar to mercenaries, but while mercenaries take assaignments and work for someone, privateers chose their own targets and have much greater discretion (and deniability). Similar to bounty hunters.
In space there are few rules as to what weaponry can and can't be owned, and many of the traders need protection. There was a terrific story hour here about a traveller game, though I can't remember what it was called, so don't worry about that.
Space merchants have a good reason to travel to new places; to find lucrative trading routes. Between these trading routes are empty places where things can happen.
A warship is beaming its SOS call, but all of its members are dead. Deal with space recovery in a dangerous area.
Have the ship infested with all sorts of problems, such as space faring aliens.
Have another scavenger ship pop along and want the find for themselves. Space Combat is possible!
Hell, have the entire ship as a wreckers trap.
On land things can go interestingly as well.
Your semi-legal fence gets imprisoned. The only other one who wants to pay you is a crime boss who isn't interested in tolls.
The dock you land at has been attacked by rebel forces, and you need fuel to jump into the next system. (Possibly more a problem in the Traveler system.)
Money comes in, debts get paid off; things are going excellently. A new Space Tyrant enters the system and demands all ships are landlocked. Try working on-planet for a while so your debts don't grow too much!
Finding and making contacts who know about mercantile affairs. Finding and getting out of trouble because you need more money than the 'safe' trades can give you.
After all, Marco Polo was a merchant, and his name is going to live on a few more centuries, right?
And there is more than one kind of merchant, as well.
Consider the Black Market Space Merchants, who deal with everything regular ones do...plus operating even further outside the boundaries of civilization. If you can't call the cops, you have to be able to protect yourself, after all.
Smugglers, arms merchants, drug dealers, brothel owners...each and every kind of "legitimate businessman" you can think of in a traditional FRPG will exist in the outskirts and underbellies of a Sci-Fi game.
In Ben Bova's Grand Tour books (as well as other near-future sci-fi books), one of the concerns for asteroid miners is claim jumpers. By their very nature, they're operating in an area that can't be well patrolled...very isolated and difficult "broken terrain." If something goes wrong, even if you CAN call the cops, they probably won't be able to get there in time.
I also highly recommend Farscape here, if you haven't seen it yet. Huge number of mineable ideas in each episode. It's chock-a-block of game adventures.
Military campaign? Check.
Space Espionage? Check.
Just getting lost? Check.
Living spaceships? Check.
Space Archaeologists/Antiquarians/Salvage (the basis for the enjoyable and old fashioned Alex Benedict series by Jack McDevitt) Players are a company that investigates for ruins of previous civilizations, abandoned colonies, and outdated and discarded space stations. Some may be doing it for an organization, others may be nothing but treasure hunters. Can be combined with the Merchants campaign. Can devolve into space dungeons, so be careful.
Private Investigators - P.I.s fit into many genre's backgrounds, Science Fiction is no exception. Less restrictive than being a police force, and less criminal than being troubleshooters. Bounty hunting may or may not be a part of this.
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Therefore there is a boundary to civilization, where gradually lawfulness becomes lawlessness. If you want a freerunning, guns ablaze adventure, this is where it is.
This boundary may be geographical or social.
It's entirely possible to have an empire that spans all of accessible space, but have sections of it that the authorities simply don't care about. Maybe only citizens (or corporate members) have the protection of law (and citizenship is difficult or costly to gain, and easy to lose) and everyone else is left to duke it out (as long as they don't damage anything owned by a citizen).
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