Genres/Settings I enjoy watching but not playing in. You?

[Dannyalcatraz]

That is an interesting take. I like the idea of tokens for “deus ex machina” -style escapes.
But other worries I have are with the plot and the characters. All my players are familiar with the movies. So that raises the question where and when the campaign/adventure should take place. Do their characters replace the main cast of JP1? Or do we explore Isla Sorna from JP2? Should any of the original characters feature at all, or just the side characters? And how can I surprise the players with the plot, when they are all so familiar with it?

What if the industrial espionage attempt that failed was not the only attempt? What if someone succeeded and figured out how to duplicate the process...mostly. To fill in gaps, they reverse engineered some of the process, and came up with something close.

Now, with the (flawed) tech in the hands of someone with less ethics than money, a similar park gets opened elsewhere. China? Russia? Australia?

An actual man made island in the Middle East?

Only THEIR critters aren’t so much dinos with some amphibian DNA for controlling the reproductive cycle as real chimera. They don’t even correspond directly to the critters we think we know so much about. Why? Not only was the reverse engineered tech not quite right, those behind the whole scheme actually cut corners intentionally.

 

[Imaculata]

All solid ideas. I suppose if I ever try my hand at a Jurassic Park based campaign/adventure, I would need to check with my players if they are interested in a new park, or prefer the established islands from the movies and books. The biggest challenge may be to keep the dinosaurs dangerous and not have it turn into a shoot 'm up, and to surprise the players with the plot. I mean, if there's a dino park, obviously things are going to go wrong and all the dino's break loose. So there are very little ways to surprise the players with that. A way to solve this might be to have the players come into the story at a point where things have already gone horribly wrong.

 

[aramis erak]

The biggest challenge may be to keep the dinosaurs dangerous and not have it turn into a shoot 'm up, and to surprise the players with the plot.

THis is a situation where a GM having a plot is probably more an impediment than benefit. You don't need/want a plot in survival horror... you have a prepared environment, and drop the PC's in, and let them drive the plot (such as it evolves) revolve around their choices

As for "shoot-em-up," just limit them to 2 reloads, no military grade hardware. And make the dinos a little bit armored, and quite tough (high HP or damage resistance, as appropriate for the system).

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You just know someone is going to want to bring a .22 to the party. Might work for velociraptors, but not exactly the best caliber for bigger critters.

Hey, perhaps- lifting an idea from The Fly- some of the DNA they spliced in was chosen because it was stuff they had in hand in abundance- because of the corner cutting. You know...human.

You thought velociraptors were bad when they figured out door handles? What happens if a few of them figured out how to shoot (but not neccessarily reload) guns?

 

[Imaculata]

You thought velociraptors were bad when they figured out door handles? What happens if a few of them figured out how to shoot (but not neccessarily reload) guns?

I think I'd want to lean more towards the classic Jurassic Park and less towards Jurassic World. No raptor super soldiers, just dinosaurs. I really like the concept of The Lost World, with it being an expedition. Plus the movie really ditched most of the book, so given the fact that most of my players will have not read the book, there's an opportunity here to surprise them while staying lore accurate.

THis is a situation where a GM having a plot is probably more an impediment than benefit. You don't need/want a plot in survival horror... you have a prepared environment, and drop the PC's in, and let them drive the plot (such as it evolves) revolve around their choices

Interesting take. Though I do think there needs to be a basic plot to set things up, and a basic initial goal. I also think there needs to be a clear ending to the campaign. Do they need to acquire a Mc Guffin? Do they need to escape the island? Maybe both?

As for "shoot-em-up," just limit them to 2 reloads, no military grade hardware. And make the dinos a little bit armored, and quite tough (high HP or damage resistance, as appropriate for the system).

Thats a very good idea.

 

[MarkB]

sigh. So, you see, this is exactly what I am talking about.

Orbital mechanics are not the only example, but they are a great one, because they are a study about how our intuition fails us. Yes, of course, the players can be made aware of things that will be immediately suicidal, and choose not to do it. But, orbital mechanics are a study in very strict budgeting. People who live on the ground do not realize how much that choice will restrict future choices. And it is that restriction that can be disastrous.

Let us say the players make a maneuver now. They can still reach home, fine. But now they have used some of their reserves, so that later, when they need to make the huge course correction to avoid disaster... they no longer have the juice.

If it is actually a hard-science game, abstracting the issue to a die roll doesn't change that. It should, in fact, enforce that. And folks who do not understand the science will not really grok it, until it is too late.

And, as noted, this is only one example. The real world where we put sci-fi is an unforgiving place. More unforgiving than a grim'n'gritty, "I hate how fast healing is so I'm eliminating all healing magic and you heal one hit point a week" GM. It works in fiction because fiction is determined by an author. In real space, when things don't go according to plan, it isn't cool drama. You just die.

That's why I raised the point about "fair". The vacuum of space is not "fair". So, what constitutes "fair" GMing in this kind of environment?

Having played a lot of Traveller games at conventions, the degree to which people just don't get this stuff can be astonishing. I remember one game whose starting premise is that your ship emerges from a bad jump, main engines dead, plunging inexorably towards a nearby planet, only minutes to live. And orbiting the planet is an ancient starship that's been there for thousands of years. You have time to park your own ship next to the ancient ship in its super-stable orbit and dock with it for just long enough that you can disembark and spend the rest of the adventure exploring this super-creepy space hulk - but your ship can't stay there any longer, because its orbit is decaying and highly unstable.

That was the situation as the GM had planned it out, ahead of time. And he just simply couldn't wrap his head around the idea that if two ships are parked next to each other, they are in the exact same orbit as each other.

 

[Bohandas]

Sci Fi- I love Star Wars, but "hard" Sci Fi- Traveller, Alternity, Star Trek..it's always short lived.

How the heck is Star Trek harder sci-fi than Star Wars!?

I mean, yeah, Star Wars has the Jedi Knights, but they're rare.

In Star Trek you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a telepath, or a psychic, or an incorporeal being, or a god.

 

[aramis erak]

How the heck is Star Trek harder sci-fi than Star Wars!?

I mean, yeah, Star Wars has the Jedi Knights, but they're rare.

In Star Trek you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a telepath, or a psychic, or an incorporeal being, or a god.

Star Trek at least tries to not look overtly fantasy, and has suitable PSBS to justify their flying somewhat like a hovercraft, while Star Wars doesn't.

It's still not in Hard Sci-Fi. It's in an area adjacent to soft-sci-fi, space opera... And towards the harder end (vorKosiverse is actually harder still than Trek)... Space: Above and Beyond is right on par with Star Trek. So is the Stargate franchise.

Next to all of them Star Trek is far less hard - no attention to anything other than story, And a direct emphasis on the magic being both super powerful and the main element of the plot arcs.

 

[Unwise]

For me the test for hard science has always been "Does it get into time dilation due to gravity or velocity?". If it does, then space is going to be a very very weird place. Trade, communications, lifestyles due to cryogenics and travel, all sorts of things will be far more wacky and 'unrealistic' by being realistic.

Star Wars and Star Trek make a lot more sense than reality does.

I have never found a genre that I cannot get into. Supers, westerns, noir detective, modern etc are all good, but I just don't want to play a campaign of them. 2-3 linked short adventures suits me fine.

If I had to pick a genre I prefer not to play, it is anything with the Internet involved. I like sci-fi settings that were designed pre-internet, like Star Wars. I don't like games where people have the total of human knowledge in the pockets at any given time. My 'modern' games are all set in the 40s or 80s.

 

[Bohandas]

For me the test for hard science has always been "Does it get into time dilation due to gravity or velocity?".

I mean, Star Trek gets into that but consistently does it incorrectly. Like in that voyager episode where they were stuck in a black hole. Also, in many of the episodes where they travel back in time a gravity well of some kind will figure into their BS.