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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 7442735" data-attributes="member: 177">Reading this post, I will summarize - I think you are conflating "system" with "adventure".  I think a great many systems will produce Trek-like play, if you feed it a Trek-like adventure.Note that I said that the players *didn't recognize* the scenario.  They were not "all in" in that sense.  From their point of view, they were playing teh adventure du jour.  It played out like Trek, even though they only knew it was Trek after the fact.Ashen Stars is pretty regular GUMSHOE. Just Space Opera themed.  There's a spaceship combat system layered on it, but groundside, it plays like GUMESHOE.My players actually don't really enjoy the investigative scenarios much, so we are playing it more as action space opera.  The mechanics still hold, but the investigation is not a large part of play for this bunch.  This scenario was more social role-play, leading into some action-adventure stuff after the Okana section is resolved.The thing is, I don't know what you mean by "the buy-in necessary".  You mean, a buy in that the game isn't all killing things and taking their stuff, or something?  The thing that does that isn't the *system*.  It is found in the generic campaign conceit for Ashen Stars - you are playing a team that takes on jobs to resolve issues.  Rather than needed to take loot from monsters, the PCs are contracted for jobs, and get paid for them.  This is not something mechanical - you can do it in D&D.  You're the crew of a sailing vessel sent out on the seas by the Crown to explore or resolve issues for the Throne.  The moral/theme focus is done not in *system*, but in adventure design.  The game's advice is to put the PCs in places where there are moral grey areas or ethical questions.  This is why I say this isn't system dependent.  Sure, if all you feed into the system are dungeon crawls where the main motivator is loot, you'll get a classic murderhobo experience.  But the system doesn't make you do that.  I happen to like it, so sure, go check it out!  It is available in pdf form on RPGNow< iirc.That's a myth.  Characters don't generally increase in ability vs. the opposition.  They increase in ability vs the opposition they have already beaten.  Typically, the next opposition is scaled up to meet the PC power, or the game gets easy and dull quickly.  I am pretty sure you aren't sending your 17th level wizards and paladins through Lost Mine of Phandelver, right?As for semi-regular.  Note that D&D's level system is the exception, not the rule.  Few games use level packages.  Skill point systems are far more common.Ah.  I think you may be confusing the mechanics with the resulting narrative.  As a game construct, it is more like - the borg looked to be an implacable enemy at low level.  A higher level, when we have greater abilities, we are able to detect and exploit those vulnerabilities.  The Enterprise crew learns to adapt to the Borg adaptability - with rotating frequencies and the like.In a GUMSHOE sense, starting characters don't have many Investigative or General skill points to throw at things, so the Borg look like a brick wall.  Later, when you have more ranks, you can spend more points on your actions, and you can detect, reach, or outright create, those vulnerabilities you couldn't manage before.It is much like... Tomb of Horrors.  There's a demi-lich at the end.  And it will simply chew up 1st level characters.  Only a group of high level characters will have the knowledge of such a creature's vulnerability to Shatter, and opportunity to stack up spell slots and scrolls and stand long enough to cast them.</blockquote>

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