I've read your blog and now the play test packet and I'm still unsure what this game is. It seems to be 70/30 about being middle management on a spaceship and having unrelated adventures on random planets. I don't know what the middle management gameplay looks like. Office politics in space? Maintenance work? If the ship gets in a fight and none of the PCs have combat duties, do they do anything except shelter or fight fires? There are trading guidelines but what if none of the PCs have trade positions? The shore leave stuff feels more like a traditional RPG, except you leave the entire system after an adventure, giving it a more episodic feel? Maybe like planet of the week?
I'm working on a section of guidance for the pacing of things, but I'm still working that all out myself! Weirdly this is the sort of stuff I find that running a playtest helps me work out, then I can tune the doc to suit the natural flow of the game.
I'm so excited for this! I love the Star Trek vibes of the gameplay mixed in with a some pirate and a touch of bureaucratic banality. I can see having lots of fun interacting with NPC hands below the PCs and the officers above, or meeting up with the other PCs and NPCs heads in your departments in the mess hall, not to mention exploring strange new worlds.
It looks like something I would like to try, but would require I think people who like the same type of scifi this reminds me of. I was slightly confused by the rank titles of the hands tbh, maybe I read to much military scifi without actual military knowledge, but it sounded like midshipman ranks, rather than non-coms. Anyway I think it could be fun, but for me I am missing as referree the info on how to set up a scene or scenario. The how to play is fairly generic. Maybe I just don't have enough exoerience with this type of system? What would a session have in actual prep?
I've read your blog and now the play test packet and I'm still unsure what this game is. It seems to be 70/30 about being middle management on a spaceship and having unrelated adventures on random planets. I don't know what the middle management gameplay looks like. Office politics in space? Maintenance work? If the ship gets in a fight and none of the PCs have combat duties, do they do anything except shelter or fight fires? There are trading guidelines but what if none of the PCs have trade positions?
ReplyDeleteThe shore leave stuff feels more like a traditional RPG, except you leave the entire system after an adventure, giving it a more episodic feel? Maybe like planet of the week?
I'm working on a section of guidance for the pacing of things, but I'm still working that all out myself! Weirdly this is the sort of stuff I find that running a playtest helps me work out, then I can tune the doc to suit the natural flow of the game.
DeleteJust popping in to say I’ve written a much longer middle management in a spaceship/unrelated adventures on a planet game if that’s you’re thing.
DeleteI'm so excited for this! I love the Star Trek vibes of the gameplay mixed in with a some pirate and a touch of bureaucratic banality. I can see having lots of fun interacting with NPC hands below the PCs and the officers above, or meeting up with the other PCs and NPCs heads in your departments in the mess hall, not to mention exploring strange new worlds.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like something I would like to try, but would require I think people who like the same type of scifi this reminds me of. I was slightly confused by the rank titles of the hands tbh, maybe I read to much military scifi without actual military knowledge, but it sounded like midshipman ranks, rather than non-coms. Anyway I think it could be fun, but for me I am missing as referree the info on how to set up a scene or scenario. The how to play is fairly generic. Maybe I just don't have enough exoerience with this type of system? What would a session have in actual prep?
ReplyDelete