sci-fi – Page 33 – Blue Ink Alchemy

Tag: sci-fi (page 33 of 35)

Everything’s Cooler in Space: Character Creation

I’m actually not going to spend much time on this today – I have a lot to do at the day job. So I’ll just put some of the notes I have on character creation for the sci-fi RPG here and see if anybody has any feedback.

Attributes

Body: Strength, Agility, Endurance

Mind: Perception, Intelligence, Charisma

Scale of 1 to 9, starting at 5 each. One score can be reduced by 1, to add 1 to another. Then add 1 point to a single attribute which was not reduced in both Body and Mind.

Skills & Knowledges

Generated by taking basic score (25) and adding either double associated stat or combination of stats.

Body Skills: Acrobatics (Agi x2), Athletics (Str x2), Melee Combat (Str + Agi), Stamina (End x2), Unarmed Combat (Str + End).

Mind Skills: Deception (Per + Cha), Deduction (Int x2), Discussion (Cha x2), Negotiation (Int + Cha), Observation (Per x2).

Combined Skills: Dodge (Per + Agi), Intimidation (Str + Cha), Survival (End + Int), Small Arms (Per + Agi), Sneak (Per + Agi).

All Knowledges start at 50.

Origins

Terran: Add 1 point to any Mind attribute. Starting Knowledges: Academics, Terran History, Science

Jovian: Add 1 point to any Body attribute. Starting Knowledges: Astrogation, Jovian History, Tactics

Terra: Gain Medicine knowledge, bonus to Deduction skill, Urbanite Perk. No Freelance professions.

Luna: Gain Tactics knowledge, bonus to Small Arms skill, Discipline Perk. No Corporate professions.

Mars: Gain Tactics knowledge, bonus to Unarmed Combat skill, Martial Arts Perk. No Freelance or Corporate professions.

Ceres: Gain Astrogation knowledge, bonus to Survival skill, Lucky B____ Perk. No Government or Military professions.

Callisto: Gain Academics knowledge, bonus to Observation skill, Stargazer Perk. No Government professions.

Io: Gain Science knowledge, bonus to Melee Combat skill, Hard Knocks Perk. No Corporate or Government professions.

Ganymede: Gain Science knowledge, bonus to Survival skill, Historian Perk. No Freelance or Military professions.

Europa: Gain Medicine knowledge, bonus to Negotiation skill, Humorless B_____ Perk. No Corporate or Freelance professions.

Professions

Corporate Jobs

Brawler: Enforcer. Gain Interrogation knowledge, bonus to Intimidation & Unarmed Combat skills, Protector Perk.

Shooter: Assassin. Gain Bare Hands knowledge, bonus to Melee Combat & Sneak skills, Infiltrator Perk.

Thinker: Scientist. Gain High Technology knowledge, bonus to Deduction & Discussion skills, Bookworm Perk.

Speaker: Salesman. Gain Finance knowledge, bonus to Deception & Negotiation skills, Silver Tongue Perk.

Government Jobs

Brawler: Bodyguard. Gain Politics knowledge, bonus to Observation & Unarmed Combat skills, Protector Perk.

Shooter: Operative. Gain Bare Hands knowledge, bonus to Deception & Small Arms skills, Infiltrator Perk.

Thinker: Arbiter. Gain Legal knowledge, bonus to Deduction & Intimidation skills, Authority Perk.

Speaker: Politician. Gain Politics knowledge, bonus to Discussion & Negotiation skills, Vox Populi Perk.

Military Jobs

Brawler: Infantryman. Gain Bare Hands knowledge, bonus to Survival & Small Arms skills, Heavy Weapons Perk.

Shooter: Pilot. Gain Piloting knowledge, bonus to Dodge & Small Arms skills, Quicksilver Perk.

Thinker: Engineer. Gain High Technology knowledge, bonus to Deduction & Small Arms skills, Bookworm Perk.

Speaker: Officer. Gain Interrogation knowledge, bonus to Discussion & Intimidation skills, Vox Populi Perk.

Freelance Jobs

Brawler: Bruiser. Gain Bare Hands knowledge, bonus to Stamina & Unarmed Combat skills, On Your Feet Perk.

Shooter: Gunslinger. Gain Gunplay knowledge, bonus to Dodge & Small Arms skills, Quicksilver Perk.

Thinker: Hacker. Gain High Technology knowledge, bonus to Deduction & Dodge skills, Infiltrator Perk.

Speaker: Con Artist. Gain Finance knowledge, bonus to Intimidation & Deception skills, Silver Tongue Perk.

Everything’s Cooler In Space: Rolling The Dice

November 2, 2009 / BlueInkAlchemist / 0 Comments

I know a lot of you folks are running around doing the Nanowrimo thing. You have my deepest respect and best wishes. If you want some really good advice that will make milk shoot out of your nose, go here. You’ll need to be drinking milk for it to shoot out, of course, milk won’t spontaneously appear in your sinuses.

Anyway, last week I tackled some of the background for this game I’m working on, and today I wanted to do a similar brain-dump as related to the system.

15:10

People do things in their lives. A lot of the things they do require training. It’s a very rare person that can shoot a gun, drive a car or hold an intense negotiation without having some schooling, and even then the natural talents a person might have won’t quite compare to a long life of expertise. So skills should be taken into consideration first.

15:13

Skills, however, also require natural ability. Train someone all you like in the use of a firearm, the art of forensic medicine or holding a conversation with a member of the opposite sex, they might still fail if their natural attributes – agility, perception, etc – are sub-par. The amount of aptitude one has in an area of their body or mind backs up or augments their training, so in my mind, attributes should be factored in after skills.

15:16

On top of skills and attributes, some folks have perks that add to the outcome of an endeavor. Specialized snipers are going to have an easier time picking off a target at range than your average thug. Likewise, there are penalties that sometimes need to be applied, say for example the fact that the target is moving. After skills and attributes come perks & penalties.

15:19

Skills, attributes and perks & penalties = SAP. Take the amount you have in a skill out of a possible 99, add the amount of the associated attribute (scale of 1 to 9) and factor in any appropriate perks or penalties. Once SAP is completed for a particular task, the player rolls percentile dice to determine success. 1 is an astounding success, and double 0 is a complete failure. There will be a chart for this to determine degrees of success or failure. But for the most part, the player should be able to determine everything they need from their character sheet without having to look anything up.

15:21

This system can be used for both combat and non-combat. However, combat can be a bit more complex, and some additional math might be involved. Basically, you begin with your weapon, whatever type of Munition you’re using. Factor against that the Armor (if any) of the target. Consider the Range, then apply SAP. Munition, Armor, Range & SAP = MARS.

15:24

I hope this made sense and if you have any feedback about it, let me know. I’ll cover some character creation tidbits next time. My notion is to make all this number-crunching as smooth as possible, and keep combat and non-combat encounters from feeling disjointed or disparate. A kind word, after all, can alter a situation just as much as a gun.

Everything’s Cooler in Space: Brainstorming in 15 Minutes

October 26, 2009 / BlueInkAlchemist / 7 Comments

Since I missed the opportunity during my actual lunch break, and have some time between assignments, I’m going to take 15 minutes and follow some of the advice from David Hill‘s fantastic RPG-making panel last evening. This entry isn’t to be confused with the singularly brilliant work of Cleolinda. Anyway, let’s start the clock.

14:05

Let’s talk about what I’m doing here. I want to create an RPG based on these stories I’ve written. The premise is, humanity’s expanded into the solar system as far as the moons of Jupiter. After getting established on and under the rather inhospitable surfaces of those planetoids, the colonies on the Jovian moons have sued for independence. After a brief skirmish or three, the Earth government capitulated. Some time has gone by, and there’s now a good measure of tension between the Earth government (Terrans) and the colonists (Jovians).

14:08

So we have some backstory. But what are we doing NOW? As players, what will people be trying to accomplish. Well, the Terrans have yet to actually say the Jovians are a fully independent nation. They need the resources of the Jovian moons to keep prices of things like rocket fuel and metals from going berserk. Both sides now have corporations & a military branch. Some corporations are likely to want war in order to make a profit, both governments have agendas of their own to further through force of arms, the military exists to fight, and the people outside these three areas – freelancers – can make some money fighting for either side. Peace, on the other hand, could also be profitable for corporations excepting ones like arms manufacturers. The military can recruit and train without the political pressures of wartime and the governments can work together at things like price control and information gathering, while freelancers can still make money by breaking the law, or perhaps enforcing it.

14:15

I’m starting to run short on time on this today, but players in an RPG always want to do something cool. They want to be cool for different reasons and in different ways. So far I’ve envisioned 4 different classes of characters and 4 different employers, making 16 different professions. The mechanics will all be the same, and the idea is to make sure the characters are invested in whatever’s going on. Rather than different rolls for attacks, skill checks and the vehicle/spacecraft sections, the foundation of the system will start with the characters. The system shouldn’t dominate the gameplay.

14:20

More to come on this, but for now my time is up.

A Visit From My Muse

October 19, 2009 / BlueInkAlchemist / 1 Comment

So I was planning on getting more work done on the video adaptation of my review of Changeling, and was in the process of getting my web development tasks out of the way when my muse snuck up behind me, sat on my lap and lathered me with inspiration. It wasn’t really appropriate for the work place, but the inspiration lingers.

It’s for a pen-and-paper RPG, using these stories as background material. I’m going to ‘jot’ down some notes here, just to get them out of my head and continue working on what I’m actually getting paid for.

System

With appropriate credit to Bethesda, I think I’d like to use a version the SPECIAL system for character stats. The skill set will probably be slightly different from Fallout, as I’ll need to include things like Piloting, Astrogation and so on. Perks will also be different, and based on character origin & profession. As far as ship-to-ship combat is concerned, I’m thinking of developing a separate system called MARS that first considers the Munitions being used, factors in the Armor of the target, then the Range and finally takes into account anything Special about the weapon – if it’s made to pierce armor, if it’s radioactive, etc. – before making the rolls.

Characters

Characters will have 2 factions to choose from, Terran and Jovian. Terrans tend to be more intellectual and procedural while Jovians are more inclined towards altercations. The faction choice affects the final outcome of the character’s SPECIAL stats. Further customization comes from planet/moon of origin, with 4 for each faction. Terrans can come from Terra, Luna, Mars or Ceres, while Jovians hail from Callisto, Io, Ganymede or Europa. Planetary origin affects starting skill bonuses and makes some Perks available before a Profession is selected – some people are just naturally inclined towards certain things. I’m going to discuss Professions in the next section to try and keep my thoughts organized – things keep coming to me as I type this.

Professions

So there are four basic class types: Brawler, Shooter, Thinker & Speaker. Brawlers want to get into fights up close; Shooters want to stand back and… well, shoot; Thinkers use their brains both in combat and out; and Speakers talk a lot. But the Profession selection doesn’t stop there. There are also four types of employers: Government, Military, Corporate & Freelance. The type of class and employer the player chooses will determine their Profession, and thus their skill set & perk trees. For example, a Speaker working for the Government will be a Politician, while one employed by the Military is an Officer. Talking for a Corp makes you a Salesman, while working Freelance makes you a Con Artist. All Speakers have some basic traits they share, but the Officer is going to have some training with shooting things while the Salesman has better negotiating power.

Engagements

Both Combat and Non-Combat Engagements will be handled with Skill checks, determined by the roll of percentile dice and affected by Luck & Perks. Space combat will start with a character’s Skill check which factors into the MARS system. Both person-to-person and ship-to-ship combat will have location hit percentages not unlike the V.A.T.S. in Fallout 3. Critical hits will likely have spectacular results, using the tables from Dark Heresy as inspiration.

Imitation, after all, is the most sincere form of flattery.

Ship-to-ship combat will also be interesting to develop. Smaller craft, such as fighters and small transports, will engage each other in “knife-fight” ranges, while capital ships hurl projectiles at each other at much longer ranges provided they don’t rely upon interceptors for protection.

Mood & Theme

The mood of the game will be somewhere between Firefly and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. There’s some space to explore within the solar system and beyond, but most of the drama happens in a relatively small arena, i.e. the space between Terra and Jupiter. There’s politics to hash out, credits to be made, battles to fight and technology to develop. Everybody has an angle and nothing is what it seems. The lack of stable FTL propulsion and any sort of alien species limits the scope of the action but allows for more personal storytelling potential, as well as keeping the mood more in the scope of a personal drama than a space opera.

That’s all I can think of at this point, and there’s going to be more to come as I let this stew.

Movie Review: District 9

August 31, 2009 / BlueInkAlchemist / 7 Comments

I’m not going to beat around the bush with this: Go. See. District. 9.

Starring Shartlo Copley, Jason Cope, Nathalie Boltt, Vanessa Haywood, David James, Mandla Gaduka and Hlengiwe Madlala. Directed by Neill Blomkamp, produced by Peter Jackson.

Tag: sci-fi (page 33 of 35)

Everything’s Cooler in Space: Character Creation

Everything’s Cooler In Space: Rolling The Dice

Everything’s Cooler in Space: Brainstorming in 15 Minutes

A Visit From My Muse

Movie Review: District 9

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