Initial thoughts
Part 1: The Pitch
Part 2: Skill roll basics
Part 3: Potential Campaigns
Part 4: History in brief
Part 5: Keys and Secrets
Part 6: Timeline and Technologies
Part 7: More technologies
Part 8: Character Creation(rough)
I should be dong other things right now. I have so much on my plate that it seems there are not enough hours in the day. However on my drive up to the family homestead I had what amounts to an epiphany. See, i had been having trouble with my damage system. I didn't really want to have damage just be damage. The way I prefer to run and play games lends it self to a more abstract system than the standard damage style mechanics. I also wanted to do more with stress and damage than just use it as a pacing mechanic. I am a fan of how fallout works in Dogs in the Vineyard. How it is the only real way to advance and so it encourages a certain style of play. As I already have an advancement mechanic that I am a fan of, I am thinking of doing something little different with this.
Every character has a stress track that represents nonlethal hits, near misses, and anything that gets your heart rate up. Stress is what you take when you are not actually accumulating fallout. Fallout is any lasting effects that might come from a conflict. These would work a bit like consequences in Fate...maybe. I have still not nailed down exactly how fallout will work in play, though I do have a couple of ideas I would like to use. Fallout will grant character points in some way, currently I am leaning toward something approaching a compel or an antagonistic invoke. That said I did have another idea for fallout that might work, but I am still figuring out how to do it. Basically fallout would grant dice to the GM that they can then use against the group...somehow. I would love to hear any thoughts on how to deal with fallout.
Now lets talk about something that I am quite excited about, stress(might want to come up with a better name for this, any ideas?). See the more stress you take the closer to taking fallout you get, but the more powerful your skills become. I got the idea from two places, 13th Age, Lacuna Part 1, and Die Hard. See Die Hard is one of my favorite movies, it is just brilliant. Anyway, throughout the movie John McClain gets more and more beat up and yet as the movie goes along he gets better at taking out the bad guys. I had been playing with the idea of a damage system that made you more effective the more damage you took. However I could not really figure out how to make that interesting, until I read through Lacuna Part 1, which had this absolutely brilliant Heartbeat mechanic. Basically you have a sweet spot for your heart beat, lower than that and you are not at full efficiency, higher and you are at risk of heart attack or stroke(or something). This sweet spot idea really fit well with my silly Die Hard thoughts. So the idea moved forward a bit, now there would be a sweet spot in the damage track that would grant bonuses to your actions. However it just kind of stopped there for a couple years, as I couldn't really think of what to do with it, now that I had it. Jump back to a couple weeks ago. I went to my first Miscon, and managed to play quite a bit of 13th Age. In that dame they have this interesting idea called the Escalation Die. What it does is speeds up play, the longer a fight goes, the bigger the die gets and the quicker you can take out the bad guys. This is a really interesting idea. The idea basically gets rid of the long slog in a fight, and as it only really effects player characters(and a few kinds of creatures, but only in minor ways).
So here is how I see stress working. It is a track that you can mark off before fallout, every level of stress you take will add to the effects of your die rolls. For combat, this is easy, just add in a level of damage(or a die, or whatever) for every stress you take. For other rolls in a conflict it gets a little weird. I am still working on how to deal with that sort of situation. Basically this would encourage players to take risks and grant them an edge that will speed of the conflict's resolution.
Now I need to sort out recovery of stress and recovery of fallout, but that is the idea as it stands right now. I would love to hear any of your thoughts on the subject. How you think it will play, and all that. I do think I am nearly close enough to write up a beta test document and get some external play tests taken care of. Fingers crossed.
Saturday, June 6, 2015
Thursday, June 4, 2015
Rifts: BOFITNWOR part 2!
Hey all, I know it has been a while since my last post. I am sorry for that. I have been working on a lot of stuff recently and so my blog kind of fell by the wayside. To those of you who have followed my progress(and thank you much for your patience and support), I am still working on Trek to the Stars. I hit a bit of a snag dealing with the combat pacing mechanics and so that has been slow going of late. I am also finishing up a beta draft of Where the Antelope Play, which should be ready in about a month(ish). So that is exciting. I am finishing up the Jadetech series of books and all the text should be done by teh end of the month. Finally I am working on something for the Fate Codex, and I am very excited about it. I will let you all know when that gets closer to complete. As I said I have been busy. I also recently attended my first Miscon, and I had a blast. I fully intend on going back next year and running some games. Its going to be great, heck maybe I will be running a bunch of my games.
That said, I guess it would be a good time to talk about the next session of Rifts I ran for +Cameron Corniuk and +Bill Garrett. it was a few weeks back, but I think it is still relevant, It was pretty fun. I am utilizing a couple of rules fixes and tweaks in order to make the game run smoother. That said, the skill system is still pretty weak. The problems with the skills are twofold, there are too many of them and they are missing several key skills. I know right? How does that even? You know? I will break it down for you. The main Rifts book(not Ultimate edition, which has even more skills...like three times as many, seriously) has 128 skills listed. 128! For reals. So when I am using my simplification of the rules I still run into a problem. On average my players have something like 26 skills each. 26, out of 128, for reals. It means that in any given situation, there will most likely be a lack of skills. On the other end, you would think that with that many total skills there would be at least be a comprehensive list, yet there are large gaps in the skills. Things like persuasion and such are sadly lacking. In fact most of the skills revolve around combat and recovering from combat. Some skills are really difficult to get and some are so pointless as to never really be taken. In fact the more useful a skill is, the more difficult it seems to be to get. I really don't get the design choices in this game sometimes. On a related tangent, there are no rules describing how to use skills or anything. Not really relevant in my game, as I revamped the skills system, but man, that is just weird, right?
In this session our heroes set out to defend their town from this new invasive threat.They stuck around the cabin and searched for clues. There was some tree climbing and some sensor usage and they discovered a nasty new threat, and killed it. However it was not alone, there were many more and they were coming one. I interacted with Rifts' burst fire rules for the first time. Holy crap! that makes guns so very very dangerous. Seriously, I played Palladium games for nearly a decade and I had never used these rules. They increase the lethality significantly. After that, they headed back to town to discuss it with the people of Paradise. After some discussion they headed out to scout the area and get those who want it to the relative safety of town. Camden tried to convince his folks to head to town, but they were not having any of it. They convince the old wizard who lives in the hills north of town to come and help. They also had to try and deal with the representatives of both the Blackfoot and the Salish nations, who were in town for purchasing lizard meat. They made a deal for magic weapons from the Salish, and made a deal to defend the town's retreat, should they lose, with the Blackfoot. Leo gets that second concession by defeating the leader in a boxing match. It was epic, like Rocky vs. Drago...if Rocky had no muscles. Seriously, I think this is my favorite moment. You gotta see it, It's awesome.
That said, I guess it would be a good time to talk about the next session of Rifts I ran for +Cameron Corniuk and +Bill Garrett. it was a few weeks back, but I think it is still relevant, It was pretty fun. I am utilizing a couple of rules fixes and tweaks in order to make the game run smoother. That said, the skill system is still pretty weak. The problems with the skills are twofold, there are too many of them and they are missing several key skills. I know right? How does that even? You know? I will break it down for you. The main Rifts book(not Ultimate edition, which has even more skills...like three times as many, seriously) has 128 skills listed. 128! For reals. So when I am using my simplification of the rules I still run into a problem. On average my players have something like 26 skills each. 26, out of 128, for reals. It means that in any given situation, there will most likely be a lack of skills. On the other end, you would think that with that many total skills there would be at least be a comprehensive list, yet there are large gaps in the skills. Things like persuasion and such are sadly lacking. In fact most of the skills revolve around combat and recovering from combat. Some skills are really difficult to get and some are so pointless as to never really be taken. In fact the more useful a skill is, the more difficult it seems to be to get. I really don't get the design choices in this game sometimes. On a related tangent, there are no rules describing how to use skills or anything. Not really relevant in my game, as I revamped the skills system, but man, that is just weird, right?
In this session our heroes set out to defend their town from this new invasive threat.They stuck around the cabin and searched for clues. There was some tree climbing and some sensor usage and they discovered a nasty new threat, and killed it. However it was not alone, there were many more and they were coming one. I interacted with Rifts' burst fire rules for the first time. Holy crap! that makes guns so very very dangerous. Seriously, I played Palladium games for nearly a decade and I had never used these rules. They increase the lethality significantly. After that, they headed back to town to discuss it with the people of Paradise. After some discussion they headed out to scout the area and get those who want it to the relative safety of town. Camden tried to convince his folks to head to town, but they were not having any of it. They convince the old wizard who lives in the hills north of town to come and help. They also had to try and deal with the representatives of both the Blackfoot and the Salish nations, who were in town for purchasing lizard meat. They made a deal for magic weapons from the Salish, and made a deal to defend the town's retreat, should they lose, with the Blackfoot. Leo gets that second concession by defeating the leader in a boxing match. It was epic, like Rocky vs. Drago...if Rocky had no muscles. Seriously, I think this is my favorite moment. You gotta see it, It's awesome.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Rifts: Buckets of fun in the New West o'rama
The other night I ran the first session of a Rifts campaign. I know! Right? Rifts!!!!!!
I set the game up about a week ago, as there was this longing in my soul to run the game. It was the first game I had ever played. See I had run games for three-ish years, but never played any. Needless to say that this caused some problems as I had no real way to judge my GMing chops. Then my friend Eli said he would run a game of Rifts for me and a few of our friends(and this one guy who just sort of hung out at the game store, no one really liked him, but he was in our game for some reason). The game was awesome, I played Yukon Cornelius, a dog boy with a sombrero and a corn cob pipe. He was awesome. True story. Anyway, that game is burned into my mind like giant radioactive rubber pants. The pants command me to run a game.
I sat down with only the vaguest of ideas for a campaign premise. But during the week something wonderful happened. Pinnacle announced that they have the rights to make Rifts books for Savage Worlds. After everyone checked to see if it was still April first, or if hell had frozen over, it was found to be a true statement. This is huge. HUGE!!!!!!!(extra exclamation points)
Anyway, the game started and we got some characters made and the setting built. The campaign will focus around a bunch of monsters from the Rifts and the Coalition each fighting over a small town in the rockies that would rather not be in the middle. Its going to be pretty sweet. I utilized some rules fixes I came up with to fixe some of the problems with Palladium's system. I made sure to announce them all quite loudly in the recording, should you wish to try them out. So far they seem to work well, though the number of skills is way to high.
Here is the recording should you wish to watch.
I set the game up about a week ago, as there was this longing in my soul to run the game. It was the first game I had ever played. See I had run games for three-ish years, but never played any. Needless to say that this caused some problems as I had no real way to judge my GMing chops. Then my friend Eli said he would run a game of Rifts for me and a few of our friends(and this one guy who just sort of hung out at the game store, no one really liked him, but he was in our game for some reason). The game was awesome, I played Yukon Cornelius, a dog boy with a sombrero and a corn cob pipe. He was awesome. True story. Anyway, that game is burned into my mind like giant radioactive rubber pants. The pants command me to run a game.
I sat down with only the vaguest of ideas for a campaign premise. But during the week something wonderful happened. Pinnacle announced that they have the rights to make Rifts books for Savage Worlds. After everyone checked to see if it was still April first, or if hell had frozen over, it was found to be a true statement. This is huge. HUGE!!!!!!!(extra exclamation points)
Anyway, the game started and we got some characters made and the setting built. The campaign will focus around a bunch of monsters from the Rifts and the Coalition each fighting over a small town in the rockies that would rather not be in the middle. Its going to be pretty sweet. I utilized some rules fixes I came up with to fixe some of the problems with Palladium's system. I made sure to announce them all quite loudly in the recording, should you wish to try them out. So far they seem to work well, though the number of skills is way to high.
Here is the recording should you wish to watch.
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Jake Reviews: Exemplars & Eidolons
I normally don't do reviews. Its not that I don't have opinions, but I generally prefer to avoid telling people what to play. That said, I have recently run into a game that I think is truly fantastic and I would like to recommend it. It is a free pdf so I feel OK about recommending it. If you like it, great. If you hate, nothing lost but a little time. So here goes, my first review, a review of Exemplars and Eidolons.
The Peritextual Elements
The cover art is decent, in that old school D&D style. I will admit, it did not draw me in at first. It is the kind of art that grows on you as time goes on. The internal art is solid, it is basically solid and appropriate(it is taken from a couple of open source art packs, so make of that what you will). The layout is purposefully in the style of the original D&D booklets and is designed to showcase how to do that layout. As such it is very fine. Simple and well laid out, no frills. By and large the peritextual elements of the game are solid and well thought out.
Game mechanics
Overall this is the slickest take on classic OSR based rules I have ever seen. It avoids much of the rules baggage I have seen in many OSR games. Each player rolls 4d6, drop the lowest, for their attribute(which are the standard fare. This is followed by writing down three facts about your character. Facts are a single sentence that defines a relationship, influence, or background about your character. When a fact applies to a given situation you gain a +4 to a given ability roll. to Players then choose between one of three classes: Warrior, Rogue, or Sorcerer. Each grants the player a set of gifts. Gifts are special abilities and super powers. Players get two from their class and one from any list at level one. You then pick weapons, equipment, and write down effort and HPs. Effort is new, it is how one uses gifts and some magic spells. Leveling up is pretty slick, you may choose any class at the new level and can switch back and forth as you go. Every level grants an additional gift and some more HP. Sorcerers work a bit different than many OSR games, they can cast any of the spells at a level they have mastered, though only a couple per day, per level. You basically start out as a master magus and go up from there.
The die rolls are split between three types, ability checks, saves, and attack rolls. Abilities are rolled against with a roll under mode. Saves are also rolled under, though you add your level in appropriate classes to the appropriate saves. Attacks are rolled pretty much standard. Damage rolls are an interesting take. You roll the damage and compare it against a chart. The results will end up between 0 and 4 damage. Damage comes off of the player characters hit points and NPCs HD(this is pretty great as it lets you pull NPCs from most any OSR game and use them here with minimal fuss).
The other really spiffy mechanics are Wealth and Influence. As you are playing larger than life heroes you don't really have to worry about everyday money, in fact the game tells you to just allow players to get whatever incidental items they could reasonably want. Wealth represents serious riches, like dragon hoards and the like. You can spend it to get influence and other big things. Influence is quite possibly my favorite part of the game. The GM is encouraged to build a really big problem and a bunch of lesser problems. Each one of the lesser problems is worth a set amount of influence. You gain influence by doing great deeds, completing quests, using wealth and gifts. Once a minor problem is taken car of you gain XP, and when a major problem is dealt with you gain much more XP. It is a really slick system.
Setting
The setting is quite slim. Basically the game tells you to play larger than life heroes in a fantasy world and leaves the rest up to the group to decide. I kind of like that as I immediately thought up a bunch of scenarios and campaigns for the game. It has an intrinsic setting that is implied more than outright stated. I rather like this method, as it leaves room to play with the features in new and interesting ways.
Overall I rather like this game and, as it is free, I think it would be worth your time to check it out. At 48 pages it is not a heavy game, but it handles larger than life heroes rather well.
The Peritextual Elements
The cover art is decent, in that old school D&D style. I will admit, it did not draw me in at first. It is the kind of art that grows on you as time goes on. The internal art is solid, it is basically solid and appropriate(it is taken from a couple of open source art packs, so make of that what you will). The layout is purposefully in the style of the original D&D booklets and is designed to showcase how to do that layout. As such it is very fine. Simple and well laid out, no frills. By and large the peritextual elements of the game are solid and well thought out.
Game mechanics
Overall this is the slickest take on classic OSR based rules I have ever seen. It avoids much of the rules baggage I have seen in many OSR games. Each player rolls 4d6, drop the lowest, for their attribute(which are the standard fare. This is followed by writing down three facts about your character. Facts are a single sentence that defines a relationship, influence, or background about your character. When a fact applies to a given situation you gain a +4 to a given ability roll. to Players then choose between one of three classes: Warrior, Rogue, or Sorcerer. Each grants the player a set of gifts. Gifts are special abilities and super powers. Players get two from their class and one from any list at level one. You then pick weapons, equipment, and write down effort and HPs. Effort is new, it is how one uses gifts and some magic spells. Leveling up is pretty slick, you may choose any class at the new level and can switch back and forth as you go. Every level grants an additional gift and some more HP. Sorcerers work a bit different than many OSR games, they can cast any of the spells at a level they have mastered, though only a couple per day, per level. You basically start out as a master magus and go up from there.
The die rolls are split between three types, ability checks, saves, and attack rolls. Abilities are rolled against with a roll under mode. Saves are also rolled under, though you add your level in appropriate classes to the appropriate saves. Attacks are rolled pretty much standard. Damage rolls are an interesting take. You roll the damage and compare it against a chart. The results will end up between 0 and 4 damage. Damage comes off of the player characters hit points and NPCs HD(this is pretty great as it lets you pull NPCs from most any OSR game and use them here with minimal fuss).
The other really spiffy mechanics are Wealth and Influence. As you are playing larger than life heroes you don't really have to worry about everyday money, in fact the game tells you to just allow players to get whatever incidental items they could reasonably want. Wealth represents serious riches, like dragon hoards and the like. You can spend it to get influence and other big things. Influence is quite possibly my favorite part of the game. The GM is encouraged to build a really big problem and a bunch of lesser problems. Each one of the lesser problems is worth a set amount of influence. You gain influence by doing great deeds, completing quests, using wealth and gifts. Once a minor problem is taken car of you gain XP, and when a major problem is dealt with you gain much more XP. It is a really slick system.
Setting
The setting is quite slim. Basically the game tells you to play larger than life heroes in a fantasy world and leaves the rest up to the group to decide. I kind of like that as I immediately thought up a bunch of scenarios and campaigns for the game. It has an intrinsic setting that is implied more than outright stated. I rather like this method, as it leaves room to play with the features in new and interesting ways.
Overall I rather like this game and, as it is free, I think it would be worth your time to check it out. At 48 pages it is not a heavy game, but it handles larger than life heroes rather well.
Friday, April 3, 2015
Trek to the Stars part 8:Character Creation
Character creation in Trek to the Stars is a bit more involved than I normally like to make. That said I think there is a lot of interesting things that can happen in a more involved character generation. I hope I am right in that, and not just kind of meandering at the mind. In this post I will be putting down the framework of character creation, step by step. For those just picking this series up, here is the precious posts:
Initial thoughts
Part 1: The Pitch
Part 2: Skill roll basics
Part 3: Potential Campaigns
Part 4: History in brief
Part 5: Keys and Secrets
Part 6: Timeline and Technologies
Part 7: More technologies
Character Creation
To create a character for Trek to the Stars you start with the basic campaign template. Decide what sort of game you wish to play as a group. The game makes the assumption that you will all play members of a star ship crew travelling the space-lanes, taking colonists and cargo to and from the various outposts of human occupied space. However, if you wish to play a colonist, miner, or some other form of game the mechanics will allow that style of play.
Star Ship
Decide at this point weather or not your ship is registered with a government/organization. If you are registered that has some benefits and some downsides. If you are not, you remain free of outside influence, but that carries a lot of downsides as well. At this point choose a model of star ship from the list provided(no list at the moment, but I will have one in the final draft, for now just make up a cool sounding star ship) Also each player should write down one fact about the ship. Facts are one sentence descriptors that can enhance rolls during play.
Character Origins and Motivations
Next you choose an origin. Origins cover your birth planet/government, whether you are a baseline human or some variant, and your defining background events. You will choose one Origin Key that will be most important to your character. Following the origin you will choose a motivation. Motivation Keys are the driving force for your character in the moment. They are what you want, what you need. Check out part 5 of this series to get advice on building keys.
Types
At this point you will also choose whether or not your character is a baseline human or something different. Currently I have only three types available, but my end goal is to increase that number to cover all the types I have discussed in previous posts. This is an area I am still heavily developing so any thoughts on this would be very welcome.
Baseline: you gain a character the first time in a session when your biology would cause a hindrance to you. when you spend a character point on a fact to gain an extra kept die you gain two extra kept dice instead.
Alpha: Increase your maximum dice in physical and mental categories by one and increase the rating of two skills within those categories by one. Gain a character point the first time in a session your biology would hinder your character.
Raven: The first time your biology would get in the way in a given session, gain a character point. You can fly at your running speed.
I am still working out how to do some of the human augmentation within the systems I currently have. Any thoughts on how to do enhancement within the system would be greatly appreciated.
Skills
You start out with 35 points to spread among the various skills. No skill can start higher than five dice. This may be not enough skill points(or it may be too many) for actual play. I feel that this works, but will need to run some tests to see if adjustment is needed. I am currently using the skill list I set down in part 2, so check that out for the current list.
Achievements
Your character starts with three achievements. Achievements are specialties or talents within a given skill. Currently I do not have a bunch of names for specific achievements, but I do have a set of rules for creating them. An achievement can do one of the following:
Character Points expenditures and advancement
After character creation you can improve your character through the expenditure of character points to enhance a skill roll. The final character sheet will have a list of ten boxes set below the skill rating bubbles so you can easily track skill growth.
10 character points gets you the next dot in a skill
5 character points grants you an achievement(a specialization or ability within a given skill)
2 character points grants you a fact(something like an aspect that is attached to the skill). These are the only character points you can spend on character advancement without spending them on enhancing a skill first.
Finishing Touches
Write down three facts about your character. One should be about their training and background. The other two should be about relationships or social duties your character has. These are very important as they allow you to increase the number of kept dice you can have on a given roll. These Facts also allow for a bit of niche protection and individualization of specialty. Also here is where you mark down any signature equipment and your physical description. And then you should be done...
So far that is what I have for character creation. I would like to do a bunch of character creation and see if it stands up to repeated iterations. If any readers would like to build a character(or a bunch of them should the mood strike), I would like to see them, post or link in the comments. In fact I would love to hear any thoughts on this method for character creation. Let me know if you think it will work what areas are weak, and anything else you thought about it.
Initial thoughts
Part 1: The Pitch
Part 2: Skill roll basics
Part 3: Potential Campaigns
Part 4: History in brief
Part 5: Keys and Secrets
Part 6: Timeline and Technologies
Part 7: More technologies
Character Creation
To create a character for Trek to the Stars you start with the basic campaign template. Decide what sort of game you wish to play as a group. The game makes the assumption that you will all play members of a star ship crew travelling the space-lanes, taking colonists and cargo to and from the various outposts of human occupied space. However, if you wish to play a colonist, miner, or some other form of game the mechanics will allow that style of play.
Star Ship
Decide at this point weather or not your ship is registered with a government/organization. If you are registered that has some benefits and some downsides. If you are not, you remain free of outside influence, but that carries a lot of downsides as well. At this point choose a model of star ship from the list provided(no list at the moment, but I will have one in the final draft, for now just make up a cool sounding star ship) Also each player should write down one fact about the ship. Facts are one sentence descriptors that can enhance rolls during play.
Character Origins and Motivations
Next you choose an origin. Origins cover your birth planet/government, whether you are a baseline human or some variant, and your defining background events. You will choose one Origin Key that will be most important to your character. Following the origin you will choose a motivation. Motivation Keys are the driving force for your character in the moment. They are what you want, what you need. Check out part 5 of this series to get advice on building keys.
Types
At this point you will also choose whether or not your character is a baseline human or something different. Currently I have only three types available, but my end goal is to increase that number to cover all the types I have discussed in previous posts. This is an area I am still heavily developing so any thoughts on this would be very welcome.
Baseline: you gain a character the first time in a session when your biology would cause a hindrance to you. when you spend a character point on a fact to gain an extra kept die you gain two extra kept dice instead.
Alpha: Increase your maximum dice in physical and mental categories by one and increase the rating of two skills within those categories by one. Gain a character point the first time in a session your biology would hinder your character.
Raven: The first time your biology would get in the way in a given session, gain a character point. You can fly at your running speed.
I am still working out how to do some of the human augmentation within the systems I currently have. Any thoughts on how to do enhancement within the system would be greatly appreciated.
Skills
You start out with 35 points to spread among the various skills. No skill can start higher than five dice. This may be not enough skill points(or it may be too many) for actual play. I feel that this works, but will need to run some tests to see if adjustment is needed. I am currently using the skill list I set down in part 2, so check that out for the current list.
Achievements
Your character starts with three achievements. Achievements are specialties or talents within a given skill. Currently I do not have a bunch of names for specific achievements, but I do have a set of rules for creating them. An achievement can do one of the following:
Allow you to keep an extra die on a given roll(usually only in a given circumstance, though perhaps if you take it twice you can just increase the kept die for all rolls with the skill)
Give you a minor unique ability of some sort or permission to use your skill in a new way(let you use a skill in the place of another skill within a defined field)
Increase the scale of the skill in a specific circumstance(I am still working on the specific effects of this and would love to hear any thoughts on what I can do with it)
Increase effect or damage of a skill after the roll(basically you achieve success with style automatically on a success, you critically succeed when you succeed at all)
Character Points expenditures and advancement
After character creation you can improve your character through the expenditure of character points to enhance a skill roll. The final character sheet will have a list of ten boxes set below the skill rating bubbles so you can easily track skill growth.
10 character points gets you the next dot in a skill
5 character points grants you an achievement(a specialization or ability within a given skill)
2 character points grants you a fact(something like an aspect that is attached to the skill). These are the only character points you can spend on character advancement without spending them on enhancing a skill first.
Finishing Touches
Write down three facts about your character. One should be about their training and background. The other two should be about relationships or social duties your character has. These are very important as they allow you to increase the number of kept dice you can have on a given roll. These Facts also allow for a bit of niche protection and individualization of specialty. Also here is where you mark down any signature equipment and your physical description. And then you should be done...
So far that is what I have for character creation. I would like to do a bunch of character creation and see if it stands up to repeated iterations. If any readers would like to build a character(or a bunch of them should the mood strike), I would like to see them, post or link in the comments. In fact I would love to hear any thoughts on this method for character creation. Let me know if you think it will work what areas are weak, and anything else you thought about it.
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Trek to the Stars pt 7: The Inevitable Machine Uprising
In this post I am going to talk a bit more about the setting for Trek to the Stars, and all that. I am also going to talk about an area of design that I normally do not pay much attention to. I am going to talk about when you reach the point where you have to decide what to do with your game. Mostly, when I make a game for this site, I just go until the muse no longer strikes and then I let the idea lay fallow. After talking with some of my friends and fellow designers I have decided that I would be better served by finishing up these projects and putting them out all polished and gleaming. So that is what I am going to do. I will start with this project; my goal is to have a working beta document ready by mid April. From there I will start a fairly low key kickstarter to get editing, art, and layout done. Then I will release it to the world as a pay what you want pdf and also do some sort of print on demand bit. After that, I will move on to other projects that are near completion: Heartbreaker, Omnis Mundi, and Where the Antelope play. I also have a bunch of other ideas that keep springing into my head, so look for those in the future as well. Don't worry about Jadepunk, though. I will still be putting out books for that. It is just that I have spent so much time focusing on that single project that my other work has started to slide a bit. This is my attempt to get back in the saddle, to get designing the other stuff that I always wanted to do.
All that said lets get to the design bits, yeah? For those who haven't been following this project, or want to refamiliarize themselves with it, here are the previous posts:
The initial idea
Part 1 Influences and basic pitch
Part 2 Skill Roll Basics
Part 3 Campaign Frameworks
Part 4 History in brief and major technologies
Part 5 I talk about Keys and Secrets
Part 6 The basic timeline and a description of the clades and uplifts
Last time I talked about the genetic engineering side of things. This time I would like to delve into the mechanical and technological side of the equation.
Computing
Quantum Computers: The advent of the quantum computer changed everything. For most folk in the system, it was just a faster and more reliable computer. To those into advanced mathematics, economics, or artificial intelligence research it the quantum computer opened the universe. When the quantum computer was first invented, those who had it used it to crash every market on earth for over ten years. Only when the nations and corporations changed over to quantum cryptography that things began to improve and even then it was the discovery of fusion that managed to pull the economy out a decade long slump.
The Internet
Artificial Intelligence
During the first diaspora artificial intelligence came to be. Several labs managed the feat within months of each other. At the time few laws existed to deal with man made sapience. this was quickly rectified and within twenty years Artificial Intelligences were considered capable of being citizens like any human. That said there is still a great deal of distrust and prejudice against Constructed Intelligences(their preferred term). Some folks do not believe the results of the Ferrera-Tannous Test are accurate, that these beings are only mimicking sapience. Currently a Constructed Intelligence requires a massive quantum computer with massive constant power needs. Most are housed in satellites or space ships, interacting with the external world through drones.
Transportation
Transportation of the future is manifold. From Vactrains traversing the Atlantic and across multiple continents to Ground effect vehicles and vacuum balloons, there are more ways to get around now than at any time in the past. The biggest advance has been in the area of space travel. Cheep fusion reactors and mass drivers drove the race into space. Currently there are two main drives in use Solar Sails and Fusion Drive Rockets. Solar sails are cheep, but slow. One can increase one's speed by hiring a laser array to increase the ships speed. Fusion Drive Rockets(called "Rosies" in the engineering vernacular) are used primarily for military uses and other uses that require a fast burn. They are far to costly for most normal travel needs. Primarily ships are use for trade purposes, bringing He^3 and other materials out to, and back from, the edges of human occupied space.
Cybernetics
There are a great many ways to augment the human body. Possibly the most invasive is biomechtronic human enhancement, often called(erroneously) cybernetics. Most folks who get enhanced in this way are replacing damaged limbs or organs. The ones who do not are viewed with great distrust. People who remove parts of themselves to gain some perceived advantage are seen as somewhat unstable.
W-Y Corp: Born of the merger between two mega-corporations W-Y Corp produces anything and everything that people need. They control 4% of every market in the system. That may not seem like much, but it makes them the largest corporation in the solar system. There have been many allegations of shady dealings and cover ups, but they hold such power that they are considered a sovereign entity when dealing with governments.
Omni Corp: The leading edge of the drone market, while also working to break into the field of mechanical augmentation. They have recently mad a deal with one of the moons of Uranus to build better soldiers in their near constant warfare with their neighbors.
Tai Rel Corp: Leading the field in genetic engineering. they are currently focused entirely on building better life forms to survive the harsh conditions in Venus' atmosphere.
Cyber Systems: They created the first quantum computers and still are leaders in the field. Recently they have been fighting an economic war against their chief rival HMI.
Hueristic Modeling Inc: An upstart computer company that made a splash recently by outbidding Cyber Systems for a military contract with the Saturnian Regency.
So that is what I have for this post. Let me know what you think.
All that said lets get to the design bits, yeah? For those who haven't been following this project, or want to refamiliarize themselves with it, here are the previous posts:
The initial idea
Part 1 Influences and basic pitch
Part 2 Skill Roll Basics
Part 3 Campaign Frameworks
Part 4 History in brief and major technologies
Part 5 I talk about Keys and Secrets
Part 6 The basic timeline and a description of the clades and uplifts
Last time I talked about the genetic engineering side of things. This time I would like to delve into the mechanical and technological side of the equation.
Computing
Quantum Computers: The advent of the quantum computer changed everything. For most folk in the system, it was just a faster and more reliable computer. To those into advanced mathematics, economics, or artificial intelligence research it the quantum computer opened the universe. When the quantum computer was first invented, those who had it used it to crash every market on earth for over ten years. Only when the nations and corporations changed over to quantum cryptography that things began to improve and even then it was the discovery of fusion that managed to pull the economy out a decade long slump.
The Internet
During the Last War the Internet was struck, and struck hard. It was a line of communication and could not be allowed. Satellites were destroyed, wires cut, severs were wiped out. By the end of the war the nature of computer networks had changed. Much information was lost or fragmented during the war, but a lot was taken outward in the second diaspora. Networks are now far more centralized and controlled. Server farms are hidden and guarded
Artificial Intelligence
During the first diaspora artificial intelligence came to be. Several labs managed the feat within months of each other. At the time few laws existed to deal with man made sapience. this was quickly rectified and within twenty years Artificial Intelligences were considered capable of being citizens like any human. That said there is still a great deal of distrust and prejudice against Constructed Intelligences(their preferred term). Some folks do not believe the results of the Ferrera-Tannous Test are accurate, that these beings are only mimicking sapience. Currently a Constructed Intelligence requires a massive quantum computer with massive constant power needs. Most are housed in satellites or space ships, interacting with the external world through drones.
Transportation
Transportation of the future is manifold. From Vactrains traversing the Atlantic and across multiple continents to Ground effect vehicles and vacuum balloons, there are more ways to get around now than at any time in the past. The biggest advance has been in the area of space travel. Cheep fusion reactors and mass drivers drove the race into space. Currently there are two main drives in use Solar Sails and Fusion Drive Rockets. Solar sails are cheep, but slow. One can increase one's speed by hiring a laser array to increase the ships speed. Fusion Drive Rockets(called "Rosies" in the engineering vernacular) are used primarily for military uses and other uses that require a fast burn. They are far to costly for most normal travel needs. Primarily ships are use for trade purposes, bringing He^3 and other materials out to, and back from, the edges of human occupied space.
Cybernetics
There are a great many ways to augment the human body. Possibly the most invasive is biomechtronic human enhancement, often called(erroneously) cybernetics. Most folks who get enhanced in this way are replacing damaged limbs or organs. The ones who do not are viewed with great distrust. People who remove parts of themselves to gain some perceived advantage are seen as somewhat unstable.
- Spartan: the cyborgs who focus on enhancing their own bodies with prosthesis are known as Spartans, after the ancient Greek warriors. Their enhancements are the most varied of the human augmentations. They tend toward protections and combat enhancements, though there are stories of those given prosthesis as a form of control.
- Collectivites: They sit in the secret stations hidden throughout the system. They seek to transcend humanity. Using quantum computers and brain machine interfaces they have merged their minds(mostly). They interact with the outside world using remote controlled robot drones. However they are still connected to meat space. They have yet to transcend their bodies. They sit in armored shells filled with nutrients and a mild electric current to stimulate their muscles to prevent atrophy. Full mind upload is the dream, and it is still a long way off. Those who have tried managed to upload...something, but what remained within the quantum computer was not human. They were not safe. The transfer loses all but the darkest parts of the human soul(if there is such a thing).
W-Y Corp: Born of the merger between two mega-corporations W-Y Corp produces anything and everything that people need. They control 4% of every market in the system. That may not seem like much, but it makes them the largest corporation in the solar system. There have been many allegations of shady dealings and cover ups, but they hold such power that they are considered a sovereign entity when dealing with governments.
Omni Corp: The leading edge of the drone market, while also working to break into the field of mechanical augmentation. They have recently mad a deal with one of the moons of Uranus to build better soldiers in their near constant warfare with their neighbors.
Tai Rel Corp: Leading the field in genetic engineering. they are currently focused entirely on building better life forms to survive the harsh conditions in Venus' atmosphere.
Cyber Systems: They created the first quantum computers and still are leaders in the field. Recently they have been fighting an economic war against their chief rival HMI.
Hueristic Modeling Inc: An upstart computer company that made a splash recently by outbidding Cyber Systems for a military contract with the Saturnian Regency.
So that is what I have for this post. Let me know what you think.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Trek to the Stars pt 6: The Inevitable Momentum of History
In this post I will be digging into the specifics of the timeline as well as talking about the genetically modified humans and the uplifts. I also bring up some issues I have run into with the previous posts. I would love to hear your thoughts on this, or any ideas you have for the setting or mechanics. Here are links to the previous posts in this project, should you wish to look through them:
The Original Idea
Part 1 Initial setting ideas and influences
Part 2 How skill rolls will work
Part 3 Campaign Frameworks
Part 4 History and Technology
Part 5 Discussion of Keys and Secrets
Timeline of the Future
2039 The first enhance combat prosthesis is fielded successfully. Mechanical human enhancement becomes more common as the century moves forward.
2045-2053 A worldwide depression begins and runs for nearly a decade.
2052 The fusion reactor is invented by engineers working for Lockheed Martin, within ten years they have revolutionized energy across the planet. The economy booms.
2060-2075 The First diaspora begins. The mass colonization of the inner solar system begins with the great scientists and explorers of the age. Mars terraforming begins and specialists flock to it. The beginnings of the flying cities of Venus also take shape. A science station is put in orbit around Mercury to study the sun.
2091 The African shipyards and mass driver. Three hundred kilometer long mass driver the spouts up through a mountain for launch.
2094-2145 The second diaspora begins as space craft reach a relatively low price. Many begin an exodus to the asteroid field and the moons of Saturn Jupiter and Uranus.
2110-2134 The Last War begins as tensions between colonies and the old powers. This is a war of surgical strikes and political maneuvering. Furious bouts of fighting last for moments and there are great stretches of tense ceasefires. The alpha mod for humans were created during the war, and they ended it when they utilized there natural abilities to wipe out several key leaders and cities taking control of most of central Africa. they were defeated, though several thousand made it into space before they could be taken out. This united hatred of the Alphas ended the war. Mars was ceded to two major colony powers, the neo fascists and compassionate communists(like the federation).
2134 Comet Halley makes it rounds through the inner system once again. A group of scientists tether a small probe to the comet to gather data, continuously.
2140 Oldest person in recorded history dies at age of 150. In the future this becomes more common as advances in medicine become more easily available. By the end of the century the average lifespan has become 110 years old.
2145-Now Saturnian Conflicts: after a generation of colonization the various colonies began to fight over the rights to mine He^3 several family run mines became massive corporations and began to issue letters of marque on the harvesters of the rival clans. It soon began to near open war, until the concord was reached. The families(as they became known) agreed to never use total war and the war they would practice had to follow several severe limits. This has led to a pseudo feudal state where all the families agree to operate as a united whole while fighting for power through ritualized warfare. In fact warfare is one of the few areas of upward mobility among the people of Saturn. Battles are either against the concord and hidden or with the concord and celebrated.
2175-Now The third Diaspora has begun. Ship and fusion generator prices reach an all time low. Colonists head for the outer planets in droves. Many fail and die in the black, but some make it and strike it rich. Stories of the expansion fill most of the output of the mass entertainment. Earth begins to empty as economic, religious, and political pressures drive people to take to the stars.
2199 The first Raccoon uplifts are discovered. They had been created by some genius with access to a highly advanced lab, yet no one took credit. The first Raccoon uplift remains a mystery to this day, and many a conspiracy theorist claims to know the truth. Examining the uplifts led to advances in the field, allowing for the Raven uplift program to succeed.
2206 The first cybernetic gestalt goes online in a station in orbit around Jupiter.
2209 the martian Space elevator is finally finished after a decade of delay.
2221 First colonist sets foot on Eris, which soon becomes the hub of trade in and around the Kuiper belt. Soon after Haumea and Makemake are also colonized.
2256 The first independent miners begin mining on Mercury. Through hard work, ingenuity, and luck they begin to make a profit. Soon corporations begin to form, as do unions, and conflict begins in earnest between all the forces seeking to control mining on Mercury.
2342 The Alcubierre Shunt is invented by W-Y Corp and within twenty years there will be at least one in orbit of seven of the eight planets, Neptune is still missing a shunt. There is still some fear among the populous about travelling by this method.
2356-2360 Neo fascist Mars has recently fallen to balkanization after a major civil war. The old government lost much territory in the north to several smaller break away nations. They have hunkered down and begun focusing on keeping control of the remaining territory.
2358-Now The Uranian colonies have begun selling cheap He^3 to the other colonies for fusion power. This has cut into the profit margin of the Saturnian regency, who had close to a monopoly on He^3 for nearly a hundred years. The regency has begun encouraging revolts within the various Uranian states. This region is incredibly politically dangerous.
2365 Now
The Clades
The clades are genetically modified humans who breed true. Currently there are four clades in existence: Alphas, Atavists, Angels, and Aewar. They have all existed as clades for over two hundred years. Some do not even consider themselves to be human anymore. They see themselves as separate from humans in all ways that matter. Most folk view those who believe such things as deluded in one form or another.
Uplifts
There are currently two major species in the later stages of genetic uplift: Ravens and Raccoons. There had been serious attempts at uplifting great apes, by the time technology had reached that level very few ape remained in the wild or in captivity. The gene pool was too small. Whales and dolphins have gone through several uplift programs, but there seems to be some fundamental difference in thinking required for cetacean undersea life and communication that provides a divide that has yet to be crossed.
Uplift specific technology
Waldoes: Ravens do not have hands and so they require a special mechanical frame to interact with devices designed for human uses. This frame allows for the raven to control a set of mechanical arms using its feet and beak.
I would like to explore this idea a bit more. The idea for technology that helps uplifts interact in human society. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
Some technical notes
Solar Sails and lasers: You can travel at a fairly sedate speed or you can hire a laser satellite from a nearby planet to launch you at greater velocities. These lasers serve a double purpose. They serve to enhance speed, and they serve to defend a planet or nation from orbital threats.
Alcubierre Bubble as transport without a shunt: I see the warp bubble as being something that can only be initiated and stopped by a shunt. Once you are in the warp bubble, you are in it until some external force breaks the bubble. Currently the only thing that can is the shunt. So you need a shunt at the starting point, and another shunt at the end point. You could send someone to Alpha Centauri, but they would end up slamming into the planet or star and dying, or flying right past forever. Perhaps normal ships cannot make the trip. Perhaps whet they do is take material and personnel to the shunt and they board massive cargo/passenger ships that travel to the next shunt in the line where they disembark onto various smaller craft to go to the various `planets/moons/dwarf planets/asteroids. I would really like these to work like a train system. You would have one in orbit around all the inner planets
Artificial Intelligence: I am leaning toward a suggestion by +Paul Mitchener in that AI should require a powerful "quantum computer" in order to function. This does bring in some problems though. It requires quite a lot of power that would not really be portable on a man size frame, and so would require a power satellite or the equivalent. This is problematic as it means that players either could not play them or would have really weird restrictions on playing them. I would love to hear any thoughts on reworking AI into something more playable while still fitting within the themes and tones for this setting as established so far. Basically I am extrapolating from current technology, or current theory to the next degree.
H'okay, so that is what I have so far. I would love to hear any comments, critiques or complaints.
The Original Idea
Part 1 Initial setting ideas and influences
Part 2 How skill rolls will work
Part 3 Campaign Frameworks
Part 4 History and Technology
Part 5 Discussion of Keys and Secrets
Timeline of the Future
2039 The first enhance combat prosthesis is fielded successfully. Mechanical human enhancement becomes more common as the century moves forward.
2045-2053 A worldwide depression begins and runs for nearly a decade.
2052 The fusion reactor is invented by engineers working for Lockheed Martin, within ten years they have revolutionized energy across the planet. The economy booms.
2060-2075 The First diaspora begins. The mass colonization of the inner solar system begins with the great scientists and explorers of the age. Mars terraforming begins and specialists flock to it. The beginnings of the flying cities of Venus also take shape. A science station is put in orbit around Mercury to study the sun.
2091 The African shipyards and mass driver. Three hundred kilometer long mass driver the spouts up through a mountain for launch.
2094-2145 The second diaspora begins as space craft reach a relatively low price. Many begin an exodus to the asteroid field and the moons of Saturn Jupiter and Uranus.
2110-2134 The Last War begins as tensions between colonies and the old powers. This is a war of surgical strikes and political maneuvering. Furious bouts of fighting last for moments and there are great stretches of tense ceasefires. The alpha mod for humans were created during the war, and they ended it when they utilized there natural abilities to wipe out several key leaders and cities taking control of most of central Africa. they were defeated, though several thousand made it into space before they could be taken out. This united hatred of the Alphas ended the war. Mars was ceded to two major colony powers, the neo fascists and compassionate communists(like the federation).
2134 Comet Halley makes it rounds through the inner system once again. A group of scientists tether a small probe to the comet to gather data, continuously.
2140 Oldest person in recorded history dies at age of 150. In the future this becomes more common as advances in medicine become more easily available. By the end of the century the average lifespan has become 110 years old.
2145-Now Saturnian Conflicts: after a generation of colonization the various colonies began to fight over the rights to mine He^3 several family run mines became massive corporations and began to issue letters of marque on the harvesters of the rival clans. It soon began to near open war, until the concord was reached. The families(as they became known) agreed to never use total war and the war they would practice had to follow several severe limits. This has led to a pseudo feudal state where all the families agree to operate as a united whole while fighting for power through ritualized warfare. In fact warfare is one of the few areas of upward mobility among the people of Saturn. Battles are either against the concord and hidden or with the concord and celebrated.
2175-Now The third Diaspora has begun. Ship and fusion generator prices reach an all time low. Colonists head for the outer planets in droves. Many fail and die in the black, but some make it and strike it rich. Stories of the expansion fill most of the output of the mass entertainment. Earth begins to empty as economic, religious, and political pressures drive people to take to the stars.
2199 The first Raccoon uplifts are discovered. They had been created by some genius with access to a highly advanced lab, yet no one took credit. The first Raccoon uplift remains a mystery to this day, and many a conspiracy theorist claims to know the truth. Examining the uplifts led to advances in the field, allowing for the Raven uplift program to succeed.
2206 The first cybernetic gestalt goes online in a station in orbit around Jupiter.
2209 the martian Space elevator is finally finished after a decade of delay.
2221 First colonist sets foot on Eris, which soon becomes the hub of trade in and around the Kuiper belt. Soon after Haumea and Makemake are also colonized.
2256 The first independent miners begin mining on Mercury. Through hard work, ingenuity, and luck they begin to make a profit. Soon corporations begin to form, as do unions, and conflict begins in earnest between all the forces seeking to control mining on Mercury.
2342 The Alcubierre Shunt is invented by W-Y Corp and within twenty years there will be at least one in orbit of seven of the eight planets, Neptune is still missing a shunt. There is still some fear among the populous about travelling by this method.
2356-2360 Neo fascist Mars has recently fallen to balkanization after a major civil war. The old government lost much territory in the north to several smaller break away nations. They have hunkered down and begun focusing on keeping control of the remaining territory.
2358-Now The Uranian colonies have begun selling cheap He^3 to the other colonies for fusion power. This has cut into the profit margin of the Saturnian regency, who had close to a monopoly on He^3 for nearly a hundred years. The regency has begun encouraging revolts within the various Uranian states. This region is incredibly politically dangerous.
2365 Now
The Clades
The clades are genetically modified humans who breed true. Currently there are four clades in existence: Alphas, Atavists, Angels, and Aewar. They have all existed as clades for over two hundred years. Some do not even consider themselves to be human anymore. They see themselves as separate from humans in all ways that matter. Most folk view those who believe such things as deluded in one form or another.
- Alpha: physically and mentally superior in most ways(though not by a massive margin), though they have severe megalomania and paranoia. they rend to only live out past the belt, as their betrayal is still remembered in the inner system. Often are viewed as untrustworthy, crazy, and dangerous.
- Atavists: physically stronger and faster, thicker bones and advanced healing. Downsides emotionally fragile and poor vision(colorblind and near sighted), their muscle density makes swimming very difficult. Folks tend to view them as slow and stupid, though they are not.
- Angels: Living in micro gravity or extreme low gravity environments they are the most common, and yet the most extreme, modified humans. They have modded themselves with lighter bone and muscles designed to resist atrophy in order to survive as well as bioluminescent patches of skin allowing them to work and communicate in the dark times in space. They have difficulty in any gravity over .5 Gs, and tend toward being tall and thin. They also have fairly heavy light sensitivity and must wear protective goggles in lighting designed for normal human comfort.
- Aewar: They have enhanced senses and spatial understanding they can do many things that humans today would view impossible. They have live life on emotional mute and have difficulty making big decisions. Need to work on this.
Chimera
Folks who have had post utero modifications, have been modified in a new way that does not pass on to the next generation, or are singular in their modifications. They have real issues with diseases, their immune systems are shot. They can get very powerful, but they must take so many drugs and immuno-suppressants that even a simple cold can kill them.
Uplifts
There are currently two major species in the later stages of genetic uplift: Ravens and Raccoons. There had been serious attempts at uplifting great apes, by the time technology had reached that level very few ape remained in the wild or in captivity. The gene pool was too small. Whales and dolphins have gone through several uplift programs, but there seems to be some fundamental difference in thinking required for cetacean undersea life and communication that provides a divide that has yet to be crossed.
- Raccoon: They stand between 3' and 4' tall(not counting the tail). Their skull size and brain capacity have been increased slightly more. No one is quite sure who did the first uplift procedure on raccoons initially, but it was brilliant work. There is a legend among them that they somehow uplifted themselves, most folk discount this theory.
- Ravens: Have increased in size significantly, nearing 40lb with a wingspan of 8 feet or more, they are superlative communicators and excellent at non-linear abstract thought. There has been a recent surge in demand for Raven artwork throughout the inner system. Ravens are also excellent organizers and have been involved in much of the terraforming projects throughout the solar system. They are especially common on Mars, usually overseeing new construction or agriculture.
Uplift specific technology
Waldoes: Ravens do not have hands and so they require a special mechanical frame to interact with devices designed for human uses. This frame allows for the raven to control a set of mechanical arms using its feet and beak.
I would like to explore this idea a bit more. The idea for technology that helps uplifts interact in human society. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
Some technical notes
Solar Sails and lasers: You can travel at a fairly sedate speed or you can hire a laser satellite from a nearby planet to launch you at greater velocities. These lasers serve a double purpose. They serve to enhance speed, and they serve to defend a planet or nation from orbital threats.
Alcubierre Bubble as transport without a shunt: I see the warp bubble as being something that can only be initiated and stopped by a shunt. Once you are in the warp bubble, you are in it until some external force breaks the bubble. Currently the only thing that can is the shunt. So you need a shunt at the starting point, and another shunt at the end point. You could send someone to Alpha Centauri, but they would end up slamming into the planet or star and dying, or flying right past forever. Perhaps normal ships cannot make the trip. Perhaps whet they do is take material and personnel to the shunt and they board massive cargo/passenger ships that travel to the next shunt in the line where they disembark onto various smaller craft to go to the various `planets/moons/dwarf planets/asteroids. I would really like these to work like a train system. You would have one in orbit around all the inner planets
Artificial Intelligence: I am leaning toward a suggestion by +Paul Mitchener in that AI should require a powerful "quantum computer" in order to function. This does bring in some problems though. It requires quite a lot of power that would not really be portable on a man size frame, and so would require a power satellite or the equivalent. This is problematic as it means that players either could not play them or would have really weird restrictions on playing them. I would love to hear any thoughts on reworking AI into something more playable while still fitting within the themes and tones for this setting as established so far. Basically I am extrapolating from current technology, or current theory to the next degree.
H'okay, so that is what I have so far. I would love to hear any comments, critiques or complaints.
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