a white-collar RPG campaign

[Johan Larson]

A stray comment about a non-existent supplement, "GURPS Software Development Project" has got me thinking. Could you create an adventure where the characters are a bunch of programmers, designers, and managers in a software company? And could it be fun?

To begin with, who are the PCs? I'm thinking they are mid-level personnel: senior programmers, architects, and managers. Really low-level people in any organization don't have enough choices to make to be fun to play. Their job is (however glorified) to pull on the rope they're given and to watch and learn how things are done.

What's the goal? Ship the next version on time. This requires a tradeoff of features, time, available resources, and quality. All four matter. A great set of features with awesome quality that comes out at the end of next year won't matter, because the competition will be coming out with their next big release six months from now while you're still selling the same old thing.

What's the competition? As I see it, there are two. First, the team is competing against their external competitors with similar products. That's who they ultimately need to beat. But there is also an internal fight, with other teams in their own company for development resources and management attention. If the team can't get that, they've already lost.

Could this be fun? Hard to say. Anyone tried something like this?

[vicky_molokh]

A startup of gadgeteers writing the world's first true AI. Or so they think, until it turns out there are competitors with similar-level designs.

Expect balancing between independence and better income / selling out to a big corp like Google, MS or Apple, industrial espionage, pedagogy, social engineering etc.

Think of it as a Choice of Robots campaign.

[Nymdok]

You can game ANYTHING if you view the mechanics in just the right way.

For example, lets just take hacking.

If you flesh out hacking with enough techniques, modifiers and narrative, there is NO reason that it shouldnt be as fun and rewarding as combat in GURPS.

For stock brokers, NYSE Itself might very well be a 'boss' level monster!

So think about your white collar profession, and try to use Martial Arts Style framework.

So what are the core skills of programming? What are the techniques?

Programming (Hardware)
Programming (Firmware)
Programming (Embedded)
Programming (Software-Local)
Prrogramming (Software - Enterprise)
Programming (Software - Web)
Research (Deep Web)
Reserach (Google etc)
Research (Social Media)


Throw in Math, Logic, and a few others and before you know it, you have a host of skills and THAT list will provide you with suitable challenges and even 'exchanges' you can do on a second by second basis such as 'HOlywood' hacking etc.

Then throw in techniqes and other tricks of hte trade and before you know it, youre off and running!

Nymdok

p.s. Someone should write GURPS: Not Combat but Compelling

ETA: Im sorry I realized too late that this wasn't the GURPS board, but I think you get the idea.

[Johan Larson]

"It's a UNIX system! I know this!"
Lex Murphy, "Jurassic Park"

That's Style Familiarity, right?

[The Colonel]

This might be the cyberpunk equivalent of a diplomacy campaign - PCs get to play the people they would normally work for.

Internal affairs might be an interesting department to work for...

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by Johan Larson

"It's a UNIX system! I know this!"
Lex Murphy, "Jurassic Park"

That's Style Familiarity, right?

More an Optional Specialization, IMHO - systems descended from Multics took a distinctly different approach from systems descended from DOS. The differences between Windows 2000 and Windows 7 would be Style Familiarity.

[mukibear]

source material: The Internet's Own Boy and Mr. Robot and Brazil. Borrow heavily from the Laundry Files and Paranoia, but keep it surreal.

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Johan Larson

"It's a UNIX system! I know this!"
Lex Murphy, "Jurassic Park"

That's Style Familiarity, right?

Nah, Perk (Cinematic Rules).

[Joe]

Originally Posted by Johan Larson

Could you create an adventure where the characters are a bunch of programmers, designers, and managers in a software company? And could it be fun?

The problem, of course, is that no-one who games is also interested in programming...

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Johan Larson

Could you create an adventure where the characters are a bunch of programmers, designers, and managers in a software company? And could it be fun?

I've been doing this for a living for 33 years. Something that I like to get from roleplaying is a sense of doing something different.