Inception-style game

[user-unknown]

Thread about a recent film so may end up containing spoilers!



I am a very recent convert to GURPS, and have never actually played a game using it. My normal group always plays D&D, however I am trying to entice them into giving this a try, as it looks so much more fun :)

I saw Inception again last night, and I was just wondering if anyone has had a go at working out how to model the style of dream-hackery displayed in the film using GURPS as it seems like that could be a pretty cool idea for an introduction to the system? Lets just ignore the huge number of plot holes for the moment :)

For those of you who haven't seen it, the film is set in a world where technology exists to allow people to share dreams. One of the uses for this is 'extraction', where targets with valuable information are brought into a shared dream without being aware of it, allowing the 'extractors' to steal the information from their subconcious. 'Inception' is another use, but for that watch the film!

Anyway, if running a game using this premise, what sorts of advantages/skills/etc. would you require the 'extractor' characters to have?

My first thoughts are below:

• The Dreaming skill at some ridiculously high level is a given, but social skills such as Psychology, Detect Lies, Acting would also be needed.
  
• It seems like the physical capabilities of the team within the dream are pretty close to their abilites outside, so I was thinking that within the dream, you keep the exact same physical stats/advantages/skills as in the real world.
  
• If characters can do extra stuff inside the dream then having an extra accessibility modifier for 'Only while in a shared dream' would also be useful, but I'm not sure how that should be priced? Obvious superhuman abilities should also have some form of modifier for 'Noticeable' to represent their effects on drawing the projections' attention and probably causing the target to realise that they aren't in the real world, but would you explicitly define that or is it just something you would have happen as a GM?
  
• Eame's ability to make himself look like other people seems like an advantage given that no-one else displays the same ability in the film.
  
• The spatial manipulation demonstrated by Ariadne is probably just a use of the Dreaming skill, but again there should be some form of 'noticeability' effect.
  
• Regarding Cobb's 'issues', that looks like a pretty straight example of Flashbacks, with the modification that any flashback occuring while in the dream state becomes part of the dream itself and is visible to all other participants?
  
• Having a character with Nightmares could also cause some pretty serious issues - I would probably take off the 'if shared, other PCs are unaffected by the events that occur' comment though!
  
• Addiction 'Shared/Induced Dreaming' seems like a pretty obvious disadvantage too!

[Crakkerjakk]

I think you have a good start. I'd actually use a concept from GURPS Action 2, BAD (Base Abstract Difficulty, IIRC). Basically, BAD is a negative modifier that applies to any roll you make. Some actions can increase BAD, some actions can decrease BAD. Basically, I'd just give each mind a threshold BAD that if you go over, every entity in the dream starts gunning for you.

Actually, I think Action 1 and 2 would be a really good resource for an Inception game. Action 1 for operative templates and Action 2 for running the game. I agree that people's various mental disadvantages could crop up in any shared dream, and think this'd be pretty cool. As far as the limitation on dream-only abilities, I'd probably just call it straight Aspected (-20%) from Powers.

[MatthewVilter]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

As far as the limitation on dream-only abilities, I'd probably just call it straight Aspected (-20%) from Powers.

I think I would take my cue from Modeler Abilities. I think that's -50%. Seems like a bit much but I don't think you can use stuff like that if you don't know you're in a dream so maybe it's okay.

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by MatthewVilter

I think I would take my cue from Modeler Abilities. I think that's -50%. Seems like a bit much but I don't think you can use stuff like that if you don't know you're in a dream so maybe it's okay.

I think it'd really depend on how much the specific abilities are used in the game. Is it almost entirely in other people's minds? MAYBE -5%. Is a large part of the game centered on getting into people's minds in the first place? -40% max. Roughly half and half? -20%.