Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 11-12-2015, 04:04 PM   #1
dfinlay
 
dfinlay's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Default Looking for Player in U of T area for Firefly-inspired game

Apologies if this forum is not to be used for this.

I am about to start a game in the U of T (University of Toronto) area. I am an experienced GURPS GM who recently moved to Toronto and have managed to find two players interested - one who hasn't played any GURPS (but has role-played and even GMed other games, mostly D&D) and one who has no role-playing experience.

However, I would prefer 3 PCs to 2. As such, if you are interested in such a game and are in the area, let me know. We will be playing on Tuesday evenings, either every week or every other week. I posted the campaign pitch I gave to the other two players below (do note that this was intended for players who haven't played GURPS before).

If you have any questions about my GMing style or the game, want me to post the most important house rules I use (I use quite a few) or simply want clarification on something, feel free to ask.

Quote:
Timeline Summary:

~200 years ago: Back on Earth, an AI went rogue (paperclip maximizer style). Humanity tried and failed to destroy it, losing people and territory at alarming rates.
Desparate, people built a second AI specifically to destroy the first and then self-destruct.
While this was successful, it left the solar system uninhabitable: Worlds broken and irradiated by forces far beyond the comprehension of mankind.

~180 years ago: The last survivors of the human race built massive generation ships and set out for another system with several planets that appeared inhabitable.
Over the course of about a hundred years, the fleet of ships travelled through space. They were made on short notice, however and were dangerous, where a single mistake could cost many lives.
A very rigid caste system and beuracratic system of leadership called the Directorate began to emerge.
Even with the rigid protocols and controls given by the Directorate, less than half the ships made it to their destination.

~80 years ago: The ships arrived at their destination only to find that the system was already inhabited by a race that, though it seemed primitive, had spread to multiple worlds, the Araxians.
The Ariaxan shamans, versed in the arts of magic, had been warned by omens of the coming invaders from the sky and struck first, defending their homelands.
A brutal war was fought between advanced technology and magic and many lives were lost on both sides, but the humans won the war.

80-25 years ago: The Directorate, fearing the Araxians and their magics, began a ruthless indoctrination and, in some cases, extermination program against them and outlawed all use of magic.
Though the indoctrination and extermination programs have dwindled, the Araxian populations have dwindled to a small fraction of the humans and those that keep their old traditions, an even smaller fraction.
As a new generation came into their own who had never lived on the generation ships and as the old traditions and castes stopped making sense, many humans grew increasingly disillusioned with the Directorate.

25-22 years ago: A group of humans, called the Resistance (also known as the Grey men and the Alliance) and based in the outer worlds, where the Directorate was weakest, rebelled against the Directorate.
They were supported by Araxians who had kept some of their own secrets in hiding and a portion of the Resistance was taught magic by them.
Desperate, the Directorate released a new program they had been developing in secret: Mage Killers, a group of mages excempted from the prohibitions and trained to hunt other mages.
Mage Killers were taken at a very young age from children who teseted as having high magical capabilities and brainwashed by the Directorate.
They were given special collars that could suppress their magics except when their handlers wanted to release those powers.
Between the Mage Killers and their vast resources, the Directorate managed to win the war, but it was hard fought.

Last 20 years: Winning the war meant that the Directorate had to expend many of its resources and grant concessions to others in return for support.
As such, their grip, especially on the Outer Worlds, relaxed greatly.
Though they still rule them, many of the Outer Worlds are no longer held to all of the rigidity of Directorate rule. They also rarely get supplies from the center.
The long travel times involved only exacerbate the situation.

Miranda, nowadays:

Miranda is one of three inhabited moons orbiting a gas giant, Orius. Miranda was a world that had not been tamed by the Araxians, but in the years since Directorate colonization, the Directorate have set up a colony here and tried to terraform it. Due to shifting priorities and economic constraints, the process of terraforming was never fully completed, resulting in a world that, while inhabitable, is largely an arid dustball. While Miranda is most well-known as a haven for Grey shirts on the run, smugglers, pirates and even the occassional rogue mage, there is also a large population involved in agriculture (a desperate work in a climate like Miranda's) and manufactoring. Officially, Miranda is run by Governer Alexis, a Directorate appointee, but in truth, he has little control over the planet's affairs. Several gangs and criminal enterprises vie for control of the planet, most of which owe fealty through a loose system of alliances to one of the Synicate, the Red Claw or the Fang. These three groups pay a large cut to Alexis and don't interfere with his personal affairs and in return, he allows them to operate without too much interference.

Campaign Premise:

The players will create a group of freelance "Problem Solvers for Hire" on the Outer World of Miranda. In other words, clients will come to them with issues that can be solved by skillsets such as thuggery, murder, smuggling, theft and investigation and pay them to solve them. While they will almost certainly be operating outside the law, players will get to decide how far they are willing to go on moral issues. To begin with, the players will have no way off of Miranda of their own power and be relatively low-powered characters (100 points). As the campaign progresses, characters will likely get access to a ship that will allow them to range further afield and begin pursuing their own objectives. At this point, the campaign will gradually morph into more of a sandboxy format. Players should already know each other and be working together before the campaign starts (being friends or family members would likely be a good idea). The campaign will largely focus on social and subterfuge-based solutions to issues and combat should be mostly seen as a resort for when those fail.

Characters should probably be human and not start with magic. This will help keep things simple while people learn GURPS. I will help players work through their characters, so you don't need to figure these things out on your own, but coming up with what sort of charactr you might want to make before we do that would probably be a good idea. GURPS is flexible enough that pretty much any character concept that fits this campaign frame and is of an appropriate level of power should be possible to make.
dfinlay is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-16-2015, 06:18 PM   #2
Greybrown
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Toronto, Canada
Default Re: Looking for Player in U of T area for Firefly-inspired game

Hey there, I'm interested in this game, I've sent you a PM.

I think this thread is supposed to be in the Gamer Finder forum:

http://forums.sjgames.com/forumdisplay.php?f=41
Greybrown is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-16-2015, 10:07 PM   #3
mehrkat
 
mehrkat's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Austin Texas
Default Re: Looking for Player in U of T area for Firefly-inspired game

I would also recommend spelling out where you are in the title instead of abbreviating.

I thought it might have been the U of T in Austin TX.

Where you are is more important starting info than what type of game.
__________________
He stared out in the distance to see the awesome might of the Meerkat war party.
mehrkat is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
looking for players, toronto

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 01:11 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.