New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Hey just because the ship's off course doesn't mean it's in any kind of immediate peril. It's just not going to reach any destination.

A perfectly good option in its own right.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

A perfectly good option in its own right.

Then there's the opposite issue. The ship has actually arrived in good order. But disembarkation just hasn't been triggered. Will the player characters pull that trigger and destroy life as they know it?

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Was anything in the idea tolerable at all? Could I have more than simply negative feedback?

Sure, there's nothing wrong with the concept as a whole, and it's pretty standard story frame, as you point out one usually in the source material. I just feel like it's overused, and for an RPG anyway, feels too railroad-y.

It works in a novel because the author can insure the characters will find the clues to reveal the life support system is failing (and want to fix it), or will eventually find the main control room they need to to redirect the ship. And of course the plot is about them and going to end when they succeed.

But in a game, save the world type plots means if the PCs do something else, or fail, the world ends. If that's the story you wanted to tell, I suppose that's fine, but it makes it very difficult to logically continue the campaign with new characters or otherwise reuse the setting, even if all the players are still interested. And indeed the level of control over the world you need in order to save it tends to be so high it's hard to build a reasonable next plot challenge to continue the campaign even if the PCs win. Game settings tend to be more useful if there is a way to use them as a sandbox, rather than with an overarching metaplot.

Edit: In a way I suppose this is the key difference between this SF setting thread and the alternate worlds one. In the alternate worlds, the worlds can revolve around a single issue without much of a problem, because each world is just an adventure module. The default Infinity campaign supports moving on to another reality once the key mystery is addressed - there's a natural way to work in multiple unrelated key mysteries that can be solved (or not solved) in any order without really changing the rest of the setting. You don't get that for free in another, you need to build it in.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Then there's the opposite issue. The ship has actually arrived in good order. But disembarkation just hasn't been triggered. Will the player characters pull that trigger and destroy life as they know it?

Just as classic in genre.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Sure, there's nothing wrong with the concept as a whole, and it's pretty standard story frame, as you point out one usually in the source material. I just feel like it's overused, and for an RPG anyway, feels too railroad-y.

It works in a novel because the author can insure the characters will find the clues to reveal the life support system is failing (and want to fix it), or will eventually find the main control room they need to to redirect the ship. And of course the plot is about them and going to end when they succeed.

But in a game, save the world type plots means if the PCs do something else, or fail, the world ends. If that's the story you wanted to tell, I suppose that's fine, but it makes it very difficult to logically continue the campaign with new characters or otherwise reuse the setting, even if all the players are still interested. And indeed the level of control over the world you need in order to save it tends to be so high it's hard to build a reasonable next plot challenge to continue the campaign even if the PCs win. Game settings tend to be more useful if there is a way to use them as a sandbox, rather than with an overarching metaplot.

As the material I was referencing was both The Starlost( great idea, poor execution) and the whole Paradigm Shift trope in Golden Age Sci Fi, you can take a long time to have PCs explore the ship/outer Universe (a strange dungeon crawl that) befor they PCs even acknowledge the outer universe beyond the one they've been exploring.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Play it your way. As for the story frame, it's taken from the original source material. But it was stated as optional at the start.

Was anything in the idea tolerable at all? Could I have more than simply negative feedback?

Yes. A generation starship makes a great Gormenghast redo.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Yes. A generation starship makes a great Gormenghast redo.

Brilliant! The Murphey party could go one way and the PCs could land in something Gormenghastly! Still, nothing will match the heartbreak of the woman who never knew she loved her daughter until she was told of her death. Gormanghast had a truly great wounded hero villain. He was both.

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

First contact is made in 2030, or at least acknowledged. A delegation from the Time Lords shows up. The British Government spills what it knows, as do the French, Russians, and Americans. The world is shocked! And then gets over it.

The Time Lords state their business and it is simple. The 17th Doctor, in order to prevent the destruction of all universes, had to deflect a dead star toward the milky way galaxy. Unfortunately, the Doctor and his companions are stuck in a time loop and can't get back to save the Earth. The destruction of the Earth would massively mess up time/history but the Time Lords can't deflect the dead star (the Doctor had a gismo that would have made that a simple issue, but it was a one of a kind relic). So, to save the Universe, the Time Lords are willing to break their own rules and move humanity to new homes. Safe, wholesome, mineral rich worlds throughout the galaxy, where humanity can thrive.

When only 20,000,000 or so humans are left, mainly Brits, Americans, Canadians, the Irish, Anglo-Caribbeans, Australians, and New Zealanders (give a thought to the availible British actors and guess my logic) The Doctors show up and stop them. It was a plot of the War Lords led by the War Chief. Seventeen Doctors (and this guy), five Romanas, and bunches of companions are all working with the PCs to rescue humanity and time itself from the vile trap Humanity was lured into.

Your PC is standing with the Doctors and their allies fighting to rescue humanity. Pick your Tardis pilot and send your heros on a magic carpet ride!

[Prince Charon]

Well, that sounds awesome!

[PTTG]

A computer hobbyist gets a clever idea and has a neural network optimize a neural-network-optimizing neural-network-optimizing neural network, then running the last one on the first in a cycle. The resultant program is able to produce humanlike AI using nothing more powerful than ordinary desktop hardware.

She releases her discovery (and the source code,) leading to the sudden explosion of easily-made humanlike AI onto the modern world.

The AIs are modern computer files, with no special limits on being duplicated or moved. A basic template AI, one with the skill defaults and languages of an adult human, is broadly shared by later that year, and by the time the game starts a few months later, AIs have been trained on countless tasks and projects and spread widely.

Of course, the economy is warping spectacularly. Robots are very expensive compared to computers with an internet connection, so computer banks made by companies are rapidly replacing skilled work, while humans are relegated to physical labor. On the other hand, such labor, skilled or not, is in high demand, as the AIs have replaced limited human white-collar labor with virtually infinite and equally-capable AI.

Investment bankers, advertisers, poets, CEOs, doctors, and lawyers are all unemployable. Even any given specific, famous writers can't keep up with a team of 200 AI each trained on his previous works in order to emulate his signature style. Meanwhile, ditch-diggers, cooks, sculptors, and anyone else, skilled or unskilled, who works with their hands is in high demand to put the AI agent's ideas into practice.

Gameplay-wise, PCs play ordinary humans, but they can use their phones to request the direct skill set of an expert in any imaginable field, at any point, but have to do all the work themselves. Alternatively, the PCs can be human-level AI with Digital Duplication and all sorts of strange attributes, and no legal protections whatsoever.