03-22-2023, 06:48 PM | #1 |
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Indiana, United States
|
Making a fun sci-fi setting
I'm working on a sci-fi setting, but having a real stumbling block issues.
I've had parts of a setting for some time now, but struggle to organize it into something with a framework that's fun. What I mean by framework is organizing my thoughts into a collection of templates (like classes in RPGs, or roles in the setting) and setting hooks (things to make the game setting attractive). I've been influenced by both Star Wars and Star Trek, but seek to build something different and my own. Here are some elements (setting switches) I've already been leaning toward:
One of my major issues is what to draw from in a Star Wars vs. Star Trek sense, as each genre of show sets up very different templates for character creation. In the same sense, they set up very different tones for a game and different "frames of conflict" (i.e. Star Wars focuses on Empire vs. Rebellion, Jedi vs. Sith where Star Trek tends toward a greater diversity and moral complexity). So while I have a number of switches for the setting set, I struggle to formulate other aspects like "What do the heroes do?" and "What makes this game fun?"
__________________
"To handle a language skillfully is to practice a kind of evocative sorcery." ~ Charles Baudelaire |
03-23-2023, 03:16 PM | #2 | |
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Snoopy's basement
|
Re: Making a fun sci-fi setting
Quote:
There are two ends you can approach the issue from. On one hand there's a top-down approach -- you decide what kind of campaign you are seeking to run. For example, say you want interstellar espionage. You'd then pick a location or an organization or a state, then create it and its opponents in contemplation of why they are at odds and what their objectives are and how that leads to espionage. On the other hand, you can do a bottom-up approach -- you pick an element of your setting and go deep on building up details and let the challenges for characters emerge from those details. For example, a culture centered around a very old star that is about to die might provide a challenge such as how to rejuvenate it or how to evacuate the endangered population. Either way you go, what will guide what the characters do and what will make the game fun is the finer details more granular than the sweeping setting concepts you have developed so far. |
|
03-23-2023, 08:21 PM | #3 |
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Indiana, United States
|
Re: Making a fun sci-fi setting
Good points! And a good start.
I've been trying to gauge setting frameworks by player interests. But that's a bit of a challenge. I know I want themes of psychic powers and issues related to them (like the mutants of X-men) sorta thing in there. One player I have is primarily interested in playing an assassin style character, and I get the impression will have the most fun stealthing about and stabbing foes. My other player struggles creatively to come up with character ideas. He sorta just blanks. But he seems open to ideas. He is newer to RPG games so that may be part of it too. If I can, I hope to engage him more deeply into the game, but am unsure of how to. With an assassin type character that sort of points to an underground and/or criminal type game, which I actually feel mixed about. I enjoy dark games, I just don't know if I really feel like building games heavily around the assassin type play. I'm ambivalent about that particular focus I guess. Really, in part, I feel like my issue is that I'm not giving enough direction or guidance to my players as to what sort of frame the game should have. It's a very different setup between saying (for example) "its like we are all bounty hunters in a Star Wars style universe" vs. "We are all crewmen aboard a Star Trek like exploration vessel." I feel like I need to decide on a "frame" to give my players direction. Heck, to give myself world-building direction too. My issue in there is also wanting to respond to my players interests, yet I guess I'm struggling not to let one player's desire to play an assassin character pull the whole campaign in one direction.
__________________
"To handle a language skillfully is to practice a kind of evocative sorcery." ~ Charles Baudelaire |
03-23-2023, 08:42 PM | #4 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
|
Re: Making a fun sci-fi setting
Quote:
The assassin fits in fine (possibly granted more dignity by calling him "Special Ops") but other characters can be of significantly different types. Medics, hackers//gearheads, regular gun-bunnies, pilots/wheelmen, "Faces" for negotiating and pretty much anything else that might come up.
__________________
Fred Brackin |
|
03-24-2023, 04:26 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Rome, Italy
|
Re: Making a fun sci-fi setting
Some general advises:
- Original settings are very difficult for the players to to get in since they have no clear idea on how thing works (this is the reason i usually start from something from tv/movie/books/videogames) - Much of the work on the setting is usually lost on the gaming sessions, better to focus on the overall plot and challenges, developing only the necessary to give an idea of a "living" world. - Focus on the characters is better than focus on the setting. So, talk to your players, get an idea of what characters they want to play, which game style (investigative,/political/fight/whatever) and start from there. In this way you are sure to prioritize only the good things.
__________________
“A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?” |
03-24-2023, 05:58 AM | #6 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
|
Re: Making a fun sci-fi setting
One idea I've proposed with my one group, free trader that is actually a covert ops group. So some arcs are legit merchant work, some are orders from HQ and some are this looks like something we should do something about but it will take too long to ask.
|
03-24-2023, 07:00 AM | #7 | |||
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
|
Re: Making a fun sci-fi setting
Quote:
The difficulty I've actually experienced is more like what Arith alludes to: When I have a setting, what do I have PCs do in it? I struggled to figure out what to do with Transhuman Space for quite a while. But when I came up with "private investigators working on information-related crimes," my players had no trouble getting into it. Quote:
Quote:
__________________
Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
|||
03-24-2023, 07:58 AM | #8 | |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
|
Re: Making a fun sci-fi setting
Quote:
If you don't want to arbitrarily pick a frame, you could try deciding on a set and spinning up a bunch of ideas for multiple frames. For example, Spies Targeting Technology, Mercenaries fighting "Bush wars", Detectives investigating Murders, or members of a "space patrol" looking for pirates, smugglers, and foreign agents slipping the border. When I have a setting, I generally look at where the big conflicts are, and then look for spots in those conflicts where the PC's will have lots of meaningful decisions, lots of information, and lots of people to meet. Right now, I don't know where your big conflicts are, so if you don't have them, I'd focus on building those.
__________________
Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one! |
|
03-24-2023, 10:41 AM | #9 |
Join Date: Apr 2005
|
Re: Making a fun sci-fi setting
Start small and make it player focused. No reason to design powers or settings that the players aren't likely to be interested in.
Keep larger game elements amorphous or minimally defined until your players express an interest in going in a particular direction. Filling in details just 1-2 steps ahead of them (while still trying to maintain some sort of handle on overall campaign arc). Put a bit of extra detail in to defining the main opposition and provide stats for its most common agents. Then define the major cultural elements of the PCs' "reference society" and work up general stats and power levels for potential allies and patrons. GURPS Space is a good resource for designing SF settings from scratch and includes a campaign planning form which touches on important design elements. It's also not a bad trick to define an SF campaign in terms of other genres: Covert Ops/Spies, Martial Arts, Old West, Pirates, etc. If it worked for George Lucas, Gene Roddenberry, and Joss Whedon, it can work for you. For your player who has trouble coming up with character ideas, focus on what they like to do when gaming. Fighting, problem solving, gaining power or wealth? Character ideas will flow from the player's interests an play style. |
03-24-2023, 02:06 PM | #10 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
|
Re: Making a fun sci-fi setting
The big problem I tend to run into with SF settings is scale.
For traditional adventuring, you want there to be problems that are small enough to be dealt with by a group of adventurers, but big enough that dealing with them feels like you've actually accomplished something notable. That's not too hard in fantasy, if a medium sized town (a couple thousand people) is having trouble with a dragon, their local guard might only be a dozen professional armsmen (plus a fairly substantial militia), and sending a message to higher authorities with more resources might be a process of weeks or months. In SF, that medium sized town is 10-100x larger (with correspondingly larger resources) and requesting help from higher up may only be a matter of days. You can do things to constrain available assistance, but that tends to make it seem like you aren't doing anything all that important. |
Tags |
sci fi |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|