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Old 03-22-2023, 06:48 PM   #1
Arith Winterfell
 
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Indiana, United States
Default 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:
  1. It is set during a second wave of exploration and settlement. The first wave was Slower Than Light colony ships many hundreds of years ago.
  2. Before the second wave of exploration and settlement, there was a period where Earth largely turned inward for many centuries. During this time there were periods of ecological or biological disasters (diseases) or tech slowing due to popular sentiment. So sometimes tech regress, stagnation, or progress.
  3. The First Wave settlers frequently used genetic engineering, native life, and self genetic manipulation resulting in branches of humanity on these worlds that have become aliens in their own right. Sometimes even forgetting their connection to original humanity and developing into their own civilizations. (So a number of very human-like aliens, but with things like Unusual Biochemistry and Restricted Diet to native food).
  4. There are no FTL Radios, most use fast courier ships.
  5. There is sentient volitional AI, but it is both "grown" over time in an organic fashion (often using a mixture of technological and bio-tech), and they have to be "braked" in development or often spirals into madness (but potentially higher IQ).
  6. Psionics powers exist, which have been studied heavily by science leading to new technologies, and strange (and often horrific) bio-tech/machine mixed machines/anti-psychotronic stuff.
  7. Psionics aren't mystical slanted (as they are in Star Wars), but instead science slanted.
  8. Bioroids exist, as to various gene divergent human sub-species.
  9. Corporations often feature as villains or at least antagonists (i.e. Cyberpunk) as are morally gray groups, instead of a Black/White Empire/Rebellion dichotomy.
  10. There are no Force Sword wielding psionic space knights. At least not in the current iteration.

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?"
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Old 03-23-2023, 03:16 PM   #2
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Default Re: Making a fun sci-fi setting

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Originally Posted by Arith Winterfell View Post
... 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?"
Broadly speaking, there are two types of challenge for characters to meet in a campaign or story: conflict and environment. So far, the setting you are developing has interesting elements but they are not yet specific enough to provide actionable challenges for characters to address.

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.
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Old 03-23-2023, 08:21 PM   #3
Arith Winterfell
 
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Default 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.
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Old 03-23-2023, 08:42 PM   #4
Fred Brackin
 
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Default Re: Making a fun sci-fi setting

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With an assassin type character that sort of points to an underground and/or criminal type game,n.
As an alternative consider the PCs being part of a mercenary/security contractors company.

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.
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Old 03-24-2023, 04:26 AM   #5
Opellulo
 
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Default 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.
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Old 03-24-2023, 05:58 AM   #6
dcarson
 
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Default 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.
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Old 03-24-2023, 07:00 AM   #7
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Default Re: Making a fun sci-fi setting

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Originally Posted by Opellulo View Post
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)
Looking over my records, I see that I've run 29 campaigns in original settings, and 12 in settings borrowed from published fiction or drama. I haven't noticed the difficulty you refer to.

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:
- 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.
My experience is that having made up a lot of cultures, locations, and NPCs makes it easier to run gaming sessions. When the players come up with something to do, I have a better chance of having a suitable NPC ready to be brought on camera. Of course this means that there's preparation I won't ever directly use, but even those NPCs help my think about how the game world works.

Quote:
- Focus on the characters is better than focus on the setting.
It's better for PCs to have agency than for them to lack it. But agency reveals itself through interaction of the PCs and the setting.
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Old 03-24-2023, 07:58 AM   #8
ericthered
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Default Re: Making a fun sci-fi setting

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Originally Posted by Arith Winterfell View Post
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?"
The settings this seems closest to are Traveler and Mass Effect. Its not terribly different from Stars without Number. All three of those are games. The trick with this sort of setting isn't "What could the heroes possibly do", but rather "What of all these options are the heroes going to pick to do."

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.
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Old 03-24-2023, 10:41 AM   #9
Pursuivant
 
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Default 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.
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Old 03-24-2023, 02:06 PM   #10
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Default 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.
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