I'm making a game that I intend to sell at Gencon 08. I've got rather vast swaths of stuff done, and I intend to have a playtest document out by this January at the very latest.
While the basics (character creation, task resolution, combat, sanity and disease, etc.) are fleshed out, more of the specifics (gear stats, talent trees, difficulty classes, etc.) need doing. And besides that, I'm looking to make two 60 page books. I can use all the help I can get.
For the record, the setting is based on Beejazz's Science Fiction Theater (for those of you that remember it) and the system is my own... levels without classes for character creation, 3d6+mods for skills, and a combat system that does some new things.
So anyone willing to join me on this project is welcome.
Also, not sure if I put this in the right place.
I'm in.
Super-in with whipped cream and stuff.
I have no experience with writing, but I'd like to do playtesting and such.
Whatever I can do, I'll help with.
Awesome.
I'm getting my computer fixed up soon. I'll post more specifics later, including a sort of setting overview (considerably more brief and centralized than my previous work... although probably just as spoilerized and with a little bit of linkage so you can see the original stuff).
So... uh... just what is it that everyone wants to do? Playtest for sure... we'll need all the playtesters we can get, come December or January, when the document is scheduled for completion. I'd really like to see what you can do on the cosmic craziness side of things, SA. And developing distinct nations and cultures and religions and things would be cool. I've got alot of the basics in place, but some detail might be nice. From what I've seen of Kathar, you might be good for some of that Wensleydale.
Anybody here good for crunch?
Okay... new site and publishing co. being established by a friend of mine that knows how to do these things. Internet will be back shortly. I'd have had it patched up this Friday, but I was busy celebrating my second decade on this planet.
It depends on what kind of crunch. If I familiarise myself with the rules, I can probably do it.
As for nations, cultures, religions etc, sounds fun. :D
I can help with crunch, and essentially anything else 'cept playtesting...
Are you specifically talking about just creating a system? Such as an RPG system? Or an entire setting, system, all-in-one?
Setting, system... hell, maybe even a few adventures to get folks going*. It'll be up soon on a private, sorta hidden forum. I'll see about fixing up my comp tomorrow, as I am off work that day.
*I'm thinking adventures would be freely available on the site. Like Wizards used to do...
EDIT: Oh, and Wensleydale... it's not too far off from DnDish stuff. Got a couple of other things thrown in, and a couple of things thrown out, but otherwise not too far off.
A kind of setting intro I posted in a blog entry as setup for a game I'm still trying to get together. Interspersed (in spoilers) with portions of the hard copy I use for showing off my game, because there are some differences. Soon to be cross-referenced to the setting work I did on the CBG using hyperlinks.
old setting (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?27243)
PREMISE:
Millennia ago, humanity left a dying earth in many enormous seed ships. We didn't have FTL. We didn't have warp drives. We didn't have wormholes. What we had was cryogenics. So, for billions and billions of years, humanity was put on ice, while the seed ships' nav systems sought a new home for us.
Eventually, two of the seed ships (Ask and Embla) found a small system of moons floating around a gas giant. Ask landed, intact, on the third moon. Embla fragmented, and sent pieces to the first and second moon. Civilisation began again from these ships, and some thousands of years later surpasses our own.
end and beginning (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?28309)
MOONS:
strange sky (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?29355)
The first moon is drier than the other two, and any large bodies of water exist below the surface. This leaves the temperature less regulated, and the surface prone to freezing nights and burning hot days. Enormous rock formations formed of petrified fungus dot the landscape, while anthropomorphic bats attempt to eke out a modest living herding giant arthropods across the sand.
[spoiler=hard copy]
The first moon has little surface water, so while the average temperature may be similar to Earth's, it can be extremely hot during the day and just as cold at night. The landscape is mostly desert, plains and badlands. There are enormous pillars of petrified fungus that seem to predate the arrival of seed ships. Native bats eke out a modest existence herding giant arthropods or mining potent hallucinogens. Visitors are scarce, thanks to the climate and the giant carnivorous moths.[/spoiler]
The second moon is covered in wetlands, and tends to be more temparate and green because of it. However, its goblin inhabitants have rendered the surface uninhabitable by biochemical warfare. This moon is now little more than a way-point between the other two, its upper atmosphere filled with predator ships. Only well-equipped treasure hunters visit the surface anymore. Most of the surviving goblins fled to refugee camps on the third moon.
[spoiler=hard copy]
The second moon is lush and wet, but the surface was made uninhabitable by biochemical warfare, and the ruins of the cities are sinking into the mud already. Also, the AE currents are strongest around this moon, allowing ships to stay aloft near indefinitely on next to no fuel. For most people, this is just a convenient waypoint between the second and third moon. However, a number of goblin ships make a living as pirates in the upper atmosphere, and adventurers may come equipped with protection to salvage the surface.[/spoiler]
The third moon is humanity's moon, and also home to native anthropomorphic frogs. Its atmosphere and water distribution are most like ours. Here, humans live in their cities. The three major governments sometimes come into conflict with one another. Also, there are other problems, as we encroach on the frogs' territory expanding deeper into the crust of this moon. We also need to figure out what to do about the refugee camps, and how to deal with the recent increase in genetic disorders in the human populus.
[spoiler=hard copy]
The third moon is humanity's moon, and is also home to the subterranean anthropomorphic frogs. There are three major governments over humanity. One is an imperial monarchy (think Britannia in Geass). One is a dysfunctional union of nations (think the European Union further along, now on the brink of collapse). The last is a sort of plutocratic oligarchy bordering on anarchy (think the prototypical cyberpunk govt).
Some stuff going on on the third moon includes a number of goblin refugees/evacuees, humans encroaching on the frogs' underground territory, and a declining human birthrate. Hooray.
[/spoiler]
There are two other moons as well, though these are uninhabitable. The fourth moon has a poisonous atmosphere, and erratic gravity that will someimes cannon explorers into the atmosphere before dropping them to their deaths. The fifth moon is small and has weak gravity and no atmosphere. It also exists outside the ambient energy fields, making it hard to reach with today's most ubiquitous method of propulsion for interlunar travel.
[spoiler=hard copy]
The fourth moon has a poisonous atmosphere and erratic gravity. Nobody lives there, but it's a good out-of-the-way location for secret millitary bases or whatever.
The last moon (called the "cold moon") is too small to hold an atmosphere and hangs out of reach of the AE currents.[/spoiler]
ODD CONCEPTS:
Some newish concepts for you below. Not all totally unique to the setting, but good to know.
Ambient Energy: A local phenomenon of winds and currents of some form of exotic energy. Commonly used in "AE sails" the predominant form of interlunar flight. Currents are strongest in the second moon's orbit, and virtually nonexistant by the fifth moon. Storms occur occasionally where the current is strongest. These are best avoided.
[spoiler=hard copy]
AE fields are fields of exotic energies that surround the gas giant and most of its moons. These can be used for propulsion systems in a manner that resembles EM sails, light sails, or M2P2. AE stands for ambient energy. Where the strength of the currents becomes too high, reality may be warped.[/spoiler]
Psionics: Some intelligent life has displayed the capacity to exert their will on the environment, or on others. It only pops up occasionally, and has done so since humans arrived in this system.
[spoiler=hard copy]
PSIONICS
Psionics have a kind of involved story, as you might expect. There's no such thing now, so why would there be in the far future?
[spoiler=titans]
titans (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?27259.last)
TITANS, or the Babelim, were a powerful alien species back in the day. They used a unique technology to bend space and gravity and many of the laws of physics to their wills. They were more in tune with the seven invisible dimensions of M theory and were able to build things called psychic constructs. These machines were in turn used to bend the laws of physics and space and time and gravity and things. The titans used these psychic constructs to travel the stars.
But the constructs needed to be powered. At first, they ate up suns at an alarming rate. No matter what they tried, the titans couldn't produce enough energy to power these machines indefinitely. So they tried something desperate, something that would (ostensibly) produce infinite energy. Not all at once, but at a steady pace and without end.
Because a vacuum isn't really a vacuum. Particles and energy are generated spontaneously before winking out of existence almost instantaneously. So the titans devised ways to maintain these alien energies. But it was to no avail. The laws of entropy held fast. The machines that produced these energies consumed at least as much as they put out. So the titans developed a way to change the rules permanently so that the exotic energies would remain viable rather than winking out. They tried this technique on the gas giant and the surrounding moons. They were successful, but not without a price.
As it turned out, the energies that seemed to have been spontaneously generated actually came from somewhere. They came from a dead universe that existed before ours, and that ours had overwritten. The greater machines that the titans had used were infected by memes beyond comprehension, and the titans were driven berserk. Those that survived shut themselves out of the universe by way of temporal stasis, to return when the stars were right.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Ain Soph Aur]The Ain Soph Aur are the inhabitants of that dead universe, who wish to see nothing less than the end of all things so they may reestablish their domain. Their only gateway into this universe now that the titans are gone is to possess and manipulate those foolish enough to try to access the greater constructs left by the Babelim.[/spoiler]
Humans and other sentient beings are sometimes able to access the psychic constructs, wich is how they manifest psychic powers. Most sentient life is more closed off from the constructs, and the greater constructs are inaccessible to all but the most powerful of psions. This is fortunate, as it allows us to ignore many of the ill affects of those infected constructs. However, sometimes a psion will brush against something in the dark as he approaches his limits. Other times, a human may gamble his soul trying to obtain the power of the greater constructs.
[spoiler=Host]The Host is a religion of power. It proclaims that all sentient life once had godlike powers, but that it was cast down. It preaches that humanity is called on to redeem itself through decisive action and a return to a state of empowerment. It's mostly a "betterment of self" style of doctrine, but includes fringe elements that promote a more "ends justify the means" or "might makes right" approach. It includes a sort of conspiracy of psionic characters called Echelon, who have learned about the greater constructs and the Ain Soph Aur. Ostensibly, it exists to oppose the Ain Soph Aur, but it may have been infiltrated by them.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=greater constructs]The greater constructs include such monstrous devices as the "rapture weapons." These weapons create a new universe with a wormhole leading into it. The wormhole is a spherical area whose parameters can be set as small or as large as the user likes. Everything in that spherical area falls into the other universe. Rather than sustain the pocket universe, the device collapses it, annihalating everything inside. Yep. Point and click and whatever you want is gone. Forever.[/spoiler]
[/spoiler]
Mutations: Mutations become more and more common in the human populus now that medical science has made it possible for mutants to survive their genetic anomalies.
Mutter Gene: The Mutter gene, a gene that leads to genetic transcription errors in offspring, has become more prominent lately. This causes many survivable mutants, but as many stillbirths, and sometimes infertility.
[spoiler=hard copy]
The Mutter gene is a gene that increases the frequency of transcription errors in offspring, leading to mutations and stillbirths and things. Many mutants require medication to survive. The mutter gene is often blamed for the failing human population.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Mutter]A small change since the hard copy: Mutter genes don't increase errors; they mutate transcriptase protocols and cause DNA to be read differently. Or something to that effect.[/spoiler]
TAI: True artificial intelligence, a relic of Earth's technology, is artificial intelligence able to mimic a human soul. Rare examples have displayed psionic capabilities.
[spoiler=hard copy]
TAI is an acronym for true artificial intelligence. It existed before the seed ship migration and has recently been unearthed and reverse engineered. It works by quantum computer and provides sufficient sentience for psionics (so TAI are still vulnerable to mental attacks, and are also able to use psionics). TAI typically come in one of four models: mainframe, bucket, anthropomorphic, and cephalopod.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=hard copy]
THE HORDE
horde (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?30060.last)
Where the titans are our forerunners or xel-naga (or angels) and the host is our protoss or covenant, the horde is modelled after the zerg or the flood. They were genetically engineered to reproduce parasitically and to have a more flexible genome. The goal was to encourage rapid evolution of distinct species to terraform the fourth moon. It backfired when the organisms learned to breathe air and reproduce using air breathing hosts, including humans.[/spoiler]
That being all written out (I don't intend to get into the crunch on this boards, and I'll be packing up and moving the rest out in cardboard boxes shortly) who wants to work on what? Send a PM with your email and what you want to do and I'll pass it on to the new site's admin so he can set up accounts for you.