Generation Ship Campaigns

[cyst13]

What a bunch of pessimists you guys are. Can't anybody imagine a generation ship doing exactly what it is supposed to do without devolving into anarchy or tyranny?

[Michael Hopcroft]

If basic human nature is any indication, no.

[keithcurtis]

What a bunch of pessimists you guys are. Can't anybody imagine a generation ship doing exactly what it is supposed to do without devolving into anarchy or tyranny?

The original question was to imagine an rpg campaign set aboard a generation ship. Business as usual is poor storytelling. So I'd say no.

Keith "Conflict is the essence of drama" Curtis

[Greatwyrm]

Can't anybody imagine a generation ship doing exactly what it is supposed to do without devolving into anarchy or tyranny?

I guess I'll give it a shot.

-----

GM: Okay, everybody got their characters?

Al: Yep. I'm a farmer.

Bob: Uh huh. I'm a mechanic.

Chuck: Yes. I'm psionic and have an 18- in PS: Basketweaving.

GM: Good, we're all set. Okay, here we go. You're all on the generation ship. You sit and stare at each other for 60 years. Nothing happens. Everybody take 3 xp.

Bob: So, can I take "Life Support: able to sit for ridiculously long periods of time"?

GM: No need. It's an "everyman" in this game.

[Ternaugh]

I guess I'll give it a shot.

-----

GM: Okay, everybody got their characters?

Al: Yep. I'm a farmer.

Bob: Uh huh. I'm a mechanic.

Chuck: Yes. I'm psionic and have an 18- in PS: Basketweaving.

GM: Good, we're all set. Okay, here we go. You're all on the generation ship. You sit and stare at each other for 60 years. Nothing happens. Everybody take 3 xp.

Bob: So, can I take "Life Support: able to sit for ridiculously long periods of time"?

GM: No need. It's an "everyman" in this game.

Well, see, what you really need is a Holodeck so that the characters can themselves have characters that are immensely more interesting...Oh, wait...This isn't the Next Generation discussion thread?

JoeG

[cyst13]

Kiethcurtis,

Let me get this straight. You've got a gigantic ship flying through space on some mission that requires its inhabitants to live out generations on route and you can't think of any good stories to tell without turning the whole thing into a violent free for all. I don't think 'human nature' is our problem; it's lack of imagination.

[Jhamin]

Part of what is fun about Generation Ships is that you have hundreds of years of history pass for a civilization with no outside influence.

To me, having a Generation Ship that works the way it is supposed to implies that somebody did some really amazing social engineering during the design phase to prevent either anarcy or an opressive accumulation of power by somebody.

In real history, this never happens. But that is why this is sci-fi.

So the real question is: how can a society like that function? And once it is functioning, what kind of fun RPG sessions can take place with that as a backdrop?

[Jhamin]

Double Post

[keithcurtis]

Kiethcurtis,

Let me get this straight. You've got a gigantic ship flying through space on some mission that requires its inhabitants to live out generations on route and you can't think of any good stories to tell without turning the whole thing into a violent free for all. I don't think 'human nature' is our problem; it's lack of imagination.

I didn't say it was impossible. But if you want to make an rpg out of it, most gamers like overt conflict. In the right hands or the with the right group, you could make an interesting political campaign out of it.
But even that requires some amount of conflict. If everything goes right, then you are left with telling stories about people doing their jobs. Most jobs on a generation ship would be pretty routine. You can't afford mistakes or innovation in a closed environment.
Therefore, you are left with people stories. Interpersonal relations, love stories, petty revenge dramas, perhaps. Why bother to put it aboard a generation ship, then? Why not a desert island? Or a remote village?

Now I could interrupt things in a way that doesn't require "anarchy or tyranny". I could have the ship encounter aliens, or deal with an unexpected breakdown of irreplaceable hardware, and if you carefuly re-read the posts, you'll find some such suggestions. But there has to be conflict. (Please note: conflict != fighting).

Let's turn it around. How would you run such a campaign? What would a sample adventure* be like?

Keith "Mr. Curious" Curtis

<HR>*I use the term "adventure" loosely here, since on a ship of limited size, you probably have seen everything and been everywhere already.

[starblaze]

You know this also reminds me of the Star Trek episode "The World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky".

I am midly surprised that no one else mentioned it.

[cyst13]

Reply to Keith Curtis:

I agree with most of what you said in your last post, though my emphasis would be a bit different. One point you made which I found to be true but a bit disingenuous was that the plots you listed could also be set on a desert island or some other closed society. I agree, but the same can be said of everyone else's ideas as well. A generation ship is a subset of the isolated society setting. What differentiates the generation ship setting is what you had touched upon; you're surrounded by space and stars and possibly aliens and your 'island' is a mechanical device that requires maintenance.

I didn't give any ideas of my own for plots primarily because I was just browsing and didn't want to get deeply involved in this thread. Since you challenged me, though, I'll give it a shot. In the games I've been running over the past year, I've been very interested in PCs who are ambassadors of a sort who negotiate between different factions. I can very much see this on a generation ship. Assuming you have enough people aboard to avoid genetic damage from inbreeding, you'd probably have a population of at least 10,000. This is the size of most medium cities in medieval Europe. That's certainly large enough to have distinct factions. And the mere presence of factions does not mean violent confrontation. There are numerous factions in my home city of Portland based on race, class, religion, jobs, etc. and they rarely resort to violence. When they do, it is very brief. Most factional differences are acted out in negotiations or perhaps protests.

I could envisage a campaign in which the PCs are diplomats who have to mediate in labor disputes, diffuse factional anger, negotiate with the government, and similar duties. While this may be business-as-usual since it would be their official jobs, I don't think it would be boring. To my mind, it's violence that tends towards boring repetition. Having to work with people as people is far more intricate and complex than people as targets.

To clarify my original intent in posting, I wasn't out to criticize you guys so much as to challenge you. It has become something of a knee-jerk response in the RPG community to set games in violent situations and let the PCs fight their way through it. I think this not only lowers the quality of the games, but also presents a poor image to prospective players of RPGs. I've been trying to actively recruit females to play RPGs, and I always have to get past the stereotype of it being just an excuse to hack and slash. Most women are not interested in this. However, girls roleplay all the time. What else is playing 'House' or 'Dolls' than freeform RPGs. If we could develop plots for RPGs that focus on PCs interacting peacefully with the world around them, it would be much easier to recruit women into the hobby.

Also, I believe our imaginations are at the root of our perceptions of the world. I don't want to get all Jerry Falwell here and start blaming RPGs for social violence. I do think, though, that if we can prioritize peaceful interaction over violence in our games, and find ways of making those interactions as challenging and exciting as violent confrontations, it will reinforce our impulses toward valuing peaceful responses in real life. We have to imagine peace and value it before we can actualize it.

P.S.: To the cynic who suggested that no societies have existed for extended periods of time without ending in anarchy or tyranny, may I point out that you are currently living in such a society. The U.S. has had a 200+ year history without anarchy or despotism. It doesn't look to end anytime soon. While I'd be the first to agree that we've not been perfect (and Native Americans and African Americans may disagree about whether we've had tyranny), this has been a relatively stable society which has been much better for most people than what is typically imagined in dystopic sci-fi.

[Ternaugh]

You know this also reminds me of the Star Trek episode "The World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky".

I am midly surprised that no one else mentioned it.

That story assumes a strong central figure which forces order (in this case, a very reliable computer with obedience chips in everyone). Unfortunately, by its very nature, this type of society does not tend to produce adventure-worthy conflict (either of a social or a violent nature) without introducing an outside agent not under the full control of the central figure, like the Enterprise crew, or some sort of disaster that the central authority cannot handle by itself. Now, if the computer suddenly goes offline....

JoeG

[Greatwyrm]

P.S.: To the cynic who suggested that no societies have existed for extended periods of time without ending in anarchy or tyranny, may I point out that you are currently living in such a society. The U.S. has had a 200+ year history without anarchy or despotism. It doesn't look to end anytime soon.

While the US has had a rich and colorful history, don't forget that we're still one of the younger countries in the world. We didn't even make it a full hundred years before our first civil war. Before that, the federal government had to use the army to put down the Whiskey Rebellion. The America of the 1950's probably looked like a tyranny if your neighbor thought you were a Communist. I love my country, but it's not like we haven't had our problems.

[cyst13]

Yes, I agree with all that. But we are still here. We survived all that and this is still a reasonably nice place to live. There's no reason a generation ship would be doomed to social disintegration because of 'human nature'. If we can do it, they might alsol. And if 200+ years isn't long enough for you, the Venetian republic lasted from somewhere in the 1100's until 1797. While also not a utopia, it also was by and large a nice place to live for most Venetians. Nobody on this thread has estimated how long this generation ship would be en route, but seven hundred years seems like it would be sufficient.

[starblaze]

Or it goes insane and starts creating an elaborate system of security clearances thinking that communists are starting to, but stop that is a different game.