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Looking to start a space/science fiction campaign


bluesguy

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So I am planning on running a space/science fiction campaign.  I have never run one before.  I have been a fan of science fiction (books, TV, and movies) for +40 years.  I am thinking about running a campaign that has the flavor of Babylon 5 (multiple races, jump gates, capital ships capable of jumping on their own, large setting) mashed with Firefly (crew with some common history trying to make things work out).  The game would be 75% role playing and 25% combat.  It would be gritty (weapons are lethal and limited resistant protection).
 
Because I don't know how this will work out (we might play in it for a couple of months and go 'ick lets stop') I don't want to invest in creating all of this from scratch, I want to purchase what I need and mash up the materials that are available to get what I need.  I also don't want to spend $100s on source material.  :winkgrin:
 
Now to the question, what is the bare minimum I should purchase.  I believe I have two good choices here:

  • Traveler Hero - I know there is a good complete background and I am sure I can adjust the material to meet my needs.  Do I also need to purchase Star Hero to run this or is everything contained in the CD to run?  I have the 6e books and a bunch of the Champions and Fantasy Hero supplements that are available.  If all I need is the CD, that is $35 which is a deal for what I am looking for.
  • Star Hero + Project WyrmStar - Advantage I see with this is because of all the campaigns in the Project WyrmStar bundle I can put something together from this as well.  It would be more work to find the bits that fit together.  Downside is that this is closer to $50.

 

Of course in the end if my group likes playing I will probably end up buying all of that material.  I just don't want to invest ~$100 to get started.

 

Advice, suggestions, etc. would be appreciated.

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I would suggest the Traveller Hero CD, theres a ton of material, that you can use with whatever flavor of star hero for that matter with a bit of fiddling

and if you have specific questions about Traveller Hero, Eodin and Tancred and I wrote most of it, so ask away. I dont know anything about Project Wyrmstar, also I dont get any money from TH sales

if you already own either 5E or 6E of some flavor you should be fine.

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 I am thinking about running a campaign that has the flavor of Babylon 5 (multiple races, jump gates, capital ships capable of jumping on their own, large setting) mashed with Firefly (crew with some common history trying to make things work out).  The game would be 75% role playing and 25% combat.  It would be gritty (weapons are lethal and limited resistant protection).

 

This sounds very much like the Fires of Heaven setting which is apparently is a part of the project Wyrmstar package.

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You make we want to start a scifi game.  If only I wasn't already over committed...

 

A Starfire Universe style game.  The Explorer Service charting new warp points...

 

 

OOh! Ooh! When you Youtube the tabletop session with the 100 carrier fleet and the 300 fighter squadrons against the 11,000 suicide pinnaces, I want a link!

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Does the Traveller Hero CD come with HD support files?

yes it does, also there was an error on one of the PDF files, where a deck plan got transposed... check your e-mail for a corrected PDF of it. since we found this after the CD went to press, it was just easier to send a corrected PDF out then redo the whole batch of CDs. those who buy the CD just need to e-mail me and I send it out.

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  • 1 month later...

how is it going?

Thank you for asking.  I have done a quick read over most of the material that came with the Traveller CD.  I also went and found a ton of other resources (software, etc.) to help.

 

I am still mulling over where to go from here.

 

Knowing my players, we won't be doing the "PC's have a mortgaged star ship that they have to figure out how to make monthly payments on" trope.  I am thinking they would operate like 'troubleshooters' for a quasi-governmental/interstellar corporation.  The adventure arcs would be extremely episodic.

 

I am thinking along the lines of (TV show versions) "Mission Impossible", "A-Team", "Equalizer", and maybe a bit of Stainless Steel Rat type campaign.  Again all taking place in a Babylon 5 universe.

 

I am still mulling the whole thing over in my head.

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I think that the trick with the science fiction is to give the players enough information to know their place in the hierarchies that exist.  Let me show you my thinking when planning a SciFi game for my group.

 

My players would chafe if they were constantly trying to pay the mortgage.  They would also chafe if they were overly constrained by rules of society.  They would however too eagerly jump to excessive violence etc if there were not constraints on their behaviour and conduct.  They need a heavy hand on the team building - they are prone to building characters that are cool in their heads but do not take anyone else into consideration (my way of doing this is to require each player to give their character a reason why they would want to go adventuring with at least two other characters - no three character loops allowed unless they are beyond the two connection requirement).

 

They need to understand that while they hold mega-destructive powers that they cannot make liberal use of those in most areas.  They need to trust that I will not be looking to trip them up in civilised places when they visit those, as long as they obey the rules.  I need them to have ready contact with the shakers and players without thinking that the slightest slip will end in their immediate destruction or, conversely, that because they have dealt with Mr Big in something underhand that they have leverage there.

 

I need each adventure to have something cool in it.  I need to watch out for something in each episode that they resonate with and see if I can re-introduce that, possibly with a view to making it something bigger.

 

That is my context when thinking about it...

 

 

Doc

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Thank you for asking.  I have done a quick read over most of the material that came with the Traveller CD.  I also went and found a ton of other resources (software, etc.) to help.

 

I am still mulling over where to go from here.

 

Knowing my players, we won't be doing the "PC's have a mortgaged star ship that they have to figure out how to make monthly payments on" trope.  I am thinking they would operate like 'troubleshooters' for a quasi-governmental/interstellar corporation.  The adventure arcs would be extremely episodic.

 

I am thinking along the lines of (TV show versions) "Mission Impossible", "A-Team", "Equalizer", and maybe a bit of Stainless Steel Rat type campaign.  Again all taking place in a Babylon 5 universe.

 

I am still mulling the whole thing over in my head.

Scout service. Just saying. There is a covert arm of them.

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I think that the trick with the science fiction is to give the players enough information to know their place in the hierarchies that exist.  Let me show you my thinking when planning a SciFi game for my group.

 

My players would chafe if they were constantly trying to pay the mortgage.  They would also chafe if they were overly constrained by rules of society.  They would however too eagerly jump to excessive violence etc if there were not constraints on their behaviour and conduct.  They need a heavy hand on the team building - they are prone to building characters that are cool in their heads but do not take anyone else into consideration (my way of doing this is to require each player to give their character a reason why they would want to go adventuring with at least two other characters - no three character loops allowed unless they are beyond the two connection requirement).

 

They need to understand that while they hold mega-destructive powers that they cannot make liberal use of those in most areas.  They need to trust that I will not be looking to trip them up in civilised places when they visit those, as long as they obey the rules.  I need them to have ready contact with the shakers and players without thinking that the slightest slip will end in their immediate destruction or, conversely, that because they have dealt with Mr Big in something underhand that they have leverage there.

 

I need each adventure to have something cool in it.  I need to watch out for something in each episode that they resonate with and see if I can re-introduce that, possibly with a view to making it something bigger.

 

That is my context when thinking about it...

 

 

Doc

Have you tried requiring Limitations an disads that tie them to each other?

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Scout service. Just saying. There is a covert arm of them.

 

That would be a kind of flavor for it.

 

One advantage is that we could mix and match characters if needed (think old Mission Impossible TV show).  So if a character died a new character could be brought in.  If someone wasn't around for a few weeks they just wouldn't be on that mission.

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I am thinking along the lines of (TV show versions) "Mission Impossible", "A-Team", "Equalizer", and maybe a bit of Stainless Steel Rat type campaign.  Again all taking place in a Babylon 5 universe.

I would play the hell outta that game! :thumbup: I agree the "Get a crew, get a job, keep flying" trope gets old quick, especially when it devolves to Accountant Hero.

 

The challenge I've seen with a lot of broad space opera games is the players often have trouble keeping all the different words, races, alliances, etc straight. Most of us have lives & jobs & families these days, so expecting players to remember which made-up alien name is which can get frustrating for everyone involved. So I would suggest keeping the scope relatively narrow at first rather than throwing them into the deep end of the pool and expecting them to know which fishhead is which.

 

I did play in one space opera game where the GM just straight-up used alien races from existing SF series - Klingons, Centauri, Wookies, Kzinti, Cylons, you name it. He didn't even change the names; he'd just say "A Vulcan walks into the room" or "You need to talk to the Ferengi" and we all knew more or less what that meant. It gave the game a weird mash-up vibe, but it really cut down on the needed exposition so we could focus on the actual plot without being overly distracted by the setting.

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I would play the hell outta that game! :thumbup:

Thank you for the vote of confidence.

 

I agree the "Get a crew, get a job, keep flying" trope gets old quick, especially when it devolves to Accountant Hero.

 

The challenge I've seen with a lot of broad space opera games is the players often have trouble keeping all the different words, races, alliances, etc straight. Most of us have lives & jobs & families these days, so expecting players to remember which made-up alien name is which can get frustrating for everyone involved. So I would suggest keeping the scope relatively narrow at first rather than throwing them into the deep end of the pool and expecting them to know which fishhead is which.

My fantasy setting Nyonia has a fair number of unusual races or common races with new names. The players have pretty much caught on to that.

 

I did play in one space opera game where the GM just straight-up used alien races from existing SF series - Klingons, Centauri, Wookies, Kzinti, Cylons, you name it. He didn't even change the names; he'd just say "A Vulcan walks into the room" or "You need to talk to the Ferengi" and we all knew more or less what that meant. It gave the game a weird mash-up vibe, but it really cut down on the needed exposition so we could focus on the actual plot without being overly distracted by the setting.

 

Excellent point. 

 

I hope using B5 as a setting helps since about 1/2 of the players have seen the show.  Also there aren't a hundreds of aliens ... Five major races (Humans, Minbari, Centauri, Narn, Dilgar), two elder races (Shadows and Vorlon) and a dozen minor ones.  I wouldn't throw them at all of the races at once...

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Another option is to keep your species down to a handful. It is one thing to remember the names and general characteristics of 4-6 species and another to have to pull up some sort of Wookiepedia-like reference to remember the difference between the tall aliens with yellow glowing eyes and the short aliens with yellow glowing eyes. 

 

Same thing with factions and Alliances. You have 2-3 basic ones and the smaller alliances are something that you reveal for the purpose of the current adventure/story arc. Nobody really needs to know about the Scions of Alestia Prime, a small militia fighting against the government in the isolated Alestia system, if the characters never make their way to Alestia. Even then, unless they are on some sort of mission that would lead them directly into the path of this fringe group, it might be nothing more than a background news video that introduces the players to the SOAP. The player characters couldn't care less, as their business on Alestia Prime is to meet an old fashioned, mechanical clock maker about a separate matter.

 

Using existing species is okay too. There is a feeling of immediate recognition.This is especially true if you are playing with an established IP like B5.

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Have you tried requiring Limitations an disads that tie them to each other?

Things that I impose get less buy in from the players than stuff they come up with themselves. I will work with them if they want but you get more colour and depth when it is self-generated by the players and I use their generic elements to tie them into campaign specifics.

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Things that I impose get less buy in from the players than stuff they come up with themselves. I will work with them if they want but you get more colour and depth when it is self-generated by the players and I use their generic elements to tie them into campaign specifics.

True dat. It's different when you're creating a setting for publication, where you design a couple of magic systems and flesh them all out so players have some to choose from. But I'm just writing for us, and the magic system I create might be used by one person at most. So in general I think it makes more sense to establish some general guidelines about how magic works in this world and then work with the player(s) to develop a system that works for them while still fitting within the campaign feel.

 

For the campaign we just started, I did stat out a couple of different magic systems, but they were really more to give my players a sense of what magic was like in this world. Sure enough, only one player is only using one of "my" magic systems as written. I don't feel the rest were wasted work tho, because I can still use them for NPCs. And it did help establish the boundaries so when a player wanted to create his own magic system it gave us some guidelines to adjust his idea to fit teh setting.

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