The Culture Hack - roleplaying in the Culture, by Iain M Banks

[lategamer]

Anyone following me on Mastodon would see that I've been musing about running a game in the Culture or Culture-adjacent. I've looked at Sufficiently Advanced, Mindjammer, and other games that claim to be able to do it. And after reading them I'm left that they're cousins to the Culture but not hitting it directly.

The conceits of Human-Drone-Mind interaction I'll leave to later. Focusing on the Human characters I wanted to develop something that was flexible and open ended and human-scaled. Only the most prepared human is going to beat a drone. It's not even part of the argument (though not all drones are alike).

So, Humans. Where to begin.

I took a leaf out of Sufficiently Advanced, a little Pendragon and some other games where your passions directly influence the game mechanically. 


So I start with:


What drives you?

What do you love?

What do you fear? 

What is most important to you?

What do you want to change?


The player has to answer at least three of these before proceeding. I figure I could get the gist of Zakalwe, Balveda, Gurgeh, Bora Horza and Diziet Sma with these questions alone.

 

[lategamer]

The Physicality of Humans (and human adjacent species) is interesting when compared to Knife Missiles, Drones and even Minds.

Is it worth even noting Strength or Dexterity? My Kick Murder system just has Physical and Mental built upon with a Skills system. Does it need to be more than that? Does Gurgeh need a health stat? Does Zakalwe need gambling skills? Does Bora Horza need Cooking skills?

None of these people can realistically go up against a Knife Missile or a Contact Drone with any positive outcomes (yes, with enough prep they have a chance). There was the drone in Consider Phlebas who could do little in comparison - a non-Contact drone, who said they had "fingers". They couldn't use their fields to slice and dice. They could carry stuff and do simple manipulations and had sensors.

We have to assume that while the focus is mostly on Pan-human characters who are maybe non-combatants, the same is true of Drones too. Maybe a story is about a non-contact/non-SC drone who has a great brain but not the physical wherewithal to change the world.