Thought experiment - colonisers or refugees

[Mosker]

Other questions (with perhaps direct implications for the table):

1. What stories exist about why they left earth? Who knows them first hand or are they just recorded--or erased? Embryos are blank slates after all...

2. When does actual play start in game time?

• I'd almost be tempted to run this like the biblical Exodus where everyone had to wander in the desert until everyone who left Egypt was dead.
  
  
• The ship's (purposefully?) has been in orbit until the last old-timer dies, and that was way too long from a practical standpoint.
  
  
• Forget the RPG tavern, this game begins at a wake...

 

[lategamer]

Other questions (with perhaps direct implications for the table):

1. What stories exist about why they left earth? Who knows them first hand or are they just recorded--or erased? Embryos are blank slates after all...

I think it would be a national geographic style movie. Generated by the scientists.

2. When does actual play start in game time?

• I'd almost be tempted to run this like the biblical Exodus where everyone had to wander in the desert until everyone who left Egypt was dead.
  
  
• The ship's (purposefully?) has been in orbit until the last old-timer dies, and that was way too long from a practical standpoint.

I would make game-start being the PCs being woken from cold sleep, half the crew. There's a planet in the viewscreen and the drones are fussing around making sure people are fine. They've got a crew list (named, and roles, if not fully generated. They can swap people in and out of Sleep without affecting the duration of life support.

So, then they have a list of equipment, readouts from the sensors showing some small cities on the surface. And they have the mission briefing. They could just fly down and do the gods from the sky approach or they can find a remote landscape.

• Forget the RPG tavern, this game begins at a wake...

Oh? Explain more?

 

[Mosker]

Oh? Explain more?

I.e. the wake for the last of the "old crew" whose presence, following what I threw out above, was the last obstacle in moving forward with whatevers. I just love the idea of an atmosphere of mixed relief (finally ) and trepidation (We're really doing this now, aren't we?) as the emotional starting point rather tnan wide-eyed adventure or a reaction against the immediate threat/need that (reasonably) kicks off so many games. (Not not not a big mingle for a bit and get to know one another person or full session session zeros. "Backstory kills" is one of those MFA tropes than needs to be downplayed, not discarded)

 

[Lofgeornost]

I.e. the wake for the last of the "old crew" whose presence, following what I threw out above, was the last obstacle in moving forward with whatevers. I just love the idea of an atmosphere of mixed relief (finally ) and trepidation (We're really doing this now, aren't we?) as the emotional starting point rather tnan wide-eyed adventure or a reaction against the immediate threat/need that (reasonably) kicks off so many games.

While the characters might be feeling this, I doubt if the players would, unless they are good method actors.

 

[lategamer]

I.e. the wake for the last of the "old crew" whose presence, following what I threw out above, was the last obstacle in moving forward with whatevers. I just love the idea of an atmosphere of mixed relief (finally ) and trepidation (We're really doing this now, aren't we?) as the emotional starting point rather tnan wide-eyed adventure or a reaction against the immediate threat/need that (reasonably) kicks off so many games. (Not not not a big mingle for a bit and get to know one another person or full session session zeros. "Backstory kills" is one of those MFA tropes than needs to be downplayed, not discarded)

Aaah, so it's like a social contract.

No-one who had earth dirt on their boots lives to carry whatever they brought with them.

"Do not go gentle into that good night; Old age should burn and rave at close of day. Rage, rage against the dying of the light."


BRAND
... That's
what I love - out there we face
great odds. Death. But not evil.
COOPER
Nature can't be evil?
BRAND
Formidable, frightening - not evil.
Is a tiger evil because it rips a
gazelle to pieces?
COOPER
Just what we bring with us, then.
BRAND
This crew represents the best
aspects of humanity.
COOPER
Even me?
Brand looks at him. Smiles.

 

[lategamer]

While the characters might be feeling this, I doubt if the players would, unless they are good method actors.

While my usual game sets the characters up with a Morality and Dark Secret, I could add "Feelings" regarding the mission. Relief, Trepidation, Misgivings, Loss, Excitement, Regret, ....hmmm, maybe even as a Pendragon-inspired set of Passions.

(As I'd be running this in a YZE inspired game, I'll describe it like that. Mechanism would be adding your 'Feelings' dice (representing how strong that feeling is) to an applicable roll with Successes adding to a Momentum/Story Point like metacurrency.

 

[lategamer]

I was commenting elsewhere about the utility of the Ranger class. There would have to be some folk on board who are literally trained for survival and adaptability. Jack of all, master of none. Someone who's equally as miserable on the space ship as they are on the ground.

 

[Nobby-W]

[ . . . ]



I read a review which ended with "I'm sure there are worse books out there, but I haven't read one."

It's not one I've read, but Niven/Pournelle tend to range between pretty good (The Mote In God's Eye, Footfall, Lucifer's Hammer etc.) down to mediocre.

 

[DornKratz]

One of my favorite parts of colonization stories is learning to fit into a completely new ecosystem. What kinds of weird megafauna or creatures that straddle what we consider animal and plant will they find? Does parallel evolution create species that are similar enough to their Earth counterparts to receive the same name? Perhaps Alpha Centauri alligators are mammals and bison, oviparous. Do colonists try to plant seeds they brought with them, and what happens when corn starts to crowd out local species, or dies to a local parasite?

 

[lategamer]

One of my favorite parts of colonization stories is learning to fit into a completely new ecosystem. What kinds of weird megafauna or creatures that straddle what we consider animal and plant will they find? Does parallel evolution create species that are similar enough to their Earth counterparts to receive the same name? Perhaps Alpha Centauri alligators are mammals and bison, oviparous. Do colonists try to plant seeds they brought with them, and what happens when corn starts to crowd out local species, or dies to a local parasite?

I’ve got bits and pieces of an alien world for my Stargate/Sliders/Primeval supplement for T2000. It was kind of a practice run for this project but has taken on its own life.

Figuring out what eats what and how the alien things react when they eat humans is fun.

Showing convergent evolution as well as independent evolution - keeping humanoid forms for familiarity but varying biology and culture.

Again it needs art. Ah, to be a billionaire so I could become a millionaire making beautiful books

So. Back to refugees…

Art pieces that might be useful might be “drone photos” of towns and villages on rhe surface. Of critters in their natural habitants.

The interior of the lifeboat/colony ship. Hypersleep pods. Uniforms. Shuttles. And to be particularly jarring, a medbay with a native on the slab.

 

[Telok]

So basically playing Cherryh's Foreigner series mixed with the Niven/Pournell/Barnes Heorot (first book only, second didn't take)? I mean, its been done.

Personally I think you're sitting at the top of a gravity well with tech like magic. Contact and a little trade with the locals for an island, big enough for resource extraction and hab domes. Don't lie, be straight that you'll make a deal or leave with your toys, and you've got other stuff they might like. Get that self-sustaining and resource extraction going. Then build a proper colony space station, or maybe take a moon for digging in for more radiation shielding. Don't cannabalize the ship, awaken the minimum of sleepers (with some error bar fudge factor). Restock the ship as possible, that's your absolute last chance backup.

Then, when things are stable and not desperate life or death gambling, you can reassess.

For system I'd really jump for a Pendragon hack. Passions putting mechanical pressure on small group dynamics in a way players are often willing to pass on in preference of 'winning'.

 

[lategamer]

So basically playing Cherryh's Foreigner series mixed with the Niven/Pournell/Barnes Heorot (first book only, second didn't take)? I mean, its been done.

As a game? When?

Personally I think you're sitting at the top of a gravity well with tech like magic. Contact and a little trade with the locals for an island, big enough for resource extraction and hab domes. Don't lie, be straight that you'll make a deal or leave with your toys, and you've got other stuff they might like. Get that self-sustaining and resource extraction going. Then build a proper colony space station, or maybe take a moon for digging in for more radiation shielding. Don't cannabalize the ship, awaken the minimum of sleepers (with some error bar fudge factor). Restock the ship as possible, that's your absolute last chance backup.

That is absolutely a way to go. Opportunities to RP with the natives. Trade. Find resources. A bit of hex crawling for 'science'. Build out a base. and hope that nothing goes wrong on the Mothership-like "Things that can go awfully wrong on a space station" table.

There would need to be some mechanical and lore support for the systems.

I envisage a troupe play style game where you might have to defrost who you need. And there would be contrivances to ensure you do breach the atmosphere because playing a remote station raising kids might not be everyone's idea of adventure.

Then, when things are stable and not desperate life or death gambling, you can reassess.
For system I'd really jump for a Pendragon hack. Passions putting mechanical pressure on small group dynamics in a way players are often willing to pass on in preference of 'winning'.

I would agree that mechanical pressures on Passions, Secrets, Morality would definitely be the way to go.

 

[Telok]

As a game? When?

Sorry, I was imprecise. Its been done numerous times in books and stories.

 

[DornKratz]

Figuring out what eats what and how the alien things react when they eat humans is fun.

You can also tie that to local customs and taboos. Imagine a group of natives arriving to negotiate trade and finding their sacred animal roasting over a fire pit. Another group might be mortally offended by humans refusing to eat their fermented slugs.

 

[lategamer]

humans refusing to eat their fermented slugs.

Ah, you've tried Hákarl

It would certainly be a more lighthearted campaign than planned, but this sort of thing lends itself to an episodic affair.

 

[lategamer]

Thinking about the tech.

There have been some iconic space ships around this genre.

- Space 1999 had the Eagle lander.
- Interstellar had the Endurance, the Rangers and the Lander
- 2001/2010 had the Discovery and the Alexei Leonov (and the Discovery pods)

There’s a “form is function” aspect to it that I appreciate.

 

[Lofgeornost]

Thinking about the tech.

There have been some iconic space ships around this genre.

- Space 1999 had the Eagle lander.

And in almost unlimited supplies, it seemed.

The colony ship would need to be very large, I would think--perhaps spun for to simulate gravity, if you are not using handwavium.

 

[lategamer]

And in almost unlimited supplies, it seemed.

Looking at the stats, the Eagle landers could also travel faster than light.

But I’m more interested in the aesthetic.

The colony ship would need to be very large, I would think--perhaps spun for to simulate gravity, if you are not using handwavium.

Well it would be large but not immense.

I’ve since revised it down to 10 active crew out of maybe 20-30 people. Rest in Hypersleep.

 

[lategamer]

Moving this into an active project so I can maybe play it with folks over the summer.

Names I’ve bandied about.

Whole New World
The Last Humans
The Colony

 

[Lofgeornost]

Moving this into an active project so I can maybe play it with folks over the summer.

Names I’ve bandied about.

Whole New World
The Last Humans
The Colony

Exiles from Earth
What Brave New World?
Canaan 2.0
Or, of course, Paradise Lost.

 

[DocFlamingo]

Life is a nasty, brutish thing but it has a duty to survive. Moving into the next valley, the next island, or star system--this is how the game is played and it's never very pretty when you look at it close. If you're afraid to get bloody you're already on your way out of the gene pool.

 

[lategamer]

Life is a nasty, brutish thing but it has a duty to survive. Moving into the next valley, the next island, or star system--this is how the game is played and it's never very pretty when you look at it close. If you're afraid to get bloody you're already on your way out of the gene pool.

You know, I think I'll quote and credit you as one of the founders of the programme.