A small gaming rant.
Dec. 9th, 2014 11:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridloreThe other day on G+ someone posted a picture of an imaginary Traveller - Space: 1999 game. The comment was "I would so play this!"
I asked, "so what's stopping you?"
One thing I hate about the modern state of RPGs is the refusal of would-be GMs to do any world-building. They wait for the official expansion, or just complain.
Take Space: 1999 for example. If you wanted to do a game set on Moonbase Alpha, everything you need is there for you on the net. Episode guides. Maps. Equipment. Timelines. Uniforms. Spend a long Saturday writing down notes, choose a system, and start playing!
If I were running this game, I'd change the reason for the Moon leaving Earth from a nuclear accident (people have done the physics, any explosion big enough to hurl the Moon out of the solar system would destroy it.) to a crashing Eagle smacking into a secret research lab working on dimensional portals. The nuclear waste site was a cover story. Now the Moon pops in and out of reality when it wanders too close to a deep gravity well. Nobody on Moonbase Alpha even knows the other base was there, which could be a long term plot line.
This would be a great episodic game. Each adventure would cover a new world encounter, conflict inside Moonbase, and of course the long term goals of figuring out what happened and finding either a way home or a safe place to settle. I'd give a clear indicator that the Moon is about to jump in a set amount of time as a way to force action ("Flash, I love you! But we only have four hours before the Moon jumps!") I'd run this game as a troupe style game. Everyone has a stable of characters, from command staff down to red shirts. So each adventure uses a different set of characters and we can add or subtract characters without too much trouble.
This would be an amazing GURPS game. Or, in a less gear-head way, FUDGE
There. Space: 1999 the Role-Playing Game.
That took less than ten minutes. You want a game in a well-documented setting, Do it yourself!
I asked, "so what's stopping you?"
One thing I hate about the modern state of RPGs is the refusal of would-be GMs to do any world-building. They wait for the official expansion, or just complain.
Take Space: 1999 for example. If you wanted to do a game set on Moonbase Alpha, everything you need is there for you on the net. Episode guides. Maps. Equipment. Timelines. Uniforms. Spend a long Saturday writing down notes, choose a system, and start playing!
If I were running this game, I'd change the reason for the Moon leaving Earth from a nuclear accident (people have done the physics, any explosion big enough to hurl the Moon out of the solar system would destroy it.) to a crashing Eagle smacking into a secret research lab working on dimensional portals. The nuclear waste site was a cover story. Now the Moon pops in and out of reality when it wanders too close to a deep gravity well. Nobody on Moonbase Alpha even knows the other base was there, which could be a long term plot line.
This would be a great episodic game. Each adventure would cover a new world encounter, conflict inside Moonbase, and of course the long term goals of figuring out what happened and finding either a way home or a safe place to settle. I'd give a clear indicator that the Moon is about to jump in a set amount of time as a way to force action ("Flash, I love you! But we only have four hours before the Moon jumps!") I'd run this game as a troupe style game. Everyone has a stable of characters, from command staff down to red shirts. So each adventure uses a different set of characters and we can add or subtract characters without too much trouble.
This would be an amazing GURPS game. Or, in a less gear-head way, FUDGE
There. Space: 1999 the Role-Playing Game.
That took less than ten minutes. You want a game in a well-documented setting, Do it yourself!
