[meta] Fenspace the RPG

[robkelk]

So, my current roleplaying campaign's winding up in a few sessions (how few depend on the players, of course), and I'm thinking of setting the next on
in Fenspace - or, more accurately, a close parallel of Fenspace. Assuming this happens (I've only asked one of the players so far), this begs a few
questions...

First, does anybody not want me using their characters as NPCs?

Second, when do I set the game? I'm leaning towards either 2007-2008 (and the PCs would be first-generation Fen), or 2012 (and they're taking part in
Operation GREAT JUSTICE), but would some other time have more roleplaying possibilities?

Third, how much of the background do I share with the players? Do I give them the entire Writers' Guide I'm working on, with everything that's in
all the stickies here, or should I pare that down a bit (or a lot)?

Fourth, which system should I use? I own copies of GURPS Fourth Edition and BESM Third Edition; each has pros and cons for this setting... I think. (Either
way, I'll have to stat up Ramona, Avril, Noah, and at least one of the "angels" as sample characters, so the players have an idea of what sort of
folks are in the setting. Once I've done that, I'll share.)

Thoughts, anyone and everyone?

-Rob Kelk
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Kokuten]

you have full authorization from me. Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[M Fnord]

An interesting question!

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First, does anybody not want me using their characters as NPCs?

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I'm hip, feel free to abuse me n' mine, under one condition: you post game logs. I wanna see where your players take this stuff. %)

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Second, when do I set the game? I'm leaning towards either 2007-2008 (and the PCs would be first-generation Fen), or 2012 (and they're taking part in Operation GREAT JUSTICE), but would some other time have more roleplaying possibilities?

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I suppose it depends on what you'd prefer (and the players are willing to go along with) in terms of the campaign. An 07-08 campaign would be half getting off Earth and half getting established in Fenspace; if the players are interested in doing something along the lines of a Ocean's 11-esque caper, that's probably where you want to set it. A GREAT JUSTICE campaign would be more traditional let's-go-knock-some-heads-together adventuring.

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Third, how much of the background do I share with the players? Do I give them the entire Writers' Guide I'm working on, with everything that's in all the stickies here, or should I pare that down a bit (or a lot)?

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First of all, set your timeline. Then pare it down. Depending on where & when you set it, they should get enough information on what's going on to be able to function without handholding, but not the full torrent of fiddly detail we've put together in the stickies or the writer's guide.

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Fourth, which system should I use?

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Of the listed, I'd go with GURPS 4e, but that's just because I know GURPS 4e (plus, I ought to at some point do an Infinity world writeup for Fenspace. Moo hoo ha ha ha.) and not BESM 3e, so there's obvious bias there. I'd almost recommend Spirit of the Century as a contender, if only for style purposes.---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[LilFluff]

I'll second Spirit of the Century, and toss in any variety of PDQ (Truth & Justice; Monkey, Ninja, Pirate, Robot; Dead Inside; etc.). Both systems are great for concentrating on the character rather than the mechanics. SotC is nice since you could easily use the story & guest story parts of character generation to tie the characters together.
In fact, I think I'll do the first part of a character right now. Roy, a modeler who has become a skilled designer of 'wave enhanced equipment.
Phase 1: Pre-Fenspace Life
Roy loved making models as a kid. Little plastic blocks and kids clay gave way to balsa, foam blocks, and plastic sheets. By fifteen he received his first art show award with a 1/10 scale model of an Apollo program lunar lander. With photos set up nearby for people to judge the model with. One year later he showed a lunar lander control panel, complete with a working landing computer (made with a few BASIC Stamps - he didn't quite feel like making the guts 100% accurate).
Aspect 1: Award winning modeler. You name it, Roy can model it, and may already have won an award for it.
Aspect 2: Roy's blueprint library. Some are genuine blueprints collected from friends and inside sources. Some he has drawn up himself based on any records he could find. Whether it's a shuttle craft or a shuttle ask Roy, he has it or he'll know who does.
Phase 2: Introduction to Fenspace
Roy was attending a small convention in New Mexico and didn't expect anything so exciting to happen. But his partner in the junkbox prop building challenge happened to bring along some handwavium...
Aspect 3: Did I just build a working tricorder, nifty! Sure that tricorder eats AAA batteries like they're pocky, but it works. The combination of building skills and a strong sense of what he wants has given Roy a good record at building working handwaved gear.
Aspect 4: Focused on my work "Wait, you said you just came from that panel? Frak!" When Roy gets into a good state of flow it takes alot to distract him from the task at hand. Great for his work, not so great for anything else he meant to do.
Phase 3: Roy's first story, "Con Under Siege."
When the government decides to surround first and investigate later, it's up to those on the scene at a small town local con to get people out to freedom. Under an nonnegotiable deadline Roy leads a crew of builders in the construction of over two dozen separate vehicles. Everything from a flying van, an electric racing bike, to the first in his now classic line of Rocket Buoys. As the initial breakout spread in all directions they drew off enough of the besieging forces to allow outside help to carry off the rest.
Aspect 5: "Trouble", Rocket Buoy mark five. Take a single seat and strap it to a rocket engine and six spindly landing legs. Someone said they thought it looked like a buoy, hence the name. That was mark one, models two through five have all been entirely custom built.
Aspect 6: Got to do what's right. Roy was almost caught. While fleeing he came down upon the aftermath of a high speed chase. Grabbing a fire extinguisher he went to work... the official record says that he got back in the rocket buoy and fled before the cops chasing caught up. He's certainly not going to suggest on record that they let him go simply after keeping another cop from being burned alive.
Phases four and five would describe how Roy was involved in two other characters background stories. With four more aspects building off those.
So what are aspects? Those are what Fate (the system behind Spirit of the Century and the upcoming Dresden Files RPG) uses instead of a generic set of character attributes. Players can use aspects to help the character: Roy's player might tap Award Winning Modeler to provide assist a skill role while building something. Or Focused on my Work to allow Roy to complete repairs to a damaged anti-grav system without any penalties for the buffeting of the non-aerodynamic falling-like-a-brick van as it falls through the air.
Of course the GM can tap a players aspects too. Although the player gets a fate point to cash in later if the tapping of the aspect disfavors them. "Unfortunately while Roy knows the man in the room with him is a spy, he's simply so focused on his work as he fixes the life support system that he never sees him searching through the files..."
If you want a closer look at the system you can check www.evilhat.com/?spirit
Included at the end of the entry on the page for Spirit of the Century is a link to the SotC system resource document. Pretty much the game just stripped of the few game world details. But I think it's well worth the price of the printed edition.
PDQ likewise drops a specific set of character attributes for listing qualities that a character has. Under PDQ Roy's character sheet might list: Expert (+4) Modeler, Good (+2) Blueprint Library & Contacts, Good (+2) I built it, of course it works, Poor (-2) Have to do what's right.
Note: Poor (-2) Have to do what's right, doesn't mean he's poor at doing the right thing. It means that his need to do the right thing can be expected to inconvenience him. Another character might have, Poor (-2) My ships AI plots against me, or Poor (-2) Doesn't understand fan culture.
If I was using PDQ I would probably do something like Truth & Justice does, with a set of points for Qualities to give the non-handwavium needed parts of the character and allow two points for handwavium-needed benefits. With an option like T&Js 'highly skilled' to trade away handwavium points for additional quality points.
So Roy might use his handwavium points for: Expert (+4) Amazing Rocket Buoy. Stunts: Good (+2) Scanners, Good (+2) Rapid Ascent.
There's a free copy of the PDQ core rules at
And now I'll stop before I flood the thread any further....www.atomicsockmonkey.com/freebies.asp#pdq
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Will the transhumanist future have catgirls? Does Japan still exist? Well, there is your answer.

[Bob Schroeck]

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I'm hip, feel free to abuse me n' mine, under one condition: you post game logs. I wanna see where your players take this stuff. %)

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Agreed.
I have an incomplete file of character data for the crew of the Grover's Corners -- I'll post it up in the character thread for you to consult, should you go for the later period.

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(plus, I ought to at some point do an Infinity world writeup for Fenspace. Moo hoo ha ha ha.)

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And Fnord? I like. Maybe we talk Steve into making it an E23 release.

-- Bob
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The Internet Is For Norns.

[robkelk]

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I'm hip, feel free to abuse me n' mine, under one condition: you post game logs. I wanna see where your players take this stuff. %)

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I can live with that...

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And Fnord? I like. Maybe we talk Steve into making it an E23 release.

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In the unlikely event that that somehow happens, put my share of the royalties toward the ezBoard expenses.

-Rob Kelk
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Bob Schroeck]

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In the unlikely event that that somehow happens, put my share of the royalties toward the ezBoard expenses.

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Oh it's certainly doable, but I suspect that the rights issues would be a nightmare...
And if you were entitled to a royalty share, it'd probably go directly to you...

-- Bob
---------
The Internet Is For Norns.

[M Fnord]

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And Fnord? I like. Maybe we talk Steve into making it an E23 release.

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Hell, I was just thinking of an IW infobox (Gernsback-2, maybe?) and not a full world writeup. I suppose it's feasible, but the rights issues...---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Duane Peters]

If you want to use me an' mine, go right ahead. My limit is the same as Fnord's; I really wanna see game logs.
And e-mail me wouldja? I think I've got an idea where to go in my long-stalled Con post...

[drakensis]

go ahead.
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[robkelk]

Thanks, all. Tomorrow, I ask the players whether they're interested...
(Duane)

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And e-mail me wouldja? I think I've got an idea where to go in my long-stalled Con post...

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I'm glad one of us does - I'm sure Griever's given up waiting for me to get back to him. (Sorry about that...) E-mail sent.

-Rob Kelk
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[robkelk]

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Tomorrow, I ask the players whether they're interested...

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"Reply cloudy - ask again"
Although I suspect it might not be happening, after one player grabbed onto my should-have-been-half-minute mention of 'wavium and went on for seemed-like-a-quarter-hour about it, getting most of the details wrong in the process... which soured one of the other players on the whole concept. (This is the same player who derailed my suggestion of running an In Nomine game by spending a while complaining loudly about background elements that aren't in In Nomine... Sometimes I wonder why I bother GMing.)
It looked like they'd made up their minds against the idea before I could say anything about what I really wanted to do with the setting. (When another one of them says he doesn't like the game system before anybody's even mentioned a game system, well... Sometimes I wonder why I bother GMing.)
They've agreed to listen to the proposal again next weekend. (I think they've realized that they can't game without a GM to run a game, and the only other person in the group who's ready, willing, and able to run can't run every weekend... And if we want to discuss that, I suspect we should take it out of Fenspace and into General.)
In any event... Thank you, all, for allowing your characters to be used, even if I never get around to using them. If anyone else wants to try a Fenspace RPG, you have my permission to use my characters as NPCs.

-Rob Kelk
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Kokuten]

You have a player that needs to be removed, then.. Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[CattyNebulart]

indeedy I don't know why you would accept a player like that.
Oh and for futher notice my characters are under some form of copyleft licence (which one still to be determined) but basicly feel free to use them. Notice would be nice so that I an see how others see my charcters, but not requiered.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

[robkelk]

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indeedy I don't know why you would accept a player like that.

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It's difficult to say "no" to someone who lives where we game... But that particular problem might be self-correcting; his shift is being changed to the time when we usually game.

-Rob Kelk
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Foxboy]

despite my apparent loss of interest in writing in this setting, The Good captain and the crew of the Pinafore are available for gaming use.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[Ebony]

You're welcome to use the Blue Blazers and the Banzai Institute. As I mentioned, there are more than 2,000 of them globally and in the inner Solar System by the time that Grovers Corners makes its liftoff. Your PCs can be members, provided they're willing to contribute when Buckaroo needs representation or expertise. Think of membership in the Blazers as contacts/allies, tied to an obligation to contribute if you are a member.
If you like, feel free to let me know if you end up with any Blazers. As the writer, I can always use more characters.Ebony the Black Dragon
Senior Editor, Living Room Games
http://www.lrgames.com
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."