Game Design

Feb 20 2013

Ask The Readers! Input on a BareBones Fantasy sci-fi hack… (First draft)

Seems like we are on a sci-fi roll here in the blog in 2013! So keeping with the theme, I’ve decided to share with Stargazer’s World readers a sci-fi hack I’ve been working on for the last couple of weeks.

107498-thumb140.jpgEver since I read the BareBones Fantasy rules (which Michael reviewed here, and posted about here), I’ve been itching to use the rules for a sci-fi game. It’s no surprise, the creators of the game DwD Studios are longtime supporters of my favorite old school sci-fi game Star Frontiers, about which I have posted here. They are in fact working on the FrontierSpace game, and some of the work done for that game apparently was carried over to BareBones Fantasy.

So I got about trying to modify the rules for a sci-fi game. This is NOT an attempt at a super detailed science fiction game, but more of a general rule set for the genre. It will require some simplification and assumption of genre tropes. I tried to keep the spirit of the BareBones Fantasy rules and REALLY tried to keep it simple. I don’t know if I’m going in the right direction, so that’s why I’m writing this post. I would love to get some feedback on the rules so far, criticism, see what you think work or doesn’t work.

Mind you this is a work in progress. Not all areas are complete, and I intend to revisit, but I encourage you to pick it apart and leave your feedback in the comments. Page references are to the BareBones Fantasy rule-book  and notes in italics are design decisions I am unsure about. Thanks to Michael, aka Stargazer, for his input as I was conceptualizing this! OK let’s get to what you are here for…

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By • Ask The Readers, Game Design, Other Systems, RPG • 4

Nov 28 2012

NaGa DeMon: Another update

The progress on Galaxy Rising has been slowed down a bit in the last few days. The fact that I suffer from bad lower back pain for since Monday didn’t really help with my creative projects. Today I managed to finish the equipment section at least.

So what’s the status of the project so far? The core rules are pretty much done and the game should be playable at this point. There are no special rules for spaceships yet and neither vehicle nor spaceship stats. The rules for character advancement aren’t written either, but that’s not a big deal.

The big question remains: did I “win” NaGa DeMon? Yes and no. Even though I didn’t win when the official NaGa DeMon requirements are concerned, I still see it as a big success. Galaxy Rising is slowly taking shape and the core rules are more or less playable already. I am committed on getting it done if not by the end of the year then at least in early 2013. If you want to have a closer look at how the game is looking so far, check it out below!

I am looking forward to your comments!

By • Game Design, NaGa DeMon, RPG • 2

Nov 26 2012

NaGa DeMon: The final days

The National Game Design Month ends in a couple of days and I fear I will not be able to fulfill one of the requirements set by Nathan Russell when he conceived the contest. But I am actually not worried about this at all. I might even turn this defeat into long-term success and take my time to finish writing the first draft of the game.

Over the last few weeks Galaxy Rising has become much larger than I anticipated. Participating in this year’s NaGa DeMon helped me to get excited about a project again. I am actually very happy with the progress so far. The core rules are basically done. Of course I still need to add stuff like special rules for spaceships and character advancement and come up with stats for the alien species in the setting, but aside from that the mechanics dubbed Galaxy Core should be fully playable.

The setting still needs a lot more fleshing out, though. I have a lot of cool ideas but I haven’t written them down yet. This will probably take a couple more days at least, if not weeks. I could hurry to get things done, but at this moment I actually prefer to make a proper effort and not rush things. So, in a way you may consider Galaxy Rising a failure at least when the rules of NaGa DeMon are concerned. But I consider it a success. I almost got the game done in one month and I still have a lot of energy to keep on working until it’s finally done.

What are your thoughts on the subject? As always any comments are highly appreciated.

By • Game Design, NaGa DeMon, Random musings, RPG • 2

Nov 22 2012

NaGa DeMon: Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

galaxycore_logo In the last post I revealed a few details about the rules system (which I dubbed Galaxy Core). One aspect I was not really happy with were Hooks. Yesterday I remembered that I actually had designed a similar mechanic for another game that never saw the light of day that I could easily adapt for Galaxy Core. Instead of up to three Hooks, each player now gets to pick three Traits: Concept, Motivation and Flaw.

The Concept is a short description of who your character is. This could be something like “Curious Explorer” or “Battle-hardened Veteran”. Motivation is a description of what drives the character on. It could be the quest for glory or riches, the belief in a greater good, personal revenge, whatever suits you best. Last but not least the Flaw is your character’s Achilles Heel. He or she may be vengeful, naive, impulsive, etc.

These traits are guidelines to better roleplay your character, but there are also some mechanical aspects. Each character now gets a new derived value as well: Resolve. Resolve is a measure of a character’s firmness of purpose or intent, his or her determination. Resolve can be spent in order to improve circumstances in the character’s favor and are regained when a character acts according to his Traits or achieves certain goals. You can spend Resolve to get a bonus to a Skill check if either your Concept or Motivation should give you an edge in the given situation.

A character’s Flaw can used by the GM to coerce the player to let the character act according to the Flaw, which gains the character a free point of Resolve. There will probably a couple of more uses for Resolve that I’ll introduce later.

What do you think of Traits? Do you prefer the more clearly defined traits over the rather loose hooks? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

By • Game Design, NaGa DeMon, RPG • 1

Nov 21 2012

NaGa Demon: A look at the layout

Yesterday I spent several hours to work on the layout of my NaGa DeMon project Galaxy Rising. It’s already November 21 and when I want to get the game to a playable state, I have to focus on getting the rules done and into PDF form right now. One important part of game design for me is to make the game good-looking. Sure, you can run a game that only exists as a couple of notes on a scrap of paper, but that’s not enough for me. Below I have posted a couple of images that should give you a good impression of what Galaxy Rising might look when done.

So, what do you think about the layout so far? As always, your comments are highly appreciated! You can check out the layout draft in PDF format here.

By • Game Design, NaGa DeMon, RPG • 2

Nov 19 2012

NaGa DeMon: A question of character

icon-play Due to some unforeseen family crisis progress on my NaGa DeMon project is much slower than I anticipated. Luckily it hasn’t come to a total standstill yet. Today I actually managed to finish the character creation section and what better way is there to present a new system than by going through its character creation process.

The character we want to create today could be a typical League Soldier who we will call Commander Shep… eh … Farmer. She’s part of the LDF’s marine corps and has already seen some action. Since we want to focus on the mechanical side of things we don’t need a fully-fledged out concept yet.

Galaxy Core (that’s what I called the system powering Galaxy Rising) is a rules-light d%-based system. Each character is described by three attributes (Physical, Mental, Social – each ranked from 1 to 20) and eight pretty broad skills that get some more granularity by player-defined specializations that grant bonuses from +10% to +30%. There are also three values directly derived from the attributes: body points, Initiative, and Damage Bonus. Last but not least each character has up to three “hooks” (think of FATE Aspects) that help to flesh out the character.

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By • Game Design, NaGa DeMon, RPG • 7

Nov 8 2012

NaGa DeMon: The Slipstream Drive

A couple of days ago I wrote down a few notes on how FTL travel and communication is supposed to work in my Galaxy Rising game. I haven’t decided yet, how fast you can travel using a Slipstream drive nor have I set a limit for FTL communication. I’ll set those limits when the setting has progressed a bit further. In the short fiction piece I released a science vessel made a trip to the Orion nebula, which is about 1,344 light years away. This might be around the upper range limit of what League drive technology is capable of.

The Slipstream Drive
Image: Les Bossinas, created for NASAThe slipstream drive invented in the late 24th century finally allowed fast interplanetary and interstellar travel. The drive creates a slipspace tunnel through which the vessel can travel at faster than light speeds without breaking special relativity. Another use of the slipstream drive technology are the so called slipgates which create semi-permanent slipspace tunnels through which ships without their own FTL drive can travel. The League has established an extensive slipgate network in their area of influence. While in slipspace a vessel does not interact with matter in normal space.

Slipspace Communication
The physical properties of slipspace also allows electromagnetic waves to propagate much faster than in normal space, allowing almost instantaneous communication over vast distances. State-of-the-art slipstream drives can also generate several slipspace tunnels with tiny diameters in order to allow laser or radio communication over several light years. Alas it’s impossible to open communication tunnels while the ship travels in slipspace, so starships have to make regular stops in order to communicate. The League has constructed a network of relay satellites which which is known as LeagueNet.

Would such a drive system be possible from what we know today? I highly doubt it. But it works in the realm of fiction and has a couple of limitations that can be used by to help the plot of your game. FTL travel is not unlimited in range and it still takes a while to travel from A to B. Communication is faster but probably more limited in range. Which means starships are pretty much on their own when far enough away from League space. And this alone always helps to create great adventure opportunities. “You’re on your own. What do you do?”

By • Fluff/Inspiration, Game Design, NaGa DeMon, RPG • 4

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