Jump to content

The Official OTC TBRPG Planning and Organization Topic


Noxryn

Recommended Posts

A few big ones I put in the front post, then later in some other post I'll have a big encyclopedia of facts which will have other systems as people explore and exploit them.A general rule of the Outer Worlds though; habitable worlds are far and few between (most habitable worlds were seized up centuries ago to be colonized and became the Inner Worlds), with a large amount of rocky worlds for mining, small settlements in particularly notable areas, and an obscene amount of space farms. Might be my love of space farms talking there. Toss in the occasional large population center on the odd good planet/moon, some spacial anomalies, and you have the Outer Worlds in a nutshell.Then there's the rest of the universe, which is far from out of the question but generally a lesser role. The galactic core, for instance, isn't classified as inner or outer (which refers to sociopolitical-economic status btw, not position), because generally speaking people dislike hanging out there. If you're on the run and have your space ship shielded well enough though, you're welcome to navigate through that dangerous area of space.

voidstars.png


1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89


"In short, my English Lit friend, living in a mental world of absolute rights and wrongs, may be imagining that because all theories are wrong, the earth may be thought spherical now, but cubical next century, and a hollow icosahedron the next, and a doughnut shape the one after." -Isaac Asimov, responding to a letter he had received saying that scientific certainty was false, The Relativity of Wrong

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have this whole no aliens thing because I feel they steal the show too much, but you kinda need plants and animals to have a (human) habitable planet.So right now I'm on the fence, but I'll likely come down on the side of "no sapient aliens, but alien dogs are fine."

Edited by Void Prophet Alex Humva

voidstars.png


1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89


"In short, my English Lit friend, living in a mental world of absolute rights and wrongs, may be imagining that because all theories are wrong, the earth may be thought spherical now, but cubical next century, and a hollow icosahedron the next, and a doughnut shape the one after." -Isaac Asimov, responding to a letter he had received saying that scientific certainty was false, The Relativity of Wrong

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Or you could blah blah blah terraforming blah blah blah introducing animals and plants to a planet is easier than waiting for them to evolve (or only colonising planets with life already) blah blah blah horses on non-Earth planets.Alternatively, alien smurf furries.

We will remember - Skies may fade and stars may wane; we won't forget


And your light shines bright - yes so much brighter shine on


We will remember - Until the skies will fall we won't forget


We will remember


We all shall follow doom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey! The first Riddick movie has awesome native aliens! :PNon-sentient ones mind you.

Edited by Basilisk

I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people. You are wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can we take the Firefly route and just generally handwave it?Anyone have a problem with that?

voidstars.png


1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89


"In short, my English Lit friend, living in a mental world of absolute rights and wrongs, may be imagining that because all theories are wrong, the earth may be thought spherical now, but cubical next century, and a hollow icosahedron the next, and a doughnut shape the one after." -Isaac Asimov, responding to a letter he had received saying that scientific certainty was false, The Relativity of Wrong

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Firefly route involved introducing animals and plants from Earth to the newly-colonised planets.

We will remember - Skies may fade and stars may wane; we won't forget


And your light shines bright - yes so much brighter shine on


We will remember - Until the skies will fall we won't forget


We will remember


We all shall follow doom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Which could work.But planets that could support Earth life would already have life.So...uh...terraforming. But that takes a looooong time.

I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people. You are wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well yeah, but you know how rare planets that can already support complex life are.Terraforming is definitely the answer. Ammonifying bacteria will be fairly important, so the soil can support plants, and then you put plants in, and then... I say we avoid describing the actual terraforming process here, as it's pretty much irrelevant to gameplay. It would also be simpler - and would keep someone from trying to sneak aliens in - if the 'no aliens' thing were just left at more-or-less those two words.(Also, it's quite possible for the planets to have been colonised rather a while before the point at which the story takes place.)

Edited by Ymper Trymon

We will remember - Skies may fade and stars may wane; we won't forget


And your light shines bright - yes so much brighter shine on


We will remember - Until the skies will fall we won't forget


We will remember


We all shall follow doom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seeing as this takes place at an ambiguous point in the future, but at least centuries have passed from the modern day, yeah, terraforming for the Inner Worlds could of definitely happened. In the Outer Worlds... well, it'll be a good deal more rare, but you'll still find the occasional green and blue planet.A couple blue planets actually; water transportation is pretty important out here in space. Space farms suck it up at obscene rates. There's entire space elevators devoted to just pumping water.

Edited by Void Prophet Alex Humva

voidstars.png


1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89


"In short, my English Lit friend, living in a mental world of absolute rights and wrongs, may be imagining that because all theories are wrong, the earth may be thought spherical now, but cubical next century, and a hollow icosahedron the next, and a doughnut shape the one after." -Isaac Asimov, responding to a letter he had received saying that scientific certainty was false, The Relativity of Wrong

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sounds good.Running a rag tag insurgency/revolutionary movement is going to be fun.I assume that there will still be AK-47 knockoffs floating around? :P

Edited by Basilisk

I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people. You are wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kalashknockoffs are forever.What interests me is the exact governmental situation of the inner planets. Are they governmentally stable, or is it a bunch of overgrown children with armies lording it over everybody else?

We will remember - Skies may fade and stars may wane; we won't forget


And your light shines bright - yes so much brighter shine on


We will remember - Until the skies will fall we won't forget


We will remember


We all shall follow doom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Excellent.They'll help me cut costs at least. Cheap and insanely hard to destroy. :P

Edited by Basilisk

I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people. You are wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You'll find your cheap assault rifles, I assure you. Kinetic or energy. Or both, if that's your style. Durability, eh, make them out of foxtrot ore and call it a day.My revised plot has a big war going on, but I'm still heavily adjusting it. What I'm aiming for is a stable-ish place, but with enough conflict that the Inner Worlds aren't an unstoppable juggernaut by the same principle that an Antarctic outpost can't defeat Great Britian, but at the same time isn't something you can pop up to and say bam dead.I'll get back to you on details once I've actually figured them out.

voidstars.png


1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89


"In short, my English Lit friend, living in a mental world of absolute rights and wrongs, may be imagining that because all theories are wrong, the earth may be thought spherical now, but cubical next century, and a hollow icosahedron the next, and a doughnut shape the one after." -Isaac Asimov, responding to a letter he had received saying that scientific certainty was false, The Relativity of Wrong

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hm. So after the Star Wars RPG finishes up (that could take years...) I might try my hand at hosting a Fallout RTS-RPG.

I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people. You are wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The process is a lot harder than you'd imagine, because generally speaking the staff have other more important matters to attend to, and are not capable of giving this site all their free time. It is starting to create a backlog though, so I'd hope that some sort of arrangement can be made.

voidstars.png


1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89


"In short, my English Lit friend, living in a mental world of absolute rights and wrongs, may be imagining that because all theories are wrong, the earth may be thought spherical now, but cubical next century, and a hollow icosahedron the next, and a doughnut shape the one after." -Isaac Asimov, responding to a letter he had received saying that scientific certainty was false, The Relativity of Wrong

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's been discussed before, and the staff don't really want to acknowledge the fact that they're causing the backlog. I know they have other things going on, but they can't take the five minutes it takes to read through a proposed RPG and give commentary?Bluh. Vakhi, I don't think Fallout would translate well at all to an RTSRPG.

That being said, thag thag thaggity thag thagness.

-Rover

 

"A memo was sent to Astaria asking if it would at all be possible to make a flying goat."

"The Astarians responded that making a goat fly would be trivial; making it land safely would be another matter entirely."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now, Xom, I think you're passing judgment a bit prematurely without actually knowing the full situation. Be patient, we have it from reliable sources that a solution is being worked out.

We will remember - Skies may fade and stars may wane; we won't forget


And your light shines bright - yes so much brighter shine on


We will remember - Until the skies will fall we won't forget


We will remember


We all shall follow doom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's been discussed before, and the staff don't really want to acknowledge the fact that they're causing the backlog. I know they have other things going on, but they can't take the five minutes it takes to read through a proposed RPG and give commentary?Bluh.Vakhi, I don't think Fallout would translate well at all to an RTSRPG.
If you would care to check out Than's profile you might notice he's not been online since 25th September. Perhaps he has computer issues. Perhaps there has been some event in his life that has kept him occupied. Perhaps he's just busy. Whatever reason, the simple fact is that no, actually, he hasn't had the time to read through the RPG and give it a final approval.So how about you use those five minutes you are lucky enough to have going spare and actually do something productive with them next time. Like check up on your facts instead of leaping right to trying to stick it to The Man. Because, funnily enough, the staff aren't trying to personally screw you over.To your "Bluh" good sir, I say "Harrumph"

7AOYGDJ.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back on the topic of RPGs, Alex, what would you say to me playing an Antimatter production firm in this game? Antimatter makes the best batteries ever if you can afford the containment, better than hydrogen fusion, but because of the manufacturing dangers you have to do it in the outer worlds.

That being said, thag thag thaggity thag thagness.

-Rover

 

"A memo was sent to Astaria asking if it would at all be possible to make a flying goat."

"The Astarians responded that making a goat fly would be trivial; making it land safely would be another matter entirely."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Antimatter in this universe has been rather generally declared impractical compared to other energy sources. Cheap massive solar arrays, futuristic batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, and the occasional fusion reactor is simply so much better than a wildly dangerous energy source. Your corp would be out of business fast because anything that needs a power source like antimatter has another safer equivalent. And seeing as most spaceships in this universe are small, usually not much bigger than, say, a souped up futuristic space shuttle (price costs), powering a spaceship off of antimatter is just wildly impractical. A plasma drive and some fuel cells or maybe a fusion reactor will get the job done with a lot more safety.By no means take this as me saying "mad science is baaaaaanned", it's just that your mad science has to make sense within the confines of this universe. Which admittedly I've said very little on, and is one of the reasons why I didn't want to talk about this in the first place; until I get more information you guys are just shooting in the dark, and it's painful for both parties for me to constantly down your ideas.

voidstars.png


1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89


"In short, my English Lit friend, living in a mental world of absolute rights and wrongs, may be imagining that because all theories are wrong, the earth may be thought spherical now, but cubical next century, and a hollow icosahedron the next, and a doughnut shape the one after." -Isaac Asimov, responding to a letter he had received saying that scientific certainty was false, The Relativity of Wrong

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Honestly, Xom, I think you're going at this the wrong way. This is not 'start out highly successful and go from there.' This is 'start out as the stuff people wash off of their hands after scraping out the bottom of the barrel and go from there.' Maybe you eventually get to the level of power implied by a company that produces enough antimatter to actually sell it, but you're not starting as the Blue Sun Corporation or Adelai Niska. You're starting out as Malcolm Reynolds or that guy who was hanging upside-down in Niska's office five minutes before he ticked Niska off.(Or if you want it put in terms of something that isn't Firefly, you aren't any of the large number of highly successful corporations. You're Greedo.)

We will remember - Skies may fade and stars may wane; we won't forget


And your light shines bright - yes so much brighter shine on


We will remember - Until the skies will fall we won't forget


We will remember


We all shall follow doom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rover put it pretty well.It may just be my bias against antimatter speaking, but even in this far out future antimatter production is prohibitably expensive, and while full 1:1 energy conversion of atoms is great and all, fusion has been being used for decades if not centuries now, it's far more reliable. ****, some ships just roll with fuel cells because plasma drives are actually surprisingly efficient IRL, they may get us to Mars eventually. Take some gas, preferably a noble gas but hydrogen works too, shoot a big laser at it, turn it into plasma, and then just keep pumping more and more energy into it. Creates a pretty effective means of getting yourself from point A to point B.My point being, the antimatter is just too impractical in both price and safety for its energy benefits, and you'd expect the heavily industrialized Inner Worlds to be more capable than the more wild west Outer Worlds. You're welcome to mad science, just make sure the mad science is practical. As Rover has put it numerous times, you can give a man magic, but if it's just too impractical he's going to use a .45 and just get the job done.

voidstars.png


1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89


"In short, my English Lit friend, living in a mental world of absolute rights and wrongs, may be imagining that because all theories are wrong, the earth may be thought spherical now, but cubical next century, and a hollow icosahedron the next, and a doughnut shape the one after." -Isaac Asimov, responding to a letter he had received saying that scientific certainty was false, The Relativity of Wrong

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So, while I wait for the final approval on my SWRPG...would any like it if I posted, while we waited, a profile on a different NPC everyday? To give you all a general idea of the galaxy.

Edited by Basilisk

I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people. You are wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My answer to this question should be painfully obvious. Yes, you should absolutely give players a bit of a peek at what to expect from NPCs so they can tailor their characters to fit.

We will remember - Skies may fade and stars may wane; we won't forget


And your light shines bright - yes so much brighter shine on


We will remember - Until the skies will fall we won't forget


We will remember


We all shall follow doom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Righto. I'll be taking the simple and shallow (and often pointlessly evil) NPC's and giving them depth...and you know, actual motives.Let's start with three paragraphs on Lott Dod. This won't follow the PC profile format, this is just to give you a general idea.Lott Dod is the Trade Federations chosen representative in the senate. He speaks on behalf of the Federation and lobbies for it's interests. He's been at his post for some years now and has grown somewhat acclimated to it. He's managed to push through a few bills favoring the Federation in recent times and has enjoyed a few bonuses that have allowed him to add onto his palace on Cato Neimodia. One would think he is a very happy being because of this. He has wealth, political savvy and a security detail of droids that would make some police departments blush.The reality is very different. The corruption in the senate means he has had to fight tooth and nail against a byzantine maze of illicit dealings and back-door deals to get anything done. Since the Trade Federation is one of the media's favorite targets, the options he has to deal with his obstacles are limited, unless he wants to be fired by the Federation and crucified by the media. The few bills he has managed to get through have been the result of years of late night work and discussions. Sometimes he doesn't even manage to get an hour of sleep in. He's developed ways of coping, his apartment in the Republica has a large stock of alcoholic beverages in it and that has allowed him to take some of the edge off his job.He hates most of his fellow senators with a passion and is quick to throw his support behind anyone who looks to be able to deal with the corruption. He just wants to do his job and the corruption makes it that much harder. He is loyal to the Trade Federation for one simple reason: It gets things done. It doesn't debate for months about sending an anti-piracy patrol to a system. It just does it. It doesn't drag it's feet when criminals seize a vault or attack a factory, it sends in the droids as quickly as it can. It's made the Outer Rim safer to do business in..in the systems it controls anyway. The senate, by contrast, seems hopelessly inefficient. The Trade Federation kills pirates. The senate talks about upping patrols. He doesn't mind the paycheck either of course.

Edited by Basilisk

I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people. You are wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just an FYI and clarification of interest here in the topic; in my upcoming space business war thingymajig of an RPG, we're all clear that proportionally speaking there'll be a lot more planetside or space-station action that spaceships fighting spaceships right? I mean, a cargo hauler outfitted with weapons is all well and good, but a cargo hauler still represents a significant percentage of your budget. Having it getting blown up because you wanted cool fireworks is not strategically sound. Now, boarding someone's ship is a pretty viable strategy, as you might even be able to capture it intact and make off with a few million dollars worth of space-worthy metal.

voidstars.png


1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89


"In short, my English Lit friend, living in a mental world of absolute rights and wrongs, may be imagining that because all theories are wrong, the earth may be thought spherical now, but cubical next century, and a hollow icosahedron the next, and a doughnut shape the one after." -Isaac Asimov, responding to a letter he had received saying that scientific certainty was false, The Relativity of Wrong

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now, one interesting thing I can spot right off the bat is, if your lead character is particularly thrifty and also morally bankrupt, and you're confident in your ability to board a ship and take care of the crew before they can get a distress signal off, you could eat them and nobody would ever know....oh wow. I think I'm ready to play the villain in an RPG or two.But uh, in answer to your question, yeah. That's probably where most of the fun will be, anyway, and after that idea I just tossed out I'm probably going to stick to places where people can hear my characters screaming 'oh god it turns out these guys are cannibals.'

We will remember - Skies may fade and stars may wane; we won't forget


And your light shines bright - yes so much brighter shine on


We will remember - Until the skies will fall we won't forget


We will remember


We all shall follow doom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also, upon further review, I think player's starting positions will be tailored specifically to their group. What will apply to an up-and-coming farm corporation will not apply to a communist insurgency after all.I might even take that a step further and tailor special mechanics for individual groups but I think that might be a bit tasking on my time. Do expect a lot of specific stuff being worked out for people's groups though.

voidstars.png


1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89


"In short, my English Lit friend, living in a mental world of absolute rights and wrongs, may be imagining that because all theories are wrong, the earth may be thought spherical now, but cubical next century, and a hollow icosahedron the next, and a doughnut shape the one after." -Isaac Asimov, responding to a letter he had received saying that scientific certainty was false, The Relativity of Wrong

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, don't stress out too much about thinking out every possible scenario in advance - it's easier for everybody if you just toss in a couple of lines saying what will be done on a case-by-case basis, and then figure things out accordingly based on a set of pre-determined adjustable factors.

We will remember - Skies may fade and stars may wane; we won't forget


And your light shines bright - yes so much brighter shine on


We will remember - Until the skies will fall we won't forget


We will remember


We all shall follow doom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, that's the idea. Get a core set of mechanics and figure the rest out along the way. It's the only real option I see to make it work for everyone fairly.So, a question remains. What do we call this thing?

voidstars.png


1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89


"In short, my English Lit friend, living in a mental world of absolute rights and wrongs, may be imagining that because all theories are wrong, the earth may be thought spherical now, but cubical next century, and a hollow icosahedron the next, and a doughnut shape the one after." -Isaac Asimov, responding to a letter he had received saying that scientific certainty was false, The Relativity of Wrong

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now, one interesting thing I can spot right off the bat is, if your lead character is particularly thrifty and also morally bankrupt, and you're confident in your ability to board a ship and take care of the crew before they can get a distress signal off, you could eat them and nobody would ever know....oh wow. I think I'm ready to play the villain in an RPG or two.
In space, no-one can hear you om nom nomHmm, I'm trying to think up some witty play on words putting a space theme on the term 'Market Forces' but I got nothing

7AOYGDJ.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is the Galactic Standard Year 0217. The Third Colonial Dispute has ended, the legitimacy of three new colonial governments now recognized. The Inner Worlds have signed various forms of new truces with each other, an uneasy peace settling upon them as they lick their wounds. Megacorps continue to engage in sly business dealings, and the universe goes on.After this war though, things have begun to change. The Outer Worlds, long held as merely being backwater worlds that were no more than vagabonds and farmers, have begun to gain more political influence. Many who fled the Inner Worlds to escape the fighting have found themselves a new home out in the furthest and most inhospitable reaches of humanity. Many seek to tame the land and, eventually, bring the Outer Worlds to a status equal to that of the Inner Worlds. Yet for this idealistic future, the Outer Worlds are still dominated by one aspect; corruption. Crime lords run wild, bribing the local authorities or outright subverting them. Pirates on the primary supply lines continue to be a problem, and you can find insurgents along every corner.Despite that, the Outer Worlds still hold promise to be the greatest economic boom this century. Many have left for the Outer Worlds, hoping to strike it rich with the resources left untapped for years. While the political eye turns to the recovering Inner Worlds, those in the Outer Worlds plot and scheme towards their own ends and ambitions. Insurgent, pirate, businessman, criminal, farmer... there is no shortage of choices for an entrepreneur.
Hooray for terribly written quick plot summaries. I promise to get something slightly more coherent, but for now this serves as a bit of a goalpost for people. I'd like to know what people interested would like to play though. Before I get really down to crafting the mechanics I'd like to get a general scope of what people want to do here. If anyone has more questions about the setting by all means do ask, that's what I'm here for. That convoluted mess of a intro didn't really do much for the tech level after all.

voidstars.png


1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89


"In short, my English Lit friend, living in a mental world of absolute rights and wrongs, may be imagining that because all theories are wrong, the earth may be thought spherical now, but cubical next century, and a hollow icosahedron the next, and a doughnut shape the one after." -Isaac Asimov, responding to a letter he had received saying that scientific certainty was false, The Relativity of Wrong

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...