Space ships!
Spaceship RPG, but with a twist. Instead of a spaceship, you're running a lighthouse in space. It's also a refuel / reupply depot, so there's plenty of reason for people to stop for a chat.
Something smaller than DS9, but bigger than a lighthouse.
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I had very similar setting thought recently. Though with mine the lighthouse is rarely visited so the game was more about dealing with boredom and the people you're stuck with.
ReplyDeleteIs your lighthouse free floating or built on something?
Similar ideas! I want to embrace that boredom! For the mainstay of the folks onboard to be the player characters, plus other crew. Maybe that's a dozen? Not sure.
ReplyDeleteEither way, yes, it's got to be about dealing with the boredom. Because that's awesome.
Not sure regarding free floating or built on a rock. Either could make sense.
Built on a rock shaped like a fang.
ReplyDeleteSo it's called "Fang Rock". Which means that any players familiar with classic Who will suspect a shapeshifting alien will show up at some point to kill everyone. Could build a healthy sense of paranoia, especially if the GM starts sending private notes to players.
ReplyDeleteSpoilers - nope, no killer alien shapeshifter. Just stir crazy space paranoia.
So - lighthouses are built to warn passing ships of a dangerous location. A great big light to tell of rocks. It it was free floating in space, then it should/could/would be near something you wouldn't want to fly through but otherwise can't easily see. A dark nebula?
ReplyDeleteMy initial thought was that the lighthouse was on a rogue planet and acted as a beacon so that ships traveling faster than light wouldn't hit it.
With no nearby star, darkness is going to be a primary characteristic.
Approximate number of crew?
ReplyDeleteJaye Foster Abs, there's gotta be some reason for the light. That could be a singularity that spaceships needs to divert around, big ass rocks, whatever. It could even be a player decision, which then alters the game depending on what the players are interested in.
ReplyDeleteDylan Ross What sounds good?
ReplyDelete15 to 20, but capable of functioning with a barebones crew of 3 or four.
ReplyDeleteWhat's cool and great about that?
ReplyDeleteBig enough for some NPC "regulars" to develop but no so big that they'll get lost in the mix. The barebones crew levels allow for some flexibility, like emergency, off-station missions or galaxy wide budget cuts.
ReplyDeleteAdore the idea of galaxy wide budget cuts.
ReplyDeleteMy brain wants to use Legacy somehow for this, but I think it is wrong. Any ideas?
ReplyDeleteAaron Griffin?
Your comment on embracing boredom reminded me of the standing around in Skeletons (never played it tho).
ReplyDeleteIt's on a really big asteroid that has been hollowed out to use as a giant fuel tank, and it's artificially kept static just outside the leading edge of an asteroid belt that is passable if you have the right maps/tech or is a highly disputed source of unobtanium and you primarily fuel military vehicles and some pirates/freedom fighters on the sly.
ReplyDeleteMickey Schulz I was completely with you until you said "military vehicles". Maybe those en convoy, but I'd rather focus this on commercial ships.
ReplyDeleteSomething like the kessel run (which Han did in under 12 parsecs), where there's a public way that takes, say, 20 parsecs. There's a way going through the pass using signals from the light house that takes 15 (but we can see you, so no smuggling), and folks like Han go looking for undocumented and dangerous routes than can take under 12 or kill you.
One interesting aspect of the setting for Coriolis which I gleaned from the one time I played at GenCon this year (I have not read the rulebook) is that the gates that connect star systems for FTL travel are extremely expensive to run, but can transport multiple ships at once. Therefore, there are always ships waiting around the gates until a critical mass of ships arrives that can collectively afford the gate toll. Then they all pass through at once.
ReplyDeleteNot really a "lighthouse", but still, I thought it was a neat idea. You can picture all kinds of service industries forming at the gates, old friends and feuds between ships that pass the same way as each other routinely, etc. People sending shuttles back and forth or docking with each other for parties and/or making last minute business deals and/or sporting events.
William Nichols I like that
ReplyDeleteI was only offering up the military aspect as an option. Or you can focus on the fact that you're living on a giant bomb in space....
That said I can almost see this as a Polaris hack. Each person plays one of the station crew, something is wrong, it's going to blow. I need to think about how to structure that.
Nice, Mickey Schulz.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking to start off with a family. Make up some pregen PCs, who are all members of the family. Maybe five pregens, see what happens.
Keep gender unspecified, of course, but give them all names. At least mostly non-western and non-gendered names, so I can start with interesting relationships.
....
For me, this is either monsterhearts, focusing on family dynamics and how to deal with this -- some of the characters starting with the growing up moves, changing the sex moves to intimacy ala urban shadows, and build in those starting relationships much harder.
....
.. or this is Dream Askew, there's no MC, and everyone chooses both a front and a player character.
I'm not sure to what extent I find it morally appropriate for me to hack Dream Askew, but I have less reservations on MH.