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| To Boldly... wait. No. Move along. |
Its been a while, no?
Time to start the blog again. This time with a very different goal. Rather than touch on the various gaming shiny objects that catch my attention (of which there are a lot), I'd like Vir Triumphalis to serve as a sounding board for me to share a hard-sih Sci-Fi setting I am working on.
So, what is the setting? Right now, its mecha (called "Jammers") + year 2131 + hard politics + hegemons + no FTL + revolutionary mindset + Action SCIENCE! Things are still very fluid and unfolding as I keep adding to the setting - but those are the core aspects that appears to be resistant to the various changes I keep throwing in.
The pitch: Hard-ish SF coupled with Hard-ish politics. A nuanced look at modern power politics as seen through the lens of space forces clashing on the Solar stage (100+ years in the future). One part top gun with mecha, one part Hans Morgenthau, one part war-time journalism.
The game, which I have yet to name*, is my ode to Jovian Chronicles and Transhuman Space. I look at those settings and see what aspects I want - an ability to embrace real-world science, technology, and politics and extrapolate them into the future - and know that you don't have to throw in psionics, magic or aliens to get gripping stories.
I plan to use the One Roll Engine for the game. If it was good enough for Monsters and Other Childish Thingsm its sure good enough for my little homebrew.
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* okay, thats not true. I have named it. I have named it about eight times - and cant come up with something that I like. Right now, its working under two titles: "The Vir Triumphalis Initiative" and "Sol Invictus." I want a title that conveys the core aspects of the game while also telling the reader the game is about doing stuff... about being right there, in the shit, changing the world (Solar System). I havent quite found that perfect name, yet.
I'll be following closely, Chris. A few of my favourite things, running on an engine I like, name-checking a game I love. Works for me!
ReplyDeleteGlad to have you aboard, Nick. I was hoping you would pop in.
ReplyDeleteCurious how this will evolve.
ReplyDeleteIn relation to the hard sci-fi approach, what makes the piracy worthwhile? There's a lot of space out near the outer planets, not so many resources, and just getting around sans FTL would take a lot of time and energy unless there have been some breakthroughs. What are the pirates preying on out there? Are they just hiding out? If not so limited by orbital mechanics, why stay in the plane of the ecliptic at all?
- Jack
@Jack:
ReplyDeleteThats something I have thought about a good bit. Right now, i havent addressed piracy or even put it firmly into my game. That said, now that I think about it - it would be a good fit with Somali analogs running around. Somali pirates are (were) successful for a number of reasons, primary among them was the fact that a huge number of ships go through the Gulf of Aden. That made finding ships a lot easier, than, say, floating in the south pacific and hoping to get lucky. So, for the setting, I would need to find a couple choke-points that would be attractive - and set the pirates loose there. This would assuredly be near a gravity well - maybe Venus since 1) I want Venus to be a place in chaos and 2) it apparently is a good location for slingshotting.
Given transfer velocity, piracy might only be possible against stations/planetary orbits.
ReplyDeleteThe old GDW 'Brillant Lances' game, and 'Fire, Fusion, & Steel' design book, and associated Traveller products might be of interest to your project.