That was a long iteration. The observant among you might have noticed that I listed skills, advantages and perks at the end of many posts. I did this to record what pertinent element might come up, so I would remember later. Each individual technological element might impact character design, and so when I'm finished, I compile all the notes I have into one single master document, and I use those to revise the templates to take what I've learned into account. This isn't quite the same thing as a master advantage/disadvantage/skill list so much as compiled notes to help me remember what I've done.
I've included this new list below. It includes notes on advantages, skills, a pile of new perks, and a mess or new or revised skillsets.
Showing posts with label Skillsets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Skillsets. Show all posts
Monday, April 25, 2016
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Psi Wars: Robots
The computers from Star Wars (and thus Psi-Wars) herald from an older era of sci-fi: these gargantuan things lack interconnection or artificial intelligence. We have already discussed computers enough in the post regarding general technology. However, we have one exception to the "dumb computers" rule, and that is robots!
Star Wars brims with droids, in every movie, in nearly every scene. They form the backbone of society, literally working thanklessly behind the scenes to maintain the machinery of civilization. For Star Wars, however, robots lack the transformative themes that they often embody in transhuman science fiction and, let's be honest, throughout much of GURPS Ultra-Tech. While droids fundamentally change how the Empire and the Republic engage in both war and industry, they don't change what it means to be human, nor do they raise the question of what it means to be sapient.
Star Wars is space opera, and the term "space opera" comes from an era of exploitative fiction for young men. Publishing houses would release pulp serials that catered to the particular interests: Westerns for the kids who liked to read about cowboys, swashbuckling stories for kids who liked to read about pirates, and sci-fi for the kids who liked reading about rocketships. To save on cost, these publishing houses would kick out the same stories and/or comics, only with different window dressing. In the western, the cowboy rescues the school marm from injuns, in the swashbuckling story, the musketeer rescues the princess from pirates, and in the sci-fi story, the space captain rescues the space princess from aliens. The term "space opera" referred to this change of window dressing: they weren't really fiction about science, but adventure stories that happened to be cosmetically set in space.
Thus, the characters of a space opera tend to be stock characters, and Star Wars, which emulates that old space opera, uses the same sorts of stock characters. And since those early adventure stories stole liberally from the adventure stories of the 19th century, the stock characters tend to reflect late 19th, early 20th century sensibilities: The heroic European nobleman strides out to conquer a dark continent, along with his stalwart servant and his mysterious, foreign guide. In space opera, the stalwart servant becomes a robot, and the mysterious, foreign guide becomes an alien.
This explains why Star Wars treats its aliens and its droids the way it does (Note, for example, that only aliens have foreign languages). The droids, in particular, create this strange dissonance. On the one hand, they're "only droids," and so the story does not expect us to mourn the tragedy of the on-screen slaying of a dozen battle droids, or even the sad whimpering of some gonk droid. But, on the other hand, Star Wars treats R2-D2 and C3P0 as full characters, and generates suspense by throwing them into trouble. We are told that the light side values life, but droids evidently don't count (given the numerous times the Jedi Order criticizes Anakin for his fixation on his droids). We recoil horror when Leia is enslaved by Jabba, but we don't blink twice at the fact that C3P0 is similarly enslaved, and that he is never actually freed.
Are droids expendable minions, or are they fully realized characters, or are they both? What about the transformative or introspective elements that more sophisticated robot stories evoke? Do we want to borrow from them?
Star Wars brims with droids, in every movie, in nearly every scene. They form the backbone of society, literally working thanklessly behind the scenes to maintain the machinery of civilization. For Star Wars, however, robots lack the transformative themes that they often embody in transhuman science fiction and, let's be honest, throughout much of GURPS Ultra-Tech. While droids fundamentally change how the Empire and the Republic engage in both war and industry, they don't change what it means to be human, nor do they raise the question of what it means to be sapient.
Star Wars is space opera, and the term "space opera" comes from an era of exploitative fiction for young men. Publishing houses would release pulp serials that catered to the particular interests: Westerns for the kids who liked to read about cowboys, swashbuckling stories for kids who liked to read about pirates, and sci-fi for the kids who liked reading about rocketships. To save on cost, these publishing houses would kick out the same stories and/or comics, only with different window dressing. In the western, the cowboy rescues the school marm from injuns, in the swashbuckling story, the musketeer rescues the princess from pirates, and in the sci-fi story, the space captain rescues the space princess from aliens. The term "space opera" referred to this change of window dressing: they weren't really fiction about science, but adventure stories that happened to be cosmetically set in space.
Thus, the characters of a space opera tend to be stock characters, and Star Wars, which emulates that old space opera, uses the same sorts of stock characters. And since those early adventure stories stole liberally from the adventure stories of the 19th century, the stock characters tend to reflect late 19th, early 20th century sensibilities: The heroic European nobleman strides out to conquer a dark continent, along with his stalwart servant and his mysterious, foreign guide. In space opera, the stalwart servant becomes a robot, and the mysterious, foreign guide becomes an alien.
This explains why Star Wars treats its aliens and its droids the way it does (Note, for example, that only aliens have foreign languages). The droids, in particular, create this strange dissonance. On the one hand, they're "only droids," and so the story does not expect us to mourn the tragedy of the on-screen slaying of a dozen battle droids, or even the sad whimpering of some gonk droid. But, on the other hand, Star Wars treats R2-D2 and C3P0 as full characters, and generates suspense by throwing them into trouble. We are told that the light side values life, but droids evidently don't count (given the numerous times the Jedi Order criticizes Anakin for his fixation on his droids). We recoil horror when Leia is enslaved by Jabba, but we don't blink twice at the fact that C3P0 is similarly enslaved, and that he is never actually freed.
Are droids expendable minions, or are they fully realized characters, or are they both? What about the transformative or introspective elements that more sophisticated robot stories evoke? Do we want to borrow from them?
Thursday, March 3, 2016
Psi Wars: the Gear List
GURPS Action 1 includes a catalog of items available to its heroes, starting on page 26. Psi Wars should include a similar list, allowing player to select non-combat items appropriate for their characters. By having such a catalog, we can trim the inappropriate options from Ultra-Tech, and customize anything that we include to be specific to our particular setting. So, all we need to do is go through the items, one for one, in the Action list, and replace them with appropriate Ultra-Tech items.
Most items can be replaced directly with ultra-tech equivalents, but sometimes, we need to adjust them. Ultra-Tech is intended less as a catalog of items, and more as a gadget-design system. Thus, where I have had to alter, fiddle or redesign gadgets, I have included a full description (and perhaps a page reference to the original gadget I derived the new gadget from).
The list in Action includes weapons, clothing and armor, but we'll revisit that at a later time, as it is worthy of its own post.
Unlike the Action list, the following list includes legality class, a page reference and (if necessary) further discussion because, unlike in Action, we cannot take for granted that our players will automatically know these details.
Most items can be replaced directly with ultra-tech equivalents, but sometimes, we need to adjust them. Ultra-Tech is intended less as a catalog of items, and more as a gadget-design system. Thus, where I have had to alter, fiddle or redesign gadgets, I have included a full description (and perhaps a page reference to the original gadget I derived the new gadget from).
The list in Action includes weapons, clothing and armor, but we'll revisit that at a later time, as it is worthy of its own post.
Unlike the Action list, the following list includes legality class, a page reference and (if necessary) further discussion because, unlike in Action, we cannot take for granted that our players will automatically know these details.
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Psi Wars: A Technological Setting Part 1 -- FTL Travel
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| Hyperspace Exit |
GURPS Space has an excellent section discussing the particulars of FTL travel on pages 37 to 42. In addition to discussing the possible options we have, it challenges us with a few specific questions:
- How reliable is FTL travel?
- How difficult is FTL navigation?
- How fast is FTL?
- How far can one expect to get in an FTL ship?
- How much fuel does it consume? What are the economics of FTL travel?
- What are the side-effects of FTL travel?
We need to answer these questions in a fashion that is not only true to our Star Wars inspiration, but that serve us well for our setting design.
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Psi-Wars -- Adjusting Templates Cont'd
Last week, I looked at designing templates using GURPS Action 4: Specialists and flavoring them to feel appropriate to Psi-Wars, and then I built a template, proving the concept. So! I think the next step is rather obvious: Build more templates! Lots of templates!
But which ones? We could rebuild the GURPS Space templates, but GURPS Space keeps its templates deliberately generic. It features astronauts and colonists for realistic sci-fi, and it has heroic engineers and dashing space captains for more Star Trek-inspired games, and so on. It represents a decent starting point, but it needn't control the destiny of Psi-Wars.
Then what do we need?
I find it best to start by looking at my core activities and creating templates that serve variations of those themes. Those variations can follow themes themselves, and by crossing axes of themes, you can get an interesting variety of templates. A good example of this is how D&D took the various combat roles (Fighter, Mage and Thief) and crossed them with sources of power (Martial, Arcane, Divine) to swiftly create a variety of classes(Martial: Fighter, Warlord, Thief. Arcane: Spell sword, Wizard, Bard. Divine: Paladin, Cleric, Assassin). We can do the same with Psi-Wars.
Psi-Wars is a setting about war, so we need people to fight those wars: Troopers, heroic fighter aces, and the dashing officers that lead them into battle. Those hit two of the three "core activities" of Psi-Wars. The third would require a Spy. We also discussed having a diplomatic corps, so having diplomats might be interesting. And Psi Wars would not be Psi Wars without Psi: We need some psychic Space Knights.
But what about our Bounty Hunter? Where does she fit in all of this? Star Wars features a division between core and rim. Nobles reside in the core, where powerful politicians give speeches that set armies to marching. The desperate reside on the rim, holding onto galactic life with the tips of their fingers. They live in a world full of crime and poverty, where warlords strip planets bare and gangsters sell their daughters into slavery.
So we should copy that division. The templates I just mentioned belong to the core. The bounty hunter is the hardy Trooper of the rim. The Assassin would be the lethal Spy of the rim. The agile Smuggler fulfills a similar role to the Fighter Ace, and the Con-Artist fulfills the same role as the Diplomat. We don't have an officer (the Rim lacks leadership, that's part of its problem), but we could have a Scavenger, someone who picks up the pieces of the past. And the Space Knight could fit in either world pretty well, but let's add a Frontier Marshal as our hero-of-the-rim, because I liked that imagery.
Thus, we have for templates:
Core:
Perks and Techniques: A total of 8 points from weapon perks and techniques from Furious Fists.
Skills: A total of 12 points from any of Fast-Draw (any weapon). Thrown Weapon (any) or Knife, all (DX/E), Force Sword, Parry Missile Weapon, Shield, Shortsword, Spear, or Throwing all (DX/A).
Perks: Old Space-Hand [1]
Skills: Freefall (DX/A) [2], Mechanic (Starship*) (IQ/A) [4]; Navigation (Hyperspace) (IQ/A) [4], Pilot (Starship) (DX/A) [2], Scrounging (Per/E) [2], Spacer (IQ/E) [4], Vacc-Suit (IQ/A) [2]. A total of 4 points in Freight Handling and Smuggling both (IQ/A).
Military Spacer
Perks: Free-Fall Fighter [1], Old Space-Hand [1]
Skills: Freefall (DX/A) [2], Mechanic (Starship*) (IQ/A) [2]; Navigation (Hyperspace) (IQ/A) [4], Pilot (Starship) (DX/A) [2], Savoir-Faire (Military) (IQ/E) [1], Spacer (IQ/E) [4], Vacc-Suit (IQ/A) [2]. Three of Artillery (Guided Missile) (IQ/A) [2], Gunner (Beam Weapons) or Beam Weapons (Pistol, Rifle or Projector) all (DX/E) [2].
*All the various “Mechanic” skills out of Spaceships are too many. In Psi-Wars, Mechanic (Starship) can fix stuff on a Starship.
Free-Fall Fighter: Improve your Free-Fall DX-limit by 1 for the purposes of combat (including firing high recoil weapons or striking opponents)
But which ones? We could rebuild the GURPS Space templates, but GURPS Space keeps its templates deliberately generic. It features astronauts and colonists for realistic sci-fi, and it has heroic engineers and dashing space captains for more Star Trek-inspired games, and so on. It represents a decent starting point, but it needn't control the destiny of Psi-Wars.
Then what do we need?
I find it best to start by looking at my core activities and creating templates that serve variations of those themes. Those variations can follow themes themselves, and by crossing axes of themes, you can get an interesting variety of templates. A good example of this is how D&D took the various combat roles (Fighter, Mage and Thief) and crossed them with sources of power (Martial, Arcane, Divine) to swiftly create a variety of classes(Martial: Fighter, Warlord, Thief. Arcane: Spell sword, Wizard, Bard. Divine: Paladin, Cleric, Assassin). We can do the same with Psi-Wars.
Psi-Wars is a setting about war, so we need people to fight those wars: Troopers, heroic fighter aces, and the dashing officers that lead them into battle. Those hit two of the three "core activities" of Psi-Wars. The third would require a Spy. We also discussed having a diplomatic corps, so having diplomats might be interesting. And Psi Wars would not be Psi Wars without Psi: We need some psychic Space Knights.
But what about our Bounty Hunter? Where does she fit in all of this? Star Wars features a division between core and rim. Nobles reside in the core, where powerful politicians give speeches that set armies to marching. The desperate reside on the rim, holding onto galactic life with the tips of their fingers. They live in a world full of crime and poverty, where warlords strip planets bare and gangsters sell their daughters into slavery.
So we should copy that division. The templates I just mentioned belong to the core. The bounty hunter is the hardy Trooper of the rim. The Assassin would be the lethal Spy of the rim. The agile Smuggler fulfills a similar role to the Fighter Ace, and the Con-Artist fulfills the same role as the Diplomat. We don't have an officer (the Rim lacks leadership, that's part of its problem), but we could have a Scavenger, someone who picks up the pieces of the past. And the Space Knight could fit in either world pretty well, but let's add a Frontier Marshal as our hero-of-the-rim, because I liked that imagery.
Thus, we have for templates:
Core:
- Diplomat: Social manipulation, politics and intrigue
- Fighter Ace: Combat experts who bring the fight to the enemy in space.
- Officer: Leadership, command and tactical excellence.
- Space Knight: Heroism, psionic powers, and martial arts
- Spy: Infiltration, espionage and deception.
- Trooper: Combat experts who bring the fight to the enemy
Rim:
- Assassin: Infiltration, deception and murder
- Bounty Hunter: Combat experts who FIND the enemy before bringing the fight to them.
- Con-Artist: Social manipulation, street smarts, and the art of the deal
- Frontier Marshal: Justice, survival skills, a quick blaster, and a horse with no name.
- Scavenger: Technological skill, gadgeteering improvisation, and scrounging excellence.
- Smuggler: Agility in a ship, and also the art of the deal.
That seems to cover us. We begin to have a better picture of what this world might look like. And we also have... wow, 12 templates? That's a lot of work. Hmm. Well, in keeping with my principle of "Fail faster," I'm going to build just a few of these, and then see how well they work. Future iterations might expose new possibilities and, of course, we haven't actually built our setting! Who knows what new ideas might bubble out of an actual, detailed setting?
Some Notes
In building these templates, I noticed that I often used a few skill sets that needed quite some work to fit into a sci-fi setting. I have noted them below, in case you want to build along:
Esoteric Weapons
Advantages: Enhanced Parry 1 (One melee weapon) [5]Perks and Techniques: A total of 8 points from weapon perks and techniques from Furious Fists.
Skills: A total of 12 points from any of Fast-Draw (any weapon). Thrown Weapon (any) or Knife, all (DX/E), Force Sword, Parry Missile Weapon, Shield, Shortsword, Spear, or Throwing all (DX/A).
Spacer
Civilian SpacerPerks: Old Space-Hand [1]
Skills: Freefall (DX/A) [2], Mechanic (Starship*) (IQ/A) [4]; Navigation (Hyperspace) (IQ/A) [4], Pilot (Starship) (DX/A) [2], Scrounging (Per/E) [2], Spacer (IQ/E) [4], Vacc-Suit (IQ/A) [2]. A total of 4 points in Freight Handling and Smuggling both (IQ/A).
Military Spacer
Perks: Free-Fall Fighter [1], Old Space-Hand [1]
Skills: Freefall (DX/A) [2], Mechanic (Starship*) (IQ/A) [2]; Navigation (Hyperspace) (IQ/A) [4], Pilot (Starship) (DX/A) [2], Savoir-Faire (Military) (IQ/E) [1], Spacer (IQ/E) [4], Vacc-Suit (IQ/A) [2]. Three of Artillery (Guided Missile) (IQ/A) [2], Gunner (Beam Weapons) or Beam Weapons (Pistol, Rifle or Projector) all (DX/E) [2].
*All the various “Mechanic” skills out of Spaceships are too many. In Psi-Wars, Mechanic (Starship) can fix stuff on a Starship.
New Perks
Old Space-Hand: Gain +1 to DX or HT to resist personal disasters associated with space and spaceships, including space sickness, resisting radiation or vacuum and buckling down during a high-G dodge. If using the Casualties table from GURPS Spaceships, apply instead a -1.Free-Fall Fighter: Improve your Free-Fall DX-limit by 1 for the purposes of combat (including firing high recoil weapons or striking opponents)
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