Post by Starbeard on Aug 15, 2016 9:07:10 GMT -5
My online forum STAGFF game is moving along, and I’m thinking of what to do next when the module is completed. I’ve been inspired by a few things: an e-mail based wargame campaign I've been playing where I run a dilapidated Federation space station in an unstable frontier sector, re-reading B2 Keep on the Borderlands, and playing in a forum-based 'West Marches' style D&D game where something like 12-20 players gather in the town thread to organize hexcrawling expeditions and the DM keeps track of everything in a master calendar.
Ultimately, I think I would really like to see these things combined into a Star Trek game. A ‘west marches’ sprawling sandbox, in the style of B2, with a strong TOS theme. I think the best way to do that would be to base the action around a space station at the edge of unexplored space.
It’s not all that straightforward, though, because Trek party dynamics are not the same as D&D party dynamics. I've come up with 4 ideas of how a game like that could be run, each with its own strong and weak points:
1. The Classic Single Ship Campaign: The players are assigned to a single ship, and use the space station as a home base. They boldly go.
2. The Classic Many Ships Campaign: As above, but you split all players to between 1-4 players per ship.
3. The True Multi-Party Campaign: All players may actually become (or even start out as) captains of their own ships, managing their NPC crew and playing whatever character is most central to the action at the time. Just like in a fantasy ’West Marches’-style game, players use the station as a base for launching expeditions that interest them.
4. The Pony Express Campaign: Players are assigned to the station and the station only. There are a number of NPC ships, all of which have an NPC Captain but no other senior officers. The referee posts a mission for a ship, and characters can sign up to join the ship for that mission as, acting as a temporary senior officer.
Then there’s always the issue of what to do about the Captain. In face-to-face games I’ve never had a problem with having a PC captain, or even duplicate officer roles, since the group tends to deliberate ad hoc to make major decisions anyway. So I was surprised to learn that in a forum game the dynamic is completely different: players may only get to make one post before the action moves on. Two characters of the same ‘class’ step on each other’s toes trying to do the same things, and everyone typically defaults to making posts to the effect of, ‘I was to see what decision the Captain makes.’
To get away from that, I’ve thought about making the Captain a ‘semi-NPC’. He stays in his command chair as often as possible, acting like a patron deity for the party. However, for big decisions that affect the whole party the Captain is played by the group as a whole. This also applies to tactical decisions during space combat, so that the helmsman can just fly where he wants and it’s assumed that the Captain gave him the order to do so. The downside is that it doesn’t really work with some of the sandbox formats I’ve outlined above.
Thoughts?
Ultimately, I think I would really like to see these things combined into a Star Trek game. A ‘west marches’ sprawling sandbox, in the style of B2, with a strong TOS theme. I think the best way to do that would be to base the action around a space station at the edge of unexplored space.
It’s not all that straightforward, though, because Trek party dynamics are not the same as D&D party dynamics. I've come up with 4 ideas of how a game like that could be run, each with its own strong and weak points:
1. The Classic Single Ship Campaign: The players are assigned to a single ship, and use the space station as a home base. They boldly go.
- Pros: keeps things the most like TOS, and is the simplest to run.
- Cons: only works well if you have a small number of players (5 at most, and I might eve say 3-4 at most), otherwise 50% of the bridge officers will spend 80% of the campaign with nothing to do.
2. The Classic Many Ships Campaign: As above, but you split all players to between 1-4 players per ship.
- Pros: allows more than 3-5 players, and everyone can stays in on the action at all times.
- Cons: severely limits interaction between players on different ships, essentially putting each ship into its own campaign.
3. The True Multi-Party Campaign: All players may actually become (or even start out as) captains of their own ships, managing their NPC crew and playing whatever character is most central to the action at the time. Just like in a fantasy ’West Marches’-style game, players use the station as a base for launching expeditions that interest them.
- Pros: good way to handle more having more than 5 players, which can make a single ship seem crowded, and gives everybody the chance to be a captain.
- Cons: every mission will become a ridiculous small fleet action, unless the players opt to pile into one ship for the mission.
4. The Pony Express Campaign: Players are assigned to the station and the station only. There are a number of NPC ships, all of which have an NPC Captain but no other senior officers. The referee posts a mission for a ship, and characters can sign up to join the ship for that mission as, acting as a temporary senior officer.
- Pros: keeps the same mega sandbox feel as above, but sticks to the one-mission, one-ship paradigm.
- Cons: players don’t get to develop that special connection with their ship and captain, since they sign onto a ship for one mission only.
Then there’s always the issue of what to do about the Captain. In face-to-face games I’ve never had a problem with having a PC captain, or even duplicate officer roles, since the group tends to deliberate ad hoc to make major decisions anyway. So I was surprised to learn that in a forum game the dynamic is completely different: players may only get to make one post before the action moves on. Two characters of the same ‘class’ step on each other’s toes trying to do the same things, and everyone typically defaults to making posts to the effect of, ‘I was to see what decision the Captain makes.’
To get away from that, I’ve thought about making the Captain a ‘semi-NPC’. He stays in his command chair as often as possible, acting like a patron deity for the party. However, for big decisions that affect the whole party the Captain is played by the group as a whole. This also applies to tactical decisions during space combat, so that the helmsman can just fly where he wants and it’s assumed that the Captain gave him the order to do so. The downside is that it doesn’t really work with some of the sandbox formats I’ve outlined above.
Thoughts?
