New Solo-Play RPG Campaign Concept
Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2011 10:51 am
Dear Friends,
Happy New Year ! Although I've been absent from the forum for some time, due to some personal and work matters, I've nevertheless been quite busy in reflecting and researching on new directions in my SFU "Gaming Career". I'm coming from this perspective:
1. I love the SFU Universe setting, and have loved it since discovering it in 1979. I much prefer it over the direction "canon" trek had taken from TNG-ENT, but am enthusiastic about the Abrams re-boot.
2. I love board wargaming and RPG'ing in the pen and paper context. (eg I'm an old geezer).
3. I, like many here, am just returning to this hobby after a long absence, and am nostalgic for my high school/college gaming group (which was in the 80s), and really find it difficult to come to terms with contemporary options. Our group played SFB in the Designer's Edition format, and pre-PD RPG'ed with Classic Traveller, board and minis.
4. I love PD, but would really like to see it translated to Mongoose Traveller. I'm settling for GURPS PD for now, as D20 ultimately is an awkward fit I feel for modern/sci-fi gaming due to its core class system philosophy.
5. I've also re-kindled my love for ground combat board/minis wargaming (Ogre, Panzerblitz, etc), and am looking forward to Starfleet Marines: Assault coming out.
6. I'm particularly keen on ship interior combat with minis, along the lines of Traveller Azhanti High Lightning / Snapshot. I am also therefore eagerly anticipating SFU Battlestations, but would really like to see big-scale deck combat. One thing I do like about gaming in the 2000's is the availability of paper terrain and miniatures, especially the WorldWorks starship interiors.
7. While I have started a Play-by-Forum campaign here, "Cardinal of Klinzhai", I had unfortunately been unable to regularly maintain it due to time constraints.
8. I highly appreciate the new "flavors" of SFB: FC and Starmada, and am into SFC. I find myself with precious little time for the hobby, with family and work constraints - SFB proper is just too time-consuming.
9. And finally, the most serious consideration, is while I am thankful for the support of the members of this Forum and for those who have joined my in my GPD campaign, I feel that it is difficult to sustain this hobby without a FLGS and live community within reasonable distance.
I have therefore decided to focus my efforts in developing a solo gaming framework for PD and the SFU in general. What this means for my PD Campaign is that rather than using the message-by-message Play-by-Post format, I will instead design a sequence of solo play adventure modules. The most promising model for man-to-man combat is Space Infantry (http://zak965.it/spaceinfantry/index.html) With such a model the campaign therefore becomes "systems agnostic" meaning characters from any game system (Gurps, D20, Traveller, etc) may join, as character stats would in any case be simplified to conform to the SI format for combat purposes. Other aspects of the adventure which will rely on more intellectual problem-solving can be done through the traditional "choose your own adventure" (CYOA) programmed paragraphs format. In this case the rich detail of your lovingly rolled-up character would come into play, particularly the career background, experience, skills and attributes.
Thus, the role of the GM would be to design and administer the overall campaign framework and modules, the player plays the modules and submits an "after action report" per module. I'm not sure if there is already a name for this approach, but I guess you could call it "cooperative solo play" combining both the elements of CYOA and solo boardgaming. It is still a GM'ed RPG campaign, but it takes away the time pressures of the more traditional message-by-message paradigm, players can move on their own pace, and the campaign does not get stuck by delays in messaging from either the GM or the players. Also, the designing GM could even enjoy the campaign by himself/herself, should lack of players be a problem.
An aspect I am particularly keen on is that the GM and the players would be encouraged to build and maintain their own miniature gaming terrain with figures. Paper/card terrain is the way I'd go, ADB for example already released the Klingon Gunboat. I'd still though like to someday realize my dream project - a 15mm scale D-7 !
I am not abandoning my campaign, just re-booting it !
Happy New Year ! Although I've been absent from the forum for some time, due to some personal and work matters, I've nevertheless been quite busy in reflecting and researching on new directions in my SFU "Gaming Career". I'm coming from this perspective:
1. I love the SFU Universe setting, and have loved it since discovering it in 1979. I much prefer it over the direction "canon" trek had taken from TNG-ENT, but am enthusiastic about the Abrams re-boot.
2. I love board wargaming and RPG'ing in the pen and paper context. (eg I'm an old geezer).
3. I, like many here, am just returning to this hobby after a long absence, and am nostalgic for my high school/college gaming group (which was in the 80s), and really find it difficult to come to terms with contemporary options. Our group played SFB in the Designer's Edition format, and pre-PD RPG'ed with Classic Traveller, board and minis.
4. I love PD, but would really like to see it translated to Mongoose Traveller. I'm settling for GURPS PD for now, as D20 ultimately is an awkward fit I feel for modern/sci-fi gaming due to its core class system philosophy.
5. I've also re-kindled my love for ground combat board/minis wargaming (Ogre, Panzerblitz, etc), and am looking forward to Starfleet Marines: Assault coming out.
6. I'm particularly keen on ship interior combat with minis, along the lines of Traveller Azhanti High Lightning / Snapshot. I am also therefore eagerly anticipating SFU Battlestations, but would really like to see big-scale deck combat. One thing I do like about gaming in the 2000's is the availability of paper terrain and miniatures, especially the WorldWorks starship interiors.
7. While I have started a Play-by-Forum campaign here, "Cardinal of Klinzhai", I had unfortunately been unable to regularly maintain it due to time constraints.
8. I highly appreciate the new "flavors" of SFB: FC and Starmada, and am into SFC. I find myself with precious little time for the hobby, with family and work constraints - SFB proper is just too time-consuming.
9. And finally, the most serious consideration, is while I am thankful for the support of the members of this Forum and for those who have joined my in my GPD campaign, I feel that it is difficult to sustain this hobby without a FLGS and live community within reasonable distance.
I have therefore decided to focus my efforts in developing a solo gaming framework for PD and the SFU in general. What this means for my PD Campaign is that rather than using the message-by-message Play-by-Post format, I will instead design a sequence of solo play adventure modules. The most promising model for man-to-man combat is Space Infantry (http://zak965.it/spaceinfantry/index.html) With such a model the campaign therefore becomes "systems agnostic" meaning characters from any game system (Gurps, D20, Traveller, etc) may join, as character stats would in any case be simplified to conform to the SI format for combat purposes. Other aspects of the adventure which will rely on more intellectual problem-solving can be done through the traditional "choose your own adventure" (CYOA) programmed paragraphs format. In this case the rich detail of your lovingly rolled-up character would come into play, particularly the career background, experience, skills and attributes.
Thus, the role of the GM would be to design and administer the overall campaign framework and modules, the player plays the modules and submits an "after action report" per module. I'm not sure if there is already a name for this approach, but I guess you could call it "cooperative solo play" combining both the elements of CYOA and solo boardgaming. It is still a GM'ed RPG campaign, but it takes away the time pressures of the more traditional message-by-message paradigm, players can move on their own pace, and the campaign does not get stuck by delays in messaging from either the GM or the players. Also, the designing GM could even enjoy the campaign by himself/herself, should lack of players be a problem.
An aspect I am particularly keen on is that the GM and the players would be encouraged to build and maintain their own miniature gaming terrain with figures. Paper/card terrain is the way I'd go, ADB for example already released the Klingon Gunboat. I'd still though like to someday realize my dream project - a 15mm scale D-7 !
I am not abandoning my campaign, just re-booting it !