Planetary Design and Basic FATE rules

Alright gentlemen (and perhaps ladies),

Here is how we will get things started.

A quick note: JWW has decided he’s gonna sit this game out while he deals with some real life stuff. He is of course welcome to join in at any juncture if things lighten up. To that end, we probably really do need a player or two more. Suggestions are welcome!

Down to business.

First, Bphage sent you a link to the sourcebook by email. It’s the digital march one. Please familiarize yourself when you have time. You don’t need to be experts right out the gate in how everything works. I took the liberty of giving you this brief primer:

FATE 101

Rule 0 of most every Indie: yes or roll dice. Generally speaking, I won’t tell you “no you cant do that.” I may place additional modifiers on it (yes, and…) or put unforeseen consequences on it (yes, but…) or I make you roll. That way, if you want to take an action, I won’t quash it. By the same token, failure typically won’t be a null result. If you lose a roll to say, track a thief through the woods, you won’t get a “you lost him, nothing happens.” But you might stumble onto a group of bandits waiting on a rendezvous with their contact.

Rule 1: everything is face up. There is no screen. Your sheets will be made available to the other players. You will know all target numbers before you roll, and you’ll be aware of aspects present on your foes. When I say you, I mean you the player. Your character won’t know everything, but it’s up to you to determine what he does. Historically, you guys have been great at separating character and player space, so I expect this will come naturally. So character knowledge and player knowledge will often be at odds. This is good, b/c you the player are going to want fate points, but they usually come at the cost of putting your character in jeopardy, which brings me to:

Rule 2: Fate point economy. Fate points are alot like bennies. You spend them to enforce your will on the world, most often by invoking or tagging aspects. But if you use up your fate points you’ll be in trouble. You’ll need more to be effective. The way you get them is by accepting compels from either me, my npcs, or other players. Compels use your characters aspects against him. This can get your character into all kinds of trouble, but maybe it’s worth it…

The last thing I’ll mention is the basic roll. Your typical roll is 4dF (a -4 to 4 scale) plus skill, plus any tagged aspects. There are lots of fudge dice rollers online, you can also buy physical dice, or just assign the values to d6s. Typical target numbers are around 2 for basic tasks, but can range from -2 to 8.

Taking actions in pbp
So let’s say you want to take an action. Here’s the sequence of events. Announce the action you want to take, the skill that you’d like to use for that action, and the desired effect. Go ahead and narrate this in game terms. At this point, your post ends, and you wait for compels. Compels can come from me, NPCs or from other players. You can even go “gee, I think this aspect might stop my character from being able to do this, hint hint” to draw a compel in hopes of getting a FATE point. If a compel comes, you can either accept, or pay fate to avoid it. Even if I drop a compel on you, I’ll also include the target number for the roll if you choose to buy off the compel. This way you can act immediately after my response. So let’s say you aren’t compelled. You then roll your dice, add your skill, tag aspects as appropriate, and then assuming you win the roll, narrate what happens. If you lose the roll, you can narrate what happens if you want, and as long as its cool, that’s what happens. Or you can let me narrate your failure.

Enough rules for now, let’s talk about my goals and plans for the campaign.

I’m aiming for a sandboxy game, but I’ll be starting with a sort of directed adventure to give a chance to see some of the rules, and shake down the system. As we’ve already discussed, you’ll be a ship’s crew in the post-unification period. One of the neat things about diaspora is the ability to flesh things out on top of the existing canon. There are already ~100ish planets in the canon; most are essentially blank slates. The first thing I think we should do is design some planets.

Oh, and to whet your appetite, the name of the opening ‘episode’ will be:

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

Planet Design

I know everyone is working on character designs, and that’s awesome, but let’s start this off the diaspora way, and get building planets. It’s pretty fast; I banged these out in about 15 minutes apiece, and I found it entertaining. Again, this is your way of influencing the places we might see as you travel the Black, and the tone of the gameworld as well.

Every player gets 2 planets to design, and these planets should fit somewhere into their backstory. If you want, choose a canon planet and just assign attributes and aspects to match the canon parts you like as best you can. Or take a planet for which there is little or no detail, and roll it up, assign some aspects you think are cool, and fit it in where it makes ‘sense’.

Regardless of how you make your planets, you’ll also want to, place an npc or two on it, and an important location on that planet (the Scene) where your crew is likely to wind up when they drop by. I’ve gone ahead and started both of mine for you below, as examples.

Rolling 4df 3x for Tech, Environment, and Resources

-2 (Industrialization), 0 (reasonably terraformed), 3 (multiple exports)

I’ll choose Disraeli, it’s a border/rim moon in Kalidasa with no history to speak of… yet. This is consistent with its low tech level.

Two aspects for Disraeli:
Shepherds watching their flocks by night
Silicon valley

Description:
Disraeli orbits its populous primary, Constance, in the Kalidasa system. It’s rate of revolution and rotation are synchronized not against its primary, but such that one half of the planet sees only a few hours of Kalidasa per cycle. The first colonies here were set up on this dark side by religious fundamentalists who saw redemption from sins of sight in the darkness. The ‘bright’ side remains reasonably hospitable, particularly when shielded by the primary, and is a series of silicate canyons. Huge arc furnaces have been installed and are maintained by off-world crews harnessing a combination of solar and coal power. These reactor purify silicon and other valuable metalloids for export to the core, making this little moon quite profitable for the corporations running the operation.

NPCs:
Shepherd Randall Cutter, firebrand preacher who can’t forgive himself for his youthful indiscretions.
Furnace Overseer Amanda Chow, an able hand with tools and always has her ears to the ground for ‘opportunities’ beyond the scope of her official duties.

Scene:
Reactor 27 – a rusty loud and noxious powerplant nestled into the side of a miles-deep canyon.
Aspects:
Oppressive heat
Long way down


Alright, there’s one. Next up

1 (exploiting the system), -1 (survivable), 1 (rich)

For this, I’ll take Highgate in the Blue Sun system. It’s got a decent population, and it’s close to an asteroid belt.

Aspects:
Orbital mining platform
Cost of doing business

Description:
Highgate is home to some of the most daring miners in the ‘Verse. Most of the population spends at least a few months a year either serving aboard one of the half dozen orbital refineries and transit stations, any of a few hundred mining skiffs, or otherwise supporting the large-scale harvesting of the nearby asteroid belt by the local Governor. This is dangerous work this far out on the Rim. Ships go missing on a weekly basis, and generally you don’t want to hear what happened to them. But those who come back bring with them a wealth of metals unrivaled in the system. Of course, buying and maintaining a license to operate a mining skiff, and use the refining facilities, keeps most miners just a few fuel rods away from broke.

NPC
Capt. Franco DeSilva, beleaguered owner of the mining skiff MuthaLode

Scene
牧场物语(harvest moon) – Isotopic enrichment station run by the planetary government.
Aspects:
Radiological alarm
Death and taxes

So, at this point, I open up my planets to the table for review and suggestions. Also, go ahead and make up your two planets. Use the ‘verse pdf I linked earlier to fit them into the canon. Try and come up with planets your character has been to, and NPCs they might know.

As everyone chimes in with their worlds, feel free to jump in, and say something if you have a good idea to enhance it.

Soon: character design!