I've been contemplating this campaign idea for a while. Problem is, I never get much past the 'mulling' phase, but I need to start thinking more concretely about it. I thought maybe I'd throw my ideas out and see if anything comes back.

In general:
The setting would be a very large spacecraft, likely a generation ship or a cryo-ship, hurtling through space. The ship is large enough to have multiple environments, including areas without air, without gravity, systems gone haywire, and so on. Something has gone desperately wrong with the ship.
The campaign would have elements of danger, perhaps horror, certainly mystery. I'd like it to have an alienesque feeling.
Inspiration:

1. First and foremost, Brian Aldiss 'Nonstop' which takes place on a generation ship that never reached its destination, but still life goes on. The hydroponics have taken over the hallways and the people on board the ship have devolved into tribes which slowly hack their way through the ship, finding caches of old tools or weapons and fighting other tribes. The ship is a big unknown. The main character and a few friends are on the outs with the boss of their tribe, so they decide to leave and find the mythical 'forwards'. Along they way, they encounter giant aliens and uncover a life-changing secret. To be honest I could run this more or less straight up, I think, but let me go on.

2. Fred Saberhagen 'Berserker'. Really a series of short stories, berserkers are giant, robotic war machines (maybe the inspiration for Star Trek's Borg ships) which wander through space and seem intent on wiping out mankind. At least one of the stories talks about human captives inside one of the berserkers and what happens to them.

3. Alastair Reynolds 'Revelation Space': From Wikipedia: "... most of the crew of the starship Nostalgia for Infinity are frozen for the journey to Yellowstone... The Nostalgia for Infinity is an ancient ship that once carried hundreds of thousands, but now its crew is only a handful of Ultras -- biomechanical humans adapted to the rigors of long interstellar spaceflight. And they're desperate to find Sylveste because their captain has been infected with the Melding Plague, a virus that attacks human cells and machine nanotechnology in equal measure, perverting them into grotesque combinations. Yada yada yada. What appeals to me here is this huge ship with only a few people, and the dangerous effects of this Melding Plague which make parts of the ship a deathtrap.

4. Films like Alien and a few others which have dealt with disaster and mystery in space. Also, the Poseidon Adventure, believe it or not, and the TV show Red Dwarf.

more specific campaign ideas:
1. The players are awoken from Cryo with little or no memory of who they are. They would be blank slates, basically, with rudimentary skills.
2. Something is desperately wrong with the ship. It has been affected by a melding plague, or hit by an asteroid, or it's been travelling so long its systems have degraded, or there's an alien presence - or more than one of these things.
3. The players main objectives are to discover what went wrong and how to get out alive. The secondary objective is to re-discover who they are. As they find out more about themselves, they also find out more about their role in what happened to the ship.
4. Character advancement happens by flashback. Flashbacks are triggered by traumatic events (such as taking a major wound) or by certain sites/discoveries/locations. Some flashbacks would be generic in nature - these would be the ones triggered by random events, such as being wounded or finding a dead body or seeing something traumatic. Others would be very specific and tied to locations or actions (such as: "You open the locker and find a single space boot inside. On the back of the boot is the name 'Johannes'" - GM hands the player the 'Johannes' flashback.) Each flashback would reveal some personal history, something of the history of events on the ship, and would unlock a skill (or increase a skill) for the player experiencing the flashback. Each flashback could only be experienced once.

So now for the feedback. The flashback system sounds like a lot of work to me - is it worth it? Is it novel enough?
What kind of spaceship is this? What was its purpose? Where is it going? What went wrong?

Who are the PCs, really? Are they part of a maintenance team? Were they in the brig when the bad thing went down? Or are they all completely random people who are thrown together in some fashion before the big thing went down? Maybe one of them was a criminal, one was his guard escort, one was a doctor, one a technician, and one was a cook. Maybe they were all on their way to the trial of the criminal (most being key witnesses), but now they wake up with no memories. In the game, the players might discover one was a murderer - but which one? The flashback method can control (to some extent) the flow of information to the party, but not to which individual gets what information. In effect, even the GM doesn't know who the criminal is until all the flashbacks fall into place revealing the truth.

Anyway, those are my pebbles. Show me your ripples.

Thalaba

Thalaba,

I'm going to sound blunt. I mean no offense to you personally. I am putting on my "player hat" and thinking through this as if you presented it to me at a table for the next campaign we'd play together.

This is an intriguing setting, but the situation you're describing sounds more like you want to write a book than run a game.

* Why are the PCs effectively blanks?
* Why do they only "develop a history" when you randomly hand them pre-written flashback notes?
* What are the players supposed to do in this game? "Survive" or "get out"?

I've used flashbacks in a couple of ways. Flashbacks are the actual adventures or the players themselves describe what their flashbacks are about, the latter gives the players narrative control of the game and may not be something your crew is into. IMO flashbacks in rpgs is not an effective tool in creating dramatic tension.

I don't really like the players not knowing who their characters are so what I do in this type of game, is have the players design their characters, design the ship (the various different enviroments, etc) and the purpose of the ship. From what you have described in the OP, I'd also encourage them to create specific duties for each character. They must really know their own ship and each other.

Then I'd have them wake up and discover something is wrong. Various sections of the ship have been sealed of. Internal security video in those section does not work. Certain sections of the ship looks as those firefights went down. The purpose of the ship has been changed. And the really disturbing part is that video log footage show unknown individuals carrying out the duties of the pcs.

Regards,
David R

Which system will you use to run this?

I've run several amnesia games and they required extensive homebrewing to work. There's also several ways to do this. In the first part of your post, it looks like amnesia was almost a side plot. They don't remember who they are while they're struggling in an unknown environment. This could be played several ways, including letting them choose their past skills as they go. Sort of like character creation in play. You could also mix it with random flashbacks triggered by chance (dice).

But later in the post, you speak of a tighter plot involving the characters' past. Such as having a murderer on board with PCs each having conflicting goals. That could work too but you gotta be careful not to railroad it. So here are some random thoughts:

1-Figure out how "competitive" you want this game to be and adjust the system accordingly.
2-Make sure "blank characters" are still interesting in and of themselves before the flashbacks. They have to be playable too.
3-Determine if you want this to be a self-contained adventure or if you want to keep playing this after the adventure. If it's mostly a one-shot, you can obviously be more outrageous and the "plot revelation" can have more finality to it.

4-I disagree with Orklord that it sounds like a book, but it COULD turn feeling like one for your players if you're not careful. Make them understand that it's their current personality that counts. Don't go for "flashbacks" too soon. Let them forge their blank identity. Maybe the guy who is a forceful leader and outgoing used to be a shy bookkeeper who killed his wife... doesn't mean it matters now, except it is part of his former life, his past. Maybe it is discovered by two characters who are really getting along well that they used to be rivals. But you gotta let them build those blank personalities and it should be up to them whether they become rivals again.

5-Avoid having a detailed, complete story for each PC at all costs. Instead, let them build their past one discrete block at a time. Have different personality trait, different incidents, different professions, etc... each separate. Let them build their old selves. Think of it as an in-game lifepath system. Each time a flashback is triggered, they roll and may discover stuff. When this stuff is discovered, it is scratched from the random options.

6-Think about mechanics and system tweaks to run this. I've used to great effect a "skill pool". That is, each player saw a sheet listing skills, with a number of ranks available. Something like that:

Piloting - 9 ranks
Melee - 4 ranks
Guns -10 ranks
Brawling - 8 ranks
Spanish - 12 ranks
Computer programing -10 ranks
Swimming - 16 ranks
Veterinary - 8 ranks

All the players KNOW, starting the game, that's what is available from the flashback pool. If one player triggers a flashback, he might choose (say) Brawling and get 2 ranks. Which are now scratched off. Which means only 6 Brawling ranks are still available from the skill pool for all the PCs. This creates a very interesting dynamic, as players become very active and try to trigger flashbacks and compete for certain skills.

What if the key to survival for part of the adventure involves an underwater obstacle? Suddenly, those 16 swimming ranks might become an issue. Will players split them or will they trust one guy? With each skill pool, you can also associate other revelations. Guns might trigger another random roll, with the player having a chance to be a former police officer or criminal. They could also reveal certain plot elements (veterinary could be tie to the murderer, having injecting his wife with a lethal dose of something to make it loom like a heart attack).

Other mechanics that could be PERFECT for this are trust mechanics such as those found in Cold City.

Just don't plot the whole thing, man. Let it be a revelation for you as well and let the PCs remain in control of their personality and what they do with the information. This is very much an investigation game, except instead of exploring a mystery house or something, they're piecing together the past that brought them there.

As for the ship, its purpose, the problems. Can't help you there. There are loads of classics to choose from. But your ideas reminded me a bit of Pandorum and I would probably hack something like this because it is INFINITELY roleplayable with some tweaks.
Pickpocket - 6 ranks

Thanks to everyone for the great feedback so far. I'm not married to any of these ideas just yet - really I'm just brainstorming, which means I haven't decided myself if these ideas are good or not yet.



Blunt is good, and don't worry - I see nothing to be offended about in your post!

I don't see it as writing a book at all. I'm going to refer to my post in the thread about the GM being important - the post that covered story. I identified three parts of the overall story that makes a game: 1. What came before the players engaged; 2. What the players did after they joined; and 3. what the NPCs did after the players joined.

My idea places most of the part 1 in the hands of the GM. I would figure out the history of the ship and how it ended up where it was. I would also have some reasonably firm ideas on who the PCs might be. The only difference is that I wouldn't share this with the PCs up front - they would discover it through play.

Part 2 remains entirely in the hands of the players. Part 3 would probably be negligible, since their would be no or few NPCs. What there is of part 3 would be in the hands of the GM. It would definitely not be a collaborative world building game, but I'm sure my players would be fine with that.

To answer your questions:
1. The PCs are blanks because they've lost their memory. This is an exercise in trying to simulate amnesia. They would not be complete blanks. I'd probably let them roll stats and so on.
2. The PCs discover more about themselves through the flashbacks. Only some would be random - most would be tied to specific actions, locations, or events. For instance, there might be a flashback called 'Maintenance Panel'. When the PCs enter one of the early rooms on the ship after waking up, they might see an open maintenance panel on one wall with some wires sparking inside. The players that declares 'I go to investigate that panel' goes over and sees that a number of wires are cut. They then get a flashback which describes how they remember being at this very same panel and desperately cutting the wires to try and force the door to close. There is smoke in the hallway and a man named Lukowski is yelling at him 'The red one you idiot!. The person agonizes over whether to cut the blue or red wire, and finally decides Lukowski is wrong and cuts the blue one. The door closes and the scene ends. This flashback awards the person who experienced it with +20% shipboard systems skill. It also reveals a very small part of the history. More on this in a bit as I answer the other two posts...

One of my thoughts here is that the player who (at the beginning of the game) has it in his mind that he's a techie guy will most likely be the one to investigate that maintenance hatch - which means that although there is some randomness to character development, it will also be subconsciously driven by player desires.

3. The players goals would be to a) figure out what went wrong, and b) from that, find a way to safety. Surviving while they do so is a nice bonus.

I've played games where flashbacks and dreams were resolved interactively between the GM and player, but I don't think that's quite what I'm aiming for here. I would agree that doing it this way probably wouldn't heighten tension as much, because it forces to GM to roleplay one-on-one with a single player while the others sit around.

My players might not like not knowing who they are, either. I would have to be clear about the process in my pitch to them. To be honest, I think they would be up for the experiment, but I won't invest much into this until after I've pitched it. If they also don't like the amnesia idea, I may well do it the way you suggest. The game concept of waking from cryo and finding something wrong on the ship would definitely still work without the amnesia idea - and probably be much easier to set up. Thanks for your input - I especially like the little suggested plot hook about other individuals carrying out their normal duties!

Undecided. My fall back system is BRP and I know it well. It's a simple skill based system. But I'm not married to it. I have Diaspora on my shelf (still unread), and I thought that might work - given the aspects. I'm open to other suggestions.



Yep, the second idea only came to me through process of writing up the first part. I agree that not all the ideas I mentioned could be used together.



I hadn't thought of it being competitive - I picture it being more collaborative. I also don't want it to turn into a Paranoia kind of thing.

Yes, I'd like for the players to be invested in their characters. They might not know much about them at the beginning, but that doesn't mean they will all be equal or complete blanks. I'd probably let the players figure out their own stats. I would also suggest several occupations that they might have been before they lost their memory. I would let them determine their own personalities. The flashbacks would only reveal little snippets of who they might be. As I imagine it working out, two totally different players could each receive exactly the same flashbacks, and from those come to very different conclusions about who they were before they lost their memory. It is not my intention to force them to be specific archetpyes. I would allow a lot of player interpretation.

I see this being a short campaign as opposed to a one-shot.


Yeah! Now were cooking with lard!



While this idea is intriguing, i'm not so sure... Its working thinking about, anyway. What I don't like about it is that it lends itself to some metagaming, and I'm not sure I want to hand them the tools to do that. It might break the immersion a bit.



I would handle this by just making sure a flashback was available that provided the necessary skills before they needed it, rather than have them negotiate it out of a pool.

The idea of a trust mechanic is really cool, though. You've totally got me thinking about that.



Yep, I think that's bang on advice. One advantage of doing it as a campaign is that I can change and adjust things between sessions if they suddenly come up with an interesting idea that I never thought of exploring. Normally, I let them do most of the driving in a campaign.



Cool! Thanks for the link - I'm surprised I haven't heard of it before. Consider it zipped.

Great work guys. I'd love to hear any other advice you or others may have.

Thalaba

CD giveth some cool ideas. Just riffing of what you've posted so far.

Since your players may be cool with the idea of amnesia I'd start of with random chargen. A careers system or something like it would be good. Let each player roll up a character or skills and discover what type of "profession" they are. This way although they have no personality or backstory it gives them something to play with. A tech guy will "know" what his fucntion is etc.

So they know they have no memories but they are on a ship where "something has gone wrong". I'd run the adventure as a straight up "dungeon crawl". Let the players explore the ship and and occasionally roll on a "random event" - ship malfunction - table. As they explore the ship and fix or touch things, this triggers off flashbacks. These flashbacks should be random too and you should have a random flashback list, handy

These flashbacks should be in the first person and should involve a particular "carreer" or set of skills. So, a tech person could be doing something and around him are the other crew members, the captain of the ship could be issuing orders etc....but the kicker is (because it's random) the person having the flashback isn't the "individual" in the flahsback.

So, the players should begin to suspect that their "consciousness ", "souls" whatever have some how been displaced.

Which is cool, because I recently rewatched that great glassic, Event Horizon and this is exactly what this ship is. A vessel from hell harvesting souls for eternal damnation. The PCs have some how managed to escape (the ship/prison) and they were in the process of trying to destroy the ship when the ship managed to put them down some how.

So it's not really important "who" they really are because they are just a collection of souls but what is important is that they are trying to destroy this Ghost Ship.

Regards,
David R

Yeah, it would have a dungeon crawl kind of feel wouldn't it. I definitely like the idea of the 'random malfunction table' - or more like a 'tinkering with the ship' table. I think the flashbacks would have to be a mix of random and keyed to locations or clues discovered onboard.



Yeah, that movie is another inspiration I should have mentioned!. It never occurred to me that it was a ship from Hell harvesting souls. Is that your take on it or is that a well known interpretation. I like it, regardless. Actually, I really like this idea of taking the concept of the devil into the future - they are so rarely mixed since most Sci-fi seems to be atheist. The Devil and exorcism and all that seem like such medieval concepts that taking them into a modern or future context makes it feel that much more...I don't know...unsettling. I think that's part of why The Exorcist and Prince of Darkness have their edge.

I also like the idea of presenting the players with the moral dilemma of destroying the ship vs getting off of it alive. Good food for thought!

Thanks again for the input, David.

Thalaba

I assume it's a well known interpretation.

If you run this thing, you should put up an actual play to let us know how it went

Regards,
David R