Arregh Boenval (Chris)

Arregh is a Vargr from the close-knit community of Boenval (aka “Boneville”). Arregh is also a well-placed lieutenant in the military junta. He is generally proud of his success and position, believes in the goals of the junta, and has fully supported suppression of the protestors. On the other hand, Arregh is greatly troubled by the false honor and corruption that he’s seen in the military government. It’s troubled him to such a degree that on one occasion he took matters in to his own hands. Colonel Cobb (Joel) has an idea of what happened, but so far has been willing to keep the secret. Arregh also has some family secrets that can be difficult for him in the nationalistic Vargr community.

One of the events that troubled Arregh was when he was ordered to arrest Kno Moon (David). Arregh knew that Kno had no connection to the protesters.

Skills & Talents: military focused

Sample Aspects:

• Hometown pride.
• Damn good soldier.
• Tainted honor.

Morphin (Jose)

Morphin is human and psionic. Morphin is a member of a community of psionics who fled persecution by the Third Imperium. While psionics are not treated harshly in this area of space, because of their history, Morphin’s community prefers to be secretive about their talents. To the outside, they appear as a school of martial arts. Morphin’s individual psionic talents manifest as the ability to manipulate machines and computers with his mind.

Morphin recently found himself in the area of a student protest and the subject of a beating by police officers. Zh’kath (Ben) realized Morphin was an innocent bystander and convinced the police to stop (Morphin does not know this). After the police left Morphin, Atrika (Eric) found him and helped care for his wounds.

Skills & Talents: psionics, brawling, athletics

Sample Aspects:

• Odd one out.
• Searching for a mission.
• Hate the power.

Zh’kath (Ben)

Zh’kath is a Graken, very large, cat-like creatures who generally prefer solitary intellectual pursuits. Zh’kath was in the Graken version of the military academy but failed out and is now travelling to pursue his fortune. Zh’kath is clairvoyant and telepathic. He is also currently employed by the junta government but is not necessarily a supporter, and in fact, is beginning to question the wisdom of working for them.

Zh’kath helped rescue Morphin (Jose) from a police beating. Leaving his home, he was given a ride off the planet by Kno (David).

Skills & Talents: psionics, combat, security

Sample Aspects:

• There are no victimless crimes.
• Driven to success.
• Bitter over his failure.

Colonel Cobb (Joel)

Cobb is human and a native of Accra. He grew up under the shadow of an abusive military father. As his father wished, Cobb joined the Marines, but to get back at his father, he became a doctor. Cobb has a short temper and a cruel streak.

Cobb has an idea that Arregh (Chris) was involved in his superior’s death, but doesn’t care to pursue it as he’s not fond of Vargr anyway.

At one of the protests, Cobb came to the rescue of Atrika (Eric) and severely beat the officer who was beating her. The government, not wanting to acknowledge the violent response of the police, but succumbing to the political pressure of those police, forced Cobb to retire from the Marines.

Skills & Talents: combat, surgery

Sample Aspects:

• Medicine gives him purpose.
• What are you made of?
• From an abusive family.

Atrika Van der Berg (Eric)

Atrika was born to a Solomani mother and a Vilani father, and was raised in a small commune on another planet. When she was 9 years old, that commune was attacked by Kafoe and her father was killed and the rest of the family held hostage. Military from The Old Worlds rescued the colony and the survivors were resettled on Accra.

For a while, Atrika’s mother became hooked on Shik, but she eventually kicked the habit and began working to help other addicts, as well as speaking out against government collusion with the drug trade. Perhaps not surprisingly, this got her mother killed.

Artrika went to college on a scholarship for commune survivors, studied mechanical engineering, and is now finishing up a graduate degree in chemical engineering. She’s become active in the anti-junta protests. At one protest, she helped care for an injured Morphin (Jose). At another, she was rescued by Col. Cobb (Joel).

Skills & Telents: engineering, persuasion, criminal contacts

Sample Aspects:

• Bleeding heart.
• Maybe not all of them are bad.
• Accra libre!

Kno Moon (Me– NPC)

Kno is an expatriate Solomani who settled on Accra after an extensive career in the Solomani Scout Service. He does not have diplomatic immunity but does have a certain status, as he is on detached duty. Kno was planning a peaceful retirement but apparently chose the wrong planet. He was arrested at the orders of Arregh (Chris), apparently for his connection to offworld political influences. He knows Zh’kath from a visit to the Graken home world.

Skills & Talents: politics & economics, empathy, astrogation

Sample Aspects:

• There are just two kinds of people…
• This is my home.
• I know someone.

The Name of the Game

One of the things I’ve been thinking about is a name for the science fiction roleplaying game. I think it would be a little awkward to keep calling it “that sci-fi game.” But a good name is not so easy to come up with. First, it should sound cool. But an ideal name should also convey a feel for the game’s theme, setting, or style. “Black” would be a good name for a space-based science fiction game. However, I think it might give the impression that the game is about exploring uncharted space, which this game is definitely not. Other names that I’ve considered based on the setting include: Fringe, Regent, Custodian, Beacon, Domain, Agents of Empire, Near Space.

Unfortunately, nothing has excited me yet. Perhaps a name based on the game’s special board game-inspired mechanics would be better. That, however, will have to wait until I’ve developed them. Until then, I’ll just go with “Black” as a temporary solution. I’ll use “Black” as a category for my posts and change it when I’ve come up with a better name.

The World Around Us

As I suggested in my last post, I do have a setting in mind for this game, one based on a science fiction board game that I enjoy. Members of my game group will immediately know what I’m referring to, but I won’t be revealing it in a public post. I’ve heard back from the publisher of the board game and they’ve asked me not to publicly post a role playing game that uses their trademarked material. When I figure out how to password protect posts, I may address the setting that way.

Nevertheless, I do still intend to use that setting for this game. I have no intention to publish the game, so I don’t see that it’s a problem using the background material in a private setting. Further, the setting for this board game is just the right balance of hard science and space opera. The theme is very much heroic but the background material includes a healthy dose of detail on technology, economics, and politics.

It may seem a little strange as I continue without explicitly revealing the background setting, but I think that it’s important to keep the setting in mind when developing the rules. I want the rules to reinforce the theme, style, and feel of the setting. I’d even like, as much as possible, to be consistent with the style and mechanics of the board game. So, for example, to the extent Black uses dice, to match the board game, it should be 10-sided dice exclusively.

Major Components

The next step is to outline the scope of the game. That is, I need to identify what components need to be developed in order to produce a working game.

At the highest level, these are the parts of Black that I need to work on:

• Task resolution—the basic mechanics for determining character success at actions.
• Character definition—what details describe a character’s nature, personality, and capabilities.
• Character creation—procedures for players to develop characters.
• Achieving Goals—what defines player objectives, how they achieve success, and methods for tracking success.
• Activities and Environmental Conditions—guidelines for applying the task resolution mechanics to various circumstances.
• Objects—descriptions and the impact on game play of weapons, spaceships, tools, vehicles, and other things.

Within each of these major components there will obviously be many elements. But before attempting even an initial itemization of those elements, I think the next thing I should do is explain my general approach to each area.

This statement probably seems obvious, unoriginal, and of little value. Nevertheless, it needs to be the first and most important point of reference for every design decision, both large and small, because it is exactly what I’m trying to do. After years uninvolved in this part of the gaming hobby, I am interested in getting back into roleplaying but recognize that there are many hurdles to organizing a game among my friends. With a game custom designed for our interests, strengths, play styles, and outside lives, I’m hoping to maximize the odds of generating interest. I welcome the input of others and invite anyone else who might read these pages to make use of my work. But when it comes to final design decisions, I will always choose what will work best for my existing group. This philosophy leads to several design principles:

• The game should be easy to learn and the group should be able to begin play without much up front investment in time. Because of our busy lives and our history with board games (where a 3 hour game is considered long), I can’t expect a lot of patience. Should I finally convince people to try the game, I’ll need to draw them in quickly.

• The game should employ interesting new mechanics without totally abandoning the traditional elements of roleplaying games that my friends remember from their past experiences. There is a certain nostalgia for roleplaying, but right now the group is enjoying exploring the many varied mechanics found in modern strategy board games.

• The game must balance realism and heroic fantasy. Escape is definitely a benefit to gaming. And heroic adventure is what I think my friends would expect from roleplaying. However, I don’t think that they’ll be able to completely abandon their professional backgrounds even during a game about an imaginary world.

Based on these principles, my overall design concept is an RPG styled after a board game. There are board games based on RPGs and I know that some of my friends have expressed interest in them. But while the designs of those games seem to have adopted the same or similar principles, for the most part they focus on monsters and combat. I think a game with more sophisticated challenges, plots, and characters would be of greater interest to my group. It’s certainly what I’m interested in.

At the other end of the spectrum is the story-game crop of modern roleplaying games. I’m amazed at the innovation in these games. However, I’m not, and I don’t think my friends are either, the artistic, explore-your-emotions type of people. A game about character development (as in personality and emotions) exclusively—with no or minimal plot—would not go over well. Still I plan to draw heavily on story games for inspiration. Improv, acting, and extensive speaking in character—no. But sophisticated representations of social situations—yes.

In fact, I think that there are strong parallels between story games and board games. In pursuing a more sophisticated approach to modeling behaviors, personalities, and social interactions, story games often treat a character’s mental state or motivation as a resource—one that may be depleted and restored over time. Other aspects of play are also treated as a resource in some story games. For example, a persistent shared dice pool could represent limited reserves of luck, money, loyalty, or political influence.

These mechanics are similar to what you see in modern Euro-style board games, which place a heavy emphasis on managing resources. Employing them in my roleplaying game design will hopefully make it easier and more enjoyable for my friends.

Other board game inspirations that I think may help me meet my design goals include:

• Accessories or props to minimize record keeping for characters. For example, cards or tokens to be placed with character record sheets would represent wounds.

• The ability to declare victory when a certain goal is met. The potential for a definitive end (win or lose) might provide my players with some comfort regarding the time commitment required.

• Multiple paths to victory. In traditional roleplaying games, character advancement is achieved by accumulating experience points, which are used to purchase skill advancement. But in Euro-style board games, the measure of success is victory points, which can be earned many different ways at the same time. Explicitly measuring success with multiple factors in a roleplaying game adds a strategic element to the game and may also help with players who have somewhat different interests. For example, a player interested in business can focus on the character’s wealth, while the player interested in politics can focus on developing a character’s power and influence. Game mechanics may provide a method for comparing the two approaches.

With a general approach set, the next step is an outline.