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RPG Laboratory

Rough Drafts

Submitted by Chainsaw Aardvark on Wed, 2006-12-06 16:05. |

Ok, I'm sorry if its taken over a month to get these things out here. I normally don't work too fast, and spend weeks writing notes in my journals before I type anything. (Provided I type it up. There is probably 3-4 complete games in my journals, they just need to be put into a more readable format than my handwriting!)

At first, I wanted to take a different approach to this setting, and show everything through prose - no third person semi-omniscient tour guide telling you who's who and what's what. Indeed, separating the fact from the fiction was part of the setting - is that description of what the aliens can do exaggerated, or downplayed by the officer?

However, given that it's incomplete at 9 pages - as long as some of my other games - I was beginning to doubt people would have much patience with this approach.

Thus I began work on a "GMs guide" (though normally I prefer everything in one book) that has the more traditional approach.

"Undead Fairy Tales" is the all story PDF, while the more conventional document is called "Cold Hard Truth".

Please, I would love to have some feedback about which approach to use and what you would like to see. These are still far from complete, but if I don't post now, you'll never see any of this till 2009.

‹ ReduxupRuby Ridge ›
» add new comment | by Chainsaw Aardvark | 848 reads

nice

Submitted by decreased on Fri, 2006-12-08 16:08.

I finally got around to reading all of both posts. I have to say I'm impressed (quality wise) and intriqued (story wise). I'm not sure how you are shooting for the story version to be view, but if it is meant as a document or recording that is assumed to be found by the players, it might be nice to see some parts missing (parts of one paragraph or the other end of one conversation). If its more of an oral history possibly more than one version. Just suggestions, I think it is good as-is just needs some typo corrections.

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Oral History or Historical?

Submitted by Chainsaw Aardvark on Fri, 2006-12-08 18:32.

Sorry, I msread your post and responeded incorrectly - ignore the italisized elemnts of this post (I'm loate to pemamently delete things)

I'm not entire sure which way I wanted it. Some of the stories are personal naritives, or things that might be kept secret, so I think its more of a source of inspiration outside the game, than something the Characters read. They might here parts of it in rumor, or be involved in similar situations.

Speaking of (mis)reading - what other stories would you like to see in this sort of work - or other places to view? I know its the "ugly american in me" but this is USA centric for the most part. Albeit the Type 5s seem to be more Russian, and Octobe is in Egypt.

The idea was rather than having a virtual tour guide, to only have set peice stories, and take what you would from them.

As such, my big question is - would you prefer to have an anthology of fiction to help inspire, or a specfic world atlas? Would you rather have a text book that outlines the exact funtioning of NEST, or be a fly on the wall during a town meeting held in one of the arcos?

There is a fine line between hobby and obsession. I seem to have lost sight of it some time ago.

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Both

Submitted by decreased on Mon, 2006-12-11 09:41.

I think there is definitely a place for both a factual and opinionated account. It gives the game more options in what is true, partially true, or an out-right lie. Even information presented as factual can be ignored in game play.

You may want to do some cut and dry facts on some aspects of the game. Many players would seek out objective books or literature on some elements (acros for example), which can be all the more fun when two "objective" books give different facts. Possibly add in some document sources or story origins: is the story from retrived (stolen) government documents or from a drunk at the local pub.

As for different stories: the people (either poverty-stricken or wealthy) in a "developing" (exploited) nation, the aliens (what they think, how the attack is going, etc), someone who exploited the situation for personal gain.

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Wrong quote attribution

Submitted by SheikhJahbooty on Thu, 2006-12-07 03:35.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from Magic."

That's from Arthur C. Clark. It doesn't mention it in the article but I think there was even a formula that expressed the ratio between the possible accuracy of a science fiction writer, the length of time into the future the story takes place, and the rate at which qualitatively new technological breakthroughs occur. (farther off into the future, more likely some unimaginable tech will be invented {like the internet}, less likely your story will describe anything approaching reality.)

Personally, I've always been a big fan of epistolary format, letters, documents, and records written or dictated by characters within a setting.

Therefore I like the cold hard truth better, since it reads more like that, more like documents detailing the abilities of these things as if they were real.

And my favorite part of the fairy tales was the part about the aliens because it was like a xenoanthropologists account of his life and studies, and the part about the state of the world.

Incidentally, this predisposition for epistolary format is also why my future history reads like the instructional documentaries from Fantastic Planet.

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