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[GiglameshDespair]

You could make Orcs the middle child, jack of all trades, which might be why they aren't succeeding as well as the other three, have Dwarves primarily use technology, and humans primarily use Spirits. *shrug*

Hmm. I've never been overly fond of a race being "like the others, but not so much".
Dwarves aren't really advancing, but they're not going back, either, and that sort of static endurance doesn't really fit with them having the most technology.

Spirits by themselves are too limited to really base a civilisation on in the ocean of stars, as well, so tech allows an alternative to demons in some cases they'd otherwise lack.

I want to make a game where the primary gimmick/feature is lag. Almost certainly strategy game, but basically, it takes a turn to receive reports and a turn for orders to reach their targets. So your orders are based on the orders you gave last turn, and the report you just received, which should help inform how this turn might go, and you send orders based on how you think it should go now.

This applies to both your opponent and you. It's sorta about OODA loops, and how chaotic battles really get when you don't have perfect communications, but mostly I think it's a neat idea.

My first idea was for it to be space-ship battles, with speed-of-light limitations causing the lag, but fantasy or medeival could work pretty well. I would need to keep unit mechanics fairly simple, and make positioning important, for it be effective, and I couldn't easily do it as part of a larger strategy game without slowing down 'overworld' game too much though, which makes me wonder how I can really balance it at all effectively, or have more than like two players. :/

That does sound interesting, though more of a 1v1 sort of thing rather than a big thing with lots of players.

[Twinwolf]

Player versus Player, most likely. Possibly Team versus Team, though that would get complicated fast and I would feel uncomfortable about the possibilities of spying on the enemy's orders.

So, you PM the players their reports, they PM you their orders- and perhaps messages to other players, if it's more than two?-, they post confirmation that their PMs are done in the thread, and then you post the results that would be known to everyone in the thread?

[IronyOwl]

Hmm. I've never been overly fond of a race being "like the others, but not so much".
Dwarves aren't really advancing, but they're not going back, either, and that sort of static endurance doesn't really fit with them having the most technology.

Yeah, I wouldn't really go for a fourth race just because "there's usually four races." Technically there's room for desperate outcasts if you wanted to exile something to the barely-livable ice reaches, but with elves handling the raiding they wouldn't really be doing anything.

Thoughts? Do you know of any good god game systems I could use? I kinda see this as a Cyberpunk God Game, just replace gods with CEOs.

I do not know of any god game-ish systems, though RTD is nice for a certain level of hilarity.

My first idea was for it to be space-ship battles, with speed-of-light limitations causing the lag, but fantasy or medeival could work pretty well. I would need to keep unit mechanics fairly simple, and make positioning important, for it be effective, and I couldn't easily do it as part of a larger strategy game without slowing down 'overworld' game too much though, which makes me wonder how I can really balance it at all effectively, or have more than like two players. :/

Given that chaos and copious amounts of "oops" are the intent, I wouldn't worry too much about balance. Making a lot of area-based targeting and forced movement could result in a lot of hilarity, where you try to barrage an enemy position and a different enemy shoves you into your own field of fire, or a different enemy yanks your target to safety not knowing you were about to do his job for him.

You're right that it'd have to be simple, though, and not just for GM sanity. The idea is for the delay to cause all sorts of problems, not the base mechanics, which tends to work best with a bunch of simple parts that keep piling up in interesting ways.

[Rolepgeek]

Player versus Player, most likely. Possibly Team versus Team, though that would get complicated fast and I would feel uncomfortable about the possibilities of spying on the enemy's orders.

So, you PM the players their reports, they PM you their orders- and perhaps messages to other players, if it's more than two?-, they post confirmation that their PMs are done in the thread, and then you post the results that would be known to everyone in the thread?

Yeah.

Fog of War based on time, rather than space. Way easier that way. Although maybe both, that might be interesting.

I'd had an idea like the area-based targeting for a slightly different game, and I could definitely see how it would apply here/have to be used here. The forced movement I hadn't thought of, but seems like a really good idea.

Also a distinct forbidding of conditionals, for GM sanity and the spirit of the game, I think.

[GiglameshDespair]

Depends on the SG.

There's no reason why they can't be, but SGs have the issue of holding interest tends to be pretty difficult.

[IronyOwl]

Depends a lot on the specifics, in both instances. If you wanted to share we might be able to help in more detail.

[Parsely]

I'm thinking of doing a Tank Gladiators thing where future gladiators crew dated armored vehicles (1910-1950) in arena battles with different objectives. The fights end when all the crews on one side are dead, which means that occasionally battles can degenerate into dismounted combat. I'd probably aim for things to be somewhat simple.

Gun/Range table to determine your penetration value. X is the gun, Y is the range you're engaging at. Cross reference to find how many d6 you roll.
If you roll over the enemy's armor value for that part of his tank, you pen him, then consult the round's properties along with where the shot was aimed to see what dice you roll to determine internal damage. If not, it bounces.
HE shells don't roll pen, they just explode, and depending on the size of the shell versus the weight of your armor: your crew is stunned -> tank's external components are damaged -> the vehicle is thrown -> the vehicle is obliterated.

The players are either citizen volunteers who have privilege, or they're experienced and lucky gladiators who have earned the right to ride tanks by surviving. The slaves and criminals upon their initial entry sometimes act as tanks' infantry support.

[ATHATH]

If our tanks survive battles, can we upgrade them?

Can we board an enemy tank and drive around two tanks (on one team)?

[Parsely]

Yes.

Do you know how the range would work?

I want to avoid having to make a map, so I'm thinking that a tank has a fixed speed (50 meters/turn for example) and can add or subtract that to his range to a target at will. That would probably work for a 1v1, but with multiple tanks on a battlefield it would become too much to manage. I'll probably be forced to make a map and measure meters in pixels.

If our tanks survive battles, can we upgrade them?

Can we board an enemy tank and drive around two tanks (on one team)?

You can modify them as much as you want. Your crew is given a chassis and expected to maintain it. If your chassis isn't ready in time for a tournament then you're forced to act as infantry for that run as punishment. If you're popular enough you won't have to worry about that. Sponsors will try to keep you alive and inside the most expensive tank money can buy.

During a battle there are no rules, so you're free to leave your tank and board another one. And there won't necessarily be just one tank per team. It depends on the scenario.

[FallacyofUrist]

So very interesting.
But what if it wasn't restricted to 1900s tanks, but rather to player-designed and built armored vehicles?
Like Wacky Death Race. But not a race.

[Parsely]

So very interesting.
But what if it wasn't restricted to 1900s tanks, but rather to player-designed and built armored vehicles?
Like Wacky Death Race. But not a race.

Too much work. Real tanks can be quantified and their stats are easily available online.

[GiglameshDespair]

I rise this thread from the watery depths to ask a question. I want to run a relatively simple in mechanics d20 game.

I'd like your thought on the initial lore for it. Does this sound interesting? Do you have any suggestions?

Ocean of Stars, Fantasy Space Exploration

Long ago, the mortal races lived on a single world - the shell of the great earth goddess, Teryavere. But when her heart was broken, so deep was her grief that her very body broke and scattered to the heavens. The mortal races were cast out into the void - but they persevered, building ships that sailed the Ether and colonies to rebuild what was lost.
 
Life is preserved by the binding of spirits and demons, who provide gravity and air, heat and fertile soil. Such binding are possible through mana, mined from the rock or through the blood rituals of the elves.
 
It is a tumultuous time, but great profit and power can be seized by those willing to sail the Ocean of Stars...

Remember this?

Boom.

[Digital Hellhound]

Hello! I've come to show a game/setting idea I've been working on (for a long time, actually, on-and-off, but today I decided to work out a basic system). Let me know what you think/if there's interest.

Transhuman Solar System Shenanigans
Or; DH is still poor at picking good working titles

Welome to Sol! A century or two from now, humanity has spread, scattered and fragmented across our native system. The solar system hosts no unified empire to lead Mankind to the stars, nor does it have any center in Earth.  A bewildering variety of societies and cultures of Man, Machine and whatever strange beings they've created and uplifted to sapience co-exist in the light of the Sun, and in the dark reaches of the outer system, thousands of 'echoes', abandoned or simply isolated ships, stations and colonies wait to be plundered by those brave enough to breach them, and the attempts of said societies to find their way or just to struggle for power and influence generate enough troubles and opportunities to keep a million other ambitious souls busy.

In this time and place, augmentations and implants are everywhere, with all the consequences that implies. Players will step into the shoes of these brave new breeds of Transhumanity and its creations, seeking power, fame, glory, vengeance, answers, enlightenment, etc. and face all the marvels and secrets left lying about the place. Players are encouraged to go wild with their characters and their place in the world - an ordinary team might be composed of:

-A hard-as-nails cyborg cowboy from Mars.
-A shared mind community inhabiting the body of a teen girl.
-A petite, androgynous human with enough hidden armaments to level a city.
-A hovering, many-tentacled robot squid searching for the base code of God.
-A clone drifter embittered by memories of her countless deaths over the centuries.

Or such. A fuller backstory and overview of the world is below, as well as general mechanics things and other info.

This is a fairly soft scifi setting - I'm no scientist. Inspirations include; Dan Simmons' books, the Culture books, Hannu Rajaniemi's Quantum Thief books, Deus Ex and various cyberpunky things, and probably many others.

Spoiler: Backstory (click to show/hide)

How have we come to this? To begin with Earth; the birthplace of humanity is scarred, fallen, but far from gone. A century ago, it thrived, science and technology advancing in bounds and leaps with every passing year. Impossible things were handed out to Mankind with ever-increasing pace - immortality and perfect health, whether through mind uploading, cloning, longevity treatments or gene-modded bodies; ever-present connection and communication, achieved through a global information network spread through clouds of nanobots; advanced fusion; clean environments; true AIs; uplifting into sapience; colonies on Mars and beyond - utopia seemed within grasp.

But such rapid advancement brought its own demons. Weapons grew in power and complexity, but counter-measures against had no hope of keeping up. The exact incident or cause of the Rampancy is lost to history, but whether by design or incompetence, someone lost control of their experimental nanocloud weapon and found themselves quite unable to stop it.

So began the Descent. Rampant EMP nanotech began to creep into the data-sphere that enveloped the Earth, growing exponentially, evolving and learning beyond anything humanity had to fight it. It was a slow death, but death nevertheless. The nanotech destroyed all advanced technology it touched. It spread through rain, with storms, with ocean waves and wind, warping the weather and turning the very world against its children. Cities fell, then nations, then continents, all descending into darkness and silence. The complex marvels of technology that had upheld Earth's near-perfect cities and environment collapsed with catastrophic consequences. Where governments failed to act in time, the clouds detonated entire weapon stores, scarring the world with fire and radiation.

It took years, but no corner of the Earth survived untouched. An entire generation lived their life with the knowledge of inevitable, certain doom - but they did not simply stand and wait for the end. Those with vision began to build. Mankind had already built its first colonies on its sister planets and crowned Earth with artificial rings and stations; these would provide refuge for the masses below. Millions fled in great arks or stations thrown out into the void, building and using all manner of spacecraft.

As governments on Earth began to fall and their authority crumble, these colonies and refuges were left to make their own decisions. Many thought Earth a lost cause - colonials descended to Earth to loot surviving technology and infrastructure to ensure their own future, further adding to the chaos and devastation below. Others helped evacuate as many as they could, sometimes dooming themselves to infighting and overpopulation as a result.

Decades passed with Earth dark and cut off, ruled by the Rampancy, while across the solar system its many refugees hung on to life. Isolation and desperation led them to take strange paths; to survive in their new environments, these refugees changed themselves, transforming themselves with technology to a degree unseen in pre-Descent Earth. Colonies of AIs and robot workers, left uncontrolled and scattered, formed their own fledgling societies. Eventually, the Orbitals, inhabitants of the artificial rings over Earth built before and during the Descent over the world, descended back to the homeworld armed with breakthroughs in containment tech and purged the Rampancy from her skies - except for a few rogue clouds which still trouble Earth's people to this day.

Today, a century from the Descent, a bewildering variety of societies and cultures stand independent in whatever corner of the system they've claimed out for themselves, and millions travel between them, seeking power, wealth, fame, glory - or enlightenment, answers, meaning to existence, or stranger things. For Sol is a place of many marvels and many unknowns; countless stations and ships still wait in the outer reaches, dark, shut-off from outside eyes. Abandoned colonies, experiments, failed arks, hidden weapons, they hold their secrets in wait for anyone brave enough to claim them. There is always someone willing to pay for such things and always someone to take the job.

Spoiler: Overview (click to show/hide)

As stated, there's a large number of different societies, cultures, places filling up the solar system, often radically different from eachother. Some encompass millions, some only a handful. Starting from Earth, the most important ones are;

Earth
The Earthborn - also known as left-behinds, dusters, blighters, terras, and many other unfortunate titles - populate poor worn Earth under traditional, conservative governments, if any. The planet still suffers from the Descent, but the quality of life for most people is decent enough these days. Technology ranges from modern-day to futuristic, but never as high as off-world. Augments are rare and usually gifted by the Orbitals, or self-made and thus bulky and crude. Rogue rampant nanoclouds still hold back Earth's progress, falling without warning to damage technology.

Many Earthborn view the rest of humanity with resentment and suspicion, if not outright revulsion, though many others are eager to get out into the wider world to see all its marvels. Earth's nations are heavily dependent on the Orbitals, though the latter will claim they are sovereign and free to do as they wish. Parts of the world are rather savage, with anarchy and chaos reigning still.

In-game, choosing to play an Earthborn is a sort of self-imposed challenge. They'll start with no or few augs, mostly lower skills and pitying and disdainful attitudes from everyone else in Sol.

The Orbitals
Circling Earth are her Rings, massive artificial constructs composed of modular habitats and hidden, potent weaponry. The Orbitals who dwell within grew powerful and rich from their looting of Earth during the Descent, providing for a luxurious quality of life. Most everyday things are beyond scarcity and even starships are easily obtainable to just about anyone. Orbital society is almost carefree and hedonistic, as well as highly tolerant and diverse, with a high level of augmentation and change from the baseline human form throughout. Their society functions on a direct-democracy basis, with every issue voted on and put into effect through automated systems at a moment's notice.

Many Orbitals see themselves as the benevolent protectors of Earth and control access to and off the planet with almost jealous vigilance. Their superior attitude, possessiveness of Earth and general strangeness from widespread augmentation tends to alienate them from the rest of Sol fairly effectively, but when you're as powerful and advanced as they are, why worry?

The Orbitals are a sort of proto-Culture, happy to sit in glorious, luxurious detachment and hedonism at the heart of the solar system. Choosing to play an Orbital will ensure you'll start with nice augs and tech, with an added bonus for likely looking better than anyone else in Sol.

The Remnants
The descendants of those in the colonies established before the Descent, on the Moon, Mars, Titan and elsewhere. They are not an unified group, but they are characterized by a high level of adaptation to their native environments. They're generally thought to be a practical, pragmatic people, with practical augs, sacrificing looks for use and effectiveness. Though usually they still resemble baseline humans, exceptions exist - communities that have altered themselves radically to survive in high gravity, extreme temperatures, toxic air and so on. Some remnants live in isolated settlements, focusing on survival, but others have swelled to proportions nearing cities on pre-Descent Earth - the largest remnant city is Tharsis Anchorage on Mars, hosting tens of millions, with enormous shipyards, highly advanced technology and a quality of life on level with the Orbitals.

The Machines
As Earth thrived and then fell, it raised another race to stand beside Man. Robots, often called autos or automata, come in many forms and have spread through the solar system. Androids, created in Man's image, are often possessed by a strange spirituality and Obsession with humanity; they seek meanings and enlightenment much like those who created them. Much less human are the descendants of bots from mining collectives and industrial complexes, or even more alien beings such as nano-tech cloud-minds and unbound AIs, free from any physical shell. They coexist with Mankind with only occasional conflict, seeking to make their own path in this brave new world.

Playing a robot is not so different from playing a (trans)human, though many augs and implants function slightly differently given the lack of flesh and blood.

Outsolars/Silents/Echoes
Only a group for convenience's sake, outsolars are the isolated ships, colonies and stations in the far reaches of the solar system that have little to do with the rest of its inhabitants. Some of these places are fiercely isolationist and shut-off by choice, others are failed and damaged, barely even aware of a wider world. Often home to radical transhuman experiments, hostile isolationists, regressed tribals, scientific communes turned religious orders by centuries of dogmatic repetition, and colonists so changed to survive their new environments they are scarcely recognizable as human. Some host powerful pre-Descent weapons and technology highly valued by the powers of Sol.

Players can't really play echoes, except ones who have left their homes behind and joined greater Solar society. Those might prove... interesting.

These are the largest groups - there are plenty of minor stations, wandering ships, hive mind communes, individual experiments etc. in civilized Sol that the players can hail from.

Spoiler: Mechanics (click to show/hide)

General

I've somehow ended up with a d20 system. Actions have difficulty ratings that you must pass to succeed. I'm also considering having nat 20s and 1s be crit successes and failures.

Characters have skills and abilities, the latter mainly coming from the augmentations and implants they might have. Every action uses some Skill, and if characters have a level or several in a Skill, they gain a bonus to those rolls. List of Skills below - I might still add to this list, and if you see any glaring holes, feel free to suggest. I'm trying to avoid having too many, though.

Code: (Skills) [Select]

Starship:
Combat Navigation (combat manouevers, dodging attacks, moving about)
Gunnery (targeting and firing shipboard weapons)
Electronic Warfare (disrupting enemy systems, missiles, breaching security)
Sensors (using and interpreting ship sensors and scans)
Void Engineering (understanding, modifying, repairing ship components)
Void Navigation (travelling through Sol outside combat, including attempts at stealth)

Personal Social:
Charm (smooth-talking, seducing, giving a good impression)
Intimidation (scaring the shit out of people)
Deception (would also include disguises, I imagine)

Personal Body/Physical Skills:
Senses (using the senses)
Endurance (resisting fatigue, tolerating pain, shock, stamina)
Strength (being stronk, lifting things, hitting harder)
Agility (dodging, body control, jumping about)

General:
Stealth (moving silently, using the shadows, blending in)
Hacking/Data Tech?/Systems Use? (accessing, manipulating, coding software systems) <[i]Need a better name for this - it's not really hacking if you're defending your own data, for example[/i]
Piloting (operating personal/non-starship vehicles, incl. dodging, combat manouvering in them)
Engineering (understanding, modifying, repairing mechanical parts and systems)
Science (understanding and use of the sciences)
Knowledge [x] (knowledge about Sol, its societies, locations, etc.)
Tech Artifice (creating augs and technology)
Command (leading, organizing others)
Medicine (first aid, healing)

Combat
Combat is pretty basic; turn-based, with characters taking an action each turn. I've aimed for relatively simple. When a character attacks, they roll a d20, with a bonus if they have a level in that Skill (either Aim or Melee, unless I change things up a bit). The target rolls to dodge, with a bonus from Agility if they have a level or several in it. If the attacker's roll is greater, they hit, if not, they miss. After hitting, the attacker deals damage and any additional effects their weapon might have. In melee combat, levels in Strength grant bonus damage, as you might expect.

Characters have HP, damage reductions from armor or other protections, etc - nothing overly complicated. Weapons have a number of stats (Damage, Range, Clip Size, etc.) and traits (Disrupting - ignores x levels of Energy Resistance, Stunning - target must take x Difficulty Endurance roll, etc.).

Starship combat is still being worked on, but it's still based on similar rolls and damage, just a little more complicated.

Hacking
This is a world where most people are heavily augmented and full of connected, advanced technology. It stands to reason this is also a world where others will use that to their advantage.

Characters all have a Security rating, which determines how difficult it is to hack their augments and equipment. There's nothing like disabling your enemy before they can even get close to you by cutting power to their legs. Skilled hackers will be able to take control of a target's augments and turn them against them, to say nothing of manipulating machines and general electronical systems.

In space combat, hacking enemy ships and fighting Electronic Warfare can be more dangerous than just using your ship's weapons, though, of course, using both (breach their systems, disable their shields, slam in your torpedoes) will likely work out best of all.

Spoiler: Classes/Affinities (click to show/hide)

I'm not sure which to call these, heh. These aren't classes per se - you'll develop your character through the augs and equipment you acquire, mainly - but they do determine your starting augs/skills and grant some specialized unique/hard-to-get augs. The Affinities are:

Hardened (tough, hardy survivalists with augs ensuring they can withstand extreme environments, navigate difficult terrain and weather all kinds of attacks and conditions)
Tech-Head (hackers, data manipulators, these individuals have the knowledge and augs to slip into any system and mold it to their liking)
Jockey (short for 'void jockey', these are master starship pilots with augs focused on control and use of ships and other vehicles)
Operative (subtle and discreet, Operatives are auged up with technology of espionage, stealth and subterfuge)
Thinker (Thinkers are armed with knowledge and information, as well as augs boosting their intellect and social skills)
Destroyer (unsubtle and destructive, Destroyers have combat augs, direct killing power and an endless capacity for ass-kicking)

I'm thinking that each player chooses 2 Affinities at the start and gets to choose a powerful combo aug based on both of them. If you want to be a warship pilot, for example, you could go for a Jockey-Destroyer, or if you want that extra protection and security for your tech, you could go for a Hardened-Tech Head. The combo augs are things like a Tech Head-Operative's Watcher Code [Looses fast-spreading surveillance programs into the proxnet. These programs infiltrate all open networks in range and spread outwards. The further they range, the less detail is transmitted.], a Jockey-Hardened's Void Cocoon [Should you end up void-borne, protective crafted skin will swell up from these implants and ensure your survival for months, if needed.] or a
Destroyer-Thinker's Killpoint Node [This neural implant identifies weak points in targets, allowing the user to strike with precision and for massive damage.]

This is all a bit rambling and such, but if you read it, I'll appreciate it. Suggestions, questions, comments welcome.

[GiglameshDespair]

Hello Eclipse Phase

More serious, that does look interesting.

[Digital Hellhound]

Funnily enough, I'm not familiar at all with Eclipse Phase other than a vague awareness of similar concepts and themes. I don't really mind - they're also in the books and other inspirations I mentioned. That said, I probably should get familiar with Eclipse Phase, it might be right up my alley.