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[10ebbor10]

Just as a note, I have systems in place for all of those things. They might take some time to attach to RTD mechanics, and some other foci might need to be added, but they might serve as a good starting point.

[Tsuchigumo550]

-snip- Emergency! But In Australia And Crazy -snip-

This sounds pretty good, and I'd totally play it.

-snip- KSP RTD -snip-

But this one made me squee, particularly since my computer can no longer handle KSP. If I had more time I'd dive right into trying to come up with some mechanics for it, but since I'll be going to work soon I'll just throw out a couple ideas that immediately sprang to mind.

Experienced Pilots- As pilots complete missions, they gain experience which makes them better at some of the aspects of piloting a giant rocket (atmosphere flight/maneuvering, orbital flight/maneuvering, mechanical repair, etc.) The idea being that there should be some reason to incorporate safety features, amusing as it might be to wantonly slaughter hordes of Kerbals.

Mission Mechanics- Right off the bat, if I were doing this I'd have crew actions and design rolls be the standard 1d6 you've got there, but have "does the command capsule separate properly" type rolls be 2d6- this allows you to be more generous with bonuses, and also introduces a deviation curve that may allow design flaws to persist unnoticed for quite some time.

Research- Definitely something I want, not sure if there's a satisfying way to do it. To explain, in my mind Research is a way to get more money for each flight (as scientific institutions pay you money to conduct orbital research) and also a way to unlock special materials and/or new components for better performance and more options. Still very tenuous on that one, since if it makes it in it can't undercut the core design mechanic.



Ohh, so many ideas buzzing around my head for this now. I'll be back.

Research could also work as a limited bonus: if you do research on thrusters, your next propulsion system has a 1/2 chance of getting a +1. Still blindly. So there's an OK chance of doing something good. It's madness!

[monk12]

Okay, so, in order to figure out what all stats parts need (and what can go wrong with them during flight,) I needed to know what happens and when. The following is a general outline of how a mission might progress. Since the focus of the game is designing and testing parts, the specific organization of the different stages is left to the imagination of the player, or maybe an overall rocket design roll to tie all the parts together.

Spoiler: Missions (click to show/hide)

Now that you have a rocket that may or may not work, and a pilot that may or may not be adequately trained, it's time to pierce the heavens! The following is a general format for how a mission progresses. Simple missions that take less than a week to execute (pretty much anything up to and including a Munar landing) are simulated in the course of a single turn- assuming nothing goes wrong, which is probably too much to hope for.

Launch Stage

This is the very first stage for most missions, and incorporates all the processes needed to get a rocket off of the ground and out of the atmosphere. First, the Kerbals are sealed in and life support is turned on- failure here may simply reduce the time the crew can spend in space, it may fail utterly and make a space launch suicide, or it may fail catastrophically and kill everyone. If all systems are go, a check is made to see how effectively the rockets fire- failure here can instantly cripple a mission. Next, a check is made to see whether any instrumentation fails- failure here may impose penalties on the rest of the mission, depending on what specifically happens. Finally, a check is made to see whether the pilot successfully guides the rocket on its path to the stars- failure here may make orbital maneuvers difficult or impossible, or cause the ejected stages to land on innocent civilian Kerbals.

Space Stage

Missions that have reached this stage are now outside the atmosphere of their planet. There are a few different things astronauts may attempt to do here, but if they do not want to fall straight back to the planet the pilot must initiate orbital maneuvers. Astronauts first attempt to activate the decouplers to separate the first stage- failure to do so makes it impossible to achieve an orbit or escape velocity without dangerously firing the second stage while the first is still attached, and makes reentry much more difficult. Once the launch stage is clear, astronauts wishing to fly further must make a check to be sure the orbital engines fire properly- failure makes orbit or escape velocity impossible. If all goes smoothly, the pilot makes a check to maneuver into either an orbit or an escape trajectory- failure may result in unexpected reentry (a dicey proposition,) unintentional/undesirable orbit, or escape trajectory if the craft has the capability to do so.

Once in orbit, astronauts do whatever they were sent to do using whatever equipment is required for the task. Life support systems are taxed, and a check is made to be sure they hold up to sustained use. Often, orbital thrusters are needed to maneuver the craft for picture taking or what have you, and if used they are checked. Any other equipment used is checked as well, and pilot checks are needed for delicate tasks or precise maneuvering.

Reentry Stage

This stage involves everything that has to do with falling back to the surface. First, if the craft is not on a reentry trajectory the pilot must maneuver into one- failure may result in wasted fuel (possibly denying the possibility of reentry) or it may result in an unintended landing zone (like somebody's house.) Once a craft is reentering, a check is made to ensure that the heatshield and structural integrity of the craft holds up- failure often results in partial or complete destruction of the reentry craft.

What comes next depends a great deal on how the astronauts plan to touch down. Astronauts relying on the good ol' "parachute into the ocean" plan need merely to engage the parachute and see whether it deploys. Astronauts in a shuttle or riding a rocket instead have to do quite a bit of fancy maneuvering, with checks to all involved systems as always.

Most things players will be doing will be either "do stuff to get off your rock," "do stuff while you're off your rock," and "do stuff to get back onto your rock or another rock," so I think the general format will be used with whatever order and repeats need to happen to accommodate the mission plan. Lots of dice to roll, but it shouldn't be too bad since it's pass/fail, and once things go south you need to contact Mission Control anyway to see what they want to do.

How's it look so far? Am I forgetting steps/equipment? Am I just super dumb and should go back to dating pigeons? I'll definitely have to go through this again once I start making up equipment stats, I just figured this would be the best starting point.

[Person]

This seems pretty good so far. Remember that it may be possible repair some parts, even those outside the craft with some luck. Maybe people will start making spare parts to bring up. Obviously not all of your pilots will have engineering experience, but with guidance from those on the planet, they might have some help. Rolls could be used for that too of course.

[lawastooshort]

Oh crikey.

So I saw this trailer for this film the other day, and naturally a short while later I thought OH GOSH.

A GOOD DAY TO DIE TO ROLL HARDER OR SOMETHING

Basically, the players would be four of the american law enforcement agents to whom this shit ALWAYS HAPPENS, or whatever the line is, and they have to complete simple tasks like go to the store and buy milk.

BUT THIS SHIT ALWAYS HAPPENS TO THEM, and so of course a bunch of INTERNATIONAL TERRORISTS try to foil them.

The terrorists could be played by other players or by suggestion, it could all be anonymised (or not) and the Bruce Willises would win by buying their milk, and the terrorists would win by killing the player they were matched against. The terrorists would have minions and the cops would be able to call the cops. Possibly.

Even more basically, four cops would try to buy milk in New York whilst four international terrorist organisations tried to kill them, probably laughably incompetently and with massive collateral damage.

[Xantalos]

Yes. Yes. All my yes. I took a loan from the yes bank to convey sufficient yes.

[lawastooshort]

A GOOD DAY TO DIE TO ROLL HARDER OR SOMETHING

Yes.

I haven't decided yet how much this is a silly throw-away idea or how much it would actually be awesome and I should totally do it. It would require a bit of thought and I have another non-throw-away idea that I am working on, so.

[10ebbor10]

@ Monk: That's one whole lot of rolls, actually.

[kilakan]

I was recently thinking about a magic-heavy RTD in which the players are fledgling magic users who if caught will be hunted as witches/sorcerers/evil magic users ect.  Regardless of the type of magic they can do, even the 'light' mages would be hunted and put to the torch if caught.

As well I'd be doing it more as a forum game in that I won't tell any of the players what they roll for any given event or action, so that they never really know if their spell or enchantment is going to work as intended or just blow up in their face at some future point.

For long term goals/story progress I was planning on having other mages emerge within the populace who actively embody what the people fear, evil wizards who set about to kill and cause destruction or enslave the world.  On the other hand if the players took that route themselves then it'd be only natural for enemies to rise against them who have similar powers.

Any ideas on this anyone?  Is it a topic that has been done so much as to be run into the ground?

[Xantalos]

Is expect around half of the players to be outright evil, but I'd play.

[Tsuchigumo550]

Me too.

[kilakan]

Well that is a good idea... I mean if players were actively working against each other... hummm that could work nicely.

[Harry Baldman]

I was recently thinking about a magic-heavy RTD in which the players are fledgling magic users who if caught will be hunted as witches/sorcerers/evil magic users ect.  Regardless of the type of magic they can do, even the 'light' mages would be hunted and put to the torch if caught.

As well I'd be doing it more as a forum game in that I won't tell any of the players what they roll for any given event or action, so that they never really know if their spell or enchantment is going to work as intended or just blow up in their face at some future point.

For long term goals/story progress I was planning on having other mages emerge within the populace who actively embody what the people fear, evil wizards who set about to kill and cause destruction or enslave the world.  On the other hand if the players took that route themselves then it'd be only natural for enemies to rise against them who have similar powers.

Any ideas on this anyone?  Is it a topic that has been done so much as to be run into the ground?

It would have to have an interesting magic system. One of the systems I prefer is an element system - a magic user chooses one thing, and this thing is then a necessary component in any spell they cast. And you could add a layer on top of that - the narrower the element, the more powerful the magic. So you could be a Mage of Fire, which would sorta work, but you could also be the Mage of Spontaneous Nose Explosions, which would work gruesomely most of the time due to the narrowness of its definition. But maybe I'm suggesting it merely because I love silly gimmicks.

You could also try modular magic like Perplexicon, where you make a set of words that you can combine in many different ways to produce amusing effects. Though that's more difficult and requires a lot more thought than the first idea.

[kilakan]

Yeah I was definitely thinking along  the lines of a sphere/element system.  Say you could be an earth mage, but your specialty lies in rock/magma/dirt/plant ect.  So that your core spells revolve around one aspect of the larger sphere.  Though you still have access to weaker versions of the overall sphere, and with training possibly some basic spells from connected spheres.  Like say, you are an earth mage specializing in rock, you could bleed over into magma which would afford you some knowledge of the fire sphere, as long as it's related to molten rock.

[Kadzar]

-snip-

Yeah, I'd probably play in something like that.

Yeah I was definitely thinking along  the lines of a sphere/element system.  Say you could be an earth mage, but your specialty lies in rock/magma/dirt/plant ect.  So that your core spells revolve around one aspect of the larger sphere.  Though you still have access to weaker versions of the overall sphere, and with training possibly some basic spells from connected spheres.  Like say, you are an earth mage specializing in rock, you could bleed over into magma which would afford you some knowledge of the fire sphere, as long as it's related to molten rock.

Do you think it would work with the concept to have different mages using different methods to cast spells? There was one game in the main FG&RP section where a mage could either cast spells by writing runes or using martial arts or swords or capes. It could have been potentially really cool, but he made it into a "You are..." and combined the top suggestions for elements and casting methods to make a rune writer who cast air spells, which no one was happy with. But I think the concept would work rather well in a game where everyone got to make their own character.


In unrelated news, I came up with a cool idea for a magic system, which probably wouldn't work for this but would be its own thing, based on what I likely misunderstand of the Australian Aboriginal concept of Dreamtime.

So the way this works is, magic is a Gift, in a literal sense. Anyone who has magic has one or several powers or spells that they can freely give to whoever they please or trade it if they want. It's almost like a metaphysical item that can only exist in human (or demihuman, if they exist in the setting) bodies, needing close proximity to jump between bodies in an exchange. The one passing on a Gift doesn't even have to be alive to give it; if they will it to someone, that person can just stand near their remains for the exchange to happen.

Maybe there might be a way store a Gift outside of a body, probably only used for non-barter trade, since in that case anyone who has the thing that holds the power can just take it without its former owner's permission. It's much safer and easier, otherwise, to just transfer a Gift to a person, because thieves can't take gifts from bodies, dead or alive (this will be true in at least general sense, though probably not in an absolute one; there probably would be at least one thief in the world who is so skilled their craft that they can steal Gifts, but this would be a unique exception to the rule). Now I'm thinking professional merchants would need to either use these Gift storing items or hire people as holding bodies, as there would be a limit to how many Gifts one person can hold; either because so much power would be overwhelming or several gifts would come with certain taboos and restrictions attached to then that couldn't be followed simultaneously.

Now the reason these are called Gifts is that they were originally given to people by various powerful beings. So, for example, in the time before time, someone's great great great ect. grandfather helped some sort of spider spirit/god and she, in gratitude, gave him the Gifts of wall-climbing and talking to spiders. Then, somewhere down the line, another one of his ancestors catches and spares a magical fish and is given the Gift of water-breathing. And so, eventually, this great great great ect. grandson of these guys has kids, and, on his deathbed, he bequeaths the Gift of talking to spiders to his eldest, spider-climbing to the middle child, and water-breathing to the youngest, because they live in a desert now and youngest aren't supposed to get inherit anything that seems immediately useful.

And different families might have more or less Gifts available to them depending on how often they've come into contact with magic spirit animals. The Gifts given might also be more or less useful than these, depending on where they come from: there are some sprites that will give you the Gift to jump just a little bit higher if you just say hello to them; these make up the bulk of traded gifts. There are also some gifts that can either only be used a certain number of times before they're used up or ones that can only be used something like once a year or more.

I think this would be a pretty neat system, though I am worried about what would keep players from willing their powers to each other. I had considered the idea that only the first players would be given Gifts to start with, which seems unfair to later players. Alternatively, players might either start out with no Gift and have to obtain them in game, or they might have to roll on a chart to find out what gift, if any, they get. I'm not too happy with either of those ideas, but they're the best I can come up with right now.