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aking Space Voyages Interesting Those long treks between stars can be over in an instant or they can spread out over days depending on what galaxy you’re in. In any case, the PCs will be spending time onboard starships and the words “right, you’re there” might work in some respects but hardly help the players suspend their disbelief.
There are a few things you can do to make the journey interesting:
Ask what the players will be doing for the duration and describe the journey in detail. If there’s nothing important happening just give a description.Comment from Johnn: to ensure the description is interesting, focus parts of it on the PCs, based on their stated activities: What do they succeed in learning? (i.e. they’re studying/practicing new skills or using scientific instrumentation to monitor local space) What is the result of their hobbies? (i.e. PC wins twice against the computer, but loses 23,867 times, or a small garden begins to thrive.) What minor events not worth roleplaying occur that the PCs deal with? (i.e. a ship repair, letters from home.) If the journey is a long one then get some interaction going between the players and NPCs. Conversations so that the game up to that point can be reviewed and plans made. Describe the hum of the deckplates, the flashing of the panel lights, the swirl of the stars outside the hull. Create a problem. An NPC turns out to be dangerous, an alien life form is loose on the ship, the vessel is attacked or hits something. Whole scenarios can be played out with panic on a starship and makes for some genuinely scary games – after all, where can the PCs run to? Choose a starship with character: The vessel is old and broken and a cause for concern. The vessel is new and expensive and woe betide anyone who scratches it. It’s huge and glamorous, like a liner, with plenty of games, shows, NPCs – and intrigue. It’s a battleship, crisp and clean. The ship is a pirate vessel, hunted and feared. The vessel’s so alien that the PC’s don’t know what to make of it! Give the ship some internal character, like a gurgling conduit that everyone knows if they tap it it’ll stop. The names of vessels are important, too. What ship would you board? The Soaring Angel or the Third Time Lucky? Add to that the fact that names can be deceiving… Creating, GMing, And Role-Playing Aliens Creatures from outer space! How can a GM effectively portray something that has no place in human consciousness? Well, in truth, they can’t, but here are a few ideas on how to give your aliens that slight edge that makes them seem out of this world.
Concept. What is the alien’s purpose? Is it part of a human-like society or is it a beast with teeth and claws? This is like giving a alien an intelligence level, from the ignorant beast to the highly developed being. Visual. What does it look like? Mammal, Reptile, Amphibian? Natural history books and even tomes about dinosaurs is a must – you can get some great visualisations and simply saying “it looks like a walking ant” can do the trick. Personality. Is it friendly, with human traits? What does it like or dislike? Aliens might have a moral outlook on life that vastly differs from human, such as finding gladiatorial games acceptable or eating their mate!To the alien where this is perfectly normal there might be a PC moral conflict there. Basic emotions might be shared, such as love, anger, hate, but how the alien acts on these feelings might be different. Perhaps the aliens don’t know the concept of hate, or lying? Just a few notes on what the alien understands can make a lot of difference. Society. What kind of world does the alien come from? Is it a democracy, a dictatorship, or even some kind of monarchy? Perhaps the world has no leaders and they simply live there. Maybe they share a hive mind and only function as a group. The aliens’ environment can also make an impact on how they act and react, or how they view their surroundings or fellows. Sound and movement. Do they have any physical traits you can re-create yourself. A tic, maybe. Or perhaps they have arms that bend in different ways when they converse. Perhaps heads and limbs jerk with insect-like movements, or they permanently have their mouths down-turned like they are constantly upset.Remember that giving the alien personality is the key thing but personality must also be influenced by the aliens’ environment and view on life.You don’t want men in rubber masks with quirky things that make them appear like aliens – you want a fleshed out being or creature with a reason for existence. Think of it this way – you’re a TV show with a limitless budget – don’t restrain yourself. How To Create Space Campaigns If You’re From A Fantasy Background The truth is, designing a space-based campaign is relatively simple and follows pretty much the same rules as a fantasy- based campaign. You have your plot, your setting, your players, and your goals.It can also help to think of the 2D to 3D rule – in a fantasy game you’re pretty much limited to a 2D landscape, trekking across fields and woodlands and over mountains fighting and being a hero. In space games you’re in a 3D world, where you can also go up – far, far up.
What is the difference between two kingdoms and two planets? Nothing, other than the means of transport to get to either one. Change the horse to a hovercraft, change the tall ship to an interstellar spacecraft and you’re already half way there.Then you’ve got the technology. Most of it is window dressing so don’t worry about what it does. How does it work? Who cares? As long as it does what it’s supposed to do then it doesn’t matter.Then swap swords for blasters, bows for plasma guns, shields for energy protectors.
A suit of armour can be a power suit, a catapult a piece of plasma artillery. Your castles are your fortresses, your dungeons your mountain research complexes, your way stations your space stations.
Wizards become psychics, necromancers become re-animation scientists, alchemists are simple chemists. Your orcs, elves and lizard men are your aliens; your dragons, demons and wyverns are your beasts on the moons and on the unexplored planets.
Kings are Stellar Emperors. Knights are Space Marines. And your lowly kitchen boy is the floor sweeper on an interstellar starship, blasting from star to star with an eye for discovery and adventure. The two are not that different. There are very few things to change, except for the following:
It’s handy to have some knowledge of what lies between the stars; nebulae, asteroids and the like. This is mainly for descriptive purposes but can be handy in certain situations. Make sure you’re familiar with the setting and what the players can/cannot do in general terms. Many technical questions will be asked and can be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but there’s bound to be surprises. Have the available locations handy. With faster than sound planetary travel and faster than light space travel the PCs can get to where they’re going pretty quickly. Be descriptive. In fantasy games the landscape is quite standard and easy to visualise, but in sci-fi there can be an infinite amount of alien worlds and settings in space that are vastly different from our own world. Even if you just say the grass is brown and the sky is pink – alien landscape. In time you will be talking of natural glass spire formations, crystal waterfalls, acid lakes, and phosphorous clouds without a second thought…