Mind The Gap - A space opera

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Mind The Gap - A space opera

Post by Dave Syrinx »

Hi guys!
I'm working on a scenario idea using The Gap Cycle by Stephen Donaldson.

The players are misfits of the Sol system, acting as scrap pirates and scoundrels. Cyber crime and a fight for power at United Mining Companies Police (UMCP) are part of the scenario. The criminal elements of the game will drag the players deeper down the black hole of the human mind.

Image

Would you be interested in joining some space opera? You'd be joining one of the crews on salvage missions for one of the captains of a salvaging ship.
Three crew members/criminals have reported for duty so far.

Game system- undecided - not really important
Posting frequency - once per day/ every other day, spikes over the weekends.

Regards, Dave
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Re: Mind The Gap - A space opera

Post by Mr. Handy »

Ooh, yes, please! 8-) I love the Gap Cycle, and I definitely want to play in this.
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(viewforum.php?f=191)]The Ninth Planet
The Shadow Over Dunwich
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Re: Mind The Gap - A space opera

Post by Rooter »

Dave, what happened to The Loopers?
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Re: Mind The Gap - A space opera

Post by Dave Syrinx »

Hi Wruter!
I think I got so excited by the book I was reading, so I thought it would make a good RP.
Truth be told, The Free League is creating a sourcebook on The Loopers right now. So, I
guess I didn't pull through on that one.

It's easy to get an idea and try to run with it.

Sadly, my work situation took a tumble, and I never got around to properly launch my
Loopers game.

The same happened with the Fallout experiment. And some other past escapades...

But as some great talker said.

It's better to have tried to keep an RP alive,
than to never having tried at least three times, and failed.
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Re: Mind The Gap - A space opera

Post by Dave Syrinx »

And, apologies, Wruter, to roping you up for that game and leaving you hanging with a "welcome" and never again posting in that game.
Bad form and a perfectly viable reason to not trust my projects to work.

I'd be glad to have you around for another round in this game instead.

/Dave
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Re: Mind The Gap - A space opera

Post by Dave Syrinx »

So, we'll be operating in the universe of Donaldson's world with the United Mining Corporation being the lead star of the Sol System.
While UMC has competitors, none is as large an all encompassing as UMC and its police force.

Image

Attempts to find planets to colonize in others systems are being made, but with time being a factor, and speed, attempts are sparse and rarely with a positive outcome.
To sign on to FTL, faster than light travel, is to sign a one way trip to the rest of your life.

Or simply a fast way to see your life flame flutter out.

It's a gamble.

A gamble that will provide your family with a great future, without misery and poverty.

We will not be reenacting the events of The Gap trilogy. We just visit the setting.

We begin small, with the micro cosmos that is the ship of the player characters.

It's up to you to design how the ship should be. What kind of quarters you need. What roles you need to have on board. Where your home base is located. What's your current situation is like.

I'll open up the mess room for discussion and game set up.

Only your imagination sets the barriers of your ship and the status it's in.

A few pointers:

You do need a captain. Who is the leader?
Who do you work for? UMC or a free agent? (As in smuggler/pirate/thief.)

The currency in Mind The Gap is scrap metal from salvaged ships along with the cores from the drives. Also, mining resources are valuable if you can sell them.
Third, to explore the unknown can be valuable. Distress signals can be your ticket to the good life!

Alien life forms found in The Gap will be treated as a biotech species with a hive mind. This life form, The Amnion, will be living in hives and spread like mould. It's alive and can take control over other living beings but not killing them. Just seizing their intelligence and harboring the mind of the host to the collective of the parts of the hive.
A telltale sign of an Anmion hive is the blue crystalline 'mould'. For reference, see The Expanse, TV series on SyFy channel.

I'm tempted to use the Sol map from said TV series. What do you think about that?

To sum up. You need to pick a name and role at the ship as well as a location for said ship.
Also, your affiliation. UMC or illegal.

The most important thing is to collectively draw a floor plan of your ship. Give the ship a name and a purpose.
I hope that during this process, we'll get to know the universe in which we will be playing grows forth.

Welcome to your future!
1OIXA8MxxZrztrjjRbxlzBSzAU5.jpg
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Re: Mind The Gap - A space opera

Post by Dave Syrinx »

The pre game forum is up!

viewforum.php?f=405
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Re: Mind The Gap - A space opera

Post by Dave Syrinx »

@Mr.Handy, how was the event/con?
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Re: Mind The Gap - A space opera

Post by Mr. Handy »

It was a lot of fun, thanks! I played in a few LARPs, including the deadly finale to the Game of Thrones LARP campaign (I died, but I was far from alone) and two Cthulhu Live LARPs. I was also in plenty of tabletop RPGs and a few board games.

I can't access the pre-game forum, and it isn't visible on the home page.

I also get a lot of scenario and campaign inspirations, but I don't get to run most of them. I've learned how much work it is to keep a game going, and I don't start one unless I'm sure I can see it through to the end. Zombie Apocalypse and Space Oddity only ended prematurely because all of the players stopped posting, but they were very long-running games. I've also learned the hard way not to run more than one game at a time, which means my Doctor Who/Call of Cthulhu campaign is it for the foreseeable future.
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(viewforum.php?f=191)]The Ninth Planet
The Shadow Over Dunwich
The Brotherhood of Death
The Horror in the Blackout
The Masque of Nyarlathotep
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Re: Mind The Gap - A space opera

Post by carnage_lee »

Roger BW and Michael Cule have some very pertinent things to say about games set in the military (or more correctly games set within a chain-of-command) in last months (Watching Robert Go Geeble) episode of their excellent Improvised Radio Theatre - With Dice podcast.

Well worth a listen, especially as Roger is running a campaign called 'Wives and Sweethearts' (the Royal Navy in Space').
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Re: Mind The Gap - A space opera

Post by Dave Syrinx »

I'll sure have a listen, Lee. Thanks!
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Re: Mind The Gap - A space opera

Post by carnage_lee »

That episode has a great 'wtf' moment at the start where Michael takes off Ken Hite - made me laugh.... ohh it's a Friday today - KARTAS will be out later :)
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Re: Mind The Gap - A space opera

Post by Dave Syrinx »

Image
The Sol System
Beside the celestial bodies, there are 171 moons orbiting the planets. Enough to explore for a lifetime. Add to that, 750 000 asteroids of 1000 meters in diameter, enough to hold valuable ore, for sure. The number of larger asteroids in the belt, larger than 100 kilometers in diameter, is 200. Those could hold entire stations for organizations or troublemakers.

If we're not talking natural rocks, we could add man made structures, geostationary satellites could be placed at lagrange points in orbit around planets or planetoids.

Talking about minor planets of the Sol System, there are 723 367 minor planets, out of 20 346 have official names while 480 806 have an assigned planetary number.
This makes space feel quite large, even if we stay inside the small Sol system.

So, there's no real need to extrapolate and try to reach for the starts, just yet.

Some of these asteroids are Ceres, Vesta and Eros.

A list of names for the asteroids are here, should you need a location to be named: http://www.astro.com/swisseph/astlist.htm

A list of the proper moons of the Sol system can be found here: http://www.windows2universe.org/our_sol ... table.html
Eros,_Vesta_and_Ceres_size_comparison.jpg
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Re: Mind The Gap - A space opera

Post by Dave Syrinx »

So, while we have an issue at hand to assign ranks of the UMCP and the Terran Naval Force, TNF, we do need to pick a home base for the crew.
The construction of the ship is handled in the game forum.

Where would you guys want the ship to dock at?
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Re: Mind The Gap - A space opera

Post by carnage_lee »

Ceres would possibly make a good base within the asteroid belt, otherwise one of the Martian moons - if the game were focussed on 'asteroid mining'.
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Re: Mind The Gap - A space opera

Post by Dave Syrinx »

Yes, that is the idea. But I'm open to new suggestions.
We start small with the pantry and location of the ship.

I just need to get a crew together. 8-)
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Re: Mind The Gap - A space opera

Post by Dave Syrinx »

Image
Topographical map of Ceres.
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Re: Mind The Gap - A space opera

Post by Dave Syrinx »

Occator crater on Ceres.
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Re: Mind The Gap - A space opera

Post by Mr. Handy »

Ceres gets my vote as well, especially since it's right there in the belt. Not only are Mars's two moons, Phobos and Deimos, further away, but they are extremely tiny. While Jupiter has many moons of decent size, it is much too far from the belt.

I can now get to the game forum, but it isn't visible or accessible when I'm not logged in.

I've used chains of command with characters in Zombie Apocalypse and in The Ninth Planet, but of course those were unusual settings. In ZA, things were breaking down, and the chain was supposed to break too. In The Ninth Planet, there's much paranoia and intrigue, with lots of room to maneuver. Characters with lower ranks could still hold a lot of influence and power over those of higher ranks. The NPCs outranked all of the PCs in that game, but the PCs still had plenty of chances to do what they wanted - especially when the NPCs were struggling against each other. Mutinies and power struggles happened in both games.
Doctor Who/CoC Campaign:
(viewforum.php?f=176)The Terror Out of Time
(viewforum.php?f=191)]The Ninth Planet
The Shadow Over Dunwich
The Brotherhood of Death
The Horror in the Blackout
The Masque of Nyarlathotep
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Re: Mind The Gap - A space opera

Post by Dave Syrinx »

Oh, I've not set the user groups properly. I believe an update has made a change in how forums are created. I'll see about tweaking the settings.
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