03/27/22: Staging the World
I’ve had this idea for an ensemble (roleplaying) game for a while now. Haven’t put a ton of thought into it but this weekend I’ve been sick (test says not covid) so my gaming brain has been working on things other than my Friday or Sunday games. So, without further ado, here is what my brain has worked out so far:
_____
Create the setting together
Sit down together with the folks who are going to play on a regular basis and make up a setting together. I recommend starting with genre and drilling down from there.
Using my primary examples, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (the best modern Star Trek) or Babylon 5 (also near to my heart), the genre is science-fiction. From there we need to figure out how widespread our focus is (galaxy, several solar systems, one solar system, or a planet) and whether there will be aliens or not (uh, why wouldn’t you, if you aren’t playing The Expanse).
Once we’ve got those things sorted, we should figure out where, specifically, our main cast will be based and what, in general, is going on there.
That’s a lot. It’ll probably be a whole session, if not two.
_____
Create characters within your setting
Now that you’ve got the outlines of your setting, start talking about your Main Cast. The Main Cast is everyone’s primary character and, if this was a show (which is how I’m thinking about this) they are who your audience cares most about because they show spends most of their time following one or more of these characters around.
Creating your main cast should also start to tell everyone at the table what kind of game each person wants and will, or should, inevitably lead to a discussion about what characters are going to do and how they are going to interact. I’m going to hand-wave that for now because I can and also because I haven’t thought about it a lot.
Now that you’ve got your main cast, it’s time to start thinking about your supporting cast. Each person at the table should make two or three supporting cast members that have a relationship with their main cast member.
Big Note: Notice that I have intentionally not said anything about a game-master yet! Everyone should be making characters! If one person has chosen to permanently be the Runner for your game, that’s cool but they should also be making characters in case they change their mind or just because having more supporting characters is better.
Smaller note: If someone wants to be the Baltar then you are going to spend sometime, as a group, deciding whether you want a Baltar.*
*See also: Battlestar Galactica (2004)
For mechanical character creation, I’m thinking that each character is defined by a number of Backgrounds that are rated by a die from d4 to d12. (4s or higher on rolled dice are successes.) Most starting backgrounds probably start at d6, with one starting at d8 and, maybe, one at d4. (Obviously, I’m dashing all this off while it’s still percolating so it’s not going to be a finished game.)
_____
Pitch episodes
You have characters. Yay! It’s now time to pitch episodes. When I say that, though, I mean, mostly, write them down on notecards.
Give everyone some 3x5 notecards and let them go. If you want to throw ideas out to the table, that’s your call, but I think some solitary thinking, at this point, is the better way to go. This also lets everyone think about and create pitches in between sessions, which is how they are probably going to be generated going forward.
The way I see it, there are four types of episodes: Duo, Ensemble, Group, and Solo.
Duo episodes have two of the main cast leading. Example: ST:DS9, Odo and Quark stuck on the planet
Ensemble episodes have everyone in the main cast in the lead. Example: ST:DS9, the pilot episode
Group episodes have most but not all of the main cast leading. Example: ST:DS9, most away missions
Solo episodes are lead by only one main cast character. Example: ST:DS9, most O’brien focused episodes (Britt and I call these “Fucking with O’brien” episodes, for obvious reasons).
Every main cast character should have at least one Solo episode and one episode with another main cast character every season (other than the Ensemble, but we’ll get to that).
Important note: Everyone can pitch episodes for any main cast character! In fact, unless you have something very specific that you want to happen to your MCC, you should spend more time pitching episodes for other MCCs.
As pitches are written, they should be given to the player(s) who’s MCC(s) would be leading the episode. They have veto power on any episodes involving their character! Once they give the okay (which may involve some suggestions or changes of their own) the pitch goes into the Pitch Deck.
_____
Playing an episode
The first episode of your season should be an ensemble episode introducing your main cast and getting familiar with who they are. After that, each episode should be randomly drawn from the pitch deck. (Alternately, if you’ve got a permanent Runner, they can choose a pitch that make sense for the next episode.)
In non-ensemble episodes, begin by telling everyone who the episode leads are from the main cast. One person will be the Runner for the episode, portraying other characters, the environment, and obstacles to the players. Everyone else should then either choose an existing supporting character to play or make a new one.
I’m thinking the Runner will have some kind of currency that they will use throughout the episode to create difficulties for the characters. As the currency is spent, it will go to the Leads who will also be able to spend it to improve the dice that they roll to overcome difficulties in the game.
Continue playing episodes until every MCC has been in at least three episodes (the first Ensemble, a Solo, and at least one other episode with another MCC). With five players (I’m including the Runner) you should have a season of 7-10 episodes.
After that point, decide whether you want to stop or play another season.
_____
Making change
As the season progresses, when a main cast member is featured in an episode their player will get two Changes, one that they can use to alter their MCC and one that they can use to alter a supporting character. I envision this as either upgrading a die one step or adding a new background.