Campaign Journal 2014: To Boldly Go (Again)

Originally published January 22, 2014

So last year I pitched a game to my players called To Boldly Go, which was a hard science fiction game using the Fate system. Though somewhat well received we ultimately went with the Changeling: the Lost game: the Price.

Now it is a new year and I have some new players so I pitched the idea to them. They were very enthusiastic and we are already well into starting the game.

Campaign Prospectus

It has been two centuries since the Exodus and humanity has finally rebuilt from the terrible war. A new government, the Federation, ensures peace for the Sol system. Now it is sending out ships to the long-lost colonies to reconnect with the wayward branches of humanity and bring them into the Federation. Along the way they will explore new worlds and new civilizations.

Technology in this universe is mostly realistic with the exception of faster than light travel (no transporters, no humanoid aliens). The main civilization, the Federation, is very cautious about the effects of revolutionary technologies like AI, radical genetic engineering, neural implants, and other technologies that might change humanity fundamentally. The colonies that they encounter however have not shrunk away from their use.

Themes

• Exploration: there are strange worlds to find, (non-intelligent) alien life, and millions of humans (and their uplifted animals, AIs, and bioengineered drones) to meet.
• Diplomacy: You are trying to make friends and must navigate the strange societies that have developed over the past two centuries.

Mood

Culture shock: The PCs come from a culture that has repressed many technologies that would greatly alter the human experience. The colonies have not. Thus they have developed strange alien civilizations based on human level AI, extreme genetic engineering, mind emulation, nanotechnology, and similar technologies.

Action

The campaign would focus on exploration, scientific investigation, and interstellar diplomacy. Combat would be rare.

Possible Variants:

• Brave New Worlds: you are the First Contact team on one of the early exploration vessels for the Federation.
• The Colony: focusing instead on one of the colonies as they settle on a distant world. There would difficulties with the local conditions (and perhaps local wild life), political disputes among the settlers, and the threat of other colonists fleeing the Final War. The characters would be important people within the colony (though not necessarily in charge of the whole colony).
• Erector Set: if the history or mood bothers you (or you just want maximum freedom), I have a game called Microscope which is a collaborative history building game. We could use this build our galactic history (in a session) and then dive into whatever period seems most interesting.

Feedback

The group took very strongly to the idea, especially the Brave New Worlds aspect. I'll have more to say about it in the next few weeks as I go over how character creation went as well as the defining of campaign aspects. For now I want to present the rules alterations and additions I made for the game.

As I said, this game uses the new Fate 3.0 system. I made some changes to the Skill list and also added some new sample Stunts for new skills.

Skills

In designing the game, I had to answer the question of how many skills I needed. The answer to this related to how many players I had, how many skills slots I would give each player, and the overall focus of the game.

The first thing I decided on was some basic concepts for a First Contact Team and the necessary positions. Each would require certain skills. My initial list was as follows:

• Diplomat: an obvious choice and one that required the most different skills. From the core rules, Deceive, Empathy, and Rapport seemed crucial. Since diplomacy is such a focus of the game I knew I wanted to keep these separate skills to allow some variation among the cast. I decided to drop Contacts however since as travelers far from home it seemed less applicable.
• Linguist: this is the cultural and communications expert. A little different from the diplomat but necessary in a setting without a universal communicator. This position required a new skill: Linguistics, covering knowledge of different languages and ability to translate new ones. It also suggested adding a Culture skill, like in Diaspora, for familiarity with cultural traditions and taboos.
• Scientist: another obvious choice and one that required looking at replacing the default Lore skill. In the end I decided to divide into 4 skills: Science (covering everything from biology to physics), Culture (see above), Academics (for literature and history), and Medicine.

Then you had your basic "everyman" skills: Athletics, Investigate, Notice, Physique, and Will.

Next I decided I need some technical skills to emphasize that this was the future. Drive was renamed Pilot and covers everything from starships to motorbikes (which given the level of automation involved is not that big of a stretch). Crafts was renamed Engineering to give it a more technical feel.

I added a Computer skill to cover manipulating the advanced electronics of the setting. This skill covers basic computer usage, digital art, hacking and artificial intelligences.

Finally I added the skill EVA (extravehicular activity) to cover everything you might do in a space suit. So this covers moving in zero G, surviving hostile environments, and quickly repairing pressure leaks.

My next step was to remove a skill. I knew combat could happen in this game but I wanted to de-emphasize it. So Fight and Shoot were replaced with Combat Training making it take up less space on the character sheet. This skill would cover everything from hand to hand to beam weapons.

So what was left? Looking over the remaining standard skills, I could see a place for Provoke for social combat. Stealth also seemed reasonable. Burglary and crime in general in the future is more a use of Computer so I dropped that skill.

Everything else I could think of seemed only usable in narrow cases. If it comes up in-game, I'll improvise but otherwise I think these 20 skills are good.

In terms of total skills to give the players I considered a pyramid topping off at +4 and one at +5. +5 would give them more skills which would be handy as I only have three players. But I decided I didn't want to go to that level immediately. So I made a compromise, using a pyramid topping off at +4 and adding an additional skill at +3, +2 and +1. This will make the first few advancements more interesting as well.

Stunts

For the new skills I also created some new stunts. This is my first stab at this so constructive criticism is welcome.

Computer: I lumped a couple of cybernetic stunts into this category as well as

• Backdoor Access: when hacking a system to establish an advantage, create two Aspects instead of one.
• Mind of the Machine: your knowledge of AI theory gives you an insight into digital intelligences. Use Computer instead of Empathy when dealing with AIs.
• Pattern Matching Optics: combining advanced software, ocular implants, and quick concise descriptions of what you are searching for you can substitute Computer for Notice when searching for something specific.

Culture

• Culture Chameleon: your familiarity with many cultures allows you to blend in easily. Use Culture instead of Deceive when attempting to disguise yourself as a member of that culture.
• Reenactor: you have focused your studies on an ancient culture of humanity and have learned how they live. Choose a culture and era before the late 20th century. You can use Culture when using the technology and weaponry of that era.
• Second Hand Beliefs: when creating an Advantage using Culture, your knowledge of people’s beliefs allows you to freely invoke it twice.

EVA

• No Margin for Error: treat a success at minor cost like a normal success when using EVA.
• Second Skin: when in a space suit in a hostile environment, use EVA instead of Notice to determine turn order.
• Zero G acrobatics: use EVA instead of Athletics when moving freely in zero G.

Linguistics

• Cryptographer: you can treat codes like another language, using Linguistics instead of Academics.
• Rapid Study: during any Refresh that includes some downtime, choose a previously encountered language. You now know it.

Medicine

• Bedside Manners: you can use Medicine instead of Rapport when dealing with patients.
• Pathologist: you gain a + 2 bonus to overcoming challenges when dealing with infectious agents.
• Surgeon: Once per session you can reduce someone else’s consequence by one level of severity (severe to moderate, moderate to mild, mild to nothing at all) by succeeding on a Medicine roll with a difficulty of Fair (+ 2) for a mild consequence, Good (+ 3) for moderate, or Great (+ 4) for severe. You need to operate on the person you’re treating for at least half an hour in order for them to receive the benefits of this stunt, and you can’t use it on yourself.

Science

• Experimental Procedure: Spend a Fate Point to use Science in place of another skill if you can justify it as the use of some new principle or method just developed.
• Specialist: Choose a field of specialization, such as biology, physics, or chemistry. You get a +2 to all Science rolls relating to that field of specialization.