The Next Campaign, pt 2

In the end, I decided to go with “other.”

The Ciaren Campaign was largely successful. I’ve found that after successful series, there’s often a few “off” games to compensate; players are used to the old series and their characters and are on some level reluctant to jump into something else. Good series are usually a combination of luck and collective excitement, which isn’t something that you can call up on a whim.

So my next series is going to be something very self-involved. It’s an experimental series that I don’t expect my players to really like. I think they’ll be more enthused about the one after this one.

I wanted to strip the next game down to some essentials. The New World of Darkness system is something that is very straightforward and lends itself to improvisation. Everyone is familiar with it, so there’s not a lot to learn. I’m not utilizing any supernatural elements so there won’t be any “powers” to memorize or worry about either; each player’s skills will be their powers.

I needed something different though. A mortals game about federal agents or mercenaries or whatever seemed like the only way to go—otherwise, why are they all together? I needed something that would be a slice of life, but provide some source of direction, unity, and urgency that a setting on Main Street, USA wouldn’t provide.

In terms of “ship in a bottle” settings, generation ships are nigh-unbeatable.

The characters are the members of an intermediate generation of a generation ship. They would have advanced technology, freedom, unity, etc., within an electronic cocoon of pipes, wires, and bulkheads. They would be members of a modestly-sized, self-contained section of a massive ship. They would have families, even spouses and children and want for nothing, except survival another day whenever problems arose.

I explained this in general terms to Richard, my roommate.

“So, what’s the hook?” He asked.