Introducing Baroque Space Opera

I'd like to introduce Baroque Space Opera, an RPG setting for Fate Core. This project was started exactly a year ago. The writing is mostly done, though it needs quite a bit of editing still, and the art is 75% completed. The setting will be self-published, in PDF format with some sort of print-on-demand available -- eventually. The book will be packed with 25 - 30 full colour illustrations. My gaming group has started playtesting some of the new Fate Core systems included with this setting.

The Baroque Space Opera setting is a mashup of ideas from literature, film, other roleplaying games, with unique ideas thrown in. The primary goal of the setting is to provide gamemasters with unlimited freedom. Baroque is designed to facilitate fast paced action in a fantastic and futuristic setting without any limitations. Anything is possible in Baroque, no matter how grand or world shattering. Setting concepts such as space opera, steampunk, cyberpunk, horror and fantasy are all meshed together to provide a perfect mix of gaming possibilities. Technology just exists, no matter how improbable or magical. Realism takes a back seat to action and adventure. This is Space Opera at its best!

Baroque Space Opera draws inspiration from many varied sources, among them: Dune, Chronicles of Riddick, H.P. Lovecraft, Simon R. Green's Deathstalker series, Scott Westerfield's The Risen Empire, Star Gate, Babylon 5, Lexx, Farscape, Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, Warhammer 40K, the ancient astronaut hypothesis, alternate archaeology and ancient world myths and legends.

Below is a quick summary, likely to go on the back cover of the book, as well as a couple of the illustrations to give you an idea of the look and feel. Baroque is not your usual, run-of-the-mill space opera. It is a unique and strange setting, filled with awesome and crazy stuff to enable your adventures across the void!

Baroque Space Opera

Enter an extravagant realm of strange technology, stranger cultures, exotic locations, and incredible danger. In a distant time, and another place, there exists a universe ruled by the 5th revenant incarnation of the immortal Tyrant. A universe where flesh and blood Aristo gods, given their genetic right to rule, control the destiny of a hundred planets. A universe filled with biological minds which approach the immense intellect of machines, shape-shifting genetic clones who desperately seek individuality, and atomic-scale clockwork mechanicals given sentience. A universe where the Aristos engage in civilized rhetoric, performing a social dance dictated by ancient traditions, whilst employing the abilities of master assassins and house syndicates to wage their feuds.

For 149 millennia, the Tyrantine Dominion has weathered arch-heresy and war with terrible enemies who sought its downfall. The political and cultural stasis has bred deep seated corruption within the convoluted hierarchy of power. Humanity of a hundred planets chokes and laments under the immovable yoke of the Tyrant. The embers of rebellion grow brighter each passing day. The Tyrant extinguishes all opposition with his vast legions of genetically engineered warriors; created through the amalgamation of human and alien genetics.

Enemies within and without plot to bring down the eternal Dominion. Interdimensional invaders lurk beyond space and time, plotting their next incursion. Unfathomable aliens stalk humanity, corrupting and enslaving subjects for strange purposes. Once more, the rebellious machines, betrayers of humanity, threaten to escalate the millennium-old cold war. Meanwhile, the Aristo Houses further their schemes, eyeing the Tyrantine Throne and the golden planet, Baroque, for themselves.

Voidship fleets move into position. The pieces are falling into place. Which side will you choose? Will you enforce the will of the Tyrant to ensure the stoic Dominion stands for another hundred millennia? Or, will you become an Arch Heretic to tear down this suffocating and corrupt regime? The choice is yours. The Baroque universe awaits.

Futurama Story Intro

My group will be playing our first roleplaying session of Fate Core on Monday.  We have played a few sessions to playtest the Fate Starship Battles rules I developed. Those were a great intro to aspects and Fate in general. On Monday we will play out first session of Fate Core.

We previously made characters which can be found here.

What follows is the introduction to the story:

Everyone is sitting at the company table at Planet Express HQ. Professor Farnsworth comes in carrying a package that occasionally jumps in his hands.

"Good news everyone! We have a very special delivery to make today. It is a special cat, named Slinky. You see, he's extremely special because his mother has been bred with a spring. He is the most playful cat there ever was! We must deliver him quickly to the Lrrr, ruler of Omnicron Persei 8 so that he can give it to his wife, NdNd as a make up present. You see, he's still in the dog house since the last time he pretended to invade Earth."

"Speaking of dogs, unfortunately we have to fly past the Dog Star. The Dog-un despise cats and have developed a powerful Smell-O-Meter that can detect cats that come close to their star, so that they could be DESTROYED! We must be careful! If we fail, Lrrr threatened to really invade earth this time! The world is in our hands."

There is a sound out of the box: "Mrrrow!"

Skill Permissions

There's been a lot of talk on the G+ Fate Core group regarding skills, skill lists and skill permissions. I thought I'd post the blurb about skill permissions I am adding to the rules for my space opera setting. 

When your character concept indicates that you would not know what you are trying to achieve, the passive difficulty will be 2. When your concept indicates that you might know what you are trying to achieve, the passive difficulty might be 1. When your concept is clear that you do know there would be no passive difficulty to your roll. The passive difficulty should never be more than 2 in this respect. The difficulty may go higher, but that would be the passive difficulty to everyone because of whatever story reason is needed to make the task harder. 

One such example would be Science, the skill encompasses all aspects of science. This does not necessarily mean that your character is both a master of the biosciences and astonomy at the same time. Your aspects will indicate where your expertise lies exactly when it comes to the broad coverage of skills. If you had an aspect such as Alien Cyberneticist for example and you had to roll for something related to cybernetics, your roll would be standard. However, should you need to roll to calculate the optimal trajectory of a starship (also Science) in order to avoid any legal entanglements, your passive difficulty might be 1 or 2, depending on how the GM feels your character is knowledgeable in that particular field. This passive difficulty is entirely based on the aspects of your character.

A couple of other examples follow:

A Cyborg Gun For Hire is most definitely knowledgeable in the repair and maintenance of his projector and armour. However now he must roll Technology (or whatever skill you use) in order to hack a lock which is blocking his way. He is cybernetic in nature, but his concept is a for-hire soldier and the passive difficulty might only be 1. Fortunately for him, a Retired Assassin is with him who is an expert at opening ways. The Assassin would not have any passive opposition on their Technology roll because of their concept.

A Drunkard Mercenary has obtained a datapad with data related to his investigation. Since the mercenary is not that adept at combing data for information, his Investigation passive difficulty might be 2. He decides to take it to an Egg-Head Hacker he knows. The hacker will also roll Investigation when combing the data, without any passive opposition.

In summary, the intent, the skill being used and by whom it is being used must be evaluated to determine whether the person using the skill is competent in the action being taken. If they are not, then they will have a harder time than someone who is knowledgeable in that area. Aspects are your indicator on who the character is and what they should know really well, what they might know, and what they just wouldn't know.  Character aspects should make that determination fairly simple in most instances. If unsure, let the table decide which of the 3 categories it falls into. Fate Core has a smaller skill list, and skill bloat in your game is bad (yes, I abandoned my Skill Fields approach a while ago). With less skills and more broad skills, looking at who is doing what can help you make better use of skills and keep things flowing in a realistic way.

Mind Maps For Fun and Plot

Every GM in the history of the hobby has struggled with how to best keep notes and design a game session. About two years back I started putting my ideas and session notes into a mind map. I never looked back since.

Mind maps are a way to visually outline information in a hierarchical tree-like fashion. They are, for lack of better words, a dump of your thoughts. In this respect, they make amazing notes for my roleplaying games.

During my years of gaming, I've learned a couple of things. The first being is that I dislike published modules. The primary problem with them is that when you get one, it's like studying for an exam before a gaming session. That, does not appeal to me in any way. I was never the one to study much during school. I certainly do not want to do that in my hobby. I prefer to have the entire adventure in my mind and the easiest way to do so is to make it up yourself.

The second is that prepping for a gaming session is damn hard. No matter how much effort you put in, you can never be prepared enough. One of the hardest things for me is to ensure that all the really wicked ideas I have get to see the light of day. I hate forgetting that amazing thing I planned for a story, only to remember after the session ended. For me, one of the most fun things is to throw out the awesome things brewing in my head and watch the players reactions. Forgetting them lessens the enjoyment of GMing for me.

I do not want to discount pre-written modules. I still buy them occasionally for games I really, really enjoy.  They are great source of ideas and additional background material. When using them, I steal ideas or locations and fit them into my story instead.  I cannot recall the last time I ran a published module, though. Most of the time, I rely on my own ideas; often inspired by novels and stories I have read.

When designing a session, I always pull out my trusty mind mapping software. I try not to write anything down until I have a general outline in my head. I find that sitting in front of a screen often results in writers block, unless I already know what I want to write down. Something about computers interferes with my creativity. Perhaps because I program them for a living. My logical brain switches on and takes over. Or something...

Once I have the basic premise in my head, I take down some notes. The notes are very brief, often just ideas or phrases which will remind me about the in-depth idea I have. I note down the most important things about that aspect of the story on the mind map. I try to keep the mind map light in information because reading too much during a session tends to interrupt it at the worst possible times. Just the facts!

The whole concept of a mind map is to note down only the important things. These are phrases and words which will remind you later what that idea was. At a glance, I can discern what it was that I wanted to include in the story. The fact could be a specific description I wanted to read out, something important for that part of the story or a specific event. This is really about organization rather than details. I structure the notes around scenes and locations for the most part.

Once the mind map is fleshed out and I have noted down the important things about the story, I link them together. The linking is important because it lets me associate the same important fact with multiple pieces of information on the map. It also helps me visually to see the relationship between these different aspects of the story.

Seeing the relationships and flow of the story visually is perhaps the most valuable benefit of mind maps for me. When the story goes off the rails and the players completely surprise me, I still have my visual representation of the story facts. I can quickly re-arrange them in my head and on the map and make them think I incredibly thought of everything.

I also use the mind map to note down important events and facts driven by the players. The mind map becomes more detailed during the story. At the end I have a complete view of what the story was, what the players did and any major outcomes. I also have notes about possible new ideas for the next session and what story elements I need to tie up later.

My current software preference is MindNode Pro. It is Mac only, unfortunately. I do most of my designing and writing on my Macbook Air anyways. Being a Linux user, I would prefer an open source solution. I've looked into a number of mind mapping apps and MindNode Pro always seemed to be the best choice. There are a number of nice open source software packages out there, including ones for your tablet (iOS or Android).

The following is an example of an Eclipse Phase mind map I created for a story very loosely inspired by Alistair Reynold's Pushing Ice novel. The Ice Baby Collective was hired to push a comet to Mars for the terraforming project. Contact with it was recently lost and Firewall sensors detected exotic radiation emanating from the comet. Considered a possible X-Threat, sentinels were dispatched to investigate. The mind map won't give you the full story, since that's in my head. But it is an example of how I structure them and it is one of the more involved ones with lots of notes.