Subject:
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Re: Starship Bible
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.gaming.starship
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Date:
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Thu, 8 May 2003 06:20:19 GMT
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Viewed:
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1621 times
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In lugnet.gaming.starship, Andrew Engstrom writes:
> In lugnet.gaming.starship, Richard Parsons writes:
> > I can see how freeform might work in an existing, detailed and jointly
> > understood setting (ie rpg-ing in the Star Trek universe, or the Star Wars
> > universe) where all the participants are subscribed to a large body of
> > published material on what is possible and what is acceptable, but here in
> > Starship, we have no such bible. Not having a bible as such confers benefits
> > in terms of encountering many new ways to think about things. It als confers
> > the limitation that we cannot assume that we all have the same basic
> > understanding of what is possible and what is likely to happen in any given
> > situation, so we need for the SMs to take that responsibility.
>
> And why don't we have a "bible"? The SMs have to put together their sectors
> from nothing, so there is certainly no lack of imagination in this group!
> Some sort of Galactic Encyclopedia is in order. It could help describe
> cultures, governments, resources, technologies, etc. etc. I volunteer to
> lead this effort if I can have a few voluneer assistants ;-)
>
> Here's how I think it would go:
> We start with the sectors page and go down the list. Develop a format for
> describing culture, gov't, etc. Once we have this down pat, all we have to
> do is use our imaginations to fill out the descriptions of places. We would
> get all our information directly from the SM, and the SM would need to
> approve it before it is published. Then we move on to the empty sectors,
> JumpGates, the Galactic Core, and all that. I'm sure Hendo can provide us
> with some "info" on those things.
Hmmmmm. I'd be a little hesitant about this.
It presents quite a barrier to new SMs to have to flesh all this sort of
detail out in advance if the SMs have to do it themselves, and it seems to
me if a player was up for doing this sort of creative work for the SM in the
SM's sector, the player would probably be putting his hand up to SM his own
sector.
Its also a chunk of work even for existing SMs and I would be surprised if
all would want to sign on.
And even then, it probably won't address the need I was speaking to (granted
that Andrew may well be worthily following another star altogether). In
order to support 'freeform play' of the sort I was talking about, the level
of detail (eg specific arming, range, and limitations for all weapons) and
the consistency (eg the relative merits of all weapons and all defensive
systems and strategies) would need to be documented, creating a rather
substantial (and that's English Understatement there) job for a GM to bring
it together in a way that would allow players to bring their
(comprehensively documented) ships, into a (comprehensively documented)
system, under a scientific (comprehensively documented) philisophy, in order
for the player and SM to have similar expectations of the outcome of a
specific strategy. Even then it would seem courageous to leave outcomes in
the hands of players :-)
Even otherwise empty subsectors would need to be detailed for navigational
elements (comets, dust etc etc) and anything that might later become
interesting or necessary as a story point.
Sounds like a big job, and I am not sure where the outcome delivers value
over proceeding as we do, with SMs revealing what they wish to players, and
to the public via their websites.
I guess I would argue for a few more adventure and trade/social sectors
running, and some feedback from players as to what works for them (in the SM
departments). I have a suspicion that this will tell us that players do not
favour 'freeform play'. I could be wrong...
I could certainly be missing the point :-)
Richard
Still baldly going...
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Starship Bible
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| Well, you know, it doesn't have to be a 2000-page document. I could hammer out 15 or 20 paragraphs easy on Helix. Every one or two could cover different aspects of the places and things. SMs might only give information to be written up by the (...) (21 years ago, 8-May-03, to lugnet.gaming.starship)
| | | Re: Starship Bible
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| (...) I agree that offering material for an SS Bible should be a voluntary thing on the part of any SM or player. It is not a requirement to participate in the game. If an SM doesn't have time or energy to devote to giving such a detailed (...) (21 years ago, 8-May-03, to lugnet.gaming.starship)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Starship Bible (was: Types of Sectors)
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| (...) <snip-a-dee-doo-da> (...) Yes, it is nice to be on good ol' Lugnet! And why don't we have a "bible"? The SMs have to put together their sectors from nothing, so there is certainly no lack of imagination in this group! Some sort of Galactic (...) (21 years ago, 6-May-03, to lugnet.gaming.starship)
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