Here's an elevator pitch for you, following on from my most recent post: I call it Space Paladins in the Demonic Future.
Humans have begun to colonise the galaxy and discovered that black holes are portals to hell and demons roam the universe.
The PCs are holy warriors whose task is to hunt down, slay, uproot, exorcise and exterminate those demons whenever and wherever they are found, in all their forms.
The task is to provide maximum campaign flexibility and maximum player agency combined with an institution-based mode of advancement.
Maximum campaign flexibility means - you've guessed it - lots of random tables to generate planets, ecosystems, geographies, space stations, and so on; to generate vast and potentially infinite demon types, appearances, tactics and aesthetics; to generate different varities of holy orders to which the PCs can belong; and to generate many different types of campaign style. It should be as possible to play literal space knights fighting ape-demons in a mangrove forest with trees hundreds of metres wide, as it is possible to play a refined caste of priestly duellists trying to uncover demons-in-disguise in high society in a utopian cloud city.
Maximum player agency means that, while the PCs by definition are not 'rogues', the are choosing how to respond to events that are somewhat random and not governed by DM fiat or pre-ordained plot. This means the implementation of something like my Random Demonic Incursion Generator (tm).
An institution-based mode of advancement means that the PCs are all members of a particular holy order and that their goal is to advance the aims of that order - however they see fit - rather than exactly to individually excel. This may indeed involve an Ars Magica style approach in which each player has a stable of PCs, or it may involve pooling XP and spending it on developing different aspects of the order so as to recruit new members, expand physical resources, gain new expertise, and so on.
At current rates of progress across my various projects this should be due for release around the year 40,000 AD....
"Humans have begun to colonise the galaxy and discovered that black holes are portals to hell and demons roam the universe."
ReplyDeleteLiteral hell or figurative hell? In WH40K demons are manifestations of the id (I think?), which I suppose implies stoicism as the most important virtue, quite a different proposition to rogue angels cast out by God. Space paladins fighting demons is easy; I could already roleplay as Grey Knights in Warhammer were I so inclined. To satisfy your complaints in your last post and to make the players' holy institution feel meaningful you need at least a moderately robust theology which strikes me as a lot harder. It has to be complex and specific enough to be interesting and actionable in-game, which JRR's for instance is not, and it can't be a carbon copy of an existing religion without boring non-adherents to tears. That's where all the work lies.
Maybe the random tables pass the work to the players: the dice establish that their holy order values chastity, hates orks, venerates calculators, and has a schism with those who sell remission for sins, then we play to find out what theology emerges from a set of arbitrary premises.
DeleteYes, what Tavis said. There is no 'holy institution' as such - every set of PCs will belong to a different one, generated randomly at the start of a campaign.
DeleteAdvanced Fighting Fantasy covers all of those bases with the standard Fantasy rulebook, the sci-fi rulebook Stellar Adventures, two books on Demons from the Pit (Demons of Doom, Rough Guide to the Pit), and rules for dominion management which would run to religious orders (Heroes Companion, also has mass battle rules). And the milieu-ports are all WH40K-adjacent. Interestingly, Warpstar uses the Fighting Fantasy ruleset in a d20-based version to do a more Rogue Trader style WH40K aesthetic, while Troika! has used the Fighting Fantasy ruleset as well and gone for the gonzo space fantasy option.
ReplyDeleteThanks - when I one day eventually get some time, I'll consider it!
DeleteI could imagine a wide range of demons, including those that possess, those that can shapechange, and some less subtle ones that just destroy and devour. There are also human cultists working along side, and perhaps the demons can reanimate the dead. The old FPS game Doom would be how I imagine hunting down those more combative demons in ruined space bases on the moon of Phobos. Of course, I tend to take a very low-brow teenagery pulpy approach to such things, so take my views with a pinch of salt.
ReplyDeleteThat would definitely be a possible campaign style. I always really liked the aesthetic of Doom.
DeleteUse Dogs in the Vineyard, and re-skin the "Dogs" as Jedi.
ReplyDeleteAlso might consider Clinton R Nixon's game, Paladin, using the "Knights of the Void" alternative setting.
Just saying.
; )