I’ve just browsed through the Modern SRD (everything except the details of combat and FX). I like how general the Modern classes are, but I don’t like them being tied to specific attributes.

The classes are my least favorite part of Modern. There’s not much point to the distinction between them that couldn’t be handled with some non-class mechanic. It’s really about the talent trees, which are the coolest part of Modern (and very akin to BW’s lifepath system — or Diablo for that matter).

I was just looking at the OGL license for Blue Rose and it looks like the bulk of the rules are open, which is way neat.

Right. I think essentially everything mechanical in True20/BR is open content. Note: There are some mechanical difference between those two.

Well, I was gonna have the game start with the PCs together, as a crew, but I’d be up for looking at other things.

I’m down with the crew concept. I think I was reading too much into the scattered PCs finding each other per our initial conversation. I love the idea of Great-White-Whale-creation as a group function at the start of play, like BE’s world burner or Mortal Coil’s theme document. Maybe the epilogue involves not just finding out how that quest is resolved but the real “why” of the quest in the first instance.

I’m definitely all about putting a lot of hippie scene framing stuff in it. I’m really into the game not really needing a GM and splitting up GM responsibilities among the various characters in a crew.

Hadn’t thought of that, but I think it would be really neat to divvy up the GM responsibilities among the players according to their character “classes”. E.g., the Cartographer gets to set the scene; the Lost character gets to create the conflict (i.e., set the DC); etc. Maybe we should start by thinking about what those responsibilities are? This does pose a potential problem of limiting the number of players the game supports. We’d have to figure a workaround for odd-sized groups.

I do think rotating the focus of scenes on to various players is important…. Any ideas?

(See above. Let’s brainstorm about GM functions.)

Yeah, Bliss Stage does something kind of like this, where the players ask three questions about the setting at the beginning of the game. Then, over the course of play, the questions are answered.

I like the idea of players building something over the course of play that is resolved in the endgame, but I think it would be neat to have at least part of that kept secret until the endgame. Not sure why, but that seems interesting to me.

I was kind thinking that it would be neat to have a small unit of play, like a 3-session story arc, as the basic set up, but them maybe have each 3 sessions be one Act out of 3 or 4, so you’d have 9 or 12 session macro-arcs. That way, you could play 3 sessions and quit or play for the whole 12 sessions.

So, a very structured framework like BE? How would you see divvying up those acts/sessions?

Honestly, I think I’d rather the antagonists be complications rather than enemies. I think humanity’s greatest enemy has always been itself and the game should reflect that, maybe.

Good. I agree with that. Humans literally reach the stars … it should be more than Aliens 5 (that’s what Geiger Counter is for).

I like the idea that there could be aliens that we’ve encountered, but I like the idea that our relationship with them is like our relationship with dolphins (though maybe without the power imbalance where we keep dolphins in tanks and stuff): we think they’re sentient and can sort of communicate with them, but complex, detailed communication is impossible because we just think completely differently.

Interesting. My initial inclination is no aliens, but alien-as-catalyst is interesting. Like the “alien” in The Abyss. That would give us some rich material to work with.

We do have this idea that some people live as bandits, whatever that means, but that doesn’t seem to be a strong enough force for conflict or challenge. I really don’t think combat is going to be a huge part of the game (though I’m going to post a conversation Elizabeth and I just had about star-wrestling), but there do need to be impediments that the characters have to work to overcome. I’m not sure what those should be.

Random instant brainstorm: Maybe siphons are the bad guys, stealing the energy from the stars for selfish ends (personal enlightenment, euphoria, ?). PCs are dedicated to stopping the siphons?

Perhaps they are tasked with exploring a particularly dangerous area, because they are looking for something? Perhaps they are looking for the secret that explains why they can do the star-traveling thing? Perhaps there is some secret linked to the beginning of the universe and the birth of stars (and/or God/aliens, etc)? Maybe it’s like Bliss Stage and the nature of the secret is determined in play by the players, though it features in all games?

Speaking (literally) personally, if I were suddenly able to travel the stars, I’d be inclined toward the third, i.e., the nature/beginning of the universe/does God exist?

Justin