Fingers on the Firmament

Troy Costisick developed the Power 19 as a way of focusing game design planning. Justin suggested we fill these out as our brainstorming period wraps up before we start working on actual mechanics and play guidelines. We’re going to take turns responding to these questions (probably not in order, necessarily) and editing each others’ responses until we get something we’re reasonably happy with.

1.) What is your game about?

Fingers on the Firmament is about people who discover that they can literally grab on to the stars and pull themselves up into the heavens. The main characters are among the relatively few people who manage to not slip through the cracks and be lost forever, those who are recovered by the thin network of humans who live amongst the stars. It’s about the difference between being in a community and being alone. It’s about the wonder of living in space, an alien and yet very familiar place. It’s about the tactile sensation of swinging on a star.

2.) What do the characters do?

Characters try to find a place for themselves in one region of the Milky Way Galaxy, since going home isn’t an easy task. Generally speaking, groups of characters choose to pursue specifically goals, collectively and individually. These “quests,” are what drive play. Pursuing goals generally involves traveling to a specific location (usually a star) or a string of different locations, leading to interesting encounters on the way, for the firmament is a vast and dangerous place. Sometimes pursuing goals requires characters to deviate from known routes between stars and bushwhack into little known regions.

Characters initially focus on one of the Three Sciences as a specialty: Astronomy (building relationships with and drawing energy from stars), Cartography (mapping and traveling the firmament through memorizing dances), and Anthropology (discovering the lost secrets of previous human activity among the stars). Each science also corresponds to a role the character’s player plays in the group (see below).

3.) What do the players (including the GM if there is one) do?

Ideally, Fingers on the Firmament can run with or without a GM. The default, in order to push things a little bit, should be that there is no GM, but groups can easily add one in.

In the early stages of the game, the players are responsible for taking the various clues and secrets that are listed for each established star and turning them into the situations and characters that they encounter. If the characters begin bushwhacking into unknown areas or eventually venture past the known reaches of their home region (the stars written up in the corebook of the game), they then becomes responsible for making up their own secrets and clues, based on certain guidelines.

The players are responsible for playing a single main character. Initially, each character specializes in one particular Science, which also determines their narrative authority over aspects of the setting (in a manner is which I’m not entirely sure yet). Conflicts between the players over aspects of setting are decided, if necessary, by contested rolls of the appropriate Sciences.

4.) How does your setting (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?

5.) How does the Character Creation of your game reinforce what your game is about?

6.) What types of behaviors/styles of play does your game reward (and punish if necessary)?

7.) How are behaviors and styles of play rewarded or punished in your game?

8.) How are the responsibilities of narration and credibility divided in your game?

9.) What does your game do to command the players’ attention, engagement, and participation? (i.e. What does the game do to make them care?)

10.) What are the resolution mechanics of your game like?

11.) How do the resolution mechanics reinforce what your game is about?

12.) Do characters in your game advance? If so, how?

13.) How does the character advancement (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?

14.) What sort of product or effect do you want your game to produce in or for the players?

15.) What areas of your game receive extra attention and color? Why?

16.) Which part of your game are you most excited about or interested in? Why?

17.) Where does your game take the players that other games can’t, don’t, or won’t?

18.) What are your publishing goals for your game?

19.) Who is your target audience?