Musings on Aphelion - Part I
This post is regarding Aphelion, my space colonisation/survival game due to start next year.
Because I know some people may be worried about spoilers and others don't care about the game, I'm putting it behind a cut, but I'd be obliged if people could give me their thoughts. There will be some more of these in the coming months as I work on the ideas behind the game more.
So, I've got the rules mostly settled again now - I have some work on Science to do, which will likely be the subject of a future Musings, but for the most part the mechanics are settled. I've mostly overcome the issues I had regarding medicine and feedback about the combat system is looking good.
What I'm looking at now is the setup for the first event. For those who don't know, the first event begins with a crash - a disaster that leaves the players stranded on a very hostile world. What I'm interested in is how to create that feel for my players; the feeling of having been through a disaster.
I started thinking about Lost, specifically the first episode. I'm not a big fan of Lost, I lost interest about halfway through the first series, but I do remember the first episode really well. The thing I want to achieve is the same thing the very first 20-30 minutes of Lost achieved; that sensation of disconnection from reality, the natural aftereffect of shock. The TV show achieved that by using tracking long-shots, with the sound still close-up, giving the sensation that the character's self-viewpoint had detached from themselves, that they had become disconnected from their own frame of reference.
But how to do that in a LRP game? How do you give the player that experience without actually disconnecting them from the character? After all, we spend lots of time in LRP trying to minimise breaks in Suspension of Disbelief, but what we actually want here is to foster disbelief in the character, not the player. I need to find a way to rip the character out of its frame of reference without doing the same to the player.
So far I've come up with one way of doing so - divorcing the PC from it's equipment. As I see it, items are a big part of a character's identity in the mind of the player. Separating him from them, then, is a good way to disrupt that identity. The problem there is how to do so without running the risk of irritating players and/or potentially losing kit.
I asked a few people about this on Tuesday night, too, and Sally suggested I make use of environmental cues, most notably twilight, which has the effect of making most people feel a little disconnected from reality.
So, any more ideas from anybody? I'm open to pretty much anything. I don't promise to use suggestions, but they're gratefully accepted.
Because I know some people may be worried about spoilers and others don't care about the game, I'm putting it behind a cut, but I'd be obliged if people could give me their thoughts. There will be some more of these in the coming months as I work on the ideas behind the game more.
So, I've got the rules mostly settled again now - I have some work on Science to do, which will likely be the subject of a future Musings, but for the most part the mechanics are settled. I've mostly overcome the issues I had regarding medicine and feedback about the combat system is looking good.
What I'm looking at now is the setup for the first event. For those who don't know, the first event begins with a crash - a disaster that leaves the players stranded on a very hostile world. What I'm interested in is how to create that feel for my players; the feeling of having been through a disaster.
I started thinking about Lost, specifically the first episode. I'm not a big fan of Lost, I lost interest about halfway through the first series, but I do remember the first episode really well. The thing I want to achieve is the same thing the very first 20-30 minutes of Lost achieved; that sensation of disconnection from reality, the natural aftereffect of shock. The TV show achieved that by using tracking long-shots, with the sound still close-up, giving the sensation that the character's self-viewpoint had detached from themselves, that they had become disconnected from their own frame of reference.
But how to do that in a LRP game? How do you give the player that experience without actually disconnecting them from the character? After all, we spend lots of time in LRP trying to minimise breaks in Suspension of Disbelief, but what we actually want here is to foster disbelief in the character, not the player. I need to find a way to rip the character out of its frame of reference without doing the same to the player.
So far I've come up with one way of doing so - divorcing the PC from it's equipment. As I see it, items are a big part of a character's identity in the mind of the player. Separating him from them, then, is a good way to disrupt that identity. The problem there is how to do so without running the risk of irritating players and/or potentially losing kit.
I asked a few people about this on Tuesday night, too, and Sally suggested I make use of environmental cues, most notably twilight, which has the effect of making most people feel a little disconnected from reality.
So, any more ideas from anybody? I'm open to pretty much anything. I don't promise to use suggestions, but they're gratefully accepted.