Game Geeks #129 Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ6lHMq4ywA&feature=sub

Watch it! Link it! Love it!

Thanks, Kurt!

Since I'm home sick today (coughhackwheeze), I figured I'd spend some time talking about the PDQ# Space Opera Hack (which I'm using for pick-up games at cons) I ran for animadversio and ladylyonesse at DC Gameday this past weekend, while I wait for the Q to kick in. (Guys, if you wanna post your character write-ups in comments, I won't complain.)

Part of the fun of PDQ# SpOp is the creation of the list of "Facts" about the setting that develops through Setting the Dials and Character Creation (both of which only take about 30 to 45 minutes tops per three players) and the course of play.

Let's step through it...

SETTING THE DIALS
This phase is for laying down the basics of the setting, so that folks can make up characters for that setting.

Thumbnail: Firefly-esque galactic exploration.
Aliens/Robots?: Aliens.
Psi?: Weak and rare.
Ships?: Group ship -- 2-person scout.
Travel?: FTL via Star Wars-style hyperspace.
Raygun Power?: Normal weapon (use MOD as usual), with a 1-shot kill (drains battery).
Why Together?: Odd-couple scout team, randomly assigned (unresolved sexual tension).
Liz's One Thing?: "Uninhabited" inhabited world.
Tom's One Thing?: Running against the Doom Clock.
Givens?: Free Good [+2] Galactic Scout Forte.

CHARACTER GENERATION
Most starting Facts come form here, especially from the Planet (at least 3 Facts per) and Past Fortes of each character. (See below.)

PLAY
Subsequent Facts come from actions in play and table-talk. (See below.)

FACTS
This is what the setting is like, what's there, who's there, that sort of jazz. The first two Facts
are givens (and have held true in all PDQ# SpOp game I've run so far).

(character generation)

1. Swords & Rayguns.
2. Planets are named after elements.
3. TELLURIUM (Tellarites):
* Gas Giant.
* Cloud cities (suspended from below on repulsor platforms).
* Smuggler's haven.
4. RHODIUM (Rodians):
* High-powered business.
* Corporate aristocracy.
* Xenophobic (other human planets inclusive).
5. Gas can, apparently, be "mined." (Extraction of fractional layers.)
6. GOLD/AURUM (Aurites):
* Jungle planet.
* Huge cave networks.
* Money means nothing.
7. Division between plant and animal on Aurum is fuzzy.
8. Aurite "cave people" are a mysterious threat.
9. Jungle folk go into the caves for 24 hrs as a rite of passage; some do not return. There is a Guardian of the Light and Dark to help them enter the caves, turn those back before the day is up, and repel cave people.
10. Guardians of the Light and Dark are Amazonian and have vague telepathic powers.
11. Aurites can be exiled by "forcible volunteerism" into the Galactic Scouts.
12. Mining concerns have their own "peace forces" (akin to Military Police) somehwere between unionized labor and management.
13. A Rhodian corporation took over a Tellarite mining concern... and started to do bad things.
14. Meteorball is the most popular sport in the galaxy. (Zero-G football.)
15. Most common retirement-injury for meteorball is "blowing out your pancreas."

(play begins)

16. INDIUM (Indites):
* New planet on long-range scans.
* Far away.
* Plenty of radioactives (used for FTL drives) and -- regular structures?
(*) Structures have regular/sharp-edged Superman Fortress of Solitude exterior and irregular/gem-studded cave system interior.
17. Galactic Patrol only have bi-corders -- the tri-corders don't come out until next year.
18. Apparently, sexual innuendo is a galactic constant.
19. "What can I say, it's a sexist galaxy.."
20. "...but Amazonians don't even notice!"
21. Indites eat metal (especially gold, yum; alloys, plastics, and organics, yuck!) and poo uranium.
22. "Successful negotiating with the Indites to trade metals for their poo will DEFINITELY make us Tier B Scouts, now!"
23. "What, we made it up to Tier C already? Go us!"
24. Indites have a hive-mind.
25. There are Gorilla-men (alternately, "Gorillalilla-mens")from... some other planet in the galaxy.
26. The primary melee weapon of Tellurium is the "skimatar."

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RULESY THOUGHTS FROM SESSION

A. Liz took "Fearless" as her SpaceOperatic Forte (in S7S, Swashbuckling Forte). I thought that was neat, so I did something similar with the antagonist character I was creating alongside of them (Judson Dok,Rhodian Corporate Aristocrat), taking "Relentless."

This was neat. It kind of made the SpOpForte into a bigass unchained Technique (with MOD bonuses) applicable to other Fortes. It also made the selection of actual Techniques under it slightly easier/quicker, at the expense of really needing to identify what you wanted this sort of SpOp Forte to really enhance.

The benefit-stacking (MODs, +1/re-rolls) for particular Forte and situation combos got interesting. For Dok, he was Relentless (bought up to Expert [+4]), Technique of Foe: Tom's PC, Technique of Situation: Chasing, and had a separate Expert [+4] Pilot skill: all of which meant that he was constantly on Tom's PC's tail, chasing him through space... and often shooting him down. WHICH MATCHED PERFECTLY with Tom's character's Foible of "On the Run.")

B. PDQ# states that adding a Minor Fact to the game costs no Style Dice. As I've been running PDQ# SpOp, I've found myself AWARDING Style Dice for generation of Minor Facts that make it onto the Fact list. No one has as yet tried to create anything I've considered a Significant or Major Fact -- and that could be a function of these being pick-up, one-shot games -- makes me wonder if I should codify this.

C. PDQ# SpOp has thus far always generated humor, often silly -- but it's mostly played straight. This is very nice. The best media examples I can think of are Big Trouble in Little China, Firefly, and Buckaroo Banzai. (Flash Gordon and Star Wars are within the scope, but on the straighter-faced end of the spectrum; Ice Pirates is probably the far end of the silly spectrum.)

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So, yeah: that was fun!

Got an interesting post on the S7S YahooGroup yesterday: a homeschooling mom is using S7S (with associated player-generated journals) as a Creative Writing course for her 2 kids and two of their friends!

http://sites.google.com/site/warblingswallowadventure

I think that's pretty awesome, and went a long way to dissolving some of the Sunday Blahs!

Against some tough competition, Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies won the

Silver ENnie Award 2009 for Best Setting!

w00t!

Thank you all!

In other Evil Hat Productions news, the Silver ENnie Award 2009 for Best Writing went to Don't Lose Your Mind!

Huzzah!

Lastly, check out this post by drivingblind for some pics of the IPR booth!

...seeing this warms the subcockles of my heart:



Many thanks to gmskarka!!!

Paul Tevis -- that is, ptevis -- is a magnificent bastard. A glorious magnificent bastard.

You see, I just received my hardcopy of A Penny for My Thoughts.

And I read it. All of it.

You're not getting an Underkoffler's Overview on this puppy until I play it.

WORD.

Master Plan #48: Chad Underkoffler on Setting Design, Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies

On this episode, Ryan sits down with Chad Underkoffler about designing setting (and, in some respects, writing in general) with his latest release, Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies. They touch on how the setting for this setting-rich book was conceived, fleshed out, and trimmed down to aim the right information at the play group. Afterward, Ryan tells you to check out Paul Tevis' A Penny For My Thoughts, because he's frankly damned proud of the work and thinks it makes for a great case study for one school of thought in design.

Direct download at http://media.libsyn.com/media/masterplan/masterplan_48.mp3

(Taste the Macklin!)

Two fantastic Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies reviews now up:

Its a big book, and my only concern and hesitation in trying to run this is that it is a large amount to digest. Its hard to see how the book could or should be trimmed down for the purposes of running it, though. Chad does a comprehensive job.

I want to run this. I could have wished for, perhaps, a players version of the book like Trail of Cthulhu does, so that I can more easily infect the enthusiasm I have for the game on potential players.

Possibly, this game could do for the swashbuckling genre what Spirit of the Century did for the pulp genre.

— Paul Weimer (full review)

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Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies offers fast paced, cinematic combat thanks to a small number of rules that do a great job of creating a swashbuckling play experience.

[...]

When the scenes are really shining, it’s because all of the participants are joining in. S7S has clear guidelines on who gets to narrate at different times. It’s definitely a traditional game in that it uses a GM, but the way narration is handed off enables more descriptive action sequences as players explain why their characters succeeded or failed at an action. Combined with good GM advice and a ton of wonderful setting material, S7S does everything it can to assist in creating great play at the table.

— Christopher W. Richeson (full review)

Go check these out: both are long, detailed, and very fun to read!

Check out the nifty icons on the right side of http://www.7skies.net/ for linkery to the PDF of Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies at IPR and RPGNow/DriveThruRpg, for just 15 Barathi ducats American dollars!

Direct linkery:

IPR -- http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16857&cat=248&newproduct

RPGNow -- http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=61356&src=FrontPage

DTRPG -- http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=61356&affiliate_id=24139

And, remember, you can still get the Hardcover+PDF bundle at IPR for 42 Royalist florins American dollars here, while supplies last (99 left)!

My friend Jess Nevins/ratmmjess is in town doing some research at the Library of Congress for upcoming encyclopedic works of his. While he's been here, I've taken on the role of Cruise Director: plying him with food, drink, and friendly people.

It's Jesstoberfest in DC.

Thursday night: Boardgames/cardgames with righteousfist and John M., with deadly pizza from Monterey's Gourmet Pizza. (I still think that Angelico has the edge, but was a damnfine za.)

Friday night: Drinks and dinner at the , with oletheros, crossbonesdj, and geekchick.

Saturday: Nuffink Jess-related, as he needed to rest after putting a couple gruelling days over the microfiche/microfilm reader. (Though boadiccea, rottgrub, and I dig go to Gadsby's Tavern, which I've always wanted to go to.)

Sunday: Trucked up to Silver Spring to visit/strategize/chew the fat with drivingblind and rob_donoghue (and omphaloskepsis fluttering around in the background).

There should be at least one or two more episodes of Hangin' with Mr. Nevins before he toddles back off to jolly old Texas-land.