Nostalgia

[thegayhare]

Hi eveybunny I had a dream that sparked a story or game idea

Hope you don't mind me but I literally grabbed my tablet to get it down right away.   So of want to record it and get some opinions

I call it nostalgia for now.   

It's an eldrich abomination in space story,   it would revolve around the crew of a scientific research vessel, that had come across some sort of satellite or station in a previously uncharted system.  They investigated the find for a number of weeks sent in the location so that an exhaustive xenobiogic study would be able to follow up at a later date and continued on with there own mission.  Shortly after leaving the system the crew began having problems.  Wierd dreams, complaints of tiredness and a lack of sleep at first, but getting progressively worse,  then the hallucinations started, and the.crew started to complain that the ship felt weird.  New corridors where none were before,  rooms that were the wrong size,  passages that end at the wrong compartment or that change halfway along.

My idea is that the station contained a psychic predator, and every thing that happened after that wasn't real.  The hallucinations are also mix of dream and nightmare logic blending with the other crew members memories, and the aliens thoughts as it feeds on the mental residue.

So I was picturing long corridors being chased by strange indistinct shambling hords,  you turn a corner and there a set of stairs that leads out over nothing.  The stairs wind down around through blackness before ending at a grass feild, and there is play ground equipment all around but it's bigger then it should be and everything is sepia toned

Since its not the project of one mind, and one of those minds isn't human,  you can stretch the dream logic to anything and everything.  Nightmarish monsters and alien worlds

With the char wondering if they are going mad,  or something is messing with space and time it could be an interesting ride...  I what do you think

[Darkmoon]

It sounds like a weird hybrid of Event Horizon and Solaris, just with an expanded world. Certainly interesting conceptually.

[thegayhare]

It sounds like a weird hybrid of Event Horizon and Solaris, just with an expanded world. Certainly interesting conceptually.

Ohh I can see the eveny horizon conections (love that movie)  with the ships alive feel to it  but I've never read or saw solaris...  judging by the tv tropes page it might be an interesting read.   

Thanks Darkmoon

If I go forward with this I'll probably proceed as a story,  maybe novel Idea.  It could work well as a story driven game using shifting and changable levels like in the stanly parable but thats beyond me.


Now I'm debating on weither or not I should change the type of ship and crew.  I think a Survey ship would fit the needs better,  would help explain why they didn't stay to study the station longer, and instead called for a dedicated xeno team.  I just need to determine the right size for the ship and crew,

[Darkmoon]

Well, making it a "storyteller" style game would work -- you basically start with an opening chapter that provides a short story/look into the world. From there, you move into game mechanics through the main book while providing asides or references to the world of the game (short stories, parables, anecdotes, whatever).

A system like There's a Game in this Book (available on Kickstarter, haha) could provide a good basis for what you're looking at -- the mechanics are flexible and easy to adapt to settings and scenarios (we're actively working on four adventure settings right now).

If you want to discuss possibilites, I'd be open to going over details and thoughts.

[thegayhare]

Looking over the game system ill admit that looks cool.

I've got to flesh out the story some more,   I'm thinking a 12 person survey ship is the best start.  I want the ship to be quite large,  something that could be out for atleast several months. It's also so it's believable that some one could lose there bearings and get lost.

I'm also thinking of trying to make the ending ambiguous,  maybe with a escape pod and as they start to drift into stasis or star out into the dark they wonder if they can ever really be sure if they made it out.


One thing I have to wonder about is if I should have the crew be completely human or introduce prestory alien races.  With the psychic predator it could add even more room for alien concepts and weirdness into the dreamscape while also allowing species baises and intolerance to work through the story.   But leaving it all human let's us pull more into the strangeness of actually finding what might be an alien relic,  it can also bring up crew conflicts as some crew argue weather or not it's real or not

[Darkmoon]

Well, from a game design, long-term standpoint, your best bet is probably to focus on the human civilization first. Establish the universe as the humans know it, and setup the ground rules for how the universe works (rules, skills, powers). What level is the technology at? What kinds of things can you do with it? Is there magic the humans can tap into? What about psychic powers?

Once you have the first book with the ground rules established, you then put out the first adventure setting, which is basically the story you worked out here. This allows you to (a) tell the story you envision and (b) keep things open ended by not making the core rule book also be the only adventure.

With a later expansion, you can then start adding in the alien races and their technology.

At least... that's how I'd do it.