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...and now I have 3 weeks max to design a space game.

I've got a rough big plot. I've got a couple of mini-plot ideas. I have plans for a ship AI that has quirks. I don't have space station blueprints that could hold a few dozen people fully staffed that I could partially destroy. I don't have a lot of plot ideas. I only know of one PC concept so far.

Links to random generators and drawings/layouts would be greatly appreciated. Source material (other than AU:GG which I have) would be greatly appreciated. Fan material based on the Palladium system would be doubly appreciated.

Next time I will learn to plan before speaking.

I tried running a space based game without preparation and wound up BSing my way through. I have done a thread in the past on Zeta Reticulans, and another one on other aliens, if you are looking for aliens.

Watch Star trek DS9 epidodes in the later Seasons..that is quality stuff. also for week to week stories..Andromeda is good series. Personally I always though Babylon 5 was one the better ones. (the time travel bits were iffy..but the aliens and shadow wars...awesome stuff.

One the best books you can use for these games is the Macross Deckplans. (if you can find them I got lucky and have all three volumes) They have nice ship designs and are pretty adaptable to robotech, HU or even Rifts though the MDC may need adjusting. I'm not sure...but they may be out of print so getting them online will required.

Now plot generation...I'll go with stone gargoyle here its pretty easy. I always try and leave on element at the end of every quest that leads or pulls the party to the next leg.

Next time I will learn to plan before speaking.

Now now..the best ideas came from people opening there mouths with out planning. besides I get my best thoughts like that.

Sent ya few links hope some it helps ya.

The Company "Tabletop Adventures" has a number of systemless .pdf products for Gamemasters on the go. Most of them are for fantasy settings, but a few are for space adventure. Such titles include:

-Repair Station Osiris
-Derelict Starships
-Cantinas and more
-Spaceport Trident Vespa
-Spaceport Black Orchard
-Charon's Wall

These are books with great setting detail, plus lots of random-roll encounters and events (called Shards & Bits). In my opinion, they are worth a look.

Now I'm building the ship, and I'm having trouble with the armor. Light armor is for up to 150 tons, but medium is for 300 or more. So what about between 150-300 tons? I'm not sure whether to use light or medium.

Farscape without a doubt would make for some great games. They just released the box set as well with all 88 episodes. Probably the best show to come out of the Sci-Fi channel.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1781161313/ref ... I2PQOBSCXQ

Aliens colonial marines technical manual.

Recommended reading for any GM planning on a space campaign.

Good luck!

--flatline

Start small and build from their characters history and desires.

Start all on the small side with the big bads being shadowing figures. No need to have it all planned out to the nth degree.

source material you could look at..

Star Trek: Deep Space 9
Babylon 5
Outland
Firefly
Battlestar Galactica

all offer some interesting plot ideas or group dymamics worth considering..

arouetta wrote:Now I'm building the ship, and I'm having trouble with the armor. Light armor is for up to 150 tons, but medium is for 300 or more. So what about between 150-300 tons? I'm not sure whether to use light or medium.

Generally armor of any class except for light will be heavy. I'd say if its a small craft go light and add extra at a set ratio..say X MDC = X amount of tonnage and work from there. that should get you good MDC with a reasonable or at least consistent weight.

I'd check out Traveller--any of the core books. Most are available through drivethrurpg. Excellent resources for creating star systems and interstellar governments. Also, check out this blog post for creating a sandbox. Yeah, it's not for AU, but should be easily convertible:

http://batintheattic.blogspot.com/2009/ ... ndbox.html

arouetta wrote:Now I'm building the ship, and I'm having trouble with the armor. Light armor is for up to 150 tons, but medium is for 300 or more. So what about between 150-300 tons? I'm not sure whether to use light or medium.

Preference is yours. You could have a 200 tons armor be "heavy" instead of 300+ because the ship's hull is made of some hard to come material/league that is lighter than the usual plating, or go the opposite way with a 200 tons armor that is only as useful as (150 tons) light armor because the plating is a veritable nightmare of badly welded plates, recycled parts of even older ships and cheapo jury-rigging... Use what you like and then make up an excuse/plot hook out of it.

Well, what sort of game would you like to make up? Want it gritty like Aliens or Firefly, pulpy like Star Wars, Andromeda or something out of a comic, "brainy" like Star Trek or Babylon 5? A bit of either? Defining the style of story you want to toy with will help in defining boundaries, what does not interest you at the moment because with that in mind you'll have a much easier time in defining possibilities & limits for them and guiding their character creation where you want so no one comes with a redeemed Sith Time Lord Starship Trooper to a Space Odyssey game.

With style defined you can set up some setting background, separate some material to pilfer ideas from/for inspiration, see what kind characters your players come up with - and what extra plots, associates or trouble you can mine from their stories - and you are set to start i think.

Also, no shame in pilfering what books you already have at hand for your adventuring needs. Don't have deckplans? Dungeonmap becomes an asteroid full of weird mutants, experimental and some aliens, the weapons lab of some lost civilization or whose owners still live but are isolated in another section. A city map from any other game can be the inside of a huge space station or a place in any world of your. Take away the weird people and Mos Eisley could be Casablanca from a WWII game or any of a number of pueblos in a western. Palaces can be mausoleums, parliaments, actual local palaces, museums, the mansions of the filthy rich or vice-versa.

It works for NPCs too if some catch your interest... those Palladium brigands? Replace bows & arrows with harpoon pistols - or porcupine-esque aliens that throw spikes, or both - instead of melee weapons use some blades of energy or some weird material that may parry blaster shots if the user is skilled or lucky enough and you have a colourful gang of spaceport thugs instead!

yes, that was a cheap and low move, but you get the idea i hope. I love Firefly and i'll be the first to say it mined the hell out of westerns all the time.

Anyway, work with what you already have so you may dedicate more time to the creative parts, relax and have some fun.