TRAILER: The Osiris Child

I've not heard squat about this before seeing the trailer, but this looks to be in my geeky wheelhouse of scifi action. The official title is Science Fiction Volume One: The Osiris Child -- which seems to hint at future installments (not sure if it's part of an anthology or what).

If this had been made in the 80s it might be more of a VHS B-movie actioner, but the effects definitely give this a polish not seen from these nondescript (read: non-IP) films.

Here's some sweet air vehicle battles:

Here's the full trailer:


It's an Aussie production and comes out there later this month. Doesn't yet have a US release, but definitely one to watch. It goes without saying this is ripe for RPG inspiration!

• Via io9
• Release info
• Official site
• IMDB listing
• Instagram

Here's my homebrew Space Opera idea starters...

Sometimes when I'm racking my brain, trying to come up with adventure ideas, it helps to think about the basic elements of space opera--or at least, the elements that I believe are the biggest dramatic story turn-ons. So if I get stuck, I remind myself to start small and build upon bare bones. Here are the minimal elements that I try to work with.

FOUR

Players. Yeah, we do just fine with three or even two, but four is a magic number because real group dynamics come into play. No longer is it the dynamic duo or trio, it's a fully realized team. It's much easier to diversify skills with at least four participants (besides the GM).

Even if fewer players actually show up, I try to write each game with four different classes and skill sets in mind. Let the players figure out who does what, but give them some purpose by challenging them on four fronts.

THREE

I go by the acronym A.R.M., which stands for alien, robot, monster. That could mean there's one of each or three of the same--or some combination thereof. Doesn't matter if they're friend or foe, but weirder is always better.

These creatures don't need to be instrumental to the plot, they can be encountered incidentally or as foreshadowing for a later adventure. But space opera is nothing if not exotic, so this is where I can turn up the dial on "fantastic beasts."

Hopefully every game has at least one thing they've not encountered before or at least has a unique spin on an old trope.

TWO

At least two destinations are required--could be planets, space stations, etc. But space travel needs a Point A and Point B to be interesting. Doesn't matter what those two places are, but preferably they require travel in a spacecraft of some sort. I always have at least one scene/encounter in space. ALWAYS.

I tend to ping pong my players between highly contrasted worlds (high tech vs. primitive, utopian vs. lawless, paradise vs. unbreathable hellscape, etc.). 

ONE

A Big Bad Wolf! There's gotta' be at least one scheming maniac, super-powered warlord, evil space wizard, etc. This usually helps to not only give a climactic battle, but to flesh out some of the plot with motives and minions (henchmen/bounty hunters, etc.) that might be encountered by the PCs, as well as other story-centric elements that creatures in the A.R.M. category aren't always intended to exploit.

Honorable Mention:

At least one thing that's totally out of my control. For one game I gave the PCs a mutagen stim, with a random table of possible mutations. They were encouraged only to hold on to it until the last half of the game. It surpassed all expectations as they really went for it with roleplay and it became the best part of that game.

What about you?

Again, these are just the starting positions, but they generally get me off to the races brainstorming. What are your must-haves for your games?

Soaking up the Jedi powers

THINK ABOUT IT:

How is The Force like the One Ring?

Vulcans, age 35

With mindbending, psionic Force-powers, purging emotion, and not thinking about girls for 900 years you can expect to...

...lose all sense of grammar and live in a swamp... 

Without discipline though...

You dig?

KEEP FOCUS KIDS.

1d10 Space Travel Customs Forms

Click to magnify 

So it turns out even Apollo astronauts can't escape red tape! This is a supremely cool artifact from the Apollo era space missions--it's the customs form that astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins had to complete on their return home from the moon.

This is something I'd LOVE to incorporate into a game, being the inclusion of an at-the-table artifact, plus seeding endless options for role-playing. Is the form filled out correctly? Some bureaucrat is not going to like that and this could mean anything for the PCs:

1. Delay in travel makes for a stay at a local space hotel or stop at a cantina (1d4 days)
2. PCs are detained, quarantined, questioned, tortured, mind-melded for information (1d4 days)
3. PCs are not allowed on-planet and are refused entry to the dock at the spaceport in question
4. PCs are welcomed for bringing much needed (whatever the cargo is) but then sentiment turns when it's not enough for the populous
5. Forms get mixed up or are forged by a corrupt official, fingering them for a crime they didn't commit (stolen goods, breaking embargo, etc.)
6. The form falls into the hands of local merchants who are looking to snuff out competition at the source--with the suppliers
7. Forms attract all manner of criminal element trying to "rob a train" and the PCs are the protectors of said cargo
8. Forms are a way of stealing PCs identities, ship registration, and mission info so they can be offed and replaced
9. Guards are unable to read the forms (either because of smudges, missing data, whatever) and PCs are held and added to a "watch list"
10. Nothing really, it's just a record of the cargo, but it's held onto and comes back to haunt them later

And so forth....

• Via The Atlantic, with a hat tip to Boing Boing
• Originally posted to Space.com

Tangents, Dodges, and Sideways Sojourns for SciFi Settings (d6)

Here's a few adventure hooks--or curveballs, rather--that you can throw into your games for those times player character complacency and carelessness crests and the GM seizes the moment.

1. A found device, weapon, or spaceship awakens to send a signal to mated piece with which it intends to combine. If successful, this process will dramatically alter the object's properties/abilities. Examples include: a spaceship that combines with other technology and takes on new functions; a ring that combines with its twin to give the wearer new-found superpowers--or terrible curse; or your last trip to the starship repair shop included a few "upgrades" only your mechanic knew about, like your ship is actually part of a giant super robot. Or, ya know, it could just be your everyday alien cube seeking its long lost key to unlock a dimensional gate to who-knows where/when in the spacetime pony show.

2. Speaking of inter-dimensional superdickery, the heroes begin inexplicably popping back and forth between locations (local, intergalactic, or otherwise) at inopportune moments by a dimensional portal, disguised as an everyday object. Involuntary teleportation runs unchecked until they figure out what the item is and how to deactivate it. Or worse, how to appease it--as it's actually a sentient lifeform and it's not happy!).

3. Speaking of self-aware, seemingly innocuous space objects--take a natural object in space and bring it to life! An asteroid that's perturbed by an infection of parasitic Earthmen trying to colonize it's backside; a tennis ball-sized, loudmouth of blackhole with an insatiable appetite for densely-packed matter and bad puns; a well-meaning quasar just dying to reveal the secrets of the universe to anyone who will listen, but unintentionally annihilates anything (Chris-Farley-style) in it's output path (Augh! So sorry! Did I blast you just then? I'm such an IDIOT!); or maybe it's fickle photon particles that guide heroes when they need light down a darkened tunnel or concentrate into a laser when they're too close to discovering the ancient crystal that powers them.

4. Mushrooms! Worked in D&D--they're the ultimate psychedelic/weird plot device. Why not make an entire planet of fungus that hates people? Make them glow in the dark and really smelly, per standard cliches. But perhaps space spores piloted by small blue aliens are invading all civilized planets and planting giant mushrooms that churn out billowing toxins to de-terraform your homeworld into something more habitable for themselves.

5. Check your looks in a mirror universe. The heroes find themselves in a world where an enormous, gentle Cthuloid overlord is caretaker to his fanatical human "children" who want to kill everybody who doesn't "love him" (that'd be you and your buddies). Perhaps Emperor Palpatine's efforts to establish the first Galactic Republic are in desperate need of your assistance when a band of imperialist Jedi swine make for a coup d'etat. Or the Atlanteans rise to share their enormous kelp crop only to find to surface dwellers are launching an invasion force and start by drilling into the seabed (don't scoff, it could happen!).  

6. And then there's the everyday, ho-hum, conventional weirdness: the frog plague is really raining hypnotoads; the latest mutagenic radiation/biologic agent is spread by computer virus or hilarious viral YouTube video (don't ask me how that works--it's sci-fi!); or the fabric of Vulcan society breaks down and they launch a massive, psychic, holy war on all inhabited worlds with greater efficiency and devastation than the Borg. Oh, and Yoda is their president. And when 900 years old Vulcans turn--they all look exactly like him. (Seriously, it makes a lot of sense doesn't it?).

There's some ideas. Now go and be fruitful and multiply your rolls by a factor of 4. I'm exhausted and going to bed!