Idea Potential Future Interplanetary Scifi/Scifan Nation states RP Discussion Thread

This is a little discussion thread for a future Scifi/Scifan Nation States RP, as my discussion of "The Roast of Imperial Doctrine at Thesper" piqued quite a few people's interest in an interstellar colonization and nation states style RP. More than likely this won't actually start until the winter semester is over (End of April.) But there's much to plan and I wanted to give a place for discussion to happen given all the interest that seems to have arisen. To kick off discussion I want to bring up some issues I've encountered with previous RPs of this sort to see if we can come to some solutions that previous RPs I've participated in or GMed have faced.

Discord or RPN?

While I don't want this to be flagged for offsite advertising, I think there are legitimate benefits to a discord server. Channels, mod statuses, potentially an RP bot configured to track everyone's resources, fleets, planets, etc. Plus it makes irc rapid-fire style discussions. The server can be entirely dedicated to the RP. RPN is nice because longer fourm posts, which I believe would be more conducive to this style of RP. I have a few friends very interested in this style of RP on discord and I don't know their comfort level with using a discord server? What would you guys' comfort level be with using discord, so I can ultimately resolve where this would take place.

Perpetual or Goal-Oriented?

What seems more interesting to you guys? To have the RP be goal oriented; to have all the factions working twoard one common goal (defeating a common enemy, achieving galactic peace, etc.) Or to have it a perpetual RP, in where the galaxy remains relatively stable and smaller events and politics are what move things foreward, with perhaps a larger event occurring when things become stale?

Magic?

A lot of science fiction settings tend to approach magic in one of five ways:
-There is no magic
-The Only Magic that exists is psionics or some sort of alien hive mind, and this can probably be explained by some biological or technological mechanism.
-Magic exists but it's fairly limited. Its users for the most part aren't that much more powerful than regular people. High level technology can surplant it. (Star Wars)
-"Magic" is actually technology left by a precursor race, so advanced it isn't properly understood and simply referred to as magic. (Personally I'm not a big fan of this one. I always feel like precursor races in Scifi are usually used poorly just as a cop-out means to get reverse-engineered FTL drives or learn of cosmic threats.)
-Magic is prevalent and just as common or integrated with technology and has the potential to be just as powerful if not more powerful than technological alternatives.

Probably good if we can agree on one.

A Larger Antagonist?

How interested would you be in me as the GM or one or two players playing the part of a larger antagonistic force which the other players' nation states must overcome their differences and unify against? Some lovecraftian extragalactic invaders, something akin to the reapers or tyranids, to give the interstellar powers a real challenge, but ideally not be completely insurmountable. Another possibility might be a threat from within, a splinter religious group attempts to dismantle decades of galactic peace. Either one would attempt to manipulate the various powers into weakening one another before attempting more direct strategies.

Include Stuff from Known IPs?

Thoughts on including stuff from various scifi IPs? (Ships, Tech, Alien Races, Planets, Factions, Magic Systems, etc.) Possible IPs (Star Wars, Halo, Mass Effect, BSG, Trek, 40k, Stargate)

Windsock Corrosion Martydi Malphaestus

I hosted a sci-fi nation building RP titled Interstellar Empires a year ago, but it died because I was still pretty inexperienced at that kind of thing. I think I'm better now.

Honestly, I loathe Discord RPs. Character limit means shorter posts, plus more restrictions such as no proper coding and whatnot.

I am OK with using Discord for RP. I have no preference regarding whether this RP will be perpetual or goal oriented, although I think that the second one will somewhat restrict nation creation. I would prefer to play with first, second or third magic rules. And as for the antagonist thing, I can play with that, or maybe even as that if you permit (Tyranid ripoff intensifies). And as for the inclusion of things from other IPs, I think we should allow using tech and ships from other universes during nation creation.

For discord or RPN, either/or. I've got no vote for this one.
Perpetual, pl0x
2/5, "hive minds n psionics n shit"
Larger, constant antagonist? You can't have just one, or it'll be too stale. Besides, I like the idea of 'usual adversaries' to pass the time with.
"Include stuff from IP's?" I don't mind, as long as it's played well.

I cannot say I have experience with roleplaying on Discord, but I do know for a fact that what I sometimes want to say in channels is definitely far too long. It is an easier alternative to RPN for conversation, however, as it is, as you said, rapid-fire. For the universe, it is no real contest really; perpetual worlds are the only real option in my eyes for the sakes of peoples' enjoyment, and that does also play into antagonists. These two options are tied together, if it is a perpetual world, then there ought to be no inherently opposing antagonistic force, but rather each nation has their own unique cultures and diplomatic ties with the others around them. I prefer depth in my roleplays, so having everything fit together logically is my way to do things. I do not like seeing two islands next to eachother, which is to say two neighbouring nations with no history between them.

As for science and magic, I don't really have any personal preference. I seldom use magic regularly as a method of writing, as I am more of a knight myself. Though I have always been in love with the idea of heavily armed mages fighting in close quarters with swords and magic at hand. Sort of like WH40k Librarians. This also easily steps into the IP aspect, one of which I am vehemently opposed to. I believe that it limits creative freedom, both for those who use it, but also those who go against it. It is easier to make the Galactic Empire without it being the "Galactic Empire" if the option is much simpler to do so, than to make something interesting for everyone involved.

I would be interested in this roleplay whenever it became a thing as a small nomadic mercenary fleet of some sort. I have no strong preferences aside from there being no primary antagonistic force, in addition to the roleplay being 'perpetual worlds'. I don't mind if people borrow elements from, say, the Galactic Empire, or even copy that or other organizations from other fandoms entirely. I think my own faction will be mostly if not entirely unique, but I don't mind if people just want to be the Imperium for whatever reason they have.

I think it would be better to use Discord for this, but there is of course, nothing wrong with RPN. Magic however, should definitely be scientifically explained, or atleast have theories behind it. Like with hive mind's as you had stated. My opinion goes towards a constant, or looping antagonist. And i'm obviously biased towards IP's.

@ me if this becomes a thing.

Okay we have two people solidly in the RPN-only camp. OFC I have a friends who only do discord RP, and I don't know if I could convince them to transition to RPN or not. Perhaps one of you folks who is more indifferent to RPN or discord could cross-post key information. I don't know what the site rules are regarding that and more than likely it would turn out to be way more effort and confusion than it was worth. But it is a possibility and that we probably shouldn't completely discard, especially if we opt for a slow pace and longer posts. Whatever we agree on the key is compromise, that we will not be able to meet everyone's standards 100%, but as long as we can get everybody to be reasonably happy with the final product then thats the best we can hope for.

By the looks of it everyone could play with the "hive mind & psionic" magic rules reasonably well. I wanted to avoid factions or characters having massive (dis)advantages due to high powered magic or lack thereof. So that's probably what we'll be going with.

For the antagonist, it sort of sounds like its going a sort of hybrid route; given the variety of factions/characters people seem to be planning on creating, natural conflicts and politics will probably spawn from them, especially if we force everybody into a relatively small sector of space. This wasn't the case in a lot of the previous RPs in where everyone was a fairly large, human centric nation state of idealistic or pragmatic background. (Very boring) This will also work much better for a perpetual or ongoing style of rp.

As for IPs, it seems like most people are pro-IP, or to making something based off of an existing IP, but also okay or desiring to create something original. The finalized rule for compromise might be you can make look alikes to various factions but not directly take characters or names. (IE use a picture of an ISD to say my ships look very similar and play a similar role but not identical.) The reason I bring up the IP stuff is that in previous iterations of Interstellar Nation States RPs I've had a number of what I can only assume to be children or younger teenagers make stuff like this:

I think it will be reasonable to post general status updates on RPN, and do diplomacy, combat etc. In Discord, so we can have long, detailed posts for general updates and such, as well as Discord for fast paced real time battles and such. Both sides will be pleased and we will get the best of both worlds.

The "discord for day-to-day" and 'weekly RPN updates" general idea sounds tight as shit, fam.

Anyway, I wanted to make that exact ship so fucking bad. Why do you hurt me JadeGreen17 ?

On a related note, can go with realistic ship design etc to gain some sort of advantage, or do I have to play dumb and pretend I don't know how to design a decent starship?

Yeah, and I was wondering on the creation aspect too.

How weird can our culture/nation/species get? And how are we gonna do the science? Can we do pseudo-science? I wanted creatures made of non-standard, non-baryonic matter.

And why are you taking centrist positions when you can more obviously lean on one end or the other? Just allow IP's smh

Martydi said:

On a related note, can go with realistic ship design etc to gain some sort of advantage, or do I have to play dumb and pretend I don't know how to design a decent starship?

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I see no issue with realistic or clever ship design. (IE not having a star destroyer style exposed bridge, having reaction control thrusters and good armor/weapon coverage, etc.) But there's a big difference between making a strong ship/fleet thats strong because its smartly designed, and a strong ship/fleet thats strong because its made of supermetals and has been covered super guns that simply overpower other ships by orders of magnitude. The former I am perfectly fine with, the latter not so much.

Windsock said:

Yeah, and I was wondering on the creation aspect too.

How weird can our culture/nation/species get? And how are we gonna do the science? Can we do pseudo-science? I wanted creatures made of non-standard, non-baryonic matter.

And why are you taking centrist positions when you can more obviously lean on one end or the other? Just allow IP's smh

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I have no issue with very weird or experimental ideas like this, in fact I think they'll be what keeps the RP. Psuedo science is inevitable since we're probably going to have at least artificial gravity and FTL, (and probably a lot of the standard space opera fare like hangar shields and holograms). Just make sure that your weird non-baryonic civilization doesn't completely lose touch with everyone else because they're so alien.

Also as for taking centrist positions:

Malphaestus said:

[snip] .This also easily steps into the IP aspect, one of which I am vehemently opposed to. I believe that it limits creative freedom, both for those who use it, but also those who go against it. It is easier to make the Galactic Empire without it being the "Galactic Empire" if the option is much simpler to do so, than to make something interesting for everyone involved.

Click to expand...

We do have one player who is opposed to the inclusion of direct rips of IPs. My goal here is to make the most amount of people as happy as possible with the setup, and pretty much everyone else is okay with IP content so long as its played well or has original spice, so that's what we're going with. If you don't appreciate my efforts, then thats on you.

I am fine with it.

I am neutral on the IP aspect. I don't know yet what will I play as, but if I decide to play as ripoff from some existing IP, and you decide to ban using existing IPs, I'll just change up a few names and go with it like that.

Martydi said:

I think it will be reasonable to post general status updates on RPN, and do diplomacy, combat etc. In Discord, so we can have long, detailed posts for general updates and such, as well as Discord for fast paced real time battles and such. Both sides will be pleased and we will get the best of both worlds.

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Despite my general dislike of Discord RPs, I have to agree with that. Discord will allow for faster-paced, if somewhat less detailed battles. RPN can be used to post much more detailed after action reports.

I support the use of IPs. I've always wanted to play as the cute and fluffy starfish who commit genocide from Stellaris.

Martydi said:

I think it will be reasonable to post general status updates on RPN, and do diplomacy, combat etc. In Discord, so we can have long, detailed posts for general updates and such, as well as Discord for fast paced real time battles and such. Both sides will be pleased and we will get the best of both worlds.

Click to expand...

I second this, it seems like a good middle-ground to me. Also not a bad idea in itself, as fleet deployments require quick responses and planning.

JadeGreen17 Perhaps you could open a Discord server for us to discuss this in detail?

Discord link is up in outside advertising section of the forums, Tagged y'all

I think one here or on discord and have precoursors or none no magic though. im currently finishing a google doc or a nation so yeah. id like us to be picking allies but in the background a higher galactic ending threat like the flood except worse on our doorsteps without realising

Dude.

This was cancelled months ago.