Gateway Station

[Greenbriar]

PRIVATE SALE: Guide 19.5Mc – 22.5Mc


Gateway Station, Isla Sector, Northern Expanse


Prime Location with Growth and Sustainability


With massive capital spend on colonial initiatives in the last three years. Gateway Station represents a remarkable investment opportunity with excellent rental opportunities and exclusive refueling rights to a section of the Peluvian Way. Now is the time to secure.


Previously owned and operated by Twin Spires Steel and Platinum, this corporation has decided to consolidate its services in the mining sector and divest itself of its hospitality and service holdings. The 2.6km3 station is based in a nickel-iron quasi-satellite in close proximal orbit to XV-913, an arid world with low gravity and large untapped potential.    


The station has over 10 800 m3 of offices laid out on one main level, along with kitchens, a board room, production & material storage and a large main hangar capable of receiving a class-2 starship or docking with class-3 and up. Combining a quality industrial facility, fuel storage and the high exposure to an underdeveloped region of space it’s an investment opportunity that can’t be missed!


Apply to Grielsen Real Estate now!


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This is a concept I had (last night actually) that I'm considering turning into a roleplay.


It's based around a group of friends raising the capital (mortgaged to the hilt mind you) to purchase a space station in a decent location at a price that seems too good to be true. Naturally, it is.


Difficulties and challenges ensue with trying to clean up the station, fix its many (many) mechanical flaws, attract business, traffic and semi-independent commercial interests to the area, balance patriotic and alien-friendly influences since they're out near one of Unnamed Human Polity's borders - all the while trying to make their repayments, keep the loan sharks, pirates and spies at bay - and avoid getting eaten by whatever is making That Grinding Noise In The Dark.  


I'd like it to be largely freeform since I'm most comfortable with that, but I think a slender thread of mechanics would suit the setting and make it clear that it isn't simply GM Whim deciding whether things get better or much, much worse. 


I think a system of Strengths and Weaknesses would be useful (that is, Anne Adams is Good at Mechanics, Athletics and Crochet but Bad at Shooting, Deception and Cooking - and average at everything not called out). 


If fighting their way out from under the financial burden is going to be an element, then possibly there should be a system to measure ongoing expenses and income... but I don't really want to weigh things down with too much book-keeping either.


Can the whole be abstracted without losing some of the impact?


Or if not abstracted, then run behind the scenes by the GM?


What do you feel would be the bare minimum of mechanics needed to make something like this work?


New to this whole GM-ing thing, so would appreciate any input.

 

[Grey]

@Silvertongued I imagine you'd have some handy commentary on this. 

 

[Silvertongued]

Thankee Grey~


But yeah Greenbriar, if you're looking for stripped down basic mechanics to give it a bit of order for the financial, what you do is reduce your needed resources to as few things as possible. In this case, you've already made a point of income, outgoing expenditure. That kind of system revolves around time. In the end, it'd come down to simple accounting, which some people find fun, others don't.


What it would mean is that you set aside a turn or a post at the end of the day or the cycle or what have you where resolve all these issues. All the resource income and expenditure goes in at one point and takes care of each other. So if your players don't take note of their expenses, they may unknowingly wind up in debt or more debt. However, this does encourage them to do some rudimentary book keeping.


To keep that relatively simple, use plain, small numbers. Easier to remember, to add up and subtract. No £1.00 or even £10000. Reduce it as small as possible, similar to X-COMs $$, where each unit represents a large sum of money. So, let's say that you get charged $$1 in interest per turn, and your overall mortage debt is $$25. You make $$5 per turn in general traffic. You recycle materials worth $$1. Maybe you come across some sellable goods, manage to get a whole $$3 for the stuff. But you still have to pay your staff ($$1), put money into upkeep ($$1), and other bits and bobs ($$2). So your expenditure is $$5 this turn, but you made $$9 as well, leaving you with a net profit of $$4. You can try to use this to reduce your mortage Debt, spend it on something like an extermination crew to take care of That Grinding Noise In The Dark, some better equipment and the like, or even save it in case of a rainy day.


Regardless, with resource management, you're stil going to have to keep an excel sheet yourself of what peeps are spending.

 

[Silvertongued]

Also, tying that resource into XP. You can use your funds to advance your character (you know, teaching for those loose stats, buying equipment, augmentations and prosthetics).

 

[Greenbriar]

Thanks for the extremely helpful comments @Silvertongued!


I'm leaning toward "500 000 credits (c)" being 1 megacredit (C) which gives us a simpler mechanic to play with with and a maximum debt ceiling (at time of purchase) of 45C. That could work with charging 1C per cycle in interest instead of worrying about getting all fiddly. 1-2 megacredits could also be about right for a correspondence course in some areas (or in less academic areas, getting a trainer out here to show someone how it's done) to raise a character to being Good At something else. It's not meant to be super serious for anybody, but I think it's worth at least a small amount of book-keeping at the back end. I like the idea of using the same system to advance characters as well, letting the players work out whether they want to sink the money into their business, their characters or something else entirely.


A cycle won't be every single post either, it's meant to be a roleplay more than a puzzle game or a business simulation - but every so often I can update the Group on how things are going. 


If I can I'd like to keep the financial mostly back-end - possibly the Lending Service/Bank can offer a financial management service free of charge as part of the mortgage agreement.


Moving further away from the mechanics side (I'm happy to go with Silvertongued's suggestions unless someone has another suggestion I should consider), any tips for:


Encouraging a game to stay light hearted and fun instead of gritty and grimdark?


Managing a game based in one location?


Managing a game full stop?

 

[Grey]

Encouraging a game to stay light hearted and fun instead of gritty and grimdark?

Make sure your interest check, posts, and setting or system information communicate that things are lighthearted fun. Don't be afraid to explicitly say so somewhere in the interest check or character creation. 

Managing a game based in one location?

Make sure you have a clear idea of how the location is laid out - last time I did this, a simple hand drawn map of a gas station in the Nevada desert was enough. Road here, lights there, shed back there, door in that wall...


That done, the players can fill it out as they please, but establishing a clear geography is key. After that it basically takes care of itself. 


Often the hard part is getting the players to stay in one location, but I expect you have an incentive for them not to go.

Managing a game full stop?

Wait for players to get complacent, then drop ninjas on them.

 

[Silvertongued]

I'd actually say look towards an old game called Startopia for some inspiration. It's literally the vidya equivalent of what you're wanting to do.

Wait for players to get complacent, then drop ninjas on them.

Having clandestine attacks from angry merchant clans is pretty funny. You know what's also funny?

• Facehuggers (albeit not as gribbly if you're making it lighthearted).
  
• Being crashed into by a Monolith.
  
• A rogue AI, that is actually entirely harmless as they're locked out of the system. They'll still make things annoying for you though, like turning off the AC when you're sleeping.
  
• Strange alien cults, dedicated to venerating a weird mold spot in your cargo bay.
  
• Bizarre NPCs that the players can hire.
  
• Unusual "local" festivals, some of which may require odd dietary needs, or entirely too much medical grade lubricant.
  

 

[Greenbriar]

Thanks @Silvertongued - those are some very entertaining ideas!


I hadn't heard of Startopia but I've done a little research on it now,


Thanks @Grey as well. With the map / clear notion of geography is it enough that I have a clear and consistent idea of what is where (which I could probably manage with a hand-drawn sketch) or should the map be something I post to ensure we're all on the same page?

 

[Grey]

A simple gridmap would help, just because some players are likely to be more visually-minded, and they need to know the geography in order to act effectively within it. I know plenty of people struggle with my attempts to describe geography while others don't, so a map is a useful equalizer. 


That game I mentioned earlier, with the gas-station - the players did 80% of my job for me, because they had a clear and concrete context in which to act. I noticed a huge difference between a playtest without a map and both the playtests and final game which included it.  They were more confident with a map they could refer to.