Titan Q6: Gaming

clash_bowley

Would you use anything from this book in a game? What would you nick and file the serial numbers off of? Would it work as is as an RPG setting? What would you change?

NeilNjae

Given that Varley nicked most of the book from Ringworld, I think it should be easy enough to build a game on it. The obstacle will be information flow, so that it's not a case of the GM spouting exposition as the PCs explore parts of the mystery. But once you get past that, there's fun to be had with the Jones role, acting as an intermediary between Gaia and Earth, and dealing with the various sub-brains in the rim sections.

Apocryphal

Very much so. I don't think I'd nick-and-file though - space centaurs and avians aren't that interesting, but I did like the space whale-sharks whose mouth you ride in). But once concept I've been noodling about for years (and was explored in Hull Zero Three) was the idea that characters wake up at the beginning of a session as a blank slate, and their actions during the first session define who they are mechanically. This setting amends itself to that very well, so that's something I might very well enjoy.

Not to mention you can do all kinds of things with a giant living environment that's modelled on earth - almost anything, really. The interior of Gaia could be more earthlike (didn't Kirk, Spock, and Bones once visit a very earthlike place that wasn't Earth?) or less Earthlike (could be Lovecraft's Dreamlands, complete with flying polyps and Yithians). So there's a lot one could to with this setup. And the whole earthling-space-crew schtick lets you plunk an already-assembled party into an alien environment without much need to back story - the setting is introduced through play.

RichardAbbott

Something that I wondered about was the way the (transformed) crew kind of stumbled into the conflict between the centaurs and the angels and tried to broker a peace, only to find that in fact warfare had been programmed into them so that Gaia could learn how to fight, and that in fact there was no way of securing peace (short of divine intervention). Would this work somehow as a game theme?

Apocryphal

It doesn’t excite me as a game theme, let’s put it that way. Players likely would behave the same way and see this as a cue to broker peace. And player efforts should meet with success (after a little resistance). This could drive them to the core to meet with Gaia, but the centaurs would need to spill the beans about their instinct to fight a war, and I think it means they’d also have to strongly suggest that there is a central intelligence driving everything, and that they’d have to climb to the core to speak with it. And this starts to feel like ‘railroading’ (giving the players the impression that the solution to the plot lies on the tracks ahead, thus discouraging independent driving by them).

Now, I be could maybe get around this by releasing that each biome has its own Titan head, which then gives the player a choice of dealing with Gaia or the local Titan , then finding the local Titan is insane and eventually making Gaia the obvious choice. That feels better to me, but obviously adds many more sessions to play.

clash_bowley

@Apocryphal said:
It doesn’t excite me as a game theme, let’s put it that way. Players likely would behave the same way and see this as a cue to broker peace. And player efforts should meet with success (after a little resistance). This could drive them to the core to meet with Gaia, but the centaurs would need to spill the beans about their instinct to fight a war, and I think it means they’d also have to strongly suggest that there is a central intelligence driving everything, and that they’d have to climb to the core to speak with it. And this starts to feel like ‘railroading’ (giving the players the impression that the solution to the plot lies on the tracks ahead, thus discouraging independent driving by them).

I agree. It is a common problem translating book plots into game terms. Authors are not herding cats, and thus can ignore their cries of woe...

P.S. I hate railroading as much as my players do, if not more...