Category: Space Hex

There is a difference between robotic artificially intelligent machines and authentic life forms that intended to imitate a natural life form.

Synthetic life forms have many social and cultural implications to world building. In some empires the technology would be prohibited on moral grounds and others because of political scandal. However, some would embrace the technology – especially for foreign espionage.

Space Hex isn’t specifically being designed to be Heroic or Epic. Although I like the idea of characters being bound to a morality with existential implications. That is their actions are the cause of effects in the future.

I also like the commentary on Villains being unbound by morality but not by the effects of their actions, as well as the implications that good and bad face off and the good over comes the bad.

I just don’t think a roleplaying game is better when you play heroes or villains or you have a universe of contrasting good and evil. Although this contrast is inspiring in poetry, books, and movies.

Here’s why – tabletop roleplaying games are a tactical game where the entire story is told through the lens of the players characters. There are no cut scenes so if there are NPCs up to no good the players can see the effects but not necessarily the rest of the story.

Its like having the players followed by law enforcement or intelligence operatives. It only matters if the players know and make a choice that unfolds a story. Otherwise it’s a meaningless plot element.

One of the things that I like about playing Traveller is that the Stats are meaningful – well at least three of them. Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance are your hit points and when two out of the three stats are zero your character is unconscious and when all three reach zero the character is dead.

Otherwise Bob the world builder is right in that what people actually use is the stat modifier to play D&D. Likewise the Stat modifier is what Traveller uses to make skill rolls and so this is the most useful part of the stat.

Although when you roll 2D6 for a stat the average numeber is 7. With a stat between 6-8 the modifier is +0. For the average character this makes Intelligence, Education, and Social of no real use to the the Player.

Like if the three stats didn’t exist it would make no difference to game play for that character.

What I do like about the system though is at least a 2D6 provides a randomly generated number.

Edge Studios Star Wars at least makes every stat meaningly because the number represents the number of ability or proficiency dice a Player uses to make up a dice pool for skill checks; but the base number comes from a charaters species and then can be modified in character creation with the species base experience points. This point buy system leaves little for probability, although it makes it easier to develop a character that Player wants instead of one that comes out of random chance.

There needs to be three core areas address – Physical Ability, Mental Ability, and Appearance. Physical ability is certainly well defined by Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution, and Mental Abilities are well defined by Intellect and Education. This leaves appearance which should be divided between looks and rhetoric. One is the impression people get from looking at you and the other is a persons ability to persuade people through communication.

With a good set of stats the next question is how to make these stats narratively meaningful?

Matt Colville did a live stream episode about a lot of things, but part of it is about game development.

The part I was most interested in is the space combat game silent death.

My question is – does quickly and deadly space combat make a trpg better or unplayable?

The on tip here I like is the connections mechanic.

It comes from Traveller as stated in the video and I like it for a few reasons.

First it provides a meaningful manner to connect a party together.

Secondly it emerges from the players themselves.

I am strongly considering using some kind of narrative dice system for Space Hex.

What I like is that you end up building a dice pool to resolve an action where the d6 represents luck, a d8 represents attributes, and a d12 represents skill and this is opposed by a d6 that represents luck, a d8 that represents difficulty, and a d12 that represents a technical difficulty.

Then you have symbols for success and failure, threat and advantage, as well as triumph and despair.

So a dice pool goes beyond hitting a target number and enters the realm of explaining how a situation unfolds.

A threat can be another enemy enters the room and success from luck can mean a lucky shot.

What I don’t like is buying specialty dice seems like a cash grab, especially when people use them in the same fashion as a target number.

During the process of game development I learned a few things. This post is about the different audiences that are involved in table top roleplaying games and how this effects this games development.

First of all some people collect roleplaying games as a hobby. I think these people like great quality products and great art. At least I do because I collect roleplaying games.

The second type of collector collects miniatures. I’m also this type of person. I don’t know why I like it, but it doesn’t really matter. So over time I’m going to develop miniatures.

The third type of person likes to play roleplaying games around a table with either theatre of the mind or miniatures or a combination of both depending on the situation. I fall into the last category. I want to develop the game so that it can be played solo and then up to a large gaming club. West Marches style gaming is best when there are many players playing in the same world.

The next audience likes to play online. For this crowd I’ll set up something on Fantasy Grounds most likely. Largely because I’m familiar with it, but later on there will be more. I like to play online. It’s not as fun as in person, but it’s pretty close with the right people.

The next audience is those that like to watch people play for entertainment. I like to watch people play roleplaying games on YouTube sometimes for educational purposes and other times for fun.

The last audience is people who like to look at literature and various other types of entertainment. I will work on this as well.

The purpose of this development blog is to document how the game develops, especially through the exploration of games that I already like.

I have the most experience playing Mongoose Second Edition Traveller. It’s a very fun game to play. There are many mechanics that I like about it and many that I don’t. Periodically I’ll discuss both in the development blog.

My second most favourite game that I have the second most amount of experience with us 7th Edition Call of Cthulhu. Like Traveller I love it what it is and not what it isn’t, but it’s really designed to do one thing really well – SciFi Cosmic Horror Investigation.

Space Hex provides a galaxy to play in but my intension is to have the mechanics and the narrative to do many different game scenarios or campaigns.

The last game that I really like Star Wars Roleplaying game. I started with the West End Games D6 version which I am not entirely in love with and have ended up at the Fantasy Flight Games, and now Edge Studios, Star Wars which I think is amazing.

So along with the development of my own world I am going to explore Mongoose 2nd Edition Traveller, 7e Call of Cthulhu, and Edge Studios Star Wars with content creation projects along the way.