Do Players Need to be the Main Characters?

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

Taking as step beyond metaplot - there is an actual story, a notable main character, and a set beginning middle, and end. Player's exist withing this story, may even meet or see the main character in a "" manner, but mostly the characters are involved in their own little side stories for however long the main tale takes.

For example, this morning I had an idea about an Anime space opera like setting. There is no FTL travel per say, but there are different levels of space, the greater distance you travel, even if you are at the same speed. (Rough analogy to minecraft's Nether where you cover 8x the distance of the overworld.) However, the deeper you go, the faster you age, and often violent psychological effects affect most adults. These effects are somewhat countered by either very rare immune individuals or using children who are far less affected. Traveling in the lower spaces is a bit like being in a cloud bank or underwater, reducing the effectiveness of sensors, so space fighters and patrols are a justified part of this.

If this were an actual TV show, it would be following one particular little girl who has somehow acquired a McGuffin that may allow access to zero space or above (ie heaven, or places where time flows backwards) and the possibility that this could allow telephoning supplies or longer periods in lower space areas and thus a better chance in the interstellar war that is going on (isn't there always an interstellar war?)

Since its not, this instead focuses on the set three month period this is happening, elsewhere on her ship, and its just the set 90 day period of life for certain characters. A lot might be going on, but they're not determining the course of events, and the game terminates at the end of the show - possibly even if plots are not resolved. (As an aside, perhaps they can spend XP not just on themselves, but "viewership" - ie pay in to get another season of the series and continue. Otherwise things can just lapse, and the game starts over.)

So would it frustrate you to realize that your adventures are just a sideshow that could be terminated once someone else achieves something? Or would the idea of a game that is same plot, but played multiple times from different side characters wear out its welcome too quickly?

[vulpinoid]

Hell yes...go with it.

This is pretty similar to one of the backburner projects I've discussed a few times with a few people.

I was looking at an anime style game where everything follows the adventures of a lone protagonist who is the focus of the stories. The player characters are the friends, sidekicks, mentors and adversaries of the protagonist. This is not their story, but they gain recognition within the story if the protagonist learns from their advice, their actions (successful or otherwise) and their attitudes.

If a secondary character dies, they would want to do so in a manner that teaches the most possible to the protagonist so that their legacy lives on within him.

Then they can start playing something new in the story that might fit better with a new direction the story might have taken.

I'd love to see someone run with something similar.

[EDIT: Tell me this isn't an April Fool's thing]

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

No, its not a joke, at least not on you. On me, well - my brain is strange that way.

This is all inspired by a dream I had the night before, which if it could have been recorded, really did look like an anime. The main character was "Aki" kind of a generic young dark haired girl (Like the main character of "Girls und Panzer, but different hair color.) Various other girls were rock stars or the equivalent to keep up morale. In Aki's backpack, along with journals and a box of colored pencils, was a model of the spaceship she was on - and the the toy slid apart to reveal some odd tech, that the ships Foster said would revolutionize travel and underway replenishment. Something about the levels was mentioned in the dream, as well as the finality of leaving Earth on the ships and the "We'll meet again on level zero" tag line. What I recall of the ship itself, it looks like an Ahb cruiser from "Crest of the Stars".

What I've got from there is really kind of a generic anime - these are kids in space on a warship aging at several times normal speed. They may or may not be fed drugs that suppress hormones, but once you hit puberty the exponential aging (depending on depth level) hits thus leading to very short lifespan, or agreeing to be stuck in stasis which may help, or may just be a way to keep them out of sight when they do die. (This whole setting comes off as very dark and depressing sort of thing). There are space fighters because the ships need escorts and communications relays through the sub levels of space. The main character wants to be a singer, but doesn't really have the talent/stage presence to do it, especially in a world where entertainers have great authority. At some point they're going to lose a friend in the void. There will be a space battle with Aki trying to run away, and then going back to help her friends. The unknown enemy actually prefers to abduct the children. Most of the explosions are self destruct sequences. I'm going to stop writing and play with the cat until my mood improves.

This probably should be a traditional media project (novel, webcomic, etc.) since its kind of hard to do loss, finality, and child soldiers when you're with friends and tend to joke around as is the case with tabletop games.

[Onix]

[maledictus]

May I suggest my very own for this kind of game? You play as a worker on a crowded space station. You can use a galaxy threatening plot on the background, but that may not be that important for the players. Sort of like .

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

Torus One could be used for the background characters/day in the limelight idea - that seems to be what its made for actually. The anime idea probably needs a bit more stringent/dramatic system, with some handling of spacefighters to get the setting right.

I'm also a bit reminded of a comic called ""which gives the Tom Stoppard treatment to StarWars, though with more focus on humor, parody, and pop-culture references.