Back in Black: Style Guide

This is the style guide for Stars Without Number: Back in Black.

• Major sources of inspiration for the campaign include the setting in Stars Without Number, The Dying Earth stories by Jack Vance, the Alien and Blade Runner mythologies, some of the darker Western films (like Firefly!), crime drama, and a wide variety of horror films, in addition to the Book of the New Sun. Technology ranges from the actually advanced to the sort of thing depicted in pulp artwork and older science fiction films that had a good budget. The Alien films are a big source of inspiration for me. Projectile weapons are VASTLY more common than energy weapons, and only a complete prat would wear the sort of bullshit that Starfleet issues for uniforms. A spacer's clothes need some goddamn pockets. People still use things like wrenches and angle grinders to work on space vessels, and you can get dirty doing it. Pretech computer technology is crazy weird, but postech is basically recognizable to us. Somebody pulling a blade out of a server rack on board a spacecraft wouldn't be completely anachronistic.
• Human civilization is bound by the limits of its logistical capacity. Bulk trading between star systems does not exist. Settlements need to be able to produce their own food, power, and basic industrial technology. Food vats and fabber kits get brought in. Food and consumer goods don't.
• There are boundaries of good taste in this game. Rape, torture, the cold-blooded murder of innocent non-combatants, anything resembling real-world bigotry, and similar squicky subjects, are not intended to be a part of this campaign. It is certainly true that evil lunatics or sinister aliens, for example, might engage in slavery, ritual torture, and even worse vices. But the tone of those incidents should be closer to a somewhat exploitative pulp magazine rather than SAW or something. There is also a fairly substantial gulf between what the players should expect to see from the worst villains of the campaign and what I should expect to see from the PCs. Basically, it should be obvious to the reader that you are the good guys and the enemies are the bad guys, at least in a very loose sense.
• My own weird hangup is bad things happening to kids. Since I don't like to be limited in having bad things happen all over the place at any time, the rule is going to be that children do not show up on-screen. If anyone else has a hard limit or serious hangup not mentioned here, they should mention this either in the OOC or to me in private via PM. In the latter case, I'll put that information in the OOC thread but not specify who it came from.
• Major game discussions, commentary, kibbitzing, etc. go in the Out of Character Thread. Comments or questions which are part and parcel of an In Character post go in an sblock.
• In Character Posts should make it clear what your character is attempting to achieve and how they are going about it. The occasional conditional action in combat is appropriate, but those posts should be even more explicit about what your character will attempt under what conditions. Do not make me guess as to what your character is doing, or if they are doing anything.
• Another aspect of this is that almost every IC post should include some kind of action, and its major contents should be things that someone watching your character could react to. If you post something like, "Gronan sits silently and considers what jackasses his fellows are," then I will punch you in the face over the internet. Firstly, you've made a post that accomplishes nothing. Secondly, you've insulted the other PCs in a really half-assed and obnoxious way. There are various other combinations of ways to express that which are appropriate. I generally want in-character conflict in the IC thread and OOC conflict in the OOC thread (or via PM, and I hope we don't really have any OOC conflict.)
• I also have a general preference in this campaign for posts that can show the author's wit through brevity. There are times and places when posts should run on into several paragraphs, but in general I do not expect every combat post to include the precise details of your armor's gleaming or flashbacks to the wizened master who taught you swordplay. I recommend reading Howard to see how to pack a lot of action and flavor into a low wordcount.
• The campaign universe is actually not hard science fiction, but it's harder that Star Trek and a lot harder than Star Wars. Again, the best material for "feel" is probably Alien and Blade Runner. Technobabble should be kept to a limit. You are much better taking real scientific terminology (or something that sounds like it) and misapplying it than you are just 'reversing the polarity' of something. There are psychic powers, but even they should feel fairly science-ey. They aren't magic, they work in defined ways and rarely does the power itself have much duration. They represent heavy exertion. A psychic can change many small things or a few large things, but they cannot typically shake the world.
• The PCs are larger than life. They are highly competent and should be at least somewhat passionate about their goals. If you were wishy-washy, you'd have stayed home on the lizard-farm. Don't be afraid to hoist a fistful of credit chips at the heavens, draw your monosword, and declare yourself king of the ground on which you stand. Furthermore, due to the Brevity requested above, it is often preferable to draw characters in broad strokes. Subtlety isn't disfavored, so much as I like to see every character take a turn gnawing at the scenery.
• Everything is mortal. The PCs are really mortal, and even the godlike unbraked AIs can be killed. dventurers need to keep a close eye on how to reduce the danger to their own skin, and you are not expected or required to fight fair. This is a game of high mortality if you aren't careful.
• That being said (and this is relevant because there are space pirates) human characters are expected to give each other a fairish chance to survive. Outright killing a surrendered enemy is not merely poor form and grounds for execution, it is also sort of against the code of the campaign. If one side is in a situation to drop a fusion bomb on the other side, then the latter should generally surrender. See Vance's books and the authors inspired by him.
• The galaxy has a long history. Very long. There have been multiple rises of civilizations and multiple apocalypses, and the game is set in the ruins of all of them. Most people who are even moderately educated are aware of this. The last major apocalypse was the Scream, and that decimated human civilization. But Humans are not the only sophonts who have ever sailed the stars, and it isn't always clear what killed the others or where they might have gone.
• I am not a Storyteller, Game Master, Dungeon Master, Director, Wulin Sage, or Hollyhock God. I prefer the term Referee.
• If people can find appropriate pictures for their characters, I would appreciate it. Drawings, photographs, whatever. I like visual aids.
• This is a sandboxy game. I may introduce antagonists interesting enough that they recur, but I don't really do a "plot." There is a lot of stuff going on out there, PCs get involved with it and it looks like a plot retroactively.
• There are a fairly small list of things that I must ask you to never do on account of the fact that they cause me to twitch in an unseemly manner. Please don't try to loot and sell purely mundane items. Retrieving normal weapons, armor, and clothing from your enemies in hopes of turning some extra profit sends me loopy. It's not like I don't hand out substantial treasure.
• Secondly, please do not ask me if it's okay to put something on the wiki. The wiki is here for you to put things on it! Just make sure it's in the right place. That is, it doesn't interfere with anything already here or clutter up some vital existing page, it's categorized appropriately, and it's possible to find it. I have faith in your best judgment. If you must mention your intent, just let me know what you did and I'll tell you if it's a problem.
• Information Sharing: I presume (and the other players may therefore presume) that PCs share relevant information at the earliest reasonable opportunity, unless the player informs us otherwise. If I strongly suspect that information is likely to be concealed, I may PM the player. However, secrecy and intra-party intrigue is strongly discouraged.