ShatteredPrism:Design Goals
Contents
- 1 Shattered Prism: Freelancer
- 1.1 Introduction
- 1.1.1 What are you trying to accomplish?
- 1.1.2 What mood are you trying to evoke?
- 1.1.3 What do the characters do?
- 1.1.4 More importantly, what do the players do?
- 1.1.5 What literary genre corresponds to your concept?
- 1.1.6 What age group does your game target?
- 1.1.7 What kind of activities do you want to reward and what kinds of rewards do you want to provide?
- 1.1.8 Are you concerned about implementing this game in a computer at any point in the future?
- 1.1.9 Are you expecting your game sequences to extend for many sessions or will stories play out relatively quickly?
- 1.1.10 Do you envision a game that can be easily extended with numerous supplements or are you more interested in creating a single, self contained book of simple rules?
- 1.1 Introduction
Shattered Prism: Freelancer
Introduction[edit]
Okay, here are the current design goals for Shattered Prism: Freelancer. Included are some comments about the Shattered Prism setting at large and my goals for that.
What are you trying to accomplish?[edit]
Above all, I want to provide an entertaining and especially 'fun' way for other people to experiance the universe of my dreams that is Shattered Prism.
What mood are you trying to evoke?[edit]
The mood of Shattered Prism at large is that of adventure. Of larger than life figures doing deeds we normal folk only dream about. In Freelancer, the mood is the tense action one finds on a battlefield, dealing with a hostage situation, or during a bank robbery. SP at large is intended to be semi-heroic, with not-quite-over-the-top action and drama around every corner the PCs come across. Freelancers is centered more on the action side of things.
What do the characters do?[edit]
Freelancer is specificaly about mercenaries. The players are Freelancers, doing various grey and black ops for whoever fronts the credits. Anything from covert infiltration to outright gun battles.
More importantly, what do the players do?[edit]
The players should care more about the characters than your typical hack'n'slash game. Freelancers in specific is intended to be slightly more 'game-centric' than future SP supplements however, and as such there will be design elements intended to let players think of things as an elaborate 'boardgame', through the used of optional miniatures rules.
What literary genre corresponds to your concept?[edit]
Elements of Cyberpunk feature dominantly, however the depressed dystopia is removed in favor of a more space opera-ish tone.
What age group does your game target?[edit]
Mature teens, but primarily for the more mature 18-30 crowd. Anyone who enjoys more than simple hack'n'slash is the prime audience.
What kind of activities do you want to reward and what kinds of rewards do you want to provide?[edit]
Any action or scene which heightens the action or drama of the situation, without going 'over-the-top', should be rewarded. Rewards should be both in-game (loot) and mechanics-based (XP, Luck Points, etc).
Are you concerned about implementing this game in a computer at any point in the future?[edit]
I want the core rules to be simple enough to run tabletop, but easily expanded into a Computer Aided Role Play (CARP) game.
Are you expecting your game sequences to extend for many sessions or will stories play out relatively quickly?[edit]
SP is a setting which encourages multi-session campaigns, especially epic campaigns with recurring PCs and NPCs.
Do you envision a game that can be easily extended with numerous supplements or are you more interested in creating a single, self contained book of simple rules?[edit]
I have planned several additional setting books which focus on different aspects of and locations in the SP universe.
