[Diaspora] Diaspora for less hard Sci-fi

[Brad Murray]

On Sat, Sep 19, 2009 at 1:32 PM, Darren Brewster <excrusader at gmail.com> wrote:
> So how does everyone think Diaspora would work for less hard sci-fi,
> or even Space Opera?

Well, honestly I think this is pretty easily addressed with a couple of tweaks.

First, realise that almost all of the "hard-sf" in Diaspora is
paint-job and hand waving. If you design a T3 sword and call it "light
sabre", you're in space opera territory.

Second, the lethality of the system can be handled one of two ways and
they are both simple:

* make the bad guys easier. Serious, don't play with stress etc. but
just make the opposition easier.
* allow concessions AFTER a roll goes bad as well as before

The only thing that needs an overhaul for space opera is the space
combat -- I think here you actually want a more 2D
spacecraft-as-airplanes map model but maybe not. The Star Wars
miniatures space game was basically 2D and it worked. Certainly allow
fighters as per the optional rules, and psionics too, but when you
read those in detail you will find that they follow the same basic
advice: change the paint, and it looks sufficiently different.

-- 
Brad Murray (halfjack)
VSCA Publishing