Basic Rules
On a previous iteration of Megaspace I made the mistake of giving the ship all the traditional trappings of space opera: teleporters, FTL communications, replicators, the works. Then I had to do a lot of in-game explaining of why they were disabled. Re-reading Ringworld gave me the solution: I'd better stick to semi-realistic tech. Hence:
- No reactionless drive (in normal space).
- No plasma weapons.
- No "invisible wall" deflector shields.
- No stealth in space.
- No general-purpose replicators (food dispensers are OK).
- No disintegrators.
- No psionics.
I'm still undecided regarding hypercom and teleportation. I'll probably keep the former, with greatly reduced range.
Note that some of the above rules don't directly support the stated purpose; they are there for stylistic unity. Also worth mentioning: basic sci-fi conventions such as FTL, inertial dampening and trivial takeoff/landing are fair game.
Ultimately, the most important rule is: no idiot balls. Don't EVER insult the audience's intelligence. OK, so you're half an hour into the game/movie/whatever and the heroes can already defeat the Bad Guy. So what? Maybe he wasn't the real Bad Guy after all, or not the only one, anyway. Just don't make up three quarters of a story out of pointless girations in order to preserve your wonderful initial concept. It's really not that wonderful.
Megaspace | Ancient history? >
Tags: Fiction
