Sky Above

Sky Above is my take on a kind of golden era, humanistic sci-fi. Plan on using a d10+ system. It's kind of a bit "What if I made Traveller?"

Bullet-pointed Brain Storming

Let's do it.

• The core conceit of the game is something like "What if you tried to make a game that is something like 'The Sims', but it just happens to be Sci-Fi?" I want it to be notable in its mundanity, in an effort to make regular things compelling.
• Both Traveller and d20 Future are inspiring me a bit.
• In an effort to support "Build Your Own Setting", I'd like for some modular rules that GMs are explicitly advised to choose between in certain areas. Like "Here are 3 ways to do FTL" or "Here are 3 ways to generate star systems." I'd like to craft the systems to easily work across the particular systems chosen. The idea is not to offer every possibility, but enough to get people basically where they'd want to be. It's not a generic system, it has a point of view, but wants to support some different window dressing.
• Computer assistance: A lot of RPGs could benefit from some simple software or apps or web sites. Explicitly provide this as a feature! Generate a star system? Bam!
• The "Stars Without Number" method of tables and charts to generate things should be strongly considered. Some games aim for scientific details, while SWN tended to aim more for "useful at the table". Scientific data is strong window dressing that shouldn't be ignored, but that "useful at the table" priority should always be kept in mind.
• Mongoose Traveller does some good work with the career/terms style character creation. Even games like Cyberpunk 2020 with its Lifepaths, or Palladium RPGs like TMNT with the background origin rolls do work to generate some character stuff. There is the raw "what can this character mechanically do" part of this, but also many of the events can tie characters right into setting. With a somewhat "create your own" setting, work must be done to keep these events both flavorful and applicable for whatever settings you exect them to be used for. There is also "Using this to generate ideas, but ultimately choose what you want" vs. "Work with what you've been given", and I'll probably have to make choices about this?