Here we try to answer questions that either have been sent in through various social media, or we thought it was a basic question people might ask.
If you would like to contact us, please reach out to our official twitter account;
- Question: Is this a money scam?
No. We are not asking for any money for developing this game. As outlined on the About page, we will only be exploring the possibility of running a fundraiser after the book manuscript is 100% completed. This approach is specifically to make a point that we are against the act of not being able to promise meeting the basic expectations of our donors, if we do ask for money later.
- Question: What game system is this setting running on?
Currently we are developing Planet O-oot to run on the BASH rpg system. It was previously on the Savage Worlds rpg system. Both systems are great and respectively hold their own separate strengths. Ultimately we are not certain yet about the final choice in game system for Planet O-oot, but for now we are focusing on developing it enough on the BASH system to then run play tests. - Question: What kinds of characters do you play as in this setting?
At publication Planet O-oot will have several human factions and non-human alien species to play as. In addition there will be aliens and factions listed that will not be playable (in an effort to control the scope of development) but will appear as NPCs that you can interact with (and fight). In this game setting you will be encouraged to create a character that is running away from their criminal past; Planet O-oot is a place people go to because they have run out of options, it is not an ideal or desirable place to live. Because of this, your character should have a history that informs why they don’t have other options and are moving to this frontier world as a last resort. - Question: What will I encounter during a game session?
Expect a mixture of two repeating themes; indigenous beasts and bad social choices. O-oot is a place where the line between animal and plant does not truly exist. The flora and fauna are vicious and have historically been too aggressive and insidious for even the most well-funded colonists to handle. You will on a daily basis have to fight them off, tend to your wounds (well enough not to get infected) and also not get in trouble within town walls. Although the frontier settlement is fairly safe from beasts, the townsfolk are mostly criminal in nature. Ranging from embezzlers to serial killers, your character will have to figure out how to be diplomatic with the NPCs they interact with or they just might find themselves face down in a ditch. - Question: What is the tech level of this Science Fiction setting?
Planet O-oot exists in a world where your level of technology is limited almost entirely by your purse strings. Humans tend to live in overcrowded groups that are one part ship crew and one part family unit inside of space ships that take most of their resources to maintain and keep safe. Different kinds of space ship engines exist but instead of trying to crack light speed, most of everyone utilizes the stabilized worm holes to get from place to place. This attitude of economy informing technology permeates the logic of everything a character owns or has access to. It even means that most PCs and NPCs will be equipped with items ranging from primitive to futuristic; if someone owns a laser pistol, then to afford ammo and repairs of it they probably carry a short-wave radio instead of a smart phone device. - Question: How ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ is the Science fiction in this setting?
We’re trying to stick with the idea that we will apply reasonable theory whenever possible and go as “hard” or specific when we know it can be done without sounding dumb (or creating a three-hour argument). O-oot runs on concepts that are either extensions (stretched logic) or coherent leaps of faith regarding things we know currently. Space is suppose to function as it actually does in reality and the physics behind things like wormholes and planetary behavior are based either on hard information or theory stretched out from what we can say now for certain. Aliens and the beasts of O-oot are wild theoreticals of biological abnormalities and sometimes based on rare adaptions already observed in nature.
When it comes to presentation, however, we are trying to present things in a condensed easy-to-grasp form; meaning if it seems something is in direct reference to something you have read about before in a scientific paper, then it probably is.