The idea is to make this a game of cooperative storytelling with an ensemble cast featuring some or all of the PC's in each episode.
The hope is to make stories that are character-centred and character-driven like those in Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5.
This is a roleplay-focused game so a lot of the play will involve talking to PC's and NPC's. This won't be all you'll do, but the characters' interactions and relationships will be a focus. So, feel free to add dialogue to your character's actions and if you ever want to slow me down so you can do a vignette just raise your hand and we'll work it in.
Your characters won't necessarily be part of a team or even work for the same company, so the connections between your characters will be especially important so that they are involved in each other's lives and stories.
The mechanic to help with this will be relationship aspects. You'll be able to have one of these for each other PC which will represent the bond between those characters. If you don't have an aspect with someone you can add it on the fly once you have an interaction with them.
As with any other aspect you'll be able to update these aspects as you go. So, don't worry if you're just a Fellow Shuttle Passenger with Himiko today, with enough time and bonding you may become Himiko's Over-Protective Adopted Sister.
Depending on who your character is they may naturally spend more time around another PC who is their boss/lover/rival/whatever, but do try to interact with the other PC's as well. I'm happy to facilitate conversations between players who want to figure out what their characters could talk about and do together.
The game will start with some scenarios that I will present to you to introduce you to the setting and and its people and cement who your character is and their place in the universe.
Once you have your footing you can start controlling the action: pick what you want to do, which PC's will be involved, and schedule a time that works for everyone included. Then I'll prepare the content for that scenario and we'll play.
Even after the introduction I'll sometimes pick the scenario and PC's for a session, especially if events arise that would affect everybody.
The eventual plan is to allow you to make any character that regularly spends time on Timerius, but for an easier introduction we'll start with a group of characters in close association.
The first round of characters are all part of a group (group to be determined). This is so that everyone in the group has common goals to facilitate easier gameplay and interaction while we get used to the world and the mechanics.
Each player can have multiple characters and choose the appropriate one for each adventure. The expectation is that not all characters will be involved in all adventures, but by having multiple characters a player can be involved in more of them.
Let me know when you decide to make a new character as each character creation will be cooperative; especially the backstory cross-over adventures with other characters.
I will not kill your character. If you think that your character should die because it serves the story at a dramatically appropriate moment then let me know. Otherwise, death is not on the table.
Other characters might believe a PC died leading to interesting character moments of grief, introspection, and economics, but the character will find some way to survive.
So, if combat isn't going to kill any PC's then what are the stakes? Well, player characters won't die, but they can be injured, captured, or otherwise inconvenienced. Also, the PC's plot armour doesn't extend to NPC's or to your stuff (more on that later). So, losing people, losing objects, personal setbacks, and other narrative consequences are available.
Combat isn't the focus for the game, but it will still be important when it occurs because of the narrative consequences that follow from it: be that losing a freighter of supplies or gaining a new-found respect for the ingenuity of someone you thought foolish.
The player characters are each pursuing their own agendas. I don't expect that to be a problem most of the time, but this could lead to a situation where two or more PC's have incompatible goals. I will not tolerate outright hostility between PC's, but this extra friction can lead to interesting stories. Telling stories and having fun is the goal. In-character people can be hurt and confused, but I don't want that out of character.
Before your character starts working against another player's character you MUST have a conversation with the player(s) and the GM. We will lay out ground rules about:
What is appropriate for the conflict?
What are the likely outcomes and their maximum acceptable consequences?
What is the expected duration of the conflict? If it's an ongoing rivalry kind of situation that's fine, but everyone needs to agree on that.
Any other rules for the conflict to keep it interesting and under control.
After everyone involved has consented to the conflict and its rules then it can go forward.
AT ANY TIME any participant can ask for a change in these rules or have the conflict immediately stopped.
If you're character is just appearing to work against another PC, but isn't really, then give people a heads-up out of character that that's the case.
Good play isn't a win/lose kind of thing, it's about telling interesting stories and having a good time.
The GM seeds the world with conflict and story threads. Players choose what they want to pursue of these threads and of their character's own ambitions. The GM then prepares scenarios according to the players' plans.
The players' role is to set goals for their character and pursue them proactively.
Still looking like a game you want to play? If so, find out the peculiarities of how I run games in "GMing Style" and when you want to get into the crunchy bits look in "Game Mechanics".