Diaspora: The Precious Few, Session #1

Yesterday we kicked off a Diaspora campaign with the usual suspects. Before we started, Joe said he was playing a scientist. That was the only pretense we had for creating characters. I opted to only slowly reveal the game to the players, describing just enough to give a sense of what was needed for the task.

Systems

We quickly rolled up 5 systems, and this is what I have from memory; The group will be sending me their notes from the first session. What seemed to work really well was to define aspects one at a time. We didn’t add much history, though the setting quickly developed as we built the aspects of the system and the aspects of our characters. We connected the systems and it became clear that Real New Mexico was crucial as the throughway for Vulcan, Exxon, and New Florida; Everyone has to stop in New Mexico. It also became clear that New Memphis was a backwater system, with little going for it. So Exxon, New Florida, and Vulcan were going to be the three systems in tension, each with dominance in one key aspect.

New Memphis

• Technology -1
• Environment -1
• Resources 0
• Aspects The pharaoh made a deal with the devil; Alone on this damn rock!; Strange alien artifacts

New Florida

• Technology 1
• Environment 3
• Resources -4
• Aspects Everythings “perfect”; ?; ?

Exxon

• Technology 1
• Environment -1
• Resources 3
• Aspects Theocracy; Earth tremors; Commerce Capital

Real New Mexico

• Technology 1
• Environment -1
• Resources 0
• Aspects We hate those Vulcans; They’re comin’ right for us; Hive of scum and villainy

Vulcan

• Technology 2
• Environment -2
• Resources -1
• Aspects Over crowded; acid-rain; structured bureaucracy

Simply making the systems proved to be entertaining; We had defined different cultures and it was clear that there would be a lot of action.

Character Creation

Once I get the character aspects, I’ll post more. Needless to say, phase one, Growing Up, started off interesting enough; A refugee, a student of the “Actuarial Seminary”, a smooth talker, a genius, and a tech-nerd.

Wrapping Up

With character creation wrapping up, one of the players got called into work; The challenges of being on call. So we agreed to fill out a google spreadsheet with all of our work (Systems, Characters Stories, Character Skills & Stunts).

Commentary

The whole first session is a blast; It had a wonderful cycle of studious writing, then showing our work, discussing the work, and back into the writing. We could see that the systems were taking shape as we discussed the aspects. And we were laughing, especially in the phase where we interact with another character. The evening wrapped up a little early, as one of the players was called into work. Afterward, as I was wrapping up, my wife said it sounded like we were all having a really good time…I’d wager we laughed and enjoyed each others company more than most Role Playing Game (RPG 📖) sessions. And this was the character creation session.