[Sign in Stranger] this moon may not mean what you think it means
David Berg:
We knew we were going to an arboreal moon, which included the non-native, dominant Tylaxmeearks, as well as the Tridlians and Arcopaths. We knew we were requested as Life Judges by the Tylaxmeearks, who we'd heard were both majestic and unstable.
We landed on a giant leaf of a giant tree with sharp protrusions near the top of the trunk forming something vaguely face-like.
We took a ride in a silver prism that was bigger inside than out, but it spat us out when we told it our names.
We rode on the platform of a creature whose black tentacles acted as stretchy lifts, transporting us among tree levels.
We threw our corn-based rations at the prisms and tentacle-platforms, and both instantly produced smaller versions of themselves.
We complimented the "baby" prisms on forming a nice shape, and they held that shape forever.
We tried to sleep on leaves during the reddish "night" but found that our body heat melted through them.
We tried to take a core sample from a tree and were greeted with a horrific spray of blood.
Rinchen grew tentacles from her forehead. Vidia became addicted to a plum-like fruit. Burt's legs turned into wheels.
At some point we discovered that the Tylaxmeearks were not the trees, but rather invisible microbes that communicated by inducing hallucinations, and tracked information by tagging genes. They also altered our brains to divert the resources we'd use to remember each other into recharging, thus obviating sleep.
In the end, we were deemed terrible life judges, but were asked to stay in order to teach the Tylaxmeearks how to ask questions. The tentacled platforms turned out to be the native Tridlians. The flying prisms, the Arcopaths, were captives, deprived of their space travel capabilities by the Tylaxmeearks' alterations to their skin. We negotiated their release. Burt and Rinchen were eager to leave, and took an Arcopath to Earth's moon. The rest of the colonists stayed, with Vidia and Mallory accepting genetic alterations that caused them to age faster but be much more productive.
David Berg:
From the journal of Burt Forster, a 32-year-old former Seattle software engineer turned medic out to explore the universe as a self-improvement kick:
Day 1:
Entry 1
Exactly what I was hoping for! Grand, powerful, exhilarating. I am kind of nervous about getting accidentally crushed- No, don't think like that! I hope we can be really good Life Judges here.
Entry 2
Don't compliment the elevators.
Day 2:
Entry 1
Tylaxmeearks are psychic creatures that communicate via hallucinations. In a world of the illusory, they want us to judge, in order to make things more concrete? Maybe they have visions & want us to validate them for fixing in place? The "baby" arcopaths sticking in a shape when Rinchen said "Good job!" -- that's what got me thinking along these lines.
Maybe proper names are seen as rudely flaunting permanent identities?
Rinchen is either the most take-it-as-it-comes zen girl I've ever met, or she's losing it and in denial.
I continue to like Vidia's practical, no-nonsense approach.
Pareem's good intentions are nice too, even if he can be a dork.
Entry 2
New arrivals! Mallory seems bold & creative, maybe we'll go faster now.
Day 3:
Entry 1
We seem to have the tools for Life Judging, but no guidance about standards. If the six of us are left to find agreement on anything, good luck -- there's already some China/Tibet tension going on here.
I hope when the "gavels" show us individuals to judge, it'll be in some sense I can parse. Hallucinations and orgasmo plums and mind-melding with trees and throat-singing is getting to be a bit much.
Entry 2
OH FUCK MAYBE JUDGED My legs are gone AM WHEELS Rinchen's nice LOSING MY SHIT it's funny we're guinea pigs like Luca in the lab. Remember WHAT I remember when not asleep for microseconds forgetting who I came with. GAVE PAPER so they don't forget ME. Got food, but lashed out - NOW THEY KNOW HUMAN VIOLENCE I hope they don't use it - communication FUCK
Ron Edwards:
Now I am jealous. This is a game I've been wanting to play in extended, unrushed, indefinite fashion, but have not yet managed to organize.
Dave, if you're interested, check out the PDF I made for the game, available at my Science Fiction RPG Project page.
Did your group keep track of the colony resources? What happened regarding that variable?
Best, Ron
David Berg:
I think we whiffed on colony resources. There might have been a good reason for that. We played 7 sessions (I think), but it was only 3 days for our colonists!
I like the images you chose for your PDF! The description of the game seems very useful for someone who hadn't played it and wanted to know more about it. Was that your intent?
Ron Edwards:
Hi David,
That's part of my intent, absolutely. These are supposed to be "one man's notions" about how a given game operates mechanically and thematically, in very practical terms. Also, as my website text implies, I'm doing sort of a recognition & rehabilitation survey for science fiction role-playing games which, again according to "one's man's notions," really do science fiction.
As you can see from the handout, I call attention to the rule about using the words very strongly: that the word on the slip of paper should not be stated out loud and should not be literally brought into the fiction. Em's text is brutally clear on this point. If someone draws "kangaroo," they are not supposed to introduce a kangaroo; in fact, it's the one thing they cannot introduce. Instead, they brainstorm something about a kangaroo, as they see it, which can be brought into the fiction. The effect is definitely weird, but it's not as chaotic and cut-up as a literal reading and incorporation of the slips would generate.
I'm talking about this because I'm interested in what words were drawn and what impact they had on the fiction, at that moment. Can you describe how you did that, for any moment in play when the words were used?
Best, Ron
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