Sci-Fi setting with an All Female Crew

[Aragem]

I don't know why, but for some reason I've been itching to participate in an all female sci-fi adventure.  Such as a ship fully manned by a female crew.  It could be exploration, military, cargo, or even a pirate ship.  There can be drama among the crew as they take on different missions that affects all of them.  There'll be different positions on the ship for characters such as captain, second in command, navigator, medical officer, etc.  And we could have temp characters like prisoners or passengers depending on the type of ship the players or GM chooses.

[Chrystal]

There have been a number of games of this sort that I have joined recently and they all flopped.

I would love to join such a game with a decent sized crew, a committed GM and a good story-line. ANYTHING BUT STAR TREK!

I'm a total sci-fi buff and love the idea of a ship crewed by lesbians out-fighting and out-flying everyone. (Call the ship The Mary-Sue and you get the idea of what I'm thinking here... *giggles* Okay, perhaps not!)

I think the biggest problem is always going to be dealing with drop-outs and newcomers in such a small, closed environment. New people joining isn't too much of an issue - they can simply "be there all along" just unnoticed until that point. Drop-outs are the bigger problem. Unless you want to ignore continuity and just pretend they had never been there, you need a very patient GM willing to take on a dozen or so player characters in order to keep the story going as players drop out one by one in the middle of the scene.

*shrug* I am talking from experience here, by the way.

As much as I love this idea and would love to see it work, I do have my doubts.

BUT...

How about this as an option?

An all female military unit, space marines or infantry, doesn't matter. Actually engaged in a land battle when the game starts. A company of soldiers consists of well over a hundred people at full strength, a battalion is at least three times that, so there are plenty of NPCs, plenty of "new characters" to arrive - transferred in, attached, or just there all along. And as the group are in combat we have the perfect way of getting rid of drop-outs! Anything from sniper fire, to artillery attacks, to actual combat scenes.

And yes, I would be willing to run that if anyone was interested?

Missions would involve anything from capturing an enemy strong-point to night reconnaissance, to river crossing, to marching through a swamp/jungle... There would be down-time, time for the girls to get to know each other better. And if enough characters survived long enough, there would be a period of R&R...

Hmm... Sorry, Aragem, I didn't intend to hijack your thread. If the idea appeals to you, then let me know. If not I will remove it to it's own thread.

[Aragem]

There have been a number of games of this sort that I have joined recently and they all flopped.

I would love to join such a game with a decent sized crew, a committed GM and a good story-line. ANYTHING BUT STAR TREK!

I'm a total sci-fi buff and love the idea of a ship crewed by lesbians out-fighting and out-flying everyone. (Call the ship The Mary-Sue and you get the idea of what I'm thinking here... *giggles* Okay, perhaps not!)

I think the biggest problem is always going to be dealing with drop-outs and newcomers in such a small, closed environment. New people joining isn't too much of an issue - they can simply "be there all along" just unnoticed until that point. Drop-outs are the bigger problem. Unless you want to ignore continuity and just pretend they had never been there, you need a very patient GM willing to take on a dozen or so player characters in order to keep the story going as players drop out one by one in the middle of the scene.

*shrug* I am talking from experience here, by the way.

As much as I love this idea and would love to see it work, I do have my doubts.

BUT...

How about this as an option?

Hmm... Sorry, Aragem, I didn't intend to hijack your thread. If the idea appeals to you, then let me know. If not I will remove it to it's own thread.

Oh no, this would be based in any fandom, it would have to be its own universe sort of thing. 

Yeah, I was thinking of keeping the crew number small.  Not a huge ship like the Star Trek's Enterprise, but on a smaller ship for a 5 to 10 crew members so there is plenty of interaction.  I would also like to keep this a literate RP like 500 words a post or 3 to 4 paragraphs per post, though a short post every now and then is acceptable. 

A military united sounds like a good idea.  If more people show interest we can flesh it out more. 

[Chrystal]

I already have a framework in mind for the infantry unit idea, it would only need about 10 people initially to work - I expect a 50% drop-out rate over the first few of rounds of posting, giving 5 or 6 survivors of the initial scene... By having that scene actually be part of a battle, the drop-outs are simply killed or wounded by enemy fire. This would be made plane in the recruitment thread, by the way, so that people would be aware that if they drop out their characters will at the very least end up wounded, if not dead. "If you don't want this to happen to your character, don't drop out!"

If someone drops out and then wants back in, they can have the character recover, and return to the unit. Medical science being what it is, I would expect that most non-fatal injuries would be treatable.



As I said, I love the idea of a ship crew, five or ten people, and I would love it to work, but... I don't mean to be negative here, but I have run a couple of games of that sort, been in about a dozen. Always, the issue is that people loose interest and drop out, usually mid-scene, and usually people with key characters - the first officer, the pilot... And without those key characters, the game stops.

The beauty of my idea is that no matter who drops out the game continues, because infantry units are designed with a specific "command structure" so that if the commanding officer is killed or wounded the next most senior officer or NCO takes command.

Of course a military ship is designed that way too, but for a ship with a crew of 10 to suffer 50% casualties would be pretty disastrous anyway, there would have to be some pretty drastic damage, which would probably leave the vessel unusable...

Anyway, if there is sufficient interest, I will happily GM the "soldier-girls" game. My idea is that I would control the commanding officer, all senior officers and most of the enemy troops. I would need a Co-GM to control the senior NCO and most friendly NPCs. (There would be occasional trade-offs with friendly and enemy forces).

The player characters would most likely be privates/marines/rifles/troopers - depending on nomenclature, which isn't important. There may be opportunities for some of the platoon to get field promotions, if they survive.

[EvilBeast]

Any lady fancy a trip through time and space? ;)

This idea interests me (not the above line I just posted), and I may be able to GM such a game. Let me ponder it.

[Miroque]

sounds like fun (depending on setting/crew type). I have few character ideas brewing for scifi, but I dont like full miliraty settings.

[Chrystal]

In case anyone reading this is interested,I have started a recruitment thread for my idea. It seems to be attracting interest. The thread is here: https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=230287.0