Ludorama #1: "Mars Colony" by Tim C. Koppang

The Ludorama is a new feature at the Gaming Philosopher where I present a tabletop roleplaying game. The first instalment is about Mars Colony by Tim C. Koppang, a game that I recently had the pleasure of playing online with Remko van der Pluijm.

I'll start by giving you the "vital statistics" of the game, and then go on to give a fuller description of the game. Since this is the first instalment, and I'm just trying things out, let me know what you would like to see in the vital statistics. (P.S. I've added several things since the first publication.)

Title: Mars Colony
Author: Tim C. Koppang
Year: 2010
Price: 6$ PDF, 12$ book, link
Size: 52 small pages

Genre: social science fiction
Themes: the toughness of social problems; inability to meet your own and others' expectations; the temptation of using deception

Number of players: 2
Player roles: one "Savior" and one "Governor" (see below)
Preparation: none
Length of game: 2-4 hours

Rules complexity: low
Resolution: some scenes are resolved using one or more rolls of 2d6
Online playability: high

Capsule overview: A short game for two players who are interested in exploring serious social problems, political struggle, and the moral and personal problems of a well-meaning politician who wants to set everything right but probably cannot succeed. Well-presented and easy to like, though I expect the stories will become rather repetitive if you play it often. (Based on playing the game once.)

Detailed overview: Mars Colony is a game for exactly two players. It tells the story of how Kelly Perkins -- who can be either male or female -- attempts to solve the problems of the failing human colony on Mars. One player (the "Savior") plays Kelly, sent to Mars by the Earth Coalition, whereas the other player (the "Governor") controls the other characters and the environment.

The game consists of three stages: preparation, play, and the endgame. During preparation, the players collaborate to set the fictional stage. They choose several real-world political parties to serve as inspiration for the political parties on Mars; they create NPCs on Mars, most of them important to the colony, one of them closely linked to Kelly and in trouble; and they choose the problems that the colony is dealing with. These can range from "radiation" to "terrorism," and from "population" to "funding."

The game proper consists of discrete scenes. The Governor and the Savior take turns framing scenes, which have to fall into one of three categories. Personal scenes are about Kelly's personal life and struggles; opposition scenes are about setting up trouble for the colony; progress scenes are the scenes in which Kelly attempts to solve these problems. Only the Governor can start opposition scenes, and only the Savior can start progress scenes.

Personal and opposition scenes are played out without any mechanical resolution. Progress scenes, however, involve the Savior rolling two dice. The sum total of these dice indicate the amount of progress the Savior is making towards solving the problem. The Savior can continue rolling dice as many times as she wants, thus making more and more progress ... but if a die ever comes up 1, the scene ends in disaster and she loses all progress she has made in that scene.

Unless she uses deception, that is. Kelly always has the option to cover up her failures by deception, in which case her progress is not lost. This progress is, however, marked as "lies." Lies can help the colony. But they can also come back to haunt Kelly. If the dice ever fall particularly unfavourable -- an outcome that becomes more probable when deception is used more often -- the deceptions are uncovered, Kelly is completely disgraced, and all Lie points are lost.

It is very unlikely that you will be able to get the colony completely on track without using deception. It is still pretty unlikely even when you do use deception. So Kelly's story will almost always involve an element of getting to grips with her own failures; with her own inability to meet the very high expectations that the people of Mars have of her, and the need to confront their growing disillusionment and contempt. Whether this involves humility, browbeating or high-stakes deception is up to the player.

When nine progress scenes have been played, the game ends. The Governor describes the state of the colony, based on the amount of progress Kelly has made. The Savior describes the situation from Kelly's point of view, and that's the end.

Context: Tim C. Koppang has published three other games. Persona, a "just in time" roleplaying game written in 2003 and available for free here. Clank, an extremely brief game about finding a stranger in your appartment, freely available here (2013). And, more substantially, Hero's Banner: the Fury of Free Will, a 2006 game about a fantasy hero who must choose which goals to reach and which to abandon (more information here).

For those who are eager to explore more social science fiction, there is Joshua A. C. Newman's Shock: Social Science Fiction.