A little backstory first: In 2010, my dear friend Nathan and I were complaining about a lack of science fiction based Live Action Roleplaying Games (LARPs). We were both fans of LARPing, but had grown very tired of the Vampire scene and wanted something different. We decided to work together on a project for a game that we called "Space Station!" as a working title.
Nathan decided to work on the game rules, and I decided to work on creating the universe that it was set in. For a couple of years we tossed ideas back and forth and wrote them down and shared them with friends, who provided a lot of invaluable input (special thanks to James Hodur, Justin Marino, and Tom Young).
At the same as we were throwing these ideas around and letting this thing grow and build, Nathan was going back to school to complete his doctorate. This left him very little time for working on the game system. I will admit that he has a much better head for such things than I do, and I didn't get very far past adding some ligaments to the skeleton that we had created.
The idea of the universe we had forged for Space Station! never went away, though. It lingered and grew and became more well-defined. I wanted to write fiction for it, and eventually, after having lost a job and receiving some guidance from my partner Maur, began to write out small vignettes set in the universe, at first just to expose people to the ideas and concepts of the universe, but I began to expand afterwards.
Where is this project going? Well, I'd very much like to work on the game again at some point. A lifelong dream of mine has also been to be a published author, so I would also like to hold a physical, paper copy of a book of stories or a novel set in this universe in my hands. I'd like to attract visual artists to create concepts of creatures and technology and characters from this universe and these stories as well.
It's an amazing universe, and I can say that without bragging because it's always been a collaboration, no less so because I've done the majority of the writing for it. The ideas of those that I value and love have come to color and shape this world that we've been building together, and I'm sure more ideas will come to shape it.
So I'm going to start posting the vignettes here. I have several different storylines, and I am going to tag them appropriately for each story. I'm also going to create a glossary page, and once we have better software and server space and a better idea of how we are doing it I want to make a more fully interactive site, with words linking to the glossary and character and theme cross-referencing. I have a vision of a type of story structure that would be difficult to create without the use of the Web.
I hope all of you enjoy these stories and the universe that they are set in. I'm always open to comments and questions (questions spark some of my best ideas) and insights and possibly even additions and collaborations. Enjoy!
I just noticed this was here, buried at the bottom of the blog. One thing I can add is that game design is serious business... it takes multiple people to get a good system to 'work'. We're close, but really need some synergy going. Writing fiction is easy stuff by comparison. Laine isn't kidding about the need for graphic artists. Even this blog would be greatly enhanced by some illustrations. I always point to Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials as an example of the difference in richness between a written description and a graphic image. Until you've seen the gripping pads on an Elder Thing's foot-lobes, you only have a vague sort of idea what they look like. It would be bittersweet if the stories here were published first, before the game concepts that inspired them could get bound together.
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