INTRODUCTION - CONCLUSION

And finally, your A.I. will suggest you address the following questions to help fill in some blanks in your character's backstory (but not too much!)

The questions are:

1. Who would portray your character in a film?
2. What is your character's attitude to the space travel?
3. What is your character's greatest passion?
4. What is your character's greatest fear?
5. What was your character's occupation before they became a _____?
6. Where was your character's favourite place to hang out on the ship? 

Question one: I've been obsessed with using "actors" to portray player-characters (and NPCs, monsters etc) since I discovered numerous Buffy The Vampire Slayer campaign sites back in the day. I'd never come across this idea before, but it struck me as so obvious and brilliant that it has stuck with me ever since.

Questions two to four: These will, hopefully, give me some character-based material to work with to seed future plot lines. Greatest Passion could - but doesn't have to - tie in to the character's Goal.

Question five: This should bridge the gap between role-playing background material (possible contacts, career knowledge etc) and world-building.

Question six: As with question five, but with even more emphasis on world-building.

INTRODUCTION - PHASE FOUR

First things first, get yourself a Character Sheet and then come back here ...

If you decide to play one of the last surviving humans, or even a hologram of a not-so-lucky human, bear in mind you are not a superhero, rocket scientist, or colonial marine.

Instead, decide what menial role you filled as a lowly drone in Sector 7B, before the "big sleep".

Some suggestions are:

• Telephone Sanitiser
• Chicken Soup Vending Machine Technician
• Refuse & Recycling Operative
• Laboratory Technician, Third Class
• Public Relations Advisor
• Hair Stylist
• Insurance Salesman
• Security Guard
• Personnel Officer
• Management Consultant
• Interior Designer
• Estate Agent

etc

Now you can start to fill in your character sheet -

STATISTICS: 20 points to distribute between them.

SKILLS: 30 points to distribute between them.

ASSETS, LIABILITIES & BEHAVIOUR TAGS: These help define your character by giving you little quirks, personality drawbacks (that earn you more points for skills), and special abilities (such as Courage, Dumb Luck, Rank etc)

VITALS: Flesh out your character with details of age, height, weight, appearance etc

BACKGROUND: Craft a background for your character, including place of birth, life story, family connections, lost loves, deepest darkest secrets, fears and phobias, pets, favourite food etc

DERIVED STATISTICS:

• INITIATIVE = PERCEPTION + AGILITY
• SAVE = STRENGTH + WILLPOWER
• SHRUG = (STRENGTH + WILLPOWER)/2

Your character also automatically gets 1 DESTINY POINT - which can be spent to reroll botched rolls (e.g. crucial skills rolls or key saves).

The AI (gamesmaster) will be able to guide you through all this, tell you how much things cost, update you on the state of the Solar System as it was in the 23rd Century and so on.

Now go to The Conclusion.

INTRODUCTION - PHASE TWO

Welcome to the world of the RED DWARF RPG.

It's a retro-futuristic world of cathode-ray tube (CRT) screens, chunky keyboards, floppy discs, Betamax video cassettes, boom boxes, Digital Audio Tape (DAT), and no Internet.

And the human race is extinct. Probably. They had their chance 3,000,000 years ago and blew it.

Time moves on.

However, at least one of you is/are the last human(s) alive, stranded and lost on a massive mining ship in the butt-end of space; the rest of you can take the roles of:

• Holograms (accurate representations of deceased colleagues)*
• Mechanoid companions/servants;
• Evolved household pets (e.g. cats, dogs, ducks, rats, mice, rabbits etc);
• Waxdroids (animated entertainment units with the appearance and mannerisms of famous historical figures - e.g. Elvis, Hitler, Nelson, Trump, Churchill, Homer Simpson etc)

* The ship's A.I. only has the capacity to run one hologram at a time, as well as all the other ship's systems (life support, engines, lighting, vending machines etc).

For more ideas and to get the gist of what we're aiming for, check the Inspirations Information Screen.

Basic System Guidelines:

Task Resolution:

• Roll under STAT + SKILL on 2d6 - the larger the margin of success, the greater the achievement.
• A natural “2” is always a critical success and adds 1d6 to the margin of success.
• A natural “12” is always a critical failure - no matter how high your Target Number.

Combat:

• As above.
• Damage = (Margin of Success x Weapon’s Rating {WR}) + Damage Bonus {DB}
• Wounds = If Damage is greater than SHRUG value, then one wound, if twice SHRUG value then two wounds etc. If Damage is less than SHRUG, then target suffers -1 on all rolls for next round.

Now go to Phase Three