This is a review of the first season of “The Expanse”, with a focus on how it can inspire games and gaming. As a bonus, there’s apparently an RPG from Green Ronin, but it’s not relevant to this post.
Socially, the factions are Earth (run by the U.N., and nominally controlling certain stations in the Belt), Mars (presented as a high-tech and militaristic society dedicated to terraforming), and the Outer Planets Alliance, or the OPA, roughly equivalent to the IRA or Hezbollah and representing the Belters (occupants of the asteroid belt). Tensions are high between the groups, with the Belters accusing Earth and Mars of exploiting them for the Belt’s natural resources, and Earth and Mars in a Cold War-style stalemate.
The show follows three viewpoints: Jim Holden and his crew from the ice trawler Canterbury, Joe Miller, a hard-bitten cop on the lawless asteroid Ceres, and Chrisjen Avasarala, a ruthless senior member of the U.N. The first season follows two major plotlines: an attack on the Canterbury by unknown forces, and the followup from that, and the disappearance of Julie Mao, runaway daughter of an influential Earth government member. The first season ends with the revelation of how these two plot lines are connected, and the fallout from it.
For players
Even within a single team (such as Holden’s group), tensions exist. Amos, the brute of the group, follows Naomi’s orders but is uncontrollable by anyone else, and definitely has his own moral code. Jim and Naomi have deep conflicts over a secret they share. Each of them has some secret background which they don’t reveal to others at first. They definitely come close to attacking each other several times, but their overriding circumstances always bring them back together.
As a player, if you think party tension is bound to happen, describe an escape hatch that will rein your character in. This can be the safety of the group as a whole, orders from another PC, or some emotional cooldown button that can be pressed. At any time, any player who’s uncomfortable with the level of tension has the right to invoke the escape hatch.
Most of the viewpoint characters have a definite trajectory, but all of them orbit around one of the two prongs of the story. As characters learn more and interact, they (sometimes) realize they ought to be sharing information. Other times, what they learn forces them into conflict.
I talked about an idea called “frontstory” here. It says:
Frontstory isn’t a destined destination, it’s a trajectory. Good frontstory says “here’s what my PC is after”. It doesn’t say “here is where my PC will end up”. But frontstory says something about the world, because whatever a PC wants is part of that world, what they’ll be opposed by is part of the world, and so forth. A PC who wants revenge on an NPC, or wants to romance (or seduce) an NPC, or who wants to steal, win, or otherwise obtain something has just given you a string of encounters and challenges.
So with that in mind…
When creating a PC, look at the common threads of the game world, and find a unique angle for your character to take on one of those threads.
For GMs
Situations continually get worse for everyone. In particular, early episodes featuring Holden’s group escalate the perception of danger and hopelessness without ever fully giving into it. A radio message that’s their only hope of salvation is received by someone they would prefer not receive it. The airlock doesn’t work at a critical moment.
When interpreting die rolls that say the PC failed, don’t interpret the failure as incompetence. Instead, either introduce a complication to enhance the sense of hopelessness (and provoke the next cunning improvisation from the PCs) or escalate the situation in a logical fashion.
The crew keep finding ways out of their situation, even when they feel like they ought to be at each other’s throats, and everyone has strengths that come into play.
Don’t force PCs into stupid or meaningless decisions. Let players make the hard moral choices for their characters, but make sure those choices illuminate the characters’ natures, rather than just screwing them over or punishing them for existing. Don’t call for a roll whose failure you don’t have a plan for.