Transmission Overview Transmission is a diceless, GM-less, science-fiction storytelling game about an Earth colony on a distant planet which was once the home of an ancient civilization. The colony eventually goes silent, and a group of investigators from Earth are sent there to determine what happened. The game is divided into two parts: the Transmission Phase, in which the players create a number of transmissions from the colony detailing their discoveries and experiences as they make a new life on this planet; and the Investigation Phase, in which the players act as a group of investigators from Earth trying to determine 1) why the colony went silent and 2) what happened to the planet’s previous inhabitants. Adventure, in the typical sense, is not the driving force of this game. Rather than directly encountering whatever dangers are implied by the transmissions and journal entries they’ll come across, the investigators will probably not be in any immediate danger, much like a modern-day crime scene investigator is not typically in danger. However, if the group decides a degree of peril would be appropriate to the story they are telling, some very light, cinematic “adventure” systems are included to help resolve things. —————————————————— The Transmission Phase Setup Before you begin the Transmission Phase, you will need four index cards with the following headings (one for each): - Geography & Atmosphere - Biology - Archeology - Colony Government Be sure to leave plenty of space beneath the heading of each index card. Each player will also need a few index cards or a sheet of paper on which to write their Journal Entries. Next, you will answer a few questions about your setting as a group. Write the answers down on index cards if you need help remembering them. 1. What is the name of the planet we colonized? A combination of mythological figures and numbers works great, such as Charon-125 or Osiris-3; or perhaps it was named after the person who discovered it, giving you something like Hague’s Moon or the Patel System? Anything sufficiently space-y or sci-fi-ey will do. 2. Why did we need to colonize this planet? Perhaps Earth is dying or overpopulated, and we need somewhere else to live? Perhaps it’s a colony sponsored by a corporation that means to exploit the planet’s resources, or is just exploring for exploration’s sake? Maybe the colonists are fleeing persecution? 3. The colonists brought or have acquired an abundance of one resource. Name it. 4. The colony is short on one vital resource. Name it, and explain why there is a shortage. Gameplay The first player begins by selecting one of the four index cards and stating the name of a colonist who might be associated with that subject matter. Then, speaking as that colonist, they will send a transmission from the colony, related to the subject matter on the index card, back to Earth. This is free narration. The other players may offer suggestions, but it is the first player’s choice whether to incorporate those details into the transmission. Approximately five minutes of narration should be sufficient. Once the transmission is complete, the other players will discuss whether they believe the transmission included a Data Point. A Data Point is a fact or clue around which the players will frame scenes in the next phase of the game. If a consensus is reached, the Data Point will be listed on the index card (a short phrase or sentence is sufficient), with the name of the character sending the transmission in parentheses next to it. Play then proceeds to the next player. If no consensus is reached on what the Data Point should be, or whether one was revealed at all, play simply proceeds to the next player. This does not mean the transmission was pointless, however: every transmission adds some narrative flavor to the game, and it might contain clues that may become relevant later, even if it does not seem so now. The process is repeated, going from player to player around the table, until each index card has at least two Data Points. No index card may have more than three Data Points. Tips for the Transmission Phase When doing your transmission, keep your focus on the subject matter at hand. It’s okay to hint at the social situation or underlying tensions of the colony, but your transmission should contain mostly practical information. Also, when doing your transmission, it is important you don’t include information that would outright solve the mysteries to be investigated in the next phase. For example, you may mention some arguments between colonists, or other lingering tensions, but you should not say, “We’ve all gone mad and are killing each other!” since that would all but solve the mystery of why the colony went silent. The Data Points are used to frame scenes during the Investigation Phase. Hone in on things that might give the investigators a place to start their investigation. A short phrase or sentence is sufficient for a Data Point, despite the fact the transmission may contain a lot of detail. For example, a Geography & Atmosphere transmission from Professor Jones might include information about an expedition to a range of purple mountains, with details about how the expedition began, some things that took place during the expedition, and so forth. All of these details are important context for understanding life on the planet, and may inform the eventual investigation, but for purposes of the Data Point, you would simply write, for example, “There are purple mountains on the planet (Professor Jones).” When you do a transmission, take into consideration what has already been established in the fiction, through both the opening questions and the transmissions that preceded yours. You’ll want to avoid including details which contradict what has already been established. For example, don’t include details about the long, hot days in the colony if it has already been established this is an icy planet. Below are some specific tips for each transmission type. It is worth noting that the transmissions need not be in any particular chronological order, assuming the order is relevant at all. Feel free to build on another player’s transmissions with details of something that happened as a result of or leading up to what is shared in that transmission. Geography & Atmosphere If you aren’t sure how to begin narrating this type of transmission, try creating answers to the following questions: - What is the terrain like on this planet? - Do we need special gear to survive in the atmosphere? - What kinds of resources are in abundance on the planet? - Is there seismic activity on the planet? - Is this a frozen planet? An excessively hot planet? Biology Biology transmissions are your chance to describe the planet’s native flora and fauna. So, for example, you might describe the friendly, ant-like creatures who wandered into the colony’s courtyard one day, or the all-hands-on-deck effort to rid the central barracks of a moth rat infestation. Perhaps someone in the colony got sick, and a botanist had to create a curative from the local plant life? You should feel free to make the plants and animals of the planet as strange and wondrous as you wish. So long as you describe incidents of colonists interacting with them, you’re in good shape. Note: you should avoid making Biology transmissions that hint at the nature of the inhabitants of the ancient civilization. That’s what the Archeology transmissions are for. Archeology Archeology transmissions are your chance to learn something about the ancient civilization that used to reside on the planet. When approaching these transmissions, consider the answers to the following questions: - What strange relics did the previous inhabitants leave behind? - Are there any structures left behind? If so, what are they? Where are they? - What type of religion did they ascribe to, if it is possible to tell? - Did we find bones of the people who used to live here? If so, what do they tell us about their physiology? - Is there evidence these were a peaceful people? A war-like people? It is very important when doing these transmissions that you refrain from including details which state outright what fate befell the ancient civilization, since that is one of your mysteries for the Investigation Phase. Colony Government Colony Government transmissions are unique in that they probably don’t have anything interesting to say about the planet or its prior inhabitants. Instead, these transmissions show inflection points in the colony: moments that will have some relevance to the health and stability of its people. As ever, it is important you don’t outright solve the mystery of what happened to the colony when you are doing a Colony Government transmission. Instead, focus your transmissions on the relationships between colony leaders, work projects to be started or completed, or general business the colony’s patrons back on Earth might be interested in hearing about. ————————————————— Journal Entries Give other players as much time as they need to think of the details of their transmissions. While you are waiting, you should write a Journal Entry. To write a Journal Entry, think of the name of a new colonist (one that has not been named in a transmission) and write it at the top of the index card or sheet of paper you set aside for journaling. Your Journal Entry will be written from that colonist’s point of view. Feel free to write as much or as little as you wish, but a paragraph of personal reflection is usually sufficient. The information contained in the Journal Entry should be something very personal to the colonist writing it, or it should be something utterly trivial. Maybe the young intern, Kelly Simpson, is writing letters to her deceased mother as a way of coping with her loss. Perhaps Captain Cartwright has a crush on Nurse Phillips. Keep the entry focused on the intersection between personal desires/frustrations and colony life. Note: Journal Entries shouldn’t dwell on the information being covered in the transmissions. In addition to the fact transmissions that have yet to occur might contradict something you put in your Journal Entry, it is also a wasted opportunity to explore the personal lives of colonists. As always, try not to let any of the journals’ contents outright solve the mysteries you’ll be investigating in the next phase. ————————————————— The Investigation Phase Setup Once the Transmission Phase is complete, players should take a moment to finish any Journal Entries they were working on. You should also find a piece paper, write “Fact Sheet” at the top, and place it in the center of the table, next to the index cards with your Data Points. You should now answer a few questions as a group: 1. For how long had the colony been silent before we decided to send in the investigation team? If we waited longer than a week or two, why? Perhaps there was political pressure to keep the colony’s troubles quiet, or the corporation who sponsored the colony didn’t want to spook its investors? Perhaps the colony only checked in sporadically, anyway, because doing so was difficult or expensive? 2. Who comprises the investigation team? List and describe a number of characters equal to the number of players, along with each character’s forensic specialty, then assign each of the characters to one of the players in any manner you wish. 3. Describe the spacecraft you arrived in, along with any auxiliary vehicles attached to it. 4. Each player should name a specific piece of gear or technology the team has which will assist in the investigation. Once this is complete, make sure each player understands the two vital questions the investigators are trying to answer: 1) why did the colony go silent, and 2) what happened to the ancient civilization that used to inhabit the planet? Gameplay The next player in the rotation is the Spotlight Character. The player to their left will be the Scene Guide. The Scene Guide will select one or two Data Points around which to frame a scene for the Spotlight Character. If they select two Data Points, they may come from different index cards. The Scene Guide should then cross out the Data Points, as they can no longer be used to frame future scenes. The Scene Guide will say who else is in the scene, and assign any NPC roles to players other than the player is currently playing the Spotlight Character. The Scene Guide may choose to take on an NPC role, as well. The players should then play out a scene in which the Spotlight Character investigates one or both of the chief mysteries. Note: while things happening in the scene may heavily imply a certain solution to a mystery, they should not outright solve them. The information gained may be less subtle than that gained in the Transmission Phase, but you still want to leave something to discuss at the end. If, as the Scene Guide, you feel too much is becoming too clear during this phase, feel free to add introduce some new developments which may cast doubt upon what is already known, or even open up entirely new “sub-mysteries” to explore. Bring the scene to a natural conclusion. The player of the Spotlight Character should then decide if any Facts were learned about the mystery. If so, they will write them on the Fact Sheet. No more than three facts should be written on the Fact Sheet per scene. The player may also choose to write down any significant questions they formed during the scene, in addition to or in lieu of learning facts. Play continues like this, going from player to player around the table, until all Data Points have been used to frame a scene. Scene-framing Example The Scene Guide selects the following Data Points: “A free-standing plateau of red rock in the distance (Doctor Adams)” and “A gang of vicious, six-limbed baboon creatures (Professor Marlowe).” Using these, he fashions a scene in which the spotlight investigator finds the baboon creatures’ tracks leading from the colony to the red plateau, and follows them. Scene Example Continuing with the above example, the Scene Guide describes the site where the trail ends: an ancient alien ruin where a large group of the baboon creatures have built nests. With the help of some remote research and analysis by an NPC assistant, the Spotlight Character—whose forensic speciality has to do with biology, including chemical psychology—uses a special scanner tool (which was mentioned by the group before play started) to determine that, somehow, the baboons’ proximity to these particular ruins can cause increased aggression compared to the species’ observed “normal.” After completing their notes without incident, the Spotlight Character returns to base, and the scene is closed. —————————————————— Conclusion At the conclusion of the Investigation Phase, players should now use the Fact Sheet and any other context gained during play to discuss their theories about the two mysteries. Players may also have access to one or more Journal Entries they wrote during play. They should feel free to offer up information in the Journal Entries to support or cast doubt upon, any proposed theory. If the content of a Journal Entry contradicts anything that has been established in the fiction to this point, players should feel free to disregard the validity of that Journal Entry, unless the player offering it can explain away the contradiction. The game ends when a consensus is formed around a single theory, or when everyone has had a chance to propose, and make a case for, their respective theories. You may additionally choose to explore some of the implications of your findings and how they might affect the greater world of your story as you’ve come to know it. Will what happened to the colony discourage future space exploration? Is anyone upset or emboldened by it? Will anyone try to take advantage of some discovery you’ve made, and do you think this is a good idea? Is the ancient civilization, in fact, still around, or do their past triumphs or failures echo in a way that affects you today? —————————————————— Campaign Play If your group desires it, you may take the above implications one step further and play additional “episodes” with returning characters, following the same format: a Transmission Phase followed by an Investigation Phase. The next episode might further explore the same planet, or your team might move on to another colony which has gone silent. You might even decide that your investigation, while following basically the same format, will focus on another subject matter entirely, such as a mystery back on Earth or another, still-active colony. Campaign play is an excellent opportunity to flesh out the world surrounding your story by learning more about the various institutions, corporations, civilizations and the like you encounter, and how they all relate to one another. Who does your team work for, and how does your view of them change over time, if at all? At the beginning of each episode, you may add new members to your investigation team (especially if any were lost in the previous episode), bring along new and improved tools, and/or train returning characters in one new skill or area of specialization apiece. If you need help remembering details about the world you’re building throughout your campaign, you might consider setting aside some notecards for this purpose. While you might come up with additional categories specific to your setting, here are a few you might start with: - Institutions - Locations - Technologies - Mysteries On the Institutions card(s), you will make notes detailing any significant factions, organizations, or civilizations you encounter. For Locations, note significant systems, planets, cities/towns, or landmarks. For Technologies, note your tools of the trade and/or any important tools, weapons, or other artifacts you might encounter. For Mysteries, list each of the investigations you have undertaken and your conclusion(s) for each. Having a record of all these categories may help you draw connections between your various missions and discover greater, overarching truths that may inform your campaign and inspire new storylines. —————————————————— Peril (for optional use during the Investigation Phase) As alluded to in the overview, these peril mechanics are a purely optional part of the game which you may incorporate if you feel they are appropriate to the story you’re telling. For example, if you think whatever caused the colony to go silent would still be a threat (even if you don’t know exactly what it is yet), or if there are dangerous flora or fauna at large, you may utilize this sub-system to put your investigators in danger in certain scenes. You should make sure every player in your group is up for it, as this could alter the tone and feel of the game quite dramatically. You may also imply certain perils through narration, but need not necessarily use these mechanics to make them a “real” threat. These mechanics do not require dice or any other randomizer, so you do not need any additional materials beyond what you will have already gathered to play this game. The Golden Rule of Peril In all situations involving peril, the danger being introduced must have been previously established or hinted at during the Transmission Phase. Though specific details might emerge only when the investigators encounter them in person for the first time (for example, the exact abilities and appearance of a creature only seen from afar until now), the Scene Guide may never, say, conjure up a gang of vicious, six-limbed baboon creatures if no such fauna were ever mentioned in a transmission or journal entry. Any threat that was mentioned, however, is fair game for inclusion. Keep this in mind when making your transmissions and journal entries. Types of Threats As stated above, any threats you introduce need to have been mentioned in one way or another during the Transmission Phase, but they may take a number of different forms, including, but not limited to, dangerous flora and fauna; defenses left behind by the ancient civilization which preceded you; human NPCs; pathogens; and environmental hazards. All of these will be handled in about the same way, mechanically speaking, though the narrative presentation will likely vary. Dealing With Threats When the Scene Guide deems it appropriate to introduce a threat during a scene, the Spotlight Character (or an NPC, if applicable) may propose a way they could counteract the threat using their training, forensic speciality and/or any of the tools the group decided the investigation team would have at their disposal. In the spirit of the Golden Rule of Peril, no character may use any skills or tools not already established in the story. For example, if the Spotlight Character in a scene is attacked by a group of six-armed baboon creatures, but they have an escort of one or two marines, and they also have access to stun guns (as per the discussion at the beginning of the game), the player could describe how they use their stun guns to neutralize the baboons. Better yet, they now can now transport them back to base for some testing before eventually returning them to the wild. Taking Damage If a threat of any kind cannot be countered by the Spotlight Character (ultimately decided at the discretion of the Scene Guide), they will take “damage,” be it physical, mental or otherwise. All damage works the same, mechanically. There are a number of “bails” available to the group, equal to half the number of players at the table, rounded down. For example, a three-person group will have one bail, while a four-person group will have two. Bails can be spent as a one-time “get out of trouble free” measure, allowing the Spotlight Character to make it through the scene with no damage; narratively, they will explain what stroke impossible skill or good fortune allows this. Bails may be used in any scene throughout the course of the game, but there is no way to get them back, so it is often best to save them for when someone is in extreme danger or it’s particularly important to gather a clue they otherwise won’t be able to. If there are no bails available, or if the player decides to “take one for the team,” they will move to the next step “down” the following Damage Ladder at the end of the scene, in addition to suffering any narrative consequences specific to their circumstances, such as becoming trapped or stranded. - Status Nominal (default) - Unwell - Critical Condition - Killed in Action (KIA) / Missing in Action (MIA) / [Honorably or Dishonorably] Discharged If a character reaches the bottom of this ladder, they are killed, will go missing, will lose their mind, or will for some other reason be removed from the investigation, and, thus, the game. A player removed from play in this way is still welcome to act as NPCs during other players’ spotlight scenes, and even during the conclusion portion of the game, but no knowledge/information their original character had may be be taken into consideration in any way unless they were somehow able to pass it along before their untimely departure. If all players are removed from the game, the investigation is aborted and the game is lost. Healing Damage When it is their turn to be the Spotlight Character, a damaged player may opt to skip their scene so they may either rest or receive treatment. When they do this, they will move one step back up the Damage Ladder. Though they will not be able to investigate during this scene, the player may still take the opportunity to play out a brief character-building or expositional scene. No player may do this two rounds in a row, and no player may do this immediately after another player, so coordinate with one another to make sure the player who most needs healing can get it.