I do occasionally think about gaming from time to time, even if I spend more time in the guts of videogame code than I do RPGs nowadays. I had an idea inspired by the first trailers I saw for Syfy's Dark Matter, before I actually watched the show:

[video=youtube;1TqwBlTQfTg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TqwBlTQfTg[/youtube]

What it coalesced into was that the PCs start the game waking up from cryo/hypersleep/whatever FTL travel method that involves them being made unconscious to facilitate the process, but with dissociative amnesia. As in they don't remember who they are. You'd start them without any skills on their character sheets, and the players would add skills as they crop up, and so organically complete character creation during play.

They're on board a huge ship which contains all sorts of environmental threats (sections exposed to vaccuum, or where the gravity is out, or poisonous gas or radiation has leaked into a compartment) along with hostile organisms and perhaps other people are present too. They'd move from compartment to compartment, dealing with the challenges in each one with the goal of getting to the bridge, or engineering, or simply finding out what is going on.

Not much more to it than that, what systems might be able to handle the evolving character sheet business? And do a decent job of the usual RPG skirmish-scale stuff for a sci-fi setting?

I first saw this sort of concept in Dragon Magazine #6 in an article called "An Alternate Beginning Sequence for Metamorphosis Alpha." It was a blast to play because the characters didn't know anything about their environment, and the assumption is that the players don't even know that it's a Metamorphosis Alpha campaign. They think it's standard D&D or something like that, then they start encountering strange stuff...

Metamorphosis Alpha is a good rules choice, as it's already designed to be a 17-level megadungeon in space. I'd suggest the 1E MA reprints from Goodman Games, or the 4E hardback from Mudpuppy as my second choice.

There was a 2e (or maybe late 1e) AD&D starter adventure sorta like that, not in space, but the PCs start off as level 0 nothings on a ship wrecked island and what they do on the island determines their class

But I think the tricky part is that in in a Sci-Fi setting, someone would have to have skills and knowledge before even trying stuff. Like you can't program a computer if you've never turned one on.

Quote from: JeremyR;1051373There was a 2e (or maybe late 1e) AD&D starter adventure sorta like that, not in space, but the PCs start off as level 0 nothings on a ship wrecked island and what they do on the island determines their class

I think it was N4: Treasure Hunt.  It wasn't a really late 1e module, but it was post-UA.

I did it ONCE a long time ago with WEG's Star Wars game repurposed for a generic Sci-Fi setting.  It was during high school, and it seemed to be a hit, I had a return table at the library for that year.

If I do pick Stars without Number (or whatever the name of the sci-fi D&D game), I might try it again.

That MA article is a good one. It was reprinted in the first of the Best of collections as well.

This was also a possible start-off for the Second Life RP area called the Nastrand. The ship is a mess and the PCs might awake from cryo with a little, or alot of their memories hazy or missing.