IRE #16: The Revolutionary Document
Today, March 17th marks the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein’s completion of the first of his major papers that would revolutionize physics forever. So even with the recent Ides of March, I am choosing Einstein’s papers as the inspiration for the latest IRE.
Introduce something that changes all the rules, mid-game. For the best parallel, I prefer that it be something the PCs have been working on, with effects even more dramatic than their imaginations anticipate. In some games this is perfect– sci-fi in particular has very skilled character types (Engineers, Science Officers, etc.) that don’t do much more than “scan”.
What if, this time, we let one of their hair brained stunts “break the game”. They want to route tacheons through the drive? Let it happen… with dramatic effect. Then spin at least two or three episodes as follow up– superiors debriefing them on the effects of their innovation, rivals trying to steal the data, theorists turning the effect (whatever it was) into a weapon… the whole universe destabilized by their desperate attempt.
You can play with power issues (with an unstoppable weapon, what do you do?), try cashing in on the event (can you patent it?), plus standard “now you’re famous” issues, like bodyguards & kidnapping attempts. The campaign wouldn’t be anything like you’d imagine from the beginning. Hopefully it’d be memorable and fun… but there aren’t a lot of systems that can handle both types of tension well, I suspect.