Sandbox Between Stoplights Episode 7: Who Was Frances Clayton?

Sandbox Between Stoplights Episode 7: Who Was Frances Clayton?


Hello, I'm Josh. In the last episode I explained the “why” behind my specific session zero plans. I also talked about using an NPC to guide and lead my players into the world, including a strategy for how to move her out of the way when the group takes over their own story.

Today, I’m going to begin by talking about the party's starting space ship and how I’m going to make it a character unto itself. After, I’ll start brainstorming how I’m going to attract the type of players who actually want to play this type of game.


Whether it's a car, airplane, or a space ship, a vehicle that characters project a personality into is a recurring shibbotleth in fiction.


It’s a trope often called the Alleged Car. I’ll have a link explaining it in greater detail, but simply put: the vehicle is a clunker you love, even though it dies on you at the worst moments.


It’s such a common trope that it can get a little tiresome sometimes. However, when it’s done well, it has an undeniable charm. So, I’m going to take a few bits of it and then try to subvert the rest. The vessel itself has to speak to the captain who bought it, in this case Carla Chase the NPC I discussed last episode.



She’s not wealthy, so purchasing a cargo ship would be a major life goal of hers, and I decided she accomplished it by her early 30’s.



She definitely wouldn’t have had the resources to get something new, instead opting to buy a vessel from a junkyard.




That'll check a major box for this trope, which means I can be more creative with the rest.



I think the way I'll subvert this is by having Carla actually spend the time and money to fully gut the ship, rebuild it, and do it right. It might not be the slickest, newest thing, but it actually runs really well, even if it's a bit hands on.



I'm not really a visual artist, and while I'll be the first GM to extol the virtues of theater of the mind, I also like pretty pictures. I *really* want a pretty picture for the ship.


The model I picked was a Jinda Wolf,  which isn’t native to Stars Without Number, but designed by Ryan Wolfe over at 0-hr. I don’t know him or have any relationship with him, I just like what he does and I'll have a link to his website in the show notes.




Anyway, that name, Jinda Wolf, won’t work for the ship because it sounds like what it is: A Make and Model, like Honda Civic.


To give it some soul, I decided I wanted to pick someone from history as the ship’a namesake.

I got to brainstorming and remembered a woman I read about back when I did civil war reenactments, named Frances Clayton.



She was one of many women who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War, posing as a man. Many historians now believe that *her* specific story was fabricated, but that actually fits in kind of perfectly with Carla Chase, who's just a more settled version of Malcom Reynolds from Firefly.



This gave me another opportunity to flesh out Carla's character a bit. How would she have even heard of Frances Clayton? Clayton is a pretty obscure figure less than 200 years after her death, let alone almost a thousand years later, when the game takes place.




The answer is: Disney, or whatever multiheaded media conglomerate exists in the future. Some studio, 8 centuries from now, will mine history for a copyright free character- and find Clayton. Banality is, occasionally, a useful tool in storytelling.



Of course, much like Clayton's purported adventures, it would be highly fictionalized to tell a better story. The movie came out when Carla was quite young, and it become something of an inspiration to her growing mind, despite being a commercial flop.



Thus, after all the rehab work, a decaying Jinda Wolf will be transformed into the Frances Clayton. Or, as the crew refers to her, "The Frankie." I'll post a link to a vignette I wrote about it in the show notes.




OK, quick review of where I am now. The world is well outlined. I have governments, I have an antagonist with a background, I have the party's means of interacting with the world, and a guide to bring them into it. This is a major milestone for the presentation side of world building. The only things left left before I start start playing are some willing participants and a first adventure.



Finding any participant is easy. Finding  the right ones can be trickier. That's why so many good gaming groups hang together for years. In this case I'm going to be looking for strangers online.



Since this is an intentionally less heroic campaign, I need to be thorough in my explanations and expectations.




While many RPG enthusiasts seem to have greater patience for reading a long synopsis than the average bear, I *also* know that music, video, and images are often better at communicating, than the written word is alone.



This is actually a thinly veiled attempt to justify indulging in another amateur hobby of mine: video editing. But, I don't think I'm wrong. A short teaser will do a lot to convey my intent, but I still need to back it up with a well written ad. Before I can do either I need to come up with a name for the campaign. It needs to reflect the emotion and the finality of what I'm going for.



Picking a name is hard. It took me a few different iterations, and a place holder for a minute. Then I decided to be honest with myself. What would I want to spend my last minutes doing? And the answer is easy, be with my family. This, finally, lead me to a title that felt right:
"Hold Me Tight Until The World Ends."




That name, by itself, inspires me to tell a certain type of story. With a title in hand, I began collaging the media I had gathered. After a few hours on a Saturday evening, I finished the teaser.



If I did it right, the video will convey a lot of what I'm trying to accomplish. I'd love to hear from you about whether or not I managed that, so I'll include a link to the video and a discord server I hang out. If you get a chance, I'd really love it you took a look and give me some feedback.



And that's where I'm going to leave it for today. I did say in the last episode that I'd talk about the first mission of the game. Unfortunately, that's going to take me well past my self-imposed time limit so I'll start with  that next time. While I'm talking about that I'm also going to figure out how to let the players to hop in and out of the metaplot with ease.



Thank you so much for listening, and good luck this week.