The New World – Colony Ship RPG’s Official Title

Iron Tower Studio’s previously unnamed Colony Ship RPG has received an official title – The New World: A Generation Ship RPG. We learn this in the latest development update that, apart from unveiling the new name, also goes over the game’s stealth system and introduces a possible party member. Here’s an excerpt:

What do people think of when they hear “The New World”, absent a video game?

• a time when people were migrating in their millions across the Atlantic to the strife and uncertainty of an unknown destination
• people fleeing an awful life of toil for a new almost entirely unknown life, which unbeknownst to them would also be full of toil
• people of all different religions, origins and castes jammed together on the voyage; even rich and poor, otherwise always segregated, shared the same boat
• European pioneers, the migration West, the Mayflower, colonization, it’s a package of all the sub-themes

What will people see when they’re playing the game?

• The passengers of the Ship are headed to a New World
• The Ship itself is a New World, away from Earth for so many generations it might as well be a myth
• The player is like one of those hapless migrants of the five hundred year migration to North America, surrounded by conflicting factions, different religions, philosophies and ideals
• The player is headed for the absolutely unknown in a chaotic, dangerous environment where he must live by violence or his wits

[…]

You know what to expect (more or less) from the character, combat, and dialogue systems. A proper stealth system is something new, which means there are many exciting ways to screw it up. So let’s take a look at the rough “on paper” concept and get some feedback. Keep in mind that The New World isn’t a stealth-focused game like Thief and we can’t allocate all our limited resources to the stealth system alone. Having said that, we do want to offer an interesting and well-designed alternative solution to many side quests and a well-supported path through the game (like the talker’s way in AoD – you couldn’t talk your way in and out of every situation but you could talk your way through the game).

Let’s start by giving you a specific example from one of the early quests and then go over the features. You need some energy cores, one of the scavenger crews has them, so you can either talk to them (pay a lot of money or con them like a pro), kill ’em all (always popular), or sneak around and do some breaking and entering.

There’s a built-in air purifier out back, you can use your Mechanics skill to open the hatch, making some noise in the process. If nobody comes to investigate, you enter the premises and TB stealth mode. The crew’s leader is in the room next door, drunk after celebrating a successful run (if you come back later, he will be more alert). We check if he heard the noise. If he didn’t, he stays where he is. You need to make your way to a locked strongbox. Each step generates some noise, if he hears it, he goes to investigate. Finally, lockpicking the stronghold generates some noise too. So again, if he hears it, he goes to investigate. If not, he remains where he is and you get away clean.

If he does hear the noise, he goes to investigate, heading for the place where the noise originated from, meaning you should get as far away from that place as possible (as far as your AP allow, which means that sneaking will require high Dex and proper feats) or ambush him.

If he sees you (i.e. you’re caught in his cone of vision), he goes for his gun, otherwise he starts searching. During the searching phase, if he comes close to you but doesn’t see you, you get an optional interrupt allowing you to insta-kill him using your trusted Critical Strike skill. Failing the attempt starts combat. You can also attempt to sneak up on him and kill him during your turn. If he sees you, he gets an interrupt attack and shoots you in the face.