That is the expression as I see it. It is based on the freud premise of ‘Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar’ And it fits the setting. You see, on August 31st I wrote ‘The wave of brains’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/08/31/the-wave-of-brains/)
I set up a new RPG game, a new gaming IP and in a non-related issue I accidentally clicked on the ‘Grok’ button, which gave me a new setting on me. Now I did it intentionally and it gave me a few items, it also gave me an idea I did not have before. The idea came from my school days (my merchant navy school days) and it came to me that the idea could have multiple applications.
So as I was ‘given’:
Based on the blog post linked in Lawrence Van Rijn’s X post, the envisioned Mars RPG game appears to combine survival, exploration, and narrative-driven gameplay with unique mechanics that tie into its sci-fi setting and real-world geopolitical commentary. Since the post outlines an idea rather than a fully developed game, I’ll extrapolate the mechanics from the described concepts, filling in logical details where necessary. Here’s a detailed breakdown of the potential game mechanics:
1. Survival and Resource Management
Core Systems Dependency: The game begins with the player as an amnesiac astronaut in a detainment center on Mars, reliant on self-sustaining systems for oxygen, water, and nourishment. Players must learn and maintain these systems (e.g., repairing oxygen generators or water purifiers) to survive. This introduces a tutorial phase where resource management is hands-on, with limited initial supplies forcing prioritization.
Energy Constraints: Power is a scarce resource, with the fusion reactor offline due to a crash-induced brownout. Players must restore solar panels or alternative energy sources (e.g., a larger energy dump mentioned in the post) to expand operations, creating a strategic layer where energy allocation (e.g., to life support vs. droid activation) impacts survival.
Time Pressure: The narrative hints at a finite water supply (a few days’ worth), adding urgency. Players must balance exploration and repairs under a ticking clock, with failure leading to resource depletion and potential death or mission failure.
2. Exploration and Droid Interaction
Open-World Exploration: The game features multiple domes, starting with a detainment center linked to retail and civilian areas, each with unique challenges. Players explore deserted landscapes filled with corpses and debris, uncovering lore through environmental storytelling (e.g., identity tags and mail from deceased colonists).
Droid Reactivation System: A key mechanic involves reactivating droids—janitor droids to clear junk and maintenance droids to repair infrastructure (e.g., the first tower for power restoration). Players choose which droids to prioritize, with each type offering different benefits (e.g., janitors clear paths, maintenance droids fix systems). This could include a mini-game or skill-based challenge to reboot them, inspired by the “Paradroid” reference.
Progressive Unlocking: As droids restore power and systems, new areas of the domes become accessible, expanding the playable space and introducing new survival tasks (e.g., inspecting oxygen points or water supplies).
3. Character Progression and Identity Mechanics
Amnesia and Identity Acquisition: The player’s amnesia allows for a dynamic identity system. By collecting identity tags from corpses, players can “become” deceased colonists, gaining access to their skills, memories (via mail and conference logs), and clearances. This could function like a skill tree or perk system, where each identity unlocks specific abilities (e.g., engineering skills for repairs or security access for restricted areas).
Sanity and Morale: Drawing from the post’s mention of supporting 10,000 people’s sanity across three domes, individual colonists (or the player) might have stats like sanity, comfort, and health, affected by isolation, resource scarcity, or horrific discoveries (e.g., mass corpses). Managing these stats could involve crafting morale-boosting items or completing narrative-driven tasks.
4. Narrative and Lore Integration
Mystery and Event System: Inspired by games like Surviving Mars, the game includes “mysteries” tied to the crashed Earth ark ship. Events such as alien contact, AI revolts, or rival corporate interference could trigger dynamically, requiring player decisions that shape the story (e.g., negotiating with an AI or fighting security droids).
Geopolitical Lore Updates: The post suggests real-time news integration via a “NIP (near Intelligent Parsing) system” to reflect events like U.S. debt crises or BRICS power shifts. This could manifest as in-game news broadcasts, colonist dialogues, or mission objectives that evolve with global events, making each play through reflect the current date (e.g., October 2025’s economic tensions).
5. Combat and Security
Emerging Threats: The post hints at security and battle droids as future hazards, suggesting a combat mechanic. Players might craft or find weapons (e.g., from the shipwreck) to defend against rogue droids or environmental dangers (e.g., dust storms), with combat tied to resource costs (e.g., ammo or energy).
Strategic Defense: As the colony grows, players may need to fortify domes against external threats (e.g., the crashed ship’s survivors or alien entities), adding a base-building or defensive strategy layer.
6. Crafting and Customization
Ship Repair Goal: The ultimate objective is to repair the broken ship parts scattered across Mars, requiring players to gather materials and craft tools or gadgets (e.g., a flashlight for night exploration, as seen in similar survival games). This aligns with the post’s focus on self-reliance.
Equipment Upgrades: Players can customize their character’s gear or droid capabilities, enhancing survival odds in harsh Martian conditions (e.g., radiation suits or enhanced droid AI).
7. Multi-Dome Ecosystem
Interconnected Domes: The three domes (detainment, retail, civilian) form a network where actions in one affect others (e.g., restoring power in one dome boosts water production in another). Players must manage this ecosystem, balancing population needs (up to 5,000) and resource flows.
Population Dynamics: If the game includes NPC colonists (martian-born or revived identities), their traits and morale could influence productivity or trigger events, adding a social simulation layer akin to Surviving Mars or Tropico.
Potential Challenges and Balance
Complexity: Balancing survival (resource timers), exploration (droid management), and narrative (lore integration) could overwhelm players. A phased difficulty curve—starting with basic survival, then adding combat and geopolitics—might help.
Replayability: The real-time news integration and multiple identity paths could encourage replay, but random events (e.g., meteor storms or AI revolts) would need to be varied to maintain interest.
Technical Feasibility: Parsing live news into a coherent game narrative via NIP systems would require robust AI, potentially straining development resources unless partnered with a news aggregator.
And there was more, but this gave me a few ideas. In the late 70’s there was something called RADAR scan transmissions. It used a RADAR to send communications around, I never saw it myself but I heard of it. Now consider that some use display software to use it in another way. Like the setting of images that are used (through personalised filters) to create art. That setting can be used in two ways, to rely on the art to help you find stuff, or the camera and filters to see other places. For instance scanning a picture might give you location data, images could given you personal references. That might be used in higher skill levels to make the game more challenging. For example the image of a droid hight give you the Droid Identification Number (DIN) is a unique 17-character code used to identify a specific droid, similar to a droid’s fingerprint. These are some of the settings that can be used to find other places and other (not in THAT dome) places. Certain cameras now have identifiers and some of that can be embedded in images. It allows for scanners to identify elements and we can use that to gain access to some places in a dome not considered before.
These are some of the ideas that bring a stronger presence of gaming IP and when the IP is powerful enough, you get a new following and a stronger franchise. A stronger franchise was not my idea as a game needs to have an end and going on and on is not my way, but a stringer presence for any IP is always welcome and I found that setting as I was researching the Grok output. I had actually not anticipated that idea. Whatever will I think of next?
Yet the setting of a larger technology presence was always my plan as I see that when too much of the SciFi becomes Fi, Fiction leads to fantasy and I am not against it, but I feel the need to adhere to a larger input of science and as my grandfather used to say, there is no place for science in Tartarus. Grandpapa was probably right. There is also a need for weapons, but not essentially personal weapons. The need to set traps might make a better droid killer than anything I could think of, but how to do that? Well, there are a few settings and only needed for security and military droids, the rest is basically harmless. The benefit of that, is that you will need to play strict rules with the stuff you find. And as the astronaut (played by you) might be a dunes in this regard, the need to create books or instruction discs that can be put into a viewer so that you gain these skills. For that I have a setting of multiple helmets (sprayed all over the game), some are mental and other helmets are suit connected systems string the knowledge to your body. In context (speculatively) Microsoft took years to launch a reboot of Fable (which was an awesome game) I wrote in months the setting of an entirely new RPG, so there. And should you doubt this (that would be a fair call), I have done this 4 times already. So where it there non existing AI now?
So as they invaded the sanctity of my gaming life, I gave my gaming IP to everyone else, so where are their billons now? Whilst they aren’t getting it done, all the others will get a head start to gain momentum. That is how I roll (I am a vindictive bastard at times).
So back to the game. As I see other avenues to thwart detection, I am also setting the idea to make you viral into the security offices to set your ID to a ‘allowed and safe’ setting. The other systems will allow you to go outside the dome to repair and connect solar panels and as Mars gets a mere 44%, more panels are needed. In the later stages you will have to repair a fusion reactor (with a little snag or two). Oh, that reminds me, there will be a setting for survivors (a salute to System Shock), but that will take a little more time.
All this and more are now settling in my brain and as the ride between the domes gets to be repaired, I just thought of a new setting for the third dome, there is no absence of energy, but a massive abundance of energy which gave that dome its own problems and as such so will you. But that will be for another day and that is all for today ( the new day just started 11 minutes ago), so have a great day and I will snore and think of new gaming IP if possible.
Lawrence van Rijn - Law Lord to be 