GURPS 4 Babylon 5
Campaign: Introduction

The direction of the game

It's a space opera! You may start small but you have to think bigger.

The moral of the story for Babylon 5 is that people can change the world, that they can make a difference, even when immensly powerful nations are smashing the place up. Players will not play the characters in the series because a story based on them has been told. Indeed, events will deviate from the series plotline because knowing what happens in advance makes a dull game. Worse, as such characters were pulled back home by their separate missions and duties, they cannot be used in an RPG.

Instead, PCs will be hero-level, co-owners of a private investigation business based in Babylon 5. PCs can have all manner of unofficial contacts or be bound by a professional code of conduct but will not be part of any chain of command. The business is named the Orion Detective Agency here but that's a player decision. PCs will start with a furnished, rented room and a shared, company office in Red Sector and whatever equipment they can afford, usually at Average wealth level. It is possible to start poorer but it is not recommended as, even if players can agree about unequal profit sharing, this will cost CP as the PCs acquire wealth.

The first few clients will be scripted, mostly as they're scene setting and pay well, but as the game progresses, players will have greater latitude to refuse contracts and pursue their own investigations. There are plenty of forces at work besides the PCs and players can follow information gleaned from the media and contacts to interfere with diabolical schemes. Players are expected to buy a scout ship for independent travel and equipment for dealing with people protecting their operations. This is not D&D. Most power progression will be equipment and contacts, rather than superhuman powers.

Small size, anonymity and an apparantely agenda-less, mercenary status will prevent the big boys deploying the big guns against the PCs, especially as the Shadow War starts. With little direct power, the PCs influence the course of events with information, clever tricks and media reputation. As being a video star is incompatible with anonymity, an NPC will be the media face and handle media relations.