The illusion of choice vs Real choices in Lifeship

Lifeship is a game full of choices. That has been a foundational principle of the game and it permeates every aspect of it. From naming you character, giving them a trait, to choosing your method for solving a problem on the ship, and how to approach difficult situations in missions, Lifeship is all about choices.

For the purposes of this discussion, I am going to talk a little about video games, RPGs mostly. Choices in RPGs tend to fall somewhere on a spectrum. On one end (Let's call it the left side), we have, Illusory choices, think Telltale Games The Walking Dead Season 1. The game presents you with what seems to be a critical choice, save this person, or don't. Reveal the zombie bite or don't. Choose who gets the food first. In the moment, all of these decisions feel meaningful. However, after having played the game, the choices you make have very little affect on the outcome of the game. You are always going to go to the same place and (Minor Spoiler for a decades old game) sacrifice yourself the same way to save Clementine. On the other end (We'll call this the right side), you have a fully immersive experience where you can decide to do anything and the game will respond. The closest approximation to this is the supremely excellent, Baldur's Gate 3. There are hundreds of unique choices in the game, each with ongoing consequences. This is not to say there aren't scripted beats, the world is still YOURS to explore but it does a good job of letting you affect the areas that you do choose to interact with. One of my favorite options in the game actually happened three times. Early on, you encounter a goblin named Sazza who is imprisoned. You can rescue her here or not. When you encounter her again (Assuming you rescued her) she is on the chopping block again. Once again, you can rescue her. Finally, you save her from being executed and get the achievement, 'She Cannot be Caged'! I loved this.

You might point at games like Skyrim as being on the right side of this spectrum, but they aren't. In Skyrim, you can choose to go in any direction you want and interact with whatever stories you want, but the outcomes of those stories are fairly linear. Everyone gets to be in charge of every faction because that's what doing those quests gives you. When you pile up a thousand illusory choices, it definitely feels like you can do anything you want. However, the only real choices in Skyrim are whether you side with the Nords or the Dominion, and whether you engage with all of the content or not. Once again, not saying I dislike Skyrim, I have thousands of hours in it. I am only pointing out that there aren't many Real choices to make in the game.

Of course, the spectrum continues beyond the Illusory choice marker into strict linearity. I recently enjoyed Wolfenstein: The Old Blood which has a couple of inconsequential choices in it and a lot of Nazi shooting. And beyond Baldur's Gate 3, I think you begin to approach TTRPGs that aren't video games at all. Where the only constraints on your behavior are the GMs imagination and the dice rolls.

So where does Lifeship exist on this spectrum? I prefer to provide REAL choices where feasible. I like for there to be stakes, and for the universe to respond and react to the player's decisions and actions. So we start with character selection. There are 8 starting characters and 6 starting classes. Is this a real choice? Or an illusory one? Due to the constraints of a board game, we cannot provide a character generator like Baldur's Gate 3. But we do provide a huge number of diverse characters to enjoy throughout the game. I think this falls in the middle of the spectrum. Same with choosing a class from the starting 6. There are choices, they will affect how you interact with the game, but any choice you make here is fine and won't lock you out of other choices.

Next we come to mission design. Lots of missions in Lifeship contain choices throughout that absolutely will change the outcome. If you choose to rescue people or don't, choose to use non-lethal force or lethal, the mission itself will respond. Most missions have at least four unique end states, including all the players dead, and some have as many as nine. The ramifications of your choices in these missions can affect you for the rest of the game. Whether it is reputational effects, or unlocking buildings or equipment, unlocking unique classes or characters, or helping a faction over another. These are much more meaningful choices and fall on the right side of our spectrum.

How does the game know how to respond to your choices? Easy, we are building a custom website with every story beat you will need at your fingertips. When you reach milestones on the ship, read a story. When a character dies, you get a story. A choice you made earlier against the Pirate faction can come back to bite you in a later mission.

The caveat to this spectrum is that not every choice is going to have lasting effects. Just like in real life, some choices are bigger than others. Where possible, Lifeship pays off your choices with bespoke stories, missions, characters and equipment. Without spoiling too much, the way you choose to survive in Lifeship will change the universe and dictate the specific adversities you encounter later in the game.