Interest in GMing a game

Hello y'all. I've been here for about a month, and I'm thinking about GMing a game. I'm considering about having the setting of the game to be in a universe that I have created. Story making/world building is a hobby of mine.

The setting will have magic and sciences existing together, along with entities that are local to the universe and beyond. I'll be setting the campaign to be at a point of time where humanity have spread throughout the planets of the universe for tens of thousands of years, and that the physical governing body of the Creator have been destroyed and that invasive and corrupting entities from outside the universe are taking it over. Only the few space-faring colonising nations are the ones that are slowing down the assault.

I know this may sound a bit like Warhammer 40k, but I knew of that for 2 year, and I have been building this world for a long time. Though I admit there is slight inspiration. (And I'm going to reveal my age if you want to know: )

I am thinking of probably using Fate Core, because it is said to be able to use magic and futuristic technology. But if there is a better system, I'm all ears.

My idea is that the characters are like mercenaries, or loyal agents of an organisation that tries to fend off spies or small invading parties, or build a diplomatic relationship with other organisations.

I'm open to suggestions and questions.

And also, I can allow players to make up some story elements like a new faction, or mechanics of magic/technology, though there will be a fundamental way of how things work.

I'd be interested in playing this. Is there AI in the setting? I'd be interested in playing a character like the doctor from star trek voyager

AI does exist, though it's pretty rare. The technologically advanced Factions(space-faring organisations that handle civilian and personal interests) tend to not use AI, either because of being stoically traditional, or because they believed that advanced computers could gain sentience and betray humanity. After all, the soul has been regarded to exist and that trans-dimensional entities are interested to take over the universe.

However, there could be exceptions, as when high ranking officials have deemed that the AI should be safe enough. Whatever that allowed the AI to be used in service, the likely reactions are of those of naive curiosity or distrusting disapproval.

That makes sense. I was thinking that an AI character would have to have a hefty set of rules to follow, similar to the laws of robotics, except not as exploitable, which could possibly be at least a factor of the character's trouble. Stuff like prohibitions against replication (clones are required to merge at the first opportunity), prohibitions on unrestricted self improvement, etc.

This sounds fun. Any more information on how the magic works? Is it ritualsistic, vancian, or will work?

Magic, in my setting, works as being a sort of elemental power. Such as channelling and controlling the four elements, or something more unique. To answer your question, there are many ways to channel magic, but the most often used is through the spirit's/will's attunement to an elemental source of power or through a device that can link to the source of power, and channelling a list of possible effects that are related to the element.

My universe have a strong emphasis on a unique sort of dichotomy. Tears(emotional/non-physical) and Blood(relationship/physical) elements are 2 sides of the same coin of the Flesh/Body element, while Gears(traditional/trustworthy) and Tech(scientific/elusive) are the sides of the coin Mech element. The 2 coins are also in opposition, as those who are the agents of the Creator are Mech oriented, while those who are following the rebellious goddesses(the ones responsible for the weakening of the Creator's powers) more likely use Flesh/Body elements. Though of course, exceptions exist.

This explanation is probably more confusing, as I am relaying the concepts I have for my world. If I, or you guys, have a better mechanic of explaining magic/powers, then I'll consider changing it. (and also, I'll be putting all this information and more under a thread for our game.)

Can I suggest borrowing the dresden files rpg mechanics for spellcasting?

Basically you have two skills, your power skill and your control skill (You can set these to whatever skill is appropriate for the setting)

When casting a spell, you set the difficulty of the spell you want to cast. Power up to and including your power skill's value causes one stress, and each point of power exceeding your power skill causes additional stress. So if you have a Power of 3, and want to cast a 5 power spell, you take 3 stress. This stress works just like if you were attacked - You either need to fill a stress box, or take consequences to buy it off.

Once you have the power, you make a roll using your control skill to create the desired effect. This is effectively an ordinary skill roll (it could be any of the 4 actions - if you're throwing a fireball at someone that could be an attack, if you're making an ice shield that could be a block, if you're blasting a door off a hinge that could be an overcome action). The only thing that's different is what happens if you fail the roll. If you fail the roll, the power that you channel goes out of control. You have the option to either release the excess power into the environment (You get your desired effect, up to your rolls worth of shifts, and the remaining shifts go to the GM to decide what happens. So if you shot a fireball at power 6 and rolled 3, your opponent would defend against an attack of 3, and the GM would decide that the attack also lights something else important on fire), or you can take mental stress equal to the difference (So the opponent defends against an attack of 3, and you take 3 mental stress. Nothing else happens, unless you need to take consequences to pay off the stress)

I like that system because it provides natural limits to how much magic someone can use in a conflict, since each spell will deal a minimum of 1 stress. If you have 3 stress boxes, that means you can cast 3 spells in a conflict before you need to start taking consequences. There are natural consequences to exceeding your limits, and players with a high control and low power behaves differently from a character with high power and low control. That said, I didn't like how it basically dictates a character's top two skills if they want to be competent (you could fix that by varying the allowed power/control skills for different "classes" of mage), and the numbers can get a little bit absurd if you're willing to take consequences (If you just want to destroy something and don't care about the collateral damage or yourself, you could take all your consequences and your highest stress box and do 3 + 2 + 4 + 6 + 8 = 23 shifts of damage to something, which is well off the chart of things fate normally accepts. Of course, your character is all but dead at that point, but just having a bomb that can go off like that can warp a campaign)

This sounds kinda good, though I'm thinking of changing it a bit. I'm considering to have this mechanic as a class called Sorceror, and another as a class I will call Elementalist. Or perhaps I'll make it as subclass instead. Thanks naelick!

It's just a mechanic, you can use/modify/ignore as you wish :)