“The Ship” was one of the first non-valve games on steam, a source mod, but the developer went out of business and there was never anyone at the wheel to lower the price during sales, so the multiplayer died out long ago.
Some new owners bought up the game and said they were going to make some improvements and try to kickstart it again. As part of their effort to revive it, they gave everyone who owns the game 4 copies to give away to their friends, or if you buy the game for $10, you effectively get 5 copies (one for yourself, 4 to give away).
Since a few of us had the game, that leaves us with extra copies to give out. So I’m going to look for some people who might be interested, to see if we can get some SDMB games going.
The premise is… you’re on a luxury liner from the 30s or so, along with up to 32 people. Everyone on this cruise has a target - someone they have to assassinate - but that also means you’re the target of someone else. You roam the halls trying to stalk your target - trying not to give yourself away - while waiting for them to become vulnerable. If there are security officers or too many players around, you’ll get thrown in the brig if you pull out a weapon.
To prevent people from simply staying in safe areas, you get sims-style needs that you need to handle. If you haven’t eaten for a while, you’ll need food, which will in turn make you need to use the bathroom, which will in turn degrade your hygeine and force you to take a shower. You’re vulnerable to your assassin when doing these tasks, so you have to plan it out.
There are also a variety of weapons, all of which have a dynamic value - the value of the weapon is the score you’ll get by killing your target with. Every weapon resets back to the starting 100 points every time its used, otherwise it increases in value. So the least used weapons become the ones that will give the highest points for killing with it. Eventually this leads to you planning your route around these things - dropping by the kitchen to pick up a frying pan for instance.
That’s pretty much it. You win by making kills with the most valuable weapons, avoiding being caught and fined by security, and surviving. There’s very little in the way of shooter skills involved - the pace of the game is slow and most of the weapons just involve bludgeoning people. Yet it requires a decent amount of strategy - to stalk your victim without them knowing you’re their stalker (if they figure it out, they can kill you in self defense), to avoid witnesses and security, to take care of your needs, to gather the best weapons. It’s a unique experience.
Now… a lot of the previous owners of the game haven’t received their giftable copies yet (although anyone who buys the game now does), but they say they’re working on it. So I’m forming an interest list of people who think they’d like the game and would play with us in SDMB games.
If you have a microphone and ventrilo, you get a leg up. As well as if you can play in the 7-10pm eastern time period. If you don’t want to wait for the giftable copies for old players to be worked out and you have some friends that might try, buy a copy - you effectively get 5 copies for $10 for $2 a pop.