Technoccult: Gygax 75 Challenge Week 1

A couple of months ago Ray Otus released the Gygax 75 Challenge, a 5-week workbook guiding one through making a small campaign setting based on the advice of an article Gary Gygax published in a zine less than a year after D&D came out.

It looks super fun so I printed it out and bound it with a pamphlet stitch and flipped through and saw a one-line suggestion that it could be a cyberpunk setting instead of standard fantasy. I shared my excitement about this with Sean Smith (creator of such wonders as Quarrel & Fable, Gully-Toads, and Exuviae), who it turns out had -also- decided to do the Gygax 75 with a cyberpunk setting.

WELL

I decided it would be fun to do a setting linked to his.  Mine takes place 100 years after a calamity destroys whatever cyberpunk civilization existed, and might even feature the same location as a ruin. Fuck knows if this will actually realize in that way but it's a hell of a good idea to start off running with.

What would the the post-apocalypse be like after a cyberpunk future?

Anyway, Gygax 75 Week 1:

i. "Get/create a notebook." This blog is it!  also the simplenote app on my phone. I did consider using a physical notebook and I might do that for maps, but I find it easier to capture ideas in text digitally.

ii. "Develop your pitch." So it's a kind of post-cyber-occult-pocalypse. Here goes:

    1. A century ago, the technologic future suffered an occult calamity.

    2. Humanity scavenges for survival in the ruins of a cyperpunk dystopia.

    3. Electric devil skeletons animated by technocultists lurk in collapsed arcologies and burnt-out server farms.

    4. There is a belief that if the dark ritual that caused the calamity can be discovered, it can be reversed. Not everyone wants this.

    5. Power sources are valuable because old cyber-tech still exists and can be repaired and run; batteries are sparingly traded for other goods; "if it runs a current it's currency".

    6. Forests of broken solar-panel trees snaked through with exposed wires; vast expanses of grey ash made of former office tower blocks.

    7. Technoccult magicks are accomplished through rituals that blend blood with computing; sorcery is just another kind of hacking; demons are indistinguishable from rogue AIs.

iii. "Gather your sources of inspiration." Not to be viewed by players, so close your eyes I guess.

    1. Mad Max series (George Miller). Post-apocalyptic settings full of freaks in gonzo costumes roaming around a ruined landscape owe much to Mad Max.

    2. Dangerous Days (Perturbator). The visual aesthetics of dark synthwave are just right on in general but Dangerous Days in particular--I mean there's one image that literally says "SATAN IS A COMPUTER"

    3. Polybius (urban legend). The idea of a satantic mind-control arcade game released as a psychological experiment in portland in the 80s is THE BEST. also other games where demonic forces bleed into the real world like Pony Island and Undertale

    4. The neon graveyard (Las Vegas). What would the bright neon cityscape of a cyberpunk dystopia look like post-collapse? I reckon it'd be like the vegas neon graveyard.

    5. The Matrix trilogy (the Wachowskis). Specifically the real world outside the matrix with that wild underground city and giant vat-walls full of dreaming battery-humans.

    6. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott). What if this society collapsed? Those giant pyramids and video screens, dark and abandoned?

    7. the occult origins of personal computing (Al Robertson). This cyberpunk author has spoken on the idea that the pioneers of the internet, virtual reality, and mass technology were inspired by occult and psychedelic movements. Never mind if it's true or not, that idea's cool as hell.

extra credit. "Assemble a mood board" yes good

That'll do for now I think! Maybe a hack of Mutant Future could run this pretty good.

In My *DREAMS

After some time away (during which OSR turned within and G+ died), I wanted to see what was going on, and found SWORDDREAM (which for my own reference, tounge-in-cheekly backronyms to Second Wave of RPG Design, DIY Rules Everything Around Me).

(I found this post most helpful in understanding what *DREAM is and might be and what it isn't and shouldn't. Also the splat is there because not everyone dreams of swords.)

There are nine principles that people have pinned to the door and I wanted to put them here (again for my own reference have you seen how many fucking blogs are in my roll I can't keep track of anything) and jot down some thoughts on each one if I had any.

Copied from a post on Fish in the Pot, with my notes under each one:

THE NINE PRINCIPLES OF *DREAM

1. *DREAM stands against hate & prejudice in all forms. We seek to actively oppose bigotry & harassment in gaming communities. We create kind spaces.
        The less people like Pundit and Zak in the scene the better, and the more diversity among designers and players the better. Even if this started as a kneejerk reaction to the shitheads (which it really doesn't feel like), it's important to make this value crystal clear.

2. *DREAM works to be radically inclusive. We seek support and encourage creators, GMs, Players, and organizers from marginalized groups. And we seek to get better at this all the time.
        Same as above thought. Also: how can -I- be better at this?

3. *DREAM encourages the use of sensible tools for communication and consent.
        The X Card comes to mind. Are there other tools?

4. *DREAM opposes harassment and strives for non-toxic discourse. We value best intentions, we call in before calling out, and we start discussions before we make accusations. We seek to empower everyone to curate their spaces.
        Thoughts 1 and 2 again. Curating our own spaces is important. Nobody has to listen to shitheads if they don't want to, especially not in their own house. This isn't some rationalist agora. I feel like Principles 2-4 are ways of implementing the broader value expressed in 1.

5. *DREAM values creators & their work. We support equitable pay for professional creators and fair treatment for hobbyists.
        "Fuck you, pay me." But also, fair treatment for hobbyists means that if people hack your work, or criticize it--don't go after them.

6. *DREAM values a DIY approach to creation. We question gatekeeping, we take alternative approaches when traditional publishing models fail, and we believe anyone can make great games.

7. *DREAM values experimentation in game design & world-building.
        I like this a great deal.

8. *DREAM isn’t defined by, but is interested in: anti-canons, emergent story, generative worlds, kitbashing, non-violent play options, and more. And it is fine if some of these things contradict each other.
        So much of these specific interests are my own that I really want this scene to persist (and of course I should contribute to the pile if I really mean it), but to pick out one that challenges my preconceptions: -emergent story-. I have used Fate a bunch and enjoyed many so-called "storygames", but this feels like something different. Is it in the OSRian sense, where the story comes out of what the players actually do in response to the neutral-abiter-DM's in-game situations -as opposed to- having written out a plot and characters etc? Not like to railroad the PCs but like... are emergent narratives the opposite of adventure paths and box text? This, above all, for me, warrants exploration. A delight of OSR/DIY/artpunk(and now *DREAM) is the rich, dense items in random generation tables. For improvisational purposes, a detailed-yet-brief prompt is a strong start... for emergent narrative? I have usually defaulted to very neutral items in my tables (but was I using those for generative worlds? or what even is that if I misunderstand?) and let improvisation and the depth of the setting inspire details. Anyway, there's loads of stuff to explore in this space.

9. There is no one *DREAM. Anyone who commits to these principles is *DREAMing.
        Excellent.

I look forward to seeing what comes out of the *DREAMJAM so we can see what up in this scene.

Reasons to Do Gamethings: a calendar of narrative game design challenges and writing prompts

A seasonal calendar of recurring game jams, blogging prompts, design competitions, and challenges to spur your work on narrative and tabletop games.

You might find it useful too.   UPDATED July 25th 2020

This is fairly extensive (but necessarily incomplete). It includes board games, RPGS, storygames, and interactive fiction. I have deliberately excluded game jams focused on graphical video games, but if that's your jam (HA) then you can check out the calendar at Indie Game Jams. I've tried only to include -active- competitions that have happened more than once. There are loads of new game jams on itch.io going on all the time as well--and Max has a collection of current physical game jams on itch.  I've guessed at the likely date of some competitions based on previous years. Some long-running competitions have ended or are no longer updated, but have extensive archives of games worth looking at--they are listed at the end.

(Also, someone should host another Threeforged because that was a great idea, and the One Room Game IF Competition was great and should come back in some form. Even more also, I'm surprised at how many individual, unrelated One-Page RPG competitions have been started and fizzled out. I want there to be a big official one. There is a One Page RPG Jam again, on itch.io! But now I'll hope for Game Chef to return.)

Do let me know if I've missed any regular things!

ONGOING / TRY ANY TIME

    The Gygax 75 Challenge    https://rayotus.itch.io/gygax75 (make an rpg campaign setting in 5 weeks, working through a booklet)

    RPG Blog Carnival    https://ofdiceanddragons.com/rpg-blog-carnival/ (monthly topics hosted by active bloggers)

    RPG Generator    https://sadpress.itch.io/rpg-generator-alpha (randomly generated game idea)

    Meta Prompt Generator    https://crateredland.blogspot.com/2020/07/meta-prompt-generator.html (write an rpg post about...)

    Boardgame Geek Monthly 24hr Challenge (anytime w/in month)    https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2307821/current-contest-info (also several other rotating contests are listed in this post, including faves like the Mint Tin Challenge and the 9-Card Challenge)

    Game Crafter Community Contests    https://www.thegamecrafter.com/contests (boardgames, roughly every 3-4 months)

    One Month Story Challenge    http://howtomakeanrpg.com/a/one-month-story-challenge.html (nobody has used the hashtag since 2015, but the challenge is self-guided for creating a bunch of narrative ideas)

WINTER

    Secret Santicore/Santicorn     http://santicore.blogspot.ca/ (OSR rpg content, now mostly run on the OSR Discord but archives up to 2017 still online. 2018/2019 collected on various blogs)

    Cardboard Edison submit (Jan 31 deadline)      http://cardboardedison.com/award/ (unpublished board games)

SPRING

    Spring Thing (Mar 1 deadline, submit by Apr 1)       http://springthing.net (interactive fiction)

    Secret Jackalope (an Easter-ish version of Secret Santicorn for OSR rpg content)

SUMMER

    NarraScope Game Jam (May-Jun)    https://narrascope.org/ (interactive fiction)

    RPG Superstar (deadline June)    https://rpgsuperstar.com/ (rpg content design competition)

    One Page Dungeon Contest (deadline Jun/Jul-ish)    https://dungeoncontest.com/

    IntroComp  (deadline Jul 31 but pre-register in Jun)    http://introcomp.org/ (first room of an interaction fiction)

    #RPGaDay (August)    https://melestrua.wordpress.com/category/rpgaday/ (daily prompts for blogging/game design)

    Saga Forge Scribe (August 24 deadline)    https://www.wearesaga.com/sagaforge (one-shot module competition, Halloween theme)

    One Page RPG Jam (deadline Aug 31)    https://itch.io/jam/one-page-rpg-jam-2020

    200 Word RPG (did not run 2020 but claims it'll be back)    https://200wordrpg.github.io/

(and ongoing submissions at reddit.com/r/200wordrpg)

AUTUMN

    The Mega RPG Jam (ran in Sept 2019)     https://itch.io/jam/mega-rpg-jam/community (creator says will be another one in 2020)

    IFComp (deadline Oct 1 but pre-register in summer)    https://ifcomp.org/ (interactive fiction)

    ECTOCOMP (deadline Oct 31)    https://itch.io/jam/ectocomp-2019-english (Halloween/horror interactive fiction)

   NaGaDeMon (November)    http://nathanrussell.net/naga-demon/# (national game design month)

***

DEFUNCT (but archives available)

    BGDF Game Design Showdown    http://www.bgdf.com/forums/game-design/design-contests (last thread was posted august 2018)

    One Game A Month    http://onegameamonth.com/ (officially ended in 2018)

    24 Hour RPG    http://www.1km1kt.net/cat/24-hour-rpg (last entry was august 2016)

    XYZZY Awards     http://xyzzyawards.org/ (last awarded for 2018)

    New Year's Minicomp     https://intfiction.org/t/eleventh-hour-new-years-minicomp/12848 (last ran in 2017)

    Game Chef      (no archive or website anywhere! I just thought I should mention this great little competition that appears to have completely vanished)

No Turning Back Now

This month I am creating a game for NaGaDeMon 2016. You can follow along from the beginning. 

In order to familiarize myself with Texture, I played a few of the fictions available in the Texture Public Library. Go on, try Predictions for a Strip Mall Psychic or Awake, it shan't take long and you'll enjoy it (and things I say now about Texture's behaviour will make sense!).

The way that the text on each page of a Texture fiction shifts and expands when you interact with it is interesting. I think it lends itself to stories of contemplation, reconsideration, and realization. Using one of the few verbs you can choose from on one of the highlighted words usually adds more text or recontextualizes what's already there, possibly adding a new verb unless it ends the scene and prompts you to go to the next page.

It's very much about navigating through the text by focusing in on individual words and how you can understand and interact with them. There's some tricksy things you can try (check out the Texture experiment "Put the Fruit in the Bowl" where your selection of verbs is recast as items in your inventory), but the slow and deliberate display of word changes and red highlighting really puts the focus on the text and your understanding of it. The natural game is to try a verb and then see how you've changed the meaning of the text.

I think that this could work well for a game involving investigation. Inspecting clues, or the words that people say, or trying to understand how certain elements fit together... To incorporate this into my graveyard game I have a vague idea that the POV character reads obituaries of the recently deceased and investigates further details to see if that person fits the Pattern of whatever blood ritual they're conducting. Perhaps I'll need to play a Texture fiction with some investigation in it for another creative spark (though I feel like the answering of search terms in Awake gave a pretty good approximation).

Googling around for more ideas on Texture, I found a couple of articles by Emily Short.  This one on RPS gives a pretty good rundown of how Texture works and what it might be good at, but it was while reading her interview with Jim Munroe that I had a sudden brainwave. They talk about significant choices, and pulling the player in different directions, and early choices leading you down fairly different branches.

In my game I've been thinking that the PC is digging up corpses after researching them, collecting blood to draw some complex pattern. I think it will be important to force the player to choose whether or not to kill someone, rather than continue digging up corpses. I have an image of the POV character suddenly realizing that some other character Fits Into The Pattern, and not only that but obtaining their blood would end this ritual and free the PC from their obsession. A genuine branch in the narrative, depending on the choice made--(and perhaps a rewarding third way if the player avoids temptation or an obvious path).

The contemplative nature of Texture will encourage a suitable narrative. I like the idea of the PC thinking about and realizing recently deceased people connect to each other (and perhaps the small town setting? not sure), and then having the player come along for the ride when the PC realizes they might be capable of murder--and having the player decide only whether they go through with it or not. I suspect I'll need to approach this with some care. And if I can't get the feel right, I might need to put aside Texture for a different system that's a little gamier (like ChoiceScript perhaps). But yeah, let's see if I can get the player to want to kill someone to complete a blood ritual!

Next: some specific design details, or playing a Texture fiction involving more explicit investigation for inspiration.

All Souls Day

This month I am creating a game for NaGaDeMon 2016. You can follow along from the beginning.

Before I dive right into writing a game in Texture, I want to get a sense of the setting, characters, and plot I could work with. A lot of my creative energy recently has gone into preparing material for the Xenoarchaeology game I want to run, and I don't want to use that for this game project.

My favourite tools to inspire some creative thinking are random generators, and one I like in particular when thinking about setting is Instant Game by Mike and Kyle Jones. The pdf was available for free from the Animalball games website, but that has gone offline and now it's available from archive.org. It's a rules-lite game system that comes with an incredibly useful set of d100 tables with titles like "Tones" and "Things" and "Other Things".

To generate an instant setting, you roll on the tables {Setting, Tone, Thing, Thing}, which I will do below and see what ideas the results spark.

Setting: 19--Contemporary
Tone: 77--Realistic
Thing: 11--Blood
Thing: 55--Mysterious Energy

Well, I'll admit that initially I'm a little disappointed... but there's definitely some interesting stuff here. The first three elements immediately put me in mind of police procedurals, and serial killers, of crime or horror, involving some kind of investigation. Maybe I could twist that: perhaps this takes place in a blood bank, or a hospital, or a slaughterhouse. Maybe it's somewhere that involves blood in a less direct way: out hunting in the woods, or in miniature, inside a body.

The final element of mysterious energy adds a nice feel. Perhaps the police are investigating cultists who might be conjuring something up. Perhaps the blood is part of or being affected by some energetic phenomenon (like mutations, or superhero origins). Maybe the blood is the source of magic, in some ritualistic way, or maybe in a sort of druidic/natural/life-force way.

This is a rich vein (ha!) to draw from, but maybe another roll on the tables will help narrow it down. I'll roll on the Descriptor table to modify one of the Things, and on the Places table to narrow down the setting.

Descriptor: 31--Extravagant
Place: 36--Graveyard

Crime and horror it is, then. Lets say that "extravagant" goes with "blood". Some kind of intricate pattern of blood is necessary for a ritual, and it all culminates in the graveyard?  What if it -begins- in the graveyard? What if the player is not investigating a cultist/murderer, but actually IS one? Maybe a reluctant one who doesn't want to kill anyone, so instead digs up graves to acquire the necessary blood.

Alright! We have a game. The player chooses bodies to dig up in a graveyard in order to collect blood which must be arranged in a certain way to accomplish a ritual involving mysterious energy. Darker than I thought I'd go, but I suppose today IS All Souls Day...

Next steps: play some games in Texture to familiarize myself with it, and flesh out this graveyard game by adding some plot details and obstacles.

A Poor Education?

Today's #RPGaDay2016 prompt is: what film/novel would you be most surprised a friend had not seen/read?

The only possible answer is Star Wars, because at this point I would wonder how they managed to avoid it. It's freakin' everywhere! It takes a special kind of bloody-mindedness to avoid a popular, long-running franchise that also has the marketing juggernaut of Disney behind it.

While I would be surprised, I wouldn't necessarily care all that much or be offended or anything like that. I mean, you do you. However, when people are inexplicably proud of avoiding something just because it's popular--that's annoying. Like all those memes on facebook that go "I haven't seen a single episode of Game of Thrones. HATERS GONNA HATE" or "Pokemon Go? I am an adult with a job and life!" Ok good for you I guess. Well done on avoiding a cultural touchstone? It's one thing to just not have got round to it or have no interest at all, but actively avoiding and then bragging is different.

By the way, here's some things that -I- haven't seen that might surprise my friends:

Jaws
Rocky 
Pulp Fiction
Reservoir Dogs
Fargo
Fight Club
anything by H.P. Lovecraft
the Exorcist
Stephen King's fiction
the Shining
Neil Gaiman's fiction
the Lord of the Rings books
the Earthsea trilogy
the Game of Thrones books
Frankenstein
Isaac Asimov's fiction
Dune
Ender's Game
Alien
either of the good Terminators
2001: A Space Oddysey (neither the film nor the book)
and I tried Neuromancer but stopped because I didn't like it.

I used to feel ashamed of not having experienced these things (thanks mostly to assholes that post memes like the ones I mention above). But really, who cares? I know the plot and tropes and cool scenes from many of them, thanks to the roiling vortex of pop culture knowledge and shared references. Hell, I even -own- a lot of these and just haven't got round to them. There's SO MUCH good stuff out there that, actually, I'd be surprised if someone HAD seen every piece of culture available. There's always more to discover!

Ancient Soviet Ruins

Today's #RPGaDay2016 prompt is: most unusual circumstance or location you've played in.

Boy, I have played in a wide variety of very boring places. The university dorm common room, my dining room, my friends' dining rooms, and my living room (which also includes playing online).

Literally the only time I have not played in one of those situations was around this time last year. There was an extended family gathering in Poland to celebrate my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. We all went to a "health resort", which turned out to actually be a former soviet holiday camp. The architecture and food quality had not changed since the 60s. It was infested with wasps. We had to buy toilet paper and soap from the front desk. The woods outside contained an exercise trail that weaved through impressive old bunker-looking things:

My partner improvised a game for me in the lobby. Pretending to explore ancient Mayan ruins was a nice respite from this bizarre place. Though, it was on a pretty lake and the sun looked good reflected on the water. I should set a game there.

Improving the Geekosystem

Today's #RPGaDay2016 prompt is: what hobbies go well with RPGs?

Role-playing has always existed in a geeky ecosystem (a geekosystem?) alongside sci-fi, horror, and fantasy novels, comics and movies, as well as board games and video games. These are obviously great interests and hobbies for role players--not just because they're fun but I think specifically because they provide shared background knowledge. It's easy to underestimate the importance of making sure everyone at the table understands the genre conventions of the games we play. When your group all have a passing familiarity with Tolkeinesque fantasy, that's a lot of groundwork already done!

There are some less common hobbies that dovetail with roleplaying in a very satisfying way. For rules-lite or even GM-less games, I can't express enough how good it is to have a feel for improv. More and more I'm seeing crossover of improv comedy and theatre with RPGs, from the structured explorations of Nordic LARP to the celebrity/comedian players in show games like Tabletop and Harmonquest.

Now, these might be a little esoteric, but the basic principles of improv are so obviously applicable to role-playing in general I'm kind of surprised it's taken this long for people to realize it and start formalizing it in games (like Fiasco) and GMing advice (like in Graham Walmsley's excellent Play Unsafe).

Even a totally basic memory for the phrase "yes and" can, I believe, improve and transform your play. If there's one thing that trying improv as a hobby can give to roleplaying, it's this: accept what is offered, and build on it. Players will try to do things or make assumptions about the world. Roll with it! Make it hard and make it interesting, but accept it. The same goes for the players responding to the GM. Accept the GM's world as presented, and add to it. We don't have to contradict anything already established as important--play within the constraints you've set up yourselves! Improv as a hobby is great for anyone at the table--not just the GM.

The Shard of Mirabilis

Today's #RPGaDay2016 prompt is: share one of your best Worst Luck stories.

After joining the gaming group I had stumbled upon in university, I rolled up my very first PC. He was a monk named Den, made using some options from Oriental Adventures and trying to use 3rd ed tripping rules effectively. Essentially Den could quickly move around the battlefield, tripping multiple enemies to give bonuses to the other PCs and occupying the big bad while still easily avoiding wizard AOEs with lovely monk reflexes.

Or at least, that's what he was intended to do. See, I have this transparent purple d20 that must be cursed. Whenever the roll mattered, I don't think it ever got above 13, and I swear it was weighted towards a critical fail. Den would often trip himself instead of the enemies, and most of his multiple attacks were wasted by rotten luck. This happened often enough that the DM and I came up with plot to explain it. Den's parents were killed when he was young (shut up he was my first PC) by shapeshifting beings who live on the other side of mirrors. His father's final attack before death shattered the mirror-man Mirabilis, who cursed Den and his father's whole family line. Breaking a mirror gives you bad luck; breaking a mirror-man is far worse. Den carried a shard of Mirabilis on a cord around his neck, which once per day let him re-reroll a d20--so long as it landed on 13 or under. The rest of the time, he just had to live with bad luck.

A Game of Drones

Today's #RPGaDay2016 prompt is: what fictional character would best fit in your group?

I would love to play some games with Gurgeh from The Player of Games. Can you imagine adapting Azad into Kingdom, or Pendragon? Also, I could pick his brain about game mechanics and the nature of games in general. But I think most interesting would be getting his take on story games and things like Norwegian-style LARP and other things without necessary opposition. Would he even think roleplaying is a game?

Unfortunately I don't think the rest of the people I game with would be quite into that. So the correct answer is Abed from Community. No explanation needed!

A Midsummer Knight's Dream

Today's #RPGaDay2016 prompt is: what historical figure would you like in your group; for what game?

Shakespeare and his acting buddies, for a game of Fiasco, because I think they'd get it.

Machiavelli, for a game of Kingdom, because OBVIOUSLY.

And Tolkein, for a game of D&D, as the GM of his homebrew setting.

Asteroid Mining

BrigadeCon is hosting the RPGaDay daily prompt throughout August, and today marks the beginning of the third week! Here's the full list of questions, if you'd like to join in:

Today's #RPGaDay2016 prompt is: Your best source of inspiration for RPGs.

I'm not sure I can narrow it down to just one source. Anything and everything sparks ideas for settings or creatures or whatever. The source is the entirety of experienced art and life that bubbles around in my brain. I'm not sure I'd want to prioritize, say, books over TV shows, or wikipedia over a half-inaccurate childhood memory.

That said, I find that sources vary in their ability to inspire ideas versus being useful research sources. I am -heavily- influenced by pop culture, especially TV and comics, when it comes to the ideas that just pop into my head when I'm improvising. When I'm prepping for a session, however, I lean more on genre fiction and non-fiction reference (like pop history books or wikipedia or the world-building stackexchange).

Gathering sources and experiencing culture widely is something I deliberately do, though. Ideas don't come from a vacuum--you need a solid bedrock to excavate from. When I'm working on something I like to come up with my own Appendix N, as much for myself as to communicate the genre conventions to my players.

Here's one I've been working on for Xenoarchaeology, a hard sci-fi, no FTL, near solar-system setting centred around a jumpgate and space-Earth tensions:

• the Belters in Larry Niven's Known Space books
• Firefly
• Classic Traveller
• Cowboy Bebop
• Stephen Baxter's Manifold: Time
• Elite and Freelancer
• Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy
• Lucasarts game The Dig
• Ben Bova's Grand Tour and Asteroid Wars books
• the film Moon
• Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space
• EVE Online
• the Planetes anime and manga
• the Mars One project
• asteroid mining companies Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries
• the first Alien movie
• Stargate

I haven't even read/seen some of these, but the concepts and imagery are all I really need to come up with ideas.