There are many (and intersecting) groups of characters in the game,
trying to accomplish many things. Here are the important groups and
goals:
- Saving Themselves - Everyone is trying to do this. They
each, of course, have their own priorities amont the methods of doing
so. This is the most general and public plot of the game, and is the
reason for the 6-hour time-limit.
- Choosing Colonial Leaders - The Captain of the ship will
need to chooose people to be put in charge of the various aspects of
the colonization efforts (assuming they safely reach a planet to
colonize). He'll let people prove themselves worthy of the various
positions of authority, and most Golgafrinchans (especially members of
SWORD and the Illuminati) will want to convince him to choose them.
- SWORD - The Secret World Order for Retribution and
Destruction. They have planted agents aboard to attempt to become the
rulers of the new Golgafrinchan colony. To aid in this, they need to
ensure that they come out looking as competent as possible in the
coming crisis and are chosen as leaders by the Captain, and finish
building their brainwashing device (they couldn't stash it onboard
whole, but stashed appropriate pieces). If they complete it they have
the chance to use it in game to brainwash a few key people.
- The Illuminati - Another group trying to rule the new
colony, independant of SWORD and with know knowledge between the
groups. They need to do essentially the same thing, and are building
their orbital mind-control lasers, which need to be jetisonned from
the ship through an airlock before landing in order to be in an
appropriate orbit.
- SHIELD - Opposition for SWORD and the Illuminati. They
want to ensure peace, freedom, and democracy on the new planet, and
suspect that someone might be trying to take over. They're not
totally sure who, though. They're trying to build a truthing device
(enabling them to ask characters questions which must be answered
truthfully) in order to find the conspiracies.
- The Mice - Two mice (Pinky and The Brain) are aboard. Mice
are the protrusion into our dimension of hyperintelligent
pandimensional beings. These two mice are riding in robotic suits
which allow them to pose as humans. They can leave their suits, and
have appropriate advantages and disadvantages when doing so (for
instance, they can crawl through air vents to get around a locked door
when out of their suits, but aren't very able to defend themselves).
The suits are also a source of RTIs. The Earth is actually a vast
computer of their construction, so they want to make sure the
Golgafrinchans don't land there and screw it up.
- Finding the Question - The eventual goal of the Earth
computer was to find the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and
Everything (the answer of which was determined by an earlier computer
to be 42). The two survivors of the Earth, as well as their friends,
are very interested in finding out what it is. The Mice will also
have the chance to discover in-game that Arthur and Trillian are
last-generation products of the Earth, and can try to obtain the
question. The method obvious to the Mice will be to obtain Arthur
and/or Trillian's brain (diced) to determine the answer, but violent
death would make the brains useless, and Arthur and Trillian are
unlikely to sacrifice themselves for the cause. Marvin can read the
question in Arthur's or Trillian's brainwave patterns if someone
actually convinces him to try, but it will be the incorrect question
("What do you get when you multiply six by nine?") because Arthur is a
result of an Earth history screwed up by the Golgafrinchans (which
Marvin could also determine by looking at Arthur's DNA). The true
question (though only parts of it, since the Earth's work was not
complete when Arthur and Trillian left) can only be obtained after the
Ark has been diverted from Earth, at which point the timestream
adjusts and Arthur and Trillian are no longer related to the
Golgafrinchans (as reflected by their Race stat). What the question
is, and the results of learning it are yet to be determined, and will
likely be invented by the GMs on the fly if it should happen. The
book speculates that if ever both question and answer are known then
the universe will immediately dissapear and be replaced by something
even more bizzarely inexplicable, which might perhaps be mechanicked
as it was in an old and very different Assassin game by having players
stand in a circle, hand their character sheets to the left, their
items and abilities to the right, and then begin playing where they
left off. More likely, though, is that the question obtainable from
Arthur and Trillian is not complete, and thus would not have that
effect even if it were discovered.
- The Conspiracy of Confusion - There are many people in the
universe who have a great vested interest in continued doubt and
uncertainty, including philosophers, psychiatrists, and the editors of
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, all of which would be out of a
job if the meaning of life were ever truly known. These people have
thus conspired to ensure that the mice fail to ever truly discover the
meaning of life. Of course, being greedy, they tend to be slow about
doing so when they can gain financial advantage by the mice's efforts
(such as getting paid by talkshows to predict what question the mice's
computer will eventually produce). They have come back here to ensure
that the Golgafrinchans _do_ screw up the operation of the Earth
computer and replace the human race. This can be accomplished only if
the Golgafrinchans land safely on the Earth (a crash-landing will
still screw up the computer, but will do so in a way that will be
noticeable too early, thus allowing the computer to be reset before
wasting its full 10-million year run time). If/when they discover
that there are mice present, they'll want to ensure that those mice
can't report that the computer has been fouled up (this could be done
by killing them, brainwashing them, etc).
- Finding the Ruler of the Universe - Since nobody who wants
to rule the universe should be allowed to do so, the actual ruler of
the universe is an isolated individual who lives in a small house with
his cat, and is occasionally visited by people who ask him
"hypothetical" questions which determine the rulership of the
universe. Several people have conspired to discover and speak to this
person. They need the Heart of Gold to be under their control in
order to get past the defenses on the planet where the Ruler lives,
which is why Zaphod Beeblebrox became president of the galaxy (with
his mind wiped) in order to steal it.
- Becoming Immortal - Wowbagger is immortal due to an
accident (involving a particle accelerator, a liquid lunch, and a pair
of rubber bands) which he has learned how to duplicate. He wishes to
choose someone as a companion to make immortal. Someone who got
access to him and/or his computer might be able to duplicate the
process and become immortal themselves. Nobody knows he's coming
pregame, but they will have memory-packets for him, and he is
mentioned in the Guide. Carrying out the process requires, as well as
general engineering, a knowledge of physics. Rather than being built
as an independant device, the immortality process can use the Ark's
main engines as its casing (they provide the particle accelerator).
- Reuniting the Friends - The main characters from the book
have been split into two groups, and each is quite worried about the
other. They wish to be reunited and to leave safely together. Their
long and twisted history as described in the books is summarized here.
Andrew Twyman,
kurgan@mit.edu
Interactive and Non-Linear Narrative,
Spring 1998