54 réponses à ce sujet

[Htorgrim]

Would love to see a PnP game for Mass Effect. The universe is just great!

I agree not to use D20. Best would be to come up with their own system.

[SidNitzerglobin]

Is GURPS still around?



Seems like it would be pretty easy to make an ME source book for that system. Hell, pretty much anything could be an easy port into that system, that was why I liked it I guess. A little cumbersome at times, but allowed for all kinds of possibilities.

[Shadowvalor]

 The thing with this type of thing is that nobody is going to agree with the design choices someone else makes. It seems everyone is saying that they don't want d20, but there are so many different opinions being thrown around you can't say "this is the best way to go about it" unless there is an official game licensed, and then it's just the best because of it's status as official.
Honestly, I think that having several different choices would be good for a community of tabletop gamers, but it also runs the risk of becoming fragmented while everyone wants something different out of the game. Some people like micromanaging equipment, or the minutia complexity of number crunching. Personally I like the balanced combat system where need to choose between different trade-offs with snap-lethal combat where it's more about a tactical advantage rather than having bigger numbers.
If Moteh, Munkerz (social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/103/index/1114103), or myself make a Mass Effect tabletop game there are going to be good and bad points to each of them and in theory each would have their own group of players.

In summation: go Moteh!

[StormbringerGT]

We got one up and running for over 2 years now! It follows lore, but not the same System they used in the first one. It takes place before and during the events of the first game.

One of the cooler features we have is expanded on in the first game and thats mods. Which we are still tweaking, but we had someone playing a Salarian Assassin and his rifle was so modded out, it wasnt even funny. The damage from that thing was sick and it was very resistant to tech overheats. Still its a cool and fun system and generally once you find a good gun, with carefully modding and upgrading you keep it for a good long time.

We are currently working through space combat rules, dogfighting etc. Especially since there is little to no information about fighter class ships in mass effect. They mention fighters a few times but thats it.

Anyway if anyone wants our source material I can load it up. Its based off the d20 system. When we started it was very complex and built from the ground up. it was a chore to do simple combat and the rules were very unwieldy but we started this 2 years after the first mass effect.

Its evolved into the d20 system we use today. It works very well and the game flow moves along very nicely. We have a ton of classes and skills outside of what mass effect 1 and 2 offers, but they fit within the theme and lore of the game. Anyway I'd be happy to compile what we have and put it up for general use if enough people are interested.

Modifié par StormbringerGT, 11 février 2010 - 12:26 .

[moteh]

i wouldn't mind giving it a try

[Htorgrim]

Upload away Storm, would love to see how it runs.

[Ieldra]

moteh wrote...
It's either that or use GURPS

What's wrong about using GURPS? I do that all the time and it's very nice not having to switch game systems when switching worlds or genres. Having said that, a GURPS sourcebook for the Mass Effect universe would be nice. The obstacles on getting things like this published have become noticeably lower since SJG started electronic publication of many things that wouldn't be profitable on paper. Just have a look at e23 over there at sjgames.com.

Modifié par Ieldra2, 11 février 2010 - 10:48 .

[Atti Ito]

StormbringerGT wrote...

We got one up and running for over 2 years now! It follows lore, but not the same System they used in the first one. It takes place before and during the events of the first game.

One of the cooler features we have is expanded on in the first game and thats mods. Which we are still tweaking, but we had someone playing a Salarian Assassin and his rifle was so modded out, it wasnt even funny. The damage from that thing was sick and it was very resistant to tech overheats. Still its a cool and fun system and generally once you find a good gun, with carefully modding and upgrading you keep it for a good long time.

We are currently working through space combat rules, dogfighting etc. Especially since there is little to no information about fighter class ships in mass effect. They mention fighters a few times but thats it.

Anyway if anyone wants our source material I can load it up. Its based off the d20 system. When we started it was very complex and built from the ground up. it was a chore to do simple combat and the rules were very unwieldy but we started this 2 years after the first mass effect.

Its evolved into the d20 system we use today. It works very well and the game flow moves along very nicely. We have a ton of classes and skills outside of what mass effect 1 and 2 offers, but they fit within the theme and lore of the game. Anyway I'd be happy to compile what we have and put it up for general use if enough people are interested.

Go for it. Sounds rather interesting to me.

[Aidunno]

I'd also go with GURPS (Generic Universal RolePlaying System). Still one of the most flexible systems I've ever come across. Damn.. now you have me thinking where my old sourcebooks are.. moved twice including country since I first brought them...

One of the things I always hated about roleplaying was the amount of systems you needed to "learn" for different settings. Gurps generally eliminated that.

Modifié par Aidunno, 11 février 2010 - 11:44 .

[Funker Shepard]

I'd be interested in seeing an official Mass Effect PnP RPG done by a good design house. I've mentioned it before, I'd love to see a ME RPG done by the Crafty Games guys, but I guess the fact that their current in-house system relies on the OGL would make EA a bit leery of diluting their IP (from what I know of the OGL, this shouldn't be a problem, but from what I know of corporate counsel, it would be). Crafty and Margaret Weis Press do have some amazingly talented writers and experience with licensed IPs, though.

That said, I want it to be done by people with extensive experience in the industry, as the Dragon Age RPG was/is, not a first-timer on a "I want to show you my system" trip. If I want fan rules in a fan system, I can do that myself

Modifié par Funker Shepard, 11 février 2010 - 01:37 .

[Kittykat1984]

Selvec_Darkon wrote...

Given troubles between Hasbro and Atari, they would probably have to make a completely new system to use if they did, no D20. Bioware made games for DnD under the Atari publishing licence, so bad blood would probably seep over.

actually last i checked Hasbro had bought Wizards of the Coast....not sure if its accurate or not though.

[gohan08]

SirVincealot wrote...

Drake_2009 wrote...

Oh those like Dungeons and Dragons...nerdy much.

"Hi, Kettle? This is Pot: you're black!"

@ topic: anyone play Paizo's PATHFINDER? I suspect the rules there may be flexible enough to allow a wide variety of skills on top of the combat mechanics.

 Haven't played it, however . . .

SirV

I've been playing Pathfinder for about a year now off and on. It's really just D&D 3.75, tweaking some of the mechanics, feats, and classes. So it's pretty much geared for fantasy, not sci fi. For example, there's no melee fighting in MA2 (except in cutscenes) but Pathfinder still has the rules about attacks of opportunity which you can't make if you're making ranged attacks. Pathfinder also mashed the various rules for bull rushes, tripping, disarming, etc. into 2 numbers - a combat maneuver bonus and a combat manuever defense.

I agree more with the joke suggestion of using one of the Star Wars systems. I haven't played the Saga version; I enjoyed the wounds/vitality system (you had a wounds value dependant on your CON score, and your vitality score increased by level like hit points and represented more of your skill in avoiding damage or rolling with punches). I'm currently in a Babylon 5 game but combat's pretty lethal - it's mostly like 3.5 with bull rushes, tripping, ranged attacks drawing attacks of opportunity, but your initial hit points and HP per level is very low.

For me, a pnp version of the ME universe would have to incorporate some sort of recharge ability for your biotics or combat skills (concussive shot). I don't know about the 4E route of at-wills/encounter powers. Perhaps something that involved a die roll like the ones monsters use to recharge spells/breath weapons. Maybe to replicate the skill points put towards unlocking your skills/biotics, you could have feats that reduced the recharge time like from a d8 to a d6 to a d4.

[Eludajae]

moteh wrote...

Just talked this over with the gf and we are seriously considering witting down and making a full core book for a PnP Mass Effect RPG... going to take a lot of work.

If you do share with us here  

[Meglivorn]

I know this is a rather old topic but some thoughts:

I don'T think the d20 (or the SW: Saga edition, which is essentially an early 4th edition) would be good. I know in the ME games we have classes but those are not too well definied (like the "turian rebel" or "biotic convict"). A skill based, non-class system fits the sci.fi settings more anyway.

GURPS is a good idea, it is very much still around. And even not impossible to make a standalone Mass Effect sourcebook (vote on it right now).

Another idea: I picked up the FATE system (Spirit of the Century, Starblazer) again and amazing how well it can fit on cetrain parts of the game (like the "classes" I mentioned before or the "characters with fate" aspect). Worth to think about it.

One other thging.. I'd not recommend % system. Proved that hard to handle and work with it on the long run. And tends to derive in a d10 only wwith bigger numbers. Also hard to balance that 1-5 step really matter but the game won't be ruled by the dice.
A 3d6 can do in all situation, have enough range to make a difference but not too much to be totally random.
And not to forget easyer to calculate at 4 in the morning on a long game session

Modifié par Meglivorn, 09 mars 2010 - 01:51 .

[Bill Hooks]

I think the current edition of Traveller would be a good fit in a couple of ways: generally, in the fact that it's an interstellar sci-fi game already; and specifically, in that the "career path" type of character creation is reminiscent of the decisions you make to create a character in the ME video games. The biggest downside would be that if you wanted to specifically recreate the videogame classes (Adept, Sentinel, Vanguard, etc.) you might be looking at a lot of work. You'd also need to add a rule for regenerating shields/barriers and just in general do a lot of setting-specific tweaking.

[NCLanceman]

I don't suppose anyone around here remembers Alternity, do they? I have a few things written up for the system, but i'm not sure if anyone could offer any commentary since it went out of production before D&D 3.0 came out. It is, however, a solid Sci-Fi system which shouldn't be much of a problem, for the most part.

[TheAngriestAngel242]

As a stop-gap my friends and I are using the cyberpunk 2020 ruleset with homebrewed biotic rules. Working well so far.

[moteh]

If anyone has ever played SLA Industries (awesome game btw, it's just one of those you can't know too much about if you are going to play it, ruins the fun) anyway, the system it uses seems to mesh very well with Mass Effect, the socond one especially. That is the base I am going off of when doing my set up for the ME RPG we're going to run.

[Twisteddm]

NCLanceman wrote...

I don't suppose anyone around here remembers Alternity, do they? I have a few things written up for the system, but i'm not sure if anyone could offer any commentary since it went out of production before D&D 3.0 came out. It is, however, a solid Sci-Fi system which shouldn't be much of a problem, for the most part.

Haha, yes! I got in to Alternity in a big way when it first came out, especially the Star*Drive universe. I ran a game for my old gaming group for about 4 years before we moved back to DnD. Now I'm going to have to dig out the sourcebooks and get all nostalgic and misty-eyed. 

Not too sure about the rules system though.... some aspects of it were brilliant for space opera and/or gritty sci-fi but in essence it really was just an evolutionary step towards DnD 3.0.

The funny thing is, I seem to remember Fallout 2 having a .PDF on the disc that was the Alternity Fast-play rules, for some strange reason.

[NCLanceman]

Twisteddm wrote...

Haha, yes! I got in to Alternity in a big way when it first came out, especially the Star*Drive universe. I ran a game for my old gaming group for about 4 years before we moved back to DnD. Now I'm going to have to dig out the sourcebooks and get all nostalgic and misty-eyed. 

Not too sure about the rules system though.... some aspects of it were brilliant for space opera and/or gritty sci-fi but in essence it really was just an evolutionary step towards DnD 3.0.

The funny thing is, I seem to remember Fallout 2 having a .PDF on the disc that was the Alternity Fast-play rules, for some strange reason.

I think we've got a winner here, boss.

I would suggest d20 Modern, but so much of the content in d20 Future is just poorly designed and the core system is in need of houserules that it's just painful to think about. Star Wars SAGA Edition, I think, wouldn't be a half bad fit, but there's already a massive thread on the Wizards of the Coast boards for it that I don't really think I could add much.

Besides, so much of the content for d20 Modern (especially almost all of the Menace Manual) came from Alternity, that it seems worth doing.

[Ahglock]

NCLanceman wrote...

I don't suppose anyone around here remembers Alternity, do they? I have a few things written up for the system, but i'm not sure if anyone could offer any commentary since it went out of production before D&D 3.0 came out. It is, however, a solid Sci-Fi system which shouldn't be much of a problem, for the most part.

Alternity was an awesome game.  Its been years since I looked at it though.  I know its stored in a box somewhere, and once I have a nig enough place I might even find it.

The 2 systems I'd normally recomend are Gurps and Hero.  Both are Generic systems which are speciifically designed so you can tailor make any setting into it.  Now I generally think games with specific rules for there setting work better, but if you are going to do it on your own and not wait for a professional team to make it gurps and hero give you awesome frameworks to work form. 

If Iwere going to try and mod an exisitng system so it resembled ME and not the base system I'd look towards shadowrun.   Its got guns, magic, and hacking, I think its a solid fit.  Heck you can even reskin some of the races to fit the ME races. 

[Lord Coake]

D20 Future pretty much has Mass Effect covered. Just think up some racial mods, and switch out "psitech" for "biotics."

Or, though I havne't had a chance to really play it, the Framewerk system for Cthulhutech would handle Mass Effect rather well.  It's already geared for both high-tech and "biotic" forces.

Hel, I reccomend the setting itself, too.  Check it out, it's awesome.

Modifié par Lord Coake, 16 mars 2010 - 06:33 .

[Desper_Taferro]

In my group we are playing it with good old Masterbook rules from WEG. The cards make combat really cinematic, shifting initiatives and introducing opportunities (like explosive barrels or so) and setbacks (like overheating). And the system also easily handles armors, shields and biotics. Not the best for spaceship combat but we don't focus on it so no problem...

[vehzeel]

GURPS probably works great.

[nikki191]

Desper_Taferro wrote...

In my group we are playing it with good old Masterbook rules from WEG. The cards make combat really cinematic, shifting initiatives and introducing opportunities (like explosive barrels or so) and setbacks (like overheating). And the system also easily handles armors, shields and biotics. Not the best for spaceship combat but we don't focus on it so no problem...

thats true its been a while since i looked at that system.. it could cover it well.. gurps would work well as others have suggested