Roleplaying Sci-fi

[Ladysekhmet]

I'm just curious if anybody here role-plays. I've seen the posts by the Battletech fans, anybody play anything else? What's the best and worst systems?

[IDMR]

Off-topic. Thread moved.

[Eleas]

"I'm just curious if anybody here role-plays. I've seen the posts by the Battletech fans, anybody play anything else? What's the best and worst systems?"

I've been at it for a few years. The sci fi games I've played are WEG Star Wars, NeoTech, Mutant, d20 Star Wars, Palladium RIFTS, Shadowrun, GURPS and FUDGE (ok, I've just looked at the last two).

Best systems:
* WEG Star Wars. Fast, infinitely customizable, and fun. If it doesn't work, change it on the fly, and two minutes later it will.
* NeoTech. Oh how fun it is to be a psychotic with big guns.
* FUDGE. Also one of my favourites. I'm thinking of adapting it to my new RPG world. The only system I know of where you can play a dragon as easily as a human. You can do battle between a pixie and a rhino, and it will be handled as easily as any other fight. It's absolutely lovely.

Worst:
* Mutant. Just guns and bunkers. The system is a bit too old too, and it shows. There is a preponderance of violent professions and the usual "death by supplement" problem.
* d20 Star Wars. Awful, awful, awful. The new Revised Version has reportedly fixed some of the worst problems, but it's still a d20 system, with all its inherent and massive problems. Megamulticlassing abounds. Bloated corpse. Avoid.
* GURPS. A game that tries to be everything and only ends up being mediocre. Too bland, too gray, too boring.

[The Yosemite Bear]

hmmm:

Does: Chainmail, D&D, AD&D 1st ed, Robotech, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and other Strangeness, Boothill, Call of Cthutlu, Stormbringer, Lesbian Biker Nun's of the Post Apacalypse, Bushido, Space Opera, Starfrontiers, It Came from the Late, Late, Late, Late, Late, late, late, late, late, late, late, late show..., Autoduelist, Mechwarrior, Arduin Adventures, Starwars the RPG (WEG), (My own Diceless Spy/Superhero creation), Paranioa, Twilight 2000, Dr. Who, Star Trek, Aftermath, Warhammer Fantasy Role Play, Lord of the Rings, Champions, AD&D 2nd Edition, Vampire the Masquerade, Werewolf the Apacalypse, Amber Diceless Roleplay, Legend of the Five Rings, Starwars (WOTC), and AD&D 3rd Edition

plus most computer RPGs

Count as a serious RPG player?

[Ladysekhmet]

Ah, always glad to see support for the WEG Star Wars, I'm really disturbed by the way WoTC is homogenizing everything into D20 system. Probability wise it is much poorer, and I did not like how they just took an existing game, Legend of the Five Rings, (one of my favorites ) tacked it onto D&D as Oriental Adventures, and quit putting out stuff for the original (much better) system.

[SirNitram]

WEG Starwars RPG, my personal favorite for sci-fi roleplaying. Sure, it gets a lot of points wrong, but who cares? It's that easy to change.

My only beef is the way space combat is done, but aw well. Again, easily customizable.

And Jedi are fuckin' badass in that thing.

[Eleas]

"Ah, always glad to see support for the WEG Star Wars, I'm really disturbed by the way WoTC is homogenizing everything into D20 system."

Support for WEG Star Wars is not dead. I and a friend just finished a couple of rules that were lacking in the original game. If anyone is interested in a slimmer, faster and more faithful system for Force powers, just give me a shout, okay? Be warned that it's still in its beta stage, however...

"Probability wise it is much poorer, and I did not like how they just took an existing game, Legend of the Five Rings, (one of my favorites ) tacked it onto D&D as Oriental Adventures, and quit putting out stuff for the original (much better) system."

It's frequently that way, which is kinda bad. Universal systems tend to become drab even if they're effective, and the d20 System is not even a very good system. It's somewhat fast once you've mastered the rules and memorized where in the rulebook you have to look for table x, but there ends any benefit of the system.

Contrary to what d20 freaks say, I found WOTC SW hard to get into. A friend of mine laid forth the theory that American RPGers emphasise the game aspect of RPGs, and need to go by the rules, and therefore, the rules were made to be ironclad and cheat-proof so no one could get an unfair advantage. I dunno if that's true, but the system frequently ceases to work once you want to go outside the box.

Say, for example, that you want to host a campaign where the characters are Jedi Masters. In WEG SW, you'd just allocate a few more dice and buy additional Force Powers. In WOTC SW, you have to raise one level, jot down the feats and additional equipment that just magically spring into being, look if you're elgible for a Prestige Class, add attack bonus, defense bonus, reflex bonus, roll extra vitality. Then you raise another level...

Another problem is that the rules are interlocked. Many feats are granted by classes or other feats, many rules are suspended by others. This means that a changed rule inadvertently can bring all of this down like a house of cards. If you want to create a new character class, get ready to jot down a table.

This really came back to bite WOTC on the ass when Episode II rolled out. According to their system, a character's absolute Level (that is, the sum of all their Levels) could not exceed 20. Yoda was a Jedi Councilor Level 20. Mace Windu was a Jedi Guardian Level 18.

What's the problem here? Simple. Yoda's attack bonus is significantly lower than Mace Windu's, and Yoda has the highest attack bonus allowed for his Class. This plainly ludicrous idea was, of course, soundly thrashed in Episode II. So WOTC found a solution. They created more "prestige classes", which are extra-good classes you can advance in when you're good enough to rate them. They created a Jedi Master, a Jedi Investigator, a Sith Apprentice, a Sith Acolyte, a Dark Side Marauder... a Jedi Ace... and at that point I wanted to collapse in laughter (being in a bookstore, I chose to merely smile). It was obvious to me then that WOTC were patching their sinking ship with chewing gum.

Of course, people are allowed to play WOTC SW to their heart's content. I'm not going to stop them, even though they're losing money. The new revised edition of SWRPG requires a number of books just to play as Jedi or Sith! Those who want to choose among what's seen in the movies, get ready to pay and pay again.

[Graeme Dice]

D20 (Henceforth known as D&D) works best in a pure fantasy setting, where you want your characters to be able to shrug off hits like a T-800 after a while. This doesn't work however, in a setting where the combat is supposed to be lethal.

[Stravo]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that WEG Star Wars was an awesome RPG. I remember playing for hours with my group and we all had a ball. You could create ANYTHING and it worked. Combat was smooth and fun, oddly enough not alot of RPGs are like that, it had the right balance of math/rules and just plain old excitement.

I could crank out a trilogy of stories in one night that would keep my group entertained for days. Really awesome. Only one fatal flaw in my opinion is the lightsaber combat...that needed alot of work.

[Eleas]

"D20 (Henceforth known as D&D) works best in a pure fantasy setting, where you want your characters to be able to shrug off hits like a T-800 after a while. This doesn't work however, in a setting where the combat is supposed to be lethal."

You always maintain this, Graime, but I feel I have yet to understand why anyone would want their characters to shrug off a sword thrust. How exactly does one narrate that? "Yeah, John, the kobold swings his mace and you block it neatly with your temple." Even in the new LOTR movie, the heroes take damage and bleed like hell when they're hit.

[MKSheppard]

Maybe I should dig up the old WEG 2nd Edition soucebook from a used bookstore
and figure out how to use IRC.....maybe all of us WEGers can get
together and play a SW game....

PS - It must be an imperial campaign, MUHAHAHAHHA...

[David]

Not me, but I have been tring to get into card games like Magic: The Gathering.

[SirNitram]

See, I'm wierd, I just play on things called MUSHs... The Roleplaying equivalent of a MUD. For those that don't know what either are, I don't know what to say. Like an IRC RPG with people killing you for being a twinkie?

[TrailerParkJawa]

I have not done pen and pencil role playing since my last year in high school, which was 89'. I occasionally read modules or sources on the web since then but thats about it.

The two sci-fi games I either played or collected ( some games I never played but just bought the rules to read ) was: Traveller 2300AD and Traveller.
Both were GDW games.

I liked to read the modules for 2300 because the world was 300 years after the Twillight 2000 gaming system. Traveller was far into the future and I usually played a former Scout.

As for computer roleplaying the most recent for me has been the Demo for Dungeon Siege. Its role playing light ala Diablo, but fun none the less.

I think the best system I ever played overall was Warhammer Fantasy.
Damage was brutal but the fate points gave you a chance.

[Nova Andromeda]

--I liked the original Star Wars RPG (perhaps it is the WEG everyone is referring to), but couldn't get anyone else to play it. I really like how the skills were laid out using only d6's. I also loved my friends old Robotech realm and Robotech in general. There is just something about it; I don't care how corny the English dubbed version is...
--On and entirely different topic; Ladysekhmet if you like people fawning all over you consider posting in the "Are there any chicks here" thread. The ratio is quite favorable and you will probably have willing slaves in no time...

[Pablo Sanchez]

you will probably have willing slaves

By the way ASVSers, has Raven come this way?

[Skelron]

D20 and the knocks it's been getting.

As a person who avidly plays D+D I've read a few of the knocks been aimed at the general system. (I've not seen what they have done to it for SW but...) The extra hit points don't repersent the abilty to take more damage exactly rather the abilty to role with the punches. What for a first level character may be a blow to the heart killing them, for a 15th level character is a scratch on the arm. They have ombat experiance, better honed experiance of battle situations.

As for it's lack of abilty to handle above 20th level without special rules/Prestage classes, thats the whole point of Prestige classes! It repersents how a person will specialise in their lives, how a particular goal becomes more important than the general, well... If they didn't specialise with prestige classes then people would be saying, 'Well everyones the same, if your a fighter then your the same as all the other fighter's etc' (As they did when 2nd Ed AD+D came out so don't deny it...)

Now it's far from a perfect system but a few of the knocks aimed at it have been well silly, people want combat to be realistic, well lets be honest if we make a realistic everyone has the same amount of hitpoints and they are low, (To make it realistic and bloody) then NEVER EVER even with a small army face a Dragon, it'll slaughter you, unless it has it's damage dealing potential lessened, in wjhich case the criticisms would be, that creatures such as Dragons are far to weak, and it can't handle powerful creatures in it's system. The D20 System is suppossed to be about heroes who go up against powerful entities, if you didn't have such a Hit Point system their would be little difference between a Dragon and a Kobold.

As for the whole starting at say a Jedi Master is made harder because yo have to start at a higher level attack. Sorry but thats not hard at all, we have done the frequantly at Uni when what we wanted was a one off roleplay session for the night, it may take an hour to sort everyone out, getting it all noted down etc, but then your ready to play. It's always harder to start a campaign at a higher point than the rules normal level for starting it... you always have to make choices on how your character would have devolped, what choices he or she may have made, etc.

[David]

--I liked the original Star Wars RPG (perhaps it is the WEG everyone is referring to), but couldn't get anyone else to play it. I really like how the skills were laid out using only d6's. I also loved my friends old Robotech realm and Robotech in general. There is just something about it; I don't care how corny the English dubbed version is...
--On and entirely different topic; Ladysekhmet if you like people fawning all over you consider posting in the "Are there any chicks here" thread. The ratio is quite favorable and you will probably have willing slaves in no time...

[Alyrium Denryle]

I play D&D my characters are almost all elven sorcerers or wizards.

Its always cool to hgave a sorcerer with 36 charisma(im a sick freak especially when i play them like vorlons)

[The Yosemite Bear]

I haven't been able to find a party for years, the last character I played for more then two games, was an Arduin Modified Wizard that used alchemy and carved runes in objects to do all of his spells. (That much, greek fire was just too dangerous one one mage....)[/list]

[Typhonis 1]

Mekton Zeta,WEG Star Wars,BESM (Big Eyes Small Mouth),GURPS.d20 Star Wars

[Typhonis 1]

oh yeah almost forgot Final Fantasy PnPRPG found it while surfing the net

[MagicHateBall]

I play D&D 3rd, mainly because 2nd didn't let me play a Dwarven Paladin. Fear the short tank with 19 constitution and a dwarven waraxe.
The funny thing is, I have the highest charisma in the party, too... even after the modifier.

I also play a Sci-fi campaign using a Frankenstein's Monster version of White Wolf's old Storyteller system, with stuff like powered armor and space combat stiched onto the core rules.

[The Yosemite Bear]

you will probably have willing slaves

By the way ASVSers, has Raven come this way?

Nope ain't seen Hide nor feather of that partifular Bird. And you know like everyone else I have been looking. Wonder why Countess Marina hasn't shown up here either.....

[The Yosemite Bear]

1. Brian and Anthony's Transformers (RPG): Well it was worth the time to currupt two Religious Zealot's who gave us College Gamer's a hard time with their Chick Tracts and other annoying tactics, We started them with OGER, and other Wargames, and gradually Hooked them in. Their Collaberative result was a very fast playing Original System RPG, based on the old Autobots vs. Decepticons. My Chracter was literally a musem piece (An Autobot that had been woken from the arc, back in the Nineteenth Century, thus I had equipment modeled after Nicla Tessla, Wells, Verne, and other's of the Era, my Vehicle modes were Train and Steam Iron Clad.)

2. The Project: Created when I was in High School, and needing a diceless system we could play without drawing too much attention. Best way to describe it. Superpowered Black Ops. Character's were low strength for superheroes, but very deadly, My Character "Mordred" was very well known being the son of the storyline's Biggest Villian, (and a "undercover" agent for the government) raised to hate and defeat his father. Wound up becomin tragicly trapped in his father's world once he had suceeded. (What does one do with an Evil Empire once on inhairiets it by killing ones dad...)

3.