First, let's just avoid using a term like "emulate", which seems to send some folks into odd little fits.
That said, give me some recommendations for existing RPGs that could, mechanically more than anything else, do a decent job of running a game inspired by the following bits of entertainment:
The televisual:- Farscape
- Cowboy Bebop
- Doctor Who (later Tom Baker seasons & Davison's run; or any others that you prefer)
The literary:
- Iain M. Banks (Culture novels mostly, but if you want to suggest something for The Algebraist, Against a Dark Background or Feersum Endjinn, feel free.)
- Alastair Reynolds' "Revelation Space" novels.
- Brian Daley's Hobart and Alacrity novels.
- Any of Barrington J. Bayley's oddball SF novels like The Zen Gun.
Anyway, that sort of thing. Yes, I'm bored.
I'll suggest something I don't expect others to bring up. :)
Quote from: -R.;229239- Doctor Who (later Tom Baker seasons & Davison's run; or any others that you prefer)
Palladium's Beyond the Supernatural
GDW's Dark Conspiracy
We played these games with a very Doctor Who / X-Files type feel to them.
Out of the two I think I prefer the Dark Conspiracy system -- but it's been a while since I've had a look at it.
You definitely want Peter F. Hamilton on that list, and Richard Morgan. The first writes some of the finest modern soap opera, while the second is more into grim and gritty Noir futures where the rich are all immortal and buy other people's bodies if they have to go into storage for a while, that sort of thing.
Quote from: -R.;229239First, let's just avoid using a term like "emulate", which seems to send some folks into odd little fits.
That said, give me some recommendations for existing RPGs that could, mechanically more than anything else, do a decent job of running a game inspired by the following bits of entertainment:
The televisual:
- Farscape
- Cowboy Bebop
- Doctor Who (later Tom Baker seasons & Davison's run; or any others that you prefer)
The literary:
- Iain M. Banks (Culture novels mostly, but if you want to suggest something for The Algebraist, Against a Dark Background or Feersum Endjinn, feel free.)
- Alastair Reynolds' "Revelation Space" novels.
- Brian Daley's Hobart and Alacrity novels.
- Any of Barrington J. Bayley's oddball SF novels like The Zen Gun.
Anyway, that sort of thing. Yes, I'm bored.
Well, what exactly do you want the game to do? Do you want it to model the technology? Do you want it to model the biology differences, or the effects of space travel? What about the social interactions/relationships?
The thing is, I'm not sure of any of your written choices, I've never read those authors. (I'm more a Bester, Asimov, Heinlein, etc...) era SF reader. So which of those would you recommend as the best of "that" type, for me to familiarize myself with your literary choices. (I like SF, just didn't have any real drive to try new things at one point, now I do. :D)
Your TV shows, I can make suggestions but understand I'd rather have more information on what you want the game rules to do for you...
Do you want rules that stat up characters then get out of the way? Do you want them to create a particular feel? Is technology a back drop or does it need to have specific stats? (How a Star Trek phaser or a Stargate Zat gun for example are big issues with some games I've seen being unable to represent them without jumping through hoops. Just as an example mind you )
I think Silverlion's got it. You have to talk about the feel of the thing - and your players. I mean, I look at the Farscape for example, and think, "well... with players X, Y and Z I could use GURPS... but I've got players A, B and C so SPACER would be much better... then again if I had M and N in the group again I might use FATE... hmmm..."
Quote from: Silverlion;229255(How a Star Trek phaser or a Stargate Zat gun for example are big issues with some games I've seen being unable to represent them without jumping through hoops. ...)
Emphasis mine, and no
shit. My wife and I wanted to write up HERO notes for
Stargate SG-1. How the monkey was a zat gonna work? Finally I suggested that it be a transformation power; first hit transforms you into a stunned dude, the second transforms you into a dead dude, and the third one transforms you into a ...no, no, no, we said, backed up...and dropped it.
But,yeah, -R., answer Silverlion's questions and I'll get right helpsome with ya. ANSWER HIM!
Well, thing is I'm not really wanting to do anything here. I had just been thinking about the new Mongoose Traveller and how it seemed to still be emulating a style of SF that was popular around the time of Classic Traveller. Aside from a few bits here and there, it struck me that I could well have picked up the game back in 1984.
So, really, the only intent I had here was to see if anyone had recommendations for games that drew on more contemporary influences. Though, in some case like the Brian Daley books or Cowboy Bebop, I could easily see something like Traveller handling the job well.
What I tend to like in rules are:
- Something that's easy to grasp, fades easily enough into the background so that there's some, for the lack of a less loaded term, immersion going on rather than being constantly aware of odd dice gimmicks and the like.
- Something that can model both tech and race differences, but that isn't incredibly fiddly about it. If you need a yardstick here, I've often thought of using Mutants and Masterminds to run a SF game.
- Nothing particularly "narrative", again with the loaded terminology.
Quote from: Silverlion;229255The thing is, I'm not sure of any of your written choices, I've never read those authors. (I'm more a Bester, Asimov, Heinlein, etc...) era SF reader. So which of those would you recommend as the best of "that" type, for me to familiarize myself with your literary choices. (I like SF, just didn't have any real drive to try new things at one point, now I do. :D)
As far as the newer stuff goes, I'd recommend Iain M. Banks'
The Player of Games as a good starting point.
Quote from: -R.;229543Well, thing is I'm not really wanting to do anything here. I had just been thinking about the new Mongoose Traveller and how it seemed to still be emulating a style of SF that was popular around the time of Classic Traveller. Aside from a few bits here and there, it struck me that I could well have picked up the game back in 1984.
So, really, the only intent I had here was to see if anyone had recommendations for games that drew on more contemporary influences. Though, in some case like the Brian Daley books or Cowboy Bebop, I could easily see something like Traveller handling the job well.
What I tend to like in rules are:
- Something that's easy to grasp, fades easily enough into the background so that there's some, for the lack of a less loaded term, immersion going on rather than being constantly aware of odd dice gimmicks and the like.
- Something that can model both tech and race differences, but that isn't incredibly fiddly about it. If you need a yardstick here, I've often thought of using Mutants and Masterminds to run a SF game.
- Nothing particularly "narrative", again with the loaded terminology.
Honestly, I think True20 with the space stuff from the companion would be perfect for what you want- especially given your M&M comment.
The complete text of the companion is available in the True20 revised book. It provides systems for modeling both tech and race stuff, and the math is there too, so you can mess with it all you want and its so easy to fuck with it makes my head hurt.
FWIW I used it for a space game and I was completely satisfied with the results.
For relative ease of use and such, could go with Savage Worlds coupled with the Sci-Fi toolkits.
The Cortex system might also fall into the similar category/ease level that Savage Worlds does too, I guess, but it (the Cortex system) doesn't have all the neato add-ons that Savage Worlds has at this point. It also isn't out in just a pure system format which means you'd have to pick up either Serenity or BSG books and extrapolate stuff from there.
And then, there is always the d6 system with it's space specific stuff to use.
I've used BRP* (well, it was RuneQuest II back when I started) for every kind of SF game. I think it moves well with the times, because we've tended to follow fashion to some extent in our gaming inspiration - first it was Star Wars, then Baderunner, Aliens, Space: Above and Beyond, Das Boot, Cowboy Bebop, Firefly (that's just the video list). The drawback is there are no gearhead rules, but the system is so flexible, it's easy to graft on whatever system takes your fancy.
*Click my sig.
I havent found many books to inspire my science fiction games (as long as you discount comic books), but I do enjoy the works of Robert Silverbeg and Philip K Dick.
For an alternative view on the how the world would survive an apocalypse war, Id recommend you read Dick's Dr. Bloodmoney (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Bloodmoney%2C_or_How_We_Got_Along_After_the_Bomb).
That's a good book. Valis made me nuts for a while though.
I might suggest BESM (2E), if you have access to that. It does have some point based fiddling but far less than most (albeit you'll always want to examine PC sheets and approve them before play, like most point based systems.)
It can model tech/racial differences. Reasonably differently, without being anally retentive, or creating undo complexity, but still make some differences count.
Albeit if you don't have access to it, I'd supplant it with OVA, which is actually better in many ways than BESM. Still in print, and has a lot of tailor-ability. It's biggest flaw is its lack of decent vehicle subset rules. (It has some they work, but are a bit less focused than BESM's)
The both have what I might call an "action" bias, which means that they lean more towards movie versions of reality than in anyway worrying about "real world"
Now this is based on what you've said for some games. I'm not sure it would work for all of them.
I can recommend several OOP system that cover such ideas well, but I am trying to prevent sending someone on a internet hunt for old books. For example, despite its superhero design, the old Marvel Superhero Rules (FASERIP/MSH Advanced) make a wonderful set of rules for a lot of things--powers for extreme alien races, at the "human" range of attributes some decent variability. Excellent invention rules, and solid vehicle as well as base design rules without being too problematic. Yet it IS an OOP system but I am aware its available in free format online. (the 4C system, a "OGL" style rules set that hearkens back to it actually lacks the detailed rules that make MSH so good for vehicles, bases, etc. Which is a shame, I'll have to rectify that for my mod of it.)
The funny thing is if you make everyone roll on the "Normal Human" chart--you even get human scale characters that work. Just forgoing powers except by special dispensation--say Immortality for Dr. Who. It's one of the best "here is a toolkit for everything you may need." games I know.
I'll keep looking and see if I can come up with any better ideas.
I'll second Savage Worlds. I'm about to run a space opera game with it, myself.
Its lack of anything like "class" but having provisions for "race" and a framework for various supernatural [read: alien] abilities would make a modified version of Shadowrun 2/3 work well, but there are no useful spacecraft. A model of spacecraft creation exists in the Rigger vehicle creation rules, but a lot of work would be required. My point, however, being that if it's a question of what tyles of mechanics work well for science fiction, Shadowrun's flexible enough to provide such a framework, although it'd be too much of a pain in the ass for anyone I know to bother with.
Quote from: Dr Rotwang!;229297How the monkey was a zat gonna work? Finally I suggested that it be a transformation power; first hit transforms you into a stunned dude, the second transforms you into a dead dude, and the third one transforms you into a ...no, no, no, we said, backed up...and dropped it.
A fine example. We've seen people take two zat blasts and still not be knocked unconscious, and even cases in which the third shot kills and doesn't vaporize. For Shadowrun, you'd set the Power of the weapon high enough that people with even high bodies are
just barely able to reach it, but it's statistically possible, and make the damage Stun. [And 1/2 Impact armor.] Say 15D Stun: one shot runs you all the way up to 10 points of Mental Damage, the second almost certainly then fills your Physical Damage. The third shot...well, Shadowrun doesn't have rules for vaporizing things, either, but I'd think it'd be an Object Resistance roll and if the opposed roll doesn't get a certain number of successes, it disappears.