Help me discover a new RPG!
Josh
Thursday
8:27 am
Ever since I saw a press release for a new, in-development series called “Firefly,” I was in love with the source material. I loved the grounded nature of the show, its emphasis on characters coming together as a family and the open-ended nature of its universe.
My love affair with the show led me to a great group of local Browncoats (Firefly fans), and I tied my dormant love for role playing games in with my newfound circle of geek friends, and an ongoing Firefly / Serenity RPG game was born. This game is filled with some of the best participants I’ve ever played with.
But after running an RPG in that setting for nearly four years, the things I admired about the series — it’s lack of deus ex machina technology, fantastical creatures and shark-jumping superpowers — is exactly what’s slowing down in the RPG.
Besides, the Serenity RPG core rule system is rushed at best, and filled with inconsistencies at worst. I love it for its quickness on its feet, light rule system, and disdain for d20s, but I hate it for its poorly thought out combat system, which has to be so festooned with house rules that no two games play alike. (During a recent play session, we discovered a loophole by which you apparently can never die.)
So, I’m pondering — just pondering, mind you — a jump to another setting.
And I need your help. Somebody out there, give me a great, well-supported game (in print or fan community) I could potentially sink my teeth into. The caveats:
- I can’t really do fantasy. I know a few of my players roll with the sword-and-pointy-hat crowd, but if I’ve got to spend hours planning and preparing for a game, my imagination really has to thrum over the source material. And for me, that’s modern, alternate realities or science fiction.
- Can’t be too rule heavy. I RP with a pretty casual crowd. Hell, in our sessions, we probably only spend about 30 percent of the time in game. So, no majorly brain-crunching mathematics should be involved.
- Should reward players for good role playing, and not just hack-and-slash. RPGs scratch my itch for fantastical characters, heroism, and playing dress-up without getting wedgies from other denizens of the park. The difficulty in the game should come from problem solving and creative characters, not from increasingly higher numbers of ghouls.
My secret is that, for all of my RPG experience, I’ve played precious few games. Based on what I’ve played, my deal-breakers are below:
- D&D: See above. Yes, I know its a great game, and I hear the 4th edition is quite nice. I could conceivably PLAY in a D&D campaign, but I don’t think I could run one.
- Battletech/Mechwarrior: It’s like doing my taxes inside of a giant robot. I love giant robots as much as the next guy (I ran a Robotech game for years), but the system is more strategy than role playing.
- Rifts: Too cartoony for me, and Palladium’s system is a little wonky when it comes to damage and hit points. Something about the game always seemed like a Rankin-Bass version of Shadowrun.
- Stargate: I’d LOVE a Stargate RPG. Great source material and an open-ended universe to draw from. The only problem is that there isn’t one. The company that published it never got its contract renewed, and Sony doesn’t appear eager to hand that over to anyone else.
So, hit me with your best shot: If I change settings, what’s going to knock my (and my players’) socks off?
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Reader Comments
In your search for a new system, are you looking for one with a pre-established universe/background or do you want a generic system that you can use for a world of your own making?
I can suggest any number of games from the 80s for you, what we like to call ‘olde school’. Star Frontiers, off the top of my head, for really quick action. Traveller is a bit front loaded on the character creation part, but after that, it is pretty fast and smooth in normal play. I would even hazard a guess that Mr Whedon has some Traveller experience in his background he is hiding. Firefly was nothing if not Traveller come to life.
Stop over to the Citadel, we have no end of opinions; also, any kinds of design or rules modifications and campaign materials you might need are waiting to be used!
http://www.citadelofchaos.net
I, myself, am a GURPS guy. LOVE it. Love. However, I can’t unreservedly recommend it to you. GURPS is a toolbox. The coolest thing (to me) is that if you moved to GURPS, you could keep your Firefly setting and just use better rules. Or, if you’re wanting a break from Firefly, you could run whatever else you wanted to cook up.
The fanbase is really supportive and the fora administered by Steve Jackson Games is very active and friendly. Support on said fora by employees and materials authors is common.
The rewards system is very flexible. It is a classless, level-less system which uses a currency called Character Points to purchase abilities, stats, etc. There isn’t a table of how many CP killing an orc should be worth or how many you get for fighting a bear; There are guidelines about how many CP a GM should give out for which player behaviors.
Those are the upsides for you. Downsides:
Because it’s a toolbox (rules without setting, yes?) it has to be able to cover a million situations. Thus, there’s a rule for everything. In some sectors, this can lead to complication. The salve to that is that there are a TON of optional rules. So you can use the tactical combat rules with a hex map and advanced hit locations and… whatever. Or you can just make a judgment call on range and assume people aim for center of mass.
No setting information. Not such a big deal if you’ve got Firefly source material you’re already familiar with (well, you’d have to do some stat conversions, I’m sure). However, for people lacking setting inspiration or who hate converting stuff, that’s a major downside. For me, this is a selling point, but I love making up original settings, so… Just be forewarned.
So, I heartily recommend GURPS. If you’re looking for something generic like GURPS, but more… rules light, I guess you might say. You could check out Savage Worlds. I’ve not played it, but my understanding is that it’s just got a coarser granularity to the simulation than GURPS does and is also specifically geared towards a more cinematic feel (whereas GURPS can vary feel more readily). My understanding of Savage Worlds may be flawed.
Hit me up on Twitter if you like and we can have more of a conversation. I’m always happy to evangelize.
Hergeek: A little bit of both. I want something I have some license to create in, but one that’s supported with more than just a core rule book and one supplement. That’s why the Serenity set appealed to me at first — there wasn’t TOO much canon to get bogged down in.
Stormbringer: Star Frontiers IS old school — I remember ogling that as a kid, but never played it. I’ve also considered Traveller as a definite option. It’d likely be an easy transition for my players, too. Definite consideration, and it seems like the fan community is great!
Ben: Other than hearing the name GURPS, I’ve never really explored that system. I’m worried that it’s TOO expansive, but I’ve never been one to adhere strictly to rules (I cut my teeth on Palladium MDC-style games like Robotech, which were full of scaling problems.) That said, I’m going to definitely check it out.
All great comments, by the way.
Thoughts: What about Shadowrun? I like the idea of the setting, but don’t know much about the mechanics.
Olde school it may be, but you are in luck! TSR appears to not have been very interested in maintaining the copyright, and handed them over to the good folks over at The Starfrontiersman. You don’t even have to dig around on eBay to get a copy, they have re-mastered all the rules, and they are all available for legal download:
http://www.starfrontiersman.com/
Mongoose has recently re-released the Traveller rules, as well (I recommend them highly), and there is an open game type of SRD available as well:
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/series.php?qsSeries=51
It’s not exactly easy to find, waaaaay down on the bottom under the heading “Traveller Main Rulebook”, titled “Developer’s Pack”.
In regards to Shadowrun, it has many faithful adherents, but the mechanics can be a bit tricky, like any game that tries to mix technology and magic.
I’ve rather enjoyed Necessary Evil on the few occasions I’ve had to play. Imagine if the heroes of Marvel comics had been killed off in an alien invasion and Dr. Doom started organizing various supervillains into a resistance to retake Earth. I’ve only been a player, never a GM, so I can’t say for sure how rules heavy it may be. Personally I think the character creation is slightly more complicated than the actual game play itself, just because you’re doing superpowers on a point buy system. And the system itself has some built in encouragement to get into the RP of your character a bit, with the GM having the option to hand out reroll tokens for doing something in character.
The downside is that it’s a story plot. It has like 12 or 13 main story adventures that will take a group from their first adventure to the end of the war, with several dozen different side mission plots already built to use. But outside the stories that come with the book, there’s little to build from. There are pages on the various little details of the city the main story is set in, but maybe a paragraph about what’s going on in other regions of the world.
The company that publishes it uses the same game mechanics for several different game lines, in case a comic book setting isn’t what you’re looking for. From the ones I’ve picked up and looked through, they all seem to have a start to finish story line included. Maybe you’ll find something you like.
http://www.peginc.com/games.html
Here’s a third vote for Savage Worlds. It is focused on minimal DM-prep-time, fast gameplay, and is extremely flexible. It would be a great match for a StarGate setting where you might be up against spear-throwers one day and on a capital starship the next. Wikipedia has a great, short, overview:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savage_Worlds
The core rule book is a $10 PDF download. You can check out the free “test drive” rules on the official downloads page:
http://www.peginc.com/downloads.html
The community is pretty active and there’s a decent body of source material for a large variety of settings. (Say you needs stats for a spaceship, or maps of an underwater fortress or an advanced floating city.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Savage_Worlds_books
Here’s a fan-made StarGate conversion:
http://savageheroes.com/conversions/SavageStargate.pdf
http://savageheroes.com/showdown/Savage%20Stargate%20Atlantis.zip
I’ve been pretty excited about Savage Worlds since I discovered it a few months ago. Can you tell?
Fantastic comments! I downloaded a few Star Frontiers books; the “remastered” PDFs are a nice touch. The 80s-style line art returned me to childhood, but the newer additions definitely lent it a cyberpunk feel.
Still soliciting feedback, but I’ve got my reading work cut out for me tonight. I’ll definitely check out Savage Worlds, too!
You could always switch to BSG!
No, Jason. No, I can’t switch to BSG. Why? Because the writers of that once-beloved show painted themselves into a corner writing a closed-ended, high-handed mythology that can’t adequately be dealt with in an open RPG setting.
Huh — Savage Worlds looks like a decent mechanic. Very similar to Serenity’s ‘Cortex System.’ Have to explore it more…
I’m going to be investing in the Savage Worlds system soon, because they are releasing a Space:1889 sourcebook and adventure for Savage Worlds this fall.
As I’ve gotten older and crankier, I’ve really headed towards more “rules light” systems where they are more cinematic than accountancy based rules. I used to run Rolemaster and SpaceMaster back in the day, and I shudder to think about trying to do that again.
I hear you, Her Geek. The one thing I’ve got to look into for Savage Worlds is if they have enough source material to play a cohesive sci-fi/dystopian game world — a lot of the supplements tend toward more exotic, niche settings.
I could create source material, but after four years of having to live hand-to-mouth on the Firefly setting, I’m ready to let someone else come up with stats for awhile, so I can focus on story. : )
Off the top of my head, there’s Slipstream for Savage Worlds: http://www.studio2publishing.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=2491
It’s Scifi, but it’s kind of a Flash Gordon style Scifi.
This is incredibly late in the comment section, I know, but I must let more people know about FFrpg. Very easy system that is able to be translated into any genre, not just the fantasy that most Final Fantasy’s are known for.
http://www.returnergames.com/ord/index.php/Third_Edition_Core_Rulebook is the link for their pdf of the 3rd edition rules.
It’s originally made to be more combat-heavy, though I’ve played (read: GMed heh) quiet a few games where combat does not have to be the focus, just something that happens from time to time.
Jono.