Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Changing For The Sake Of Change...

Okay... After about 18 months of running, I am putting aside my Tai'eres game. Love the setting... Love the system... but I can only handle so much fantasy before my eyes itch.

So that leaves a slight hole that I do want to fill... and I want to fill it with something space opera-like... Therein lie some problems, as I have some very specific things that I do not want in my game. Should be easy, right? It's my game. Just rip 'em out of there. That is the plan, but I have some things to work through in my head and compiling a small list of things I would like to have (and not have) within the setting...

  • Nothing that resembles "the Force". Religion is fine... Faith that grants one extraordinary abilities and makes a limited range melee weapon more useful in a battle than anything with a range greater than a thrown rock needs to stay the hell away from my game.
  • FTL ships, but just barely. Maybe ships that go up to 3x-5x the speed of light at most. Enough that travelling within a system doesn't take weeks, but not so fast that travelling *BETWEEN* systems is as easy as hopping to the corner store for some milk. That being said, even that sort of limited speed makes actual starship combat nigh impossible as it becomes easy to outrace anything that is fired upon another ship. Hmmmm...
  • Need about seven to ten other races put together to hang out with the humies. Not all of them need to be player races, but something to add some variety is nice. Speaking of humans... Not sure if I want them almost extinct, or plentiful enough to be some sort of galactic power. That's something else to think about
  • Going back to weapons, I would really like to avoid light-based weapons. The reality of them is that they fire a continuous beam until power is cut. There are no "bolts" or "blasts" associated with them as light cannot exist without a source. Gyrojet are cool... Missles are okay... hell, even regular bullets work, be they projected via chemical propellent or magnetism. Plasma weapons that use some form of limited containment work as well, as they, while powerful, will eventually disperse.

Just looking at this limited list, it looks like I have a lot to think about. Shame I'm trying to put something together for two evenings from now...

I hate the way I think sometimes...

-- GD

6 comments:

  1. Change is lifes only constant.

    Have you considered taking a system whos rules you like using it to explore a universe of your own devising

    Dragons_Claw

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  2. you might look into a modified Firefly like setting. from what you've put up, it seems like the tech levels you're looking for.
    I believe there's even a system recently out for it.
    http://www.margaretweis.com/index.php/shop#!/~/product/id=29762279
    might be worth a look, then add in other races.

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  3. My problem with beam weapons is how do you cram a power source into such a small package? Slug throwers are ok. Gauss rifles are a possibility for higher tech levels. What about low level psionics ala Traveller? BTW, I have the Hero Traveller books.

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  4. Oh! WHat about plasma weapons? Only as heavy weapons, of course!

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  5. DC: Yeah... am seriously looking at shoving my ideas into Savage Worlds. My big dislike with doing that is that SW doesn't lend itself well to extended campaigns. It is very good at telling limited stories, though...

    Farmpunk: Firefly is a great setting hampered by a craptastic ruleset known as CORTEX. The writers of CORTEX had a conversation at the beginning of the system's design that went pretty much like this... "Let's take everything that is good about Savage Worlds... ...and tear it out of the system and replace it with our own half-assed, stupid ideas. YAY! GREAT RPG SYSTEM!!!" =P

    Tom: I was coming to similar conclusions. In-system drives to handle "local travel", with some sort of network connecting things for the "big distances". Weapons-wise... Slug throwers (chemical and gauss), Needlers, Railguns... Plasma Weapons were something I was toying with... even making them "portable" in pistol and grenade form... but HIGHLY dangerous! Also, thanks for the offer of the Traveller HERO books, but I am actually trying to stay away from HERO. I already have one game that takes forever to prep... trying to not add a second that has a heavy prep time... =P

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    Replies
    1. There's always WEG D6 Star Wars, without the force, of course.

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