Halo RPG???

[An Enemy Spy]

I was playing Halo 2 earlier today when I suddenly thought about how cool it be to play as a Jackal. Then I had another funky idea about how cool it would be if there was a pen and paper Halo RPG. You could be a human or any of the Covenant races and have all sorts of adventures like that. One problem. I suck at making rules for stuff. And I remembered that I have access to people who devote their entire lives to things like this.(Just kidding. I hope.) How could I make this into a credible game? Maybe not a big one like D&D, but at least a fun one? Would the D20 system possibly work here?

PS: This is not a thread to talk about video games. I don't want to hear any talk that has anything to do with other games, or whether or not you like Halo. Let's keep this on the rails. Thank you for cooperation.

[Zeful]

I actually tried to do something like this, it ended up being a really weird adaptation of the D&D rule set. A Halo RPG would work much better under something like the Shadowrun ruleset rather than D&D.

[RTGoodman]

Take a while and look around Google. I know there've been several ATTEMPTS to do a Halo RPG, but I don't know if any of them ever came to fruition. I'm not personally sure how well the d20 system would work for it, but if that's what you wanted to do I'd propose starting with d20 Modern and the Future supplements for that game (most of it's available in the d20Modern SRD (http://12tomidnight.com/d20modernsrd/Home.php)) and going from there.

[An Enemy Spy]

I was thinking about races and their ability modifiers and I came up with this.

Grunts: -2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
Jackals: +2 Dexterity, -2 Charisma
Elites: +2 Strength, -2 Wisdom
Hunters: +4 Strength, -2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
Brutes: +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
Drones: -2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, -2 Charisma
Prophets: -2 Strength, -2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma
Humans: No Modifiers.
This is by no means final and I would like feedback on how I could alter this for the better.

[Neithan]

If you know D&D 3.5e, you can play d20 modern with only the SRD. The d20 Future suplement has all those gadgets and weapons you need for a Halo game. And It's also in the SRD.

[Knaight]

Its not d20, but the system its based off of is good, and the Halo modifications work.
http://dsg.neko-machi.com/halo.html

Its based off of Fudge, and you might need to know its rules to play(I knew they well when I first came across it, so I couldn't judge accurately)

http://www.fudgerpg.com/

[An Enemy Spy]

Thank you. This stuff is all great. But I would like to make a game of my own, even if it ends being vastly inferior. The point of this thread was to come up with something original, rather than showing me things that have already been done. I guess I didn't make that clear.

[Ascension]

Well, I realize what you just said about not wanting something already put together, but there's an official d20 version of Starship Troopers, and in my opinion it isn't bad. It's got a futuristic setting focusing on men in powered armor fighting aliens, so it probably wouldn't take much homebrewing to give it a Haloish feel.

[Knaight]

So are we sticking to d20 then? Since I'm pretty sure what I put up has something decent to borrow (I read through it again), and the Fudge system I linked is pretty much a tool-box, meaning that there are stealables from it (cough mass scale cough)

[An Enemy Spy]

I was thinking about races and their ability modifiers and I came up with this.

Grunts: -2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
Jackals: +2 Dexterity, -2 Charisma
Elites: +2 Strength, -2 Wisdom
Hunters: +4 Strength, -2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
Brutes: +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
Drones: -2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, -2 Charisma
Prophets: -2 Strength, -2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma
Humans: No Modifiers.
This is by no means final and I would like feedback on how I could alter this for the better.

Let's get back to this.

[Tiki Snakes]

Well, the way I see it, you are asking one of two questions really. (Or perhaps should be?)

Either; Can you people make or help me make an entirely new RP system from scratch to specifically model Halo.

or

I would like to play an RPG version of Halo, Help me to customize an existing system in order to allow it better represent Halo.

I exaggerate, I'm sure. Not the point. What little point I have is that, basically, I'm not convinced you are asking the right question. If I were you, I'd listen carefully to any suggested existing systems that would make things as easy as possible for you to acheive Halo-ness. If you don't want to buy anything new, then Neithan's suggestion of using the SRD is probably right on the money.

Take everything you need from the whole D20 thing, and just change what you absolutely need to change in order to halo-ify it. Basically, you're talking a few custom races, a few custom weapons, and maybe a class or two. More simple the better. (D20 modern's simple archetypal classes of 'strong', 'fast', 'tough' etc would be a good concept to start from.)

That's basically all you need, after all, because the rest is just setting.

Do you really need "A Game of your Own"? There's no point reinventing the wheel. Building an entirely new RPG system from scratch is...a lot of work.

[An Enemy Spy]

I think I'll go with number two. The only system I know is D&D 3.5. I don't really want to learn a new system right now, so I would just like to modify that one.

[Tiki Snakes]

In which case, as far as the possible stats you posted earlier, I'd say they don't look incredibly out of whack. I'd say personally though, I always got the feeling a couple of the covenant races were just *better* than normal people. (That's why the spartans where needed?) So I wouldn't hesitate to give, say Brutes and Elites slightly better stats than a LA 0 character. Brutes, In particular, seem pretty incredibly strong and tough.

I'm no expert on 3.5 anymore, kind of fell in love with 4 too deeply really. I'd say anything less than a +4 to a Brute's strength sounds (in 3.5 terms) like it's pretty stingy.

(Of course, as it's only these that would be available, both as Enemies and PC's, I'd be quite happy to suggest nicking the 4th ed style of just giving two +2 stat bonuses to everyone, rather than the penalty balanced system of 3.5)

If you don't mind the investment of time, quickly scanning the Halo wiki is a good place to get an idea about the different races. For example, Brutes (http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Brutes)

[NPCMook]

Over on the Wizards boards for SWSE there are a few people working on making a Halo RPG using the SWSE rules, they are also working on a Mass Effect version

[An Enemy Spy]

Grunts: -2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
Jackals: +2 Dexterity, -2 Charisma
Elites: +2 Strength, -2 Wisdom
Hunters: +6 Strength, -2 Constitution, -4 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
Brutes: +4 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
Drones: -2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, -2 Charisma
Prophets: -2 Strength, -2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma
Humans: No Modifiers.
Taking Tiki Snakes comments under advisement, I have come up with new stats for the Brutes. You'll notice that I made the hunters stronger and dumber. This was so that the Brutes wouldn't be as strong as Hunters, which I think would be just plain wrong.

[lordhack]

Savage Worlds is a cheap, $10 dollar rule set that's designed so you can plug in any setting. If you want to pick up something new, I'd give that a look, it could probably handle Halo without much fuss.

[Egiam]

I love this idea! :smallbiggrin: I imagine it though as more of a wargame. The players play a commando unit that takes orders from a high command. Each adventure is a mission, like "take the bunker", "place the charges" "rescue the hostage" rather than deciding their objectives. They just have to figure out how to do them.

[Waspinator]

Over on the Wizards boards for SWSE there are a few people working on making a Halo RPG using the SWSE rules, they are also working on a Mass Effect version

Here:

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=972157
http://www.mediafire.com/file/df2iyzuywnn

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1084810

Pretty neat stuff.