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vrellum
2011-02-14, 02:08 AM
I was wondering what you think is the best future-tech game. Specifically, i'd like one that focuses on modifying people. Shadowrun does this to a good degree, but I was wondering if there was something that did it more/better. Preferably w/o magic, but not a requirement.

TheOOB
2011-02-14, 03:47 AM
Had it not been specifically mentioned, shadowrun would be my vote, but I can understand how some people can be turned off by some aspects, especially the magic(and magic is to instrumental to SR to remove). There is some good future modules for True20 that may be interesting to you, and I've heard good things about Gamma World(depends on what you mean by modifying people).

Cyberpunk 2020 is based loosely on the works of Gibson, the god of cyberpunk, so it may be what you want, but I have never played it.

Yora
2011-02-14, 03:49 AM
My favorite sci-fi RPG is Star Wars Saga without the Force. It's quite on the simple side, as RPG systems go.

TheOOB
2011-02-14, 05:02 AM
My favorite sci-fi RPG is Star Wars Saga without the Force. It's quite on the simple side, as RPG systems go.

Star Wars isn't future :P

Yora
2011-02-14, 05:04 AM
But it has technological gadgets and that's all a sci-fi RPG system needs. :smallbiggrin:

Starshade
2011-02-14, 05:04 AM
Gurps allow you to modify humans, as well as the settings. The bad part is its more or less a toolkit for making your own setting, choose the items and tech you want present (high tech, nanobots, or is that impossible? do psychic powers exist? Is there uplifted animals, as talking pets, or do they got citizenship? Do aliens exist? ).

The gurps rules would allow, say, something simmiliar to an Warhammer 40 000 ish, like a high tech empire, who have immense number of low tech worlds ranging from stoneage to atomic age worlds for recruiting soldiers, so you could in gurps have say, an low tech stone age (think native american, not a stupid "caveman", but an clever and great warrior) get recruited by an spaceship, take farewell with his tribe, and start learn high tech technology, ending up having skillpoints allocated to both stoneage and modern era skills.
You could also, as example, tag on x-man/marvel superhero mutations to him, or mutant derived telepathy, or an genetic heritage from an archaic super race, either directly or by manipulation. :smallsmile:
In short: it allow you to do anything you want with the characters, though it takes more time than with D&D derived systems.

Totally Guy
2011-02-14, 05:21 AM
Freemarket is pretty much this. The game is all about what humanity can become in a post scarcity environment.

It's about running a business in a space station where the people only have wants but not needs. Nothing stays the same for long. So you can't really do the whole Sci-fi epic with lives at stake.

Engine
2011-02-14, 05:27 AM
I was wondering what you think is the best future-tech game. Specifically, i'd like one that focuses on modifying people. Shadowrun does this to a good degree, but I was wondering if there was something that did it more/better. Preferably w/o magic, but not a requirement.

Modifying people. Hm, probably Cyberpunk V3, the new version of the old Cyberpunk 2020. You could play as a member of one of the several groups that exist in the setting, every group has a distinct tech. So you could be a cyborg, a shapeshifter, you could use augmentation gear, bio-engineered animals or futuristic armour. And you could mix some of those together, creating really crazy hybrids.
People altering themselves is one of the premise of the game, it's part of the culture of the future in which they live.

Xefas
2011-02-14, 05:27 AM
Free Market. There are your standard mechanical enhancements and biological enhancements, but you can also modify peoples memories, modify their perceptions, clone yourself or others, download multiple consciousnesses into a single body, make hallucinatory pumpkins that release nanobot spores that override the computer chips in people brains to spam their astral-net interface with ads, or whatever.

It's the best transhumanism RPG I've seen yet. One of the character types you can choose at the beginning is even a "Blank", i.e. a synthetic person who was grown and then implanted with a mish-mash of memories from other people to create an entire lifetime of thoughts unique to them, so that they are born a fully functional adult with an adult's life experiences and may not even know they're a Blank in the first place.

The setting is post-scarcity, so there is no money - anything can just be synthesized. The only two resources of any worth are basically reputation and physical space (people don't really die anymore, so space is an issue - seeing as how you can just grow yourself new bodies or make your own body immortal or what-have-you). Given the ubiquitous computing, its actually trivial to run a game in which all the players' characters never see each other. They just sit in their respective capsule-rooms running things from the internet, acquiring reputation, and becoming world-renowned badasses.

Of course, you can also, y'know, go out and be social. Make those hallucinatory pumpkins and everything.

Totally Guy
2011-02-14, 05:47 AM
Free Market.

Also the 1st session memory mash-up prep is amazing.

The guys made characters and a business, I did the prep for the next 10 minutes and we were playing after a snack!

Morhgoz
2011-02-14, 05:53 AM
Eclipse phase is similar to what i have heard about this freemarket, altough the setting is much darker, horror & consiprachy combined to dystopian future. And you can downloaded it free from they homepage under they free licence.

Makers are same as in shadowrun 4th edition.

Totally Guy
2011-02-14, 05:59 AM
Eclipse phase is similar to what i have heard about this freemarket, altough the setting is much darker, horror & consiprachy combined to dystopian future. And you can downloaded it free from they homepage under they free licence.

I've heard the Freemarket creators say pretty much this as well.

Krotchrot
2011-02-14, 11:16 AM
I would suggest Cyberpunk as well. I personally like the older Cyberpunk material, cause at least they didn't just dress up barbie/gi joe dolls for some of their pictures.

With a bit of Magic and a HUGE feature on sci-fi/future stuff, its really hard to find, but SLA Industries. GREAT GAME!

Kansaschaser
2011-02-14, 01:18 PM
CYBERPUNK 2020: Great game. Very deadly. Cool gadgets. Skill based. Gamer Score: 8.5 out of 10

SLA INDUSTRIES: Good game. Also very deadly. Not as many cool tech toys. Also skill based. Gamer Score: 7 out of 10

SHADOWRUN: Good game. Somewhat deadly. Lots of cool gadgets. Skill based. Plus, magic! Gamer Score: 7.5 out of 10

GURPS: Good game. Somewhat deadly. Okay gadgets. Lots of character build options. Skill based. Gamer Score: 7.5 out of 10

The Big Dice
2011-02-14, 01:40 PM
I'm going to second (third?) the nominations for 2020 Cyberpunk.

Sure, the Net needs a bit of an overhaul to bring it up to modern standards. but just adding a a Search function to the menu is enough to overcome most issues.

Other than that, it's a great game. Enough meat to get your teeth into, enough holes to allow homebrewers to do their thing and personalise it. And there's a TON of source if you want to go trawling places that specialise in second hand RPGs.

Comet
2011-02-14, 01:50 PM
Cyberpunk 2020 is a classic. Seeing as you mentioned Shadowrun's setting, I'd wager that this is what you're looking for, since they both represent the cyberpunk genre. And, like in most cyberpunk, transhumanism and man/machine interfacing take the centre stage in practically all stories.

Free Market is awesome, too. I'm just not personally familiar enough with it to recommend it in more depth than to say that yes, it was amazing at least on first glance. Reading other comments in this thread, I'd say that first experience of mine was right on the money.

vrellum
2011-02-14, 11:26 PM
Thanks for the feedback. I'll take a look at Cyberpunk. I have seen it before, but it was a long time ago (not sure if it was Cyberpunk 2020 or an earlier version). I'll also look at Freemarket. It sounds interesting, especially the postscaricity part.

Thanks again.

Gavinfoxx
2011-02-14, 11:33 PM
If you want to go for the HIGHER tech than cyberpunk, where modifications are completely central to the setting, I would *very very very very very* much look at the game "Sufficiently Advanced"

http://suffadv.wikidot.com/

http://suffadv.wikidot.com/where-to-buy-sa

dsmiles
2011-02-15, 07:49 AM
I like Gamma World (4e and the original, but not most of the in-between editions). Dark Heresy is supposedly good, too.