PDA

View Full Version : Suggestions for Techie Systems



El'the Ellie
2019-06-19, 03:55 PM
Hello folks!

I've spent most of my time in a relatively narrow set of TTRPG systems: D&D 3.5/5e (and 4e technically...), Pathfinder, Mutants and Masterminds, and some PTU, but none of these really fit the urge I've been needing to scratch.

Which is to say, some sort of near-future techie game: something in the vein of Deus Ex/Cyberpunk 2077*/Watchdogs, where what you know and your ability to rig a contraption and hack a network are more useful than how well you can swing a battleaxe.

Anyone out there have good recommendations? It can be rules light or rules heavy, and doesn't have to be techie specific, as long as that brand of game can be run well using the rules. Bonus points if it's OGL.

* I'm aware the TTRPG Cyberpunk 2020 exists. I'm looking for something that is more generally known, that I could conceivably get a game together on the OOTS boards or elsewhere.

Thank you!

kebusmaximus
2019-06-19, 04:01 PM
Do whatever you want with GURPS.

Stars without number could do it, and the free version has everything you need. You'll also get suggestions for Traveller, but I don't know much about it.

Eclipse phase is science fiction but may not be the right mood or tech level for you; it's ostensibly transhuman horror. However, it is entirely free.

MrSandman
2019-06-19, 04:41 PM
Fate can work for that. I think there's even a couple of settings that fit your request. Tomorrow I'll have a look and see if I can find them. Also, thus far all Fate games I've seen in the PbP section have had enough players.

Grod_The_Giant
2019-06-19, 08:54 PM
If you're looking for generally known, I think Shadowrun is probably the best answer.

STaRS (see my signature) is generic but could certainly handle cyberpunk. It's generally quite good at building things like "hacking into the mainframe" into interesting encounters in ways most systems can't quite manage.

Satinavian
2019-06-20, 12:04 AM
If you're looking for generally known, I think Shadowrun is probably the best answer.

STaRS (see my signature) is generic but could certainly handle cyberpunk. It's generally quite good at building things like "hacking into the mainframe" into interesting encounters in ways most systems can't quite manage.

I'll second Shadowrun.

Kaptin Keen
2019-06-20, 09:40 AM
If you're looking for generally known, I think Shadowrun is probably the best answer.

This. Shadowrun really is your answer. It does suffer from the rules being ... just incredibly, unbelievably unworkable. But in the overall scheme of things, that's a minor inconvenience.

I know I'm maybe not selling it optimally. But, well, I'm honest: The rules are crap. It's still the game you want.

Telok
2019-06-20, 04:00 PM
Delta Green, strip out as much of the horror as you want. It's a modern Call of Cthulhu using the BRP system. Perfectly functional, but you'll probably end up adding most of the future tech. Try to grab the GURPS cyberpunk book for that. Conversion is really really easy.

Traveller (pretty much any edition), limited to Sol system without jump drives and capped about TL9. You may have to tweak character generation a bit. The major downside here being that you have to build your own setting.

El'the Ellie
2019-06-20, 04:16 PM
Hmm, ok, thank you folks! I'll definitely take a look at some of these.

Somehow my only previous interaction with Shadowrun was the XBox 360 game, so I wasn't aware it was a TTRPG...

Mutazoia
2019-06-23, 05:33 PM
Hmm, ok, thank you folks! I'll definitely take a look at some of these.

Somehow my only previous interaction with Shadowrun was the XBox 360 game, so I wasn't aware it was a TTRPG...

Ah....the game that Microsoft put 5 minutes of development into, and then dumped on the market. May the fleas of a thousand camels forever infest their pubic hair

Telok
2019-06-24, 01:10 AM
Ah....the game that Microsoft put 5 minutes of development into, and then dumped on the market. May the fleas of a thousand camels forever infest their pubic hair

Fleas are too gentle. There are ticks which breed fast enough, and drink enough blood, that they make moose anemic. Use those.

Anonymouswizard
2019-06-24, 02:09 PM
If you're looking for generally known, I think Shadowrun is probably the best answer.

Eh, I'd say that Shadowrun isn't the answer, due to the fact that it suffers from being too popular to actually be fixed (see D&D for another example). If you don't want the magic than it doesn't really do a single thing better than GURPS or Cyberpunk.


On that note, OP don't dismiss Cyberpunk. I'm sure a decent portion of this board is old enough to remember it, it's back in print, and with the computer game being big news I'm sure the eventual third edition will be a big seller (I'm going to stick with 2020 though, I actually like how the rules are unbalanced in that 90s way). Although honestly unless you have a group ready to listen to you and own the books you probably shouldn't count on actually getting to run it.

In other suggestions, the three big generics at the moment are GURPS, Savage Worlds, and Fate. Savage Worlds is essentially what happens if you tried to make as fast a combat engine as possible, and bolted basic noncombat gameplay onto it: it's really good at running larger combats, good at smaller combats, and for everything else it's a bit lacking. Your standard Savage Worlds fight would give the PCs a handful of alliies to help them against all the minions on the field. Fate is a gamist system with the narrative ideas of Aspects and a Fate Point Economy bolted on, and it really works as long as you're willing to simulate a story without being too specific about your character's in-world capabilities (Great Fight just means your character is Great enough at fighting to get +3).

Other ideas are Modern AGE (focused more on modern era-games, but can easily be modded to something a bit more near-future), and things like Fudge which are more toolkits than premade games. It all depends on how much legwork you want to do. Less and you want Cyberpunk or Shadowrun, more and you'll want Fudge or GURPS.

Mutazoia
2019-06-28, 08:15 PM
You could always go D20 Modern (SpyCraft).