Looking for something Halo-ish for my nephew

[Fixer]

My nephew is big into Halo (regularly kicks my butt at it, and I'm pretty good). He has some interest in RPGs but he 'hates to read'. (He reads, but has no patience for long books.)

I was thinking if there is a Halo RPG out there, or something that can be easily converted into the Halo-type universe without too much rebuilding. I want to get him a book or two for Christmas that he might actually get into.

Anyone familiar with something along these lines? If it actually has the Halo intellectual property stamp that makes it more likely for him to, you know, READ the bloody thing.

Kids these days.

[AstralFire]

As so many of my suggestions are these days, I will point you to Star Wars Saga. It is entirely possible to build Master Chief given a big enough budget (I did it for fun, once - the biggest issue is the UNSC ground vehicles) and the condition track does a fairly good job for modeling combat damage in a d20 system.

Something actually with the Halo stamp is another question entirely.

Regarding reading, the Halo novelizations by Eric Nylund are fairly quick and surprisingly decent reads. Stay away from the novelization of the first game, though. That was handled by a different author. It's passable, but really... meh.

[Fixer]

Yeah, my wife and I got him all the Halo novels already. All that have come out, anyway.

Star Wars huh? Which version do you think would be best to convert? I only experienced the old d6 version play-wise. I have some familiarity with the d20 version but never actually played it.

[NPCMook]

Took me a bit, but I found it, HALO Saga Edition

[AstralFire]

I've played Saga and the d20 RCR. Never played d6 or the very original d20.

RCR is very mediocre and pretty clunky. Saga Edition (the newest d20 version, which draws from 3E and 4E both) in general I am recommending for a lot because it's a fairly flexible system. Its biggest issue is overpowered Force Powers at low levels, something which is easily corrected (a number of the house rules are in my sig) and is also largely irrelevant to most of the things I suggest substituting it in for.

[kpenguin]

I'm going to go ahead and say "Mutants and Masterminds" before someone else does. Terribly flexible system.

[quick_comment]

There is a halo fudge system floating around

[Irreverent Fool]

I think Mutants a& Masterminds would be great, especially since the wound system would work well for a no-hp game that I think Halo demands.

obnoxious
sig

[jmbrown]

Savage Worlds is a generic system like Hero System and GURPS but it's specifically built around speed. Every action is resolved around a die roll against a target number and combat initiative is played using a standard deck of 52 cards. Each player draws a card which determines which position they take in combat.

It's a flexible system but very rules light so it allows a lot of customization and the entire thing was designed around being able to practically build and play a world in a single night. I'm a technical hands-on guy so I prefer GURPS but Savage Worlds is a great system for people who want to role play without spending 4 hours on creating a character.

EDIT: I don't know how much he'd like it but there's another game called Dread that's a roleplaying game based around Jenga. You hand the GM a 12 questionnaire which gives him flavor for your character. Whenever your character wants to take an action that has major consequences, the GM will have you make a "pull" from the jenga tower. If the Jenga tower falls while you're pulling, your character either dies or something bad happens.

The game was built around horror modules but one of the default adventures in the book is a sci-fi space marine game. You never have to make a pull but generally things won't go in your favor if you wuss out. It's less focus on in game mechanics and more on actual tried and true roleplaying.

[Saph]

Took me a bit, but I found it, HALO Saga Edition

Use this. They've done all the work for you.

General rule of DMing: never do any work if you can delegate, steal, or copy it instead. :P

- Saph