StarCraft RPG

[Rowanomicon]

I don't think one exist, but I may be wrong. If I am wrong then kindly link me to some internet information on it.
I'm talking about a table-top style RPG.
If one doesn't exist I'd be very interested in creating one, but I'd want help. Think d20 could be easily used? I'm not very familiar with d20 modern or future (I've looked at the SRD, but never played them).

[Starsinger]

I'm fairly certain someone has one out there somewhere based off of Alternity.

[13_CBS]

Hmm..one fellow with a Tau Crisis suit avatar asked about this a good while ago. I think the thread has gone to die somewhere. You'll probably have to make one yourself.

In that case, well...a certain Warhammer 40k rpg was made using d20 future rules, I think. You could try a similar approach.

[hamlet]

I don't think one exist, but I may be wrong. If I am wrong then kindly link me to some internet information on it.
I'm talking about a table-top style RPG.
If one doesn't exist I'd be very interested in creating one, but I'd want help. Think d20 could be easily used? I'm not very familiar with d20 modern or future (I've looked at the SRD, but never played them).

Alternity (produced by TSR/WOTC) put out a Starcraft RPG. It was, essentially, Alternity in the Starcraft universe. Nothing special really, except for the Alternity engine which is fabulous.

[Rowanomicon]

I've never played Alternity. I'll have to check it out sometime.
Did it work well with the Starcraft setting?

There isn't an Alternity SRD type thing is there?

[LordVader]

A SC RPG would be awesome. A TT wargame would be as well. We can only hope.

[hamlet]

I've never played Alternity. I'll have to check it out sometime.
Did it work well with the Starcraft setting?

There isn't an Alternity SRD type thing is there?

As far as I know, there's no Alternity SRD. If you want it, you'll have to buy it. You can, though, get it for cheap from places like nobleknight.com or ebay. Only two books needed for play.

As for how it worked with Starcraft, I can't really say. Starcraft was never intended to be an RPG universe, so any attempts to make it so are doomed to the usual problems that plague such efforts (see any Star Wars RPG).

Mechanically, I can't see that it wouldn't work well and, in fact, I can see some potential, especially for Terran forces and Protoss. Zerg, though, would be problematic.

My recommendation to you, though, is to skip Starcraft Alternity RPG and head straight for StarDrive (their default Campaign Setting). It's really really good. Sort of the Greyhawk of outer space. Enough info for you to really have fun, but loose enough and free enough that you can really spread out and get creative.

System wise, it's sort of a proto-D20. You always roll a d20 for task resolution, but, depending on difficulty, you add or subtract a "situation die." Your target is the linked attribute or lower and, depending on how low you roll, there are varying degrees of success and failure.

Overall, it's a system with a mind set kind of like GURPS in that you can do almost anything with it. And I do mean ANYTHING. However, you really have to get creative with it in order to move beyond the basics and into the extraordinary.

[Rowanomicon]

Sounds fun.
I think if and when I ever buy a sci-fi table top it'll be Alternity.

[Winterwind]

The only way I see how this could work without horribly distorting the StarCraft universe would be either if all the players were pure storytellers who did not care about neither mechanics nor raw character power at all (and hence would not mind if some PC was almost strictly more powerful than some other), or if the players were always restricted to one race. Because otherwise I think some character would overshadow the others fairly often without a truly brilliant GM due to the vast differences between the races.

[hamlet]

Sounds fun.
I think if and when I ever buy a sci-fi table top it'll be Alternity.

You should also consider checking out Zaon. It's in Beta now and should be on sale within a month or two (I hope).

Looks interesting and promising. If not, meh, still got Alternity.

What's frightening, though, is how easy it is to adapt Babylon 5 or Star Trek to Alternity. As in all but plug and play.

[axraelshelm]

who want to play bugs that does nothing but eat and destroy?... in a roleplay game! hmmm unlike warcraft, starcraft has very few races to choose from only 2 are playable one if you want to go to the terran colonies the rest would be JUST hack

[Ralfarius]

who want to play bugs that does nothing but eat and destroy?... in a roleplay game!

*Raises hand*

I always liked to play the Tyranid in Warhammer 40k...

[LordVader]

As suggested for working SC as a MMO, you could control squads of Zerg instead of one PC, since they're so bad. But then, either everyone is Zerg or you are the DM controlling the antagonists.

Of course, the various biomorphs available to Zerg would make levelling up feasible, as you'd still get some kind of realistic bonus.

[JackMage666]

You'd almost have to be restricted be being a Terran - And even then, only a Marine or maybe Firebat.

Vehicles would have to be stated out, so your marine could become a tank, if he got his hands on one.

Protoss, even the weakest, are far stronger than a basic Terran, thus requiring an LA, if played.

And the Zerg... They're always dominated by the Overlord and the Cerebrates, so they can't think for themselves. That's not fun to plat.

[LordVader]

You could have lots of fun with them as the DM, though. >=)

[Rowanomicon]

Well it would require a certain amount of creativity, but it's certainly not as limited as some of you are saying.

I'd say that there would only really be 3 races allowed.
However the main problems could be solved easily:
Terrans start out as marines and can get new equipment or vehicles. They could also develop psionic powers to become a ghost.

Protoss would need to start out somewhat weaker than they do in the RTS game, or they could have the option of taking racial levels.

There could be a faction of the Zerg whose Cerabrate got killed and became independent.
Players could play these and choose specific mutations as they level up.

Of course the game would not be for everyone (just like any game) and it would take creativity to create (just like any campaign setting).

[13_CBS]

IT might be possible to play certain Zerg that, say, broke free of the Overmind's control...

Hey, it happened with the undead in Warcraft.

[Kyeudo]

I've actualy done some work on trying to make this feasible, and I think that all three races are playable in a tabletop RPG, as long as you keep the PC races the same.

If they play Zerg, they play as Overlords, the real creature that manages the swarm. The Overmind directs the Cerebrates, which direct the Overlords, which direct the swarm. As Zerg players level up, they can control either more smaller zerg or fewer big zerg.

[LordVader]

IT might be possible to play certain Zerg that, say, broke free of the Overmind's control...

Hey, it happened with the undead in Warcraft.

Not possible. If the Zerg lose the direction of the Overmind, they go rogue, killing anything in sight. The Forsaken weren't part of a hive-mind.

[Kyeudo]

Not possible. If the Zerg lose the direction of the Overmind, they go rogue, killing anything in sight. The Forsaken weren't part of a hive-mind.

Not technicaly true. If they lose the direction of a Cerebrate or Kerrigan, they go rogue. As long as there is a Cerebrate directing them, their fine.

Also, Rogue zerg don't kill anything in sight, they just start acting on instinct only. The instincts of most swarm creatures is to kill anything that isn't part of the same swarm.

[TSGames]

There was thread on the Wizards boards about two years ago. It was an attempt to utilize d20 modern/future rules to make a viable Starcraft RPG. There were many good ideas presented, but in the end entropy won out and thread imploded on itself amongst the roar and bickering of angsty forum posters. It made it to about 20 pages, and then there was a second thread which was an absolute failure. I haven't been able to find either of them, I think they've since been deleted.

[Dervag]

As for how it worked with Starcraft, I can't really say. Starcraft was never intended to be an RPG universe, so any attempts to make it so are doomed to the usual problems that plague such efforts (see any Star Wars RPG).

It was bad, mostly because it was done off the cuff. There wasn't enough literature in the box to construct your own characters or to get far constructing your own adventures, so I can't see how you could have played with anything but the eight premade characters.

The adventures played minor hob with continuity (though, being set after the events of Brood Wars, did not do immense violence to it). Some of the most appealing features of the Alternity engine were removed.

Frankly, I bought it hoping to run it and decided I could do a better job just using the standard Alternity rules and applying them to the Starcraft setting; there's very little in the setting that requires special content creation given the stuff that's already in Alternity. About the only thing that isn't in there would be a mechanic for building Protoss- there's a mechanic for psi powers already, even.

System wise, it's sort of a proto-D20. You always roll a d20 for task resolution, but, depending on difficulty, you add or subtract a "situation die." Your target is the linked attribute or lower and, depending on how low you roll, there are varying degrees of success and failure.

The catch is that, counterintuitively, you subtract bonuses and add penalties; you want to roll low. This is done so that you can have a predefined 'skill score' that your rolls will pass or fail that is intrinsic to you. If you want to perform a simple skill check, you must roll at or below the number specified by your skill, subject to any bonus dice or penalty dice that may apply.

You'd almost have to be restricted be being a Terran - And even then, only a Marine or maybe Firebat.

It would not be hard or unreasonable to provide additional weapons and character design options on top of the 'Marine Armor' and 'Firebat Armor'. After all, those are specific types of military powered armor, not necessarily the only two types of infantry weapons available in the universe.

Also, Rogue zerg don't kill anything in sight, they just start acting on instinct only. The instincts of most swarm creatures is to kill anything that isn't part of the same swarm.

Close enough.

[Kyeudo]

Close enough.

Big Difference. It means zerg from the same swarm won't kill each other, so an Overlord from that swarm can take his minions and do something with them, instead of having to escape from a giant brawl in the hive cluster as every thing kills everything else. Zerg swarms lose cohesion from the lack of a Cerebrate general, but not much more.

Also, has anyone though about where Cerebrates come from? I think they are a mutated form of an Overlord, one so big it can no longer fly.

[TSGames]

Also, has anyone though about where Cerebrates come from? I think they are a mutated form of an Overlord, one so big it can no longer fly.

There are a few questions that I don't want to know the answer too, and that was one.

[Winterwind]

Why do all of you limit the Terrans to the military? I think that's supposed to be a roleplaying game, so combat is not all there is. There are also technicians, pilots, traders, criminals (who were not yet transformed into marines), farmers, colonists and a myriad of other possible character concepts. In fact, the horror of a non-combatant character whose home is swarmed by Zerg, right before he can make it (barely) to some spacecraft and escape the doomed world (not knowing that his adventures only begin here) would be pretty fun to play.

Also, as for the Zerg, there are also Infested Terrans, presumed not all of them get turned into living bombs - those could retain some personality.

But most campaigns would probably be limited to Terrans and Protoss.

[Dervag]

Also, has anyone though about where Cerebrates come from? I think they are a mutated form of an Overlord, one so big it can no longer fly.

The Zerg backstory in the manual seems to cover it. The Cerebrates are vastly enlarged versions of the original Zerg parasite strain (more or less what we now see as the Larva). The Overlords got assimilated into the Swarm later on and used as relay stations for the Cerebrates.

[Kyle]

Ooo.... A while back I started to do a StarCraft conversion to Mutants & Masterminds, but then I got distracted by some shiney object and never returned to it.

I wonder if I still have my notes somewhere.

Personally, I think the best way to go about actually running a campaign--a Terran military campaign anyway, as I figured that would be the best place to start--would be for each player to create a variety of characters which would interact together depending on the situation. One set of characters could be bridge crew aboard a Battlecruiser, another would be ground ops chosen from Marines, Firebats, Medics, Ghosts and SCVs. That sort of thing. A group of characters for whatever situation the players might need to deal with.

[axraelshelm]

*Raises hand*

I always liked to play the Tyranid in Warhammer 40k...

that is a table top war game, a roleplaying game require some sense of interaction with the general world instead of kill, munch, repeat....

[Rowanomicon]

As a Dm it's simple enough to end the debate on "Could there be independent Zerg?"
If you have a character that wants to play one and you want to let him/her play one. then the answer is yes. Otherwise the answer is no.
If I was creating a StarCraft table top I would include rules (perhaps optional) for playing a Zerg. I would also include rules for be infested by Zerg (probably a template).

Kyle, I am unfamiliar with the M&M system, but if you still have your notes and are interest in continuing your work as a joint project (or restarting the work with d20) then I would be interested in working with you.
That goes for anyone else interested in helping build a useable StarCraft campaign Setting.

Winterwind, you bring up a good point. An adventure party, while it could be a military group, would probably actually work better if it was an independent group (from whatever backgrounds).

Many people seem to gravitate towards playing groups. When I play RPGs I want to play individuals, not groups. That's part of the reason I've never taken the Leadership Feat. If the party is the crew of a ship, then that's the party. I wouldn't be totally opposed to having multiple parties for different situations, it would be like having two or three characters and using them only one at a time. However I would rather that be the exception than the rule. I'd rather develop a single character.
If I wanted to control a group I'd play an RTS (and there' already a pretty good RTS game set in the StarCraft universe).
If I wanted to play a group on a table top I'd play Warhammer or Warhammer 40K. It wouldn't even be that hard to pretend that the Empire was Terran and the Tyranids was Zerg. Protoss would be a bit harder, but with some creativity (and the retarded amounts of money it takes to collect those things) it wouldn't be too difficult.

[Winterwind]

While my knowledge of Warhammer 40k is best described by the term 'vague', aren't the Eldar something similar to the Protoss?

And I agree with the rest of your post. I prefer to see roleplaying games as teling a story together, with the player characters being the protagonists, and since good stories often have widely different protagonists (and gain much from the group dynamics this ensures), I don't see why a group should not consist of a colonist, who has spent his live trying to set up something one could call home against all odds on some backwater planet with conditions one could call "life supporting" only by using a very loose definition of that term, one tough and indoctrinated marine from some militia which has been overrun, abandoned by his command, and a Protoss Khalai Psi-Engineer (making terms up now), all united by a strange twist of fate.
I bet that would be interesting.