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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Pixie in the Playground
    Join Date
    Feb 2019

    Default Higher tech boats in space?!?!?!

    So I recently held a session Zero and tried to parse what kind of new game my homegroup would want me to run. I ended up with a setting that essentially looks like spelljammer but with a higher level of technology. Sc-fi, High fantasy, vampires, traditional fantasy races, space travel, sky pirates, firefly, mass effect, treasure planet, space boats where all topics that came up and meshed with people.
    I am familiar enough with spelljammer that I could probably make something looking like it, I just have a couple of problems.
    1. I don't want a "Heavy Metal" style 80s swords and sorcery but in space setting. But I don't want the levels of tech you see with games like Starfinder or Warhammer. I want traditional weapons to be believable but have guns and such as well.
    2. I can't seem to find ways to mix higher levels of tech like cybernetics with the setting I sort of have in mind.
    It's the first time since January that I've really run anything and any ideas would really help me get the creative juices flowing.

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    Flumph

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    Feb 2005
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    Santa Barbara, CA
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    Default Re: Higher tech boats in space?!?!?!

    While at times a total mess Rifts did a sideline in this...Phaseworld and Wormwood are the book names I remember being in that section. Its a high investment setting (if the ST doesn't get the system well and edit it for their own use it can go sideways very easily) so I'm not sure you'd want to use it wholesale but it very possible and probably a good resource to look at and lift from in any case.

    And these have most of what you are talking about in terms of races being around (mostly in how it links back to Rifts classic) but also with cybernetics etc.
    Last edited by sktarq; 2020-06-22 at 10:51 AM.

  3. - Top - End - #3
    Pixie in the Playground
    Join Date
    Feb 2019

    Default Re: Higher tech boats in space?!?!?!

    Ill take a look. Thank you for the reccomend.

  4. - Top - End - #4
    Troll in the Playground
     
    HalflingPirate

    Join Date
    Nov 2011

    Default Re: Higher tech boats in space?!?!?!

    Quote Originally Posted by Ammogromin View Post
    So I recently held a session Zero and tried to parse what kind of new game my homegroup would want me to run. I ended up with a setting that essentially looks like spelljammer but with a higher level of technology. Sc-fi, High fantasy, vampires, traditional fantasy races, space travel, sky pirates, firefly, mass effect, treasure planet, space boats where all topics that came up and meshed with people.
    I am familiar enough with spelljammer that I could probably make something looking like it, I just have a couple of problems.
    1. I don't want a "Heavy Metal" style 80s swords and sorcery but in space setting. But I don't want the levels of tech you see with games like Starfinder or Warhammer. I want traditional weapons to be believable but have guns and such as well.
    2. I can't seem to find ways to mix higher levels of tech like cybernetics with the setting I sort of have in mind.
    It's the first time since January that I've really run anything and any ideas would really help me get the creative juices flowing.
    Classic Traveller did this well, but the (psionic) magic system was not as robust as some desired.

    Since the first edition, Mongoose, G.U.R.P.S., and D20 have all offered versions. Mongoose and G.U.S.P.S. Both tend to be rules-heavy for my taste, though I have never played their version of Traveller.

    D20 Traveller should meld with 3.5 D&D with little effort.

  5. - Top - End - #5
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    RangerGuy

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    Sep 2009
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    Craig, Co
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    Default Re: Higher tech boats in space?!?!?!

    You might check out Dragonstar, which was a Fantasy Flight Games campaign setting for D&D 3.0 that never got updated. You can get a few of the books from DriveThru, but the rest seem to have vanished. But it is very much D&D in space (real space, not fantasy space like Spelljammer had).
    While it is never mentioned, the movie Ice Pirates always come to mind when I read the Dragonstar material.
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  6. - Top - End - #6
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    nijineko's Avatar

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    Jul 2007
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    Sol 3

    Default Re: Higher tech boats in space?!?!?!

    Space 1889 is a Victorian era space rpg, which might be useful for a more fantastical but lower tech set of reference material.

    The Lensman series by EE Doc Smith is also excellent inspiration. While the books are decidedly space opera, and contain elements common to their times which might be less... acceptable... to a modern audience's sensibilities, the setting and background is quite interesting. There was also an anime adaption made of the concept, and GURPS, as usual, has a sourcebook for it, though that can be hard to find.

    Don't forget Dune for ideas... their unique personal shielding system made low tech weapons a necessity for personal combat, as anything high tech would get stopped by the shield, even sniping.

    TSR's old Star Frontiers rpg is available online, dated, but it is the original "Wild West in Space" rpg, long before the Serenity tv/movie/rpg came out. Very rough frontier type settings are common, broken up by the few highly populated and advanced core planets. Other than homeworlds and the few well developed planets, most places only have a single spaceport, if that, with the rest of the planet to explore and develop. If you've read Andre Norton's sci-fi, you'll have a pretty good idea of what to expect. Very Forbidden Planet feel, but without too much high tech.

    I seem to recall hearing about a story where undead creatures moved off planet and lived in mostly unpressurized space stations far from the local sun, or even in deep space. Such an adaption would allow the intelligent undead to become great starship mechanics, probably take their payments in donated blood or unwanted bodies or something.
    Last edited by nijineko; 2020-06-25 at 02:21 PM.
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  7. - Top - End - #7
    Barbarian in the Playground
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    Dec 2015
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    Default Re: Higher tech boats in space?!?!?!

    I'm putting my vote in for Dungeons the Dragoning: 40,000 7th Edition.

    While it's high-tech in the vein of warhammer 40k, medieval type weapons are just as, if not more at times, useful. There are sword schools and gun kata alongside the magic schools, allowing you to create elaborate and powerful special abilities for melee and ranged weapons respectively, made even stronger by the robust stunting rules giving your players bonuses for trying off the wall and insane ideas with the environment. There are rules for ship combat, land combat, vehicle combat, aerial combat, etc. All of the spaceships are built from the ground up allowing you to customize it to your liking with many different ship classes ranging from a tiny corvette to a massive flagship battleship, all of which you're able to buy with enough investment.

    There is a casting system with magic schools based on wh40k psionics with powerful effects if you miscast. However, miscasting doesn't necessarily mean that you didn't cast the spell, it just means that something else happens in addition to the effects of the spell if you hit the target number for the spell. If you don't hit the target number, the spell fizzles but you still might have to deal with the extra effects from the casting process anyways.

    Cybernetics are part of the base game and one of the exaltations is the promethian which is basically a robocop/GitS/DC Cyborg type character. Oh and speaking of which there's exaltations, special powers that make you a cut above the rest from the very first level like vampires, werewolves, cyborgs, kryptonians, demon-posessed, "special otherkin", and far more. Many races to choose from with the formatting easy to get a hold of and make more content for. Even better, since the entire system is a cobbled together frankenstein formed from the corpses of like 7-10 other rpgs and animated with the unholy spark of a dare set to be released on april fool's day, it's completely homebrew friendly and entirely free. It's also one of the best games I've ever played.
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  8. - Top - End - #8
    Pixie in the Playground
    Join Date
    Feb 2019

    Default Re: Higher tech boats in space?!?!?!

    Got quite a few more replies than I was expecting. I think I managed to hash out setting ideas for the most part. The group had actually decided on a system already but I'm frankly a guy that enjoys a lot of the old school themes (even if I wasnt around for most of it).
    The group wanted to try out BESM 4e since it came out (surrounded by weebs) and I can at the very least make what I need for it.
    I have a list of game systems I periodically grab the rule books for for inspiration. So I will add all of your suggestions to it.
    Mainly I was suffering from writers block on how to generate the setting as I'm used to fantasy in the more traditional sense.
    I will probably write a synopsis of it here tomorrow if anyone is interesed.

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