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ManMythLegend
Aug 18, 2003

I don't believe in anything, I'm just here for the violence.

hectorgrey posted:

Here's a question - I rewatched mighty morphin' power rangers because I was really loving bored. I was wondering what system people would use for this; it would need to handle basic humans just as well as superpowered characters (since they have no powers in their suits), which rules GURPS and HERO out, since GURPS doesn't handle superhuman characters very well, and HERO doesn't handle regular humans very well.

I'd prefer pretty crunchy, since combat would be a fairly major portion of the campaign, and a decent level of realism on the human level (that is, a human can't take a solid hit from Goldar's sword without needing emergency medical treatment, and so forth), and naturally it'll need to handle vehicles reasonably well. So, any ideas guys?

Incidentally, I'd also use a few ideas from the movie, wherein the suits also have enhanced vision modes and poo poo like that. Also, the guns that the Rangers get would hopefully actually see some use.

How about D&D 4E? It's simple with a lot of crunchy combat. Also, with appropriate flavor, the powers can be suitably campy, four color, and over the top.

Barring that, I'll go with my default recommendation of Savage Worlds with the Super Powers Companion.

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Lynx Winters
May 1, 2003

Borderlawns: The Treehouse of Pandora
Mutants and Masterminds should work fine.

hectorgrey
Oct 14, 2011
The problem with 4e is more when the rangers aren't morphed. Besides, I've no idea how I'd use zords for that kind of game. Also, I'm one of those weird people who likes active defences and doesn't like class based systems very much. As to M&M, that's one of the True20 systems, isn't it?

I know, I'm being a fussy bastard. So sue me ;).

Man-Thing
Apr 29, 2011

Whatever knows fear
BURNS at the touch

Lynx Winters posted:

Mutants and Masterminds should work fine.

I was gonna say this. It's perfect, just make PL3 characters for their teen gymnast characters, and PL10s for their Zords.

Echophonic
Sep 16, 2005

ha;lp
Gun Saliva
I've been trying to figure out how to turn Continuum into a fun, playable game. It's far too finicky and complicated RAW to really keep my attention. I feel like Span and Frag and the associated mechanics could be ported prettymuch wholesale, with a few minor things like adjusting what Frag does in terms of penalties. The system as-is really likes skills and I don't see a problem with that as long as the system I wind up with deals with them well, especially improving them. You don't usually need to track wealth at all, which is a plus. I'd like some crunch to the equipment, but ideally not too complicated.

I'm sort of leaning FATE (why wouldn't I be for something like this?), but I'm not sure where to start or what things to pull from each current book. I definitely like Aspects for characters, with potentially a smaller number of stats, but more emphasis on skills. I like Strand's equipment having Aspects a lot, but I think the system overall is not the tool for the job. Maybe I'll just put it on the back burner again until Fate Core 3.0 comes out. I need to get things sorted for some Paranoia games anyway and the FATAL and Indie Games thread have me looking pretty hard at Mouse Guard.

Anyone have any thoughts on how to do a fairly detailed time travel RPG?

hectorgrey posted:

The problem with 4e is more when the rangers aren't morphed. Besides, I've no idea how I'd use zords for that kind of game. Also, I'm one of those weird people who likes active defences and doesn't like class based systems very much. As to M&M, that's one of the True20 systems, isn't it?

I know, I'm being a fussy bastard. So sue me ;).

Check out Strands of FATE, it's got powers and such for shapeshifting. You get to shuffle your stats around, so you've got competent characters, and then you have a slightly more powerful form that you access with a Fate Point. Seems appropriate for a Power Rangers sort of game. This would also allow some customization in your players if they want to have their street-level characters good at things and have the rangers be tougher and faster and such.

Shapeshifting with a limitation of needing a morpher or other gadget and only into a Ranger form is like 6 character generation points. They can then build martial artists, nerds, token minorities, what have you with advantages and differing skills. It's not perfect, but I'm sure you can find a way to make it work. Start at Metro class and see if that's enough to do the job. Only let players have super powers while Shapeshifted, maybe?

Or just say gently caress it and just have two characters, one at say Hero level and a transformed Ranger character with most of the same abilities, but a few super powers starting at Metro Class like Super Strength and Super Agility.

It also has pretty solid vehicle rules that I'm sure you could use for Zords.

LightWarden
Mar 18, 2007

Lander county's safe as heaven,
despite all the strife and boilin',
Tin Star,
Oh how she's an icon of the eastern west,
But now the time has come to end our song,
of the Tin Star, the Tin Star!

hectorgrey posted:

The problem with 4e is more when the rangers aren't morphed. Besides, I've no idea how I'd use zords for that kind of game. Also, I'm one of those weird people who likes active defences and doesn't like class based systems very much. As to M&M, that's one of the True20 systems, isn't it?

I know, I'm being a fussy bastard. So sue me ;).

Well, if you're using something like Maptool or something, it's not too hard to change from human to giant fighting robot just by changing the scale of the map, so that one square is fifty feet instead of five, for instance, especially if you can get a city map (just using Google Satellite View can help if your setting is remotely Modern-Earth-based) so that buildings become terrain features.

I like 4e and think it makes for a good giant fighting robot game, since you have things like at-will, encounter and daily powers for your various levels of attacks, healing surges for your burning spirit (especially with a houserule to let players use Charisma instead of Constitution like with the Ring of Tenacious Will), radiant damage for your knock-off lightsabers, encounter-long abilities for transformations, Tiamat as an example of how to run a combination character, vehicle rules in Gamma World's online supplement, and stuff like that. For when you're out of form, you can represent it with things like lower level/level 0, a loss of powers, a fraction of HP, lack of inherent/equipment bonuses to attacks/defenses. You can uses classes as less of a "I am a fighter" sort of thing, and more an example of what you do in battle and how you do it ("I use heavy armor and my skill with weapons to protect my comrades"), though if you prefer more finely-customized characters with a point or aspect system instead of 4e's class and power selection, then I guess that's not as much of a help.

Doc Hawkins
Jun 15, 2010

Dashing? But I'm not even moving!


hectorgrey posted:

Here's a question - I rewatched mighty morphin' power rangers because I was really loving bored. I was wondering what system people would use for this; it would need to handle basic humans just as well as superpowered characters (since they have no powers in their suits), which rules GURPS and HERO out, since GURPS doesn't handle superhuman characters very well, and HERO doesn't handle regular humans very well.

How about Mutants and...gently caress!

Okay, I'll go with Wild Talents.

Echophonic posted:

Anyone have any thoughts on how to do a fairly detailed time travel RPG?

I've toyed with the same idea. I'd say choose a focus for the game beyond "you can time travel," and build something on top of the time-fight mechanics. And check out Time & Temp, I heard a good thing about it once.

LincolnSmash
May 23, 2011

Six Glistening Black Eyes
If I wanted to do simmy post-apoc a la Fallout, should I use BRP or ORE? Savage Worlds seems okay, but I'm not sure it's my cup o' tea. BRP may be showing its age a bit, even in its most recent form, but it still strikes me as slightly more intuitive than ORE's system due to everything being percentiles.

Dr. Quarex
Apr 18, 2003

I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

Echophonic posted:

Anyone have any thoughts on how to do a fairly detailed time travel RPG?
There is a newish obscure game called Jumpers (which openly admits to being based on Sliders) that I thought worked pretty well in this regard in the game I played at Gen-Con; in order to solve the problem of characters being able to do absurd things with the time stream, the time-travelling is entirely controlled by the gamemaster for the sake of creating interesting scenes. It basically wins the award for "best creation of verisimilitude for dramatic rescues," as I was nearly killed in three out of the four "jumps" we ran, but it actually felt totally awesome instead of cheesy every time (because you have no idea how/why you are jumping through time, so it makes just as much sense as any other potential explanation that "whatever being is controlling it wants you to survive").

That said, the system is not stellar, though it actually has some pretty innovative aspects, and it is certainly not so clumsy that it gets in your way.

If you are looking for something where the players can actually do things themselves, well, I have no idea. I am sure that is the reason no good Bill & Ted or Doctor Who RPGs exist.

Etherwind
Apr 22, 2008
Probation
Can't post for 108 days!
Soiled Meat
Wasn't the new Dr Who RPG surprisingly good, and very representative of the way the show unfolds? I particularly like the initiative order of "People who talk, then people who do something clever, then people who run away, then people who shoot."

hectorgrey
Oct 14, 2011
For simmy, BRP is good. For super-simmy, add the Trauma handbook from Radical Approach and use any locational damage optional rules that BRP happens to bring with it.

Chaotic Neutral
Aug 29, 2011
Running an internet 4e game soon, roughly based on Fire Emblem but with more of a classic D&D spin. Woo. That's all great, but the problem is that skills have left me wanting in a big way, and there were several times when I was doing extended non-combat sessions where I really wished I had something to fall back on.

So I'm thinking about doing just that. Yeah, two systems is extra overhead for all involved, but the players are all quite familiar with 4e and sharp enough to handle it, I think.

Question is, does such a mythical system exist that:
- can flexibly handle a variety of non-combat situations,
- won't suffer horribly upon having combat systems mostly ignored,
- and won't impose additional overhead and wackiness when combat is going on?

Super bonus points if it can also handle group management - I can always wedge in REIGN Companies, too, but three systems miiiight be pushing the limits of overhead, even though I suspect I have a couple players who would love the idea.

I am probably dreaming beyond practicality, here, but drat it it's worth a try.

Lynx Winters
May 1, 2003

Borderlawns: The Treehouse of Pandora
GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. Primarily a D&D style dungeon crawl kind of game, but most of the classes have stuff they can do out of fights. The second book looks like a GM guide at first but it's actually full of things for players to do cool poo poo with in and out of fights, and it's written in a really easy-to-understand way. People like to say GURPS is hard because it just throws everything at you at once, but Dungeon Fantasy is more-or-less class based and basically tells you what you'll need to know up front.

Elfgames
Sep 11, 2011

Fun Shoe

Chaotic Neutral posted:

Running an internet 4e game soon, roughly based on Fire Emblem but with more of a classic D&D spin. Woo. That's all great, but the problem is that skills have left me wanting in a big way, and there were several times when I was doing extended non-combat sessions where I really wished I had something to fall back on.

So I'm thinking about doing just that. Yeah, two systems is extra overhead for all involved, but the players are all quite familiar with 4e and sharp enough to handle it, I think.

Question is, does such a mythical system exist that:
- can flexibly handle a variety of non-combat situations,
- won't suffer horribly upon having combat systems mostly ignored,
- and won't impose additional overhead and wackiness when combat is going on?

Super bonus points if it can also handle group management - I can always wedge in REIGN Companies, too, but three systems miiiight be pushing the limits of overhead, even though I suspect I have a couple players who would love the idea.

I am probably dreaming beyond practicality, here, but drat it it's worth a try.
If you want to use another system for non combat stuff I suggest Legends of Anglerre.

It's Fits quite well with the three points you mentioned and It even comes with it's own company type rules so you don't have to try and bolt reign onto it too.

moths
Aug 25, 2004

I would also still appreciate some danger.



LincolnSmash posted:

If I wanted to do simmy post-apoc a la Fallout, should I use BRP or ORE?

If you wanted to do Fallout specifically, GURPS would be a great ironic homage.

Lynx Winters
May 1, 2003

Borderlawns: The Treehouse of Pandora
Also, SJ Games is making a GURPS post-apoc game in the same vein as Dungeon Fantasy, Action, and Monster Hunters aka it spends all the points for you and you make a couple easy decisions and there's really no hard math at all.

SageNytell
Sep 28, 2008

<REDACT> THIS!

LincolnSmash posted:

If I wanted to do simmy post-apoc a la Fallout, should I use BRP or ORE? Savage Worlds seems okay, but I'm not sure it's my cup o' tea. BRP may be showing its age a bit, even in its most recent form, but it still strikes me as slightly more intuitive than ORE's system due to everything being percentiles.

Nemesis in the ORE can do this fairly well, I just tried a game recently and I was surprised by how flexible the ORE really is. Plus it's available free.

InfiniteJesters
Jan 26, 2012
Would GURPS, d20 Future, Diaspora or something completely different be best for playing a sci-fi game in the vein of Mass Effect (albeit with a more homebrew setting?)

Man-Thing
Apr 29, 2011

Whatever knows fear
BURNS at the touch

InfiniteJesters posted:

Would GURPS, d20 Future, Diaspora or something completely different be best for playing a sci-fi game in the vein of Mass Effect (albeit with a more homebrew setting?)

Honestly I think Rogue Trader is pretty brilliant. That's literally what I'm doing now. Barring that, I would heavily reskin D&D 4e. I would stay far, far away from d20 future and especially GURPS.

Lynx Winters
May 1, 2003

Borderlawns: The Treehouse of Pandora
d20 modern/future are garbage, GURPS is fine but needs a lot of work on the GM's part for defining how space magic works. I've heard D6 Space works pretty well since it's a newer version of what the old Star Wars game used.

InfiniteJesters
Jan 26, 2012
May I ask what's wrong with d20 Future (besides that it inherits what shortcomings follow any d20 system game, obviously)?

And if it clarifies things a little, the setting is...Somewhat harder, I think, than Mass Effect? And it doesn't have Mass Effect's lame restrictions on cybernetics/transhumanism.

hectorgrey
Oct 14, 2011
In the vein of mass effect, I'd go with Traveller, personally - Mongoose Traveller being my flavour of choice, but there you go.

The Oldest Man
Jul 28, 2003

InfiniteJesters posted:

May I ask what's wrong with d20 Future (besides that it inherits what shortcomings follow any d20 system game, obviously)?

And if it clarifies things a little, the setting is...Somewhat harder, I think, than Mass Effect? And it doesn't have Mass Effect's lame restrictions on cybernetics/transhumanism.

Have you heard of/read Transhuman Space?

Winson_Paine
Oct 27, 2000

Wait, something is wrong.

InfiniteJesters posted:

May I ask what's wrong with d20 Future (besides that it inherits what shortcomings follow any d20 system game, obviously)?

And if it clarifies things a little, the setting is...Somewhat harder, I think, than Mass Effect? And it doesn't have Mass Effect's lame restrictions on cybernetics/transhumanism.

Why would you post a question in this thread if you already had your answer?

Man-Thing
Apr 29, 2011

Whatever knows fear
BURNS at the touch

InfiniteJesters posted:

May I ask what's wrong with d20 Future (besides that it inherits what shortcomings follow any d20 system game, obviously)?
To answer honestly, it's because d20 Modern is a loving trainwreck of a terrible system that took everything wrong with 3.5 D&D and amplified it. The only good thing about Modern is its view on how to handle wealth in a modern setting.

InfiniteJesters
Jan 26, 2012

Winson_Paine posted:

Why would you post a question in this thread if you already had your answer?

It just seems odd to me that people would be okay with, say, D&D 3E/3.5E but dislike d20 Modern/Future and I was wondering if they changed something drastically despite being the same core system.

Aaaaand Man-Thing just answered my question. I *do* remember reading about tanks/vehicles in d20 Modern being absolutely broken as Hell, sooo... :v:

@The Oldest Man: Heard of, yes. Read, no. Probably should do so.

@HectorGrey: I might as well give it a shot. Now to see if the gaming store in this tiny town actually has it...

Winson_Paine
Oct 27, 2000

Wait, something is wrong.
If you are bent on using a d20 based system and don't mind making some things up, check out Spycraft 2.0 which is about as good as a modern implementation of d20 as you are likely gonna see.

Otherwise just go with GURPS or FATE or PDQ depending on how much crunch you want. Any one of those will do fine.

Male Man
Aug 16, 2008

Im, too sexy for your teatime
Too sexy for your teatime
That tea that you're just driiinkiing

Man-Thing posted:

To answer honestly, it's because d20 Modern is a loving trainwreck of a terrible system that took everything wrong with 3.5 D&D and amplified it. The only good thing about Modern is its view on how to handle wealth in a modern setting.

The best thing about d20 Modern is Solid!: The D20 Blaxploitation Experience.

Man-Thing
Apr 29, 2011

Whatever knows fear
BURNS at the touch

Male Man posted:

The best thing about d20 Modern is Solid!: The D20 Blaxploitation Experience.

Oh god that's a real thing :gonk:

CHaKKaWaKka
Aug 6, 2001

I've chosen my next victim. Cry tears of joy it's not you!

I'm looking for a system that can do pilots and their giant robots. I thought of using M&M but I ran a M&M game for about a year and now I just get instantly bored whenever I see a system that uses a d20 as its main thing. Is battletech a thing that would work? I've heard about it quite a bit but it seemed to be more of a wargame than a RPG, I think?

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe

Man-Thing posted:

Oh god that's a real thing :gonk:


I have a hard copy of Solid!, it's amazing.

Lynx Winters
May 1, 2003

Borderlawns: The Treehouse of Pandora

CHaKKaWaKka posted:

I'm looking for a system that can do pilots and their giant robots. I thought of using M&M but I ran a M&M game for about a year and now I just get instantly bored whenever I see a system that uses a d20 as its main thing. Is battletech a thing that would work? I've heard about it quite a bit but it seemed to be more of a wargame than a RPG, I think?

Mechwarrior is the RPG set in the Battletech universe, but I don't know anything about it beyond that. There's also Heavy Gear which I read but never played but it seemed alright.

Male Man
Aug 16, 2008

Im, too sexy for your teatime
Too sexy for your teatime
That tea that you're just driiinkiing

Man-Thing posted:

Oh god that's a real thing :gonk:

My older brother won a copy in an RPG tournament. No one ever actually wanted to play it, but it was hilarious to leaf through. Highlights include an entire section on jive-talk, a black preacher prestige class that grants followers and a feat that allows you to gather information through hate sex.

The Oldest Man
Jul 28, 2003

Lynx Winters posted:

Mechwarrior is the RPG set in the Battletech universe, but I don't know anything about it beyond that. There's also Heavy Gear which I read but never played but it seemed alright.

MechWarrior has lifepath character generation which is always hilarious. Heavy Gear is just... peculiar. Hard to describe unless you've read it but they are real serious about their metaplot I guess.

GimmickMan
Dec 27, 2011

CHaKKaWaKka posted:

I'm looking for a system that can do pilots and their giant robots. I thought of using M&M but I ran a M&M game for about a year and now I just get instantly bored whenever I see a system that uses a d20 as its main thing. Is battletech a thing that would work? I've heard about it quite a bit but it seemed to be more of a wargame than a RPG, I think?

If I may toot my own horn a little...

quote:

http://www.mediafire.com/?59749ni5owxowb9
http://www.4shared.com/rar/lYXHhvab/GGG_v11.html

What you will find in GGG:

-A streamlined Mecha system that is easily adapted to any kind of game.
-Mechanics that emphasize the narrative and incentivize both good sportsmanship and character immersion.
-Balanced Gameplay that can be as simple or as complex as the group wants it to be.
-Rules that allow any kind of PC to be just as good a pilot as everyone else, no matter how feeble or wimpy.
-A setting with three possible game modes, evocative of classic and modern Mecha with their own distinctive style.

What you will NOT find in GGG:

-Mecha customization extensive on the numbers akin to an engineering simulator.
-Gameplay that prioritizes narrative control over all other mechanics.
-Necessary referencing of tables and charts during gameplay.
-A system for standalone one-shot action adventures.
-A miniatures-based combat system.

Yes, it is free.

Echophonic
Sep 16, 2005

ha;lp
Gun Saliva

CHaKKaWaKka posted:

I'm looking for a system that can do pilots and their giant robots. I thought of using M&M but I ran a M&M game for about a year and now I just get instantly bored whenever I see a system that uses a d20 as its main thing. Is battletech a thing that would work? I've heard about it quite a bit but it seemed to be more of a wargame than a RPG, I think?

Check out Remnants by Outrider Studios. Has a really cool setting and it's pretty rules-light. Even has rules for stunting for bonuses, which I quite like. Just a d6+Mods system for resolution, has a fair amount of customization, and seems like it should be pretty fun in practice.

I can't recommend buying the hard copy, though. I ordered mine at the end of December and I still haven't seen it. They sent me a PDF copy of their other game once I sent my first email after 2 weeks, but the hardcopy still hasn't shown.

Edit: It got caught up in customs. They're apparently switching to Drivethru's print service to avoid this sort of thing in the future.

Echophonic fucked around with this message at 03:40 on Feb 17, 2012

1st Stage Midboss
Oct 29, 2011

You could use Wild Talents and the free online Mecha supplement. I've not actually played it (or Wild Talents at all), but I'm strongly considering it when I do run a mecha game since I've fallen in love with the ORE.

There's also Heroic Journey's Mecha, which looks quite nice. There's a free quickstart so you can see how the rules work; again, I've not run or played it but I like what I've read.

Man-Thing
Apr 29, 2011

Whatever knows fear
BURNS at the touch
Can anyone tell me about the Cortex system that MWP uses? I'm interested in the Marvel Supers game they just put out, want to know if Cortex is rubbish.

hectorgrey
Oct 14, 2011
Cortex is fairly similar to Savage Worlds, as I recall. It's pretty light on crunch, so not really something I'd be likely to choose myself, but it's by no means a bad system.

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Parkreiner
Oct 29, 2011
Well, it's also important to distinguish between Cortex (the version of their house system used in Serenity, Supernatural, and probably a couple other things I forget) and Cortex Plus (a version of the same system with a lot of influence from indie games/story games/filthy hippie meta narrativist games). Smallville, Leverage, and Marvel are all Cortex Plus, which generally means Savage Worlds-ish use of dice (everything rated from d4 to d12, higher skill/power means bigger die size) along with a FATE-style system of luck/fate points (use them to add more dice to your roll or fuel special powers, gain them by intentionally invoking one of your disads or rolling a critical failure) and usually some other game-specific mechanics to reflect the genre (Leverage lets players narrate in stuff they "prepared ahead of time" to reflect being smooth secretive grifters, Smallville's stats represent the strength of the PCs' commitment to or hatred of Truth, Justice, Love, and the other PCs, and characters are rewarded for betraying their deepest ideals at the drop of a hat).

Cortex Plus games are basically kind of a halfway step between traditional gaming and more meta genre-emulation through rules stuff. I've enjoyed the stuff they've put out so far (I've used Smallville for X-Men trainees, zombie outbreak, and a backbiting space opera game influenced by Amber), but I play a lot of indie games. If you absolutely can't stand the idea of, like, having a numerical rating for how committed your guy is to Justice or needing to get a little beat up before you can use your super powers, it might not be for you. Marvel is probably going to be less inclined to melodrama than Smallville, but I think it's probably going to be a pretty big break from FASERIP and Hero too.

Parkreiner fucked around with this message at 02:07 on Feb 15, 2012

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