Mixed Sci fi setting

[Andrew Ciotti]

I was wondering if anyone had done a Setting using TROS that Included Sci fi weapons, Blasters, Guns, Vibro Swords etc. I am thinking of a setting where these things would be elements but it would also include swordplay. I want to keep the Magic/Fey rules and include special SA's. One of the things which concerns me is the shift of focus from sword play to gun play would disrupt the sprit of the game...If this is a repost of something someone has done then I am sorry please direct me to the posts

Thanks

[Jake Norwood]

This isn't a re-post as far as I know. There have been threads about TROS guns (for modern campaigns) and Bob Richter, a regular around here, ran a "riddle of the force" once, but I've never seen his notes for it (but I want to...).

Jake

[Bob Richter]

This isn't a re-post as far as I know. There have been threads about TROS guns (for modern campaigns) and Bob Richter, a regular around here, ran a "riddle of the force" once, but I've never seen his notes for it (but I want to...).

Jake

I haven't really finalized it yet. We ran a really early (alpha) version of it, and it worked out pretty spiffily. SAs and intense swordplay are so completely suited to the Star Wars universe that it's not even funny.

I'm good with my Blaster and Lightsaber rules, but I think there were some slight issues with Starships (which was the really hard one) and the Force (which was a minor modification of the TROS Sorcery system.)

[Bob Richter]

I was wondering if anyone had done a Setting using TROS that Included Sci fi weapons, Blasters, Guns, Vibro Swords etc. I am thinking of a setting where these things would be elements but it would also include swordplay. I want to keep the Magic/Fey rules and include special SA's. One of the things which concerns me is the shift of focus from sword play to gun play would disrupt the sprit of the game...If this is a repost of something someone has done then I am sorry please direct me to the posts

Thanks

We've run both Riddle of the Force (Star Wars) and Riddletech (Battletech.)

So, yes, I've had Blasters, Lightsabers, Guns, Vibro-swords, etc. all in TROS games.

Gun play works well with TROS, but if you want to make swords still viable, make a sword a better weapon than a gun.

Dune does this by providing projectile shields that stop fast-moving projectiles (and react violently with laser and particle guns,) but allow for killing an opponent with a melee weapon (such as a sword) or a slow-moving projectile weapon (such as a bow)

Star Wars does it by having potent energy-swords that can be used by force-wielding Jedi to deflect blaster bolts -- sometimes right back at the guy who fired them.

In Battletech, the (Vibro)Sword is the weapon of choice for deep-space boarding actions. Even a Pistol or Crossbow could cause a dangerous puncture in the sides of a thin-skinned Jumpship, to say nothing of the irreplacable equipment you could be destroying.

Blasters and Guns use the puncture table. I like to add in the elemental damage on top for Blasters, but remove the Blood Loss (any wound is instantly cauterized.) Don't worry, there's still plenty of "Death" Results on the Puncture table.

A Stun-setting Blaster might only dish out Shock and Pain (like the Elemental Damage Table.)

We used an auto-fire rule where you divide your MP between all the shots fired in your (1-2 sec) turn, but we didn't have good rules for area-denial bursts (suppression fire) and such.

[Brian Leybourne]

I'm good with my Blaster and Lightsaber rules, but I think there were some slight issues with Starships (which was the really hard one) and the Force (which was a minor modification of the TROS Sorcery system.)

I'm glad to see you didn't make the force an SA.. I never liked that idea, although most of the folk around here loved it :-)

I like the idea of the Force as something where you have a Force Pool (FP) based on your WP and raw talent (your midichlorian count, if you like, although I'm the first to say that I wish Lucas had never pulled midichlorians out of his ass) and then there are a series of different force powers (Force Pull, Force Lightning, Force Jump, etc although I never sat down and worked out what I thought they would actually be) which would be treated as skills - they represent the TN to use that force ability, which you do by spending dice from your FP and rolling against the power difficulty. Additionally, you could add FP dice to your CP on a 1-for-1 basis as well, something clearly seen in most of the films where the Force was used to make people better fighters etc. FP would refresh pretty fast too, you never saw anybody in the films "running out" of force as it's easy to do with SP, for example.

Dark side/Light side? Well, that would depend on what powers you choose to develop and how you use the Force of course, it certainly shouldn't be something black and white, but more shades of grey such as in the films (Luke skirted pretty close to the Dark side a few times). How is the dark side "easier" than the light side? Maybe it's easier to buy down the TN's of "dark side" powers than it is to buy down the "light side" ones.

Etc.

But as I say, I never seriously thought about it much beyond what I just typed. Other technological stuff like blasters etc is easy enough and I would do them like (it sounds like) Bob did. Starships would be pretty easy as an extension of the naval ships I have been working on for the mass combat stuff. It's all a project to work on one day...

Brian.

[OriginalFlash]

I have a copy of Warpworld from Greg Porter/BTRC that I am in the process of converting (actually just starting) that is Post Holocaust with Sorcerers, Low-tech and Magic Powered High tech.  Worth a look if you wanted a mixed setting.

Jonathan

[Furious D]

I'm glad to see you didn't make the force an SA.. I never liked that idea, although most of the folk around here loved it :-)

Actually, we did make the Dark Side an SA, or actually more of an inverse SA.  Dark Side dice could be added freely to any force roll you wanted, as often as once per turn.  BUT, each point of Dark Side you had lowered the maximum level for all your other SAs by one.  Thus, they gave their user up to six extra dice to toss into any force action per turn, but at the price of basically crippling character advancement, especially since they couldn't be spent in the same manner as other SAs (if you had 6 Dark Side points, all of your other SAs would be stuck at zero until you did some redeeming.).  I wrote up a nifty set of guidelines on increasing and decreasing the Dark Side (which were actually more a matter of emotional state than "evil", though some powers earned Dark Side points automatically).

That was coupled to a powered down, fatigue based variant on tRoS sorcery where the dice replenished much faster.

I like the idea of the Force as something where you have a Force Pool (FP) based on your WP and raw talent (your midichlorian count, if you like, although I'm the first to say that I wish Lucas had never pulled midichlorians out of his ass) and then there are a series of different force powers (Force Pull, Force Lightning, Force Jump, etc although I never sat down and worked out what I thought they would actually be) which would be treated as skills - they represent the TN to use that force ability, which you do by spending dice from your FP and rolling against the power difficulty. Additionally, you could add FP dice to your CP on a 1-for-1 basis as well, something clearly seen in most of the films where the Force was used to make people better fighters etc. FP would refresh pretty fast too, you never saw anybody in the films "running out" of force as it's easy to do with SP, for example.

We ended up using derived attributes similar to what tRoS uses.  FP replenished at a rate of Draw dice/round and you got a certain number of free dice to resist fatigue based on one of the other derived attributes (I forget which one, probably the one with endurance and willpower in it).  Basically, the attributes were renamed (no more arcane names like Kaa and such) and reintroduced so that they were all useful on a consistent basis (instead of going entire games without ever being used, like the ritual attributes).  Thus Jedi were able to do all the normal Jedi goodness with little or no holdups and only wear themselves out if their willpower is low, or they just really do a poor job of managing their dice pool.

Things like "high mediclorine count" were gifts that gave bonus FP dice (pretty much just a port of "gift of the ancients").

Our first go-around used vagary like force abilities (control, sense, and alter), but that just wasn't very satisfying, so we've been thinking of using force abilities as skills, like you were just mentioning.  It seems doubly good because the lower TNs as skills improve means that fatigue becomes even easier to avoid.  Thus, Luke gets tired lifting a rock, while Yoda lifts X-Wings with ease (though Yodas high level of Faith: The Force, indicating his belief that it can do anything certainly helps)

Dark side/Light side? Well, that would depend on what powers you choose to develop and how you use the Force of course, it certainly shouldn't be something black and white, but more shades of grey such as in the films (Luke skirted pretty close to the Dark side a few times). How is the dark side "easier" than the light side? Maybe it's easier to buy down the TN's of "dark side" powers than it is to buy down the "light side" ones.

See above.  It worked pretty well.  There was a definite trade off between immediate power and future advancement that I was pretty proud of.

[Lance D. Allen]

I'd really like to see some sort of consensus of notes for a "Riddle of the Force" add-on. I understand that, due to licensing, that it would have to be entirely unofficial, but fan material has always been okay before, so I don't perceive any problems.

[Brian Leybourne]

Lance,

So far only three of us have posted ideas and already there's no consensus, so I don't think you'll be seeing anything like that anytime soon :-)

Having said that, as I mentioned earlier I'm keen to work on Star Wars TROS someday when I have more time (after my pending trip at least) and would be keen to work with others on it, but that would require a "meeting of the minds" on how things work, and as I already said I don't like the Force-as-SA's idea much, which probably sets me apart from most other forum members (although in my idea it works much like an SA, it's just not actually an SA and goes higher, like SP).

Brian.

[Bob Richter]

I'd really like to see some sort of consensus of notes for a "Riddle of the Force" add-on. I understand that, due to licensing, that it would have to be entirely unofficial, but fan material has always been okay before, so I don't perceive any problems.

I'll post my (semi-)complete RoTF rules as soon as I've hammered out the bugs. There won't be any consensus (try building consensus among gamers who aren't completely like-minded sometime,) but at least there will be a pre-made Star Wars "module" for folks who want to use it.

[Bob Richter]

Starships would be pretty easy as an extension of the naval ships I have been working on for the mass combat stuff. It's all a project to work on one day...

Brian.

Well, Starships *IS* a broad group that spans the distance between X-Wings and TIE Fighters (which act much like WWII Fighters) and Star Destroyers and Death Stars (which act much like large warships from WWII)

But I'd be interested in seeing your thoughts on Naval Warfare and how we might apply them in RoTF.

[Lance D. Allen]

(try building consensus among gamers who aren't completely like-minded sometime,)

Tried it. A thirsty viking I knew, and one Mike Holmes and I were working on an add-on to bring Gladiatorial arena fighting to TRoS. Life and it's happenings interfered, but I'd like to take the project up again some time.

[Bob Richter]

(try building consensus among gamers who aren't completely like-minded sometime,)

Tried it. A thirsty viking I knew, and one Mike Holmes and I were working on an add-on to bring Gladiatorial arena fighting to TRoS. Life and it's happenings interfered, but I'd like to take the project up again some time.

Getting two folks to agree is child's play. Getting everybody who's worked up their own TROS Star Wars thing to agree would be impossible. :)

I've got a number of good people working on mine with me. Hopefully it will turn out well.

[Sneaky Git]

We've run both Riddle of the Force (Star Wars) and Riddletech (Battletech.)

So, yes, I've had Blasters, Lightsabers, Guns, Vibro-swords, etc. all in TROS games.

Gun play works well with TROS, but if you want to make swords still viable, make a sword a better weapon than a gun.

Dune does this by providing projectile shields that stop fast-moving projectiles (and react violently with laser and particle guns,) but allow for killing an opponent with a melee weapon (such as a sword) or a slow-moving projectile weapon (such as a bow)

Star Wars does it by having potent energy-swords that can be used by force-wielding Jedi to deflect blaster bolts -- sometimes right back at the guy who fired them.

In Battletech, the (Vibro)Sword is the weapon of choice for deep-space boarding actions. Even a Pistol or Crossbow could cause a dangerous puncture in the sides of a thin-skinned Jumpship, to say nothing of the irreplacable equipment you could be destroying.

Blasters and Guns use the puncture table. I like to add in the elemental damage on top for Blasters, but remove the Blood Loss (any wound is instantly cauterized.) Don't worry, there's still plenty of "Death" Results on the Puncture table.

A Stun-setting Blaster might only dish out Shock and Pain (like the Elemental Damage Table.)

We used an auto-fire rule where you divide your MP between all the shots fired in your (1-2 sec) turn, but we didn't have good rules for area-denial bursts (suppression fire) and such.

Cool.  How do you (if you don't mind me asking) work the refreshing of dice pools (speed at which they do so, etc.)?

Chris

[Bob Richter]

Cool.  How do you (if you don't mind me asking) work the refreshing of dice pools (speed at which they do so, etc.)?

Chris

We used the standard refresh rates for Missile Pool. Seemed to work well enough.