Stars Without Number

How do I reskin this to run a Mass Effect game? One of my players, and me to a lesser degree, are fans. Any suggestions?

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  1. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    That’s a very not moronic question, l’m glad you asked! Don’t. Do that in Alternity, or something more flexible, unless you think Mass Effect is a dungeon crawler…

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      nta but i've beaten ME1 and it's 100% a dungeon crawler. you spend 90% of your time in techbases shooting up the place.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      nta but i've beaten ME1 and it's 100% a dungeon crawler. you spend 90% of your time in techbases shooting up the place.

      Yeah, it's definitely fit for dungeon crawling and shit. I'm more wondering how i'll handle the aliens and biotics mostly.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Consider what power level you want as a table. Commander Shepherd would be at least Heroic tier whereas the system default is high character lethality. Sectors can be reskinned as a larger galactic map with individual systems being points of interest. Sandbox generation will be your friend here. Supplements can help round out your options depending on which type of gameplay you are going for (military, naval, espionage, etc.).

        Alien generation is straightforward. Consider which are a race's strongest advantages and try to recapitulate those with the given options. For biotics, you can just reskin psionics and maybe some cybernetics. I am not familiar with the lore behind biotics so you might want to dump the torching rules if biotic users cannot accidentally overextend themselves.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          I'm not sure about power levels. Heroic would probably be more in line with the games but I may run it 20 years after the events of ME3 as the galaxy is entering it's new age, building a new Asari, Turian, Salarian, Human made Citadel and Mass Effect Relays, the galaxy still kind of recovering from the war but doing better, a lot of war orphans everywhere and pirates and shit. Just let the players make a crew of adventurers or criminals maybe, I dunno yet. Have to see what they want to do too.

          If I recall most biotics don't seem to suffer from any side effects aside from the humans who have a whole generation suffering from them but it may not be an issue two decades after ME3. I know Kaidens generation suffered negative side effects and some went nuts.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      nta but i've beaten ME1 and it's 100% a dungeon crawler. you spend 90% of your time in techbases shooting up the place.

      [...]
      Yeah, it's definitely fit for dungeon crawling and shit. I'm more wondering how i'll handle the aliens and biotics mostly.

      >all of /tg/ thinks dungeon crawler is a straight line.
      ouch

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >t.too moronic to use imagination and make own makes

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          I make own makes all the time. What are makes?

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        outside of a mega dungeon/persistent dungeon, how is it not?

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Is this a genuine question? Do you want a genuine answer or is this shittery

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            Consider it a genuine question and answer with integrity so that we may all understand.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              OK. Not

              [...]
              [...]
              >all of /tg/ thinks dungeon crawler is a straight line.
              ouch

              for the record.

              A crucial element of good dungeon design, even for small dungeons, is non-linearity. This gives the players options, which is a big part of the game. A straight-line dungeon means the players face a sequence of GM-imposed challenges in, which they are expected to overcome in order with very little wiggle room beyond whatever resources they brought with them, minimising player control. In a non-linear dungeon, the players have significantly more options. It allows them to take the risk of finding another path rather than overcoming a certain obstacle, to tactically use the contents of one room against inhabitants of another, to approach difficulties from literally a different angle, to retreat and flank enemies if the game's movement speed supports that; it presents the possibility of missing valuable finds vs. the chance of running into something unpleasant, it gives npc forces room to act as opposed to being confined to a single room as a set encounter, and most of all it emphasises the players' choices as affecting what happens to them, rather than running through a series of GM-devised hoops.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Thanks for the well crafted answer. A to B doesn't necessarily have to be direct (it could go via C, D or E. If that makes sense.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Also nta
                It's still a straight line if all the options are just single locations that don't branch and loop.
                c
                aaaaaaaaaaaaa
                b d

                Is still a linear and boring.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Also nta
                It's still a straight line if all the options are just single locations that don't branch and loop.
                c
                aaaaaaaaaaaaa
                b d

                Is still a linear and boring.

                What anon describes, A -> junction of options -> B is a loop on paper. If A is the entrance and B is an assigned "final boss" it's not great, but then you're in more trouble than drawing your dungeon map anyway.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      There's no dungeoncrawl procedures in SWN

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Import from WWN, then

  2. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    SWN or Aeternity for an EXALT campaign set between XCOM2 and their equivalent of XCOM Apocalypse?

  3. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    There is a really good mass effect DnD 5E conversion online. It’s free and it’s well done.

    >inb4 hurr durr have you tried not playing

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Actually, simulating a video game is probably something 5E would be good at.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      N7 world

  4. 1 year ago
    guy

    How well does SWN handle wacky combat abilities

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      If i'm reading this right there's an ability you can choose during character creation that just let's you make shit up. One player said he made a character using it who has an Incredible Hulk mutation from some experiment that let's him hulk out if he drops below a certain HP for a couple of rounds. He just made that shit up and the book says that's how ya do it.

      I'm new to TTRPG's, is that common?

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >If i'm reading this right there's an ability you can choose during character creation that just let's you make shit up. One player said he made a character using it who has an Incredible Hulk mutation from some experiment that let's him hulk out if he drops below a certain HP for a couple of rounds. He just made that shit up and the book says that's how ya do it.
        those explicitly require GM approval so if he could do that, its because he asked his GM or his GM was a doormat

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          I don't see the problem, sounds kinda neat. I wonder what kind of shit you could do with it, i'm not very imaginative.

  5. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    It's like using a generic system, consider if the game have good rules for Mass Effect things you want to do. If not, why are you using it, because some moron on /tg/ said it has "space flavor"?

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      I originally bought it to do my own thing with it but my friend was like, "Can it do Mass Effect?". Look, it may not be very interesting but I have to do what I can to get my players interested in new systems or I don't have players. If they like it enough I can do another setting later.

  6. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Do it in Five Parsecs From Home instead

  7. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Never played this but i think it has the prettiest cover of all rpgs. It gives off such a positive feeling.

  8. 1 year ago
    Gurps

    GURPS 3e with the ultra tech, cyberpunk, aliens, biotech, and space travel supplements.

    You can play it only with the base game and the space travel books too.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Nope fruity loops PC

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