I been looking to branch out from Call of Cthulhu, World of Darkness and Kult and want something more sci-fi than horror.
I've noticed most other people who prefer those kinds of games to "mainstream" stuff like Pathfinder and D&D get into these now and then but its not very widespread. Traveller seems to be the "boomer rpg" played mostly by people over 40 and Cyberpunk just seems to have remained as niche as it was in the early 2000's with the added stigma of the meme shitfest of 2077 putting off new players.
Has anyone played either of them? i know theres some other stuff out right now like Alien but i want something thats more a setting and ruleset to tell my own stories in rather than something super restrictive. More genre than IP if that makes sense.
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Red is a very good game, it improved on a lot of things from 2020, but it's not all good. Combat was too streamlined for a lot of players, by removing hit locations they also removed tracking armor for different body parts, as well as all nuance for cover rules, now you are either in cover, or you're not. And despite what morons think the gun list is THE SAME in both core books, Red just removed flavor text and merged the three stat lines for the different gun qualities into one weapon, then said what differences quality makes. Red has MUCH better role abilities, and did a better job with hacking but it's not really great yet. Some of the things in the book are nonsensical, like the gun list being printed twice but the more detailed rules aren't IN the gun chapter, they're in the economy chapter, and it proposes the idea that no one but Nomads think bullet resistant glass on car windows is a good idea, or indeed modding vehicles in the first place. Would have been better if there were corpo-specific cars that didn't need mods because they came with some things standard, but the core book doesn't have that.
Also be ready for some moron to post an image comparing a heavy pistol to an SMG. Only people who haven't actually read the book agree with it.
>Cyberpunk Reddit
Cover and vehicle combat are maybe the two things I think are least functional in their current form.
Shooting gets you out of cover, right? But moving into cover puts you in cover? right? What is ever to stop a character from shooting, moving a single step away from cover and then moving back, other than the GM going "stop that". The only bandaid to that is, technically, an enemy could hold an action to shoot you when you pop out of cover, but it comes off as rather silly.
I would propose codifying that into the rules better and just saying "When you attack over cover, you leave cover, but you can duck back down by spending all your remaining MOVE (but not if you have no MOVE remaining)." and reminding the GM to hold actions.
That and I would split cover into "Cover" and "Hardened Cover". Cover works exactly like it does in the book, while Hardened Cover has an SP and isn't destroyed when its HP becomes 0 except by explosives. If you're hiding behind an engine block, for example, it's generally going to always provide some protection no matter how many shots you fire into it. You can still shoot through it by overcoming the SP and HP (if any), but it makes more sense than an armor plated wall getting destroyed by a bunch of low caliber bullets.
I've found the new cover rules encourage more dynamic combat, you're not trying to just hit a guy in cover, you're trying to maneuver to get a bead on him, it encourages tactics rather than reduce characters to Stormtrooper aim. Things like explosives and suppressing fire are an essential part of that. On the other hand the cover rules have the side benefit of encouraging melee combat, which is almost always more satisfying. Also, this is just me, but I also like how the current rules for Red make the way I would be fighting anyway, arguably the best. Extra arm mount, dual wield ROF 2 weapons in one pair, and weapons in the other. Or, one gun and 3 shields, or whatever other combo works for you. Arm mounts are also great because you can use the ROF 2 shotgun and grenade launcher, getting you the highest damage output without having to mess with autofire, as well as the most options for alternate ammo types.
>ROF 2 weapons in one pair, and weapons in the other.
That should be "pop up shields in the other" but it seems I had a slight stroke for a few seconds.
Yeah been running for around 7 months now and this is a pretty good rundown of what the games is. Really encourage homebrew and don't play rules as written and it's a nice ass system. Highly recommend the cyberpunk red companion app for the phone.
>Really encourage homebrew and don't play rules as written and it's a nice ass system.
What did that even mean?
It means that you should fix the game yourself instead of the publisher
Why wouldn't you take a system with a nice ass that needs less work?
Games designed for a specific setting like Night City (or L5R or Star Wars etc) will always be better than games not made for that setting. It will always, invariably, be better to change what you don't like than to substitute a system not connected to the setting in the first place. Also, a system having a few mechanics you don't care for, dies not magically invalidate everything else it does that you like.
Means don't follow every little thing and make up your own stuff no gamer
Very much agreed. I designed a weapons mechanics system that fused elements of CP2020 and my own ideas to create a really satisfying and pretty mechanically deep gunfighting system with different fire modes and each weapon has its own stats that I send the players. It gives each weapon character without doing meme-tier shit like "it's just a very heavy pistol that does more damage." Instead weapons have calibers, more or less inherent accuracy (recoil), and varying fire modes. My player's characters have even begun to develop affinities for various weapons like I have one guy who loves European guns because they all have a more controllable rate of fire. Then there's the one Solo who l gave a pistol with explosive gyro-jet rounds that literally creams their pants every time they can find a scenario to use it. Like the one time a deal went bad and gyrojet round ricocheted off the side of a car window at low speeds only to detonate on the enemy fixer's chest.
LOL!! How it feel to be bootlicker? The game is piece of crap
You're going to need better command of the English language to be able to insult me, Anon.
I've played Traveller. It's a fun, straight forward system that does a certain kind of sci-fi really well (Poul Anderson/Dumarest/Firefly/Outlaw star/cowboy bebop), and the math is really pretty simple and clear so its easy to home brew stuff.
People who like builds are charop stuff or hard mechanical advancement will have a hard time finding a handhold in the system, however. Depending on edition, characters gaining mechanical advancement (like experience or levels) is either non-existant or tacked on, and the default mode of character creation is a life path system that is heavily Rng based. Combat in Traveller has the possibility of high lethality and death spiral, as well.
I watched an actual play of Traveller where one of the players died due to bad rolls made walking up a steep hill.
Sounds like an incredibly shit gm
Not really he really tried but Traveller's early 2nd edition modules were a bit fricky in this regard.
Oh yeah, the mongoose modules are almost all horrific shit.
>red
Cyberpunk 2020 is better imho
Pondsmiths work post 90s were either very shit or meh, red is on the meh lines. Shame cp2077 didn't took off, if it did I could bet that red would be more steamlined by other writers. But I think they cut off that ip good. So this is what you will get.
cp2020 with interlock unlimited fan rule revision is fine enough, but red is not as bad to be avoided.
>Traveller
excellent rpg, mongoose 2nd edition despites its criticism is a good modern friendly newbie friendly edition. It is the definitive sci-fi rpg
maybe not for everyone but methinks it is very difficult to find someone who thinks moving from worlds to worlds with a spaceship having different adventures and exploration as boring.
both cp2020 and traveller shine in their official/canon setting. I really love night city and 3rd imperium. Nightcity with its 80s retrofuturism is awesome still. Traveller's 3rd imperium is very unique and divergent from starwars-startrek-warhammer40k dominated scifi of 80s and beyond. The limited FTL traveller and tieing all communication to it(messages going as fast as the ship, there is no interplanetary internet) gives it a unique feel.
Thought about running Traveller. Was going to do a space trucker campaign and maybe try to insert alien/s aspects in to it. Haven't decided on a system. thought about the alien rpg, but... idk.
you can play alienlike game but yeah there is also alien rpg, it really depends on what setting you like imho I always chose my games based on the setting rather than system.
Isn't there a Xenomorph supplement for Cepheus Engine?
HOSTILE is a whole setting inspired by Aliens. Seems pretty popular, and gets a steady stream of new things made for it.
Traveler is Firefly, to a T. The show was literally someone's Traveler campaign. Hence the space-prostitute character that didn't REALLY fit in, but someone wanted to play her so the DM said "fine". It's a retro-futurism space-opera setting before we knew too much about how space would really work. It's really only played by 40+ boomers who liked Star Trek more than Star Wars. But it's well made, fun, and has some very interesting mechanics.
I only played a bit of cyberpunk, but the fricking "rocker boy" class was too ridiculous and the calibur / armor mechanic was nuts. I can tell you that Shadowrun is fricking horrible, but I've played enough to get used to 4th ed. You can ditch all the magic and elves pretty easily.
I'm looking into Gurps cyberpunk. ho boy.
I never got the chance to try out Interface Zero.
I'm 28 and refereeing a traveller campaign right now.
>The show was literally someone's Traveler campaign
The show was literally a rip off of an anime.
that too, but there is definitely a traveller connection
specifically megatraveller, one advanture had serenity or serendipity or a name similar to that
also we do know josh weadon telling people firefly was inspired by a rpg he played in his college days, in 80s, that leaves either runequest, d&d, or a game about space and spaceships...I wonder which
A dungeon master..... RIPPING OFF A SHOW!? How scandalous! Can they do that? I mean, do you think someone would actually just copy what they've seen elsewhere and just... put it in their game without any second thought?
oh my god, this is going to change roleplaying FOREVER!
Are you moronic? thats clearly an image from an anime and a image of a live action tv show form years later that imitated it.
Thats not even bad reading comprehension thats visual comprehension which is something even lab rats have.
A you okay?
Yeah, I know man. It's.... the one with spaceships with hands. ....Outlaw Star. We ARE on Ganker, you know.
The live-action Firefly that was based off of a traveller campaign which more than likely ripped off the "girl frozen in a box" trope from.... god, who even really cares?
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GirlInABox
.....just how original do you expect everyone to be?
westoids could at least attempt to reach the bar set by the Japanese, for one
>Weeb is mad that Star Trek: TNG ripped off an anime before it was released
don’t even know what you’re talking about, but I’m not surprised an “iconic”, “original” westoid creation ripped off Japanese media
You've got to be joking. A Star Trek TNG episode from the 80s, which also featured a frozen girl in a box could not have literally ripped off Bebop because it didn't exist.
then why would you say it did, moron?
It was a joke, because weebs are culturally illiterate and often think that old, common tropes were invented recently in Japan. I thought it was obvious.
Were you dropped on your head as a kid by any chance?
>i was merely pretending
i don’t know what i was expecting but you still lowered the bar
>sarcasm is "merely pretending"
Ask your mom to drop you a few more times, maybe that'll help. But you're bigger now, so you might need a bigger drop, try 30 feet.
sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, aka being moronic
and stop pretending it’s not you samegayging
>sarcasm is the lowest form of wit
Which means failing to catch it is the lowest form of moronation.
It's really not the same Anon, moron.
Dumbass, if you couldn't pick up on the sarcasm when that anon mentioned Star Trek, I genuinely pity you.
>...
Ah, theatre kid, okay opinions discarded.
Ellipses make me a theater kid? When obviously they're just placeholders for variadic parts of the sentence for arguments passed in later.
>Ellipses make me a theater kid? When obviously they're just placeholders for variadic parts of the sentence for arguments passed in later.
Alright Frolo calm down, class was out at 3.
But somehow worse.
>Hence the space-prostitute character that didn't REALLY fit in, but someone wanted to play her so the DM said "fine".
Actually there were rules for that in a magazine. PDF related.
Not true, Traveller is a better Firefly RPG than the shitty licensed RPG. In fact there are a lot of shitty licensed RPGs that are awful even though they're specifically """"designed"""" for that setting.
I could argue that Dogs in the Vineyard a better system for Dark Heresy than Dark Heresy
Oh that's not the magazine article version. Well crap, I may not have the original.
>The show was literally someone's Traveler campaign.
Joss admitted as much. Just without stating the system/name.
I played Cyberpunk RED, Mongoose Traveller 2e and Cepheus Deluxe and would write about each
1. Cyberpunk REDdit is one of the most boring take on cyberpunk we have yet, every part is dumbed down to be as commercial as it can be, so that 5e kitties would be more right at home. And it's a reason why I more hate CP RED than CP V3, which is an absolute trash of a game, but with solid "ideas" without great implementation.
2. Mongoose Traveller 2e is the most popular and the most supported version of traveller, streamlined character generation comparing to previous editions and many supplements and some of them are going to get 2022 update, which is nice.
3. Cepheus Deluxe, probably the easiest way to get into traveller, character generation is even more simple than stock MgT 2e and yet still has that Traveller charm, if you don't care about direct supplements, you can take Cepheus Deluxe + some MgT 1e adventure and have a blast
I must ask:
Is that art just some parody spoof, or the actual cover?
Thats official art. They tried to be sci-fi D&D and removed all the punk aspects 5e babbies find triggering and "alt rightey".
>punk is too offensive an asethetic for cyberPUNK
When is clown world going to end bros? i'm just so fricking tired of these normalgays in my hobby.
blame 5e
I blame hasbro, facebook, big bang theory and iphones for most of humanities woes in the post 2007 world.
ah yes 2007 the eternal september of ""nerd"" hobby but things were still not as bad say in 2011-2012 as after 2016 with 5e. If anything I would say early 2010s were a golden age of rpgs, with kickstarter revitalizing the hobby
5e was the eternal september of rpgs in general, there is no turning back from that
If anything, it tries to look like an early 90s B-movie poster, only done with someone who was also told to "keep it modern" and also only knows those posters through fan-art of them, rather than the real deal, creating a rather jarring mix.
Hence the question: is it a shitty fanart, or the real deal. Kind of disturbing when stuff like that is the official cover.
Wow you could not be farther from the mark.
Thats literally the characters in the starter set and the artist confirmed it was 5e inspired for wider audience appeal.
There's nothing 5e about it, that image is 100% Night City.
Found the 2077babby.
Black person you do know Red is set in 2045, right? It's not going to look like 2020.
red is fricking garbage and worse than 2020 in almost every conceivable way, but worst of all it’s a low effort cashgrab
If you want something sci-fi AND horror, you could try out Eclipse Phase. It takes place in the far future where humanity has evolved into transhumanity. Bodies are interchanged freely because of brain uploading. AIs with general human intelligence run around. Even some animals have been 'uplifted' to human-levels of intelligence and are playable. Lots of space stuff going on, habitats on other planets and moons, mysterious gateways leading out of the solar system for exploration, settlement, and exploitation. Alien traders that don't ever seem to trade anything useful but sure take a lot of technology. And so on.
The horror aspect comes in with the TITANs, super-AI that nearly destroyed humanity about 10 years before the game is set. They basically destroyed Earth and forced everyone out. Big scary guys. There is also the exsurgent virus, some kind of alien virus that mutates both in its transmission vectors (it can infect information-based intelligence just as easily as it can infect physical bodies) and its effects (body horror, ax murder tendencies, psychics). There is also the horror of what other members of transhumanity do to each other: Kidnapping minds to enslave them or torture them for information (resetting the mind after torture to figure out what the subject responded to), slavery, anarchism, hyper-capitalism, fascism, and (worst of all) the Jovians who just hate technology and refuse to do the whole brain uploading thing.
Doesn't it just make you want to cry when people try to adapt D&D to genres and settings that other systems were designed for?
I wanna play a cyberpunk game with good shooting mechanics. I haven't tried any cyberpunk based rpgs yet. Which one should I start with? Sounds like red dumbed down combat. Would GURPS be any good? I just started learning it out of curiosity but I still know jack about it let alone how combat works. I just hear it's realistic which sounds cool but idk if that's any good in practice
2020
Sweet thanks
Depends on what you think, "dumbed down combat," means. It removed bloat. Some people liked the bloat, some didn't.
I wanna play something more simulationist. I dunno how "fun" it'll be but at least for myself I wanna see what it's like. 2020 sounds like a good starting point.
it ruins fnf by foregoing wounds and using hp, it’s shit
2020 definitely has more nuanced combat, but it's close to being too simulationist, which can make combat run slowly.
Frontier Space is a solid, generic, fast-running, and customizable game. It's Star Frontiers done cleanly and consistently. You only need the Player's and Referee's Guides. It could use more prebuilt stuff, but is very easy to brew for. The system is consistent, unlike Eclipse Space, which I'd recommend as well. M-Space is good too, and it has more customizable crunch than EP -- but you'll have to brew up equipment etc, there's more prebuilt in EP than either other system.
Here's picrel in the Frontier Space:
>https://desuarchive.org/tg/thread/84671675/#q84673492