What system would best capture Mass Effect?

[ngilop]

Hey guys I have an hankering to play some mass effect table top version

But im not sure which system would be the best one to capture the skill set/character progression


I know any d20 base for me is out of the question. and im leaning towards world of darkness or gurps, but I know a lot of random new game systems have came out recently (and by recently I mean like 12 or so years).


SO I come here hoping hat you GiTPers would know which would capture it the best.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

If you're leaning towards nWoD, then may I direct your attention towards Mass: the Effecting, a nWoD fansplat created in part by a Playgrounder whose identity I am trying to find... But a lot of the combat changes they made eventually made it into the GMC rules change, so it's a very well balanced splat.

[Actana]

Despite the fact that a d20 system is out of the question I cannot resist an entirely shameless self-plugging: I created a conversion for Star Wars Saga Edition, which has all the weapons and powers from the games while remaining backwards compatible with previous SWSE books. It still lacks a few things like tech acquisition rules and slight balance changes, having not worked on it for a fairly long time.

Link is here.

[Eisenheim]

When primarily trying to capture a setting and not have mechanics trip things up, FATE core is always useful. It's highly customizable, and aspects allow for character's primary mechanical definition to tie directly to the setting. SRD available here http://fate-srd.com/fate-core-menu. the core rules are also available as a pay-what-you-want pdf.

[Yora]

I think Star Wars Saga Edition works really well. (No surprise, since Mass Effect is basically Knights of the Old Republic without a Star Wars license, which was based on the d20 Star Wars RPG, the predecessor of Saga.)
Make new character races based on those in the rulebook, take out lightsaber, replace some force powers with more fitting biotics, and you're good to go.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

From what I know of Mass Effect, wouldn't Traveller be a really good fit? Interstellar travel, various alien species, space opera action, and the core rules are really simple.

[Yora]

What do you really need from a system to run Mass Effect?

I think most elements are pretty generic and what you'd find in every sci-fi RPG. Guns, armor, ships, flying cars, grenades.
The one way in which is mechanically uninque is biotics. You'd want a system that would do a good job of recreating biotic powers with relatively few work. If you just have to refluff "spells", that would be perfect, but if you have to only create the "spells" but can still use the standard casting system, that would also still be very useful.

I think overall combat should be relatively light. Gunfights are no preccision art in Mass Effect. You run out guns blazing and revel in the carnage. Enemies should die quickly and PCs be able to take quite a lot of hits. You also don't want to have continous breaks to look up a rule for a special attack, measure ranges, or anything like that. Keep the action flowing swiftly.

However, personally, I wouldn't want to have a too simple system either. I'd prefer a game in which you have clear character stats, and not a more narrative system like Fate. Mass Effect is also about being decked out in cool armor and guns, and Fate doesn't really bother with that. A gun is a gun, regardless of how it looks.

[ngilop]

What do you really need from a system to run Mass Effect?

I think most elements are pretty generic and what you'd find in every sci-fi RPG. Guns, armor, ships, flying cars, grenades.
The one way in which is mechanically uninque is biotics. You'd want a system that would do a good job of recreating biotic powers with relatively few work. If you just have to refluff "spells", that would be perfect, but if you have to only create the "spells" but can still use the standard casting system, that would also still be very useful.

I think overall combat should be relatively light. Gunfights are no preccision art in Mass Effect. You run out guns blazing and revel in the carnage. Enemies should die quickly and PCs be able to take quite a lot of hits. You also don't want to have continous breaks to look up a rule for a special attack, measure ranges, or anything like that. Keep the action flowing swiftly.

However, personally, I wouldn't want to have a too simple system either. I'd prefer a game in which you have clear character stats, and not a more narrative system like Fate. Mass Effect is also about being decked out in cool armor and guns, and Fate doesn't really bother with that. A gun is a gun, regardless of how it looks.

wait. what?? we must have played VERY different versions of mas effect if you ran in 'gun blazing' and the enemies died easily while you could take a lot of hit

unless you only played mass effect 3, that was in addition to being the most horrible of middle fingers to gamers ever created, was laughably easy unlike mass effect 2 where hardcore was dangerous and insanity was, well insane LOL

that s precisely why I want to stay awa form anything d20 based. because unlike the mass effect that I am used to, the plyers indeed can just run in and brute force heir way through everything because yeah its d20.

[CombatOwl]

Hey guys I have an hankering to play some mass effect table top version

But im not sure which system would be the best one to capture the skill set/character progression


I know any d20 base for me is out of the question. and im leaning towards world of darkness or gurps, but I know a lot of random new game systems have came out recently (and by recently I mean like 12 or so years).


SO I come here hoping hat you GiTPers would know which would capture it the best.

As with most things, GURPS can do it well. GURPS has better gun rules than most, so that's a mark in its favor.

Savage Worlds has a Mass Effect fan conversion that looks like it covers the bases pretty well. I could see it working in Savage Worlds.

FATE is another one of those go-to systems. It would probably capture the setting better than the other systems mentioned, but if your mass effect game is exceptionally heavily focused on combat that's probably a bad choice.

However, personally, I wouldn't want to have a too simple system either. I'd prefer a game in which you have clear character stats, and not a more narrative system like Fate. Mass Effect is also about being decked out in cool armor and guns, and Fate doesn't really bother with that. A gun is a gun, regardless of how it looks.

Unless you make them more complex. You can do extreme detail in FATE for anything, guns included.

[Yora]

wait. what?? we must have played VERY different versions of mas effect if you ran in 'gun blazing' and the enemies died easily while you could take a lot of hit

When you play through the games, you end up killing hundreds of enemies, each individual one being barely a threat by themselves, except for a few bosses. And in a pen and paper game, you don't get to reload when you fail, and anyone who was hurt to the point of unconsciousness won't just brush it off when the dust settles. So you need to have the odds significantly stacked to your advantage. Taking on 10 enemies at once while being surrounded on three sides is something that should be survivable, and sometimes you just run out of cover, sprint up to an enemy, and punch him to death.

[LibraryOgre]

Hey guys I have an hankering to play some mass effect table top version

But im not sure which system would be the best one to capture the skill set/character progression


I know any d20 base for me is out of the question. and im leaning towards world of darkness or gurps, but I know a lot of random new game systems have came out recently (and by recently I mean like 12 or so years).


SO I come here hoping hat you GiTPers would know which would capture it the best.

I don't know about capturing it best, but I did a Mass Effect conversion for Savage Worlds.

http://rpgcrank.blogspot.com/p/savag...ss-effect.html

[Gamgee]

You said no D20, but I recommend the Saga ME supplement. Awesome stuff.

[ngilop]

When you play through the games, you end up killing hundreds of enemies, each individual one being barely a threat by themselves, except for a few bosses. And in a pen and paper game, you don't get to reload when you fail, and anyone who was hurt to the point of unconsciousness won't just brush it off when the dust settles. So you need to have the odds significantly stacked to your advantage. Taking on 10 enemies at once while being surrounded on three sides is something that should be survivable, and sometimes you just run out of cover, sprint up to an enemy, and punch him to death.

That is kinda the poing though, You do not get to save and reload at table top so its going to be MUCH dedly than the base game, which for people who don't play with cheats or jut playon easy difficulty is already rather difficult when it comes o surviving.

and no crap when you play through the games you end up killing numerous enemies, that's te point of the game, it did notmean that all you do is run around sparying bullets everywhere you cnbecuase you are in auto win mode.

I abhor playing nay game like that, whether it be PC, or table top, I know that a lot of people love that, but that is not what I wanted and I was very clear earlier that was not what I wanted form a system

so could you at least try to be respectful about it and stop trying to get me to play the game you want me to play.

[Kid Jake]

Coretex is pretty flexible, I've been debating on running a Mass Effect game using it for a while now.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Coretex is pretty flexible, I've been debating on running a Mass Effect game using it for a while now.

Also, notable that the Cortex Plus Hacker's Guide has advice on how to make a Mass Effect hack. It just doesn't use any copyrighted material (it's the hack named "Cold Fusion").

[kyoryu]

I'd probably go with Fate, GURPS, or Savage Worlds, depending on what you wanted to focus on.

A lot of times it's useful to figure out what the emphasis of the campaign is going to be, as genre is just as important when choosing a system as setting.

[Rakaydos]

I'm looking foward to using Age of Rebelion (the star wars RPG) for mass effect, once Force and Destiny beta drops to give more "biotic" powers.

[MeeposFire]

wait. what?? we must have played VERY different versions of mas effect if you ran in 'gun blazing' and the enemies died easily while you could take a lot of hit

unless you only played mass effect 3, that was in addition to being the most horrible of middle fingers to gamers ever created, was laughably easy unlike mass effect 2 where hardcore was dangerous and insanity was, well insane LOL

that s precisely why I want to stay awa form anything d20 based. because unlike the mass effect that I am used to, the plyers indeed can just run in and brute force heir way through everything because yeah its d20.

The only hard part of ME2 was when you lacked the right weapon for the job. For instance until I got my Tempest my Sentinel would have a hard time because my other weapon options sucked but once I got my tempest (and to a lesser extent got my sniper rifle) the game became fairly easy even on the hardest setting. In fact I just started on the hardest setting.

Granted I did the same in ME3 though I did find some things easier and other things harder. I think they did a better job at making the fights different since there were really more enemy types and strategies. ME2 was easy in that many fights involved the same basic tactics on the same enemy types with only a few (such as the big mechs or the praetorian) being a real issue. However I will admit that ME3 gets a lot easier in that you get a lot of weapon choices and you find them often which helps you considerably. Also being able to tailor your weapons to your character also helps. Lastly they made the classes better in general especially the tech oriented classes (and the combos).

Granted everybody is different but I am surprised that you feel that ME2 is harder than 3.

[Kaun]

I'm currently running a ME game using Savage worlds.

And while i have modified it some what i am using Mark Halls ME conversion.

I think SW does the ME2 and ME3 style play well. It is fast and explosive, and works well for tactical combat without going over board.

[Drascin]

wait. what?? we must have played VERY different versions of mas effect if you ran in 'gun blazing' and the enemies died easily while you could take a lot of hit

unless you only played mass effect 3, that was in addition to being the most horrible of middle fingers to gamers ever created, was laughably easy unlike mass effect 2 where hardcore was dangerous and insanity was, well insane LOL

that s precisely why I want to stay awa form anything d20 based. because unlike the mass effect that I am used to, the plyers indeed can just run in and brute force heir way through everything because yeah its d20.

You did not play a Vanguard, did you.

"WAAAAGH I CHARGE IN AND AM INVICIBLE AND BEAT ENEMIES TO DEATH WITH MY GUN INSTEAD OF SHOOTING THEM" was more or less my ME2 experience in a nutshell.

[JBPuffin]

Eh, I played on Easy , but that was mostly because I didn't play b/c it was a shooter, I played because it was an RPG. The story I told was my main concern, and the fact that I'm pretty decent with a gun on the PS3 is just a bonus .

Also, Soldier all the way for sheer simplicity; no planning necessary, just point, shoot, and in ME3 change ammo now and again.

[MeeposFire]

I enjoyed playing as a sentinel and a soldier in ME2 whereas I prefer engineers and soldiers in ME3 (soldiers were my big favorite in ME1). None made it that hard though the engineer requires using more tactics than the soldier for sure. Particularly what power used to distract along with what combos do you want to use.

[Milodiah]

There's an excellent sci-fi RPG called Traveler, please look into that. There *is* a Traveler d20 called...T20, though I can't tell you how it is. Just avoid T4 as hard as you can.

[Gamgee]

Mass Effect 2 imported ME1 Adept first playthrough on Insanity.... that was one of the hardest games I ever played due to how nerfed the adept was on Insane. It also unlocked extra hard insane since it was a "import" character. So I had it extremely tough with a class that was easily the worst in the game by miles.

I beat it before the DLC guns came to help too.

[MeeposFire]

Mass Effect 2 imported ME1 Adept first playthrough on Insanity.... that was one of the hardest games I ever played due to how nerfed the adept was on Insane. It also unlocked extra hard insane since it was a "import" character. So I had it extremely tough with a class that was easily the worst in the game by miles.

I beat it before the DLC guns came to help too.

Yea I am personally not sold on adepts though honestly they are not my cup of tea to begin with. Personally I find that since they lack any ability to reliably deal with shields in a real effective manner to be a big limitation considering their powers require shieldless enemies to work correctly.

In ME3 you can help this out with the right gun but if you don't have those weapons then once again just like in ME2 you can have a hard time of it. Still the combos are sweet at least.

[FrightKnight0]

Personally, I think Traveller would be a perfect fit. Use normal ship rules for intra-system travel, add in Mass Relays to go from system to system. Making your own star systems in Traveller is easy, and all the important info can be summed up in one little line of data. Make Psionics less hard to get and refluff them as biotics. Or keep them the same. Maybe remove telepathy since I don't remember any telepathic things that aren't Reapers.

As far as space combat? It's not necessarily two ships flying in circles blasting at each other. Things like the Everest Class Dreadnought are a possibility in Traveller. For anyone who doesn't know, it fires 30K ferrous slugs at 1.3% lightspeed with a fire rate of 3 seconds. The main gun is about a km long. The rest of the ship barely exists. It's a gun that's space-travel capable. Sir Isaac Newton is, in fact, the deadliest son of a bitch in space.

Stats are pretty easy. Skills are used by adding modifiers. Training takes more time with more skills. Weapons are statted by how many D6 they roll for damage when they hit. Armor soaks damage, doesn't make you harder to hit. Everything except weapons is based around 2d6, and the highest weapon dice belong to a nuclear gatling gun, which rolls 12d6 and gives everything around it buckets of radiation poisoning if they aren't protected.

Any type of alien life is easily statted out. Player character aliens are possible, and all you do is slap the template on them. The PCs are exactly like any other form of life in the galaxy. Death is a possibility, and there's no coming back from it. You survive by being the smartest, toughest, meanest sons of bitches in the room and knowing when you aren't. That's always how I saw Commander Shepard, but then, everyone gets a little bit of a different Shepard, so I don't know.

[Optimusnorm]

I think Traveller or perhaps a modified Dark Heresy D10 would work well. I'd avoid D20. You might want to look at FATE and Shadowrun as well.

[neonchameleon]

I'm going to point at my hack for my D&D 4e retroclone - and I've even put hack rules in for a cover based sci-fi shooter complete with recharging shields. Not sure it's the best out there, but it I hope is at least interesting.

[gom jabbarwocky]

I'm just going to chime in here and say that Eclipse Phase might make a good candidate for ME conversion. The only problem is that Eclipse Phase is tied to it's own setting super tight, so it would take more homebrewing than I would care to engage in to turn it into an ME simulator. But it's not a D20, so it has that going for it, strip out the morph-swapping stuff, psi slights are your biotics, and tinker with some of the skills and backgrounds....

Okay, on second though, converting EP to ME is a terrible idea. A better fit by far would be D6 Space. It's a serial-numbers-filled-off version of the D6 Star Wars game with some rules tweaks. It's got your space ships, aliens, psychic powers, it's a great fit.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I'm going to point at my hack for my D&D 4e retroclone - and I've even put hack rules in for a cover based sci-fi shooter complete with recharging shields. Not sure it's the best out there, but it I hope is at least interesting.

Ooooh, that's pretty nifty. Though if you ask me, I'd add more support for feats that play off of readied actions. When you have a cover-based shooter, a lot of the action happens when people try to advance without other people popping out of cover and shooting them. Also, I'd love to be able to "run and gun" so that I could run between spots of cover but shoot someone in the middle of that movement, before taking cover again.