-Justifiers - sci fi furries "

A

area51

Mongoose
1st ed by Gideon, Blaine Pardoe (1988) StarChilde
A sci-fi RPG in a dark future where "Transmatts" (i.e. stargates) allow limited teleportation to a host of Earth-like worlds. Megacorporations hire mercenary teams ("Justifiers") to "pacify" new worlds for colonization and exploitation. Justifiers are uplifted animals with limited rights, trying to eventually buy their freedom. It uses a simple percentile skill-based system, including a choice of 28 humanoid animal races (from albatrosses to rhinos!). Reviewed in White Wolf #27.

there was going to be a second edition but it fell through, so I do not know if anyo f you all have heard of this game but it was in its time unique and inventive! :?:
 
There WAS a second edition. I have both.

It didn't change the rules, but did add about 15 pages more info in various places, and had the color cover instead of the blue with white cover.

Corporate sourcebook also had two editions.

Good setting, very well written. Played well.

For those who don't know, it was a low-percentile Class gets basic skills, level adds a couple dice of skill points. 60% was a notable score for a skill; typical 1st levels had scores in the 20-40 range.

Characters are "Beta Humanoids", genetic constructs who are anthropomorphic animals, owned by the corporations, and sent to "Justify" worlds to the corporation, and to put a transmatt device. Transmatts are required at source only, but are safest if at both, and limited in size, travel takes a notable time (it's about 12-20xC), but no time passes for the crew (Time Dialation coefficient is effectively total) during transit.

This would be a fun Traveller setting. It was written by cartoonist Gideon.
 
I love this RPG. It is one of my all time favorites. I just love the concept of anthropomorphic bi-pedal and bi-manual humanoids. There were several supplements and adventures written for it.

I really liked the campaign setting and timeline. It seemed a natural progession for me. I even wrote a paper in college on the genetics of Beta breeding and cross-breeding for an evolutionary biology class.

Over the years I translated this setting into RQ3, 3rd GURPS, and d20 Modern.

I even did a cross-over with the Talislanta world (another favorite) with the use of magic introduced in one of the Justifiers supplements.

I once owned the 1st editon blue and white cover, but lost it to the sands of time. I now own the 2nd editions, all sourcebooks, and all adventures.

The system was simple, but workable. The real strength of this RPG was the Beta humanoid concept and campaign setting. I liked the hard science fiction feel of it.

I would dump the rule system and translate it into whatever system you currently play.
 
lt.harper said:
Of topic but i want to know what is Beta breeding?
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It was theorized that Betas would be sterile. However, it turned out that only about 40% of Betas were sterile.

Betas could inter-breed with other Betas, even of different root species. In 75% of these births, twins were produced; one of each of the parents root animal species. In 25% of these births, a single hybrid child was born which had characteristics of both parents' root species, or sometimes none altogether.

For example, a lion Beta and Hyena Beta breed and both are viable. 75% of the time twins will be born; one lion Beta infant and one Hyena Beta infant. 25% of the time a single Beta infant is born, and it might have retractable claws and hunched hind quarters or sloping back with no tail.

Another unexpected side effect of the Beta program was that Betas could inter-breed with humans as well. I would have to pull out the books, but I am fairly certain that 75% of time twins are born in these unions as well with one child a Beta and one child a human. In 25% of the human-Beta union, a single hybrid child is born which has some characteristics of the Beta parent.

The hybrid offspring of a Beta-Beta union are Gryphons, and the offspring of a Beta-human union are called Gammas.

In all these inter-breedings, there is a possibility for genetic abberations and these unfortunately children called Mutts.

The Hybrid Sourcebook details the rules for Beta cross-breeding and how to create one of this characters.

Here is a link to the splat on each Justifier book as well as a picture of the covers:

http://www.waynesbooks.com/Justifiers.html
 
I'm constantly amazed at how much of an impact justifiers has had, and how many people want to revive it, don't get me wrong I'd love to see it come back, but I'm wondering what it was about this game? is it a lack of gritty Scifi in the roleplaying industry, or is it the furys? or perhaps because this game had both it appeald to people that wanted either?
 
yeahgday said:
I'm constantly amazed at how much of an impact justifiers has had, and how many people want to revive it, don't get me wrong I'd love to see it come back, but I'm wondering what it was about this game? is it a lack of gritty Scifi in the roleplaying industry, or is it the furys? or perhaps because this game had both it appeald to people that wanted either?
Click to expand...

Yes, and more.

It had a mission based approach, so it could be a passable pickup game.
It had furries.
It was fairly gritty (damages were a bit low).
It had a setting that justified the mission based approach (pun intended).
It was well supported (for a while).
It had hybrid sourcebook/adventure supplements.
It dabbled in fantasy (There are magic rules in one of the supplements)
It was simple to play.

It wasn't as good a game engine as Albedo, nor as gritty and realistic a setting as Albedo... but it was more flexible and had a better "out of the box" playability.

I'd love to see Justifiers and Albedo under one rules-set, so we could expand both pools of critters...
 
AKAramis summoned it up well! My reasons fail in line with those as well.

It was a combination of several things for me. I like anthropomorphic humanoids with 'human' intelligence. I liked the premise that goverments were replaced by mega-corporations. I like hard science fiction, and I liked the Justifier concept of planetary exploration. The Justifier organization is para-military, and mission based. It had some good sourcebooks on the Justifiers universe, and some good adventures. The game system was simple but workable. Also, I like the art by Gideon.
 
ok, so it looks like the Justifiers "Omega edition" fell through, and I remember reading a thread somwhere where somone was talking about legal action over money owed to them with the production of this game (sorry I can't remember the source) so It looks really unlikely that Mongoose (or anyone producing runequest-OGL suppliments) would be able to do a justifiers setting (I'm assuming we are talking about runequest justifiers, I know it hasn't been specificaly said, but runequest is looking to be mongooses flagship gaming system.) So, I'm wondering if it would be viable to produce a runequest furry supplement, and a runequest Sci-fi (I'v heard this is comming.) and then people can use these together to run their justifiers games.

so what are peoples thoughts?
 
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