SciFi RuneQuest

[soltakss]

I've uploaded V0.6 to http://www.soltakss.com/rq_scifi.doc.

This version includes information from the High Guard and Mercenary SRDs, an attenpt at Traveller-style character generation and slightly tidied-up ship generation and space combat rules.

Comments, as always, are welcome.

 

[Astromancer]

Let me be frank, the real use/value of a Sci Fi RuneQuest is to let characters form either your Eternal Champion game or a fantasy campaign, copy Jirel of Jury, or some low-tech/psudeo-medieval or Victorianish incarnation of the Champion Eternal get access to space. Traveller type rules for primitives is a different issue. Sure we want the occaisional Northwest Smith type from the future in the fantasy mix, but Science Fantasy, Space Opera, and Planetary Romance aren't Traveller friendly genres. We need SpaceQuest for them!

 

[SSWarlock]

The latest draft of a RuneQuest Sci-Fi SRD is at http://www.soltakss.com/rq_scifi.doc. feedback and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Anyway, let me know what I am missing, what I have done wrong and what I need to change.

I wanted to resurrect this thread for a bit just because the linked document is so incredibly good (IMO). For anyone wanting to run Mongoose Traveller using a D100-based system, this is amazing. I've been a fan of Traveller and RuneQuest for many decades now (lucky me! :wink: ) and this work melds the Traveller material with the RQ/Legend game engine beautifully.

Long live TravellerQuest!..or would it be TravellerLegend?

 

[alex_greene]

Of course, the most beautiful thing about Legend Science Fiction is this.

You can ignore Traveller altogether.

Traveller was set up as a 1970s space opera kind of science fiction, and the game engine and 3I set limits on what was possible and what was not. You don't have to fit in with those limitations. In fact, I'd encourage you to throw those limits out the window.

Particularly where computers are concerned.

Just look at what Legend has regarding character generation, and see how you can retool the backgrounds, professions and skills to suit a modern science fiction game. Despite temptation to do so, you don't have to go down the road MWM went and include feudal nobles: your setting could be one where Everymen rule as Governors, Administrators, Presidents and so on - all elected by popular vote.

What does the setting's technology look like? Are transporters, FTL communications and force fields commonplace? What sort of FTL does the setting have - is it more like Star Trek, or even Stargate? Does your setting need spaceships at all, or can you have a setting where people travel from system to system via networks of stargates - or perhaps something like the Guild ships from Dune, travelling without moving?

Do you want a cyberpunk, near-future setting instead? Or a setting based on time travel or dimension travel?

Anything can become possible, if you exercise your own imagination rather than copy someone else's.

 

[soltakss]

I wanted to resurrect this thread for a bit just because the linked document is so incredibly good (IMO). For anyone wanting to run Mongoose Traveller using a D100-based system, this is amazing. I've been a fan of Traveller and RuneQuest for many decades now (lucky me! :wink: ) and this work melds the Traveller material with the RQ/Legend game engine beautifully.

Many thanks. I mainly did it because someone said that it couldn't be done - something that was so patently untrue that I had to do something about it.

Long live TravellerQuest!..or would it be TravellerLegend?

Sci Fi for Legend should come out as a POD book some time next year, or the year afterwards, unless someone beats me to it. So far, I have converted the entire Legend ruleset to a SciFi format, which wasn't that difficult. Now, all I have to do is to put together rules for specific SciFi elements such as basic ship design, cybernetics, psi powers and equipment. Half of them are done, but need tidying up. Then comes editing, layout and artwork, which might take some time.

 

[soltakss]

Of course, the most beautiful thing about Legend Science Fiction is this.

You can ignore Traveller altogether.

My thoughts exactly. :wink:

Just look at what Legend has regarding character generation, and see how you can retool the backgrounds, professions and skills to suit a modern science fiction game. Despite temptation to do so, you don't have to go down the road MWM went and include feudal nobles: your setting could be one where Everymen rule as Governors, Administrators, Presidents and so on - all elected by popular vote.

Yes, the beauty of Legend is that anything can be a background and anything can be a profession. You, as players and GMs, control the setting and the game and where the adventurers are heading.

What does the setting's technology look like? Are transporters, FTL communications and force fields commonplace? What sort of FTL does the setting have - is it more like Star Trek, or even Stargate? Does your setting need spaceships at all, or can you have a setting where people travel from system to system via networks of stargates - or perhaps something like the Guild ships from Dune, travelling without moving?

The core Legend rules can be used in almost any SciFi setting, even Science Fantasy ones that many other SciFi games can't handle.

Anything can become possible, if you exercise your own imagination rather than copy someone else's.

Copying someone else's imagination always works for me, though.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Don't forget the free RQ6 'Firearms' .pdf... has a lot of Sci-Fi weapons pretty much useable straight off the bat:

http://www.thedesignmechanism.com/resources/RQ Firearms.pdf

 

[Vile]

Sci Fi for Legend should come out as a POD book some time next year, or the year afterwards, unless someone beats me to it. So far, I have converted the entire Legend ruleset to a SciFi format, which wasn't that difficult. Now, all I have to do is to put together rules for specific SciFi elements such as basic ship design, cybernetics, psi powers and equipment. Half of them are done, but need tidying up. Then comes editing, layout and artwork, which might take some time.

That'll save me some work, then! :lol:

Seriously, I'm looking forward to this. I know there are a few other people working on similar efforts. Are you going to post about it on BRP Central?

 

[soltakss]

Are you going to post about it on BRP Central?

I have now!

 

[SSWarlock]

Are you going to post about it on BRP Central?

I have now!

Yay!

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

This old thread was interesting. I'm not at all a fan of BRP D100. But it was fun to revisit some old BRP world RPGs I haven't seen in 30 years like Super World and Future World.

I was more of an SPI Universe RPGer back then. But that game ran out of gas when SPI went *poof* just after its publication.

 

[Prime_Evil]

This old thread was interesting. I'm not at all a fan of BRP D100. But it was fun to revisit some old BRP world RPGs I haven't seen in 30 years like Super World and Future World.

I was more of an SPI Universe RPGer back then. But that game ran out of gas when SPI went *poof* just after its publication.

Universe was a great game that broke a lot of new ground, but the writing style used by the rulebook was very dry. However, I've still got a copy lying around after all these years - which indicates how much I loved it back in the day.

Are you aware of this fan site, which offers an expanded version of the rules with a heap of new options:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~avalon11/Universe/Universe.htm

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

This old thread was interesting. I'm not at all a fan of BRP D100. But it was fun to revisit some old BRP world RPGs I haven't seen in 30 years like Super World and Future World.

I was more of an SPI Universe RPGer back then. But that game ran out of gas when SPI went *poof* just after its publication.

Universe was a great game that broke a lot of new ground, but the writing style used by the rulebook was very dry. However, I've still got a copy lying around after all these years - which indicates how much I loved it back in the day.

Are you aware of this fan site, which offers an expanded version of the rules with a heap of new options:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~avalon11/Universe/Universe.htm

Yes.

As for the "outline" writing style used by SPI for their games, I think it hurt them in sales. Marc Miller's writing style for his versions of Traveller are no better. Hard to get immersed while reading. Hard to picture a world setting in my head. DragonQuest is another SPI dry read.

 

[rust]

As for the "outline" writing style used by SPI for their games, I think it hurt them in sales. Marc Miller's writing style for his versions of Traveller are no better. Hard to get immersed while reading. Hard to picture a world setting in my head. DragonQuest is another SPI dry read.

This was the old wargame tradition, where rules were just that,
a compilation of procedures described precisely, but in a dry style
that was almost "Legalese".

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Avalon Hill survived the transition from wargamming because of better written rules as their games evolved. But they had big companies owning them also.