"Characters and Equipment..." Topic

Any special ships, equipment, or character traits that people would like to see in a SF game?

Example:

The grappling hook like weapon seen in Firefly

The "Omni-Tool" of Mass Effect (with all the different functions that entails).

Characters with psychic abilities, or perhaps a particular movie character- "I want to be able to play as a walking carpet Engineer who can also handle himself in a fight, but can't talk!"

Yes?

Coming from someone who starts lots…lots…of threads asking opinions on this and that, take it from me that everyone who read your thread was saying yes…but your question is too big…covers too much ground.

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Anything interesting is welcome.

Any special weapons/equipment would also be welcome if made with clean and crisp lines/design…the option of having hands sculpted on might be welcome…I would think so.

The Omni Tool is interesting…quite specific…but a full forearm insert weapon that could be added to an existing miniature would certainly be welcome…an easy way to tie in miniatures from different companies.

You might want to specify what scale you were considering.

All in all, good questions…just too much to garner quick responses from the dusty sweaty masses :)

I think the biggest thing left out of sci-fi games is sensory gear (Infinity does it reasonably well). Multivisors, tremorsense, augmented hearing, etc. Simple nightvision would be an interesting factor (a roll to determine day or night at the start of the game, maybe even time of day worked into the system).

I recognize it as a vague question, but it has to be.

This is for designing rules, not miniatures. The fundamental idea is to find if anyone has a type of character, alien, ship, equipment, technology, whatever, that they feel they'd like to game but don't think would be immediately obvious (obvious would be things like a pistol, a regular rocket ship with no special abilities beyond moving here to there, and a pilot with no bizarre character traits).

Ahhhha rules query…gotcha!

space ship + rpg = I am assuming a general Traveller direction?

Meaning rpg characters spending a fair amount of time within their ships going from place to place.

Hidden characteristics, talents, abilities, etc. are fun…hopefully not game system unbalancing.

The PSI cops from Babylon 5, Vulcans/Betazoids from Star Trek, etc. these are good examples…

Perhaps offer up what you are thinking as an example?

Well rules are easy, what about rules do you want?

I mean there is the classic 8+ on 2d6, what's not to love with that?

Then there is the skill equals number of dice

I have been pondering opposed dice rolls.

As for lists of skills I am in the short list of functional skills vs the long insanely detailed lists….

What *rules* do I want to see?

Hidden movement that doesn't require double-blind (counters are ok, see Infinity rules for examples).

Information/Electronic Warfare.

[As a side note, the walking carpet engineer understood Basic, and the ship's captain apparently understood whatever language the walking carpet spoke.]

Infojunky, I'm not asking about rule mechanics. I'm asking or cool stuff people want to be able to play with IN the rules.

Characters- maybe like some weird alien that can split itself up into several smaller organisms, or combine into something greater than the sum of its parts… something weird like that. Or just a weird character-- you don't often see a charming guitarist/mercenary/terrible engineer. You want to be able to play that- I'd want to make sure its possible in the character generation rules.

Walking Carpet- there, perhaps, might be rules for dealing with languages/other species in a social way.

Tech (ships or ground equipment): cool elements of SF, SF warfare (ground and space), or anything else that you think you'd like to see in a game. This is less about game mechanics, more about special weapons and stuff like that.

Information/Electronic Warfare is a good one. A little 'grand' as it can mean a lot of things, but its a good example.

Stealth (in space?) actually goes with that last one in the current set up.

And yes, this is kinda Travellerish, the focus is actually on space… there is just also a ground 'tie in' that work together smoothly. And even the space bits have characters in them that are important to the ships.

Implanted computers (think THS or Old Man's War)

Microbots (Either of the above sources, or Moving Mars)

Actually, robots in general, for surveillance or combat or a dozen other uses

Special training (think Schizmatrix): diplomatic skills, second states of consciousness, super-levels of concentration, resistance to panic, etc.

Well… it's not rules, but I always really liked a bit from the old Sci-fi comic book "StarStruck" in which all the robots were going around writing graffiti in infrared paint that was invisible to the wave links of light that humans could see in… In other words, graffiti only other robots could see.

It gave a whole layer of society that humans didn't even know was there, the unseen life of the robots.

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Planetary effects: eg spewing lava, lava bombs, tectonic effects, insidious atmospheres, micor meteor showers, gas/liquid venting, strong winds, gravitational limitations – magnetic and electrical storms etc etc

Differing levels of artificial intelligence and robotics up to the self aware.

Bio-enhancements, bio-armour, implanted comms and intelligence

etc

Cheers
Mark

Electronic warfare. Like hackin' in enemy ship computer and taking control of it. Maybe depending on success you could only take some controls of the enemy ship like weapons, shields, life support…or whatever.

Bubble gum.

Mobile/cell phones that have at least the functionality of a current conventional phone….
Actually the same comment goes for a lot of personal handheld/palm top electronic equipment in RPG's, which is often overlooked and/or not very useful. Extrapolating the current technology is straight forward, but working out how the technology will influence and be influenced by society is more challenging (and more interesting if you like writing background material).

Good points there Wet Patch…
I'll make sure to try to represent iPhones =D

Electronic warfare is pretty much covered, though hacking into automated systems (to the extent of taking control) is a step up from what I've been doing… but should definitely be looked into.

Currently AI is just 3 levels (the rest determined by stats like a human)- drone, autonomous drone, and intelligent drone. Drones are just controlled by a human from somewhere else, auto drones are commanded by a human but carry out most actions autonomously, and intelligent being totally capable of acting independently… even if not allowed to do so.

planetary effects- actually, terrain entirely should be added to this concept brainstorming… I like the ones you've come up with, DH. What about terrain in space? We all know the class rock field, and dust field, and the weird electrical effect, but what else?

I like some of the ideas in the work of Richard Morgan (in his novel's about Takashi Kovacs). Personality can be downloaded and transmitted into a new host body or an artificial body. So a lot of starflight is only required in the early days of setting up communications after that people are simple transmitted back and forth to new worlds as required. This gives a whole new set of crimes and punishments and a different view on risk because death is not necessarily permanent. Pain is still real, and most people cannot afford a replacement body, but for a select few such as the rich or those with vital skill sets the rules are different.

Now that would be an interesting set of technology to build into a game, as it changes so much of the way the characters would approach matters.

Take a look at "Altered Carbon","Broken Angels" and "Woken Furies" for ideas.