The most challenging game I play is Jay Treat's Strange Gravity.
And, to be clear: It is hard. Simultaneously, everyone is expected to do character stuff and facilitator stuff.
I adore it.
Anyway. That's my star trek inspired game.
I'm thinking about some Star Wars / Dune inspired games. Any suggestions?
What I'm open to:
-- galactic politics
-- starships
-- silly physics
What I'm not open to:
-- hard mechanics. If it's more complicated than Fate or AW, it's probably not for me.
-- misogyny. If there's a woman in a chainmail bkini on the front, or women are turned into wombs to produce spice monsters in the fiction? Nope.
Jonathan Davis may have ideas. So might you!
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Aren’t the stories of Star Wars and Dune thematically opposed to each other?
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteBecause in one a small band of rebels destroys the galactic empire's primary weapon system using love, and in the other a small band of rebels seizes control of the galactic empire's primary drive of space magic using deceit and good breeding strategies?
ReplyDeleteYes. But besides that, they have a lot in common.
Uh ... no.
ReplyDeleteBecause one celebrates a society of diverse and independent factions, fighting against an authoritarian state in thrall to a terrorizing charismatic leader, and the other precisely flips that formula to applaud the autocrats.
I love the current official Star Wars RPGs. They have more rules than Apocalypse World but I'm not sure if they are 'harder'. The funky dice make sure that each session is more dynamic than anything else I run.
ReplyDeleteCoriolis is worth a look too. The elevator pitch is it's Arabian Nights in space and it lives up to that description. Gorgeous artwork too.
Tony Lower-Basch I thnk it's a deeper discussion on whether the six Dune books (and there are only six) celebrate Paul and the God Emperor, or (as Chapterhouse seems to indicate) shows a forever resistance that is the moral side.
ReplyDeleteCertainly, Paul finds the Fremen's reliance on the religion upsetting and tries to prevent the Jihad. He fails and fails horribly, and the books try to (maybe failing) to deal with this.
Anyway, they are both Space Wyrm versus Moonicurn, that's for sure.
Brian Ashford Got a link or two?
ReplyDeleteWell, like, Fading Suns is deliberately built for Dune and because of that would be terrible for Star Wars.
ReplyDeleteSo... I’m probably enough less forgiving of Dune that all I should contribute is my emotional objection to your treating both works as similar. Same as if you said “what’s a good game for the adventures of world-hoppers... like Dr. Who, and Corwin of Amber?”
William Nichols Coriolis: http://frialigan.se/en/games/coriolis-2/
ReplyDeletefrialigan.se - Fria Ligan | Coriolis
Yeah, Tony, but, again, Space Wyrm is perfect for both. Very much intentionally so.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Dune's out because of the misogyny anyway.
If it helps any, I see the settings of Star Wars and Dune as being very similar, even if the stories they tell are very different.
ReplyDeleteYeah, to paraphrase AE Housman, this is as technically correct and fundamentally wrong as including Lot in a book on sodomites.
ReplyDeleteWhat I might want, come to think of it, is Legacy: Life among the ruins.
ReplyDeleteIt's a pbta hack about rebuilding civilization after the apocalypse. So, it's vaguely hopeful post apocalyptica. And it's got factions and shit.
William Nichols I have to say, that doesn't exactly scream either Star Wars or Dune.
ReplyDeleteI know. It's got some hacks, the most exciting of which to me is about life on a generation ship.
ReplyDeleteWhat can I say? I contain multitudes and love space shit.
I am bemused by the Star Wars/Dune interpretation thing here... but since it's largely tangential will leave it at that.
ReplyDeleteOr, hell, maybe I should go back to the roots and play something that's more in the way of Firefly / The Expanse.
ReplyDeleteWhich could also be star wars! There's absolutely room for a small crew hauling cargo and getting in way over their heads.
Quite possibly, I won't do any of that. A second game nights sounds like work.
William Nichols That's pretty much the whole premise of Edge of the Empire. Classes are Smuggler, Colonist, Explorer, Technician, Hired Gun and Bounty Hunter.
ReplyDeleteAll the military stuff is in Age of Rebellion and all the Jedi stuff is in Force & Destiny.
Baroque Space Opera (Fate RPG)?
ReplyDeleteOr, I could use Star Wars World ....
ReplyDelete... With a couple of changes.
ReplyDelete"roll plus delta v"
ReplyDeletei could do a whole lot within the confines of The Expanse, maybe around book 4 or 5 or something.
ReplyDeleteHouse rule: The PCs have a ship. The ship has stats.
ReplyDeleteShip stats at start:
Harm 0, Size 0, Trade 0, Delta V 0.
What this means, system: Roll + 0 for any of these things. Any player character who can choose a ship may, instead, increase a ship stat by one. Any character with a special room (like the gearhead) should have it onboard the ship.
What this means, fiction: The Ship can more or less hold the PCs, not in comfort, for about one trip. It can probably more or less break even, has no weapons and can't escape for a damn.
The basic ship is a shuttle -- a single habitation location with an engine and an airlock. It's about 20 years old, essentially anonymous. If anyone wants to deal with a mortgage, they should take it as an obligation gig.
What the stats are used for:
Harm: Ship to ship combat.
Size: Size and comfort (for the crew) of the ship
Trade: Rolled for comerce rolls and keeping the ship afloat.
Delta V: Used to evade pursuit.
With an advance, a PC can always increase a ship stat. With each increase in ship stats, also add a descriptive special room. This happens both descriptively and prescriptively, of course: If you do it, do it.
Special Rooms (sample list): Med Bay, Brig, machine shop, comm suite, smuggling bays, gym, arsenal, kitchen, data storage server, passenger accommodation, private crew quarters, barracks, dedicated bridge.
Playbooks available: Ace, Bounty Hunter, Gearhead, Medic, Noble, Operative, Scoundrel, Trooper
Not available: Adept, Counsular, Guardian, Officer, Sentinel.
Space Wurm vs Moonicorn is the correct answer. ;)
ReplyDeleteAre you bringing to to Nerdly, Shane Liebling?
ReplyDeleteWilliam Nichols SWvM? No, I don't like shoving it into a 4h slot. Even the quick play version needs more time in my opinion. (I just ran it recently in two 3h chunks for The Gauntlet - I can point you to the vids if you are interested.)
ReplyDeleteI've played a campaign of it. I was the Mogul, I think the playbook was called.
ReplyDeleteI do, though, like seeing games with powerful and different systems at work.
I want to play Strange Gravity with you again! I remember the Joy of Reason so fondly.
ReplyDelete