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Author Topic: Sci-fi SA?  (Read 13172 times)

Offline WallyTWest

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Re: Sci-fi SA?
« Reply #15 on: September 29, 2015, 11:29:12 PM »
Mike, dumb question- why did you never look at Gothic Horror?

Offline horridperson

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Re: Sci-fi SA?
« Reply #16 on: September 30, 2015, 01:00:24 AM »
@WallyTWest

"So where do you throw that emphasis? What would you choose to emulate? What is that basic element you are trying to emulate? That "feeling" or setting?"

I'm not sure if this was for me but if I were trying to capture the feel of Inquisitor or Cthulhu in Space I see them as different answers.  This is long winded so for now I'll talk about Inquisitor skirmishes and the qualities I'd like to see.

Inquisitor:  I visit the Inq28 boards on Ammo Bunker on and off.  I really enjoy the modelling the crew there does but have never had any appreciation for the Inquisitor rules set.  I found it cumbersome and about as much fun as doing sequences of simple math exercises; Just not fun.  As I understand it the creators looked as at the low model count as an opportunity to spend more time crunching numbers at the game table.  If I ever manage to find the right combination of rules to play in an Inquisitor style game it will have to best emulate the stories that Dan Abnett wrote within the setting.  I believe the only good thing that came out of the Inquisitor project was the Eisenhorn Trilogy and the stories that followed in it's wake.

In order to do that I've looked at the elements of the stories that were so appealing;

Action/Tension:  Abnett writes damn good action.  Off the top of my head the only writer who can trump him is Bernard Cornwell.  To simulate that back an forth tempo U-go/I-go is out the window.  I'd steal the turn mechanics from a system like TNT because there is so much potential for variation.  The back and forth between players forces provides uncertainty, keeps things tense and is fluid enough to be resolved with a single roll of the die.

Spycraft/Solving mysteries:  So many games are about killing every model on the other side.  There are some objective based offerings out there but why would you table an Information Technologist in most games when you could bring, "dude with plasma gun"?  Collecting the microfilm, Hacking the central core, interpreting a clue in the forbidden library;  I'd like to see objectives that validate the niche skills of experts.  There is always room in a game for guns blazing but it seems to me there is a whole other part of the story that is being neglected.  I'm eagerly awaiting Osprey's Black Ops rules next month and hope that they provide some guidelines for doing this.  The blurb on Amazon sounds like this is what they are trying to do.  I hope so otherwise I'm going to have to think of something and I won't be getting paid to do it.

Corruption/ Sanity/ Magic:  This is a component that needs to be addressed in an Inquisitor story.  There are on table effects in the original rules but it usually amounted to more stat adjustments and excessive table consulting.  I haven't read SA through yet but I from what I have skimmed the feel is right.  Things should be scary, agents are whittled away at by what they have seen over time.  Cumulative and inevitable; I like the fatality of it.  I think it's an important distinction that in Mythos stories this is the end of the line.  In an inquisitor styled game I see it as a new beginning.  The progression from puritan to radical over time and the horror of, "crossing the line".  In a 40k styled game I see an Inquisitor's war band changing over time.  Certain types of agents might leave or become availible as the main character evolves.  This would have to be a campaign level meta game activity but to provide the right feel I think it would be worth the trouble of hashing it out.

Big Mysteries:  What would drive an Inquisitor campaign?  There has to be a higher purpose.  Again it's a meta game action off of the table that might have a bearing on what could be discovered.  In my head I simplified it to point it might be similar to Mordheim exploration.  Again encouraging players to employ savants or investigators in their retinues maybe these types would have better luck at these activities than the guard vet.

In closing I think the greatest difference between Mythos and 40k punkhorror is emphasis and circumstance.  In Inquisitor demons/daemons are things to be shot and defeated.  The Action is foremost and the terrifying vista or gribbly otherworldly thing are volcano lairs and henchmen with metal hands.  It's Grimdark Pulp and I like it a lot.  Elements are borrowed from mythos as scenary but the nature of the narrative is an entirely different beast.


Offline Mr. Peabody

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Re: Sci-fi SA?
« Reply #17 on: September 30, 2015, 01:16:39 AM »
Gimme a cool mechanic for some wacky anomalies and I think you would have Stalker nailed; done & dusted; tied-up with a bow...

This Pripyat Calling, can Yog Sothoth come out to play?  ;D


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Offline WallyTWest

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Re: Sci-fi SA?
« Reply #18 on: September 30, 2015, 01:17:34 AM »
I switched over to an IPad a few years ago- it hurt my posting on forums and it has made it difficult to write long responses. You covered alot of gaming questions/ideas I had in that post.

All I can do is promise to explore some of those concepts in future posts on this forum.
« Last Edit: September 30, 2015, 01:51:23 AM by WallyTWest »

Offline horridperson

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Re: Sci-fi SA?
« Reply #19 on: September 30, 2015, 01:30:05 AM »
I hit my electronic writing limit on that post so I know where you are coming from.  I'll babble about Space Mythos later in the thread but my eyes are burning  o_o.

Offline Uncle Mike

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Re: Sci-fi SA?
« Reply #20 on: October 01, 2015, 04:11:31 AM »
Wow! That is a bit of reading.  :o  Lots of stuff to talk about...but I'm tired, coming down with some sort of sickness, so I'll answer the direct question at the top of the page for now at least.

Never did Gothic Horror as we felt there were already quite a few games out there already that seemed to have it figured out. Love the genre/setting personally and one day might throw something together but it could be played now by just putting emphasis on aspects of the existing second edition rules. More Torches and Wolfmen would be the first thing that comes to my mind. Our goal was to make Strange Aeons a pretty versatile beast.

Also, if we did it would be called: Peerless Vampire Killers! (at least if i get my way...)

Offline obsidian3d

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Re: Sci-fi SA?
« Reply #21 on: October 01, 2015, 04:02:55 PM »
For toolbox gaming Strange Aeons actually fits the bill pretty nicely. I feel like you can do Victorian through PA quite handily with it as is, perhaps restricting the weapons available to be appropriate to the time period.
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Offline horridperson

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Re: Sci-fi SA?
« Reply #22 on: October 01, 2015, 06:08:17 PM »
I haven't got a trope list together for the Sci Fi Cthulhu setting but I did a quick mood piece in my notebook that sums up the "feel" as I imagine it.  Having all the words and just transcribing them to Word made it easier than extended screen gazing;

Tarkahn IV, High Orbit, 0401, 20 August, 2490
I just died on the surface of Tarkahn IV along with the rest of the reclamation team.  My last engrams were drawn almost 12 hours ago.  Before the lander drop.  I don’t even know how I died down there.  I know it happened because I’m on my hands and knees retching and the white hot pain of rez sickness is lancing through my skull.
Fayette and Patel are coming round.  Their eyes are open in surprise their pods cycling.  Kelly looks so perfect; eyes closed, like a dreamer.  Her pod display bleeds letters; Initialization Failure.  Perfect forever.
Mags is thrashing like he is being boiled alive.  The amniotic is bubbling furiously as a tainted fluid coalesces and sinks to his feet.  He is ramming his head against the transparent wall.  The red cloud is growing, obscuring my view of the interior but I could see he no longer has a face.
Was it a minute or hours I stared across the chamber?  I come to my feet and the world floods my perceptions.  Now Fayette and Patel are on the deck retching.  Useless.  The Ship’s proximity alarms are droning.  The lander is approaching and the computer says that Mags is on board but he is dead.  True dead.  I have to reach the bridge and the auto-destruct for the lander.  I can stop it but my legs betray me, protesting like I’m wading in amber.  Whatever is left of Mags, whatever is inside of Mags cannot reach the ship.   


 

Offline cuchulain23

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Re: Sci-fi SA?
« Reply #23 on: October 02, 2015, 03:54:02 AM »
I think the SA rules work well for a lot of things without much need for adaptation.  Post apoc is pretty cool, especially with the new Mad Max movie reviving interest. My friends and I have been using the SA rules for some pseudo-mad max gaming lately.

Offline WallyTWest

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Re: Sci-fi SA?
« Reply #24 on: October 02, 2015, 11:29:04 PM »
@Mike

I partially dislike this edition because it's got so much content crammed in there. It's overwhelming- I have no idea how this next campaign is going to play out- the baddies seem to have access to so many enemies and there is so much data to keep track of compared to the last edition.

But I got to hand it to ya- this is about as awesome as Narative gaming can get. You broke away from the "Mordheim Formula" and it has resulted in a supremely playable game. Low model count, low play space requirements, great versatility. You should be really proud with the results. I think this may be one of the best miniature wargaming rule sets on market.

I can't wait to see where you take this next-

Offline Basement Dweller

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Re: Sci-fi SA?
« Reply #25 on: October 03, 2015, 06:45:20 PM »
So i have been toying around with a Strange Aeons Sci-fi game for a while.  My vision (for what its worth) is a Rogue Trader/Firefly sort of them where your band of "thugs" and "criminals" fly around from planet to planet trying to make enough money to eat and keep their vessel in the air.  Keep the model count similar to SA (3-6 crew members) with aliens, robots, etc.  The joy of this style is that it would allow you to use all sort of random sci-fi models as you encounter different aliens on different planets.

I have a crew painted (yay!) and have worked on a first round of weapons.  I attempted to increase the range slightly to make shooting a little more prominent while still letting HTH be useful or a viable theme for the good guys and the bad guys.  In this sci-fi world, armour is more prominent and I think high armour models replace some of the big monsters in terms of the big point bad guys.  It needs some play testing to see if what I think sounds good in my head will actually result in a fun game, but in my head I think it will work quite well...

I have always felt the strength of SA is the generic bad guys.  It allows you tap into your collection and change up who you fight each game.  For a sci-fi game, this is even more true and your band of good guys fights robots, orks, corrupt local militia, big aliens...
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Offline Mr. Peabody

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Re: Sci-fi SA?
« Reply #26 on: October 03, 2015, 07:07:59 PM »
The best thing is that S.A. provides a very flexible framework for scaling encounters to match any crew of space-traders or group of rogue-mercenaries.

Offline WallyTWest

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Re: Sci-fi SA?
« Reply #27 on: October 03, 2015, 11:47:34 PM »
Ok- I vote for Rogue Trader/Firefly. You have sold me. Let me think about this one a little- I have some ideas for photography and models.

Offline Ajsalium

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Re: Sci-fi SA?
« Reply #28 on: October 04, 2015, 01:09:18 AM »
My two cents....

Post-apocalyptic Mythos is only logical. Simply, the stars finally are right, and Cthulhu wakes from his "death", summoning Yog-Sothoth and through It the rest of the pantheon. Human civilization collapses within days. There are just a bunch of survivors, having to carve a living in a planet where, suddenly, we are very low in the food chain.
I see such a setting as action-oriented, with little to none involvement of the Gods themselves, for whom the human survivors would be but pitiful insects they wouldn't bother about.

And for a space-opera setting, I'd look primarily to Event Horizon for inspiration. There's something outside the space-time continuum, and when hyperdrive engines pierce the continuum to travel to the stars sometimes some of the entities living outside notice and approach the voyagers. Perhaps just to study them, out of sheer curiosity. Perhaps with an evil intent. Or perhaps they are so totally alien that trying to apply any moral compass to their actions is a fallacy. Of course, exposure to their alien essence transmutate the voyagers. And when they are sent back to our side of the continuum they bring the madness of the void with them (yes, a reference to Firefly's reavers, too).
Oh! And I wouldn't rule out xenomorphs as a Mythos monster. After all, they are based on a design from Giger's Necronomicon book. Maybe there's an immortal Empress somewhere, a true deity in herself, and the xenomorphs are her thousand young. Or maybe they are bio-weapon engineered by some alien civilization for a cosmic war.
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Offline horridperson

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Re: Sci-fi SA?
« Reply #29 on: May 09, 2016, 03:53:04 AM »
I came back to this one because it was a neat thread throwing different sci fi settings into the mix. Has anyone read(or watched) The Expanse? Im just cracking open Cibola Burn (book 4) and think it has some serious potential here.