Sci-fi SA?

[Hoser]

Basically what the title says: has anyone tried adapting Strange Aeons to work in a sci-fi environment? I was thinking about using a 40K Inquisition team (Threshold) vs Chaos (Lurkers).

[WallyTWest]

Well, my brother and I have played it as an experimental rule set for INQ-28. You would think it work well...




And it works great! I think the second edition rules work best, because of the increased number of baddies and the flamethrower make it feel more like 40k. The core rule set is certainly robust enough. The sceneros require no modification.

Perhaps mike should make a rule set entitled "laser burn 2.0"

[necrocannibal]

I think you just have to substitute the weapons listed in the rulebook for some sci-fi weapons or make them up yourself and you're ready to go. There are also people that play SA in a medieval setting with modified weapon stats, so why not sci-fi?

[Aeneades]

I have played some post apocalypse SA and it worked well with no problem although I wasn't using sci-fi level weaponry.

Last couple of weeks I have been tempted to pick up The Others: 7 Sins and battle systems urban apocalypse terrain for a sci-fi post apocalypse campaign (although may have to pull out of the latter due to upcoming house move leaving a black cloud over my finances).

[Uncle Mike]

We have tossed this idea around the lab a few times, what do you guys think? It would/is easy enough but what do people want? Torn between 'Post-Apoc.' and 'Space Opera'...thoughts?

[wellender]

I have always wanted to see a modern setting for Lovecraft gaming. 

[necrocannibal]

We have tossed this idea around the lab a few times, what do you guys think? It would/is easy enough but what do people want? Torn between 'Post-Apoc.' and 'Space Opera'...thoughts?

I'd go for a Post-Apocalyptic version, a Fallout style Strange Aeons would be awesome...Fallout 3 has some Lovecraft references in it. The nice thing about Post-Apocalyptic settings is the fact that weird creatures easily fit in as there tend to be many mutants and such in the wastelands.

[Hoser]

I'd go for both post-apoc and space opera. As mentioned above, mutants etc. would seem to make PA a no-brainer, but I'd like to see something along the lines of Inquisitor too.

[horridperson]

Post apocalyptic Cthulhu sounds pretty solid.  The hopeless last days of man where the end isn't reckoned in the solemn perambulation of stars.  It's already upon us and the story is simply a document of the last days.  A very fatalistic setting I'm just curious how it would function if the elder gods were the actual vector of the fall; sounds like the agents would get stomped like nothing.  I like the idea of Cthulhu in space as well but more as Star Trek: Enterprise, Kubrick's Space Odyssey's or Event Horizon than full blown Space Opera.  There is something about exploration and being a pioneer into the unknown that make the concept more horrifying to me.  High technology but travel in the stars still means isolation in the black.

edit:  A Firefly-like setting would work well too.  Isolated backwater settlements and reaver cultists?  Hell yeah. 

[Aeneades]

I wouldn't mind the an over the top space opera style expansion. Darkest of the hillside thickets Spaceship Zero comes to mind with the over the top 60s tv style.

I would also equally like post apocalypse setting as well though.

[WallyTWest]

"We have tossed this idea around the lab a few times, what do you guys think? It would/is easy enough but what do people want? Torn between 'Post-Apoc.' and 'Space Opera'...thoughts?"

Mike- Right now you have a unique ecosystem that is looking for a rule-set that can handle generic dystopian space opera in small scale gaming. You should capitalize on pushing the Strange Aeons ruleset/hobby/brand in this direction- if for no other reason than the approach of Heroes-Lurkers is a great fit for this genre.

Please make a downloadable version of Laserburn 2.0/Dune/40K/StarWars/MadMax/HungerGames/Fallout/Inq28/JudgeDredd

[horridperson]

Dune.  Now that is hot.  Last year I read Ian Tregillis's Milkweed Triptych; Weird War 2 with mythos flavor.  If I remember right the outsiders only became aware of humanity when they invoked magic something like the way we don't notice insects until they are ignorant enough to buzz in our ears or land in our coffee.  Maybe the act of using spacefolding technology would be a, "Hello" to elder beings that might attract them to ending us.  I'd push the hard science quality otherwise someone's IP division might claim they invented warp technology and HP Lovecraft.

[WallyTWest]

I'd push the hard science quality otherwise someone's IP division might claim they invented warp technology and HP Lovecraft.

My gut feeling is that chaosium is going to work hard to bring its properties back into fold- and a great deal of CoC is actually their intellectual property.

A dystopian colony overrun with corruption and criminals is not new- necromunda or Blakes 7...

[horridperson]

@wallytwest

I don't think Chaosium, Frank Herbert's estate or the BBC would be cause grief.  The guys who used to sell Necromunda are known to take creative liberty with other people's ideas and with IP law in regard to their own.

Edit:  It isn't the original works so much as the derivative material that ape Lovecraft's imaginings that would be a concern.  The 40k universe in particular is a science as magic/religion setting that I think should be approached with caution.  In adhering to Lovecraft's own position I think a basis in science (even pretend science) is more faithful to the genre.

Mythos IP is pretty hard to nail down and I am not a lawyer.  There is a pretty article here that examines it's nebulous state;
http://www.epberglund.com/RGttCM/nightscapes/NS15/ns15nf01.htm

  

[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?

You've got me looking to completely revisit my INQ28 experment.

*Edit- make a very simple 4 page PDF that contains expanded weaponry and a quick setting brief with a few new lurker profiles. You could easily do the 3 variants we have seen in this post as a fan project. Strange Fallout, Strange Inquisitor and Strange Trek.