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Best sci-fi game system for quick, pick up game?

Started by weirdguy564, June 03, 2022, 12:59:04 PM

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jeff37923

#30
July 22, 2022, 11:20:55 AM
Quote from: Dylan on July 22, 2022, 10:16:56 AM
Quote from: jeff37923 on July 22, 2022, 06:41:12 AM
Quote from: Anfelas on July 22, 2022, 06:30:24 AM
Traveller no question about it.

here are the quick and dirty character generation tools I use

roll 2d for each characteristic Str, Dex, End, Int, Edu, Soc or assign  6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8 between them

pick a service for prior history Army, Navy, Marines, Merchants, Scouts, Other (tell me about your career in one word)

pick how many years you served for (I will convert that to 4 year terms mentally for the next bit) and your final rank if any. Were you exposed to danger?

You know all the stuff your Edu stat and your career experience are likely to have taught you.

Start playing.

If we need to roll the dice to determine if you are successful at something you will either roll 2d vs the characteristic of your choice (roll equal or lower to succeed), or roll 2d with a target number of 8 or more. If the roll could involve a characteristic that you have a value of 8 or more in gain a +1 DM. If you think it is something connected with your career then you can buy a +1 (you have a number of points equal to 2 per 4 year term)

Have you seen Andy Slack's Classic Traveller Ultralite?
(Attachment below)

I wouldn't attempt to dignify either of these proposed "systems" by associating them with Traveller. They're both more in the line of "lets just roll dice and make some shit up." Games have rules, so you're not really playing a game at all if you "play" in this manner. Still, whatever floats your boat I guess.

Go home, change your full diaper, put on a fresh one, and go look up who Andy Slack is and skim through his published articles in White Dwarf - he's got the chops for Traveller.
"Meh."

Dylan: King of the Dead

#31
July 22, 2022, 11:43:10 AM
Quote from: jeff37923 on July 22, 2022, 11:20:55 AM
Quote from: Dylan on July 22, 2022, 10:16:56 AM
Quote from: jeff37923 on July 22, 2022, 06:41:12 AM
Quote from: Anfelas on July 22, 2022, 06:30:24 AM
Traveller no question about it.

here are the quick and dirty character generation tools I use

roll 2d for each characteristic Str, Dex, End, Int, Edu, Soc or assign  6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8 between them

pick a service for prior history Army, Navy, Marines, Merchants, Scouts, Other (tell me about your career in one word)

pick how many years you served for (I will convert that to 4 year terms mentally for the next bit) and your final rank if any. Were you exposed to danger?

You know all the stuff your Edu stat and your career experience are likely to have taught you.

Start playing.

If we need to roll the dice to determine if you are successful at something you will either roll 2d vs the characteristic of your choice (roll equal or lower to succeed), or roll 2d with a target number of 8 or more. If the roll could involve a characteristic that you have a value of 8 or more in gain a +1 DM. If you think it is something connected with your career then you can buy a +1 (you have a number of points equal to 2 per 4 year term)

Have you seen Andy Slack's Classic Traveller Ultralite?
(Attachment below)

I wouldn't attempt to dignify either of these proposed "systems" by associating them with Traveller. They're both more in the line of "lets just roll dice and make some shit up." Games have rules, so you're not really playing a game at all if you "play" in this manner. Still, whatever floats your boat I guess.

Go home, change your full diaper, put on a fresh one, and go look up who Andy Slack is and skim through his published articles in White Dwarf - he's got the chops for Traveller.

Well of course, and no need for condescension Jeff (as hard as it is for you academics to avoid). That's not to say his abbreviated rules are anything other than slack: as slack as a catamite's sphincter, one might say.
d69

weirdguy564

#32
July 22, 2022, 12:50:04 PM
Mekton Zeta looks like a good game.  It's back story may need some script doctoring to make it more to my liking. 

However, it's not going to be good for rules lite.

I'm leaning toward Tiny D6 Frontiers and Mecha vs Monsters. I'm just waiting for Mecha vs Monsters Evolved, hopefully in August. 
I'm glad for you if you like the top selling game of the genre.  Me, I like the road less travelled, and will be the player asking we try a game you've never heard of.

zircher

#33
July 22, 2022, 02:33:31 PM
Heh, I just realized that I have never played or ran Mekton/Mekton Zeta in Algol.  It was always a custom setting.  It is pretty easy to hack to meet your needs.
You can find my solo Tarot based rules for Amber on my home page.
http://www.tangent-zero.com

weirdguy564

#34
July 22, 2022, 08:31:13 PM Last Edit: July 22, 2022, 08:33:14 PM by weirdguy564
Quote from: brettmb on July 22, 2022, 11:09:34 AM
No mention of HardNova 2? I'm about to cry :)

Ready to use character templates and scenarios included.

It was cheap.  Under $5.  I bought it.  Now, I'll probably never play it, but I'm a bit of a collector.  It's worth it.
I'm glad for you if you like the top selling game of the genre.  Me, I like the road less travelled, and will be the player asking we try a game you've never heard of.

BronzeDragon

#35
July 22, 2022, 09:50:48 PM
Quote from: Premier on June 03, 2022, 05:21:47 PM
I think the key words here are "quick" and "pick-up." With that in mind, I'd suggest some variation of West End Games' D6 system - either D6 Star Wars, D6 Space (I think that's what it was called), OpenD6 or Mini Six for something extremely rules-light. They can all easily be tweaked to whatever sci-fi subgenre or concept you want to explore, and they're very easy for new players to pick up, because "number on your character sheet tells you how many dice you roll, more dice is better," and that's really the core of it.

This is the objectively correct answer.

I've never run a more fluid system.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens." - Boris Grushenko

SHARK

#36
July 22, 2022, 09:58:54 PM
Quote from: jeff37923 on July 22, 2022, 11:20:55 AM
Quote from: Dylan on July 22, 2022, 10:16:56 AM
Quote from: jeff37923 on July 22, 2022, 06:41:12 AM
Quote from: Anfelas on July 22, 2022, 06:30:24 AM
Traveller no question about it.

here are the quick and dirty character generation tools I use

roll 2d for each characteristic Str, Dex, End, Int, Edu, Soc or assign  6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8 between them

pick a service for prior history Army, Navy, Marines, Merchants, Scouts, Other (tell me about your career in one word)

pick how many years you served for (I will convert that to 4 year terms mentally for the next bit) and your final rank if any. Were you exposed to danger?

You know all the stuff your Edu stat and your career experience are likely to have taught you.

Start playing.

If we need to roll the dice to determine if you are successful at something you will either roll 2d vs the characteristic of your choice (roll equal or lower to succeed), or roll 2d with a target number of 8 or more. If the roll could involve a characteristic that you have a value of 8 or more in gain a +1 DM. If you think it is something connected with your career then you can buy a +1 (you have a number of points equal to 2 per 4 year term)

Have you seen Andy Slack's Classic Traveller Ultralite?
(Attachment below)

I wouldn't attempt to dignify either of these proposed "systems" by associating them with Traveller. They're both more in the line of "lets just roll dice and make some shit up." Games have rules, so you're not really playing a game at all if you "play" in this manner. Still, whatever floats your boat I guess.

Go home, change your full diaper, put on a fresh one, and go look up who Andy Slack is and skim through his published articles in White Dwarf - he's got the chops for Traveller.

Greetings!

*Laughing* Jeff! I think Brett just drew down and smoked Dylan. *BOOM* Dylan has been ban-hammered!

I don't think I've seen Brett ban-hammer anyone before. *Laughing*

You see? The "Eye of Sauron" never sleeps! ;D

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK
"It is the Marine Corps that will strip away the façade so easily confused with self. It is the Corps that will offer the pain needed to buy the truth. And at last, each will own the privilege of looking inside himself  to discover what truly resides there. Comfort is an illusion. A false security b

brettmb

#37
July 22, 2022, 10:25:40 PM
Quote from: SHARK on July 22, 2022, 09:58:54 PM
*Laughing* Jeff! I think Brett just drew down and smoked Dylan. *BOOM* Dylan has been ban-hammered!

I don't think I've seen Brett ban-hammer anyone before. *Laughing*
Wasn't me. I was saving him for pundit. I generally only take care of spammers and malicious stuff. Doesn't mean I wasn't watching him though.

Lurkndog

#38
July 23, 2022, 12:07:08 PM
Quote from: Premier on June 03, 2022, 05:21:47 PM
I think the key words here are "quick" and "pick-up." With that in mind, I'd suggest some variation of West End Games' D6 system - either D6 Star Wars, D6 Space (I think that's what it was called), OpenD6 or Mini Six for something extremely rules-light. They can all easily be tweaked to whatever sci-fi subgenre or concept you want to explore, and they're very easy for new players to pick up, because "number on your character sheet tells you how many dice you roll, more dice is better," and that's really the core of it.

I would give D6 Space a thumbs down, you can get D6 Star Wars just as easily, and it's a more complete game.

All of the generic D6 games that WEG put out at the end of their run were pretty half-baked, and none of them have any real sense of setting or character. They're just setting-less rules, and even as rule-sets they are not really complete.

brettmb

#39
July 23, 2022, 12:18:02 PM
I don't think d6, other than Star Wars d6 1E, qualifies as pick up or quick. The later generic d6 games were over-bloated.

weirdguy564

#40
July 23, 2022, 01:10:53 PM
Quote from: BronzeDragon on July 22, 2022, 09:50:48 PM
Quote from: Premier on June 03, 2022, 05:21:47 PM
I think the key words here are "quick" and "pick-up." With that in mind, I'd suggest some variation of West End Games' D6 system - either D6 Star Wars, D6 Space (I think that's what it was called), OpenD6 or Mini Six for something extremely rules-light. They can all easily be tweaked to whatever sci-fi subgenre or concept you want to explore, and they're very easy for new players to pick up, because "number on your character sheet tells you how many dice you roll, more dice is better," and that's really the core of it.

This is the objectively correct answer.

I've never run a more fluid system.

I have run Mini-6 solo.  It was terrible at first.  I hated the basic sword combat.  But then I found an awesome fix called Dueling Blades by Griffon Publishing. 

http://griffonpubstudio.blogspot.com/p/schweigs-d6-resources.html?m=1

It's great for a number of reasons.  It adds movement as one of the results, letting you force an enemy into a position you want.  I killed an enemy in a lightsaber duel by forcing them into an airlock and blowing the baddy into deep space.

Ironically, the next plan is to play in the age of sail as swashbuckling adventurers on the high seas.

I'm glad for you if you like the top selling game of the genre.  Me, I like the road less travelled, and will be the player asking we try a game you've never heard of.
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