So... I LOVE StarCraft. Love it. And I'm thinking of running it as tabletop again. Thing is, I've run the Alternity thing, found it sucky, and I've run a thing I found in the web, based on Star Wars d6, which I liked, but was only playable at medium levels, just like Star Wars. Best StarCraft one-shot for me yet, but I don't really see it as campaign-worthy, for me at least. So, I would appreciate any ideas about systems. Of course, I could re-learn Alternity rules and come up with the stats and stuff, but that little book is like a peeve of mine now (I suppose it's my own fault for buying it without really knowing what it was. Oh well). I've thought of running it with Shadowrun 4ed, but... dunno, not really the cinematic Alien/s-Ridley-James-Scott-Cameron-anything-Alien-but-Resurrection kind of thing I'm going for... besides, can you imagine the kind of damage a Zergling should be able to do to bypass armor? And too-tough Zerglings or tin armors would completely ruin the game...

I'm going for a reasonably lethal thing, probably point-based, because levels would probably suck too. I mean, the day a Firebat says "Go back to sleep, Bob, it's just two Hydralisks, I'll handle'em" it's not StarCraft anymore.

Sorry, long rambling, but I'm in a pinch here, and lifelines are appreciated and shall be repaid with timely thankyouses.

fede.-

Full Alternity is an all around better product than that silly Starcraft boxed set. It is also pretty lethal depending on how creatures and weapons are designed (the damage tracks worked quite well.) As someone who wanted a Starcraft tabletop game I was deeply dissapointed in the boxed set, which is more an overly produced quickstart. Gamma World for Alternity is also something I'd suggest you avoid. But the two corebooks, Beyond SFX, and the Psionics Book were all very useful for setting building.

Alternately what systems do you like? I'm sure Traveller (Mongoose) could do it, but like anything else would take some significant work to stat the creatures, armors, and material. I'm not sure of games like Thousand Suns (or is that Stars) or indie games like 3:16 and how they would handle such material.

Savage Worlds might also be something to look at it. (It's meant for big battles in part, and is designed for fast play in that style but is '"pulpy", high action oriented so named heroes will tend to be more important and live longer than unnamed ones.) Lethality various with weapon stats..

I think you should first decide what kind of game you want to run, and then choose your system accordingly.

Are the PCs going to be soldiers in the army? Soldiers don't get to adventure; they go exactly where and when, and do exactly what, how, where and when they're told by their superiours, so you're looking for a miniatures wargame system, not an RPG.
Is it about Han Starcraft Solo and his Protoss copilot gallivanting around the sector as freebooters and having chandelier-swinging adventures? Something like Star Wars D6.
Is it about Han Realistic Solo and his Protoss copilot ferrying goods and passengers around the sector taking dirty jobs and working their ass off to repay mortgage on their ship? Traveller.
Is it about dungeoneering in space wrecks, ancient ruins and Zerg warrens with not much thought given to anything else (like trading, politics, etc.)? Dungeons and Dragons, and pick an old edition so you don't have to come up with one million setting-appropriate feats.
Is it about freelancer PCs taking infiltration and espionage jobs that require lots of planning and not trusting your employer? Probably Shadowrun or Cyberpunk 2020.

Decide what style of gameplay you're going to have, consulting the players if necessary. That will narrow down your options and make the choice much easier.

Starcraft, to me, sounds like a perfect fit for Savage Worlds.

There's plenty of futuristic character options, and decent rules for massive tabletop battles (while still making the individual PC's feel special). That's my recommendation.

If you were going to go vehicle heavy, I really like the vehicle rules from Genre Diversion 3. You can stat up tons of unique vehicles very easily and have them. It also has a decent tactical combat rules.

Traveller may be good, however I don't really think the combat system is very good for mass combats. But for space marines flying around in space fighting aliens, it'd be decent enough. I'd recommend the Mercenary book if you're going to go this route.

I have run StarCraft using Gamma World and Savage Worlds.  

SW is absolutely great for StarCraft if you want to recreate the battle scenes and divert the RPG into skirmish wargame mode.   This is especially fund if you have lots of minis.   I saw a guy run SW SC at a convention and he had each unit represented by a card with Blizzard artwork on it so it was very visual.  

I used Gamma World when I wanted a much faster play with less worry about how was standing where.   These days I would probably use Mutant Future instead (its free online).    You can easily build all the creatures, units and tech by mixing and matching and renaming GW stuff.

If you want SC to be fast and lethal, I suggest Traveller.   I love to run Aliens with Traveller and a lethal SC would be on that same page.  But, people will be flipping through characters like gumdrops.   When I run Aliens, I give 2 PCs per player for a 4 hour game and I usually get a 80% kill rate with Traveller.

Ok. Thank you, guys. I'll look into Savage Worlds then, first (did you know? Three out of four gamers recommend it!), and then the other stuff.

I'm totally aiming for that Alien feel, so Traveller... mmm. 80%'s a little high, though. I've got a campaign in mind. Easily fixable, I suppose.

I don't like the wargame feel. I'm thinking something on the lines of a little group, crash landed on some as-yet uninhabited fringe planet, about the time of the first Zerg swarm, left to fend for themselves. Players would start pretty much alone, but may encounter more survivors more into the thing. While non-military characters could theoretically be available, I'm not very keen on it (I won't rule it out just  because someone might come up with a really good idea) Whether or not any semblance of military order is maintained would be up to the players. In time, they could be contacted by the Sons of Korhal, or the Confederacy, depending on the players' approach.
Just Terran for starters, of course. So, maybe you could say I will be about dungeoneering in space wrecks etc.

SR4: Bug spirit rules, advanced cybernetics, zerg mooks, etc.

Savage Worlds is just Deadland's retarded brother.

RPGPundit

Thanks, Pundy. Useful as ever. And I'm not sure about SR4, like I said before. It's great doing what it does, but it would be a major pain in the ass to adapt, I think. There are too many stats to come up with... if I were planning a really long term thing, I'd do it, but you know that's just not my cup of tea.

I'd use Dark Heresy if you want to run a SC game where the characters are specialists doing Co-Ops style missions.  It's gritty, it's violent and it's got pretty good gun mechanics for a change.

Quote from: RPGPundit;285757Savage Worlds is just Deadland's retarded brother.

RPGPundit

Fortunately, no.

SW is Hero System lite, IMO. Simple, fast rules that do what you need them to do, easily used for any genre, minimal prep time on the part of the GM thanks to the fluid rules, easy to learn, fun to master.

Also: $10 rulebook is all you need.

-=Grim=-

I'm not familiar with Dark Heresy. I'll look into it. Thanks for the tip.

Its the sci-fi version of WFRP, but suckier.  If I recall, you weren't a big fan of WFRP, Sun Boy, so I really can't imagine you being a big fan of DH.

RPGPundit

I would recommend you look at Hard Nova.
Unfortunately, my copy of this game has disappeared; I don't know where it ended up!  I'm guessing I lent it to someone, and don't recall who.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;286553Its the sci-fi version of WFRP, but suckier.  

You may have heard of it; apparently the kids call it 'warhammer 40,000'.