Quote from: BalbinusIs that from that wargame type rpg, where everyone has one character but it's basically a space based tactical game?

I believe the original can be found here.
Battlestations Art
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Quote from: GreentongueI believe the original can be found here.
Battlestations Art
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Battlestations, that's it, I must buy that game.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!I'm worried about her.

Well, they'd all be doing better if she hadn't wasted a few rounds deciding which outfit to wear to the bridge during a battle...

Ha! Superb.

Quote from: AnthrobotHard SF is a literary thing. Introducing it into an rpg to any large degree turns it from being fun into being a lecture on the predictions of scientists of a conservative type.

I'm going to jump in without reading three pages and ask if anyone has mentioned Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. {Edit, yeah, one person mentioned the nanoassemblers, that's not the topic I'm discussing here.}

That trilogy is not enjoyable for me, from a human perspective.  I don't like her characters much.  I don't like their groupings much.

But KSR tells the reader about how sealed suits would be less flexible than breathable fabric suits, and how breathable fabric suits have problems from ultrafine dust, called "fines."

That's incredibly enjoyable to me.

Similarly, when Miller's Traveller mentions that hydrogen can seep through metal tanks -- that's something I never learned in physics class, but it's really neat to me.

The ultra-conservative engineering is a drag and a downer.  But the ultra-crunchy factoids are fun.  It's like reading an encyclopedia, with a sci-fi frame story.

Referring to the title of this thread -- let's get back to ROBOTS!

Robots are cool.

Robots, however, are often non-gameable.

Star Frontiers robots are mostly balanced.

Traveller robots are expensive enough to guarantee that the party won't have any, which is not much fun.

Rolemaster robots (from Spacemaster) are just a stats nightmare, so we didn't use them much.

However, the major reason I added Star Frontiers to Traveller was to make the robots more accessible.

I don't think the best way to get robot flavor into the story is with androids.  Pinocchio is not my theme.  (Although sometimes android stories are good, such as "Ergo Proxy."  But that's another genre entirely.  And if you know which genre it is, don't spoil it for those who haven't seen it by saying it.  Let's just say it has a few mythological overtones.)

No, the best way to get robot flavor is with the Robinsonade and the Edisonade.  Probably the best way to do those is with the frontier story, stressing conflict against the alien environment.  

These genres are pretty hard to game.  One needs motivated players to even try.  If the GM angers the party with pirates, the party can blow off steam by killing the next pirates they find in a gruesome way.  If the GM angers the party by a really nasty storm ... the party can't do anything about the weather.

"Kill things and take their stuff" is so successful, IMHO, because it allows players to retaliate for frustration, thus feeling that they've won a struggle.  "Man versus Nature" is a struggle that's harder to feel good about, IMHO.

But very often one can sneak some Heroic Engineering into the margins of a conventional shoot-em-up game.

Quote from: riprockI'm going to jump in without reading three pages and ask if anyone has mentioned Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. . . I don't like her characters much. . . .

fyi, KSR is a guy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Stanley_Robinson

Quote from: riprockReferring to the title of this thread -- let's get back to ROBOTS!

Robots are cool.

Robots, however, are often non-gameable.

Star Frontiers robots are mostly balanced.

Traveller robots are expensive enough to guarantee that the party won't have any, which is not much fun.

Rolemaster robots (from Spacemaster) are just a stats nightmare, so we didn't use them much.

However, the major reason I added Star Frontiers to Traveller was to make the robots more accessible.

I don't think the best way to get robot flavor into the story is with androids.  Pinocchio is not my theme.  (Although sometimes android stories are good, such as "Ergo Proxy."  But that's another genre entirely.  And if you know which genre it is, don't spoil it for those who haven't seen it by saying it.  Let's just say it has a few mythological overtones.)

The players in my group are saving up for a combat robot.

Quote from: riprockTraveller robots are expensive enough to guarantee that the party won't have any, which is not much fun.

A simple way to circumvent the cost -- take a robot as a character!

!i!

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!While the fins are radiating heat into space, would someone please make an init roll for this poor young lady?



I'm worried about her.

You illustrate my point Superbly.  Do we distribute points here?  Aw hell, even if we don't, take a BEM point. I insist.

Quote from: Ian AbsentiaA simple way to circumvent the cost -- take a robot as a character!

shhh!  my players will hear, and want to do that!  

normally, i wouldn't mind.  but i can't see a robot serving with the Imperial Navy.

i'm debating how big to make the irritated warbot for tonight.  the size of a compact car?  (more of a "skirmish" than "war" bot, then)  a tank?  a scout ship?

I GM robots as player characters all the time. I've had everything from robots that looked totally human to fully morphing bots to bots that looked old-fashioned but were actually collections of smaller bots to a cyborg that was a human brain in a robot body to robots who thought they were a cyborg that was a human brain in a robot body.

-clash

Quote from: KoltarCould we maybe have a fw more discussion about games that use Starships??
 Robots??
Psionic powers?
Armored High-tech Troopers??
 How about some Time Travel RPGs?

BASH! Sci-Fi is coming.  You will be pleased.  Currently it is in the last stages of layout before going to its publication run.  There is a table of contents posted here: http://grognardstavern.proboards29.com/index.cgi?board=bagnews&action=display&thread=1191831321

In an effort to humorously merge two of my past thread topics , I give you Sarah Brightman and "I Lost my heart to a Starship Trooper" :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_zMU2tX5n8

...and here is the version with images of all sorts of classic Sci-Fi shows and books :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMpLgglNxe4

 Enjoy!!!!


- Ed C.

 We need some more android and cyborg love around here.....