As a preface, this setting is an original setting I made myself. It's highly inspired by works like Xenosaga, so if you see any religious references or giant robots- that's why. There aren't any races other than humans, a.g.i, and genetic one offs. It's science fantasy, leaning on the science more than the fantasy. It spans over 400,000 years of history and several million lightyears, so I'll try to keep it brief.

history

New testament. Bahir Factor, the source of everything supernatural, is hidden in Antarctica. Then rediscovered by humanity. Then world war 3. Then exodus to space. Then sol system disappears. Then A.G.I take over. Then they rule for hundreds of thousands of years, expanding across the universe. Then interdimensional monsters invade. Two superweapons made to fight against it. One, named Finis, is plopped on another planet with its pilot after the war is done (and the A.G.I are overthrown) but Finis fights back, eats the crew of the ship transporting it. Pilot talks to higher being through the Bahir Factor, gains superpowers.

Then 50,000 years on another planet. Civilization is made. Then it sinks. Civilization is made again. Then it is wiped out by a reincarnation of that pilot. Civilization is made again. It is almost wiped out but Finis is killed and everything is happened.

Then back to the Sol system. Haven't filled this out yet.

magic

magic, named Æther here, is a lot like psionics on steroids. Its basis is hacking the fundamental information of reality with your imagination- which everyone does in this setting due to their connection with the Bahir Factor (thus allowing things to exist) but on a higher scale. Æther powers are fluid, structured by the user's life experiences (if i was burned in a fire i would have fire powers as well as the ability to heal myself). The cost to Æther is that you exhaust yourself if you use it too much.

like Æther, Anima and Animus exist, although much more powerful but at the same time more limited. two people have this power, one male one female respectively. Anima can act, but then Animus has to react and counteract its power. Vice versa. For long stretches of the timeline, Animus doesn't appear in the Lower Domain (our universe), so Anima can't use his powers and has to divide them up between Shards. only when humanity goes to space and the 50,000 years on the planet does Animus come back and Anima is allowed to use his full power.

also every single machine after a certain point uses slave generators that hook up to the Bahir Factor which gives them infinite energy, BUT if their generators are pushed too much they start asking for too much and explode. Violently. The benefit is that they allow the machine to bend the laws of physics. Anima Shards can enhance Slave Generators and turn machines that use them into super robots.

Technology

The technology tends to waver a lot. But in general it's very high. During the 50,000 years on the planet, humanity goes from directed energy weapons, airships, dimensional travel, nanomachines and giant humanoid machines (20 meters tall, called Metal Dolls) to cavemen, and then back to having giant robots but without the nanomachines and directed energy weapons and dimensional travel. And then a bit back again to where small arms are unreliable (they can explode).

In space, the technology jumps from standard sci fi fare (Warp drives, railguns, directed energy weapons, forcefields, etc) during the A.G.I rebellion to things that make Orion's Arm look sane in parts (Star Trek style converters, femtomachines, magnetic monopoles, star destroying superweapons, dyson spheres, etc).

Tone

rather dark and uncensored, but there will be a happy ending for, if not everyone, the majority of protagonists.

in terms of how the world treats powers, strong enough Æther users can fight giant robots on foot, do ridiculous stunts like parry falling, parry gunfire, shoot a target around the size of an ant from 500 miles away while not looking, make black holes and then survive travelling through them to get through the Einstein-Rosen bridge, create their own big bang, etc. the giant robots themselves can do backflips and handstands. melee combat is surprisingly common like in a jrpg. the wildlife on the planet owned by Finis has some oversized animals, like giant snails and 40 meter long dragons.

generally a ridiculous world

i should mention that robot girls appear in every story in this world

i'm rather curious to see the first choice of many users on here. i haven't figured out a good system for this world and i can't make my own games (learned that the hard way).

i made this after i got 5 hours of sleep, please be easy on me if i made various grammar, spelling, etc errors

This sounds like a crazy setting and it could be fun. My tastes are more grounded but I've always wanted to try something wild.

My instinct would be to borrow the system of a decent game with a similar setting. Have you looked into Rifts? It has psionic like magic I think.

Yeah I'm not much help, but I did enjoy reading that.

Quote from: rytrasmi on November 03, 2022, 03:38:50 PM
This sounds like a crazy setting and it could be fun. My tastes are more grounded but I've always wanted to try something wild.

My instinct would be to borrow the system of a decent game with a similar setting. Have you looked into Rifts? It has psionic like magic I think.

Yeah I'm not much help, but I did enjoy reading that.

RIFTS has a terrible system. I dont think it would work here.

IDK maybe Spirit of the Century or some sort of FATE variant? Though the downside there is that it would mean storygaming with a focus on metanarrative tricks and the like, so IDK. Kinda loose with the rules and the like.

Alternatively, maybe something similar to the RPG system you made earlier kinda similar to the Storytelling System and stuff like that? I almost get Exalted 2e vibes off of some of this, though more in flavor than exact system. (Exalted 2e I feel like the system is pretty specific to that particular world, even with the mirrorverses, but you get it.)

Or I guess GURPS maybe? Don't have a whole lot of experience with that one, but apparently it can be modified for most things.

Going rules lite is my way of doing things.  I would go Tiny D6 Frontiers (spaceships and psionics) and also use Tiny D6 Frontiers Mecha vs Monsters as well. 

The games are nearly identical for rules.  Roll a 5 or 6, you succeed.  3D6 if it's easy (70% chance), 2D6 for average success (55%), or only 1D6 if it's hard (33%).  That's the core rules to the game.

Or.

Mini-Six Bare Bones Edition (with added benefit of being free).   It can do a lot, has supernatural powers, and includes multiple scales.  It's a good game.   It has a side benefit of being a great way to learn old school Star Wars D6 rules by West End Games.  Your attribute is a number of D6 dice, and so are your skills.  Roll them to beat a target number the GM sets as how difficult a task is.  Example: beat a medium difficulty Target Number of 15 by rolling 3D6 intelligence, and 1D6 for History skill to identify an artifact you found. 

Rolemaster Standard System + Spacemaster Privateers but that's my answer for just about every setting.

Which system would my players let me run it in?  2d20 or GURPS.  sigh

Quote from: KindaMeh on November 03, 2022, 07:09:26 PM
IDK maybe Spirit of the Century or some sort of FATE variant? Though the downside there is that it would mean storygaming with a focus on metanarrative tricks and the like, so IDK. Kinda loose with the rules and the like.

Alternatively, maybe something similar to the RPG system you made earlier kinda similar to the Storytelling System and stuff like that? I almost get Exalted 2e vibes off of some of this, though more in flavor than exact system. (Exalted 2e I feel like the system is pretty specific to that particular world, even with the mirrorverses, but you get it.)

Or I guess GURPS maybe? Don't have a whole lot of experience with that one, but apparently it can be modified for most things.

Oh yeah, I remember that system. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WXzjFECX_EOnr0uatudT-Q8H-i1RrHIhBSl8gDlS4q0/edit Here it is, although it's extremely outdated in regards to the world. I pretty much gave up on this project, although I might give the ideas to someone else as I gave up on making games of my own- I'd rather stick within my own talents.

Quote from: David Johansen on November 03, 2022, 07:25:22 PM
Rolemaster Standard System + Spacemaster Privateers but that's my answer for just about every setting.

Which system would my players let me run it in?  2d20 or GURPS.  sigh

I was about to say 'isn't Rolemaster made for normal humans' but then I noticed that the base system has super large monsters that players can fight against and win.

Quote from: MeganovaStella on November 03, 2022, 11:56:08 AM
Then 50,000 years on another planet. Civilization is made. Then it sinks. Civilization is made again. Then it is wiped out by a reincarnation of that pilot.

"....so, I built a second one. That one sank into the swamp. So I built a third one; that one burned down, fell over and then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up!!"

In all seriousness though, when I'm thinking of doing an out-there homebrew setting, my first impulse is to take one of the generic systems with lots of settings published for them (GURPS and Savage Worlds primarily, but D20, Cypher System and BRP to a lesser extent), and look to hodgepodge together elements from several of the published settings in order to fit what I'm looking for.

The JRPG tone is one that I find particularly hard to replicate in a TTRPG context. Most of the big RPG settings are drawing from either classic pulp scifi/fantasy, which is going to be too low-powered, or western superheroes, which have a very specific flavor all their own. You could try tracking down the Final Fantasy RPG, but it looks to be pretty badly supported, or look into a dedicated anime game like Big Eyes Small Mouth. I don't know if that would be too animoo for what you want, but looking around, I see there's a "space fantasy" book for BESM.

As an outside the box recommendation, there's a game called Chaos 6010 A.D. that I thought of when reading your post. Full disclosure: I've never even skimmed the book. I only know about it because I watched some actual play of Demon Gate, which is a fantasy game from the same company. Demon Gate is a complex game (one review described it as not quite as complex as Hackmaster), and from the actual play I saw, PC power levels are right on the border of superhuman. As far as I know, Chaos 6010 A.D. uses the same system, so it might hit the right level of power for a JRPG style game, with some changes to the window dressing.

If you find a single, well-supported game that fits this tone, I'd certainly like to hear about it. One of several homebrew settings I want to put together is intended to be a science-fantasy world similar in tone to the mid-period Final Fantasy games (roughly VI through XII). 

Systems that would fit this.

TSR's Marvel Superheroes: Pretty much covers all the bases. Scaling can get a little crazy if you do not reign things in. But that is true of any game.

Champions: This can do it to a lesser degree. Some elements may need tweaking to get what need.

BESM: Pretty much designed to do stuff like this. It is a much more abstract system. But it can handle it long as you are willing to do most of the legwork.

gurps: Like BESM this can handle most of the tasks. To a much lesser degree. It requires much more work to pull off though.

Quote from: ForgottenF on November 03, 2022, 08:33:47 PM

Quote from: MeganovaStella on November 03, 2022, 11:56:08 AM
Then 50,000 years on another planet. Civilization is made. Then it sinks. Civilization is made again. Then it is wiped out by a reincarnation of that pilot.

"....so, I built a second one. That one sank into the swamp. So I built a third one; that one burned down, fell over and then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up!!"

In all seriousness though, when I'm thinking of doing an out-there homebrew setting, my first impulse is to take one of the generic systems with lots of settings published for them (GURPS and Savage Worlds primarily, but D20, Cypher System and BRP to a lesser extent), and look to hodgepodge together elements from several of the published settings in order to fit what I'm looking for.

The JRPG tone is one that I find particularly hard to replicate in a TTRPG context. Most of the big RPG settings are drawing from either classic pulp scifi/fantasy, which is going to be too low-powered, or western superheroes, which have a very specific flavor all their own. You could try tracking down the Final Fantasy RPG, but it looks to be pretty badly supported, or look into a dedicated anime game like Big Eyes Small Mouth. I don't know if that would be too animoo for what you want, but looking around, I see there's a "space fantasy" book for BESM.

As an outside the box recommendation, there's a game called Chaos 6010 A.D. that I thought of when reading your post. Full disclosure: I've never even skimmed the book. I only know about it because I watched some actual play of Demon Gate, which is a fantasy game from the same company. Demon Gate is a complex game (one review described it as not quite as complex as Hackmaster), and from the actual play I saw, PC power levels are right on the border of superhuman. As far as I know, Chaos 6010 A.D. uses the same system, so it might hit the right level of power for a JRPG style game, with some changes to the window dressing.

If you find a single, well-supported game that fits this tone, I'd certainly like to hear about it. One of several homebrew settings I want to put together is intended to be a science-fantasy world similar in tone to the mid-period Final Fantasy games (roughly VI through XII).

For that, I think that Anima Prime could work.I can't use those for my world because Anima Prime is for Final Fantasy, while this is more like Xenogears if anything. Don't know much about it, if anything. Also might look into Chaos 6010 A.D. Thank you, I have more systems to show my friends.

I asked this question partly because I wanted to know which systems I could choose from in case I get in the mood to run a systemed game and not a rotating GM freeform game in the future.

In terms of genre and activities I'd probably look at Cthulutech and Exalted first.  I've only read some of the books - never played either - so I can't speak to mechanical fit.

Quote from: MeganovaStella on November 03, 2022, 05:34:05 PM
RIFTS has a terrible system. I dont think it would work here.

Savage Worlds has already been mentioned and would probably be my choice. There is a Savage World version of Rifts, now, which implements the gonzo using SWADE. It has psionics, magic and big stompy stuff in there so you could repurpose a lot of the material to cover the different things you are looking for.

Having read / run multiple 'official' SWADE conversions now I have learned that custom edges are the secret to adding flavour and focus into your game. If you want your magic to work slightly differently, build this in to the Arcane Background. If you want specific combat forms to be prominent, make an edge that facilitates this. Tailoring is actually super easy for SWADE.

Quote from: MeganovaStella on November 03, 2022, 09:46:39 PM

Quote from: ForgottenF on November 03, 2022, 08:33:47 PM

Quote from: MeganovaStella on November 03, 2022, 11:56:08 AM
Then 50,000 years on another planet. Civilization is made. Then it sinks. Civilization is made again. Then it is wiped out by a reincarnation of that pilot.

"....so, I built a second one. That one sank into the swamp. So I built a third one; that one burned down, fell over and then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up!!"

In all seriousness though, when I'm thinking of doing an out-there homebrew setting, my first impulse is to take one of the generic systems with lots of settings published for them (GURPS and Savage Worlds primarily, but D20, Cypher System and BRP to a lesser extent), and look to hodgepodge together elements from several of the published settings in order to fit what I'm looking for.

The JRPG tone is one that I find particularly hard to replicate in a TTRPG context. Most of the big RPG settings are drawing from either classic pulp scifi/fantasy, which is going to be too low-powered, or western superheroes, which have a very specific flavor all their own. You could try tracking down the Final Fantasy RPG, but it looks to be pretty badly supported, or look into a dedicated anime game like Big Eyes Small Mouth. I don't know if that would be too animoo for what you want, but looking around, I see there's a "space fantasy" book for BESM.

As an outside the box recommendation, there's a game called Chaos 6010 A.D. that I thought of when reading your post. Full disclosure: I've never even skimmed the book. I only know about it because I watched some actual play of Demon Gate, which is a fantasy game from the same company. Demon Gate is a complex game (one review described it as not quite as complex as Hackmaster), and from the actual play I saw, PC power levels are right on the border of superhuman. As far as I know, Chaos 6010 A.D. uses the same system, so it might hit the right level of power for a JRPG style game, with some changes to the window dressing.

If you find a single, well-supported game that fits this tone, I'd certainly like to hear about it. One of several homebrew settings I want to put together is intended to be a science-fantasy world similar in tone to the mid-period Final Fantasy games (roughly VI through XII).

For that, I think that Anima Prime could work.I can't use those for my world because Anima Prime is for Final Fantasy, while this is more like Xenogears if anything. Don't know much about it, if anything. Also might look into Chaos 6010 A.D. Thank you, I have more systems to show my friends.

I asked this question partly because I wanted to know which systems I could choose from in case I get in the mood to run a systemed game and not a rotating GM freeform game in the future.

As a slight update, I got curious last night and picked up the pdf for Chaos 6010 AD. I'll report back what it's all about, once I have time to look through it.