Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader

[nedjer]

It's like Paranoia without the humour, and the despair turned up to 11. And a lot more grit. And, um, fewer of those pretty colours.

Yeah, it's damned good that way. Wish I had time to play it more. High creep rating. DH/RT is a bit rules heavy for my usual tastes but the endless, unremitting despair makes it all so worthwhile.

 

[Derren]

Eclipse Phase looks very interesting, especially as it does not only increase the tech level but takes the current social development also into account. That makes the setting look rather "hard" compared to most other Scifi rpgs despite its unique (or should I say bizzare?) setting.

The rules look useable for other settings too, the only problem is that the body-mind distinction likely won't matter. But thanks to the Creative Common license there certainly will be a lot of variant rules.

 

[Ulrick]

I played in a Dark Heresy campaign for a year and a half. Hands down, its one of my favorite systems.

If you run Dark Heresy, be prepared for players treating it like D&D or any other run of the mill RPG. That is, they go charging in relying on their health or luck to sustain them. Combat maims and kills PCs. Combat is very much like the old Rolemaster/MERP games, as mentioned.

Another neat thing about Dark Heresy is that it is unfamiliar with a lot people. So, unlike D&D, you probably won't have players spouting off metagaming during play "oh, that's just a minor plaguebearer, we can take that!" Thus ruining the mood.

Dark Heresy is like Call of Cthulu in the Grim Darkness of the Far Future where there is only war.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Buying DH/RT and ditching the game-world would be akin to buying a dining room suite and chopping it up to make firewood.

Sure it would burn, but it would be a heckofa lot cheaper and easier to just buy some firewood.

DS

 

[tmatk]

Hiya all !

Say, I'm more of a fantasy freak, and I don't particularly like Games Workshop world (or even their accursed low sculpting quality expensive minis), but I am looking for a sci-fi RPG for a change, PREFERABLY one whose system could be ported to other universes. Such as ALIENS ! Or BATTLEST ... Or DOOM ... Or ...

So, what gives ? What do you think about it, especially about Rogue Trader which appeals to me a lot more than Dark Heresies ?

Thanks in advance, and no flamewars please.

Sorry to go slightly offtopic, but I have to comment

I'm all for bashing GW's business practices, but be fair. They employ some of the best sculptors in the biz. I'll give you expensive, but you can't call them low quality. Who's doing better with plastics theses days?

 

[Saeviomagy]

Eclipse Phase has a great (if rather weird) setting, but the mechanics seem quite tied to the setting.

Eh? The mechanics are basically "roll under the percentage to do stuff". What do you see as the problems for using it for a given sci-fi game?

 

[Bold or Stupid]

Eh? The mechanics are basically "roll under the percentage to do stuff". What do you see as the problems for using it for a given sci-fi game?

The games system is fine, but the gear list/character creation is very built round a high tech level so it could be a problem if you don't want the tech involved.

 

[GAAAHHH]

I know everyone has there favorites around here. May I suggest Traveller (my favorite is the Mongoose edition)? The system is easy to use, flexible, and the core book has very little setting information.

 

[Jhaelen]

But are there any critical fumbles involving tripping over an invisible, dead turtle?

Because that's the mark of genius, IMO.

-O

that's one of my favorites, too!

Unfortunately, I found the system to be completely unplayable as a pen & paper game, even though I went to the trouble to simplify some of the tables.

It would probably rock as the basis for a computer-based rpg. Has this ever been done, btw.?

 

[Saeviomagy]

The games system is fine, but the gear list/character creation is very built round a high tech level so it could be a problem if you don't want the tech involved.

It's relatively easy to ban everything that doesn't fit. I was worried there was some fundamental incompatibility!