D&D 5E Mass Effect 5e Style

[Rocksome]

One thing I love about 5th edition is the ease of customisation and reflavouring. I recently ran a one-off dark-sun game where I reflavoured a wood-elf monk as a thri-kreen hunter. It was a perfect synthesis, where I only had to rename abilites to perfectly capture the feel of a thri-kreen from their mulitiple attacks and stunning venom to their incredible maneuverability. Which is why I think I'm ready to try my hand at something a little more complicated.


My next one-shot during our break after Rise of Tiamat is going to be based on Mass Effect 3 during the Reaper invasion. I'll be pre-generating the PCs and am currently brainstorming ideas. Firstly I want a mix of races and classes that represent some if the iconic mass effect archetypes, and as such I'm currently thinking:


Human Infiltrator: Arcane Trickster with Sharpshooter feat and a heavy crossbow reflavoured as a Sniper Rifle.
Krogan Warlord: Wolf Totem barbarian
Quarian Engineer: Int based cleric reflavouring bless as holographic targetting, cure wounds as shield re-charge etc.
Turian Soldier: Dwarf archery fighter
Asari Adept: High-Elf Abjurer Wizard
Geth Hunter: Fae Pact of the Chain Warlock for pet and eldritch blasts


These are just some inital thoughts, I'm happy to reflavour and swap abilities. I'm currently thinking about an optimal level so that everyone has the right "feel", probably around 7th.


Thoughts, suggestions, ideas?

 

[77IM]

This sounds like a whole lot of work to me. There are much simpler, more generic systems out there that would be easier to convert Mass Effect.

That said, if it's work you enjoy, go for it and let us know how it turns out!

 

[Rocksome]

I don't think it'd take too much work. I've decided on 8th level PCs.

I've already made the human infiltrator in my head. It's just a Human Assassin Rogue 5/Dragon Sorcerer 3 with the abilities renamed. Quickened invisibility and true strike, whilst shatter becomes a concussion grenade. Abilities don't have to be optimal, just flavoursome.

Krogan Battlemaster will be easy. Just a Maul wielding Dwarf Battlemaster Fighter reskinned, with a single multi-class caster level or the magical adept feat for biotic/tech flavoured powers.

I'm going with a monk (race undecided) to represent a Drell Vanguard. I'll add some flavour such that the bonus Dash a monk can take becomes a teleport. It's a bit OP, but it get's the job done. Probably will go way of the elements powers, chosen carefully to be re-skinned as biotic abilities.

The Asari adept should be the easiest to do, I'll just re-skin an abjurer (race undecided) to represent barrier and shielding powers. Magic Missile is essentially Warp already.

The only one that really needs any work is the cleric. Healing doesn't really fit in the Mass Effect universe unless you consider shield and barrier re-charging as a thing. In that respect. So I'll be turning all HPs into Shield or Barrier basically, and I'll grant a single bonus "Health" point such that a character can still function normally if their Shield is depleted and they can take one hit before dropping. So it really is just a cleric but I'll convert the casting stat to Int and re-skin the existing powers, Bless become "Holographic Battlefield Schematic", Aid becomes "Shield Boost", Guiding Bolt becomes "Targeting Ammo", Inflict Wounds becomes Overload, etc.

 

[Gaea Games]

Elves would probably be the closest to the asari. Of course, I think there are easier starting points, myself, but if you like it, by all means, make it happen. A lot of it is mostly reskinning anyway, right? The way the barriers work seems to fit pretty well in the games. You can sometimes take a few hits when your shield depletes, but not usually much, and those could be fluffed as "grazes" and the like (near-misses).

 

[Rocksome]

Yeah, to be honest I think it's simpler to 're-skin that it is to adapt a generic system. I've tried several, Hero System etc and I find them clumsy.

 

[Gaea Games]

I think the newest Aeon game will work well for it, and I myself have some ideas for bringing back BESM 3rd to use for it. It'd be classless and level-free, though.

 

[Rocksome]

Yeah, when the new Aeon finally gets here it would be perfect.

 

[Gaea Games]

I have it on good authority (that is, I will be working on it) that it's going to be awesome.

 

[Rocksome]

Awesome! My group absolutely lost their marbles over the events in Darkness Revealed. It was insanely good and we love Aeon. We can't way to play the new one (and Scion).

 

[EzekielRaiden]

5e strikes me as a very odd system to adapt to the Mass Effect universe. If you feel like it'll work, go right ahead, but it seems philosophically and mechanically easier to start with something else...specifically 4e or 13th Age.

You have ablative armor/shields/barriers that are your real "HP" (or THP, for some characters' abilities). Then you have charges of medigel that get you up again if things get hairy: healing surges (or 13A's equivalent, recoveries). You've got some abilities that are just always on (stances), some that you can use pretty quickly (pseudo at-wills), some that are a lot slower (encounter, or roll-recharge in 13A), and then the "heavy" weapons for when you really need the big guns (dailies). You have three distinct power sources (Biotic, Tech, Soldier), and each class has a particular "role" it fills (usually identifiable by the special mechanic unique to that class, e.g. the Vanguard's Biotic Charge vs. the Infiltrator's Cloak). And all these classes are supposed to be, more or less, equivalent--they're all effectively "highly trained special forces soldiers."

That said, this IS the 5e forum, so I won't delve any deeper than that. Just my two bits!