D&D 5E Stargate RPG Announced from Wyvern Gaming

Zardnaar · Jun 12, 2019

Never thought much of Spycraft d20, a few people who liked it didnt like the d20 adaption. Local gamestore owner loved it and stocked a lot of it which was bought by no one.

I assume they will just rewrite stuff to make it fit the genre better, thing d20 Star Wars or something. Resembled D&D mechanically but was different in various ways with different skills, classes, feats etc.

Superchunk77 · Jun 12, 2019

Mistwell said:
Going with any other system than D&D 5e is a MASSIVE hit to marketability. So you better have such a huge leap in mechanical fit that it just completely outweighs that marketability fit.

On the other hand, if you can tweak the mechanics of 5e to fit "good enough" while retaining that big marketability fit, then you go with 5e.

I understand the market share aspect of it, but a lot of people are slapping the 5e logo onto their products now and completely ignoring a lot of the fundamentals that went into developing that game. I won't name names, but there are some I've seen that simply take existing Pathfinder products, tweak a few skill names, and then market them as 5e products. That's just lazy design.

This developer needs to be very careful about how they implement the 5e mechanics into this Stargate game. There's a lot of risk doing it this way. Change too much and people will be upset that it's not 5e. Change too little and people will be upset that it's not Stargate. Either way, they're going to need to spend a LOT of time on mechanics which could have easily been avoided if they went with a different system.

Hence why I said they would be safer using a genre-neutral RPG system that's popular enough to grab some attention (like Savage Worlds), and then focus more on the setting fluff and adventures.

LuisCarlos17f · Jun 12, 2019

WotC should talk with 3rd party publishers for the feedback to create a d20 Modern 2.0. what could become the universal d20 for all the genres. Some publishers would like use other abilities scores, for example Courage or Grace(luck/karma/fate).

D20 isn't ready yet for a perfect value of challenge rating or XPs reward when a enemy is more or less dangerous if PCs have got enough weapons. For example in the movie Sylvester Stallone's movie "Cobra" Brigitte Nielsen's character couldn't face the main antagonist, the night slasher, only to hide and run away like in a survival horror, but Cobretti in the final fight could terminate all the cult of the new dawn. A dinosaur would be a nightmare for a ewok from moon Endor or a na'vi from Pandora, but a wookie or a klingon with the right weapon only would need a shot, and even he hadn't to be in the same region, only remote-control drone would be enough.

Mistwell · Jun 12, 2019

Superchunk77 said:
I understand the market share aspect of it, but a lot of people are slapping the 5e logo onto their products now and completely ignoring a lot of the fundamentals that went into developing that game. I won't name names, but there are some I've seen that simply take existing Pathfinder products, tweak a few skill names, and then market them as 5e products. That's just lazy design.

OK, but given the designer comments in this thread, we know that's not happening here. So, why bring it up in this thread?

This developer needs to be very careful about how they implement the 5e mechanics into this Stargate game. There's a lot of risk doing it this way. Change too much and people will be upset that it's not 5e. Change too little and people will be upset that it's not Stargate. Either way, they're going to need to spend a LOT of time on mechanics which could have easily been avoided if they went with a different system.

So the trade-off is you need to spend a lot of time and testing to get a 5e tweak right, versus saving that time but taking a huge marketability hit? Isn't the obvious answer to that you take the time to develop the tweak well?

Hence why I said they would be safer using a genre-neutral RPG system that's popular enough to grab some attention (like Savage Worlds), and then focus more on the setting fluff and adventures.

Safer for design purposes, but much more risky in terms of sales. And as sales is the ultimate goal...it isn't safer.

It's kind of unimaginable just how many people are playing D&D, following some level of D&D news, but have literally never even heard of any other Tabletop RPG. D&D is synonymous with Tabletop RPG to them. They would never be exposed to Savage Worlds, and would never hear news about this game, and would never even be anywhere to happen to see it (because it won't be carried in big box stores if it's not a 5e spinoff either). And on the extreme off-chance they'd ever see it, their reaction to it would very likely be "Oh I am not going to learn some other system if it's not based on D&D" as an initial reaction and never even look at it beyond that.

gurpsgm · Jun 13, 2019

Eilathen said:
I really hoped someone would pick this license up again. But D&D 5e for SG?! Really disappointed!
Too bad, the franchise has such potential. But levels and classes just do not fit, IMO. Seeing what a big "success" the first d20 version was didn't sink in, apparently.

Let us at least hope they get access to all the SG material. SG-1, Atlantis and maybe even Universe.
The setting really is a perfect playground for RPGs.

Actually, this is not true. I was a volunteer for Alderac at the time.

They did not do any more than five books because this was the time at which Sony had acquired the license. When Alderac tried to renew the license for Stargate RPG with Sony, they quoted a price that would have bankrupted AEG.

So, no more books from AEG for Stargate. This is what I remember, which may be a little faulty due to it being such a long time from then to now.

So do not take this as "official" info from AEG. I was only a volunteer at the time and had no official presence with the company whatsoever. YMMV.

Vilarin · Jun 13, 2019

[FONT=&quot]First, I'd like to say I am a huge fan of Stargate from the movie onward, so anyone reviving it is a plus. Second I appreciate Mack Martin spending time to share what he can. I had the Alderac books and I had some great adventures with my group. If you spend the time you can get the atmosphere right. I say let's see how this turns out and give Wyvern Gaming a chance. As another person posted on here I'm getting up in years and have played a lot of RPGs over the years. I haven't been thrilled with D&D 4e or D&D 5e, but as Alderac proved a game can be fun and work.

By the way gurpsgm is correct. The Alderac books were impacted by the licensing issues.[/FONT]

Takei · Jun 13, 2019

LuisCarlos17f said:
WotC should talk with 3rd party publishers for the feedback to create a d20 Modern 2.0. what could become the universal d20 for all the genres. Some publishers would like use other abilities scores, for example Courage or Grace(luck/karma/fate).

I'd also like to see a d20 Modern 2.0.

Mistwell · Jun 13, 2019

I really quite enjoyed the Alderac and played a few games and owned the core book. I had a blast playing it at a game convention once here in Los Angeles with a superb GM.

MechaPilot · Jun 14, 2019

Zardnaar said:
You can almost play Stargate using the old D6 system or Star Wars Saga.

I've used the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG to run Stargate games with great success.

Zardnaar said:
Not sure class based hit points would work so well.
And how would zats work, high DC or no save.

Zats are pretty horribly inconsistent in the show. I can't recall a single instance of someone resisting one. And, the whole thing about stun/kill/disintegrate in 1/2/3 shots brings up a host of issues as far as how quickly the shots need to be taken, and how long the energy of a shot remains in the target. They would've been better off just giving it a stun and a lethal setting, like old-school phasers.

MechaPilot · Jun 14, 2019

Takei said:
I'd also like to see a d20 Modern 2.0.

A friend of mine has been running D20 modern using 5e rules. We replaced some of the modern skills with tool proficiencies.

[SBLOCK=Here's the modified character sheet we use

View attachment 107041
[/SBLOCK]