Best space marines system?

Loconius

Explorer
Has anyone ran a space marines game or a game centered around powered armor? What system did you use, how did it turn out? Any suggestions for games that will handle it well?
 

log in or register to remove this ad


Death watch does this very well... BUT it is fairly well tied to the setting and using already super-human characters in suits of walking death. Dark Heresy Might work better for more 'normal' people in powered armor. But it too is very tied to the setting.

Savage Worlds is probably WAY too "swingy" for power armored campaigns because of how open ended damage is. If power armor is a OPTION, the swingy-ness could work to keep a balance between the powered armor 'haves' and 'have nots', though.
 

The question posed is a little vague in one sense, are you talking RPG or wargame? One RPG not set-up for it, but I think can handle it is Traveller, especially if you are talking a single or small squad of marines operating together (a typical RPG character party).

The WEG Star Wars game also can handle it if you don't mind having to re-write the extensive background of everything, I mean stormtroopers are space marines with very specific blaster weapons.

And of course there is the Warhammer 40K RPG.
 

I second the nomination for Traveller, with the caveat that powered armor is powerful in Traveller. You'll have to bring out the big guns (or big bugs) to actually threaten the PCs.

I'd also suggest True20; I ran a one-shot centered on a squad of Starcraft-style marines in powered armor trying to get off-planet as the Zerg/Tyranids/Ohgodthey'reeatingme invaded. It worked really well - the True20 Companion had powered armor design rules, so the PCs were packing customized suits.
 

I've run successful power armor centric games using Mekton Z (more then one actually), Bubblegum Crisis (ie Fuzion), GURPS (GURPS OGRE).

THat said, none of them were really power armor focused. Yes, the PCs ran around in power armor, but the character interactions were the driving factor, especially of the BGC game.
 

Haven't tried the new version, but the old original Rogue Trader was fun. Works as an RPG and/or a wargame. And not just for space marines. Biggest problem is the serious dearth of ready made adventures. We pretty much had to make everything ourselves. But that was ages ago.
 

There is plenty of module support existing and forthcoming from Fantasy Flight Games for Deathwatch (Space Marines), Dark Heresy (Inquisition Acolytes), and Rogue Traders (space merchants). All three share underlying mechanics, which are fun as long as you realize that psychic powers can cause back things to happen.
 

There is plenty of module support existing and forthcoming from Fantasy Flight Games for Deathwatch (Space Marines), Dark Heresy (Inquisition Acolytes), and Rogue Traders (space merchants). All three share underlying mechanics, which are fun as long as you realize that psychic powers can cause back things to happen.
Those are the new ones? Anyone know how much they differ from the original?

Edit: as in, what's the system like nowadays?
 
Last edited:

For completeness' sake, I have to say that my group really didn't enjoy Dark Heresy at all. The combat rules were long and fiddly, resolving damage was a huge pain (determine if hit, roll damage, figure out hit location, check armor in that location, subtract armor from damage, apply damage to wounds, if put below zero wounds, cross reference negative wounds with damage type and hit location to determine special effects... oh no, his ammunition exploded? Go back to step 2, but for everyone in a x meter radius), and the success rate on most actions was a bit too low (ideal success rate in an RPG is about 70%. We were averaging around 45% for a reasonably-high ability score, then maybe +10% for skills and +10% for gear... in things that we had optimized for. For stuff that we weren't particularly well equipped for, not skilled in, or didn't have a high ability score for, failure was basically inevitable. Granted, we were just starting characters, but the game felt like a comedy of errors).

So I have to give Dark Heresy and related a down-vote. Maybe that's what you're looking for, though (and Deathwatch and Rogue Trader probably take care of the low success rate issue, since they start you off at higher levels than DH does).
 

Trending content

Remove ads

Top