Terminator as an RPG...HELP needed

[Aries_Omega]

The wife and I have been watching the season that just past of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles as well as the old movies. She has been really motivated to see more and all. I listen to a podcast called "Fear the Boot" and I was remembering back to a episode in which one of the hosts was talking about how to introduce RPG's to non gamers I used some stuff from that episode. Now, my wife did game but has now fallen into nongamer, recovering geek status. I took a page from that episode and now she wants to do a Terminator RPG.

I been debating on how to go about it. I have narrowed it down to two systems. d20 Modern and Stoyteller. I own several books for both and am torn as to which to use.

d20 Modern has lots of stuff already in it's sourcebooks between d20 Modern Core, d20 Future and d20 Apocalypse that will do the job...but I think it might be too crunchy. She has played other systems in the day that had crunch but it's been almost 10 years since we gamed. I wanted something simpler as well since I normally do AD&D 3.5 and something not d20 would be a nice change. Incidentally for someone that didn't like crunch she really liked Cyberpunk 2020 and how rolls were stat+skill+d10=result. I think she liked it because she had a bad-ass Fixer character that she put lots of effort into the "lifepath" part of character creation.

I also checked out the new Storyteller system and like how you make a human...then you add your flavorings. It has lots of potential to do MANY things and is less crunch then d20 Modern. I just am not sure it it would work for a Terminator style type game.

What I want to know if for all of you who have ran the new Storyteller and d20 Modern, what can you tell me about the games viability to do something like what I want. I want to have them play humans from modern times...and maybe a few players play humans from the future sent back to stop Skynet and fight Terminators. How well could I approximate a say the T-800 (the Arnold model) or the T-888 (the Cromatie model) or even the T-1000 (the liquid metal model)?

 

[jdrakeh]

Honestly, neither one of those systems is entirely generic out of the box, nor do they have a 'build it yourself' framework in place (if you want rules for a Terminator in either, you'll have to make them up yourself). I think that you would be better off with something like GURPS Lite (it's free!) or True20, both of which give you a basic DIY framework complete with systems for creating characters of about any type you can imagine (including Terminators).

 

[Starman]

Have you checked out this d20 Modern adaptation? Click 'Freebies' on the left and then their should be a link to 'Terminator: Future Fate.' I haven't tried the rules myself, but they look pretty solid.

 

[Aus_Snow]

There is a variety of systems you could use, but I wouldn't choose either of those, if I had the freedom to go with something else.

Like say, CP2020, now that you mention it. With a few supplements, it can most definitely handle that kind of campaign. I've even been in CP campaigns that featured some very Terminator-ish elements. Plus, it's a fairly straight forward and smooth to run kind of game. Things like Lifepath are a bonus, too.

Reduce netrunning to a skill check, or series of skill checks, remove the critical fumble issue, and maybe use an alternative drugs subsystem (only if they'll feature at all) - and you're set. There're a number of other tweaks I might make, but these are largely a matter of taste.

Other alternatives include this Unisystem adaptation: http://www.oldlordskull.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&op=getit&lid=13 and http://www.oldlordskull.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&op=getit&lid=14, as well as GURPS: Reign of Steel.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

CP2020 is probably the best system for this, only minor tweaks would be required.

Storyteller would work, in fact if you've got Exalted their Alchemicals expansion pretty much dealt with terminator style android/cyborgs. You could run characters as heroic mortals and terminators as Alchemicals

If I were setting up a campaign for this I'd basically use D&D with the SAGA condition track and ramped up weapon damage. Probably WarlordRalt's firearms system, importing details from d20 Future.

 

[ValhallaGH]

What I want to know if for all of you who have ran the new Storyteller and d20 Modern, what can you tell me about the games viability to do something like what I want. I want to have them play humans from modern times...and maybe a few players play humans from the future sent back to stop Skynet and fight Terminators. How well could I approximate a say the T-800 (the Arnold model) or the T-888 (the Cromatie model) or even the T-1000 (the liquid metal model)?

Modern: It's a fun system, that keeps just on the heroic (i.e. John Woo) side of action films (as opposed to gritty, like the latest Rambo or most old westerns) while not being 'gods with guns'. It will work and there's a couple of free supplements available for exactly what you want to do (one's already been linked). That said, character advancement is fairly narrow and using non-human PCs gets to be very ... weird.

Storyteller: Combat is dangerous! Remembering to subtract dice is a real problem, but essential to not automatically killing your player characters (and a lot of players have issues with their dice pool reducing to a chance die). Recovery times are long, so a random fire-fight can delay the climactic confrontation, or prevent the most appropriate heroes from being able to participate at all. Mechanically, everyone is equally terrible because no matter how large your pool, each die only succeeds on an 8 (or 10), so everyone's in position to fail most of the time.
I've got real issues with the fundamental mechanic, though it does a vastly better job of human-centric games than old Storyteller systems; however, it's generally worse when modeling super-human characters such as werewolves or terminators.

Both can do what you want, and if you're comfortable with and ready to run either system then either would be pretty good. Both will take a bit of work and have their highly annoying quirks but they're fine systems. If choosing from those two, pick based upon how gritty/heroic you want to be and how comfortable you are with the systems.
I'd recommend using a different system (my personal choices would be Mutants and Masterminds, old Deadlands / Hell on Earth from Pinnacle entertainment, or True 20, in that order) but you can run a great game using those other two systems. Excepting True 20, the ones I would use have a good bit more granularity during character creation, and during play for Hell on Earth (though only the Marshall needs to worry about it), but I find the increased immersion, heroism, and detail of character variation to be worthwhile.

Good luck and I hope some of that was helpful!

 

[Alzrius]

Have you checked out this d20 Modern adaptation? Click 'Freebies' on the left and then their should be a link to 'Terminator: Future Fate.' I haven't tried the rules myself, but they look pretty solid.

Seconded. This version is very well done, and I think it's the answer to playing/running a Terminator d20 game.

 

[ssampier]

Looks neat; could be interesting as a one-off.

*ponders a fantasy post-apoc using modern d20 as a guide...*

 

[scourger]

Savage Worlds. I think it has the rules-medium approach you need to get your player interested.

 

[talien]

Seconded. This version is very well done, and I think it's the answer to playing/running a Terminator d20 game.

Thanks.