Teflon Billy
Explorer
The Shaman said:
Sign me up.
What traits would your Ultimate Space Opera setting have?
- Thread starter fredramsey
- Start date
Sign me up.
Vraille Darkfang
First Post
The Fat Lady.
So I can cue her up whenever the players do something incredibly stupid.
So I can cue her up whenever the players do something incredibly stupid.
Teflon Billy
Explorer
Technology that--while advanced--is not incomprehensible to the characters.
So the FTL drive can be worked on the way I (Teflon BillY) can work on the engine of car. Yes, there is some skill invoved, but not a variety of PhD equivalents as well as equipment that the human mond can't comprehend. Grab you toolkit and get those shields the hell back up!
Weaponry that--while advanced--is neither foolproof due to high tech, nor unbelievably devastating. I want Pistols, Rilfles, Swords and Knives. I don't really care what they shoot or what they are made of, so long as they have "Sci-Fi" qualities to them (they shoot "Plasma Bolts" or "Focused Warp Field", or are made of "Deuterium" or "Monomolecular Tridium" or whatever. No "insta Kill" things, ad no "perfect defenses"
Aliens that are basically understandable to the average player. Dog men, Alligator men, Green men, Half Plants...that kind of thing. Give them recognizable traits (The Alligator men are Greedy! The Dog Men are Loyal! ...whatever)
Pirates. I kow it makes no sense in a Spacefaring game. Tough. You asked and I want them in there.
Robots who, for whatever reason, are not better than Bio lief forms at things. Nothing worse than the PC's constantly picking up "Robot Gunners" for their ships and suchlike.
No computers. Nothing gets rid of the need for PC interactions with NPC's faster than easily avaialble computers to efficiently handle everything.
Tons and tons of quirky and interesting locations. Every planet better be wierd and cool. If there is more than one "Generic Space Mall"-type place, I think the settin is failure.
So the FTL drive can be worked on the way I (Teflon BillY) can work on the engine of car. Yes, there is some skill invoved, but not a variety of PhD equivalents as well as equipment that the human mond can't comprehend. Grab you toolkit and get those shields the hell back up!
Weaponry that--while advanced--is neither foolproof due to high tech, nor unbelievably devastating. I want Pistols, Rilfles, Swords and Knives. I don't really care what they shoot or what they are made of, so long as they have "Sci-Fi" qualities to them (they shoot "Plasma Bolts" or "Focused Warp Field", or are made of "Deuterium" or "Monomolecular Tridium" or whatever. No "insta Kill" things, ad no "perfect defenses"
Aliens that are basically understandable to the average player. Dog men, Alligator men, Green men, Half Plants...that kind of thing. Give them recognizable traits (The Alligator men are Greedy! The Dog Men are Loyal! ...whatever)
Pirates. I kow it makes no sense in a Spacefaring game. Tough. You asked and I want them in there.
Robots who, for whatever reason, are not better than Bio lief forms at things. Nothing worse than the PC's constantly picking up "Robot Gunners" for their ships and suchlike.
No computers. Nothing gets rid of the need for PC interactions with NPC's faster than easily avaialble computers to efficiently handle everything.
Tons and tons of quirky and interesting locations. Every planet better be wierd and cool. If there is more than one "Generic Space Mall"-type place, I think the settin is failure.
The game I'm pondering now would let me use all my cool sci-fi minis. That's really the requirement for my campaign of space soldiers with a can-do attitude who may be called upon to exercise a wide range of skills to accomplish any kind of small-unit, special forces objective. Of course, they may have to fight some fantastic creatures, too.
Captain Tagon
First Post
Different levels of technologies.
Ancient alien races and new ones.
Mythical-esque prophecies and the like.
Guns that shoot solid projectiles. Because they are fun.
Something similar to magic.
Differing FTL technologies.
Hot alien babes.
Psionics.
And mecha.
Ancient alien races and new ones.
Mythical-esque prophecies and the like.
Guns that shoot solid projectiles. Because they are fun.
Something similar to magic.
Differing FTL technologies.
Hot alien babes.
Psionics.
And mecha.
Cavorite, in particular, is the term HG Wells coined for his alloy that was impervious to gravity, named for the substance's inventor- Mr. Cavor, in the story "The First Men in the Moon."
If you want some good subject material, I suggest checking out Price of the Stars, Starpilot's Grave, and By Honor Betray'D by Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald. You can easily find them all on Amazon by searching for Mageworlds.
DD and JDM created a very interesting universe. Some of it is cliche, like Beka's discreetly (yet heavily) armed and upgraded light freighter, the Warhammer, but much of it is quite unique. There are adepts and mages, both which have the ability to channel amazing power. Each taps into this power differently, which has put them at odds. The adepts draw from it's raw, chaotic, natural state. Mages tend to shape, form, and organize it. First impression on this from a D&D alignment perspective is Chaotic Good vs. Lawful Evil. There are enough plot twists to keep one guessing though.
If I saw this on the shelf as a RPG, I'd snatch it immediately.
DD and JDM created a very interesting universe. Some of it is cliche, like Beka's discreetly (yet heavily) armed and upgraded light freighter, the Warhammer, but much of it is quite unique. There are adepts and mages, both which have the ability to channel amazing power. Each taps into this power differently, which has put them at odds. The adepts draw from it's raw, chaotic, natural state. Mages tend to shape, form, and organize it. First impression on this from a D&D alignment perspective is Chaotic Good vs. Lawful Evil. There are enough plot twists to keep one guessing though.
If I saw this on the shelf as a RPG, I'd snatch it immediately.
Morgenstern
First Post
*Evil Chuckle(TM)*
Excellent. Sounds like my project is on the right track
.
Excellent. Sounds like my project is on the right track
.
delericho
Legend
S'mon said:delericho did seem to define pretty much the anti-space-opera setting.
OTOH I can see that A Fire Upon the Deep is space opera - "hard sf space opera". I prefer something more pulpy and Buck Rogers/Star Warsy, personally.
Yeah, I screwed up.
Still, I think I was doing pretty well until I used the word 'Gritty'. At which point I moved from good 'space opera setting' to just a setting I'd like to play in.
Similar Threads
