Battlestar Galactica Pen and Paper RPG 46
gerbalblaste writes "Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd. has reached an agreement with Universal Studios Consumer Products Group to produce roleplaying game products based on the enormously successful, critically-acclaimed television series, Battlestar Galactica. Weis' company is known primarily for the recent release of the Serenity Role-Playing Game. From the article: 'The game book will be a full-color hardcover book featuring still images from the series as well as original artwork. It will provide rules for play, character creation, and information about the ship and crew of Galactica as well as the other main characters from the show. A Quickstart Guide will be released in early 2007 with the core product premiering in the spring. Additional products will closely follow the release of the core product. The entire line will be supported by an interactive website. Jamie Chambers (Dragonlance Campaign Setting, Serenity Role Playing Game) is helping lead a team of writers and designers dedicated to re-creating the excitement, drama, and danger of the groundbreaking television series.'"
Great Idea... (Score:5, Funny)
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First Mod - BSG 1978 (Score:1, Redundant)
Change #2 Cylons ALL look like robots
Change #3 Starbuck is a man
That said, I love the new series, but consider it as separate from the original which I waited months for each new episode.
Jonah HEX
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Classes, races... (Score:5, Funny)
Classes:
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Don't forget - hot korean chick who hangs out with hundreds of copies of herself, naked, on cylon flight decks.
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You would think they notice... (Score:5, Funny)
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Fleet Officer (level 30 for captain, 40 for admiral)
Pilot (at level 15 you gain "How the hell did you survive
and of couse
Chating Biggot (Apollo and Starbuck mainly)
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What about the "hot gunny" subclass?
This should simplify things (Score:2)
-Eric
License RPGs... (Score:5, Insightful)
In particular here, with the story not yet resolved, the GM would have to basically invent the motives/reasons for things that we don't know yet. Nothing wrong with that except that it will likely be proved false as we continue to watch the show. We know who the cylons are. So right off the bat you'd have to start changing show canon if you want any suspense on that account.
Also, the setting is rather in where you can be, either on the fleet or maybe a resistance force back on the colonies. Ok, those are entire planets, so maybe there is more potential there.
Your bestiary is likewise fairly limited, you have centurion, raider, biocylon and from there you have to start inventing stuff.
The licensed RPGs I've enjoyed best were ones that had a wealth of material to turn to as well as a resolved story but had large sections of it with time and places where little was known. I liked Iron Crown's Middle Earth RPG (MERP). I didn't care for the first Babylon 5 RPG. The serenity one... is better I suppose, but at least has the wide open solar system where lots of things go on that are outside the scope of what we saw on the show. BSG tends to pretty much account for everyone, there are
That being said I may well end up getting this anyway. Often times these RPGS are more useful as sources of background material, especially if they can get some collaboration from the show's creators on the content. Just not sure I'd run it.
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That being said:
"...featuring still images from the series as well as original artwork."
Yeah...
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I've run many games in D&D, A D&D 1st and 2nd ed. and have played in several Shadowrun campaigns. I've got to say, that in each instance, the books, etc just gave a world to play in. Canon, etc was pretty much ignored and everything came from the guy/gal running the game.
This IMO is how table top RPG's should be. You give the player(s) a world to play in, and let them go. The only thing that the game should enforce is the limitations from equip
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Re:License RPGs... (Score:4, Insightful)
The keys to a licensed RPG being worth anythign are these:
1) Starting with a large, well developed, world (universe in this case, I know nothing about BSG as I havn't watched TV in years, so I can't comment).
2) Fleshing out stats and mechanics that will make the gameplay (be it combat, interaction, space flight, technology, etc) FIT with the feel of the original.
3) The ability to remove your players from the main story line.
4) The ability to create adventures in the world, that feel like they came form the show, with out destroyign canon.
5) A clearly defined time/space that your game takes place in (Is this pre/post *** important event? Will the PCs know about said event?)
3&4 are a mix between the DM's skill and how the sourcebooks are put together.
3 is obvoiusly where most poeple will have issues also, everyone wants to be PART of the story, but that is next to impossible in most cases, especialy as the people who are likely to be playing these games are fans of the show, and thus all have differing oppinions on just WHAT is correct, what should/should not happen, etc etc. It is alot easier to ignore canon in a game like Shadowrun or DnD as most people are not THAT fammiliar with the specifics of the world.
An exelent example of this is looking through the StarWars books/RPGs/video games (I am ignoring the games that are just clones of the movies in this case).
They stick to how the world works. They tend to stay away from the main plots, or focus on the effects of the main plot with out trying to mess with them. Even when they come up with new creatures/races, they fit in with the SW universe.
ummm, yah, my
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However, a creative GM can work with just about any world to make a game work, so the somewhat limiting scope of BSG could still have lots of fun games in it - in the back of my mind I can think of a few interesting things. The trick is to s
Leery (Score:2, Insightful)
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Besides that, as much of a geek and fanboy as I am, I've never encountered a particularly good TV-licensed RPG. From FASA's Star Trek to Babylon 5, they typically suffer from two major flaws: First, a relative lack of usable
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Designing a system from the ground up for Serenity was prob
DMing a Cylon player would be hard... (Score:5, Funny)
Player: Out of ammo? Damn. Nothing left... Kamikaze!
DM: You 'heroically' charge the civilian spacecraft, ending many lives including your own.
Player: Cool - when I wake up, I want to go get another ship.
DM: You WERE the ship. Anyway, you don't wake up.
Player: Huh? But we have a resurrection ship right there! You never said it was toasted, and even if it was, I would only lose a couple days memories since my last major network synch.
DM: It's not that. It's just that personal identity doesn't end up working like that. Another Cylon has just awakens, sure, and with your memories, but it isn't you. That's gone now.
Or, alternatively:
DM: Alright, you've successfully climbed the wall, escaping the rising algae pool. That's you number 128. Next up, [shuffles papers]
Or, alternatively:
DM: You awaken to the sound of marching and the cries of the dying. There is a loud explosion to your left. You are marching with a large group of identical Cylon Centurions.
Player: Oh wow - um, I'm going to break off from the group. I want to investigate that explosion.
DM: I'm sorry, but God won't let you do that.
Player: Uh, really? I - ah, I want to wave my arm in front of my face.
DM: Your programming will not allow you such choice. You decide to follow the group to
Ryan Fenton
Oh No, Not _That_ System Again (Score:2)
So my pleasure at hearing about a BG RPG is tempered somewhat by the knowledge that I will never play it.
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(I am actualy a junky for game mechanics, and love playign around with as many different types as possible).
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-Chris
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Hopeful, but not overly optimistic (Score:3, Interesting)
I was one of those overly enthusiastic types that bought the first printing of the Serenity RPG, while it IS a good system of play and I enjoy playing and writing modules/campaigns for it, the initial editing of the book left quite a bit to be desired.
The first THREE printings of the book lacked two basic, major items for any RPG - character sheet and index. The need for both, I hope, is self-explanatory. If not - the inclusion of a character sheet screams 'obvious'. Every system has its own little quirks and ways of things interacting, the character sheet is the most basic way for all those things to be tied together in a neat little package, making it easier (not necessarily *easy*) for players, especially new players, to understand how to play the character's numbers - that way the player doesn't always have to know every rule/line from the book. And as for the index, how can you create something as complex as a roleplaying gaming system and expect players to flip through the entire book or read an entire chapter to find the details of, say, 'Dodge'. An index is crucial, enough said.
To add insult to injury, it took them almost a year to publish both of these items as 'free bonus material' on the Serenity RPG website. Add the fact that there were few to no examples of just about anything involving rolling the dice (no combat example, no flight maneuvering examples, nadda...) had the players pretty much making up the rules as they went along. I'm all for free form RPG (I'm a gamer after all), but not after paying a good sum of money for a system that should have been (more) complete at release. I really believe the game was play tested by those that wrote the system - already being intimately knowledgeable of how things *should* work, they missed the obvious failings in the book. Unfortunately, unlike computer/console games, the publisher can't just release a patch - they have to release a completely new printing/edition.
All that said, I do think it's a great system and love playing, but the book wasn't the best. If MW can do better with the BSG, I'll be impressed. But being the geeky little fanboy I am, I'll probably rush out and buy the first edition/printing of the BSG RPG book anyway.
Whatever it is, it's vastly inferior to Star Thugs (Score:3, Funny)
http://www.ghazporkindustrial.com/index.php?P=sta
Re:You know Blizzard is just going to screw this u (Score:1)
RPGs that follow movies have their issues (Score:5, Insightful)
In a movie, you see heros. Those heros are virtually invulnerable and most certainly immortal. Sure, they have their shortcomings and quirks, and sometimes they're just plainly dumb, but they usually come out of "are you effing nuts" risks with but a scratch. They're the best pilots, the best marksmen and of course they always know the wittiest riposte to any kind of insult.
And, most of all, they have a plot to follow, and when they find out something, it's interesting to watch. And that's where it gets tricky most of the time.
Imagine there's something wrong with the ship. Engines don't start. In the show, you see engineers run around the ship doing "diagnosis". You see pretty animations of some kind of leaks or some anomaly and you hear the engineers sprout technobabble what it is. Usually some deus ex machina solution that fixes the plothole just in time to save the show, something you, the spectator, couldn't even come up with because you simply have no idea that this or that actually worked that way.
How do you project that into an RPG? Trying to find out what kind of plot the GM has in mind, what kind of "technological" answer he has for the problem? Usually, it's done with a roll, you find the reason, you solve it. Not fun.
Then there's the plot problem. Galactica deals to some not too small extent with space combat and action elements. This is fun to watch. It's just not fun to play, at least not in a standard table top RPG setting, because it usually comes down to pure chance and luck, the roll of the dice, whether you succeed or fail. There's only so much "tactics" you can employ when facing a foe in the middle of nowhere in space if all you can announce is pretty much "I'm gonna target the second cylon bomber on the right".
Our Cylon Overlords (Score:1)
This means our players can actually, for once, welcome their Cylon overlords?
Of all the possibilities this could entail... I just hope that they stay the hell away from D20.
Its already been done (Score:2)
I cast magic missile! (Score:1)
Where's the Mountain Dew?
Why couldn't they have made a computer game... (Score:1)