Tech priest support Posted August 1, 2017 Report Share Posted August 1, 2017 Can I ask questions about non hero games products here and can I recommend a good none here product I think SF RPG gamers could use? I don't want to cause trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zslane Posted August 1, 2017 Report Share Posted August 1, 2017 I think that's what the General Roleplaying category is for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech priest support Posted August 1, 2017 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2017 The things I wanted to discuss were related to starhero. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zslane Posted August 2, 2017 Report Share Posted August 2, 2017 Sure. StarHero is a Hero System product, so I'm not sure why you asked if it was appropriate to discuss non-Hero related products. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted August 2, 2017 Report Share Posted August 2, 2017 Whatever it is you want to talk about, post it. We can contextualize it to Star Hero easy enough. Even better if you can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech priest support Posted August 2, 2017 Author Report Share Posted August 2, 2017 Alright, here goes... I've heard star hero is a good product I might look into getting but it lacks a ship construction and combat system. Does anyone here have any opinions on gurps spaceships as a RPG themed spaceship creation and combat system? How good is it? How detailed or abstract? Does it do a good job of handling a lot of ships from various genres? As a bit of advice for sfrpg fans I'd like to recommend picking up a PDF called "1001 science fiction weapons" on RPG now. It's what it sounds like, a list of 1001 weapons for all sorts of sf settings. I don't know if there's a conversion from d20 to here but even without it the ideas in the weapon descriptions are worth getting it for. I'd recommend this to any SFRPG gm or player, regardless of system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted August 2, 2017 Report Share Posted August 2, 2017 Star Hero's ship construction is basically the same as default Hero's vehicle construction. At least for 5E, there were some example drive systems and such tacked on but it did not feel as interesting as other things I've played. Then again, I cut my teeth on Star Frontiers and the ship construction remains a highlight of gaming for me. I would love some sort of system for Hero that draws inspiration from that. You have a frame that is size x. You can fit only so much into the frame before you run out of space for the passengers and crew. You get to pick from a smorgasbord of pre-made components to assemble a ship. Each component has a Point cost but also affects the overall frame space budget. That sort of thing anyway. In terms of space combat, it works out pretty well being as it is just Hero combat. I've known, in earlier editions, people to change the scale of the hex to 200m but otherwise it is just Hero. I have no opinion about GURPS Spaceships. I have only ever owned a few GURPS-related materials and I only owned them to use for idea mining. I think I might have that 1001 Science Fiction Weapons product. I went through a period where I was trying to support Indie writers inasmuch as my limited funds would allow for. I ended up buying a bunch of cheap stuff over the course of a couple of months. I'll check my stash of DTRPG products. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zslane Posted August 2, 2017 Report Share Posted August 2, 2017 Yeah, it depends on what you want from a starship "system". Do you just want detailed mechanics for operating and maintaining a starship through normal everyday activities? Or do you basically want to play a tactical space wargame when ships encounter each other? Because if you want the latter, you might want to consider using a space combat/miniatures wargame for that instead of the default Hero System vehicle mechanics. I was thinking of using StarFire for that at one point because as a wargame it was easy, fast, fun and based around the familiar-feeling "build/buy your ships with points" concept. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdamnhero Posted August 4, 2017 Report Share Posted August 4, 2017 Star Hero treats spaceship design and combat very differently from most sci-if RPGs. Rather than having a separate system, it just uses standard Hero vehicle rules. There are certainly strengths to that approach, particularly in that you can design whatever type of ships you want by reasoning from effect. But some feel it lacks "flavor." Depends on what you want to play. Remember top hat Star Hero is a genre book, not a setting per se. Just like with magic systems in FH, the GM is going to have to set some campaign guidelines for how starship tech works in their specific campaign world. You might want to check out Terran Federation and Alien Wars for examples. I played around with GURPS spaceship rules once awhile back. IIRC I really liked it in theory, but thought it was way too complicated in practice. YMMV and all that. I don't think it would be too hard to meld with SH, but the game design philosophies are very different. I once played around with designing a system that assigned how much space different ship's systems took up based on their AP cost, so you could play the How Much Stuff Can We Fit In This Box game. The idea was to have a Smaller Than Standard Advantage for more advanced systems, or a Larger Than Standard Limitation for older or cheaper systems. Sounded cool in theory, and if I ever get to run my Big Damn Space Opera campaign, I'll have to dust it off again and try to finish it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdamnhero Posted August 4, 2017 Report Share Posted August 4, 2017 [Duplicate post deleted - sorry!] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadowcat1313 Posted August 4, 2017 Report Share Posted August 4, 2017 if you want a more structured starship construction system for Hero, Traveller Hero is the way to go, the original Champions 2 vehicle rules had rules for figuring out how much space something took up, but that got tossed out the nearest airlock in later editions... which I have never agreed with, and was flat out told no when I suggested adding it back in. as far as GURPS Spaceships, GURPS Traveller went to a modular construction system for it and GURPS WW2 used the same system for building other vehicles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdamnhero Posted August 4, 2017 Report Share Posted August 4, 2017 I can't believe I forgot to plug Traveller Hero! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech priest support Posted August 4, 2017 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2017 if you want a more structured starship construction system for Hero, Traveller Hero is the way to go, the original Champions 2 vehicle rules had rules for figuring out how much space something took up, but that got tossed out the nearest airlock in later editions... which I have never agreed with, and was flat out told no when I suggested adding it back in. as far as GURPS Spaceships, GURPS Traveller went to a modular construction system for it and GURPS WW2 used the same system for building other vehicles OK would you say that gurps spaceships uses a similar system to gurps traveller? But allowing a lot more technologies? I could live with that.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadowcat1313 Posted August 4, 2017 Report Share Posted August 4, 2017 OK would you say that gurps spaceships uses a similar system to gurps traveller? But allowing a lot more technologies? I could live with that.... yes, GURPS Spaceships allows for a lot more technologies, although Mongoose Traveller does allow some other weapons technologies not used in earlier editions, and Traveller Hero was published before Mongoose Traveller Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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