Living Steel?

[Squeakula]

I was just wondering if anyone has done conversions to Hero System for the old Leading Edge Games RPG, Living Steel? I always loved the setting but the system just wasn't that great. Once my gaming group has finished with our Midnight campaign I'm going to try running a long term campaign set just after the apocalypse using Hero.

 

I've ordered the Hero System Equipment guide from my FLGS, does it include power armour, gauss weapons, laser, or flechette weapons? And would anyone be able to suggest a good set of psychological limitations to represent each of the Seven Legions? Or rmaybe help with write-ups for the spectrals, dragoncrests, vissers, slozek and Larden?

 

For those unfamiliar with this great setting this link has all the setting info from the main book.

 

http://www.ludd.luth.se/~mcgreag/ls/ls.html

 

Having never run a Hero game before I would apreciate any help at all.

 

Thanks

Shawn

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Living Steel?

 

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the setting or with any direct conversions for it, but from your remarks about what you need technologically, I don't think the Equipment Guide will help you much. That book is for modern-day equipment and weapons; you'd be better served by the Spacer's Toolkit for sci-fi materials, or perhaps Gadgets And Gear for superhero tech.

 

Now, that's for published HERO books. There are also a lot of fan conversions of tech from many other sci-fi sources. Below are links to conversions of advanced weapons, armor and powered armor from GURPS Ultratech, Traveller, Warhammer 40,000, and the novel Starship Troopers. Hopefully that will help you.

 

http://www.geocities.com/ac_jackson/hero/ultrahero.html

 

http://www.starherofandom.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=122

 

http://www.angelfire.com/ok3/markdoc/Inquisitor/inquistor_weapons.htm

 

http://www.tigerseyemedia.com/tiger/40kequip.html

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35225

 

http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptionsbook/miarmor.html

[mirage]

Re: Living Steel?

 

I was just wondering if anyone has done conversions to Hero System for the old Leading Edge Games RPG, Living Steel? I always loved the setting but the system just wasn't that great. Once my gaming group has finished with our Midnight campaign I'm going to try running a long term campaign set just after the apocalypse using Hero.

 

I've ordered the Hero System Equipment guide from my FLGS, does it include power armour, gauss weapons, laser, or flechette weapons? And would anyone be able to suggest a good set of psychological limitations to represent each of the Seven Legions? Or rmaybe help with write-ups for the spectrals, dragoncrests, vissers, slozek and Larden?

 

For those unfamiliar with this great setting this link has all the setting info from the main book.

 

http://www.ludd.luth.se/~mcgreag/ls/ls.html

 

Having never run a Hero game before I would apreciate any help at all.

 

Thanks

Shawn

 

Living Steel, I remember that, and Dragonstar Rising.

 

I think the power armor in LS was what battledress in Traveller should have been.

[Enforcer84]

Re: Living Steel?

 

Nurse hand me my grenade the lobby's getting full-Dr. ...Oh I forgot his name!

 

They had the funniest quotes.

[Legendsmiths]

Re: Living Steel?

 

I've got all the Phoenix Command stuff, and the Living Steel supplement for it, that I will be posting on eBay soon.

[Anatosuchus]

Re: Living Steel?

 

Nurse hand me my grenade the lobby's getting full-Dr. ...Oh I forgot his name!

Oscar Schneiderbunk?

[mallet]

Re: Living Steel?

 

Love Living Steel. My friends and I still talk about getting another campaign of it going some time soon. (it never happens, but it would be nice.)

 

Fantastic setting. The rules were insane at first, but after you got used to them they were nice. Very accurate and detailed. Made you fear for your character every battle.

 

If you are just trying to adapt the setting to Hero I don't imagine it would be much of a problem most of the gear & abilities are pretty much straight forward.

 

Thrying to adapt the rules... well, I wouldn't see much point in that.

 

"If violence does not get you what you want, then you are not being violent enough." -- Viser motto. Loved those quotes.

[Brother Jim]

Re: Living Steel?

 

"we would have believed it was an accidental shooting.....if you hadn't changed magazines.........twice.

 

 

he he

[Squeakula]

Re: Living Steel?

 

Unfortunately the Spacers Toolkit is not in the online store, out of print I assume? But you're right that sounds like what I need.

 

Glad to see that others remember the game! Even if just for the amusing quotes.

 

Well I guess I'll have to roll up my sleeves and try to do the conversions for the armor and gear myself. Probably a good way to learn the system anyway.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Living Steel?

 

Well, I can't fault you for wanting to convert from the game yourself. You're right that that's a great way to learn the system; and lots of HEROphiles find building and tinkering with the system to be a fun process in itself.

 

However, I did get the impression from your request that you were looking for prebuilt items to use, at least for examples. If that's the case, is there a reason that the sites I linked to don't work for you? They contain HERO writeups for all the stuff you asked for: gauss, laser and flechette weapons, and various types of powered and nonpowered armor. Just because these items originally came from other sources than Living Steel doesn't necessarily make them useless for your purposes - these are all sci-fi classics that carry over from one source to another, and wherever they come from once they're translated to HERO they're all more or less the same. And the quality of fan creations from the HERO community is often very high.

 

But the game should be used in whatever way is satisfying to you, so please don't let me stop you from doing what works for you.

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Living Steel?

 

"Hand me my mallet... the swelling will stop the bleeding"

 

"Once you have pulled the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend"

 

"It's Election Day, and KSVR urges all its listeners to go vote with the heavy weapon of thier choice."

 

 

I remember NOTHING about the rules, but a LOT of the quotes stuck with me

[Squeakula]

Re: Living Steel?

 

Acually no those sites will be of help, the only thing I didn't see at first look that was well covered was the power armor, more specifically the Seven Swords power armor with it's interchangable armor plates, ripple packs etc. I'll have to take a closer look once I fight off this flu and can sit at the computer for more than a couple minutes at a time!

[Curufea]

Re: Living Steel?

 

I have Living Steel and Phoenix Command.

Never polayed it - but got many of the supplements. I was quite amused by the detail of the advanced hit location tables.

 

But yes - the quotes stick with you. And have also been compiled (I found them on the web ages ago).

 

My favourite apart from the Sergeant's advice on grenades, is the the Doctors "There's too much shrapnel - hand me the mellonballer." "There's so many wood splinters we may as well sand you down and use you as a table". And of course, anything by Gil the treacherous - "Why recover the body? I cleaned him out in the poker game last night".

 

"My men! You've come back for me!"

"Actually sir, we just came back for your gun..."

 

http://www.geocities.com/totalsystemtechnologies/livsteel.htm

http://www.livingsteel.net/toc.html

[TheQuestionMan]

Living Steel Resources

 

Living Steel

http://www.livingsteel.net/

 

Leading Edge Games - Pheonix Command

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Command

 

Pen & Paper Living Steel

http://www.pen-paper.net/rpgdb.php?op=showline&gamelineid=437

 

Random Quotes

http://www.geocities.com/totalsystemtechnologies/livsteel.htm

 

Seven Worlds Library Access

http://terra.gg.utah.edu/ls/

 

Living Steel Firearms

http://www.ambient.ca/cpunk/livingsteel.html

 

Krakow RPG - For Sale

http://www.waynesbooks.com/LivingSteel.html

 

Leading Edge Games - Source

http://www.livingsteel.net/source.html

 

Dragonstar Rising Board Game

http://home.earthlink.net/~phxcmd/games_sf.html

 

The Stuff of Legends Minatures

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tpope/sol/leading-edge/living-steel.html

 

Leading Edge Games - Living Steel Heavy Power Armour

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.witchhunter.net/images/figurenmacher/sandra_garrity/leading_edge_1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.witchhunter.net/figurenmacher_sandra_garrity_e.html&h=150&w=175&sz=11&tbnid=dWC2RDxBPcXBoM:&tbnh=81&tbnw=95&hl=en&start=2&prev=/images%3Fq%3DLiving%2BSteel%2BLeading%2BEdge%2BGames%26svnum%3D100%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official_s%26sa%3DN

 

 

More Later

 

 

QM

[Anatosuchus]

Re: Living Steel?

 

I have Living Steel and Phoenix Command.

Never polayed it - but got many of the supplements. I was quite amused by the detail of the advanced hit location tables.

There must be quite a few of us in that category. I tried playing it once but it took about 3 hours to run a few seconds of one-on-one combat...

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Living Steel?

 

There must be quite a few of us in that category. I tried playing it once but it took about 3 hours to run a few seconds of one-on-one combat...

 

Gee, as a HERO gamer that complaint sounds kinda familiar...

[Legendsmiths]

Re: Living Steel?

 

You might consider just buying the Spacer's Toolkit HD Pack. It's $6, gives you all of the equipment, and allows you to modify them as you see fit for your campaign.

 

https://secure.compnetco.com/herogames/browse.jsp?categoryID=2

Terran Empire & Spacer's Toolkit Character Pack.

[G_K_Zhukov]

Re: Living Steel?

 

There must be quite a few of us in that category. I tried playing it once but it took about 3 hours to run a few seconds of one-on-one combat...

 

Same here. Oh those crazy days one tried to achieve tabletop hyper-accuracy at the expense of playability...

 

I understand the Phoenix Command rules were later used in some FPS computer games...

[Inu]

Re: Living Steel?

 

I've got all the Phoenix Command stuff' date=' and the Living Steel supplement for it, that I will be posting on eBay soon.[/quote']

I used to have almost all that stuff, including the Aliens, Dracula and even (god forbid) Lawnmower Man. I lost it all in a move somewhere along the line. ;.;

 

Unplayable game system except among a group of addicts, but good for ideas.

[Dauntless]

Re: Living Steel?

 

Ah yes, Living Steel, Dragonstar Rising, and Phoenix Command (never even saw Rhand Morningstar). That really brings back some fond memories.

 

I honestly found the Phoenix Command rules system to be as easy or easier than the Hero system. Yes, there were a lot of table look-ups, but they were all conveniently there for you. And as someone else said, those rules systems genuinely made you fear for your character's life. That alone made for some of the most intense roleplaying I've ever had the joy of playing. I used to use Phoenix Command for a homegrown Vietnam War campaign, and let me tell you, I don't think I ever saw more true player driven roleplaying in all my years of RP'ing. And all because the players knew how deadly combat was.

 

Living Steel itself was an awesome background, especially Dragonstar Rising (which was essentially the prequel). Although lots of the quotes were humorous, I actually remember the heroic ones better:

 

"What good is my life if I do not use it to defend what I believe in?"-Palin Soddak, Silver Sword

 

"What disturbs me most is this...How could the Seven Worlds have survived so long, in the face of such odds, if their society did not have Merit?" - Gralen Hawklandm Chairman of the Imperial Commission on the Seven Worlds

 

"A good Targa might last twelve missions. A great Targa will last one or two." - Draco

 

"When I first saw a Dragonstar, I thought it was the end. Later, I learned that only a Tactical Strike team had landed. Our officers tried to downplay the raid, but the casualties and the damage did not even concern me. I was overwhelmed by the courage of my enemy." - Selleas Carleton, Imperial Starmarine

 

"Victory is not the goal of battle. The spirit released in the course of struggle is all that matters." - Dragoncrest, 4th Tier

 

To my 15yr old mind, this was the epitome of heroism. A noble group of humanity fighting the good fight in the name of freedom against the Empire of humanity. The whole political structure of the game was also quite interesting, what with your Subcons (sub contractors), Starcaste forces (like Trident), outlaw holdings like Neemis Enterprises, neutral parties like RQ medical services (the ones that saved the Seven Worlds firces in Dragonstar Rising that would live to fight another day in Living Steel), the alien nemesis of the Spectrals and of course, the Seven Worlds members and their supporting Alpha teams. The addition of the noble though war obsessed Dragoncrests was also very interesting in the Dragonstar Rising game.

 

Of course, some of the concepts almost seem quaint by todays standards. This was written in the hay day of the Cyberpunk genre when we all feared the take over of mega national corps (Starcaste) and the fear of the mindless brainwashed police state commies (Spectrals) was still rampant. It also capitalized on the fear of an Apocalyptic setting in a world gone mad which the Cold War had still stoked (you younguns...ie those younger than 20...should be thankful you don't remember the Cold War and that your greatest fear is terrorism because back in the day, it was global annihilation). Nevertheless, it still makes for an interesting game background with very good potential for roleplaying. I personally found the Dragonstar Rising setting more interesting than the Living Steel one because it was essentially a three way struggle to fight for the defense of the Seven Worlds. Living Steel was essentially a post-Apocalypse setting that still had high technology and the main objective was to try to secure a little order in the world in order to start the foundation for a new resistance.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Living Steel?

 

The quote link no workies, QM.

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Living Steel?

 

The quote link no workies' date=' QM.[/quote']

 

Yep the Link died. Here is a new one.

 

Random Quotes

http://www.geocities.com/totalsystemtechnologies/livsteel.htm

 

Thank you, Thia Halmades. Please PM me in the future. I almost missed this one.

 

Not bad turna around though 4hrs and 34mins.

 

QM

[Curufea]

Re: Living Steel?

 

Thread necromancy

 

I loved the quotes and was annoyed to see so many of them missed on the above link. I'm copying them over from the archived version of the official page to my Wiki.

http://www.curufea.com/hero/doku.php?id=resources:star_hero

[Guest Schwarzwald]

Re: Living Steel?

 

Nurse hand me my grenade the lobby's getting full-Dr. ...Oh I forgot his name!

 

They had the funniest quotes.

 

Dr. oscar Schneiderbunk.

 

Don't forget the rep for knowing that.

[Guest Schwarzwald]

Re: Living Steel?

 

Reading some of these links brought tears of nostalgia to my eyes, along with a sense of joy that others had not let the awesome game world of LS and it's dreams of human courage and nobility triumphing over greed and cynicism die.

 

If only someone would buy the rights to LS and do it with a modern system, i could die happy knowing that had happened. I used to hope the sjg would do it, but not anymore.

 

Hero could do it, or ICE if it had the resources. I think ICE would be the best system to do it, but Hero would also do.