Mass Effect Campaign Setting

[jaws]

My gamming budies and I have really enjoyed the Mass Effect game for Xbox and PC. Also read the books. We were warming up to a StarWars campaign but after some though we are gearing up for a Mass Effect Campaign instead.

 

I know it is pretty new but has anyone thought of or worked in this dirrection. I have searched related forums arround the web and a lot of people throw the Idea out there but I have seen nothing more than questions.

 

I will post my own musings here as I go allong, but anyone else inspired?

[Sundog]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

I've been making a few doodlings on the subject, nothing serious. I do love the setting.

[Nolgroth]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

I so want to play, but I refuse to purchase a game with a limited number of "activations." I wipe my main system drive and start over about every six months. Wouldn't make sense for me to buy the game.

 

And while I own an XBox 360, that is more for my son. The controls are awkward for my hands.

[jaws]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

It is worth playing don't miss out. I am a PC gamer my self but for the same activation thing I decided to go with Xbox. It is a killer Game.

[manfedmedviq]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

i'gonna play a Krogan, but there so little "in deep" aspects of their culture. from my point of view they are like barbarians with space ships.

 

the interesting thing will be the krogan stats. any ideas?

[Shadowsoul]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

I wouldn't liken the Krogan to human barbarians as such because, (speaking very broadly), those cultures tended to have fairly strong ideas of honour in war or at least a code of conduct. And they were usually fairly spiritually minded. Krogan do not allow concepts of honour to get between them and victory these days and they have little use for religion. By human standards most remaining Krogan would probably qualify as psychopaths with severe sociapathic tendencies.

 

The Huns were supposedly not much for religion and I don't know if they were especially honourable in their warfare although I expect they had some rules. They might make a good model for Krogan cultural characteristics.

 

As for stats. Barring the abilities of a Battle Master I would expect them to have something like +3 Body, +3 Con, +3 Str, +1 Rec. With 2 points of Resistant PD and 1 point of Resistant ED for their scales. Not to mention all of their abilities such as Life Support - Only has to eat once a week, safe in intense cold, safe in intense heat, safe in high radiation and Immunity: All terrestrial poisons and chemical warfare agents.

[jaws]

Krogans: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

Krogans continued: Not to mention their uncanny capacity to come back from the dead a minute later because their secondary organ copies activated after their main ones failed due to heavy lead poisoning.

 

Healing 5d6(simple); RSR: (Con -2 for every previous activation in one month); Reduced END (0); Trigger (When body drops below 0); can resurrect.?

 

And korgans used to have honor codes before, but when your species is becoming extinct honor has no value. Wrex is pretty clear about the state of krogan "culture" when conversing with him about his species in the Normandy after completing his mission.

[Shadowsoul]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

That's true. So perhaps they are a little like Orcs from Warcraft, once proud warriors who became little more than violence obsessed thugs. Some Krogan may even wish to return to those more honourable days.

[Maelstrom]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

I bought the game, but I have to buy a new computer to run it. That'll be a year at least.

[Sundog]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

It'll be worth it.

[Prometheus]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

If you haven't already had a look at it, you may want to start with the Mass Effect Wiki. A little note taking will get you started and you can always refer back to it later.

 

Depending on how faithful to the game system (rather than the game world) you want to stay, most of the special abilities can be written up as talents or powers, or can be extrapolated from skills pretty easily. If you're GMing you should consider how to rework some abilities, depending on how you see them affecting your game. The "recharging bonus" works for a video game, but at least for me, it doesn't transfer to the tabletop. Having never read the novels, I don't know how they translate into prose.

 

Equipment is a big deal in the game, but for the tabletop I'd just work out the basics and make minor adjustments. Pistols and Assault Rifles have a high output, Shotguns and Snipers do more damage; Pistols and Shotguns are shorter ranged than Assault Rifles and Snipers, but are generally more accurate (at least without the Assassination skill). Play around with the Damage, OCV, RMod, and Stun X and you can add a fair amount of nuance to the weapons, as can Advantages like Increased Knockback, Armor Piercing, etc. You may also want to break up Weapon Familiarity, since being able to use one weapon gives you no skill with another (Pistol-12 with Sniper-0 will still give you alot of "float" when you're trying to aim the big gun), and most characters can't use them all.

 

Only a start, but that help any?

[CorpCommander]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

Equipment is a big deal in the game' date=' but for the tabletop I'd just work out the basics and make minor adjustments.[/quote']

 

Pretty much equipment differs by very small variations in attributes. There are various "Marks" of guns, forinstance that are only slight variations of each other.

 

To be really faithful each character should be able to carry a complete gunshop, with ammo, on their back with no endurance cost. I'd complete missions with something on the order of 30 guns to sell!

 

The nano-tech in the game is really interesting as a way to explain a lot of effects.

[Prometheus]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

To be really faithful each character should be able to carry a complete gunshop' date=' with ammo, on their back with no endurance cost. I'd complete missions with something on the order of 30 guns to sell![/quote']

For me it was weapon upgrades. That's all I ever seemed to find. They were the items most often converted into Omni-Gel.

 

As the game progresses the weapons definitely go up in quality, with some combinations getting pretty nasty. Tungsten rounds with the Carnage/Shotgun combo are nasty geth killers for example. After a while I was taking hit location requests for the Assassination ability from my girlfriend (and I'm frankly dismayed at how often "Jewel Thief!" was the gleeful answer), just to make it more challenging. High accuracy Sniper Rifles make for gunfights across canyons.

 

While it'd probably be a nightmare to try and stat out all the weapons available, "a gun is a gun is a gun" would take away from the feel of the game, particularly if you go with limited Weapon Familiarities. There should be some variation, but I wouldn't go overboard on it. Being able to give Ashley the high accuracy sniper to cover for her slightly lower skill level, while taking the higher damage rifle for Shepard to use with Assassination is part of the fun of gearing up your team, but it's not like the two guns are radically different.

[mikesama]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

mass effect encyclopedia entries for working out cannon stuff

[Harrkonen]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

Mass Effect isn't a bad idea for a setting of a campaign. What with all the information the actual game provides and how they actually explain a great deal of things it can be a rather entertaining setting to create. I personally have been in the works of a StarWars campaign and have been doing quite a bit of extra research for the setting and I've come across a few things that helped make things game mechanic's wise a whole hell of alot easier. Use existing stats and write ups.

I've found that rather then starting from scratch and making your own weapons, armors, etc... it's much easier to take and modify existing equipment and re-design as needed.

Now most of you are thinking "Duh...of course that's easier" and yeah it's a no-brainer but the fact is that the current makes of things at least on the equipment front has been made to be balanced and effective. I know from experience that while creating your own equipment and weapons from scratch is cool, it can have disasterous results.

Another careful thing to consider is that while you may have a solid understanding of the Mass Effect universe, do your players also have this knowlege?

[jaws]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

Darned email system isnt letting me know of replies to my threads... sheesh.

sorry for the disappearing act.

 

This is all great info guys thanks. I am mainly looking to be faithful to the setting more than the mechanics, though the mechanics are very much a part of the feel of the game. The mechanics of the computer game actually reflect how the technology works. However it IS way to cumbersome for the tabletop.

 

However thanks to Thia and some pointers there I will probably base some of the overheating idea on the Halo info created. With the necessary modifications of course.

 

As far s player knowledge of the campaign setting, one has played it, another is playing it while the other 3 are either watching the one playing through currently and reading the codex entries online.

 

I know the game is planned to be a trilogy but I don't really care. I am starting my campaign only 1 or 2 years past the end of the game. I love the dense political climate that is available during this time. Imagine what the Volus are going through. Even worse, what will this provoke form the Batarians.

 

This is an excellent climate for a good campaign where politics and guns go side by side.

 

My players are helping me flesh ou the races a bit more, but I am having some issues visualizing each culture. How their constructions and ships look like. Descriptions are essential and Though I am building an interesting story, actually coalescing what an assari or turrian colony looks like... much less their home worlds.

 

When my players come head to head with a turrian warship, what MAKES it one. It's a truckload of detail however it is very important to give mass effect its feel where everything seems larger than life.

 

So I guess what I am asking if there are any particular trait you would attribute, from what is available in the game info, that each species would reflect in their colony and ship construction?

 

thanks for any help in this area.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

I'd run in the other direction, but I like watching train wrecks. I'm not saying it can't be done -- quite the opposite. But being a stickler for detail (such as HERO: Combat Evolved) I can't really lend my build skills to the project. If you really want to do this setting, properly, then I have the following suggestions:

 

1) Build the class package deals, including the appropriate MP slots. Bear in mind that in this setting, each caster type can only use one power at a time, period. The MP itself has Lock Out, IIRC. Most of the powers are also instant-duration, so it isn't a big deal to change slots and activate, but there it is.

 

2) Do NOT build each weapon. Ugh. That whole I - IX thing drove me crackers. Build a core group of weapons, or nick my HERO: CE designs. Just remove the "Charges" limitation and build in a modified "Activation Roll: Burnout" limitation, depending on how much 'heat' the weapon generates.

 

Said another way:

 

Weapons in that setting use a brick that doesn't ever effectively run out; it just shaves off quantum particles and fires them. However, weapons overheat after too much use. So the build I proposed (and used in parts of HERO: CE) goes something like this:

 

All weapons pick up Activation Roll/Burn Out; burn out doesn't mean it can't be used until the end of the scene, but it does take 1 player phase to cool for each point the roll was missed. (One phase period is meaningless when most people have a SPD 3, you'll never blow a roll by that much). Consistent use of the weapon increases the Burnout chance; so round by round you will eventually burn out unless you lay off the trigger. It's gonna happen. This is part of the mechanic. Laying off the trigger for one phase lets the weapon vent normally, rather than gambling with your burnout roll.

 

Pistols have the lowest chance, then shotties/rifles, then Sniper rifles. Some mods add to the burnout (HEAT rounds are +1, say) and some mods reduce it (Gas Vents reduce by their flag number; so a Gas Vent I would reduce the Burnout by 1; a GV III by 3, and so on).

 

Follow me? It's a TOTAL pain in the @$$ to build, but it's something I've been working on how to model without a ----load of handwavium.

 

3) Build your racial packages

 

4) Set your thresholds; I live in a 2d6 world; to me, a 2d6 KillingAttack is brutalicious. My good friend Tony runs an Alien Legion campaign; all of the Killing Attack weapons in that setting have Penetrating. Period. This raises the tension in a way that traditional HERO design does not, and I thought it was so brilliant that I'll be adopting it for my own campaigns.

 

5) Then, finally, go the Mass Effect wikia and build the powers to your comfort/setting level.

 

Stir & enjoy!

 

Caution. Contents may be hot.

 

Oh. And please unf--- the MAKO in your design. That thing is so freaking retarded.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

Wow. I got complimented and I hadn't even posted yet. I RULE.

 

Ship Design: Er... I hate to do this, but I'd check my build for the Frigate thingy under HALO: CE. They don't touch on ships & ship-to-ship combat enough to really get into detail, you'd need to fake it or go to a Wikia.

[Sundog]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

I wouldn't go the Burnout route. I think I'd rather do it as 1 clip of charges, recoverable with time.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

I wouldn't go the Burnout route. I think I'd rather do it as 1 clip of charges' date=' recoverable with time.[/quote']

 

It's a design choice. If it were me, like I said, I would model as close to canon as possible, and that's burnout.

 

*shrug* Not right or wrong; just my spare change on the table.

[Nolgroth]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

Just poking the concept, but heat buildup is something that I would simulate with an END Reserve. The Reserve is just how much heat the device can withstand and the Recovery is the cool down rate. I'd just build it with a fairly high recovery so it didn't take too long to get back into the fight.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

Just poking the concept' date=' but heat buildup is something that I would simulate with an END Reserve. The Reserve is just how much heat the device can withstand and the Recovery is the cool down rate. I'd just build it with a fairly high recovery so it didn't take too long to get back into the fight.[/quote']

 

Now that's clever. And then if you're a Covenant Rifle, you slap on "Charges" and "Also Costs END," give it an END Reserve, and lastly a REC rate that's livable... and wow. That'll work

[ghost-angel]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

I so want to play, but I refuse to purchase a game with a limited number of "activations." I wipe my main system drive and start over about every six months. Wouldn't make sense for me to buy the game.

 

And while I own an XBox 360, that is more for my son. The controls are awkward for my hands.

 

I read up on the Mass Effect "activations" and if it works the same way that the iTunes Activations work you could wipe your drive every five days and it would still only take 1 activation code. The description leads me to believe this is the case. . .

 

Though, Apple has a Deactivation process that let's you unregister a machine so you can move things to another machine without needing a different activation.

[Nolgroth]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

I read up on the Mass Effect "activations" and if it works the same way that the iTunes Activations work you could wipe your drive every five days and it would still only take 1 activation code. The description leads me to believe this is the case. . .

Do you have a link for that info?

 

Though, Apple has a Deactivation process that let's you unregister a machine so you can move things to another machine without needing a different activation.

If the Mass Effect model worked like that, I would have 0 problems with it. I am more than a bit touchy since my wife purchased EQ 6 that also has a limited number of activations and no way of canceling existing activations in order to upgrade the computer or hard drive.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Mass Effect Campaign Setting

 

Linky

 

Doesn't mention a Deactivation ability sadly.

 

I do know from experience with iTunes reloading the OS completely and then reloading my music did not take up another of my five machines for that applications Activation. But, that's iTunes; one could only hope they follow a similar intelligent model.