Sci-Fi Campaign questions

[Aldric]

I'll definitely check that site.
My access to THS is very limited, what I can find about it looks promising, however I would have to cut a lot out of it (at the beginning at least)

All I really wanted for my characters was about a dozen different "job" templates for them to have a starting character w/o much trouble, and a few mini templates for the differences between humans from earth, other planets and those born in 0G.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Aldric

I don't have any Pyramid issues available either, I'm doing everything by hand, which is why I'm posting for help.

Ok, so you're working with a limited set of books. That's fine. I've certainly been there. If I can ask about one more set of books, do you have ultra-tech and space? Space has some fine templates that I've borrowed for even modern games. If not, we can work with that, but If we have access to Space, lets use it. Its a fine product.

If not, we can get working on your professional templates. What professions do you need? or is the list one of the things you need?

I don't really want to start with characters in the "Action" range, I'm also thinking of capping attributes around 14 to 16 possibly higher for ST if it matters.
Mooks should probably have skills around 10-11.

I have a few ideas about what will happen, but my players try their best to surprise me. So, while I have no plans to involve them in politics right away, I'm sure they'll find a way.

Awesome! If you've got a ruthless set of optimizers, 100 points will be enough. As you're pre-building templates, I suspect they won't be, and you'll want something in the realm of 125 or 150 points. 200 points will start pushing characters into that 15+ attribute range.

You should absolutely make a bunch of background "Lenses". I don't know enough about the expanse or your setting in specific to say exactly what these should be or what should be on them, but 10 points plus a five point disadvantage should be enough to color their origins.

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by ericthered

You should absolutely make a bunch of background "Lenses". I don't know enough about the expanse...

Eric, the Expanse tl;dr version: Earth's overpopulated, but still has a nominal control over the solar system. Mars has garnered some degree of independence, but has become extremely militarised, as well as contesting Earth's dominance. Belters are the working class scum that keep all the resources headed towards Earth and Mars. There's a terrorist group that's advocating for the needs of the Belters. No idea what's happening on Luna.

There's asteroid miners, wandering naval patrols, and cargo vessels. Some of the Outer settlements are substantial, with a dockside that provides for all vices. Basically RnR.

For me that gives a Lens mix of Spacer, Military (Earth or Mars), Dockside, and station/settlement maintenance and management. A lot of folk could be settlers from Earth.

Hope that helps.

[Aldric]

That's basically it Luke.

It seems I need to get my hands on a copy of Space.

[DangerousThing]

Originally Posted by Aldric

That's basically it Luke.

It seems I need to get my hands on a copy of Space.

And, if possible, THS. This sounds like something in their ballpark. But Space is the most important thing, I believe.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Aldric

It seems I need to get my hands on a copy of Space.

It will help. You can do things with just basic if you need to, but templates are the thing basic has the least of. And the templates there are fairly solid. You may need to add some cyber elements, but I'm not sure.

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by ericthered

You may need to add some cyber elements....

Going off the Expanse as a setting template, they are present, but rare.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip

Going off the Expanse as a setting template, they are present, but rare.

Agreed. The spy in Season One seemed to have a head full of pretty nice, low-profile cybernetics. It wouldn't surprise me if Bobbi needed a neural interface for her armor, but they didn't go into that.

Biotech seems to be supplanting cybernetics, generally speaking, at least in the most technologically advanced societies (esp. Mars).

[copeab]

Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip

Going off the Expanse as a setting template, they are present, but rare.

The pilot episode implied Inners had the tech to regrow lost limbs, the Belters did not (the worker injured on the Canterbury).

Aside from the spy in S1, there was the guy killed in the riots who Miller examined in the morgue.

Lastly, a character seriously injured in S3 got cyberware to counter the damage for S4.

[copeab]

Originally Posted by Aldric

Should have started this campaign already, but other things came up, so I'm still pretty much at the drawing board.

I promised my players a sci-fi campaign with an Expanse-like feel, so humans spread around the solar system (Mars, possibly Venus, asteroid belt, moons of jupiter and maybe an outpost around saturn), TL is around 9, with engines obviously being superscience, and not much else at least to begin with.

FWIW, there is an Expanse RPG that has already done most of what you want. My only big issue with it is how characters improve abilities.