Mass Effect Sourcebook

[Exeter]

Wouldn't this discussion be better served by taking it to a wiki somewhere? I'm not arguing that it's inappropriate for this forum, but it seems like a wiki would be a much better environment.

[lordmalachdrim]

Originally Posted by Exeter

Wouldn't this discussion be better served by taking it to a wiki somewhere? I'm not arguing that it's inappropriate for this forum, but it seems like a wiki would be a much better environment.

That would depend on the people involved probably. Personally I've always found working on these kind of things work very well on message boards, I detest trying to work with wiki's.

[vicky_molokh]

Well, whadayaknow. Christie is planning a campaign in the Mass Effect setting. The epoch is between the two games. Shepherd was a male, has either sacrificed the Ascension, or purposefully let it be destroyed, and has put up the sneaky diplomat into the Council.

So far Manul and I are planning two Turians, and, given that Chris isn't a very system-savvy GM, the first issue that came up are the racial templates. Here's what we came up with for Turians:

Radiation Tolerance, PF2
Restricted Diet (organics are limited to dextro-amino-acids, though I'm not sure about the carbohydrates).
Unusual Biochemistry
Sense of Duty (The Turian Hierarchy)
Honesty (Accessibility: Turian Hierarchy, -20%)
Arguably Truthfulness and/or a Code of Honour.


The Quarians probably have Weakness (Very Common) with a Mitigator, plus whatever talent is appropriate for their aptitude.

Anybody willing to comment, improve or add templates and/or other stuff?

[Ego Archive]

Originally Posted by Molokh

>>SNIP<<


The Quarians probably have Weakness (Very Common) with a Mitigator, plus whatever talent is appropriate for their aptitude.

Anybody willing to comment, improve or add templates and/or other stuff?

I never played the first game, but may go back and get it now that I've played through much of the second.

You would probably want templates for the Krogan, Asarian, Batarian, Drell and some sort of template for Gene Improvements for biotics adepts like Jack, and Miranda.

Also you may want templates for the Volus, but they seem to be added for comedic effect in the game.

[AmesJainchill]

Originally Posted by Langy

If I remember right, there isn't too much Spaceship science that would be hard to reproduce in GURPS. The mass effect fields reduce the effective mass of the ship, while not changing its thrust. Most ships use Fusion Rockets (which normally give 0.005Gs of thrust), but with the mass effect field in place they likely give about 5Gs of thrust. The mass effect field reduces the ship's mass by 1,000 times. Ships will have the ST and HP of a ship of their real mass, but will have the Handling and Stability Rating of a ship six SMs smaller. They will also have accelerations about 1,000 times higher than normal for the engine. Also, somehow the mass effect field also acts as an inertial compensator, though I don't remember that being explained in the game. Ships will also have delta-Vs 1,000 times higher than normal for their reaction engie and fuel tank size.

The gravity shielding can probably be made as a force screen with a few options added on, though I can't remember enough about it to say what they should be. I can't think of anything else that's particularly difficult to emulate in GURPS.

Now that sounds like a delta-v reliant option I can live with!

[Bira]

After reading the Codex entries from Mass Effect, I'd probably probably place it at TL11^, with limited energy weapons, AI, and biotech. Man-portable energy weapons don't seem to exist there, and the Council places restrictions on the other two areas.

Most of the other aspects fit pretty well, though. Mass effect technology has much the same effects as GURPS gravity control tech. The weapons are Grav Guns from UT, using ME technology to accelerate projectiles to relativistic velocities. Force screens (with the Kinetic and Velocity modifiers) are pretty common, as are "anti-gravity" vehicles. The only energy weapons I've seem them mention are point-defense laser turrets on spaceships, to destroy missiles and fighters.

Spaceships use ME technology to implement both a sort of "warp drive" for travel between solar systems in the same cluster, and "jump gates" (Mass Relays) for travel between star clusters.

Biotics are an application of ME technology on a personal scale, for people who happen to be born with the capability and get the necessary amplifier implants. You can model their powers as a form of telekinesis using GURPS Powers.

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Bira

After reading the Codex entries from Mass Effect, I'd probably probably place it at TL11^

Yeah. I orignally pegged it at TL 10, but going over GURPS more closely, I see TL 11 is a better match, with personal force fields dropped down to TL 11.

The armor closely resembles cybersuits, and the weaponry resembles grav rifles and grav pistols so closely I would have thought GURPS was ripping Mass Effect off, if it wasn't for the fact that UT came out first. Omni-tools would take a little more work, but it's really just a matter of putting lots of gadgets into one item and treating it as a cohesive whole (a useful trick in UT settings, I've found)

[Fish]

Space travel, as I recall, requires frequent stops at a large mass of some kind to discharge the buildup of the ... blah blah ions blah blah babble ... whatever it was.

I really, really like the idea of a Mass Effect sourcebook. I'm busy playing ME2 at the moment, but there's enough data in the Codex to make an ME sourcebook fairly pain-free.

[The Benj]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

Yeah. I orignally pegged it at TL 10, but going over GURPS more closely, I see TL 11 is a better match, with personal force fields dropped down to TL 11.

The armor closely resembles cybersuits, and the weaponry resembles grav rifles and grav pistols so closely I would have thought GURPS was ripping Mass Effect off, if it wasn't for the fact that UT came out first. Omni-tools would take a little more work, but it's really just a matter of putting lots of gadgets into one item and treating it as a cohesive whole (a useful trick in UT settings, I've found)

Sounds like a mini Universal Tool to me (coupled with a flashlight and computer)

[lvk]

My conversion (using MEWiki texts only):

Volus [-40]
Code of Honor (Merchantile)
Dependency (Special athmosphere, Constantly)
SM-2
ST-3
Wealthy

Quarian [-40]
ST-1
Artificer 1
Reputation -1
Restricted Diet
Sense of Duty (Team)
Susceptible to Disease -5

Salarian [40]
ST-1
IQ+1
Combat Reflexes
Deep Sleeper
Less Sleep 7 (yeah, I know I can't)
Photographic Memory
Sense of Duty (Dynasty - by Imprint)
Short Lifespan 1
Social Regard (Council Race) 1

Turian [40]
ST+3
BM+1
Radiation Tolerance PF2
Restricted Diet
Sharp Claws
Social Regard (Council Race) 1
(btw, Molokh, why Code of Honor or Sense of Duty?)

Asari [80]
DX+1
Attractive (Universal)
Biotic Talent 2 (Telekinesis, actually)
Mind Probe (Universal, Sense-Based: Touch, Nuisance Effect (it is shameful to do this not with a sexual partner))
Social Regard (Council Race) 1
Unaging (nearly)

Krogan [120]
ST+5
HT+2
Will+3
BS-0.5
SM+1
DR 3 (Tough Skin)
IT: No Vitals
Peripheral Vision
Reputation -2
Resistant to Paralysis +8
Social Regard (Feared) 2
Temperature Tolerance 1
Unaging (not actually, but in the scope of campaign, yes)