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Originally Posted by HuManBing
Absolutely. It's definitely possible, but may be more trouble than it's worth.
Then again, Lucasarts managed to somehow make the Evil Galactic Empire look actually pretty decent and sympathetic in the 1995 game TIE Fighter. That game had some inspired writing and I can imagine the job is not one for the faint-hearted! But definitely doable, if your players are willing to buy into the conceit and view the faction through a different lens altogether.
Edit: I guess my avatar may be a slight giveaway, huh? :)
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Ah, now you mentioned it ;)
Don't get me wrong - while the Hive are never going to be nice, imho, they are definitely playable. That's what makes them so freakingly frightening - they're ideology is entirely logical and maybe even the most coherent of all the other factions. A Hive character can be truly evil (which is always an interesting roleplaying challenge) while being entirely consistent about it. Humans are, as a whole, flawed, egocentric and instinctive beings, to the extent that most of them are even unaware of their shortcomings. So why give these people a choice or representation when it comes to actions for the good of the collective? If a hive campaign is well-played, it can very well make an excellent setting for character play without the characters actually doing a 1984 on their faction. They don't have to be monsters, on the contrary, they might even think of themselves as the ones doing what is necessary, despite their better instincts. Plus the Hive, like the Imperial Fleet, gives you the chance to get all those old Nazi-type uniforms out the genre cupboard and have Genejack allies as cannon fodder - what more could one want? :)
Kelly:
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Throw in the difficulties of servicing and replacing the Gauss weapons (dropped it in the mud and fouled up the barrel? Did you take High TL? No? Too bad! Roll your skill at -5 to repair it!) and you start to see why the colonists only used the Gauss weapons because they were already there, and built others as soon as possible.
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Good point - although I do think that military personnel would be trained in fixing/cleaning their own weapons, even crappy ones like shredder sidearms. I like to think that the reason was slightly different, albeit along the same lines: The shredders were made of carbon composites and plastic, so they are basically suffering from the same faults as the M16, only worse. In order to train people in their use, you need special classes, which lengthens bootcamp-periods and introduces another tricky IQ-based skill, viz. familiarity/specialisation, for grunt soldiers (and lets face it, that never works well); Also, they are flimsy and fragile compared with the Planetmade sturdy equipment. Knock someone over the head with a shredder in close combat, or sit on it by accident, and you're looking at more than just a TL-penalty. And then try to find servicable spare parts. Carbon composites on Planet? With virtually all carbon being cannibalised for farming, and no fossil fuels to speak of at TL8/9, you can easily go to -8 for lack of equipment and supplies as well as extensive damage to a fine object for the repair task. Of course crafty players will find ways round that, but it remains an annoying effect, and that's what it should be.