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Old 04-26-2013, 08:59 PM   #1
Raekai
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Default How to make Ultra-Tech easy?

I read through the book and about died. There's so much information and there's no way to remember it all... I feel like pulling my hair out because there has to be an easier way, right? Tables? Quick-and-easy rules? I know I'm the GM and I can pick out what's relevant and what isn't... But... There's so much... And that's just Ultra-Tech! I have to worry about Bio-Tech, Psi-Tech, and Psionic Powers! I just want to be organized so I make this game as great as I possibly can! I really want to be able to get a grasp on this stuff... It's just so different from Low-Tech and Fantasy and whatnot...

Thanks!
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Old 04-26-2013, 11:50 PM   #2
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Default Re: How to make Ultra-Tech easy?

What kind of world are you making the game about?

Say the full concept in one paragraph.
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Old 04-27-2013, 01:23 AM   #3
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Default Re: How to make Ultra-Tech easy?

Don't knock yourself out! Start small and work your way out.

I do miss the layout of 3rd Ed's UT (organized by TL) with a great little section for the TL:N Soldier. Allot is the same or very similar, so if you have access to the previous edition's UT, you may find it a little easier.

I think a "TL:N Soldier" theme would make a great Pyramid article / issue / Loadouts book depending on the depth!
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Old 04-27-2013, 03:25 AM   #4
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Default Re: How to make Ultra-Tech easy?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Raekai View Post
I read through the book and about died. There's so much information and there's no way to remember it all... I feel like pulling my hair out because there has to be an easier way, right? Tables? Quick-and-easy rules? I know I'm the GM and I can pick out what's relevant and what isn't... But... There's so much... And that's just Ultra-Tech! I have to worry about Bio-Tech, Psi-Tech, and Psionic Powers! I just want to be organized so I make this game as great as I possibly can! I really want to be able to get a grasp on this stuff... It's just so different from Low-Tech and Fantasy and whatnot...

Thanks!
Pick a tech level. Start there. It's easier.

9 is for "pretty much like today, but a little better." Good for cyberpunk, post-apocalyptic scenarios that don't involve a complete collapse of civilization, realistic sci-fi set in the near future, or gritty space opera, like Aliens or Warhammer 40k.

10 is a good stand-by for most sci-fi if you're not sure what you want. It's advanced enough beyond today that it starts to look truly futuristic (energy weapons and androids and such become viable), but not so futuristic that everything becomes crazy. It's good for modest or realistic space opera, or very advanced/flashy cyberpunk.

11 is the other good stand-by for sci-fi, especially stuff set in space. At this point, advancements have taken us well beyond the norm and have begun to reshape our world to a profound degree. Technology becomes integrated and powerful. This is typical of most cinematic space opera, like Star Wars or Mass Effect, with lots of energy weapons and force fields and smooth, non-intrusive "power armor" and so on.

12 begins to get weird and is, personally, best left alone to give you room to move up or to introduce crazy alien tech. It represents extreme space opera or, on a realistic end, a society that's either post-singularity or nearing it. Star Trek and Doctor Who are good examples of TL 12.

You'll want the ^ (super science) tag if you want cool cinematic stuff, and you won't want it if you want a tight, rigorous exploration of what's actually going on.

So a TL 11 world might reflect a world similar to Alistair Reynold's Revelation Space: Highly advanced technology in a space-faring civilization that, nonetheless, follows all the rules of modern physics. Transhuman Space is TL 10. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is TL 9.

Warhammer 40k and Rifts are TL 9^ with forays into TL 10^. Star Wars is TL 11^. Star Trek is TL 12^, as is Doctor Who, but the latter is far, far more permissive with technology (we might argue that Doctor Who is a hypothetical TL 13^)

Yeah?

Okay, your TL is just your baseline, and you're free to move things around. It's a starting point. We'll limit ourselves to looking at things in that area, but if we find something cool just outside of it, we'll bring it in (unless we start to find that we're bringing in most of our stuff from a different TL, then we adjust our TL to that level). Thus, if you pick TL 10^, we'll mainly limit ourselves to looking at TL 10^ technology, like rainbow lasers, gauss weapons, plasma weapons and heavy battlesuits, but that doesn't stop us from including force swords (TL 11^), conformal force fields (TL 12^) and Payload Rifles (TL 9) if we want.
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Old 04-27-2013, 03:57 AM   #5
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Default Re: How to make Ultra-Tech easy?

Quote:
Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker View Post
I do miss the layout of 3rd Ed's UT (organized by TL) with a great little section for the TL:N Soldier. Allot is the same or very similar, so if you have access to the previous edition's UT, you may find it a little easier.

I think a "TL:N Soldier" theme would make a great Pyramid article / issue / Loadouts book depending on the depth!
You can combine Typical Weapons By TL (UT148) and Typical Armour By TL (UT186) to get whatever types of civilian, soldier, paramilitary etc. loadouts you need. In 4e, that is.
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Old 04-27-2013, 04:24 AM   #6
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Default Re: How to make Ultra-Tech easy?

For Reference

Looking over that video, I see:

Pulsed energy weapons (Blasters perhaps, or pulse lasers).
A mini-grenade with a strobe warhead
Combat hardsuits
Whatever the hero is wearing (tempted to call it commando power armor)
A warbot (actually much bigger than a warbot, but a warbot will do) armed with a beam laser and missiles.
A supremely cool sword (Hyperdense or monowire, probably) with some kind of retractable option (memory metal, maybe, or we can just say "it's retractable, because that's awesome).

No real indication of seriously advanced sensors or integrated computers or stealth technology (the guy doesn't cloak when breaking into the place). The source of the hero's supreme skill isn't clear. He's probably not a robot because we can hear him breathing, so I'd assume he's either genetically engineered or just really, really skilled.

I'd do this as 300-500 point characters in a TL 10^ setting with TL 11 melee weapons (Hyperdense), with lasers and mini-missiles and thimble-grenades as the exclusive ranged options, to give melee a serious edge. I'd go with TL 10 combat hardsuits, commando battlesuits (and I'd throw in Heavy Battlesuits just because) and combat androids and warbots. I'd probably go with cinematic medicine (Medscanners and regeneration tanks), basic radio for communication, and perhaps night vision and ir vision goggles/specs/visors. I'd have small computers, but they're just for looking up information, not for hacking enemy robots or crazy device integration, and possibly allow for cybernetics and bio-tech, but that might not be necessary. And then I'd call it a day.
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Old 04-27-2013, 04:32 AM   #7
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Default Re: How to make Ultra-Tech easy?

If you want to make Ultra-Tech really easy, just don't use it.

I run a lot of Infinite Worlds game. It's my favorite setting. In those games the players are allowed to have the basic tech for the setting. Anything above that has to be built with points and bought as an advantage.

I'm assuming that you are looking at Ultra-Tech for that Cyperpunk/Supers game you want to run. My advice would be to just keep the standard tech that's available really basic. You could say that the government is oppressive and that the tech available to the average Joe isn't much better than what we have today.

Then anything that the players want above standard guns and computers will cost character points. If they want some type of Ultra-Tech super, robot cutting sword, make them buy it with character points as an advantage. A big armored suit of power armor? Buy it with points too, etc.

You could even get crazy and say that Super-Tech has a cash value, and let players buy it after the game starts with money that they earn. So every $5,000 credits they earn can be used to buy 1 character point worth of Super-Tech. This lets you control what kind of crazy stuff they have without bloating them with too many actual character points.

It's worked for me in my games. I don't have to worry about what Tech the characters have, or magic items either since I use the same rules for those too. In my games a cool piece of tech or a powerful magic item is just a 5 character point piece of tech, or 20 character point magic item, etc. It keeps things balanced and easy IMO.
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Old 04-27-2013, 08:44 AM   #8
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Default Re: How to make Ultra-Tech easy?

Psionics the easy way: Eidetic Memory article from Pyramid 3/ 29, Magic as Psi.

Tech: I wrote out a list of what was available at the chosen tech level. Worked out what the average civilian would expect to have. Edited some tech/gadgets to fit my concept. Started out with minimal TL^ and currently retconned to only 1 concept that allows FTL. Plus aliens. And no cinematics.

That anime looked cinematic; maybe TL9 in general with TL10 weapons, armor, robotics, computers? ie Cyberpunk.
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Old 04-27-2013, 08:52 AM   #9
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Default Re: How to make Ultra-Tech easy?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mailanka View Post
Pick a tech level. Start there. It's easier.

9 is for "pretty much like today, but a little better." Good for cyberpunk, post-apocalyptic scenarios that don't involve a complete collapse of civilization, realistic sci-fi set in the near future, or gritty space opera, like Aliens or Warhammer 40k.

10 is a good stand-by for most sci-fi if you're not sure what you want. It's advanced enough beyond today that it starts to look truly futuristic (energy weapons and androids and such become viable), but not so futuristic that everything becomes crazy. It's good for modest or realistic space opera, or very advanced/flashy cyberpunk.

11 is the other good stand-by for sci-fi, especially stuff set in space. At this point, advancements have taken us well beyond the norm and have begun to reshape our world to a profound degree. Technology becomes integrated and powerful. This is typical of most cinematic space opera, like Star Wars or Mass Effect, with lots of energy weapons and force fields and smooth, non-intrusive "power armor" and so on.

12 begins to get weird and is, personally, best left alone to give you room to move up or to introduce crazy alien tech. It represents extreme space opera or, on a realistic end, a society that's either post-singularity or nearing it. Star Trek and Doctor Who are good examples of TL 12.

You'll want the ^ (super science) tag if you want cool cinematic stuff, and you won't want it if you want a tight, rigorous exploration of what's actually going on.

So a TL 11 world might reflect a world similar to Alistair Reynold's Revelation Space: Highly advanced technology in a space-faring civilization that, nonetheless, follows all the rules of modern physics. Transhuman Space is TL 10. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is TL 9.

Warhammer 40k and Rifts are TL 9^ with forays into TL 10^. Star Wars is TL 11^. Star Trek is TL 12^, as is Doctor Who, but the latter is far, far more permissive with technology (we might argue that Doctor Who is a hypothetical TL 13^)

Yeah?

Okay, your TL is just your baseline, and you're free to move things around. It's a starting point. We'll limit ourselves to looking at things in that area, but if we find something cool just outside of it, we'll bring it in (unless we start to find that we're bringing in most of our stuff from a different TL, then we adjust our TL to that level). Thus, if you pick TL 10^, we'll mainly limit ourselves to looking at TL 10^ technology, like rainbow lasers, gauss weapons, plasma weapons and heavy battlesuits, but that doesn't stop us from including force swords (TL 11^), conformal force fields (TL 12^) and Payload Rifles (TL 9) if we want.
That was one of the best break downs of the TL schema that I've seen. Kudos.
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Old 04-27-2013, 09:54 AM   #10
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Default Re: How to make Ultra-Tech easy?

Warhammer 40k includes man-portable laser weaponry with absurdly compact power supplies, dreadnoughts a kilometer long, personal force fields and armor-piercing force swords, plasma weaponry, gyrojets with 95% reliable impact fusing, and psitech of every description. It's not TL9.

The setting, thanks to being a very large imperium, is quite schizotech - a single world could be TL5, TL6, TL7, TL8, TL9, or even TL10 or 11, if it's one of the core worlds that still has a lot of technology kicking around. Many other things are lostech - or they only have one world that is able to manufacture them. So some worlds are TL5+3, others are TL9+2 in one area...

That being said, it is possible to break things down. Most planetary defense forces operate at TL8 or TL9 - with some really unlucky ones as low as TL6. PDF tech level depends on the planetary tech level, pretty much. The Imperial Guard is solidly TL10, even within it's own logistics train, and some lucky PDF units are as well. The Space Marines, high ranking officers, hero units, etc use TL11 bits of tech mooshed with TL10 stuff. In most cases, TL11 and TL12 stuff is lostech, so you'd better take care of it, since you're never going to get a replacement.

</pointless interlude>

As for the OP's question, you know what might be best? Start a game with the bare basics, let the players pick and choose anything in the book that they want as equipment (below a certain TL, anyway), and then page through the book. Stop on any random piece of technology. That piece of tech is now the mcguffin of the adventure. Go have the PCs find it on behalf of an interested party and fight over it. Build the setting tech through the PC's activities, introducing new pieces of equipment as you go.
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