How do you think UW could handle games without space travel? I want to do XCOM(ish), Terminator, Cyberpunk type games. Do you think something would he lost by using this ruleset?
How do you think UW could handle games without space travel?
How do you think UW could handle games without space travel?
Interested in the topic too 🙂 I’m currently putting together a game and x-com was one of the settings I was considering, but I want more ‘default’ setting for my first game. I guess some new moves and mechanics could be added to replace some uw ones. And I’d see an x-com game more tactical against some fearsome opponents, so I might see need for more combat-oriented character roles and perhaps also more detailed combat rules – unless changing the focus of the game more global. But I have yet no experience on the uw’s combat system yet so this is very inexperienced comment 🙂
So, thoughts: you don’t need regular, available space travel for space opera. It’s a perk, but it’s not needed. I ran a very successful colony game for a while, and that game had little space travel. In that case, I adapted the close quarters move from space travel to just represent skipping over a few weeks of time and seeing how everyone was getting along in this little community.
However, this ruleset doesn’t feel like Cyberpunk to me. The favors and debts are cool, but I would want a more nuanced approach to cyberware than my little Implanted-tag house rule. Your mileage may vary.
Beyond that, I don’t think combat is lethal enough for cyberpunk. I figure cyberpunk ought to be deadlier than UW, but mileage may vary. Honestly, there’s several tweaks I would make I I wanted a proper Cyberpunk feel out of UW: it’s been built for a particular genre, and I would want to spin the dials and flick the switches if I wanted to play a different genre with it.
I think it could do XCom great, as long as you infused it with space opera — give the commandos more personality than they have in the games 😉
I do like UW for “traveller-like” sci-fi games very much. But regarding cyberpunk I can recommend The Sprawl, a PbtA RPG that is focussed right on this near-future sub-genre of sci-fi.
Frank Falkenberg – yeah. I have the sprawl and I think I will just use that for cyberpunk
I’ve been running a game for quite a while that’s exactly this (Space Opera without the space). Somewhat inspired by the “Ketty Jay” series of novels, we’ve got armored jet-powered airships (with compact submarine-like ballast tanks instead of giant balloons) roaming over a single planet’s surface. Tech level is somewhat lowered as well, and it’s mostly some sort of “dieselpunk” / 1960s technology.
By and large it works very well. Some things that don’t:
– The “Interface” skill is almost entirely unused, since computers and networks are not really a thing. I tried to repurpose it to include things like picking locks and any sort of intrusion into systems, but it just doesn’t come up very often. It’s also seen some play when dealing with the occasional legitimate “high-tech” ancient artifact.
– AI isn’t a thing, and stuff relating to AI companions mostly falls by the wayside. In fact most of the Technocrat career doesn’t have much use, and a number of skills don’t make sense (or just need to be tweaked for the setting).
– No shields changes the dynamic of ship fights a bit, so they’re a bit flatter than in the rules as written. Finding an ancient-tech shield generator is not out of the question at this point, though. Heck, they’ve got an artifact on board they haven’t figured out what it does yet, maybe that could be it…