[Moonsword]

Okay, I know from searching the boards this has been discussed before, but I'm going to take a crack at it.  Part of the problem, however, is that I need information and/or supposition, so I'm occasionally going to need to ask questions.

This is a pen-and-paper RPG based off of the Fudge roleplaying system.  I have already started writing it, but it's going to take some time before I'm quite ready to think about playtesting.  For one thing, I have to work out space combat and the vehicle system, which should be a good laugh.

Fudge can be gotten for free from the publisher at:
Grey Ghost Games
(Hint: look under the Fudge tab).

Question #1: Does anyone have any real information about personal weapons beyond the boarding cutscene in FS1?  For that matter, what were they firing?  Machine guns, heavy assault rifles (least likely) or some sort of gauss rifle?

[jdjtcagle]

Nope, You'll have to make stuff up

[Moonsword]

Yay!  That's what I thought, actually, but I thought I'd ask.  Entirely too much of this is going to be based on GURPS Ultra-Tech .

[mrfun]

Just some thoughts, but you can probably extract a lot about personnel weapons from the ship weapons.  It's obvious they had laser weapons, and compressed gas emission (plasma) weapons- these might be large though because they need a power source.  Spaceborn ops are unlikely to use traditional chemical propeleed munitions, the recoil would be an ungodly pain in zero G.  So you're looking at either only firing while the magnetic boots are locked, a magnetic/zero recoil system, or some kind of recoil absorber built into the gun.  Also consider the conditions of firing weapons inside a spaceship- you dont want something that will accidentally blow a hole in hull.

Just kind of BSing myself though, you make it whatever you like.

[Turambar]

make it an HLPBB RPG istead, with all the people on tha board as characters.

 Turambar uses the Blur Tool ... No Effect!

[Moonsword]

Uhm, Turambar, why don't I develop the game system and rules, so that anyone who wants can use this for *any* sort of FreeSpace RPG?

Actually, hasn't someone already done that?

[Turambar]

lol ok

[Hippo]

there was a HLP RPG, but it was destroyed apparently...

[Moonsword]

I'm assuming a fair bit with the canon sources here, but I don't have much of a choice, unfortunately.  As was pointed out above, we have one hell of a large gap in what we know about the FS universe.

Most of Vasudan culture is an unknown, for example, and the Shivans are a mystery I refure to explore beyond enough stats to run them workably in game.  That is up to the GM how they want the Shivans portrayed.

A number of probably unnecesary skills are included for a reason: it fleshes out the universe.  There are likely sheperds and herders in the FS universe, so animal handling skills seem necessary.  Against non-Shivan enemies, ground troops and SOC ground units are useful, so why not give them some real choices in what they can do, including the skills necessary for am****es and subterfuge?

This may be a huge waste of time, but why not try?

[Moonsword]

Here's version 0.1 of FudgeSpace.  This is not by any means a playable version and only serves to give an example of what I'm doing.  It includes the beginnings of the skill list and an introduction to Fudge's terminology.

FudgeSpace 0.1

Edit: There we go.  This should do it.

Anybody who can host the current version of this as an RTF file?  GeoCities is going to force me to format this into HTML, unfortunately.

[Lightspeed]

nice. If it gets finished, we can play this weekly on an IRC server.

[Singh]

neat, and well thought out - needs some more work though

[Moonsword]

I've already started work on 0.2 of the core set.

I've broken FudgeSpace down into five files, listed in order of priority:
Core - contains the game system, including character creation, task resolution, GM advice, pithy qoutes, and the main part of the combat system.

Templates - Includes character sheets, records sheets, and GM aids as I (or anyone else) come up with them.  Prioritized above the next two so that a standard format is in place.

Vehicles - Everyone's favorite (well, maybe second favorite) toy, the fighter!  Includes both starship combat and what may be the single largest headache, the listing of ships, written into Fudge format.

Equipment - Any piece of equipment beyond the generic, mk. I human visual device and tactile manipulator goes here.

Vasudan Sourcebook - First part is the raw statistical information needed to play a Vasudan character in the game.  Second part is a possible Vasudan culture, including art styles, history, and other such things.  I say 'possible' because individuals may have their own perceptions on the matter, and therefore may choose to change anything in here.  This will stray pretty far from canon, since we don't have that much info I'm aware of, but I assure you that I will not include tapdancing Vasudans in tights.  This will be a fairly serious document, not a joke.

[Singh]

Sounds good. For now though, you may want to set up the stuff for the Terran sides properly first, before moving onto the Vasudans, that way you might have something to base the new things off of at the least.

Edit:w00t. 1000 posts and onwards!!!!!

[Moonsword]

That's what I'm doing, actually.  That's why that stuff's in the order it's in.  I've revised at least part of what's in version 0.1 and added about 50% more stuff beyond what was there already.  Hopefully, I'll have some stuff ready for playtesting in a month or so.

A great deal of the coer stuff just needs to be typed in, and this has bogged me down.

[Anaz]

Cool. I've been contemplating a system like this for a while. It'd be really cool to play it on IRC...if anyone would ever show up

irc.sorcery.net
#nodewar

[Lightspeed]

irc.maxgaming.net
#ssc

[Moonsword]

Well, after not being able to work on things for a week because I was unable to get to the data (stupid zip drive drivers!) I'm back on track.  FudgeSpace 0.2 is already at 13 pages and counting.  I'm hoping to provide at least a basic idea of what things down the road will look like, including Gifts and Faults as well as the beginnings of the fighters, appropriately enough led by the middle-of-the-road GTF Apollo.

[Star Dragon]

After 22 years of D&D and having recently converted ALL my charcaters to D20 system (at a great expense book wise) I can't see much desire in learning a new/old system. I see the other person is using elements of it , but it's not the same.  Keep it up however, If it's fun for you then that's all that matters in gaming.

[Flaser]

The D20 system is up for free download at wizards - you could use quite a lot of ideas in it Moonsword. It's also a free system.