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Stealing the best from other sources

kafka47

kafka47

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Marquis
What are some of the inspirations for stealing from other RPG sources? I was thinking that Stargate RPG would be a good place to steal for minor Human cultures that have undergone cultural devolution? With Gou'ld being something of a fairy tale to scare young children dating from a trauma that dates from the colony's founding.

Star Trek seems rather good but, it postulates too high tech future for Traveller. Original Battlestar had some interesting aliens but were too outlandish, the same applies to Star Wars. Has anyone used the Great War of Magellian?
 
Trek could work if you stick to the cultures they often deal with, who are space-capable, but usually not as advanced. Enterprise was a good source for this, minus any transporter-type technology. Decent starting places for additional alien races as well, but it'll still take some time.
 
Gadrin said:
Trek could work if you stick to the cultures they often deal with, who are space-capable, but usually not as advanced. Enterprise was a good source for this, minus any transporter-type technology. Decent starting places for additional alien races as well, but it'll still take some time.
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Enterprise was made into a RPG? If anything, it would be a fan effort...do you have links to what was done? Or tell me how it can be acquired?
 
kafka47 said:
Enterprise was made into a RPG? If anything, it would be a fan effort...do you have links to what was done? Or tell me how it can be acquired?
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no, I'm talking about the TV show. GURPS offers Prime Directive which is Trek set in the Starfleet Battles milieu. They're offering different books on the setting. Most seem solid TL12-13 type of fare, like I said minus things that go beyond Traveller.
http://store.starfleetstore.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=S&Category_Code=GPD
 
kafka47 said:
Enterprise was made into a RPG? If anything, it would be a fan effort...do you have links to what was done? Or tell me how it can be acquired?
Click to expand...

The Decipher Star Trek RPG does cover enterprise (barely), and there is a fan-made supplement covering Enterprise.
 
Andromeda could be a great source for Human minor races and/or implanted genemods as most "aliens" in that show were actually gengineered Humans of various hues and even most "alien" aliens like Trance Gemini are pretty easy to convert to gengineered Humans for your Traveller game.
 
Sources...people...sources. Where can I get some of this fan stuff...As I would be interested to see an Andromeda RPG but I don't think it is in the works. Although, here we at the last season of Galatica and there is a RPG that looks pretty but if I were a betting man, I would say the Great War of Magellian will have longer staying power...although, Galactica will make more in sales.
 
2320AD is a good source for Aliens and technology.
Starship Troopers for the Skinnies, bugs, neodogs and interesting Armour aswell military subclasses and a model for a Feudal Technocracy government.
Warhammer 40K for the Tau and Kroot. 40K's Eldar can be used as a decent minor human race.
Aliens RPG had Arcturans and Harvesters as OK aliens. The PDF of that game is still sold I believe (its character gen is obviously Traveller inspired).
 
kafka47 said:
What are some of the inspirations for stealing from other RPG sources?
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Agree with Stargate for minor human races.
2300AD here as well.

Skyrealms of Jorune for interesting aliens.
High Colonies RPG for grittiness.
Blue Planet for water world fun.
Any number of computer/video games for visuals (Halo, Eve, etc.).
Empire of the Petal Throne/Tekumel for Ancient Artifacts.

Best,
Will
 
Aliens RPG owes more to Space Opera by FGU than to Traveller, in MANY areas.
 
In an ATU Stargate could even be a good source for the Ancients and their proper treatment. Instead of just Grandfather you get quite a few Ancients.

Replace Naquada with Anti-Matter, Asgard with Hivers and Jaffa with Vagr and have fun.
 
Gallowglacht said:
2320AD is a good source for Aliens and technology.
Starship Troopers for the Skinnies, bugs, neodogs and interesting Armour aswell military subclasses and a model for a Feudal Technocracy government.
Warhammer 40K for the Tau and Kroot. 40K's Eldar can be used as a decent minor human race.
Aliens RPG had Arcturans and Harvesters as OK aliens. The PDF of that game is still sold I believe (its character gen is obviously Traveller inspired).
Click to expand...

Agree with the above. I've ported 2300AD aliens to Traveller.

WH40K's Tyranids are nasty enough to add some pop to a campaign.
 
I may get hammered for saying this but . .

Larry Niven's Known Space and Draco Tavern stories could provide some inspiration for Traveller aliens as well as The Mote In God's Eye which he did with Pournelle. (And which I think has many vary Traveller-esqe elements to it).
 
Droyne668 said:
Skyrealms of Jorune for interesting aliens.
Click to expand...

I checked out the Jorune website and the first thing I saw under "races" was a buff, shirtless bear carrying a sword. Sort of lost interest right there. However, I think I might have stumbled on some bad fan revival site instead of the (defunct?) real thing. If so, could you sketch for us some of the "interesting" aliens in Jorune?
 
Vargas said:
Larry Niven's Known Space and Draco Tavern stories could provide some inspiration for Traveller aliens as well as The Mote In God's Eye which he did with Pournelle.
Click to expand...

Yep, I have a copy of the old Ringworld RPG, and some of the aliens (e.g.
Kdatlyno, Pierin, Trinocs, etc.) fit very well into a Traveller setting.
 
Alternity, tho it's out of print, had a ton of stuff that could be used. The GMs Guide has rules for building an artifact.

Fading Suns was either Politics and/or Religion or a search for an artifact - and it has 30 or so planets for just about a subsector. How'd that happen?

Trinity is great if you like Psionics.

Serenity is a good backwater region trade adventure - and it has 30 or so planets for just about a subsector. How'd that happen?

d20 Future has a bunch of generic Sci-Fi stuff.

Sprinkle a little of each and flavor to taste.
 
Greetings and salutations,

The Star Wars RPG is a good source. Just change the aliens into a minor Human culture and go from there. Another good source for Human cultures is our own planet. One can go very far with this just by asking "what if"?
 
mjk1093 said:
I checked out the Jorune website and the first thing I saw under "races" was a buff, shirtless bear carrying a sword. Sort of lost interest right there. However, I think I might have stumbled on some bad fan revival site instead of the (defunct?) real thing. If so, could you sketch for us some of the "interesting" aliens in Jorune?
Click to expand...

:rofl:




>>>>>>>>>>
 
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