[freeroleplay] New Fringe Mechanic Take 2

[Troy Truchon]

On 7/16/06, Samuel Penn <sam at glendale.org.uk> wrote:
>
> On Saturday 15 July 2006 17:41, Ricardo Gladwell wrote:
> > On Wed, 2006-07-12 at 13:44 -0700, Troy Truchon wrote:
> > >  Quite frankly most near future settings don't
> > > really satisfy me because you get bogged down with the technology.
> > > Half the shadowrun supplements I've seen are half weapons catalogue.
> >
> > What would you do instead? Maybe devise some rules for allowing
> > player's to create their own technology?

Well more specifically I want a simple set of rules that would allow
me to create lots of gizmo's without spending a month on stats. I
prefer rules-lite systems because I can play by the seat of my pants
without having to memorize a long equipment list. I always enjoyed
Risus because I could just say something was a "miniature spyplane
(5)" and not worry any further. Basically what I want to do is come up
with a rules-lite system that's totally free (GPL).

> The problem comes with gadgets since they are often more complex
> than simply having a damage stat. Removing them doesn't just remove
> detail, it removes capability. The ability to fly a small remote
> camera over an area you're about to sneak into really changes how
> you do things. Bugs, tracking devices, sensors, alarms and countless
> other 'toys' widen the possibilities open to characters. Star Wars
> seems to get away without them (more or less), but that's due to the
> high fantasy nature of the setting.
>
> Near future settings tend towards being realistic, and players start
> asking awkward questions like "we can buy these in the real world now,
> so why aren't they available 20 years in the future?".
>
> If you want to gloss over the technology, you might want a more
> space opera type setting (Star Wars, or Lensman are good examples,
> though the latter has lots of gadgets, they tend to be in the
> planet busting scale of things).

I don't want to do away with the gadgetry, if anything I want to
increase it. I just would like to work out a good rules lite system
where I don't need a half dozen stats for each new piece of equipment.
If anything the rules-heavy systems of most games don't allow for any
of the action near-future tech supplies.

We are getting very close to on-demand and micro-factory construction.
Its impossible to imagine a time in the near future where we can't
have just about anything custom designed and built at affordable
rates. We can, to a degree, do this now. But I don't want to have to
deal with constantly creating new stats. I want to just give it a
description and a couple of scores and enjoy the game.

> For cyberpunk, you could just forbid anything from the supplments.
> GURPS has a reasonably short list of SF gear in the core book, leaving
> the endless gadget catalogue to supplements like Ultra Tech,
>
> --
> Be seeing you,                         http://www.glendale.org.uk
> Sam.
>               IM: samuel.penn at jabber.org or samuel.penn at gmail.com
>
>
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-- 
Troy J. Truchon
Computer Service Technician