Author Topic: HARP SCI FI Super's  (Read 1565 times)

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Offline area51games

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HARP SCI FI Super's
« on: February 10, 2014, 12:44:22 AM »
WHAT ABOUT A harp sci fi setting with transhumanism - elite or random groups of people developing super abilities or powers ?
the mechanics would work like magic or psion
a power field like magnetic control , flight, invisibility , Forcefield.
maybe thier something in the water or the world, perhaps it was intentionally colonized becuse of its effects on humans?
Mal: "Well, look at this! Appears we got here just in the nick of time. Whaddya suppose that makes us?"
Zoe: "Big damn heroes, sir."
Mal: "Ain't we just!"

Offline Thom @ ICE

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Re: HARP SCI FI Super's
« Reply #1 on: February 10, 2014, 07:58:52 AM »
Similar to your other post (I guess you were on a roll...  :)  )
Much of this can be done using the current rules.
There's actually a setting (should be getting close to release) that will actually get into this concept of mutation and transhumans....  I can't say more yet, but you'll be hearing about it as it gets closer.

In regards to the idea of "Supers"... No - it doesn't fit that niche.  I can say that I have tried to get HARP SF to fit the Supers genre, and for me it doesn't work well.  Maybe my idea of Supers is different than yours, but for me I think of Supers as being in line with Marvel Comics type supers, and HARP/HARP SF tend to be a little too gritty to really play up those super-powers and the bleed/stun/injury criticals don't fit right with a Supers genre game (IMO).  I can't remember seeing too many Super-like single blow KO's or characters getting knocked back 30 feet into a concrete wall, etc.

Can it be modified to handle the Supers genre? Sure, anything can be done - but the amount of work involved would likely create a whole new revision to the game moving away from gritty Rolemaster style and more towards Heroic game play.   Something I'd like to see eventually - but not until things are fully developed and tested... 
Email -    Thom@ironcrown.com

Offline pyrotech

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Re: HARP SCI FI Super's
« Reply #2 on: February 13, 2014, 05:22:02 PM »
If I were to try a Super's game with HARP Sci-Fi, I would keep its power level very low.  Basically any of the core advantages, and maybe the Psionics for mentalist characters.  As Thom says, the basic rules are not very forgiving for massive damage attacks. 

I would probably explain the powers with an experimental genetic modification retro-virus McGuffin.  Perhaps it was created to cure some horrible genetic illness - but was discovered to cause mental instability in near to 50% of its patients.  Unscrupulous geneticists then found ways of turning on genes to create trans-human abilities.  So now the base retro-virus is highly illegal around the world, but some people still illegally or secretely get it anyway.  This explains why there are so many super villians to fight the super heroes (almost half of the patients turn psychopathic or sociopathic, most of the remainder are regular people with powers, but only a few turn heroic).

Mostly a Batman, Killer-Crock, Dare-devil power level supers game.  To up it higher you start needing to modify more core rules.  You might be able to use talents to model characters taking damage as large or huge creatures, or even damage reduction that reduces the size category of any attack by one category.  But balancing this starts to become an issue.

In general the less you have to modify a balanced system the better off you are.  It can be a major hassle to rebalance games.
-Pyrotech