Author Topic: Modern and Near Future Settings adapted from HARP Sci-Fi  (Read 2324 times)

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Offline pyrotech

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Modern and Near Future Settings adapted from HARP Sci-Fi
« on: February 10, 2014, 04:01:43 PM »
Hey all,

I've gone back to an article I'd started writing many months ago about adapting HARP Sci-Fi to modern and near future settings.  I've gotten it about 80% ready to submit, but I have realized that due to the varied nature of these settings all I have is a bunch of guidelines and nothing concrete.

So I have been thinking about writing some example conversion sets.  Not really settings but rough mechanics to use in a setting.  For example A Modern Supernatural setting would be lacking the Astrogation skill, probably not have a vacuum tolerance trait, and add many of the mystical skill from HARP fantasy (probably using the Ritual Magic rules from CoM).  The actual writeups would be much longer and more involved, but I hope you get the idea.  I would ideally include a few training packages as well.

So my question is what kinds of modern or near future settings would people be most interested in seeing example settings for?  So far I've got seven categories of these kinds of games, and would like to eventually create an example for each.  I may not be able to do that, or at least not all at once, so I may just do the biggest ones and create additional ones for later submissions.

Here are the categories I've come up with so far:

Sample HARP Modern settings

Standard Modern: Used for Police, Spies, Military, and other games that lack any super science or supernatural influences.  Could be used as a base for settings that are only slightly different than the real world.  The Merchant Princes setting I am working on for example would use this but add World Walking talents, Low-Tech(minor, major) negative talents, and a few high tech equipment items for world walking.

Supernatural Modern: Used for Modern spellcasting campaigns.  Settings such as Butcher’s Dresden Files or Stross’ The Laundry would fit this category.

Psychic Modern: Used for Modern psychic games, and possibly modern Wuxia games.  Settings such as Steven King’s Firestarter, Kimagori Orange Road, Big Trouble in Little China (although that could also fit well in the next category) fit well in this category.

Weird World Modern: Basically this category covers a mix of supernatural, psychic and superscience elements in a setting.  Possible examples of this kind of setting would be the Extraordinary Affairs campaign from a previous Guild Companion article, and many low powered super-power like settings.



Sample HARP Near Future settings

Standard Near Future:  This is a category for settings that lack any supernatural or rediculously advanced technology elements and simply resemble a higher tech modern world.  Many Trans-human games could fit in this category as could games inspired by the Alien(s) movies.

Superscience Near Future:  This category has a lot of cross over with both the Standard Near Future category and standard HARP Sci-Fi settings.  What differentiates it is a few limited super-science technologies more advanced than the rest of the setting.  A good example would be a Ghost in the Shell or Cyber-punk like setting with very advanced cybernetics and robotics but few other radically advanced technologies.

Supernatural Near Future:  This category covers near future games that include supernatural elements but not many superscience elements.  This category is very good for the haunted space style of game or games inspired by movies such as Event Horizon.

Psychic Near Future:  This category is very similar to the Supernatural Near Future category, but substitutes psionics for magic and other more traditional supernatural elements.  Firefly could be argued to roughly fit this category (mostly due to River’s uncanny abilities).

Weird World Near Future:  This is again a combination of superscience, supernatural, and psychic elements in a near future setting.  Settings inspired by the Shadowrun game may fit well in this category, due to the advanced cybernetics and robotics.

Any preferences or feedback?

Thanks,
-Pyrotech

Offline Thom @ ICE

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Re: Modern and Near Future Settings adapted from HARP Sci-Fi
« Reply #1 on: February 10, 2014, 07:02:45 PM »
Sounds like a great list of projects.... or a pair of really cool books.
One comment is just another application of Standard Modern - the Modern Day Thieves Guild.... Ocean's Eleven, The Italian Job, etc.

Otherwise very nice... and of course you already know my preference is for you to consider submitting concepts for Nicholas to review for possible products.
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Offline pyrotech

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Re: Modern and Near Future Settings adapted from HARP Sci-Fi
« Reply #2 on: February 10, 2014, 07:43:40 PM »
I've thought about submitting it to Nicholas but the amount of work I've got done so far would only amount to a decent article length.  Of course adding 10 or so suggested conversion sets could seriously up the page count and make is suitable for a splatbook.

Once I polish this up a bit and get a few example conversions in it maybe I can send it his way to see if he thinks there is enough there to fully develop.

The band of thieves option you discuss is very similar to a Mission Impossible kind of game (the old tv series where a whole team works together towards a goal, not the newer movies that ran more towards the one-man-ninja-commando).  That would be a very good and flexible example to include.

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement.

-Pyrotech

Offline Thom @ ICE

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Re: Modern and Near Future Settings adapted from HARP Sci-Fi
« Reply #3 on: February 10, 2014, 08:16:15 PM »
Believe it or not, I watched the original Mission Impossible in my younger days...  :)


As for the quantity of content, it can always be a collaborative project.  If you hook up with one or two people who can help you fill in with adventure seeds, equipment, professions, etc. You've got content enough to easily fill a book.
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Offline markc

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Re: Modern and Near Future Settings adapted from HARP Sci-Fi
« Reply #4 on: February 11, 2014, 09:59:45 AM »
 The only one that I did not see mentioned was a Robotech type game or a Mobile Suit type game. Which could be future or modern with some future tech IMHO there are many examples from fiction of each. In fact they may be a separate heading all together. 
 The killer here is getting some good Mobile Suit rules to play with, from the bigger suits to smaller suits so you can have every type of campaign.


MDC


P.S. By the way that is quite a list and a big project.
Bacon Law: A book so good all PC's need to be recreated.
Rule #0: A GM has the right to change any rule in a book to fit their game.
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Offline Thom @ ICE

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Re: Modern and Near Future Settings adapted from HARP Sci-Fi
« Reply #5 on: February 11, 2014, 11:02:56 AM »
See some of his previous articles with TGC and you'll find your armored mobile suit stuff.... Great reading!
Email -    Thom@ironcrown.com

Offline markc

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Re: Modern and Near Future Settings adapted from HARP Sci-Fi
« Reply #6 on: February 11, 2014, 01:48:11 PM »
 I did read those but I have forgotten about them. Pyrotec the fault is mine I am sorry I just did not see them on your list and my brain did not make the right connections to remember what you had already done.
MDC
Bacon Law: A book so good all PC's need to be recreated.
Rule #0: A GM has the right to change any rule in a book to fit their game.
Role Play not Roll Play.
Use a System to tell the story do not let the system play you.

Offline Turbs

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Re: Modern and Near Future Settings adapted from HARP Sci-Fi
« Reply #7 on: April 06, 2014, 10:16:02 PM »
Wierdf World Near future with heaps of cybertech is definitely my favourite setting.
then Supernatural Near Future.

and then of course a good blend of hte two
The universe is hostile. So impersonal. Devour to survive; So it is; So it's always been.  ~Tool; Vicarious~

Offline pyrotech

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Re: Modern and Near Future Settings adapted from HARP Sci-Fi
« Reply #8 on: April 07, 2014, 12:07:22 AM »
I've been slowly chugging away at this still (at the expense of my HARP Sci-Fi adventure I would like to finish up and submit to TGC sometime as well).

I'm currently going through the equipment list and creating a table of recommended development levels (unavailable, advanced, mature, etc...) for each of the categories.  When I finish that I'm moving on to do the same for skills and talents.  After that I should be in pretty good shape to do something with it.

I'm not sure if this would be enough material to warrant anything more than a TCG article, but I'm thinking of taking Thom's advise and letting Nicholas decide that rather than not even present it to him.  I'm just not sure what kind of format and how much detail I should bother with sending him.

What really drove me to start this was writting the Extraordinary Affairs article for TGC and then my desire to port the Merchant Princes series from Stross over to HARP.  But having a Shadowrun style of setting would be cool as well.  Also on my wish list (but not really  modern or near-future) is a port of the Centari Knights setting from BESM.  Pulver's setting for BESM always looked pretty cool, but my players didn't like the mechanics of BESM much.  Harp Sci-Fi may be able to do it well with a bit of hard work.

-Pyrotech

Offline Thom @ ICE

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Re: Modern and Near Future Settings adapted from HARP Sci-Fi
« Reply #9 on: April 07, 2014, 06:56:17 AM »
I'm not sure if this would be enough material to warrant anything more than a TCG article, but I'm thinking of taking Thom's advise and letting Nicholas decide that rather than not even present it to him.  I'm just not sure what kind of format and how much detail I should bother with sending him.

Note that in the past ICE has released products with different sections written by separate authors.  While your material may only represent an article (chapter) of material, it may fit well into a product with other material that it is a little light - or it could possibly end up in a The Guild Adventurer publication which generally includes adventures across various ICE settings and systems.  There are lots of opportunities to get good material into a paid publication.
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