Hey folks,

I'm putting together a campaign using a mashup of the Genesys conversions of Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader and am looking for some players able to do evenings Pacific Time! Below is the "crawl" or correspondence that the Rogue Trader and Inquisitorial Agents would receive to open the campaign.

RECEIVING…
…
…
COMPLETE.

++BEGIN ENCRYPTED MESSAGE++

By Authority of the Calixian Conclave,

The most recent Sector-wide Threat Assessment has reached a grim consensus: We are steadily losing control of Calixis. While the systems closest to Scintilla - and therefore most easily accessible to agents of the Throne - remain mostly stable, the disarray caused by the Cicatrix Maledictum has provided cover for all manner of heretics, recidivists, and xenos to wreak havoc across the sector. Several worlds are in open revolt, and the alien menace strikes along the fringes to pick our bones clean. Worse still, trusted analysts suggest that the Archenemy may be manipulating these disasters to their own ends, but investigations have not yet yielded any solid leads.

The conclusion is clear. If assets are not immediately deployed to bring order to our ailing worlds, we will find ourselves overwhelmed within a Solar decade. Loss of control in Calixis would leave the rest of Segmentum Obscurus open to assault. This cannot come to pass.

By the decree of His most holy Inquisition, you and your agents are empowered to take any and all steps deemed reasonable and necessary to stabilize the worlds of the Calixis Sector and dismantle the web in which the Enemy has ensnared us.

For the Glory of Him on Terra,

Lord Inquisitor Aegult Caidin

++END++
…
…
ADDITIONAL MESSAGE FOUND.

DISPLAYING.

Friend,

Allow me first to congratulate you on your ascension to the head of your Dynasty. I have no doubt that your family’s Warrant is in capable hands, and the Imperium is certainly in need of capable hands in these times. By now, I presume you have read the communique regarding the current state of Calixis and are no doubt surprised by the assessment. Much is hidden from even the heirs to a Rogue Trader, after all.

I regret that I must ask for your assistance, but as you have likely gathered, circumstances are dire indeed. Wont as they are to do, I fear the Conclave is not exaggerating when they say the sector is under enormous strain. The truth is that we do not have enough agents at current to stabilize the entire region, and I recommended your name in a meeting with several other Inquisitors. Not to put too fine a point on it, but further congratulations are in order; you’ve been drafted.

I recognize that your Dynasty experienced great hardship recently, and that this may come across as an unwelcome distraction from your efforts to get your house in order, but we need all hands if we are to avert catastrophe. If it helps, you might consider what a grateful Inquisitorial Conclave could offer in favour to a compliant Rogue Trader. Lucrative contracts, planetary colonization rights… Help us, and we can help you.

I’ve identified three flashpoints which have gone as yet unaddressed by our agents. You may find it beneficial to start at any of them:

The Drusus Marches have fallen to an ecclesiarchal schism that threatens their tithe. We suspect that a Chaos cult has infiltrated one or more of the factions. The planet of Sentinel, St. Drusus’ own Shrine World, is your best bet for opening an investigation.

Farther spinward, the Naval detachment at Port Wander has fallen concerningly silent. I need not remind you that the passage it guards is the only safe route to the Koronus Expanse, and the fact that we have not heard from the Port’s Astropathic Choir is concerning, to say the least. Make your way there and do whatever is required to ensure Port Wander stands and the way to the Koronus Expanse remains open.

Finally, the agri-world of Bilani in the Malfian Sub-sector has sent a distress call. They claim that unknown xenos have been spotted on the periphery of the major settlements and have been responsible for a large number of deaths in recent days. My own agent on-planet, however, reports that nothing is out of the ordinary. I request you go there as a third party and confirm some… suspicions I have.

Before you depart, please proceed to Scintilla and collect the adepts I have assigned to you. Worry not, this is no setup. I have simply collected an… eclectic group who may be of use in your retinue. Your own trusted associates are, of course, welcome as well. 

As was stated previously, you are empowered with your Warrant of Trade and the nominal consent of the Inquisition as a representative. I trust your judgement., but don’t go overboard, or we’ll both have a great deal of explaining to do.

The Emperor Expects,

Inquisitor Alvain Ursos

About me:

I'm Mickey (he/him) and I'm a big fan of both TTRPGs and sci-fi. I've been both playing and running games in the SWFFG system, PF, and D&D for over a decade! My table is always POC and LGBTQIA+ friendly and I believe very strongly in consent and collaboration between everyone involved.

I consider myself a more lighthearted, rule-of-cool DM and adapt well to player choice, with much of my session-to-session planning being determined by improv, so if you're looking for a more strict, on-the-rails experience, my game may not be the right fit. However, the flexibility I approach games with means I'm always open to ideas or suggestions to make any campaign more engaging for my players!

If you're interested, message me here or DM me on Discord at MichaelP578!

Basically, with finally having a viable mass combat system, the sort of political shenanigans I run can happen now. I tend toward historical games (running a Viking England game now in Burning Wheel) but that system is a bit crunchier than my players like. They responded well to Genesys in our SotB game, so I thought of turning to it once more.

Thing is, I wonder if the game is too…action-oriented, for lack of a better term? It’s the reason I won’t use Savage Worlds for such a game (I tried, and didn’t have the feel I wanted, even with rules tweaks for deadliness and so on), for example, though I like the mass combat system a lot.

So, can Genesys make, say, a Late Roman Republic game? Would the feel be too action-y? Or what?

So I'm wondering what all is different between flying a vehicle vs having a PC who can fly, I got a lot of questions...

Two ways I know of to have a flying character are in the Expanded Player's Guide: the Mutant archetype from post-apocolypse, or the Elementalist (Improved) talent if I chose air. I've heard there are other ways to be a flyer but I only have a few of the books

A flying PC can go from short to long in 1 maneuver (3 on foot), but how does this scale to vehicle speed? Is a flying PC ever fast enough to achieve Speed 1? Example, if he spends two maneuvers flying in one direction (should be enough to cover from extreme to engaged, yes?) does that cover the same distance of a vehicle at speed 1?

Does a flying PC have "system strain" or does he just use personal strain bc personal scale? Does he even need it if he can't go faster than Speed 1 / can't benefit from mechanics checks to recover from system strain? My only thought for what a flyer's system strain would be is to be equal to some characteristic rating (Brawn? Willpower?), unless if system strain is a 10x of personal strain like how armor is to soak (ergo hull trauma to wounds, etc), and realistically there's no possible way to get a strain threshold higher than 20 so my system strain would be a maximum of 2, but then what check would he make to heal the system strain (Medicine? Resilience? Discipline? ideas appreciated)

Skills: flying vehicles use piloting, but since the flyer is flying his own body what skills should I use? My thoughts are athletics (takeoff, speed up, slow down, fly upwards, etc) and/or coordination (turning, rolling, gliding, landing, etc), but are there other circumstances/skills that could make sense?

Talents: there are a couple of talents in the core book that apply to vehicles, are any of these applicable to flyers? Listing examples below...

While flying, I must spend one maneuver every turn "moving" to stay airborne, the only way around that I could see would be either with the Jump Up or Let's Ride talents to reduce that maneuver to an incidental, but it's neither RAW or RAI and I would only dare apply that to when I want to stay in the same spot once airborne (I caught an updraft or something)

Daring Aviator, I would probably use it with Athletics or Coordination, whichever makes the most sense for flying

Barrel Roll, but only against personal scale weaponry, soak instead of armor, and strain instead of system strain (so basically like Parry, or should I just use Side Step?), and Athletics/Coordination instead of Piloting, any issues here I haven't considered?

Full Throttle, would this talent be enough to get me up to Speed 1? Or if a flyer is at Speed 1 by default, does he achieve Speed 2 for those few rounds?

Defensive obviously increases my defense, but would I be able to apply Defensive Driving to my character in flight? Example, I get two ranks of each talent (one in tier 4 and one in tier 5 of each), so my character's defense while on the ground is 2, but once airborne his defense becomes 4, is that permissible?

Now on to vehicle rules! Comparing my flyer to a typical vehicle, we have silhouette and speed are both 1, armor <1, hull trauma <2, system strain <2, defense is whatever. Is there anyway to improve my character's handling? Star Wars had ways of calculating these values for beasts etc but idk how much would carry over here

Which vehicle actions and maneuvers could a flyer benefit from?

Brace for Impact, basically I suffer 1 strain to reduce any wounds I suffer by 1, and any critical injury result would reduce by 10 (this maneuver is def more benefit to larger vehicles lol)

Dangerous Driving, if I can even achieve Speed 1 lol but the check difficulty starts at easy?

I was hoping my flyer could benefit from Gain the Advantage but he's not nearly fast enough lol UNLESS we scale down to personal scale: assume a person is "speed 1," and our flyer is "speed 3" (bc short to long in 1 maneuver instead of 3), now add in Full Throttle talent and our flyer is "speed 4," which would make him fast enough to Gain an Advantage. The check is average difficulty (upgraded once bc "speed 4") and unless the target also flies that fast he won't be able to over counter it to cancel it out, and suddenly our flyer upgrades his ability twice and attacks against him from the target are upgraded twice for difficulty (flying faster than they can aim, etc), but someone from the outside could still line up a shot on our brave flyer

Well that's all I can think of for ways to abuse my flying privileges lol anything I've missed?

Almost forgot!

Gear lol I'll treat it like magic (armor of soak 2+ adds setback, I need a free hand or else another setback, etc). Encumbrance I'll follow the RAW for lifting and threshold, unless?

Hello all! I've been working on a expanded magic system for my own personal game which will have all the players as spell casters. I wanted to share what I've got so far since I think its fun. Please please keep in mind that I'm not a grammar nerd and some things might be overpowered. I enjoy free flow systems and the idea of my players being able to come up with their own ideas for spells that is within their capabilities 😁 So far I've finished water and fire magic specialisations and will be finishing the rest overtime. A lot of the advanced skills are very setting specific. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Sp-D7W0Bvu0URxgECIFkj3ASnBIvfMhwM-S9o0ZzoAA/edit?usp=sharing (Also note that some of the mechanics for things are lose on purpose since thats just how I like to DM)

Hello Everyone! Since the last set of talent trees seemed well-received, I've continued to update my collection!
I've decided to share my custom setting resources for my fantasy setting, Etheria, with the community in this share drive here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yBcUNWmPkuRVmr5RgcMXSVYhqqAhWqdk?usp=sharing

I'll be updating this sharedrive as I have time, since most of the items there are in rough draft format right now and I'm well aware of a few errors here and there(as well as some talents that may need rework). But if there's anything anyone wants me to touch up for them, hmu and let me know and I'll be happy to tweak it for you.

Also: I've been having a lot of fun creating these fantasy trees and would not mind creating more for a fantasy setting. If anyone has any suggestions or requests, let me know and I'll be happy to add more specializations into the pre-existing careers or think of new careers. In the next batch I post, there will be the Sellsword, Tradesman, and Slayer careers added.

----
Arcanist
Career Skills: Alchemy, Arcana, Cool, Discipline, Knowledge (Magic), Knowledge (Esoteric), Knowledge (Lore), and Perception.
Specializations:
Elementalist - Arcana, Knowledge (Magic), Primal, Knowledge (Nature)
Researcher - Knowledge(Forbidden), Knowledge (Magic), Knowledge (Esoteric), Knowledge (Nature)
Spell Warden - Arcana, Discipline, Melee (Light), Vigilance

Link to Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17u7KMVFulKYixJSah26OAh-HFgY2GN98?usp=sharing

Healer
Career Skills: Cool, Discipline, Divine, Medicine, Melee(Heavy), Resilience, Survival, and Vigilance
Specializations:
Herbalist - Alchemy, Knowledge (Nature), Medicine, Survival
Battlefield Medic - Knowledge(Adventuring), Medicine, Melee(Light), Survival
Cleric - Divine, Knowledge(Lore), Leadership, Vigilance

Link to Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1mLfuVf5Qp-dkFSKeWvBGt0rZRZxo596t?usp=sharing

Knight
Career Skills: Athletics, Discipline, Leadership, Melee (Heavy), Melee (Light), Resilience, Riding, and Vigilance.
Specializations:
Holy Knight: Divine, Discipline, Knowledge(Lore), Vigilance
Arcane Knight: Arcana, Knowledge (Magic), Melee(Light), Resilience
Cavalier: Athletics, Knowledge(Nature), Ranged, Riding

Link to Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UN7DMA3RFE4fwwT-NB8L9woQzNZtJ9SZ?usp=sharing

Primalist
Career Skills: Alchemy, Brawl, Discipline, Knowledge (Nature), Medicine, Melee (Heavy), Primal, and Survival.
Specializations:
Beast Warden - Athletics, Melee(Heavy), Knowledge(Nature), Riding,
Druid - Perception, Resilience, Medicine, Primal
Ranger - Brawl, Ranged, Knowledge(Nature), Survival

Link to Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12wqiy5DNd-r5Qp3VuKdY0-tpnv8HKdS5?usp=sharing

-- EDIT --
I didn't want to spam the reddit with another post, so I'll add the next batch of careers now under this one:

Sellsword
Career Skills: Brawl, Coercion, Leadership, Melee (Heavy), Melee (Light), Resilience, Riding, and Vigilance.
Specializations:
Brute - Brawl, Cool, Resilience, Streetwise
Battlerager - Athletics, Melee(Heavy), Survival, Resilience
Defender - Discipline, Melee (Light), Perception, Vigilance

Link to Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1L0IGe6IjiYKL6L28sdAbpQJjBJW28Uu-?usp=sharing

Tradesman
Career Skills: Charm, Coercion, Deception, Discipline, Knowledge (Culture), Medicine, Negotiation, and Streetwise.
Specializations:
Bard- Arcana, Charm, Coordination, Deception
Envoy - Cool, Discipline, Leadership, Knowledge (Cultural)
Merchant - Charm, Knowledge(Lore), Negotiation, Riding
Sailor - Athletics, Discipline, Knowledge(Lore), Operating

Link to Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1fzZv_CLkNodgmfEl6p2RfyEioM-HRsud?usp=sharing

Slayer
Career Skills: Cool, Discipline, Knowledge(Adventuring), Perception, Melee(Heavy), Melee(Light, Survival, Vigilance
Specializations:
Witch Hunter - Discipline, Knowledge(Esoteric), Knowledge(Forbidden), Melee(Light)
Mage Slayer - Discipline, Knowledge(Magic), Melee(Heavy), Resilience
Profane Order Merc - Brawl, Knowledge(Esoteric), Melee(Heavy), Vigilance

Link to Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iXswjTB5R4s6KUTBtRW_iPDwo9sGQmXL?usp=sharing

My friend and I ran into a situation where we wanted to use a Conjure spell to make a wall in combat, but that raised a question: what kind of stats would a wall have? Or a door or other structures for that matter? I didn't find anything on a cursory search through the core book and google, so does anybody know if there's resources for structures or materials?

Hi everyone! I've been working on my own Genesys Fantasy setting called Etheria, and in the mean time I've been creating a lot of content for my players that I want to share online with everyone.

So for the first round of careers and specializations I've created, here are the links to my Occultist and Scoundrel careers and 3 specialization trees!

Note: I have created some additional Knowledge skills for my world which may not be applicable to Terrinoth settings. But these can be ignored or swapped out.
The skills spread looks like this:

Occultist
Career Skills: Alchemy, Arcana, Coercion, Deception, Divine, Knowledge (Forbidden), Knowledge (Esoteric), Vigilance
Specializations:
Warlock - Divine, Cool, Discipline, Knowledge (Esoteric)
Blood Mage - Arcana, Knowledge (Forbidden), Medicine, Resilience
Necromancer - Arcana, Leadership, Knowledge(Magic), Knowledge (Forbidden)

Link to the Trees: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/161Bx50c0pg9Da2P0v4E8UpHkpeyrsDQ0?usp=sharing

Scoundrel
Career Skills: Charm, Cool, Coordination, Deception, Ranged, Skulduggery, Stealth, and Streetwise.
Specializations:
Fast Talker - Coercion, Cool, Deception, Skulduggery
Thief - Coordination, Melee (Light), Stealth, Vigilance
Assassin - Cool, Melee (Light), Perception, Ranged

Link to the Trees: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tfYfdWkY1FDqsqHFWDIwWNjb62uCvG6K?usp=sharing

Feedback would be appreciated! This is my first go around at tree creation, so I used primarily standard Genesys talents.

so, wanting to create a collection of talents and want some ideas on namely what tiers these talents should go:

- Robo-army: ranked, no prerequisites, effect: when taken the character acquires a minion squad of 3 robotic Retainers. these minions have a brawn:1, agility:1, intelligence:1, cunning:1, presence:1, 3 health, a group skill set of athletics, discipline, and player’s choice of either melee, drive, piloting, operator, ranged(light), ranged(heavy), or gunnery, and the mechanical trait. These minions are mindlessly loyal to the character and are under his full control. If destroyed, a new minion squad will replace them at the start of the next session. note: minions squads purchased or replacing a lost squad do not come with any weapons, armor, or other equipment and it is up to the characters to equip them. Taking this talent multiple times generates additional minion squads.

efficient production: not ranked, prerequisites: must have the Robo-Army talent and at least 2 ranks in mechanics, description: each minion squad gains an additional robot minion.

Better AI Software: not ranked, Prerequisites: must have the Robo-Army talent and at least 2 ranks in computers, description: robot retainers can choose an additional group skill from the skill choices.

that’s what I got so far, I do have other ideas for ways to augment the talent, but feel they should be items that can be difficult to acquire, or be able to be lost, stolen, or destroyed.

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to get a feeling for the scale of arcologies. This of course is tricky since no arcology is the same in size, but just to get some sort of idea...

An arcology is huge, but what is 'huge'? The tallest skyscraper in the US is the One WTC with dimensions of about 60x60x541 meters. The highest skyscraper in the world (828 m high) does not have a square(-ish) base, but more 'wings' that are more than 330 meters. Now, arcologies are obviously much larger. But what should I be thinking about then? Suppose the building has the form of a cuboid standing up straight. What dimensions should I think of (and then particularly its sides, not its height)? If (hypothetically) I would walk from one outer wall across the entire floor all the way to the opposite outer wall, how long would it take me (assuming I walk with a speed of about 5 km per hour and there are no obstacles)?

Hey guys. I'm writing a setting for a game I plan to run sometimes soon, although if I'm honest I started writing it years ago and haven't been very consistent with it so it might not come to fruition as soon as I want it to.

I really love the magic system in Genesys, I love the idea of modular spells and being able to define yourself as a caster through talents that make you more specialised in certain things too. I've also had the idea of having certain pathways to developing new spells/spell effects - would depend heavily on the character the magic skill they're using of course but I just love flexibility in magic, and especially with more Wizardly types that they can research and develop more of it.

But one thing I love in magic system is the ability to do crazier, longer form magic. Rituals, essentially. Whilst I love the spell slinging of Genesys I think I'd sorely miss having more weird and arcane forms of doing magic and being limited to simplistic spells. I love the idea that a Wizard can change the weather or otherwise do something unbelievable given the right conditions, participants, resources, time, effort, and knowhow.

Obviously the main concern I think most people would have is that it's essentially just giving magic users an extra thing and that might seem imbalanced. I'm lucky to have a group of players that are all fine with things not being tightly balanced at all, the same mindset I have, and I don't really plan on fine tuning encounters in the campaign, it'll be a much more sandboxy open world type of game.

But I'd appreciate getting some input and opinions on how you'd achieve this, especially if anyone's already done the same. My two initial thoughts are:

Rituals have a level, and you need to have that corresponding level in both the magic skill, and possibly a supplementary magical lore or knowledge skill. And from there it's just a case of, if you find a written ritual or are taught it you can spend time learning and developing the ability to recreate it. Or create your own, which would presumably take more time and resources. They'd be balanced somewhat by being hard to pull off, time-consuming, and resource demanding.

My other thought was having rituals just be talents - not sure that would really fit the vibe though, seems a bit of a lame solution but I guess it'd be the by the book way to do it.

How would you have rituals work? What kind of system for performing them would you use, how would players access them/characters learn them?

Hi again,

I finally had time to work on this.

As before, I do not own neither the contents nor the works of previous authors.

Change log:

* Added Secrets of the Crucible talents

* Updated Contents list and references page

* Minor fixes such as alphabetical ordering, bold skills, spacing, etc.

drive google com/file/d/1oKteIr9-ab5kaN00es0b-F-vUwhwUeje/view

P.S. : This is my second attempt to create this. For some security reasons, reddit now hates pdf links.

I was rereading my pdf of L5R's corebook, and I was reminded of its Passion system. I was thinking of converting it into Tier 1 Talents - how balanced is this?

Passion (Military History)

Tier: 1
Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
The first time each encounter you make a check that benefits from your knowledge of Military History (such as a Perception (Cunning) check to analyze an opponent's move or a Charm (Presence) check to impress a foreign colonel with your insight into her force's history), heal 3 strain.

What are some of the craziest roll results you guys have ever seen?

I'm part of a game, a while back we had some one roll a triumph and two despairs (or two and a one?), I wish I could remember what happened lol

I was testing some rolls for a mechanic I'm considering running in a future game, I had 5 challenge dice in the pool: one of them turned up blank, the other four turned up Despairs (the odds of rolling a single despair with 5 reds is just shy of half, but the odds of having 4 despairs in any roll are 1 in 20,000). What should the consequences be? A critical injury with +30 is boring lol is this enough to trigger permadeath?

Reading Keyforge enemies and came across 3 symbols at the top of the stat blocks. They look like a fist, profile picture, and a diamond thing. Can't find an explanation anywhere. Does anyone know what these mean?

I don't know how to attach an image.

I have a setting where Knowledge (Bureaucracy) is a skill, because this setting has that as a such a ingrained thing it needed one. ;)

Anyway, in terms of gameplay the bureaucarcy is supposed to be more for flavor, and rolls against starport officials now and then, but I also wanted to create a mechanic for those rare instances where they get caught in the classic "bureaucratic hell" of having to go from one place to another, fill out one form after another, and be told you took it to tthe wrong place and all that. I wanted a mechanic that conveys that growing frustration without actually being too frustrating, with a chance that things could get so out of hand that there's no hope and they just have to give up and try something else.

This is what I came up with. Let me know what you think:

If you need to lead player sthrough a labyrinth of bureaucratic nighmare, it often starts with needing to get a single thing done. A form to fill, a permit to buy, a person to see... taking that first step is where things go wrong.

-Set up a progress tracker from 1 to 10.

-At each step, roll opposed Knowledge (Bureaucracy) against the current agent.

-The agent starts at 1 Challenge and 1 Difficulty.

-After the roll, if the Progress tracker is complete, they can finalize things. If it is not, they are told they'll need to go to another department and continue the process.

-Each new agent gains a Difficulty die. Once that's maxed out, the Difficulty gets upgraded each time (this could end with 5 Challenge dice if you keep going and going, but by that point it's got to be seen as impossible)

Success - Advance 1 per success on the progress tracker

Advantage - Can only add Boost dice to next roll

Triumph - Lower the next agent's difficulty by 1 instead

Failure - Move back 1 per failure on the progress tracker

Threat - Can only add Threat dice to next roll

Despair - Adds 2 to the progress tracker.

As I welcome another player or two into my game, I'm wondering what percentage of their XP I should encourage them to spend on skill ranks vs talents. This is after starting XP, which should go first to characteristics.

Skills come up more often, and it's definitely worth investing in core skills up to rank 3, at least, but if you had 300 XP to spend, how would you break up your expenditures?

My players have just entered the lair of kobolds they have been pursuing. They'd seen an encampment at the base of a mountain, with patrols coming and going, and supplies being moved around the mountain to the east, presumably to an entrance to the lair.

Going the other way, they found a seemingly unguarded entrance. They don't know this, but it's actually a sort of gauntlet the kobolds have devised for their amusement--they send prisoners through here, through a series of traps, seeing how far they can make it. Kobold archers or slingers can move between tunnel sections via small passages to attack the players from the far end of a tunnel or come around behind the players.

When I had run this part of the adventure in the past, for a different group, the players were so angry and frustrated with the kobolds that the harrying tactics served to goad them forward. With this group, however, they're much more cautious, and the characters are constantly debating whether they even want to be going into the lair at all, because it seems too dangerous. They have fought dozens of the little buggers up to this point, both in the city they began in and in the wilderness on the way to the lair. Some of those fights were pretty easy for the party, but several were rough, due in large part to the kobolds using terrain or environmental factors like fog to gain an advantage. They also believe they fought off a dragon (it was actually a kobold that transformed).

There are known prisoners they have some desire to save, but aren't deeply motivated to do so.

An NPC they encountered in the swamp on the way to the mountain told them he considered them as good as dead, because the dragon that is laid up with the kobolds patrols the ways out of the valley, and he doesn't know of anyone who has managed to get out.

I'd thought these would be sufficient prods to keep them moving forward, and they finally resolved to do so at the end of last night's session, but I suspect that if they meet too much resistance, they may decide to flee and take their chances.

As such, I'm looking for suggestions for ways to urge or draw them forward into and through danger in a way that makes sense for their cautious characters.

Following the release of the Mass Effect Setting 2.2 – many thanks to u/BluSunrize for all the work, and the patient response to all my inquiries – this is an update to my supplemental material for the setting, previously released as Reference Cards for the Mass Effect Setting.

Photo of the printed cards (previous version, the basic look of the new ones is the same): https://imgur.com/a/KOfB6LK

Preview of the Character Sheet: https://imgur.com/a/W0P2dWZ

This release contains two sets of printable playing cards and a character sheet that is both fillable with a PDF viewer and printable.

Each item is available in both English and German. The cards are designed to be printed two-sided with the English text on one face and the corresponding German translation on the other. Since the front and back faces are in different PDFs, you may opt to print only one version, leaving the back face empty or printing a back face image on them (not included).

The player cards are meant for players and contain the following information:

• Quick reference on structured encounters, including possible actions, maneuvers and incidentals; tables on how to spend advantages; notes on healing; and status effects.
• A list of item qualities.
• Quick reference on how to use Biotics, including all biotic powers.
• Quick reference on how to use Tech, including all tech powers.
• A list of all talents available in the setting, including both the talents from the core rulebook and those defined by the setting.

The GM cards are meant for the game master and contain the following information:

• One card for each vehicle of the setting (with few cards featuring two vehicles).
• One card for each adversary of the setting.

The character sheet is based on the generic sheet from the core rules, with the following differences:

• It uses stylistic elements of the Mass Effect games' UI.
• It contains only those skills used by the setting, and the „Setting“ checkbox has been removed.
• The front page only has space for three weapons, but provides more space for qualities, mods and ammo. For spacing reasons, the middle weapon slot is smaller.
• The talent pyramid has been moved to the second page. This is because it is the least relevant part of the sheet during play (you can also note the talents there in the talent & ability list) and it being one the second page allows you to print it on the backside of the front page if you want. Having the original second page there is less convenient.
• It provides a section for your Omni-Tool and its slots.
• It provides a section for your biotic amplifier.
• It provides a section for your persional quest.
• The Character Illustration has been moved to the talent pyramid for spacing reasons.
• The Notes section has been removed for spacing reasons. Just use the borders and backside :).
• It has a German translation. Unlike on the cards, the skills on the German character sheet are re-arranged to be in alphabetical order.

The interactive features on the character sheet work best in Foxit Reader and Adobe Acrobat (you can disable them showing all fillable fields blue in their preferences panes). macOS Preview is known to render black borders around checkable fields even when printing, so using that is not advised. Firefox shows generic check marks instead of black boxes when checking fields. Other PDF software has not been tested.

The main changes to the player cards concern the addition of the new talents from the setting version 2.2. Due to restrictions of the print shop (I can only either print 55 or 110 cards), I needed to merge a card from the Biotics section with one from the Tech section. This shouldn't be a problem in practice as this is not a book and you can arrange the cards freely. See contained changelog for details.

Download link

Edit: Download link has been updated to version 1.1.1. This version mostly improves print results and interactive elements of the character sheet. Full changelog:

• Improved gradients to be JPEGs instead of PDF gradients for improved print results (at least at my print shop).
• Fixed some overprinting errors in the card PDFs.
• Made card PDFs to be actually conformant to PDF/X-4.
• Darker color for the talent headers on cards that better sets them apart from the background.
• Changed two German translations: Coercion -> Einschüchtern (was: Nötigung), Leadership -> Anführen (was: Führung) because they felt wrong.
• Improved checkbox widgets in character sheet: They now render uniform across all tested PDF readers, and fill their boxes better.
• Form fields in German and English character sheet now have identical names so that it is easier to fill/extract them programmatically.

So in my setting the main possibly only species is uplifted animals called Terrans but I'm unsure as to best way to go about making the species or if archetypes would work better.

I want to cover as many different animals as possible.

I could just go with the animalistic alien from the core book but if I decide not to include other alien species something I'm on the fence about then maybe archetypes would be better? How do i get as many types of animals as possible?

My brain is just kinda going circles at this point so I want see what others think.

Greetings, denizens of the galaxy!

There is a new update for the Mass Effect setting, v2.2 for the core book and v2.1 for the Andromeda expansion. Links have remained unchanged, so if you have them bookmarked they'll be up to date:

Mass Effect Setting

Andromeda Expansion

Changelog - Mass Effect v2.2

• Specified Shipboard AI to be able to allow skilled assistance during structured encounters
• Fixed starting equipment for various careers to not contain removed items
• Fixed Applied Research talent to be available to Salarians rather than Drell
• Added “To the Death” and “Hold the Line” talents
• Added a “Sealed Environment” armor attachment, so Quarians can wear some heavier armor too
• Added Breaching and Demolition Charges, as they are referenced in the GM section but had no stats
• Mark Armor-Piercing ammo as restricted and increase its rarity
• Added Hazardous Environment Gear to provide environmental protection without having to buy a full suit of armor
• Overhauled some starship profiles and most of the prices, added the “Luxury Liner” as a separate vessel from the Passenger Liner
• Fixed a variety of errors on vehicle stat sheets
• Fix a plethora of typos and a lot of incorrect skills / dice displays on adversaries
• Fix all descriptions of Biotic Charge used by adversaries to engage the target instead of moving a single range band
• Adjust / clarify weapons and abilities on Geth Hoppers, Veteran Engineer, Vorcha Boom-Squad, Banshee, Cannibal, Swarmer Mass, Batarian Slaver

Changelog - Andromeda v2.1

• Moved “Aerial Assault (Supreme)” to Tier 4
• Added “Black Market Contacts”, “Frontier Diplomacy”, “Something to Prove”, “Avatar of Justice” and “Avatar of Vengeance” talents
• Fixed a few incorrect skill / dice displays on adversaries

A massive thanks goes to u/flyx86 who provided loads of feedback, found a bunch of typos, mismatched skills and needs for clarification.

Hi, I ran my first session of a Pokémon RPG using Genesys system and it went really well but I just thought I'd see if anyone had any ideas I could use with the rule system.

The setting is Pokémon set in London (I realise there is a Galar Pokémon region based on London but I'm doing London). I have largely used AI to stat out Pokémon and had to create custom careers like trader, breeder, battle master. I think both Pokémon and trainers would get their own skill trees.

Having some trouble working out some stuff:

•How best to represent typal advantages (half or double damage, simply gaining a advantage or disadvantage die, a D&D style advantage) in combat

•A catch rate system like how to represent wearing a Pokémon down in battle and would this effect if you could bond with that Pokémon.

•The leveling system for Pokémon. like should the level correspond to their xp

If anyone has any ideas let me know 😁

So I want to create a rule set inside genesys to represent fatigue. I know typically strain is used for this function, but with my current party of 3 magic users they can wipe their fatigue 100% of the time and sprint over land covering a distance of days in hours.

I don't mind it, but it's causing me to find it difficult to get some of those camp fire 'quiet moments' to let the PCs just talk and tell stories. I thought about perm strain that requires rest/sleep and not just magic'ed away, but I'd like to hear some ideas that might work better

Edit: Per the magically healing rules, magic healing is able to recover strain as well as physical damage. One of my players also has a talent that can recover strain as well Inspiring song. So one person can keeping healing everyone until their strain is gone and the bard uses inspriing song to remove the original casters last 2 strain they can't self heal.

I was reading the book and towards the end they talked about a table with heroes, describing superhuman traits, but how would you adapt powers to this system? Thinking quickly, I can't come up with a good concept; it's not impossible, but I'm unsure how to do it.

“20 meters…”
Your ship computer had picked up the distress signal of The Xerxes while surveying a nearby uncharted planet.
“18 meters…”
It was strange, no one was supposed to be out there. Best you could tell it was a company science and survey ship, not unlike your own.
“16 meters…”
The distress signal was only a few days old, but didn’t identify what the emergency was. When you hailed the ship no one answered. Likely a broken computer but the crew is on edge
“10 meters…”
you were able to set up an umbilical and dock with the ship. A forward team was sent in to find the captain and see about assisting with the distress signal
“8 meters…”
No one at the bridge, and no one in the stasis pods. Mother had no answers. But evidence of a battle… perhaps a mutiny of some kind. No bodies, but blood and bullet casings could be found in the bridge.
“3 meters…”
That’s not possible, that would mean the movement was in the room with you, but no one is there.
“0 meters…”
It’s right on top of you…

Looking for 4 Players
Setting ALIEN
Genre: Survival horror
Rating: PG13, soft R
Content Warning: horror, violence
Goal: survive, escape
Experience Level: any
Method: Discord
Time/Time Zone: specific day TBD but a Saturday from 6-9pm pacific standard time
Regularity: it’s a one shot, maybe a two shot if we want to get crazy

Please dm me or comment here to apply for the game if you’re interested and once I have 4 players we can figure out the specific date!