[Update] Mass Effect AGE Revised 1.03

[Estoirtoh]

Hello, folks and fellows ...
The last days and nights I've been working on a revised edition of exhominem's Mass Effect AGE (Click). In the light of Mass Effect 3 and some other stuff, that exhominem might not have had access to, I added some fluff, more backgrounds, classes, some more talents, a whole chapter on biotics and tech abilities and an expanded equipment chapter. I've also changed some mechanics, that in my eyes did not fit the Mass Effect universe, but I've also kept some of his ideas in my version.

The piece is now ready for viewing. Please feel free to view, download and share. And please leave any suggestions in this thread or send me a PM.

Greetings

Version history:

• Release 1.0
• 1.01
• 1.02
• 1.03

Following Shepard:

• Part I: The SSV Normandy SR-1

Other material:

• Character Sheet (by ReaperX5)

[Woodclaw]

I just checked the original document and I really liked it. I hope to see your version very soon.

[Sidmen]

I would just like to mention that you are now to be hated, by everyone, everywhere.

After seeing your original document I was "inspired" (more like cursed) to emulate it with my own changes to the system. Now, I'm 30 pages into re-writing the core Dragon Age book into a Mass-Effect clone pretending to be a generic Space AGE game...

[Estoirtoh]

Heh, I thought something like that might happen, so I decided to post this preview. Anyways - the document is up and ready for viewing (Link in the first post). Have fun, and please feel free to leave any suggestions or any grammar or spelling errors you find as a comment in this thread. Sidmen, I'd be especially happy to hear from you - perhaps we could combine some of our efforts.

So long.

[Saisei]

Looks good. A Couple of things:

• You spelled Archaeology wrong
  
• Gun Focuses: Don't really understand the logic behind the gun forcuses. The Sniper Rifle being Perception I can kind of get but I really don't understand why Strength would help you to aim better with a Shotgun or Assault Rifle. Curious as to why you changed it from Dexterity to aim and Perception for Damage.
  
• You could probably make Bypassing and Hacking the same Focus. I know they're two separate thing sin the game but they're pretty similar, especially in tabletop terms.
  
• You spelled Strength wrong on the Batarian table.
  
• Drell: I wouldn't give Drell the chpice of Willpower (Memory) as a focus. Instead I'd say "You are a Drell and therefore have perfect recollection. You automatically succeed any Willpower (Memory) tests."
  
  I don't thing a bonus to Constitution fits for the Drell, I think Strength instead. From the wiki:
  
  

  Drell appearance is very similar to asari and humans, but their muscle tissue is slightly denser, giving them a wiry strength.

  
  
  And...
  
  

  Because the drell ancestors emerged from arid, rocky deserts, the humid, ocean-covered hanar homeworld of Kahje proved tolerable only when the drell stayed inside a climate-controlled dome city.

  
  
  So they haven't actually adapted really. They still have to live in a protected city, similar to how Quarians have to stay in their suits.
  
• Humans: Earthborn - It feels like they should get a bonus to Dexterity instead of Strength for having to be sly. But either works.
  
• You spelled Strength wrong in the Earthborn benefits.
  
• You spelled Strength wrong on the Krogan table.
  
  

- I kind of just skimmed the rest after the backgrounds but it looks good. I have to say really really impressive stuff, especially with the amount of work put in. Great stuff

[Estoirtoh]

Looks good. A Couple of things:

• You spelled Archaeology wrong
  
  I'm currently on vacation and only took the .pdf with me to upload. I'll fix the spelling errors as soon as I get home. And yeah, my english spelling kind of sucks
  
  
• Gun Focuses: Don't really understand the logic behind the gun forcuses. The Sniper Rifle being Perception I can kind of get but I really don't understand why Strength would help you to aim better with a Shotgun or Assault Rifle. Curious as to why you changed it from Dexterity to aim and Perception for Damage.
  
  The thought that occured to me, when taking strength as the weapon ability for assault rifles and shotguns was, that you don't really carefully aim with those, and the focus should be on holding the weapon steady, firing a burst of bullets and hope one of those hits (I've never held a rifle or a shotgun in real life though, so I might be wrong with that). So in order to hold it steady, you'd need to be stronger to counter the backstroke.
  
  
• You could probably make Bypassing and Hacking the same Focus. I know they're two separate thing sin the game but they're pretty similar, especially in tabletop terms.
  
  You're right about that, I'll think about it.
  
  
• You spelled Strength wrong on the Batarian table.
  
• Drell: I wouldn't give Drell the chpice of Willpower (Memory) as a focus. Instead I'd say "You are a Drell and therefore have perfect recollection. You automatically succeed any Willpower (Memory) tests."
  
  I don't thing a bonus to Constitution fits for the Drell, I think Strength instead. From the wiki:
  
  

  Drell appearance is very similar to asari and humans, but their muscle tissue is slightly denser, giving them a wiry strength.

  
  
  And...
  
  

  Because the drell ancestors emerged from arid, rocky deserts, the humid, ocean-covered hanar homeworld of Kahje proved tolerable only when the drell stayed inside a climate-controlled dome city.

  
  
  So they haven't actually adapted really. They still have to live in a protected city, similar to how Quarians have to stay in their suits.
  
  Good point with the background ability bonus. I'll change that in the next version. I'll stick to the Willpower (Memory) focus though because of gameplay reasons. A Willpower (Memory) roll should be called, if the player actually forgot something important that the character should know. Giving the character the ability to automatically remember anything the players ever learned can be quite gamebreaking. I've experienced that from rolemaster, where an ability called 'Total Recall' exists, which just gives you a +100 bonus on memory rolls (Rolemaster is a d100 system) basically making every memory roll succeed.
  
  
• Humans: Earthborn - It feels like they should get a bonus to Dexterity instead of Strength for having to be sly. But either works.
  
• You spelled Strength wrong in the Earthborn benefits.
  
• You spelled Strength wrong on the Krogan table.

- I kind of just skimmed the rest after the backgrounds but it looks good. I have to say really really impressive stuff, especially with the amount of work put in. Great stuff

I have also noticed, that the Earthborn Under Class may choose the Dexterity (Hacking) focus. This is, of course, an error and will be changed to Tech (Hacking).

Edit: Another major error I noticed: Whenever a background says "Pick a class: Soldier" it should state "Pick a class: combat" instead.

[Woodclaw]

I just skimmed through the document, but the work is really impressive. Most impressive for me because I was working on something similar and many solution you used are exactly the same as mine.

Gun Focuses: Don't really understand the logic behind the gun forcuses. The Sniper Rifle being Perception I can kind of get but I really don't understand why Strength would help you to aim better with a Shotgun or Assault Rifle. Curious as to why you changed it from Dexterity to aim and Perception for Damage.

Shotguns and Assault Rifles are recoil-heavy weapons. The biggest problem when firing is keeping them lined properly with the target and counter the barrel climb, using Strength makes a certain amount of sense.

You could probably make Bypassing and Hacking the same Focus. I know they're two separate thing sin the game but they're pretty similar, especially in tabletop terms.

Seconded.

Drell: I wouldn't give Drell the chpice of Willpower (Memory) as a focus. Instead I'd say "You are a Drell and therefore have perfect recollection. You automatically succeed any Willpower (Memory) tests."

In this sense it might appropriate to give each race a small bonus (e.g. Krogans can survive longer without food or water).

I don't thing a bonus to Constitution fits for the Drell, I think Strength instead. From the wiki:

Drell appearance is very similar to asari and humans, but their muscle tissue is slightly denser, giving them a wiry strength.

And...

Because the drell ancestors emerged from arid, rocky deserts, the humid, ocean-covered hanar homeworld of Kahje proved tolerable only when the drell stayed inside a climate-controlled dome city.

So they haven't actually adapted really. They still have to live in a protected city, similar to how Quarians have to stay in their suits.

Again seconded.

[Lynata]

Shotguns and Assault Rifles are recoil-heavy weapons. The biggest problem when firing is keeping them lined properly with the target and counter the barrel climb, using Strength makes a certain amount of sense.

That's assuming these guns actually have high recoil. Weapons in the ME setting work by using electromagnetic mass acceleration instead of the "controlled explosions" we use today, which would make for a far more efficient means of delivering damage - as long as the projectile size is kept small enough and launch velocity doesn't exceed a certain threshold...
http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Mass_accelerator#Mass_Accelerators
http://science.howstuffworks.com/rail-gun3.htm

It may also be worth considering that we've made notable advances in recoil negation in contemporary arms already, even aside from the sci-fi mass effect fields mentioned in the games.

I suppose it's also there to make Strength as a stat more important, though. However, in that case I'd rather suggest just keeping STR a minimum requirement for safely using the various guns (like it works with melee weapons in DA) instead of using it to affect aim/damage, applying the usual penalties for when the requirement isn't met but sticking to Dexterity or Perception when it comes to attack/damage rolls.

As a sidenote, a standard M8 Avenger assault rifle to require exactly as much strength as a 39 kilogram Widow sniper rifle - which is said to have required the Asari Commandos who use them to undergo cybernetic surgery - is something I'd find difficult to comprehend.

Just my two credits on the subject. Reading all this is very inspiring, and my own group has been toying with the idea of a Mass Effect P&P as well.

[Estoirtoh]

Version 1.01 is now finished. Get it here.

Changes:

• Strength (Assault Rifles) is now Perception (Assault Rifles). Assault Rifles are weapons with longer range and thus need good aim to hit a target.
• Dexterity (Pistols) is now Perception (Pistols). Pistols are close range weapons, but they can fire only one shot at a time. This shot needs to be well placed.
• Strength (Shotguns) is now Dexterity (Shotguns). Shotguns are close range weapons, and the carrier needs good handling to use them.
• Hacking and Bypassing are now the same focus. The Electronics talent has been changed accordingly.
• Drell now gain +1 Strength instead of +1 Constitution.
• Reworked weapon strength requirements. Heavy Weapons now have a strength requirement the carrier must meet to use them at all. Omni-Blades no longer have a strength requirement.
• Fixed some spelling errors.
• Backgrounds which had access to the Soldier class now have access to the Combat class.

[Woodclaw]

Version 1.01 is now finished. Get it here.

Changes:

• Strength (Assault Rifles) is now Perception (Assault Rifles). Assault Rifles are weapons with longer range and thus need good aim to hit a target.
• Dexterity (Pistols) is now Perception (Pistols). Pistols are close range weapons, but they can fire only one shot at a time. This shot needs to be well placed.
• Strength (Shotguns) is now Dexterity (Shotguns). Shotguns are close range weapons, and the carrier needs good handling to use them.
• Hacking and Bypassing are now the same focus. The Electronics talent has been changed accordingly.
• Drell now gain +1 Strength instead of +1 Constitution.
• Reworked weapon strength requirements. Heavy Weapons now have a strength requirement the carrier must meet to use them at all. Omni-Blades no longer have a strength requirement.
• Fixed some spelling errors.
• Backgrounds which had access to the Soldier class now have access to the Combat class.

I just skipped through the changes, but they look pretty good at first glance.

If you're interested I'm working on different versions of some Talents, I'll post them when they are ready.

[Estoirtoh]

Sure, go ahead

[Woodclaw]

Ok Estoirtoh, I've done some checks and run a test session and I think that there are some things ideas I can put on the table.

First of all the doubts

• There's one thing unclear about how the various training talents works, are they restricted to single kind of weapons or not? For example if I have sniper training, can I apply the double aim bonus to any gun or only to sniper rifles? I think that this part deserve some clarification
• The cooldown times for biotic and tech powers are need some clarification too. You should include at the beginning of the power section a line or two saying that the cooldown depends from the omni-tool/implants used by the character.
• On the same subject, the cooldown times are horribly long, some of my players observed that with the present set of rule you are forced to buy high level implants/omni-tools from the start. Perhaps revisioning them might be in order

As far as suggestion goes I have a couple.

• The Regular level of assault training seem a little lacking to me perhaps you can change it with something like this
  

  You have learned how to properly shoulder your assault rifle and fire tight concentrated bursts. When executing the Burst Fire action you can elect to spend only 3 shots or reduce the penality to -2.

• One of my player suggested that having the Synthetics talent should affect the duration of the Drone power. Personally I'm not sure about this, but perhaps having the Veteran or Expert level adding a bonus might be in order

As for the rest I'm still testing I hope to come back with some more ideas soon.

[Estoirtoh]

First of all, let me thank you for your feedback and for the testing of the system. I really appreciate it. Now let me get to your points ..

Ok Estoirtoh, I've done some checks and run a test session and I think that there are some things ideas I can put on the table.

First of all the doubts

• There's one thing unclear about how the various training talents works, are they restricted to single kind of weapons or not? For example if I have sniper training, can I apply the double aim bonus to any gun or only to sniper rifles? I think that this part deserve some clarification.
  
  You are right about that. The training talents only affect certain weapon groups. (Assault Training = Assault Rifles; Close-Quarters Training = Omni-blades, Shotguns, Brawling; Gunslinger = Pistols, Sub-Machine Guns; Omni-Blade Savant = Omni-Blades; Sniper Training = Sniper Rifles). The exception to that rule is the Close-Quarters Training (Regular) level, as it improves your charge action - and it wouldn't really make sense that you can charge faster only with shotguns and not with, say, pistols. I will address this in the next update.
  
  
• The cooldown times for biotic and tech powers are need some clarification too. You should include at the beginning of the power section a line or two saying that the cooldown depends from the omni-tool/implants used by the character.
  
  Good point. This will be added in the next update.
  
  
• On the same subject, the cooldown times are horribly long, some of my players observed that with the present set of rule you are forced to buy high level implants/omni-tools from the start. Perhaps revisioning them might be in order
  
  Now, I've run a few test fights between a Soldier and an Adept, a Soldier and an Engineer, and and Adept and an Engineer (on level 1). The results actually showed, that the issue is a bit more complicated. In about every scenario the Soldier ended up squashing everything in a couple of rounds. If I lower the cooldown on the amps, that will certainly help to balance this out, but I don't know if it's enough. I need to be done carefully though, because otherwise I suppose that power users will become extremely strong in comparison to soldiers, once they start to level up their powers. If someone has suggestions on this, feel free to comment.

As far as suggestion goes I have a couple.

• The Regular level of assault training seem a little lacking to me perhaps you can change it with something like this
  

  You have learned how to properly shoulder your assault rifle and fire tight concentrated bursts. When executing the Burst Fire action you can elect to spend only 3 shots or reduce the penality to -2.

  
  
  Personally, I think reloading a weapon as a free action is a very viable trait, but I will give it a thought.
  
  
• One of my player suggested that having the Synthetics talent should affect the duration of the Drone power. Personally I'm not sure about this, but perhaps having the Veteran or Expert level adding a bonus might be in order

I think the Synthetics talent is very versitaile as it is. On (Expert) level, you will have a mobile platform to spy and scout, to perform any Tech tests within 50y of yourself, even in areas your character might not be safe to travel, and it basically increases the range of one of your Tech abilities by 50 yards as well.

As for the rest I'm still testing I hope to come back with some more ideas soon.

Some other issues will be adressed in the next update as well (minor errors which might have let to confusion, a bit of balancing).

[Raphaquina]

My 2c about cooldowns: make them equal to dragon die. And gear change it by "dragon die +-1 to +-2".

[Woodclaw]

First of all, let me thank you for your feedback and for the testing of the system. I really appreciate it.

You're welcome

On the same subject, the cooldown times are horribly long, some of my players observed that with the present set of rule you are forced to buy high level implants/omni-tools from the start. Perhaps revisioning them might be in order

Now, I've run a few test fights between a Soldier and an Adept, a Soldier and an Engineer, and and Adept and an Engineer (on level 1). The results actually showed, that the issue is a bit more complicated. In about every scenario the Soldier ended up squashing everything in a couple of rounds. If I lower the cooldown on the amps, that will certainly help to balance this out, but I don't know if it's enough. I need to be done carefully though, because otherwise I suppose that power users will become extremely strong in comparison to soldiers, once they start to level up their powers. If someone has suggestions on this, feel free to comment.

The Regular level of assault training seem a little lacking to me perhaps you can change it with something like this

You have learned how to properly shoulder your assault rifle and fire tight concentrated bursts. When executing the Burst Fire action you can elect to spend only 3 shots or reduce the penality to -2.

Personally, I think reloading a weapon as a free action is a very viable trait, but I will give it a thought.

Actually as of the current version the Regular level of Assault Training gave the character the double Aim bonus with Assault Rifles.
Reloading for free is the Veteran level.

One of my player suggested that having the Synthetics talent should affect the duration of the Drone power. Personally I'm not sure about this, but perhaps having the Veteran or Expert level adding a bonus might be in order

I think the Synthetics talent is very versitaile as it is. On (Expert) level, you will have a mobile platform to spy and scout, to perform any Tech tests within 50y of yourself, even in areas your character might not be safe to travel, and it basically increases the range of one of your Tech abilities by 50 yards as well.

As I said I'm not sure about this part. Synthtics is a quite powerful effect, but I think that Drone might lack some punch.



Also another thing that I noticed, in ME Age there is one more trait respect to the base rules. SO it might be worth to do some math to revise the point-buy system from set 2.

[Estoirtoh]

Version 1.02 is here. Take a look at it and leave a comment.

• Power users have been buffed: Adepts, Engineers, Infiltators, Sentinels have recieved a health buff to make them less squishy. Adepts also recieved a minor shield buff. Vanguard's health has been raised to be more in line with the soldier. Adepts and Engineers now may choose three powers instead of two at level 1.
• Reworked Omni-Tools and Bio-amps: The cooldowns are now much lower, the curve from longest to shortest cooldown has been flattened out. These tools now focus on giving boni to your casting roll.
• Added a clarification on leveling up: Should have been in v1.0 already, I can't believe I've overlooked this.
• Added clarifications on some talents, specificially regarding the 'training' talents.
• Fixed some minor issues (typos, wrong foci at some places, et cetera)

[Allensh]

How do you download this?

Allen

[Estoirtoh]

In the upper left corner, click on 'File' then 'Download'. Or press CTRL + S (pop-ups have to be allowed).

[seppun1]

Wow! You guys have done an incredible job on this! I have been wanting a Mass Effect rpg for a long time. Besides some spelling mistakes, I'm not seeing any problems so far. I do think the equipment might be a little underpriced. Have you looked in the official game guides for some of the information? While they might not have the prices, they do have information on companies. Sadly, my Xbox is fried right now, so I can't just go into the game and get prices from the source itself.

I really can see potential for adding more to this. If you use the Dragon Age book as an example, you can add a starting setting (besides starting on the Citadel or Omega.) Say if you want the book to focus on before Mass Effect 1, you can have a planet or station in the Attican Traverse. The bad guys can be anything from Batarian slavers to a small pirate fleet disrupting planets in the local cluster.

For ships, I think the game should take the route that Eclipse Phase went. Ships are a setting with very minimal stats to be concerned about. The game seem to use the a lot of the same ships to represent racial fleets. (For example an Earth Alliance carrier looks like a standard cruiser.) To be honest, it looks like the Turian cruiser was the standard ship of the galaxy. Anyway, for something that might require more detail stats are the vehicles such as the Mako, the ET3, the Hammerhead, the Mantis, Aircars...etc. These vehicles were involved in a lot of the games combat.

I certainly can think of more backgrounds that can be added. Like CSec, Shadow Broker agent, Corporate agent (if you remember Gianna Parasini), Special Task Group agent. That is just off the top of my head. Plus, don't forget about Elcor and Hanar! Who knows, maybe someone out there might actually wants to play Blasto! Oh and the Geth! I can certainly see them being at least someones adversaries. You can also add Varren and Klixen. (Even Pyjaks if some GM wants to antagonize his party with them.)

Anyway, I will stop rambling now. I just want to say, excellent job and I am looking forward to more!

[Estoirtoh]

Hello,

First of all let me thank you for your input. It is very much appreciated.

Concerning credits: This is still in a phase of balancing, so no numbers in the document are set in stone and can change over time. If it turns out the equipment is too cheap, I'll raise the price in the rules. Suffice to say that, just as any P&P rulesbook, these are more guidelines. If you run a MEAGE campagin as a GM and feel equpiment is too cheap, it is certainly within your possibilities to raise the price.

If settings or maybe even example adventures will be added will be thought about once the mechanics are all polished up. The same goes for things as space combat or vehicle combat, though I already have some ideas in mind for those specific matters. For the time being, I can wholeheartedly recommend the Mass Effect Wiki to you as a source of information for your upcoming adventures.

CSec, Shadow Broker agent, Corporate agent, Spectre et cetera., are professions to be achieved, not actual backgrounds - you aren't born as a CSec officer. You become one, similiar as how you become a Grey Warden in the Dragon Age system. You don't start out as one, but a struggle to join their ranks can definately be one of your character's motivations. Information about group benifits and criteria to join, as well as information about the specific groups will certainly be added in an update. I thought about adding Elcor and Hanar in version 1.0 but then I couldn't come up with backgrounds that fit into the overall picture but would do credit to the specific traits of those species.

[seppun1]

Doh!! I am sorry about the confusions between backgrounds and professions.

I usually visit the Mass Effect wiki quite regularly. I look over the planets section every time. Sorry, you had difficulty with the Hanar and Elcor. A picture of the two....hmm.. You are a Hanar. You are standing in the Presidium and you see a group talking near a terminal. You float over and introduce yourself and start to speak to them about the wisdom of the Enkindlers. Or You are an Elcor. You stand in the tall grass of a brand new Elcor colony in the Terminus Systems. Your thoughts are distracted by explosions as Vorcha raiders come to steal what is yours. You lumber back to the village proper. Loading up a weapon's platform onto your broad shoulders. You stomp out towards the attackers, the VI targeting your canon to mow them down.

Anyway, thank you for putting this out. Keep up the good work!

[Estoirtoh]

It took a while but version 1.03 is here. Take a look at the changelog to see what new and exciting stuff is in it.

• Added levels 6-10 for all classes.
• Added speciliaziations for all classes.
• Changed benefit 3-4 on the Colonist additional benefits table from Tech (Engineering) to Constitution (Stamina).
• Adepts and Engineers no longer get the assault rifle weapon group, unless specified so by a class power.
• Changed the Talents background colour from red to light green to prevent confusion over them belonging to a certain class (since red is the colour of the Combat classes).
• Changed the Telekinesis (Veteran) from +1 to your dragon die when casting Telekinesis powers to +1 when generating stunt points through casting Telekinesis powers.
• Changed the Strength requirements of the assault rifle weapons from 0, 1, 1, 2 to 0, 1, 2, 3.
• Adjusted weapon, armor and item prices.
• SP cost of Threatening Fire increased from 2 to 3.
• The Sentinel class may no longer choose the Slam power. Sentinels now have access to the Barrier power in return.
• The stat used to determine the difficulty of a saving throw vs. Tech and Biotic powers is now known as Tech blast or Biotic blast.

[Estoirtoh]

New Content! This is the first part of a series I call 'Following Shepard'. I will gradually work the places Shepard visits and the characters he meets into the MEAGE system and then throw it at you. First stop: The Normandy - containing lore information on the ships technology, rules for space combat with capital class ships and fighter craft and ingame-statistics for Captain Anderson, Kaidan Alenko, Joker and Dr. Chakwas. Get it here.

Next in line: The planet where it all began - Eden Prime.

[Estoirtoh]

No feedback at all?

[Woodclaw]

No feedback at all?

Right now I have almost no time to answer, since I'm wrapped into too many projects at once. Also I'm not a big fan of having the stats of each character aimply because my idea can be radically different (e.g. why is Anderson only Lv5? I thought he would be a little higher).