Burning Wheel Space Opera

[Tuomas Lempiäinen]

Hello everyone, my first post here.

I'm a BW newbie about to start my very first campaign. The campaign is something of a space fantasy or space opera. I intend to use the BW rules for most things straight out of the book but I need rules for firearm, force fields, shields, all sorts of scifi energy guns and space ship. Basicly all scifi stuff needs to be defined.

My aim is not to be strictly realistic. I'm looking for believable things that are fun in the game, not too gritty realism. The grittiness will come from the setting.

I have done some thinking of my own but I thought that I'd ask around if anyone would have suggestions or ready material they are willing to share. Also if someone happens to have lifepaths for scifi settings or some insights to their design, I would greatly appriciate it.

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.


Tuomas Lempiäinen

[luke]

space opera? as in Star Wars-style?

Simplest way to do it is change names and leave everything else the same--damage, mechanics, points, etc.

Swords become monofilament blades
Bows become blasters
Rigging becomes Piloting
Navigation becomes Astrogation
Nobles become Imperials or Republicans
Seafarers become Spacers
Faith becomes Force

also, check out my take on some BW firearms (http://www.burningwheel.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=259&highlight=firearms)

Welcome, Tuomas! I hope that helps.
-L

[Tuomas Lempiäinen]

Yes, that is one way but I had thought that I would have blasters, monofilament blades and good old swords. My ideas definately include Star Wars with swashbuckling action but I also had thought of Dune.

Soldiers have personal shields that are effective against high speed projectiles/particles/whatever. This makes melee weapons like swords useful since they can penetrate the shields and with all that technology backing them cut through regular armor as well. Another thing is that I want civilized men to solve their disputes with duels. Duels need swords.

Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention is that I plan to set the campaign some time after a long and bloody civil war. Huge empire was torn to pieces with all sorts of little kingdoms and alliances forming around the galaxy. As a side effect of the war much of the highest tech was lost or became hideously expensive to manufacture. Fading Suns comes to mind now that I think about it.

The fireams stuff looks good. I think I'll put them to good use.

How about vehicles? Are there any vehicle rules for BW? Especially vehicle combat rules, I'd like to see space battles. Or could I make up something from the regular combat rules? Make the ships the characters and script their combat? Has anyone tried?

I've been planning to include lots of traveling around in the galaxy Star Wars style were the heroes travel across half the galaxy in every occasion and find numerous exotic locations.

All lifepaths look like a lot of work but perhaps you are right and I can get everything from the published material and simply change the names. I'll have to look into it But not right now, it is about 2.40 AM when I'm writing this.

Thanks for pointing out the fireams topic. :D

Tuomas Lempiäinen

[luke]

Hi Tuomas,

I'm afraid you aren't going to like my answers...

Why have a regular sword in an SF game?

Shields and all that goodness... Well, you're just going to have to wait until the revision is published and Thor, Dro and I release our Burning Sands mini-supplement.

Also, Dune's great because you never have to worry about space travel and piloting. The Spacer's Guild takes care of all that -- player characters simply pay/barter for passage.

I know none of that is terribly helpful, but I just wanted you to know you're not alone in your daydreaming!

-L

[Thor Olavsrud]

Hi Tuomas and welcome!

Luke, Dro and I were kicking around some ideas for a Dune-like setting, but it hasn't really gotten past the "talking about it" stage.

For some rough ideas of how to approach stuff:
Vehicle combat: check out the Mounted combat section of Burning Wheel, and also download the Mount Burner from the Web site. A car isn't a horse, of course, but you can get an idea for how to handle cars and space fighters and stuff by looking at those rules. Just like horses, the car/ship moves the action AFTER you give it a driving "command." You definitely need to think ahead when driving/flying.

For Dune-like shields: Give 'em a rating in dice (say 3). These are automatic "block" successes that your opponent has to overcome when he attacks you. If you script block, your block successes add to the shield successes. Personally, since it's in the source material, I would say that the shield dice do not apply to a properly scripted feint! Also, a shield-fighter needs to have a Shield Fighting training to both utilize a shield and fight effectively against shield-users. If you don't have the Shield Fighting ability, you have an additional +1 Ob when fighting a shield-user, and your opponent still gets his shield successes when you script a Feint!

[Kublai]

Any vehicular combat an easily be ported from the forthcoming Range and Cover rules which will be featured in the Revision. I think that those rules actually were inspired by our own attempts at creating a Star Wars conversion!

[Tuomas Lempiäinen]

Thanks everyone, I'll have to see what I can come up with. I think I'll discuss this with my players. It is entirely possible that I end up running Star Wars with BW rules.

It certainly looks like the Revision is going to include lots of goodies that are worth waiting.

Tuomas Lempiäinen