FTL: Tabletop Edition

>>51728627
>How would you run an FTL game?
>What system would your use?

Classic Traveller, get a set of deck plans for each side, use Starter Traveller space combat. Set up counters for the location of crew members and homebrew the transporters and stuff.
For interior gun battles, I'd use snapshot, since it adapts the Book 1 combat from range bands to a grid, and is super fun.

>And how would you deal with the constant deaths?

It's Classic Traveller, deaths are part of the game. Bring a backup, and be ready to roll up a new guy. (It doesn't take long at the table, you can do it in five minutes easy) Alternately, since crew members aren't important, the referee can just do up some index cards with guys premade, and shuffle the deck and draw a couple when new recruits are available.

Stars without number. It's OSR.. in space! so it's made to be deadly.

>>51728627
>constant deaths?

recruit only dwarf fortress players thus ensuring that everyone knows losing is fun!

>>51728627
>And how would you deal with the constant deaths?

>FTL
>constant death
By not being shit at that game.

Unless you're doing no-pause, you have no excuse for losing crew.

>>51728627
>How would you run an FTL game?
I'm fond of the idea of running so that it's somewhat like FTL is for a player who has beaten the flagship a few times and knows what it's like. Stat up an UNGODLY powerful starship, the most powerful thing you can make in the system, and start the players with a barebones-but-eminently-upgradable ship. Let them have a a copy of the stats (or at least part of the stats; you should definitely leave a trick or two up its sleeves) of the final boss ship, and center the campaign around doing odd jobs and adventures to try and get their own ship upgraded/staffed to the point it can hold its own against the monstrosity. Would require a system with decent ship customization though, and I'm really not sure how well it'd actually play.

>What system would your use?
Not sure. Honestly FTL has interesting enough starship mechanics that I think they might work as the basis for a new system, or at least a starship-customization-and-combat system that could be bolted on to something else.

>And how would you deal with the constant deaths?
>>51732903, pretty much. If you're using a pre-existing system then it'll probably be geared towards not killing the crew off completely wildly anyway. Just make sure the players can run from fights with no consequences beyond wasted time.

>>51732903
>you have no excuse for losing crew.
Looking back at this, 'no excuse' is kind of harsh.

When you have
• 6+ crew
• multiples of any non-Humans
• no Zoltans
you sometimes risk crew to giant alien spiders, or whatever.
Also within the 1st ½ of the 1st system, since rerolling is fine.

The way Diaspora reduces starship combat to a one-dimensional (instead of two-dimensional or half-assed three-dimensional) map might be a good thing for an FTL game, since in FTL the maneuvering of the ships doesn't really matter.

>>51734937

Starter Traveller's ship combat uses abstract range band, so is also one-dimensional.

>>51734937
FTL has pretty abstract combat, but where thing are (randomly) coming from can matter A LOT.
Especially if you have a large ship Federation Cruisers while relying on Defense Drones.

>>51728627
Honestly, I think it would be run best as a board game. Have three to four players to run the crucial subsystems, with earnable NPCs to reinforce the others. Every round, roll dice and consult tables and charts to see what foe must be faced, leading up to a final show-down with the end boss, if you make it that far.

Can't you see it? Two or three boards with the Kestral, Slug etc ships drawn on it, players moving tokens around, small identifiers for damage, oxygen level too.

>>51728627
Now, that depends: do you want to emulate the gameplay, or play an RPG with the same tone and setting?

Because those are two very different goals.

Boardgame: Battlestations 1 or 2

>>51735545
I'd go with the boardgame route if you were wanting to emulate the gameplay. Then again, I reckon "turning it into a boardgame" is the best way to translate most video games where you're managing a bunch of people. You don't really play a character in FTL, and so the gameplay doesn't feel like it'd translate well into an RPG for me.

I think FTL could probably make a pretty fun deck building game.

>>51735545
>>51736263
>boardgame
That moment in FTL when your engine room is on fire, the life support is off, and there are alien boarders on the bridge, is essentially the setting of the co-operative board game 'The Captain Is Dead' - I recommend it.

>>51728627
>How would you run an FTL game?
I definitely wouldn't try and run it as 'FTL - but now in tabletop.' A lot of what makes the game unique would need to go. Some people would be tempted to give each player a ship, or to allow players to build their own ships, but I'd probably run it with the Kestrel. Likewise, it would be duller than dull to have as much ship-to-ship fighting as the video game has expressed in tabletop. I'd likely craft adventures out of those little side-quests like the oft-maligned 'Giant Spiders' thing.

>What system would your use?
Something light. Probably a mod of FATE, but with a list of 'stunts' pre-generated. Two skill trees, one for the character (5/4/3/2/1) and one for shipboard operations (3/2/1 or even just 2/1). Characters would be shallow creations, gaining most of their individuality from roleplaying rather than from stats.

>And how would you deal with the constant deaths?
As mentioned above, by keeping character creation simple and shallow - maybe by creating a template for each race and saying: "Okay, you're a Zoltan, you can pick your 5 skill, one of your 4 skills, one of your 3 skills, two of your 2 skills, and all of your 1 skills" with the other skills pre-selected based on race. Maybe take the Dark Heresy route, and have each player always roll up two characters, and place one in reserve for the inevitable moment when they die.

>>51736323
That...might work. You could represent your ship and crew with one deck, and the challenges you face with another one (with the boss battle as the last card in that deck). Damage you take knocks cards out of your deck leaving you with less resources, and defeating challenges gives you opportunity to buy new cards to replace them.

>>51728627
Play Galaxy Trucker maybe?

>>51736590
It's also relatively simple to work a deadline element into deck building games, where things get progressively harder and you'll get fucked if you waste turns and don't take risks.