Running a Mass Effect TTRPG

>>51972202
What is the attraction that the setting holds for you that other existing tabletop settings don't?

>>51972288
*tabletop settings
tabletop space settings

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>>51972288

No OP, but it generally goes like this:

1. It has a fleshed out, visible reference in the games.
2. It allows you to explore the universe of the games without having to be Space Jesus/Space Dredd.
3. Provides a entry point to sci-fi settings that are mostly or exclusively on paper/book/tabletop form.

>>51972796
Star Wars would be better in that regard then if we are talking media familiarity.
Good thing it also already have several rpgs.

>>51972909
Star Wars isn't as good as a setting. Aliens are a backdrop, combat (with light sabers) doesn't translate into a group setting, and the force abilities aren't practical outside of force jump.

>>51972909
So is your argument just "because Star Wats exists, you shouldn't play a game in Mass Effect?"

>>51972202
After ME2, I'd say. Then just ignore the Arrival DLC and say that the Reapers will take several years longer or more to get back from dark space.

>>51973059
>>51973076
Please just ignore him, he posts in every sci-fi thread demanding people play Star Wars. Don't give him any attention.

That being said, the FFG SW games are very good and one could easily adjust their mechanics to Mass Effect. The downside is you would probably need all three books unless your party is willing to play a very narrow scope of ME.

>>51973125
This is probably the best answer. A lot of conflict, natural but not overpowering enemies in the collectors and no reason to scale your campaign all the way to Arrival.

If you want more breathing room for worldbuilding but a tighter focus you could play during the First Contact War.

>>51972202
Start of ME1 in an alternate universe where the Reapers never came back at all because... idfk, they were eaten by Tyranids, Geth never did their thang at the start of ME1, and if Shephard exists s/he's just some hand on a ship.

>>51972288
What are some other existing tabletop settings for space sf besides Warhammer and Traveller? Warhammer has obvious problems; Traveller seems pretty based around the whole "takes a week to get anywhere" deal so each solar system feels kind of like a medieval village in some fantasy game, where you can't expect quick help for immediate/urgent problems and outrunning problems or enemies is relatively feasible. Which isn't a problem in general but would stand in the way of using it in place of some settings. Mass Effect definitely feels much more like the modern world when compared against Traveller, with everything seeming within reasonable range of everything else and down to having some sort of galactic internet-equivalent.

>>51972202
I'm also currently setting up a Mass effect campaign, and the players all insisted it be kept near at least the start of the first game so things are easily recongnizable.

I haven't decided on what to do with the whole Reaper issue, but honestly the campaign probably won't span three years in universe so it's mostly irrelevant. More than likely I'll just slowly begin changing events and have it lead to something quite different, maybe a much larger scale Geth conflict or some sort of council civil war. Whatever I do the players aren't saving the galaxy with 200 point characters and just because they've played the games doesn't mean they've got a crystal ball to tell them what's going to happen next.

>>51972202
>how do you avoid the reaper plot arc

simple: don't have reapers

this is done fairly eaisly, in the form of just taking the setting (which is interesting enough as is) and ignoring the games events. hell, you can still have the opening part of the game take place off screen

>Nihlus still getting Shepard as a spectre candiate
>normandy still exists
>prothean beacon recovery still exists
>shit goes smooth, everyone goes home, Shepard and Nihlus get their buddy cop movie

meanwhile, out in the terminus, your party has just been hired to steal some grade a medical equipment (parts for tissue growers and cybernetic limb creation)

this is how the blue suns got the parts to make their krogan army after they got okeer

you can take any of the hundreds of side missions that shepard would do in the game, twist them around, and give them to your players since Shepard isn't going to be around to do them

>>51975594
>Just have the council actually be right when they tell Shepard that Reapers don't exist and it was just the Geth and Saren trying to pull a mindfuck.

>>51975631
This is really funny, and weirdly brilliant.

I can actually see Saren doing this just to fuck with Anderson again too.

>>51975631
>with Shepard discredited on an galactic level, she is quietly put on a REMF position out of shame
>they are still tapped for the spectres, but in an ultra-black ops level, not even acknowledged by the council, publicly or privately, and only deals with other in the know spectres

>the party is just a bunch of washed out spectre candidates that fucked up their training super fucking hard, but the council and other spectres still see some hope for them
>used as deniable and disposable assets when the council doesn't want to send spectres, or the spectres just don't want to do the work

>>51975722
>whenever there is danger, we'll be there
>like, a lot of danger
>shiploads of it
>enough danger to make a Krogan puke
>like we're about to panty-raid Aria T'loak and take a shit on Wrex's breakfast dangerous
>there's a nova bomb with your codename on it, and it needs to be manually pushed into a Batarian Slaver's sphincter right now dangerous

>make sure you signed and updated your will

>>51975797
>implying that they get a will
>implying they even get dental
>implying that they aren't just shipped from mission to mission, scavenging credits and gear while they can, buying everything though the extranet and having it delivered to their next shore leave (which is just enough time to refuel the ship and restock)
>implying that they even get dental

hey, you manage to make it 10 years, you get to actually become a spectre under an entirely new identity

>>51973149
Why not just play five years or so before Mass Effect 1?

>>51975895

This

Also I've been playing ME2, got it for free on Origin. I've waited 10 years to play it after finishing ME1 lol. Have played about 20 or 30 min of 3.

I love 2 so much. The worldbuilding is fantastic. What the fuck happened to Bioware? I hope that Andromeda can manage to be this good (and hopefully knock out all the animation kinks and polish it).

But yeah, I'd set it 5 years before ME1 lol. And I'd say EOTE/FAD would be pretty good to run a ME game, just gonna change a few names and such.