And Planet goes green, again.

[thebitterguy]

Just finished another game of SMAC. That game is freakin' addictive. Spoke about it with mr_weasel today. We figured that, aside from updating the graphics a bit, and tweaking the AI (automated formers r dum) it's pretty much the perfect game.

I got the GURPS book about it last year at GenCon. I always wondered how good an RPG setting it would be, but I think I realized that I needed to adjust my perspective on that.

You have to step back and realize A) there's no actual SMAC timeline to consider, since it's more a where and who than a what, and the rest is filled in by you, and B) one turn in a game can be an entire campaign.

Traversing a supply crawler from one city to another, accompanied by a unit of mind worms? Intercepting probe teams while the city is under siege, and hoping you can keep them from starting drone riots to keep the newest unit of defenders from finishing training? It all makes very cool game ideas. I've contemplated using either Hero or Ex Machina, if I ever get to run it.

Comments

[ghostwes.livejournal.com]

You might also enjoy Galactic Civilizations II; it's very similar to Master of Orion, and not too far off from SMAC. The main game, sans updates, is free from the website (http://www.galciv2.com/), though it didn't take more than one game to convince me to buy it.

A SMAC RPG would be neat, I agree.

[thebitterguy]

It does look cool, but my PC is six years old, and I don't think they run it on a Mac yet.

[sharrukin.livejournal.com]

It's been done - I wrote a GURPS sourcebook for it a few years back. Unfortunately the book didn't turn out all that well. There was just enough room for a catalogue of Stuff From The Game, but not enough room to really explore the possibilities of the setting in terms of interesting roleplay scenarios. Probably the book under my byline that has sold the least well.

Still, it might be worth a look if you can liberate a used copy somewhere.

[thebitterguy]

Actually, that's the book I was referring to. I agree that it had to focus a bit too much on being an encyclopedic listing of info, but that's still useful info to have.

The most important thing to remember is that you just have to zoom in on the PCs and their influence on Planet on a micro scale. I think the book managed to get me thinking about that, so it was a success in that regard. Plus, it was very shiny.

[sharrukin.livejournal.com]

(Blink, blink.) Okay, my apologies. Somehow I completely missed that you were already talking about the GURPS book. I seem to be unusually inattentive today . . .

[neosis.livejournal.com]

You should try Galactic Civilizations if you can't play GC2. And SMAX (SMAC with the expansion) is just awesome. I reinstalled on my computer not to long ago. Personally, I tend to play the Morganites.

What can I say? I likes the energy.