So teeg, I was thinking of running a Bebop campaign. Regular anime bullshit aside, I was actually hoping for more of a... I don't want to say "realistic" system (fuck doing realistic space battles), but I'd like it to stay somewhere in the realm of decent Sci-Fi. Dice pools or d20 would be preferred, but I'm pretty fucking desperate so I'll take what I can get. Same goes for preference on a rules heavier system over a Lasers and Feelings style mini system. I've heard mention of Stars Without Number and Traveler floating about, but don't know much about them and was thinking of maybe using a modified Shadowrun. Any ideas on what would fit? I'm just looking for some advice from people who actually know the systems.Also maybe BESM, I don't fucking know.
Cowboy Bebop features people that are generally standard humans. You could go with GURPS Lite and run it easily enough. A good amount of crunch for only having like 30 pages.
>>47905094
Saga edition star wars MAYBE. You ever ran rogue Trader the premise is already there just subtract all the angry aliens -n- shit.
We had BESM (Cowboy Bebop too) game long ago and it was horrible because there just wasn't enough rules to play it effectively. The problem might have been that we would have needed more than basic riulebook to play it though, so if you're willing to hunt down all the other books it might work better. This was with third edition.
>>47905301
Also, I should mention that it was the free PDF version, actual book version is probably better.
The generalist systems (FATE, Savage Worlds, GURPS) can do it obviously. Depending on system you'll end up getting pretty different campaigns of course.
Besides that, modified Shadowrun could probably do it. It would be a shadowrun that rips out most aspects of Shadowrun though, only keeping some simple chrome and decking (Jet and Spike were both lightly augmented street samurai, Faye was full face, Ed was a decker)
![icon[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/SwVs5U3.jpg "icon[1].jpg")
Fragged Empire.
>Space combat
>Easy to learn
>Great art and books
Traveler, my guy.
>>47905094
*bargest into the thread, knocking over cans and bottles and making a huge mess*
GURPS
*jumps out a window and lands in a dumpster*
>>47905094
Traveller
Traveler might as well be the Cowboy Bebop TRPG
>>47905094
Traveller- depending on edition you may die during character creation though
Personally most experienced with Mongoose Edition so thats my suggestion
If D20 works for you, there's a heavily modified OGL game named Bounty Head Bebop. It has no license but tries to stay as close to the flavor of Cowboy Bebop as possible. Could serve as material for any Bebop game.
D20 doesn't work for me. Going by the dynamic and the freely sliding "gritty realism" - "silly anime tropes" scale, Fate would be a good pick. It has become THE scifi crunch and is well equipped to handle any game situation. Core is free. It doesn't do gritty very well though, so if you want to take that beyond flavor with the players incentivized to break it then the system will be working against you.
For a more dire flavor, ORE is the best game to build on. It's a classic gamist structure that resolves very fast and very detailed. Everything balances in a single dice pool which makes it very easy to mod. And it scales not just in fluff, but also in game dynamic. Nemesis and ORE Mecha are good places to start, both are free downloads, as is the ORE Toolkit.
I'd also look into maybe adapting Dogs in the Vineyard. The mechanics resemble the character dynamic in Bebop well.
Traveller and Gurps can do it. But I believe they would distract from the Bebop formula more than underline it. Too much bean counting.
Savage Worlds does anything, but I think that means it does nothing really well. Unlike games that mod well, Savage Worlds treats everything kinda samey.
You can certainly try and adapt FFG Star Wars or Eclipse Phase. But both have very idiosyncratic settings which it would be more work to get rid off than just starting new with something else.
>>47906094
>putting Traveller in the same category as GURPS
You've never actually played Traveller, have you?
>>47906114
They are both crunch heavy classic RPGs with a 70s philosophy and too many detail rule options hidden in more books than any person can ever read without turning the game into a religion. They are not similar, but there are similarities.
The only reason they are lumped together is that the reason for excluding them is similar.
But I see you go straight for ad hominem, so I'm not sure answering you even makes sense.
>>47906139
Only if you play Classic Traveller the way it was originally intended 30 years ago. Mongoose Traveller only has some level of bean counting because Traveller has no progression system outside of getting more money to buy shit with along the way.
>>47906163
And I'm sure it can do Bebop, and do it well. It just wouldn't be my first pick, or my third. It offers too much detail beyond the scope of Bebop.
>Here, build your ship. But don't use these pages, or those, or anything to do with this. Those don't exist.
>Here's the weapon list, but you can only pick these or these, the others are not available.
>Pick any equipment, but check with me. A lot of stuff is a little different for Bebop.
And if you trim and mod all that, what's left? A crunchy game centered on fighting. It's a great dungeon crawler for space ship hulls. But for mysterious characters struggling with the moral implications of their past while hunting down fugitives for money in a system clearly not favoring justice or stability but personal greed and planet-of-hats personal fetish colonies, I might want more than combat and skills.
Something like Luke Crane's Belief, Instinct, and Goal might be useful. Like Fate Aspects, or a Personal History dice track in ORE.
Social combat would be essential, much of Bebop is banter-offs and stare-downs. Characters struggle with their loyalties much more than they do with battle wounds.
If you do it differently then by all means, have at it. But it wouldn't work for my group, and I wouldn't know how to make it work at a convention.
I did a nWoD-based Bebop game. Although it was more of a crossover of the settings the principle works perfectly for just straight Bebop.
Use Infinite Macabre for spaceships and maybe Mirrors for a more flexible version of the Morality system.
Traveller sucks. So does GURPS.
>>47905094
Do Classic Travller
>>47905094
Stars Without Number is perfect for the job.
>>47906278
You shouldn't need rules for banter or loyalty. Either your group role-plays or they don't. Traveller works because of the emphasis on paying the bills but I can see why you might not like it due to all the editing needed to fit it into a setting. So just grab Savage Worlds and be done with it.
>pulpy and fast paced
>easy to learn
>plenty of edges and hindrances to make your character pop
>kung-fu and guns can co-exist
>chase rules
>rules for mentally unbalancing your enemy to gain a combat advantage
Then grab disc 1 of the bebop OST and you're ready to go.
>>47907016
This also works. Get the Sci-Fi companion for ships and cybernetics if you go down this route.
>>47907016
While I still think the other anon is wrong about Traveller, I do agree that Savage Worlds would be way too bland for Bebop. If you really wanted to use a generic system your best bet would be OpenD6 Space mixed with OpenD6 Adventure, or even WARP if you wanted something dead simple.
>>47907087
I really think that a good Bebop game is 90% setting the tone and 10% fast-paced rules that don't get in the way of story telling. The 10% is up to taste, the 90% is make-or-break
>>47906278
>Traveller is a dungeon crawler
Okay now I KNOW you've never played Traveller before. You're supposed to avoid fights as much as possible because of how incredibly easy it is to die in a fight. Traveller's closest cousins happens to be videogames similar to Freespace, Traveller was always meant to be played in a style similar to how a bebop episode is layed out.
>>47907087
Someone's never played a decent Savage Worlds game before. It's down to the GM and players to make the game pop, but that's the same for any system.
When it shines, holy fuck it shines.
>>47907240
I've played in lots of Savage World games and I never really enjoyed the system regardless of the GM. I always feel like I'd be better off playing a more focused system for each part Savage Worlds tries to do. I do like those story cards though.
>>47907270
Really? I hate the card-based initiative.
I like how the rest of it works far better than D6 Space (the best d6 system for me is Mini Six) and it does tactical combat extremely well. One bullet can kill, so if you aren't thinking your way through a fight you'll be hurting.
nth for traveller
The game very much has a "we need to make money but we're constantly broke anyways" vibe if you don't let the players exploit the trading system. It also emphasizes the idea that players have previous lives before becoming space hobos and that works really well with bebop.
>>47907287
Oh not the card based initiative, fuck that. Those story cards they have as an optional thing, the ones you get vague rewards for sometime into the game.
>>47907287
I'm not really sure tactical combat is usually the #1 priority for a Bebop game. Either way Traveller is be even more brutal about guns doing realistic amounts of damage. In general if you aren't wearing armor you'll go down in an average of 3 successful hits just with a pistol alone.
>>47907212
This, absolutely this.
I played a three year traveller campaign and we only did something even resembling a dungeon crawl once (easily my least favorite part of that campaign, not coincidently, the GM was just being sadistic). The vast majority was spent either talking or executing crazy PC plans to get money.
Someone post the quintuple cross story.
>>47907202
This really.
What made Bebop so good was that it had a consistent setting that took itself just seriously enough to make the characters feel real, but not so seriously that it felt dark. (Not to say it wasn't a dark setting, it just never felt dark in the moment).
Playing a Bebop game should emphasize the setting and the characters and should have rules to prevent things from getting too wacky without getting in the way of characterization.
>>47907355
>you go down in three successful hits from a pistol
Same thing happens in Savage Worlds, assuming your opponent's just rolling average and not doing anything smart like aiming for your head.
Blowing your brains out or constantly rolling boxcars will put you on your ass in a matter of turns, of course.
>>47907366
Here ya go.
I'm in a similar situation, OP; I want to run a custom sci-fi setting, and I need a system that doesn't get in the way. I've read through most of the systems mentioned in the thread, with a view to how appropriate they'd be to the game I want to run. I haven't been totally satisfied with any of them, so I'll be keeping an eye on this thread for new options.
>>47907366
>The vast majority was spent either talking or executing crazy PC plans to get money.
What mechanics were supportive of that style of play? How was it not just storytiem but a game where dice mattered in a good way?
I can see how the wealth stat may have been an okay motivation to spin other hooks from. But you can do that in Lasers and Feelings or DnD.
What makes Traveller suited?
>>47907774
Wealth stat, what? Traveller has no d20/fate abstract wealth if that's what you're talking about.
Traveller's default model of play is primarily based on two things.
1) Generating characters with expansive previous history, including contacts, allies, and old enemies
2) A money-centric model of play wherein money is both a necessity for keeping afloat (ala Jet's angry yelling in episode 1) and a primary means of character advancement (fancy equipment)
Pointing at individual mechanics is pointless relative to overall model of play. Traveller has most of the things mentioned in >>47907016, but that's not even relevant. D&D of all fucking things has chase rules and rules for mentally unbalancing your opponents. Treating mechanics like a checklist instead of a holistic experience is how you get GURPS.
>>47905094
Make your own system
post pdf on tg
>>47905094
First of all, you're going to need some good sci-fi ranged combat rules, equipment, economics, travelling and exploration/smuggling/bounty hunting content. I suggest using dark heresy and rogue trader for this, though without all the psychological terror and psykers.
Next, you'll need an even better system of handling martial arts, and possibly also ki/chakra/soul energy whatever, because martial arts is kind of a big thing in that universe.
>>47909941
The martial arts stuff is just your basic kung fu + random fluffy nonsense that shouldn't be rules based (same for the gate disaster weirdness like that one kid)
>>47906094
Savage Worlds has Interface 0 which helps if you strip away some of it
As for OP I'm running a game in savage worlds with Interface 0 rules mixed with the Sci Fi's. Don't. At least don't mix the rules if you plan for normal bebop play and not something borderline outlaw star. Savage worlds is great for quick gunfights and such with its die system being simple enough, but don't just combine settings willy nilly like I have
It really depends on you to keep the tone and the players to want that as well.
Also if the players want to feel the money crunch like the bebop crew get a daily cost of food and whatnot, here's a great place for some details like expected planet travel and whatnot.
Have fun http://www rfblues net/Omake/World/
>>47912529
>Virtual reality videogaming has become the norm and videocassettes are a relic of the distant past.
I always pitch CoD/nWoD for when crazy super powers arn't needed especially since there is nothing overly crazy about the characters themselves (aside from their personalities and even then only one bad guy was technically immortal) everything can be handled via narrative.
>>47907774
Because Traveller has extensive rules for generating a lot of generic sci-fi shit for you on the fly, and character creation gives you a character that is automatically grounded in the world with a backstory you can work with and everything stat wise worked out for you, the lifepath system is fucking amazing. Outside of the massively story driven character creation Traveller has no rules based on the story itself, but the story is ultimately shaped by the rules.
You need money to survive in Traveller, it's a pretty universal thing that Bebop and Traveller share, and Traveller has plenty of ways to make it easy for GMs to set up situations for you that can be unique and interesting. I don't know where you get the idea that Traveller is just D&D in space, but that's simply not true.
I'd run it with as a 250-300 pts GURPS campaign myself. I'd use basic set, martial arts, social engineering, high tech and ultra tech for supplements.
>MA for Spike's martial arts
>High tech for the guns
>ultra tech for the augs and the tech
>Social engineering for the smooth talking and cowboy work
It's a tl 9^ setting but with tl 8 guns. I'd use the "more survivable guns" to stop them from being too dominating (a lot of Spike can be explained by a dodge score of 13 though). Gunfights and martial arts in Cowboy Bebop was mostly short, sweet and to the point, and GURPS is the same. Even though it has a bit of gun fu tilt, it's the John Woo heroic bloodshed kind that GURPS is pretty fucking good at emulating with the right character point values and builds.
One of the spaceship supplements got rules for "cinematic fighter combat" that could be used for the space fighter battles.
The most important bit is social engineering though. I think that book really clinches how guys like Jet and Spike does their investigation work and how the charm their way through the episodes.
>>47913230
Disclaimer: I'm a veteran GURPS GM. Your mileage may vary if you are new to the system.
>>47905094
Call of the Void: Ballad of the Laser Whales has pretty damn realistic gunplay, and in melee you use Song of Swords rules which have really fun and realistic unarmed and wrestling rules.
>>47914608
Also good rules for prosthetic limbs.
