Suggest me a system that can handle a transhumanist setting without a complete rewrite. Looking for low crunch so gurps and eclipse phase are out for me. My current flavor is Into the Odd. - Quick character gen, get to table fast.
Posted Feb 13, 2020, 5:39 PM UTC
Transhumanity's Fate maybe?
All the transhuman goodness from EP adapted to Fate Core/Condenced.
The Veil is a little messy but one of the supplements starts with a long essay about the nature of cyberpunk and what it means to transcend humanity so that seems relevant.
I think Scum and Villainy has some options, as does The Sprawl, though it's not a major focus.
Stars Without Number Revised. The core rules are free so you can see if its a system you'd like. But the transhuman content is in the paid version. Even if you don't use it, the world building tools are worth a download.
Eclipse Phase has an official Fate Conversion that is pretty light. The Eclipse Phase 2e is significantly streamlined, but still not what I'd consider light.
Cypher System would work great. It has just enough "knobs" to tweak to fit the theme of pushing beyond normal human means
Cypher System
Thanks haven't looked at this.
You are in luck right now I'm echoing u/GrumpyTesko, Cypher is pretty great. it's a strange mix of crunchy with narrative elements, and it takes a few minutes to wrap your head around some aspects of it (GM intrusions are notoriously used wrong by most people). Once you get it down, it's pretty great.
Mindjammer Fate is pretty good
Interesting reading mindjammer traveller now. Fate would probably work better though.
I’m building one, but it is a long way off. I’ve not found others.
Awesome, yeah get on that! Would love to see.
I think eclipse phase 2e is pretty crunch light, but then, I play shadowrun so I may not be the best source.
Calling Eclipse Phase "Light" is like calling the surface of the sun "kinda warm."
I just heard of Ascendancy by Ruby Measom, which uses the wonderful Resistance Toolbox to tell stories about "psychic cyborgs, identity, and finding yourself through fighting for what you believe in." May or may not fit your vision of the setting, but the Resistance Toolbox it runs on is really flexible and hackable.
Genefunk maybe?
Nova Praxis for Savage Worlds is medium crunch.
If Into the Odd is more your speed, then I suggest using the transhumanism chapter in Stars Without Number.
Sufficiently Advanced is great for transhumanist stuff, it has a delightful page of rules about when you would or wouldn't play the resulting entity after something happens to your character.
Not so much low crunch as medium crunch in a different direction than the usual, but character creation isn't too bad.
It's diceless, and PCs are balanced between in-world power and meta power over the story. You can start as a spaceship city, but you won't be in the center of the story often.
Tiny Frontiers is a tiny d6 based game. So very rules lite. I would assume it could pull off transhumanist game play. Form swapping would likely be a trait needed by each player wanting to.
Otherwise, fate, Savage worlds, or stars without number are probably going to be the best options.
Is Savage Worlds a good fit for your crunch level requirements? If so, the sci-fi companion has cybernetics and pseudo-human "races" that you could use. I find character creation to be fast but also satisfyingly crunchy. If you choose to use one of the sci-fi settings with transhumanism as a theme, you might add to the crunch level and lengthen the character creation time (e.g. Savage Rifts, Interface Zero). That's what I like about them :) but if it's a deal-breaker for you, the companion is all you need.
worth looking at, thanks.
There's also a "savage sleeves" supplement up on drivethru which could help scratch your Altered Carbon itch.