Video game universes that deserve a spin at the tabletop (and what game would you use)

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Dude I was totally gonna suggest FTL and Into the Breach but then I thought, "Nah, no one would think they're cool but me."
I've sunk a lot of time into FTL. It's my goto time-waster, easy to jump into, try a new ship out or new loadout strategy, die horribly ten minutes later.
Into the Breach looks fun too. Kind of a cross between FTL and Battletech. So Battletech would be the obvious RPG choice for that one I assume?
 
I've sunk a lot of time into FTL. It's my goto time-waster, easy to jump into, try a new ship out or new loadout strategy, die horribly ten minutes later.
I have sunk 160 hours into FTL and still haven't thoroughly beaten the game on all ships and difficulties. FTL would make a cool little RPG with a good dose of ship management but I didn't know of any RPGs that could handle that.

Into the Breach looks fun too. Kind of a cross between FTL and Battletech. So Battletech would be the obvious RPG choice for that one I assume?
Into the Breach is the only game on Steam that I bothered to get 100% achievements, I liked it that much. It's kind of like chess and each battle is a puzzle you have to solve. Battletech came to mind but it isn't really a good fit. I don't know of any RPGs that can handle a bunch of weird mechs and battles with kaiju but I sure would like to see it!
 
Eve Online. I love the background lore for that game, or at least my interpretation of it. I think you'd need something d100-based to capture the feel of minmaxing your ship loadout based on the modules and skills you have.
 
Yup, but KOF is my favorite.
Art of Fighting was mine, with Fatal Fury being a VERY close second. Was never much of a Street Fighter fan...

Although Brawlers that preceded the Fighter is my favourite genre.

Which I have to say...

I once ran a one shot that was loosely based on Streets of Rage using Cyberpunk's Martial Arts rules. It... Well, there's a reason it was one shot that I barely remember.
 
Oh, my own suggestion, I really thing Grim Dawn would make an absolutely fantastic RPG setting.

I'd probably run it with Savage Worlds. The main thing to do is a lot of custom arcane backgrounds renamed to Masteries with specific powers available based on the Mastery in the video game. With some special rules on how to run 2 arcane backgrounds, and you get one free at start and one free at Seasoned.
 
I'd like to run a megadungeon of Dredmor because then I might actually beat the damn thing.
 
Titanfall. Probably with Mekton or something faster, like maybe kitbash up some Savage Worlds.
 
I'd like to run a megadungeon of Dredmor because then I might actually beat the damn thing.
This could work pretty easily actually. I'm sure there are some pretty good wikis for the game that you could use to fill out random generation tables. It'd be a hell of a funhouse megadungeon, but that's pretty much what the game is for.
Furthest down I've ever made it in that was level 8. It hurt to lose that guy.
 
Papers, Please - GURPS.

hehehe
 
This could work pretty easily actually. I'm sure there are some pretty good wikis for the game that you could use to fill out random generation tables. It'd be a hell of a funhouse megadungeon, but that's pretty much what the game is for.
Furthest down I've ever made it in that was level 8. It hurt to lose that guy.

I died to Dredmor himself once and that was close enough to winning for me for years, but now I want a rematch. I don't mind if it's a funhouse dungeon really, that makes it more interesting since I needn't fuss about internal consistency and why are all these monsters able to live down here and what is a killer vegan anyhow.
 
Two more games: Tyranny and Pillars of Eternity.

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I never got terribly far in either of these games due to frequent game breaking bugs that ultimately turned me off from torturing myself with them. But they had excellent world building (esp. Tyranny) and their own quasi-tabletop inspired systems that would work well for an actual tabletop RPG.
 
Oh yes, City of Heroes for sure. Great setting. I think there was an attempt, maybe even two, to make an official TTRPG based on CoH (I am sure I have the quickstart pdf somewhere).

Anarchy Online (huh?) has also a cool setting with a lot of potential.

Another vote for CoH.

X-COM, though I sorta played a version of that with the old Bughunters game.

The Civ mention was funny:-)
 
Mass Effect was mentioned, so I'll go with Horizon Zero Dawn. I'd probably use a super hero RPG to run this.

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Oh, my own suggestion, I really thing Grim Dawn would make an absolutely fantastic RPG setting.

I'd probably run it with Savage Worlds. The main thing to do is a lot of custom arcane backgrounds renamed to Masteries with specific powers available based on the Mastery in the video game. With some special rules on how to run 2 arcane backgrounds, and you get one free at start and one free at Seasoned.
I have 185 hours on Grim Dawn and am starting to think I have a problem with video games. I think the lore on this game is excellent and in fact collecting all the lore is one reason I played so much. In other words, I agree that it would make a superb RPG setting.

You are on to something with your SW hack. If you ever decide to pull the trigger and make it happen I would be very interested in the results.
 
Borderlands

my group and I discussed this a couple months ago And what is important in borderlands. for my money, I like Cortex here. Yes, I could do it in Mythras, but there are pretty clear Archetypes, and frankly, the individual percentages don’t matter a lot. The tech essily falls into particular categories, and you could do up particular Corp powers with SFX.

Elder Scrolls

a BRP variant. In fact, there is already one Done up by a fee fans.

Overwatch

I like Cortex for the one too. Distinctions for your role, broad power classes, use Plot points to model timers.


I like 4e’s strict structure For this, though I’ve heard Strike! Would work too. Mythras would work well here too, as it’s firearms supports overwatch very well. Thinking about it now, I don’t even think it would be hard.... hrm.
 
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There's actually a decent bit of lore, despite the... Lacking gameplay. In my opinion, the only thing they got right were the suits and flight system. Everything else... I wanted to love this. I really did. I hope they finish the redo and it's better than it was.

However, I would run a game in this world with Mekton Zeta.
 
There's actually a decent bit of lore, despite the... Lacking gameplay. In my opinion, the only thing they got right were the suits and flight system. Everything else... I wanted to love this. I really did. I hope they finish the redo and it's better than it was.

I was theoretically interested in this game specifically for the intriguing movement system, but I never tried it in the end. What was bad about the gameplay?
 
Elder Scrolls. This one's had more than one fan adaptation (that I'm looking into right now) and even an abortive module by Bethesda itself (marred by plagiarism) but it really did deserve a comprehensive, official Runequest (Mythras) edition with all those fascinating races and factions laid out for ease of use. With material for each clasic era (ESO, Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim).

Funny story about that. I gave them a backdoor idea about the roleplaying game when ESO first came out, and wrote a draft, but got really busy with work, so had to drop the project, even though there was interest in working on it from what I submitted. Then I saw that and thought, "Cool- they did it, anyway!"'

Then I saw the controversy. Mine was a hack of Dungeon World- I should find that and post it...
 
Two more games: Tyranny and Pillars of Eternity.

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I never got terribly far in either of these games due to frequent game breaking bugs that ultimately turned me off from torturing myself with them. But they had excellent world building (esp. Tyranny) and their own quasi-tabletop inspired systems that would work well for an actual tabletop RPG.
I'd love a Tyranny setting book; I've got the Pillars one, and with that you could probably run a game in your system of choice. I think 5e would fit rather well.
 
I already use City of Heroes in my MSH game.

X-Com - FOR SURE. I'd go Savage Worlds for this. I'd consider using CP2020 too.

Overwatch - I've already stated out a lot of the characters which I posted at Classic Marvel Forever. Mind you I folded the Overwatch concept as a sub-division of SHIELD in my campaign. So I was just using the characters. But I would love to do a full blown Overwatch game.

Red Dead Redemption - Yeah, I'd probably use Deadlands sans Magic.

Streetfighter+MK+Tekken+KoF all rolled together.
 
I was theoretically interested in this game specifically for the intriguing movement system, but I never tried it in the end. What was bad about the gameplay?
The enemies were spongy, the players overly fragile (Including the heavy class), the zones were severely lacking in anything interesting to do, with only about 4 actual activities.

There was a melee based class (suit) in a game about shooting things. It was, as one might guess, the weakest class. The best was the caster as it didn't rely on having gear. Which leads to:

The loot pool in a game about loot was lackluster, and there was a bug where the first gun you got was actually the best weapon in the entire game,

But it was very pretty, with a lot of verticality to the world, which is very rare in video games, and the lore was utterly fascinating.
 
Dwarf Fortress. How? Random generation, everything from the setting to the character names is randomly generated. I would use computers so as to reduce the time required to set up.
 
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Year Zero is also a possibility, but I see teams of runners trying to supply, fortify, and expand their base and stay alive.
 
Dwarf Fortress. How? Random generation, everything from the setting to the character names is randomly generated. I would use computers so as to reduce the time required to set up.
If you like Dwarf Fortress suggest you check out an obscure game called Regions of Ruin. It is a 2d side scroller and a fun little game (no where near as deep as Dwarf Fortress!) I was close to porting the concept into 5e with all the players as dwarfs trying to restore the kingdom of old with resource management, kingdom management, crafting etc but never got around to it
 
Sid Meier's Pirates (and maybe The Secret of Monkey Island series) - nothing has quite caught the fun of these games, either too serious, or too complex. Even my own pirate game was too complex and needs to be rewritten/finished. So what to represent it? Modded MiniSix? Something lighter like Freeform Universal?
Zelda - to me this needs to be a game where you only level up with new gear, in fact your only traits should be gear. I'm going to cheat here and say Freeform Universal because I've got an abandonded effort around somewhere that does this (or will/should!).
Lego Star Wars - again, another fun game series, that doesn't take itself too seriously. For me a modded Danger Patrol (which is what I already use) for system.
Assassin's Creed - I like Animus/Black Seven that's already out for this, but making it truly AC would be better.
Blade Runner/SNATCHER - OK, this is a bit of a cheat, squeezing BR in here, but the themes and world are a bit more fleshed out in the game. SNATCHER is a way you could possibly do it with more freedom. As to system, something with a bit of realism/crunch and scale to it? Maybe MiniSix - which is about as crunchy as I go anymore.
X-COM - I've actually written a Fudge hack for this years ago, not sure where it is now but I would like to find it for posterity sake.
Police Quest - really this is a just a generic police procedural, but seeing as there aren't too many of these, again I wrote a Fudge hack for this back in the day. It would be nice to polish it up and re-release it with the right licence.

Now for the really obscure ones!
New Star Soccer 3 - I doubt anyone here has ever heard of this. You play a young football player (yes, the game you play with your feet!), and have to break into the squad and improve your attributes so you can get transferred to a better team, as well as deal with off the field issues. I have no idea what would work well with this, maybe a Fudge/Fate thing? You could of course subsitute your own sport of choice I guess. Do glory and riches await, or ignominy and tabloid exclusives.
Rebuild - a zombie survival, but also more importantly a post-apocalypse settlement game where you can stop the zombies by a variety of means. I think MYZ could be adapted to it nicely.
 
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