So, with the impending release of Twilight Imperium 4th Ed. how likely does it seem that there might be a Genesys sourcebook for that world? There is a history to the game that could make a great setting, and I know there was a bad one quite a few ears back, but does anyone else think it is likely or have an interest in it?

As likely as any other FFG IP.

TI has been around a long time and has a solid fan base, I'd say it's a solid bet.

Seems likely

worth noting, the new edition of TI includes a booklet of lore, and the hardcover rulebook for the promotion is supposed to include even more. If they are actively expanding the background for the universe, it seems probable that they will try and diversify it into many types of games.

I really hope so. TI is one of those settings that is just begging to be expanded. I was really hoping for a Living Card game in that world just so we could have a team of illustrates creating content for it.

I know this is going off topic a little, but I was toying with the idea of getting TI as a new addition for my gaming group...

Any good words for the game?

I have a small group about 3-5 of us, normally three. We mostly play Catan and have played the BSG and GoT board games extensively in the past.

Out of the group, I am more of the type to want to play a game that can't be finished in one session.

47 minutes ago, jbronco said:

I was toying with the idea of getting TI as a new addition for my gaming group...

Any good words for the game?

This is my take on TI. TI is a particular type of game, big, epic, long, involved, filled with nuance, and all about managing a half dozen different facets of play and types of resources in a never even close to the same game twice sort of way.

If you (or your group) are the sort that likes that type of game, TI is perhaps the best game ever produced. If you don't like this kind of game, it's a boring, endless chore.

Ive never played the BSG board game, but from what I have heard it may be one of the few games that can regularly run longer than TI. If you and your group liked it well enough, I would guess you will like TI.

On 8/16/2017 at 6:55 PM, Forgottenlore said:

Seems likely

worth noting, the new edition of TI includes a booklet of lore, and the hardcover rulebook for the promotion is supposed to include even more. If they are actively expanding the background for the universe, it seems probable that they will try and diversify it into many types of games.

Follow up from this post. The "lore book" included with TI4 isn't much. It's 22 pages of very nice full page art, with each page having a small sidebar giving a very general, broad overview of the setting. The limited HC rule book is still supposed to include more background though.

I don't know if the flavor text on the back of the race sheets is exactly word for word identical, but it is pretty close and doesn't seem to cover anything new.

Based on the latest "preview" article, it seems TI is going to definitely get some Genesys attention, but with no dates attached (of course). That said, are there any resources available out there that give some description of the species in terms of actual abilities the individual beings possess? As opposed to each species as an interstellar level combatant in the TI board game). Basically, is there any way to get started planning for a TI RPG campaign before the sourcebook comes out one day in the hopefully not too distant future.

8 minutes ago, Dragonshadow said:

Based on the latest "preview" article, it seems TI is going to definitely get some Genesys attention, but with no dates attached (of course). That said, are there any resources available out there that give some description of the species in terms of actual abilities the individual beings possess? As opposed to each species as an interstellar level combatant in the TI board game). Basically, is there any way to get started planning for a TI RPG campaign before the sourcebook comes out one day in the hopefully not too distant future.

No resources I am aware of, so personal imagination as always is your greatest ally....

2 minutes ago, 2P51 said:

No resources I am aware of, so personal imagination as always is your greatest ally....

And available free time and simple laziness are my greatest adversaries. That's why sourcebooks have an audience, but also why wikis spring up. Also, I'll admit I'm a little paralyzed by the idea of building out my own spin on Twilight Imperium (or Terrinoth) and then finding the official sourcebook goes way farther than I would have been able to on my own, but does so in an incompatible way with what I've built or with core PC character design decisions. Yeah, it can all get reconciled with the +5 pen of houseruling, or most of it can, but having even one or two anchor points would be really nice.

Some stats for species aren't time crushing imo and are easily dispensed with if official materials are more to a table's liking. In regards to anything else, the guns and such will likely be provided by the CRB it sounds like. That really just leaves delving into the existing genre fluff to come up with adventures/campaign ideas I think.

An aweful lot can be deduced from the race backgrounds in twilight imperium. Hylar are physically frail but intelligent, l1z1x have extensive cybernetics, yssarill are at least semi-chameleonic, Naalu are telepathic. Etc...

Are there any good consolidated sites updated based on what we know of 4th edition that describe the races and the Imerium as a whole? I will probably agree with your statement once I learn more, Forgottenlore, but I don't actually own the boardgame in any edition, and at $150 am not likely to buy the new one, so I need to find reliable info somewhere before the (hopeful) sourcebook. Knowing TI is getting the Genesys treatment and that TI is space opera immediately has me interested in a setting that was previously just a boardgame I didn't play (played 2nd Edition once and after 12 hours wanted to stab my eyes out).

I suppose the species interaction is just a macrocosm of any campaign setting with racial/species tension, but the universe of TI seems to feature open war between civilizations that are represented by single species. If the party is a mixed group, it's tough to envision them being welcomed anywhere. Is Mercatol Rex a hub where all species can at least not be attacked randomly for walking down the street?

Simmering tensions are fun. Open hostility at every turn is tedious and distracting to the main story.

I don't know of one, but surely there must be. You might try asking on the TI board. there are a couple people there that are more in depth knowledgeable about the game than I am.

In the board game, while the major powers are each dominated by a single species, there are references to most species being found everywhere. The galaxy is cosmopolitan enough that a mixed species party is not at all difficult. If 2 powers are actively at war with each other you might find some prejudice and hostility to each other, but that just adds drama.

Mecatol Rex, from what I understand, is a blasted wasteland. The only habitable parts are the domed capital city/government complex where the galactic council meets. I imagine that would be very cosmopolitan, also very... tense. I'm picturing Medici era Florence, with various powers marking off section of the city as their own. Lots of low level violence, but nobody wants it to erupt into open war on the planet because that would hurt their chances of being crowned the new emperor. Also, although I think the background says the outside is uninhabitable, I can easily see that being an exaggeration and there being tribes of disenfranchised, very angry, wasteland scavengers eking out a living outside the dome.

While the boardgame assumes an all out war among the great powers; trade, diplomacy, espionage, and so on are all big factors. Plus, while a big war might be about to break out among the great powers, in any given game there are only 3-8 great powers, out of the 17 described. Several of which might be more suited to "evil invading threat" class. So a campaign could feature, instead of political turmoil as typical species try to claim the throne, the "standard" races learning to put aside their differences and band together to defeat the cybernetic, borg-like invaders from the past, or the sapient nano-tech virus, or the incomprehensible macro organism that animates corpses to communicate, or the, or the, or the....

And all that assumes that the game is set during the same time period as the core board game. The other big game in the univers "Rex" is set during the collapse of the original Lazax Empire, a thousand years ago. A RPG could be set anytime from just before then to a bit after a new empire is established.

The entire Mentak Coalition is a Dirty Dozen-esque team of reprobates waiting to happen.

Having just bought TI4 and Genesys, I am sincerely hoping that FFG decides to do a dedicated sourcebook for the setting. Fingers crossed!

They mention it as a Space Opera setting in Genesys so I'm thinking we are good.

Yeah, with it called out specifically I feel like it increases the possibility.

The question is, how would you run a game in that setting? I think I'd have the impending war and expansion of empires in the background.

Would you have a group of PCs from different races? What would be the reason for them to be together? Are there systems where the different races co-exist? What would their focus be?

Sure would be nice if they published the companion book that comes with TI4 as a free resource to the website. That way some of us could start to extrapolate the setting from the info we have while waiting for an official product.

6 hours ago, Dakion said:

The question is, how would you run a game in that setting? I think I'd have the impending war and expansion of empires in the background.

Would you have a group of PCs from different races? What would be the reason for them to be together? Are there systems where the different races co-exist? What would their focus be?

See the big post I made 4-5 posts up. There is lots of potential ways a game could be run, depending on the group. "The impending war" that the board game is about is likely to stay that in any rpg setting, impending. It is unlikely that FFG is going to get into the war actually starting, or how it progresses, or who wins, that all is for the players of the board game to decide. That means that in a rpg, the war doesn’t ever have to actually happen unless the gm wants it to. Instead, the major races could be on the brink of open hostilities when the L1z1x or Necro Virus invade (or just about anyone else. Most of the TI races are nuanced enough to be portrayed as a setting big bad that everyone else has to unite to defeat). Or the war is over and whoever won is oppressive and totalitarian, now the setting is Star Wars instead of Star Trek. Or the PCs are mercenaries during the war, or spies.

Lots of options.

Yeah, the fact it was called out in the Genesys book is the reason why I'm hoping it will have its own sourcebook.

Did anyone have any thoughts on how the different species would be stated up for this? I've only played one game of TI4, and so I'm curious to see what others think.

Not being familiar with TI, are there any rules missing from Genesys to run this setting? Or would the crunch in such a supplement mostly be unique species, ships, monsters, etc.?

There is a TI rpg already if I rember correctly Merctol Rex was full of dangerous stuff left behind from the overthrow. And there was a very international settlement shangia police vibe with all the major polity providing money and people.