I've been doing some homebrew for Genesys, largely using the Star Wars RPGs as a base. Like Star Wars, the setting I have in mind is meant to be a space pulp/science fantasy setting, where the players serve as freelancers accepting whatever contracts they wish. However, since this is my own setting, I'm not using Star Wars' equipment, item, or vehicle stats, and I'm making my own to reflect the tech I have in mind.

However, what I have in mind is... a bit complex, possibly more than what the system itself was meant for. For instance, I have in mind a number of different weapon types, each with their own strengths and weaknesses – laser weapons are long-ranged and accurate, but weak, plasma weapons are effective against armor, and coilguns pass through energy shields. Armor too is similarly varied – sure, there are simple suits a la stormtrooper armor, but the upper limit of armor goes way past that into powered armor and even miniature walkers – with corresponding boosts in durability and ability. That's another thing I'm changing from the Star Wars RPGs – armor is a lot more effective.

In contrast to standard Edge of the Empire et al where the players are meant to be perpetually short on cash, my goal is for the players to be fairly well-supplied with equipment... but they can't take it all with them, so they need to pick whatever equipment is best for the job. A big part of each mission will be the planning, where the party decides on a plan of attack and takes whatever equipment they think will serve them best. Party improvement isn't about getting the next-best weapon or armor, but getting different gear to expand their options, or perhaps covering up any weaknesses they have.

But, I do have to wonder – am I making this more complicated than it needs to be? The beauty of Genesys, I think, is that it's simple. But at the same time, it doesn't have a very fine grain, so to speak, when it comes to toying around with stats (when Brawn goes from 1 to 6, for instance, you're going to be lumping a lot of creatures into the same category). I wonder if, by trying to add my own complexity to Genesys, I end up making it needlessly complex, if not taking away the thing that makes it an easy system to use.

Thoughts?

On 8/30/2019 at 7:39 PM, Dusk Raven said:

I have in mind a number of different weapon types, each with their own strengths and weaknesses – laser weapons are long-ranged and accurate, but weak, plasma weapons are effective against armor, and coilguns pass through energy shields. Armor too is similarly varied – sure, there are simple suits a la stormtrooper armor, but the upper limit of armor goes way past that into powered armor and even miniature walkers – with corresponding boosts in durability and ability.

This is pretty much already in Star Wars, and Genesys to some degree. You can see it in the item qualities, max ranges, damage outputs and the critical ratings. I think it's very doable to create some stuff for your Genesys game but I wouldn't overdo it and burn out: look at the tables for weapons in the core book, there's not an exhaustive list. Start with the standard items that definitely should be there and add to the list over time.

As far as the range in weapons go; that's probably the easiest part. I would recommend looking over the equipment section in Shadow of the Beanstalk. It gives clear differences to each class of weapon. Ballistic weapons have moderate range, damage, and crit. Fletchers have low damage with high crit and vicious. Mass Drivers have extreme range and pierce, Lasers are high accuracy, etc.

Even beyond that some weapons have specific effects in their detailed descriptions. Automatic shotguns jam with 2 threat. Masers lose their breach quality against anything protected by metal. You could easily incorporate these ideas into your weapon classes.

The book also has some example armored mech-like suits that give large amounts if soak as well as bonus brawn, wounds, etc..