In the year 2148, explorers on Mars discovered the remains of an ancient spacefaring civilization. In the decades that followed, these mysterious artifacts revealed startling new technologies, enabling travel to the furthest stars. The basis for this incredible technology was a force that controlled the very fabric of space and time.

They called it the greatest discovery in human history.

The civilizations of the galaxy call it... MASS EFFECT

This is a fan project and unaffiliated with BioWare or EA International. Please don't sue me, kthx

~ Main Setting Version 1.0.2 Download ~

Hey everyone!

For the past 6 months, I've been composing a Mass Effect setting for the Genesys RPG. I was inspired by a campaign in that very setting that I've been running for a good year and a half. We originally started with another community made setting document, but as our campaign progressed, there were too many things we felt didn't fit entirely or didn't work smoothly rules wise, so I set out in an attempt to give the community a finished and well rounded representation of BioWare's science fiction world for Genesys.

The main goals here was to make things slim and generalized. Rather than provide profiles for every single weapon from the ME franchise, this setting's approach uses generic templates such as "Heavy Pistol", but introduces a weapon making (similar to craftsmanship from Terrinoth) that modifies this profile further. Thus, a Carnifex can still feel different from a Predator!

Apart from an impressive armory and pages full of gear and equipment, this book also features:

• 14 unique PC species , including the often overlooked Hanar and Elcor, as well as the mysterious Protheans and even Artificial Intelligences
• 11 different careers to start your characters with
• A load of talents, some borrowed from existing Genesys material (Terrinoth and Beanstalk), some ported from SWRPG, and some completely custom!
• Biotics and Tech powers in the form of two different adaptions of Genesys' magic:
  • Biotics function similar to normal magic, spending strain to cast "spells"
  • Tech powers require no strain, but a PC can only "prepare" a limited number of them, based on the capacity of their omni-tool
• 20 different vehicles , all of them generalized; ranging from Mechs, over Rovers to Corvettes and Dreadnoughts
• More than 80 adversaries , from all lifestyles and regions of the galaxy
• And a Game Master chapter which offers insight into running military campaigns, some example plot hooks and a section dedicated to the terrifying Reaper threat.

The PDF is fully bookmarked to all its chapters and sub-sections, so downloading is a lot better than viewing it in GDrive ^^

I hope that the 150 pages I have compiled by now serve as help and inspiration for anyone here who wants to run their own adventures in the Milky Way. (And maybe even Andromeda down the line. I have some plans for that )

And for those of you not satisfied with just one galaxy, why don't you take a trip to

~ Andromeda Expansion Version 1.0.0 Download ~

It's only a small (30 pages) expansion on the setting, but it features Angara as a playable species, some new Talents , more guns, more gear, 4 new factions , and over 20 new adversaries !

Lastly, a massive thanks goes to everyone involved in designing, playtesting, offering advice.

• The 4 other nerds that I play this with every week; Thanks guys ❤️
• The Genesys discord for all the support and encouragement
• J. Scott Zumwalt for the wonderful AffinityPublisher template
• Guillaume Tardif for the awesome front cover

Changelogs

It's been fun playtesting! Nowhere near done with the campaign and to be honest, kinda don't want it to end anytime soon. (￣▽￣)

Is this a continuation of Singularity? Any chance to see your campaign outline in any form?

Will you cover Andromeda?

Now I only need to find the players willing to try this out...

Edit: Sorry, I forgot - thank you very much for doing this supplement and sharing it!

On 10/7/2019 at 2:57 PM, Seam said:

Is this a continuation of Singularity? Any chance to see your campaign outline in any form?

Will you cover Andromeda?

Now I only need to find the players willing to try this out...

Edit: Sorry, I forgot - thank you very much for doing this supplement and sharing it!

It's not a continuation of Singularity. I'm not affiliated with them or their team.
While this setting was inspired by the work they had previously done, and my personal campaign started with Singularity, I tried to take a different approach to many aspects. All species were rebuilt from the ground up in abilities and XP calculation, and so were all weapons. Biotics are the strongest holdover from then, Tech was mostly redesigned.

My own campaign is partially featured in this. All the story hooks in the GM section are based to some degree on plot I have run with my players:

Citadel - Tayseri Drift (or Flotilla and the Furious - Tayseri Drift, as I called it back then) was one of the first things they did upon getting from Omega to the Citadel. A Dangerous Game is based on what happened to them after they crashlanded on Bekenstein, they sorta stumbled into that game. Fragmented Memory was a followup to another Prothen thing they did, and I also combined it with a cool flashback session, where they got to play Protheans for one episode. Business in Bulk was run basically as it stands there, I did more with its ending and decided that it was Krogans stealing the Eezo, using it to perform the dangerous surgery of "grafting" biotics on people (this is a thing in Krogan history).
Beyond that I have entire too many note files at this point to publicise anything, the campaign has been running for nearly 60 sessions, each of them about 3 1/2 hours long. But to give you an idea of the shenanigans we get up to, the party consists of a Hanar Secret Agent (a bit James Bond, but with a diplomats disguise); an escaped, illegal Salarian AI (who really just wants people to leave them alone); a Salarian roboticist (replacing the previous PC of a Batarian doctor) and an ex-Commander of the Alliance (got kicked out for trying to bribe his way into admirality). It's...a real funky mix, and a bit of a challenge to keep finding adventures for =P

And yes, I do have plans to do stuff for Andromeda. I already have Archetype stats for Angara, I just gotta write up all the adversaries and some new gear. I hope to get it out by November.

Thank you for your reply! I am waiting for your Andromeda "sourcebook" 🙂 , because if I get the chance to play, it will be in Andromeda.

Do you have a plan to create a character sheet?

All in all I must say that your take on the setting is much more streamlined and much more in line with the established books (comperatively to Rot and SothB).

Thank you again so much for sharing. You did an awesome job here!

I am playing Andromeda again at the moment...

Thanks a lot for your job!

So many wondering thing! Especially for chapter 3, 5, 6. Now I am hope that have possibility to start my new own adventure.

It's miracle how Genesys easy to modify that we have old EoE variant, singularity, and now this one. (And when I am try my first I am create my own variant because not find singularity yet)

My five cent about this one:

P.17 Volus gain one rank in knowledge (brokers) but no knowledge (brokers) in game actually

P.67 Enhanced Optics presented in text but no in table so no cost/rarity information

P.71 Recoil Compensators I actually not see the way to get weapon with innacurate quality.

And a few question/comment:

P.13 Really good and ironical that Kroghan have some naive issue as Thurian have. Good race tweek in comparison with Singularity.

P.14 Good fragile immune adaptation (I am correct that only damaging suite, not regular wounds get they compromised?) but why 2 Brawn 1 Willpower? I am undestand that I am able to modify it in my game but really interested about your motivation. Just because lot races with 1 brawn? I think that is good idea when week asari choose diplomacy, salarian choose espionage and Quarian choose geth. See no prequisites for 1 Willpower

P.15 really want to liseni races wariant for Salarian. Have no idea what is it (For example 223221 stats or diversed genethic from singularity, or special benefit for cybernetic, or g-mod rules from SoB)

P.16 just talk about Kroghan and turian above and then Turian loose naive error and get low willpower. Strange for high disipline race...

P.18 Culture of Violence - great solution instead of block Inttelect raise fro vorcha. I love it a lot.

P.29 Warfare(Intellect) - look like not necessary anymore when you removed combat mastery... May be I am miss something?

P.32-33 Is a Special that no talent from RoT and SoB? for example tumble? Just remember how brilliant Thali Zora disingage from Saren's mercenary near Kora Lair?

P.40 Is a flavor EXP able to modify stats or only skills/talent?

P.48 No mine now? Strange in case that lot of vehicles there instead of singularity.

P.51 I undestand you idea of no consentration to weapon but table of unic weapon is really small. Hope thay are increased in future. Really miss my favorit B.P.P. and that really strange that you first pay for M-12 Locust then pay for attachment and transmutate it to M-25 Hornet as example. And If in singularity you still have ability to modify many special weapon by HP - there no way to do it.

P.52 Great hello from RoT. Glad to see it, but why no armor variant? For example:

Heavy Construction (also encumbrnace increased in both way item have cumbersome or not? May be need to reduce cumbersome to 2 for ranged light instead of 3?)

Reduce HP by 1 increase Soak for ane gain cumbersome 3 or increse cumbersome for 2

High Output

Reduce HP by 1 incresae both defence by 1 and gain unvieldy 3 or increase unvieldy by 2

ModularConstruction

Increase HP by 1 in additional one attachment that usually required 2 or more HP required 1 less

Outlaw

Inferior for armor already realy good chose, Also is possible to increse encumbrance by 2

P.53 is right that no defence in diplomatic clothes?

P.60 There no limitation to cybernatic? I remeber brawn limitation in SW...

P.62-63 There no restriction to use RoT or SoB equiment? For example backpack, bedroll, etc (actual for archeological adventure for example)

P.65 Ammunition - there no need to weapon HP and the item still presented if weapon Out of ammo and destroyed or its limited use like a grenade?

P.67 ITEM ATTACHMENTS - hope you add attachment modification option from SW 😃

P.69 Advanced IFF System - look absolutnly peaceful - whu restricted?

P.71 Outdated Heatsink - look like need to use 0 HP in case to replacing. 1 HP If you need to use benedit of both. Reduce DMG to 2 if weapon have limited ammo.

P.72 Ultralight Materials - no way to reduce Cumbersome?

P.79 PatrolCorvette look like need a Control Skill: Operating or Piloting as Survey Corvette has

P.80 Survey Corvette Control Skill: Operating or Piloting it represent Piloting for atmosphere and Operating for space or you able to use it in any way?

P.82 Is that all ok in VEHICLE ATTACHMENTS table? For example Structural Reinforcement: Silaris Armor 4,000 x Silhouette. Is are 20k for Normandy is are 0.625% of base cost and absolotely nothing for dreadnought. Why all galaxy not used it? Cost look like actual for corvettes ~7-8% of cost. Look like need update that whole cost. Also how cost to maintenace ships? The most hard part for long time party is manage money incoming to avoid "inflation" where party able to just use money to purchase army/spectre and solve any quest. If we have any rule for example each Consumables periud you need dock a silhuette/2 weeks and paid 10% of ship cost (included attachmen) is be very necessary.

P.90 Tech now not need strain absolutely? Just limitation that no more that 5 readid power and need to pay omni-tool and now power required memory?

P.99 CitadelDiplomat (Rival) Durable Clothing: +1 soak. - really not Diplomats Attire?

P.100 Dockworker (Minion) Durable Clothing: +1 soak. - really not Cargo Apparel?

And the last question in comparison with Singularity:

P.34 we have concussive shot instead of combat mastery...

P.59 we have adrenalin shot in drugs instead of combat mastery...

P.65 we have ammunition instead of combat mastery...

Where the Unity alternative? No more magical recovery, panaceline and our adventure deadly and dangerouse now?

And again so many thanks for you work!

===
I apologize for any misunderstandings.
English is not my native language.

Thanks for the great setting guide!

After a quick flip through, I really like your approach. I had started my own homebrew version that mirrors a lot of what you have decided upon in your guide. I'm looking forward to going through it in more detail to compare the things we did differently. You have covered a lot more content, so I know I will get good use out of this work!

I am planning an adventure in Andromeda. My question is, what would be your take on the glyph square puzzles? A pure hacking encounter as in Beanstalk does not reflect the background very well. Any suggestions?

Thanks

On 10/12/2019 at 10:55 PM, Dirk Senken said:

[...]

P.71 Recoil Compensators I actually not see the way to get weapon with innacurate quality.

It was initially meant to be the detriment on outlaw weapons, before I changed it to Infertior. So now, it's just left up to the GM to introduce Inaccurate weapons to the players. Additionally, the Andromeda document will add a fully-automatic shotgun with Inaccurate.

[...]

P.14 Good fragile immune adaptation (I am correct that only damaging suite, not regular wounds get they compromised?) but why 2 Brawn 1 Willpower? I am undestand that I am able to modify it in my game but really interested about your motivation. Just because lot races with 1 brawn? I think that is good idea when week asari choose diplomacy, salarian choose espionage and Quarian choose geth. See no prequisites for 1 Willpower

I don't like too many races being compromised on Brawn. Also, Quarian marines carry knives and are in fact noted to be pretty tough in melee combat (I think the book Andromeda: Annihilation mentions this). There is no ingame reason they should have low brawn, all we know of them is a bad immune system, but Brawn is far more than that. Instead, they get low Willpower to show a lack of competence to stand up for themselves. We frequently see Quarians bullied or taken advantage of in the setting, an idea surely brought along by the cloistered way in which they are raised.

P.15 really want to liseni races wariant for Salarian. Have no idea what is it (For example 223221 stats or diversed genethic from singularity, or special benefit for cybernetic, or g-mod rules from SoB)

There is no canon info on Listeni except for a single offhand remark in some text. Higher Brawn could be cool I suppose, but I don't think they warrant their own statblock given that they are basically nonexistent in the games.

P.16 just talk about Kroghan and turian above and then Turian loose naive error and get low willpower. Strange for high disipline race...

They needed a dumpstat, and Agility is really powerful in a gun-focused setting, so dropping the stat that gives them strain was a good way of balancing that.

P.29 Warfare(Intellect) - look like not necessary anymore when you removed combat mastery... May be I am miss something?

It's a Knowledge skill. They don't just exist for "magic", they have plenty other applications. Identify a ship by silhouette? Warfare. Analyze an enemy's tactics? Warfare. Remember interesting factoids about the First Contact War? Warfare.

P.32-33 Is a Special that no talent from RoT and SoB? for example tumble? Just remember how brilliant Thali Zora disingage from Saren's mercenary near Kora Lair?

This setting isn't super melee focused, and the Talent list is already really big. Also, there is SotB talents and RoT talents in here. The RoT ones are just renamed to fit the setting.

P.40 Is a flavor EXP able to modify stats or only skills/talent?

Read SotB, it says in there. I'm not reprinting FFG stuff.

P.51 I undestand you idea of no consentration to weapon but table of unic weapon is really small. Hope thay are increased in future. Really miss my favorit B.P.P. and that really strange that you first pay for M-12 Locust then pay for attachment and transmutate it to M-25 Hornet as example. And If in singularity you still have ability to modify many special weapon by HP - there no way to do it.

It's designed to be modular and simplistic. You can run it differently if you want. I don't like gear bloat.

P.52 Great hello from RoT. Glad to see it, but why no armor variant?

Armor doesn't use most qualities. Cumbersome and Unwieldy don't go on them, neither does Inferior. There is no precedent to add a complex craftmanship system for armor. The weapon one is enough.

P.53 is right that no defence in diplomatic clothes?

They don't have shields.

P.60 There no limitation to cybernatic? I remeber brawn limitation in SW...

You lose strain. That's the limitation in Genesys. It's in the Core Book.

P.62-63 There no restriction to use RoT or SoB equiment? For example backpack, bedroll, etc (actual for archeological adventure for example)

I mean, you can use them if you want, but traditionally, you use the stuff presented to you by the setting. You don't use the "Extra Clip" from GRCB in Terrinoth either, after all.

P.65 Ammunition - there no need to weapon HP and the item still presented if weapon Out of ammo and destroyed or its limited use like a grenade?

They are consumables. When the weapon runs out of ammo, it's gone.

P.69 Advanced IFF System - look absolutnly peaceful - whu restricted?

Because the exact same item in SotB is restricted. Makes it harder for players to get, since it negates a big caveat.

P.71 Outdated Heatsink - look like need to use 0 HP in case to replacing. 1 HP If you need to use benedit of both. Reduce DMG to 2 if weapon have limited ammo.

It doesn't replace anything and it doesn't work on Limited Ammo weapons. This is intentional.

P.72 Ultralight Materials - no way to reduce Cumbersome?

Nope. Cumbersome is designed to be limiting.

[...]

Also how cost to maintenace ships? The most hard part for long time party is manage money incoming to avoid "inflation" where party able to just use money to purchase army/spectre and solve any quest. If we have any rule for example each Consumables periud you need dock a silhuette/2 weeks and paid 10% of ship cost (included attachmen) is be very necessary.

If you want to bog down your game with more number tracking, be my guest, but FFG didn't do it for Star Wars, which was WAY more focused on star ships, so I see no reason to do it for this. Your game, your rules, of course.

P.90 Tech now not need strain absolutely? Just limitation that no more that 5 readid power and need to pay omni-tool and now power required memory?

Yes. It's supposed to be different from Biotics. They are meant to feel like different systems.

P.99 CitadelDiplomat (Rival) Durable Clothing: +1 soak. - really not Diplomats Attire?

P.100 Dockworker (Minion) Durable Clothing: +1 soak. - really not Cargo Apparel?

Change it if you want? These are example adversaries, not dogmas .-.

[...]

Where the Unity alternative? No more magical recovery, panaceline and our adventure deadly and dangerouse now?

You mean the thing in Mass Effect where you somehow, magically, apply medigel across a room? The thing that is clearly a gameplay feature and not founded in the setting? Yeah I left that out, it's silly.

I hope I could answer most of the questions there. I skipped over a few things, but mostly just tried to clarify that this setting is different from Singularity (and not designed as a "Version 2") and also trying to be slim and simplistic.

On 10/21/2019 at 8:08 AM, Seam said:

I am planning an adventure in Andromeda. My question is, what would be your take on the glyph square puzzles? A pure hacking encounter as in Beanstalk does not reflect the background very well. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Uh, I dunno. I'd either do it as an actual physical puzzle for the players, or have them roll some Intellect based checks, probably? I've never done much puzzle things in RPGs, and I've not written anything about these things for the Andromeda expansion either.
Plus, I suppose only Ryder or someone else with a SAM can actually, canonically do these things? And like I didn't write about Shepard, I don't intend to write about Ryder. I try my best to keep the game protagonists out of this, because a lot of players have a very deep connection to "their" Shepard. (I know I do!)

On 9/27/2019 at 2:01 PM, BluSunrize said:

In the year 2148, explorers on Mars discovered the remains of an ancient spacefaring civilization. In the decades that followed, these mysterious artifacts revealed startling new technologies, enabling travel to the furthest stars. The basis for this incredible technology was a force that controlled the very fabric of space and time.

They called it the greatest discovery in human history.

The civilizations of the galaxy call it... MASS EFFECT

This is a fan project and unaffiliated with BioWare or EA International. Please don't sue me, kthx

~ Version 1.0.0 Download ~

Hey everyone!

For the past 6 months, I've been composing a Mass Effect setting for the Genesys RPG. I was inspired by a campaign in that very setting that I've been running for a good year and a half. We originally started with another community made setting document, but as our campaign progressed, there were too many things we felt didn't fit entirely or didn't work smoothly rules wise, so I set out in an attempt to give the community a finished and well rounded representation of BioWare's science fiction world for Genesys.

The main goals here was to make things slim and generalized. Rather than provide profiles for every single weapon from the ME franchise, this setting's approach uses generic templates such as "Heavy Pistol", but introduces a weapon making (similar to craftsmanship from Terrinoth) that modifies this profile further. Thus, a Carnifex can still feel different from a Predator!

Apart from an impressive armory and pages full of gear and equipment, this book also features:

• 14 unique PC species , including the often overlooked Hanar and Elcor, as well as the mysterious Protheans and even Artificial Intelligences
• 11 different careers to start your characters with
• A load of talents, some borrowed from existing Genesys material (Terrinoth and Beanstalk), some ported from SWRPG, and some completely custom!
• Biotics and Tech powers in the form of two different adaptions of Genesys' magic:
  • Biotics function similar to normal magic, spending strain to cast "spells"
  • Tech powers require no strain, but a PC can only "prepare" a limited number of them, based on the capacity of their omni-tool
• 20 different vehicles , all of them generalized; ranging from Mechs, over Rovers to Corvettes and Dreadnoughts
• More than 80 adversaries , from all lifestyles and regions of the galaxy
• And a Game Master chapter which offers insight into running military campaigns, some example plot hooks and a section dedicated to the terrifying Reaper threat.

The PDF is fully bookmarked to all its chapters and sub-sections, so downloading is a lot better than viewing it in GDrive ^^

I hope that the 150 pages I have compiled by now serve as help and inspiration for anyone here who wants to run their own adventures in the Milky Way. (And maybe even Andromeda down the line. I have some plans for that )

Lastly, a massive thanks goes to everyone involved in designing, playtesting, offering advice.

• The 4 other nerds that I play this with every week; Thanks guys ❤️
• The Genesys discord for all the support and encouragement
• J. Scott Zumwalt for the wonderful AffinityPublisher template
• Guillaume Tardif for the awesome front cover

Beautifully done, thank you very much! 😃

~ Main Setting Version 1.0.1 Download ~

I have updated the setting! It's mostly fixes, but some minor balance changes. The full changelog is here, but can also be found in the original post

In far more exciting news, I have also finished:

~ Andromeda Expansion Version 1.0.0 Download ~

It's only a small (30 pages) expansion on the setting, but it features Angara as a playable species, some new Talents , more guns, more gear, 4 new factions , and over 20 new adversaries !

I don't see myself expanding on it too much. While it doesn't have a Game Master chapter, I kinda ran out of steam and ideas for that one...

Thank you once again for sharing! Much appreciated!

~ Main Setting Version 1.0.2 Download ~

New version of the setting is out now!

Just some minor fixes really, spelling errors, a wrong dice display on the Turian Spectre, and the Artificial Intelligence archetype now has their " Operating at Full Capacity" ability limited to a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 5.

Any progress on a new version soon?

Not really? The setting is basically feature-complete.

I can't really think of anything else it needs.

First of all, thank you @BluSunrize for amazing work

Second one, may be I am just miss it, but there presented char list for ME setting?

It's be very necessary to see prepared tech for example.

Work on my first module while COVID #WFH so looking for this to made premade character

Nope, sorry, I don't have any pre-made characters, this is just a raw setting. Character creation is up to the players.

No-no sorry. You already create chapter 1 STEP3:CHOOSE A CAREER - there amazing work. I just mean that original char list awful a bit, especial if you need to modify it for setting like Mass Effect. So no special char list template. Ok.

btw, a bit question - career Adept (page 22) have only 8 career skill include biotic. So you able to choose those skill as career in character creation phase and become a biotic? Because when I am read text first I memorize that to become biotic you need to be asari or purchase EmergentBiotic (page 31) talent so you always have at leaset 9 career skill.

On 5/9/2020 at 1:23 PM, Dirk Senken said:

No-no sorry. You already create chapter 1 STEP3:CHOOSE A CAREER - there amazing work. I just mean that original char list awful a bit, especial if you need to modify it for setting like Mass Effect. So no special char list template. Ok.

btw, a bit question - career Adept (page 22) have only 8 career skill include biotic. So you able to choose those skill as career in character creation phase and become a biotic? Because when I am read text first I memorize that to become biotic you need to be asari or purchase EmergentBiotic (page 31) talent so you always have at leaset 9 career skill.

You become a Biotic by having the Biotics skill as a career skill. See page 86:

Quote

I n order to use biotic abilities, a character must have at least one rank in the Biotics skill. They cannot invest XP in the Biotics skill unless they have it as a career skill, due to the fact that biotics are (traditionally) naturally born with their abilities.

Therefor, any Asari is automatically biotic (because they gain it as a career skill), anyone chosing Adept is a biotic (because they have it as a career skill) and anyone taking the Emergent Biotic talent is also a biotic. However, none of them can use the skill until they have at least one rank in it.

This topic has been migrated to the new Genesys community forums:

https://genesys.bigevil.net/index.php?topic=15.0

Good to hear!!!