Starblazer Adventures meets the Mass Effect Universe

Some time ago I wrote about my plans to run a Starblazer Adventures game. As always things didn’t went as planned and I had to reschedule. But at least our RPG pub meeting on Thursday was a huge success. I introduced the regulars to the FATE roleplaying game system in general and Starblazer Adventures in particular, and two more players decided they want to give it a try.

So my group grew from 3 to 5 players and when talking about what kind of campaign setting they wanted to play in, we finally settled on a Mass Effect campaign. In my opinion Mass Effect fits SBA’s style perfectly. The only thing I have to do is add some rules for Mass Effect’s tech and biotics powers. But I am sure I can come up with a couple of skills and stunts during this week, so we can finally start with character creation next week or so.

Using an established universe has some advantages. It not only saves me a lot of time, but I can also just point my players to the Mass Effect Wiki if they want to read up on the background.

Currently I am thinking about two possible campaign models. The first is pretty close to the computer game. The player characters are in charge of a Systems Alliance vessel out on patrol, or doing search and rescue missions.  As an alternative I was thinking about an ExoGeni Corporation campaign, where the players are prospectors, researchers etc. looking for suitable planets for colonization or mining at the edge of colonized space.

While I let the the players decide what kind of campaign they prefer I’ll have some time to prepare the biotic and tech rules and come up with a few stats for space ships and alien species. By the way, if you have already run a Mass Effect game using FATE, please share your experiences in the comments below. Any advice is highly appreciated!