The Cepheus Engine As Multi-Genre RPG?

First and foremost the Cepheus Engine like the game it tries to emulate, Traveller, are science fiction roleplaying games. But instead of being limited to just sci-fi adventure stories, could Cepheus handle games in other genres? While thinking about what kind of games I could run with Cepheus Light, I wondered if the CE would actually work as a multi-genre roleplaying system.

Historical and pseudo-historical games are very easily done using the Cepheus System. The game assumes that the various worlds the player characters travel to have different tech levels from 0 (Stone Age) to 15 and beyond. The modern world is about tech level 8. The game also lists weapons, armor and equipment suitable for a variety of tech levels. So the CE is already designed with various levels of technology in mind.

The only problem I see are the CE careers which have been tailored to fit the implied setting. Retirement rewards like space ships, or certain skills might be inappropriate in a game set into medieval times for example. But if you use an alternate character creation method like the one I mentioned in my last post, things should work out quite nicely. It should also be quite possible to hack the existing careers into something more fitting to the kind of game you want to run. More adventurous referees might even want to design their own careers.

If you add fantastical elements to the game, things get a bit more complicated. The Cepheus Engine does not have a magic system out of the box. You could just use psionics and call it magic, or you could try to adapt an existing magic system from a fantasy roleplaying game. I haven’t actually tried it yet, but I guess you could just take the magic system from an old edition of D&D and use it with Traveller.

Alternatively you could just wait for the release of Sword of Cepheus, a sword & sorcery version of the Cepheus System. Omer Golan-Joel from Stellagama Publishing is currently working on that one. This project actually made me think about the CE as a multi-genre game in the first place.

So why should anyone actually want to use the Cepheus Engine for anything else than what it was designed for? First and foremost CE is a simple, easy to learn roleplaying game. If you are already comfortable with the system, you could easily run/play games in other genres without relearning everything. The CE is also pretty robust. You can hack it easily without fearing to break everything. Of course Traveller or the Cepheus Engine are not the only games you can hack to run in other genres. But if you like the 2d6 mechanics but want to run a non-scifi game, the Cepheus Engine might still be a valid choice.

4 comments

comments user
Todd

Zozer Games has done some of that kind of work as well. See the “Low Tech Weapons”, “Archaic Firearms”, and “Fast Magic” supplements for CE. Although they don’t cover careers, so that would be a nice addition.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/244628/Low-Tech-Weapons

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/242707/Archaic-Firearms

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/241086/Fast-Magic

Zozer has other 2d6 games that aren’t based on CE, but have some mechanics that I like. I’ve been toying with the idea of hacking the two together myself.

comments user
johnkzin

There was a third party product called Netherel, that is a Traveler setting for a planet that happens to have Magic. I own the PDF, but never really cracked into it. It’s ok DTRPG, from Terra-Sol Games. I think it’s related to their Twilight Sector bundle.

I think it’s intended to be core traveler, but if Cepheus engine works with that, the magic system (and even the fantasy arms and equipment section) in Netherel should work as at least a starting point.

comments user
egdcltd

Michael Brown has done a whole bunch of multi-genre versions. Wild West, post-apocalypse, fantasy and more.

    comments user
    Stargazer

    Cool!