Dynasties / Lineages / Legacies

[Mojomoe]

Heya, fellas!

As I'm prepping the TOR book, it occurs to me that it would be neat to include a system for creating lineages or dynasties. As in, you retire your character, and pick up his/her descendent several or many generations later, perhaps with some tables or charts to decide how your dynasty changes over the centuries. Sure, you could leave it to GM fiat, but where's the fun in that ?

I'm reminded of the function in - is it Traveller? - where you RP and dice roll your way through your academy training, even with the possibility to die *during* your schooling? Do I have that right?

Does anyone have a similar system they could recommend I look at? Any other RPGs, or even SAGA/D20 or FFG attempt to handle these multi-generation characters/families? I'd love to find some precedent.

[DougRed4]

I've been loving how they do that in The One Ring. In fact, I guess they're expanding on that and doing more with it soon, from what I hear/read.

I've heard it's big in Pendragon as well.

Would be really cool to see this for Star Wars. 8)

You're correct that the way of dying during character creation is from Traveller. I made up a similar system for backgrounds for Decipher's Star Trek game, to give players a backstory (Academy and prior service tours) using some inspiration from FASA's Star Trek game.
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[Mojomoe]

Awesome!

Could you give me some idea how that system functions in Thr One Ring (or Pendragon or Traveller)? Any insight is good. I just need a solid foundational mechanic.

If I might ask, what was the system you came up with for Star Trek?

[Whill]

I've never played the game, but Hellas: Worlds of Sun & Stone has a multi-generational aspect, where PC descendants of PCs can start with 20% of their ancestor's Glory (or something like that) and possibly other boons. That isn't really helpful to your purpose here, but I wouldn't be the one to explain how the game mechanics work. But Hellas is a fascinating setting (Ancient Greece space opera) if you want to pick up the PDF. The author used to post on D6 Online, and I've also hung out with him in person. He's cool.
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[Mojomoe]

That's pretty cool, I'll definitely check that out.

Thank you, you also gave me the Google term I beeded: "multi-generational." Im commenting so there's a record; I've found the following discussions or resources for similar games. Perhaps I'll make a quick system.

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?71544-Generational-RPGs
http://www.story-games.com/forums/discussion/10828/multigenerational-rpgs

What would people (who are interested) want in such a system?

[DougRed4]

[Mojomoe]

That's fascinatung, actually. I'd love to do some more research. Still have the charts?

Ok, so from what I can tell, there are two types of mechanics I could create.

The first is just a direct descendent chart. How much of the first character passes to the second character, etc. Much like the One Ring one is sounding. Perhaps a bit of your Trek chart mixed in. It basically speeds up character creation by planting a 'seed' of the ancestor, and deciding how much survived.

The second would be an actual lineage system: how much of your bloodline survives over multiple or enev hundreds of generations, how their lives change, and what kind of people they are - even having the chance for the lineage to radically change or die out. The kind of chart/system that would take a Jedi who was a father, input the length of time (say, 400 years), and the given output could be a down-on-their-luck smuggler, a crime lord, an addict, a thriving Jedi Master, or even a fallen Sith family.

Which would more people find interesting?

I suppose the main application of #2 would be my TOR sourcebook - generating a character in the Old Republic, then putting that lineage through the gauntlet to give you a Rebellion-era descendent for a follow-up campaign. Thoughts?

[DougRed4]

Here's the stuff I came up with. One thing I wasn't crazy about was having it use 1d100, being as CODA uses all d6s. But it was a modern translation/adaptation of what the old FASA game had.

To determine the type of ship a Federation Cadet is posted to, roll 1d100 on the Cadet Cruise Assignment Table, modifying the roll with the Cadet Cruise Assignment Modifiers.

Cadet Cruise Assignment Table
01-15 Explorer (roll on Explorer Chart)
16-35 Cruiser (roll on Cruiser Chart)
36-50 Warship (roll on Warship Chart)
51-75 Scout (roll on Scout Chart)
76-100 Science Vessel (roll on Science Vessel Chart)

Cadet Cruise Assignment Modifiers
Presence 7+ -10
Presence 6 -5
Presence 4 or less +5
Intellect 7+ -10
Intellect 6 -5
Per previous Cadet Cruise +10

Explorer Chart
01-10 Intrepid Class (Light Explorer)
11-30 Sovereign Class (Heavy Explorer)
31-50 Nebula Class (Exploratory Cruiser)
51-70 Galaxy Class (Explorer)
71-90 Excelsior Class (Exploratory Cruiser)
91-100 Aerie Class (Surveyor)

Cruiser Chart
01-05 Prometheus Class (Light Cruiser)
06-15 Akira Class (Heavy Cruiser)
16-40 Nebula Class (Exploratory Cruiser)
41-70 Ambassador Class (Heavy Cruiser)
71-100 Excelsior Class (Exploratory Cruiser)

Warship Chart
01-05 Prometheus Class (Light Cruiser)
06-15 Defiant Class (Heavy Escort)
16-25 Akira Class (Heavy Cruiser)
26-40 Ambassador Class (Heavy Cruiser)
41-55 Nebula Class (Exploratory Cruiser)
56-75 New Orleans (Frigate)
76-100 Excelsior Class (Exploratory Cruiser)

Scout Chart
01-30 Talon Class (Scout)
31-100 Nova Class (Heavy Scout)

Science Vessel Chart
01-50 Miranda Class (Science Vessel, Supply Ship)
51-100 Oberth Class (Science Vessel)

I also had (or made) a Cadet Cruise Assignment Table

Cadet Cruise Assignment Table
01-15 Explorer (Explorer, Heavy Explorer, Light Explorer)
16-25 Cruiser (Cruiser, Battle Cruiser, Exploratory Cruiser, Heavy Cruiser, Light Cruiser)
26-50 Warship (Battleship, Dreadnaught, Fast Attack Ship, Destroyer, Heavy Destroyer, Frigate, Fast Frigate, Heavy Frigate, Light Frigate)
51-75 Escort (Escort, Destroyer Escort, Heavy Escort, Light Escort)
76+ Scout (Scout, Far Scout, Heavy Scout)

and then a Cadet Cruise Results Table (which is a PDF, but I can't link to Dropbox here from work).

Hiope these at least give you some inspiration!
_________________
Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[Mojomoe]

This is fascinating!

Could even be cool to adapt this chart (permission pending!) to an Imperial Academy grad.

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If I were to make a legacy chart, however, what would people be more interested in:

A) a direct descendent mechanic. Take PC, generate child, on a per-character basis.

Or B) a lineage mechanic. Take PC, find out what happens to their line three, four, ten generations later and generate a child and family line status.

[DougRed4]

[cynanbloodbane]

You could also look at Hackmaster 4th edition by Kenzerco, the GMG had rules for determining the stats of a child based on stats of the parents.
The four class books had training tables for detailing early life.
Death was only a possibility for thief types, but all classes could end up with disabilities.
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"Yes because killing the guy you always planned on usurping and killing anyways in order to save your own kid, totally atones for murdering a roomful of innocent trusting children." The Brain