First Adventure on the Citadel - Mythic and Mass Effect

 Now that we have our characters, let's set them off on their first adventure.

First, why are they on the Citadel (Detail Check): Negative, Failure

What area of the Citadel are they on (Description): Feeble, Clean

Are they under Arrest?  (unlikely)  No.

Are they in a bar:  (likely)  Yes.

Do they know each other already?  (50%)  No

Rammer sat at the bar and downed his drink. It was a slow day as far as work was concerned. CSec wasn't hiring, at least not hiring him, and rent-a-cops paid peanuts. Nearby, a Quarian thumbed through his omni-tool, probably searching for jobs as well. A female salarian sat back at a booth with her feet kicked up. A small drone hovered nearby, and she giggled as he bounced around.

Suddenly, the door burst open and some troops in armor Rammer had never seen before burst in.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen," said the leader. "We're looking for biotics, so step forward and no one gets hurt."

Are there as many troops as the 3 characters? (Likely) Yes

Are they Level 0?  (likely)  Yes

Okay, so we have 3 troops, all Level 0. Which means their stats have to equal 0. Let's start with:

Enemy Trooper Level 0:  Damage 1, Defend, 0, Effect -1, Power 0, Toughness 1.

Weapon:  Assault Rifle.

"Finally," mumbled Rammer, who slowly pulled out his rifle, but kept it hidden under the table. 

One of the troopers approached Krix and noticed his drone. "Turn that thing off."

"Yes sir," the salarian said quickly.

"Not fast enough," said the trooper, who pointed his weapon at Krix's head.

Enough of this, thought Rammer, who pointed his rifle at the lead trooper.

This will be a Clash, with Rammer performing A Damage action while the trooper will perform a Defend to get out of the way.

Rammer has Damage +3 vs. the trooper's Defend 0.

(Clash)  Does Rammer win the Clash? (+3 = Nearly Certain) Yes.

(Damage) The shot + the 3 pt difference means the trooper is now at -2 RS.

The shots hit the trooper in the back and he collapsed to the ground, groaning. The other two aimed their weapons, but the quarian suddenly vanished and the salarian summoned another combat drone.

I'll combine actions for this one. Everyone is performing a Damage. The trooper's total is +2. Krix/Laslow are combining Power with Damage and have a combined Damage of +3. 

(Clash)  Do the heroes win the Clash? (+1 = Likely)  X-Yes.

(Damage)  Both troopers suffer -1 RS.

Laslow fired from his cloak and struck one trooper. Krix's drone opened fire on the other trooper and scored a hit. Both spun around to face their new adversaries.

For the next round, I'll roll for each individual.

First:

(Q)  Do the troopers remain?  (Unlikely)  Yes.

(Clash)  Does Rammer win?  (+3 vs. +1 -2 = +4 = Certain) Yes - Random Event.

Since Rammer is not using a power, he doesn't have to worry about cooldown.

(Event)  Stop, Information.

(Damage):  +3 vs. +1 - 2 -1 (losing the Clash) -1 (3 pt difference) = -3.

(Incapacity)  Is the trooper Incapacitated?  (+6 = Certain)  Yes - Random Event

(Event)  Positive, Harm

(Q) Does his friends try to get him out of there?  (likely)  Yes.

Rammer fired again and caught to trooper in chesr. The trooper hit the ground with smoking coming from his armor. His buddies immediately grabbed his arms and dragged him out, with their hands raise.

"We're good. We're good."

"We better get out of herem" said Krix, "before CSec shows up."

(Q) Is CSec there yet?  (likely)  No.

"Strange," said Laslow, as they slipped out of the building and into an alley. "I thought they'd be here by now."

"They've got bigger problems than this part of the station," said Rammer.

"Still," Krix replied, "we better not push our luck."

(Q)  Do they see any more of these troopers?  (50%)  Yes.

(Q)  More than one?  (likely)  No.

(Q) Is he looking for a fight?  (likely)  Yes.

(Q)  Does he notice the heroes?  (50%)  No.

Turning a corner, the encountered a lone trooper, apparently eyeing a courtyard. He seemed to be searching for a specific target.

Rammer raised his rifle, but Laslow gently pushed the barrel down. "Let's not attract too much attention, shall we?"

Krix approached and activated his omni tool.

Krix will attempt to use Overload as an Effect to knock the trooper out. Since he's also sneaking, he gets a -1 to his roll. This actually nullifies the trooper-s -1 (he's avoiding the attack), so it's just Krix's +2.

(Clash)  Does Krix win the Clash?  (+2 = Very Likely)  Yes.

Sneaking up on the trooper, Krix launched a blast of electricity. It struck the trooper, who collapsed to the ground. The three pulled him back into the alley and tied him up.

"Okay," said Laslow, "it's time to see what's really going on."

As the trooper awoke, Laslow leaned over him.  "Wakey wakey."

The trooper's hands instantly fell to his belt, but he found his hands were bound and his belt, nowhere in sight. 

"Who are you after?" Laslow asked.

For this interrogation, I'll use Laslow's Effect (+2) vs. the trooper's Defend (0).

(Clash)  Does Laslow win the Clash?  (+2 = very likely)  X-Yes.

"We're looking for biotics," the trooper said.

"Who do you work for?" Laslow asked.

(Q)  Does the trooper even know who he works for?  (likely, right? I mean he has to)  No

Guess not.

"They appear in garbled messages to us," the trooper answered. "We never met them, but they pay us a lot to bring biotics in alive."

"Well, not today." Standing, Laslow glanced at the trooper's omni-tool. "Think you can make anything of this?"

Krix studied it.  "Possibly, but it might take some time. Let's find a place to crash while I look this over."

"What about him?" Rammer kicked the trooper.

"Leave him for CSec," Krix answered  "I'm also making a copy of all this info and leaving it."

"Leaving it?" asked Laslow. "Why?"

"For them to find," answered Krix. "That way they know what they're up against."

"Good." Rammer nodded. "Maybe they'll hire us to figure this out."

So that was the first adventure. Pretty quick, but it got the job done. Next time, we'll see where else our friend's adventures take them.

This is my favorite game on the Citadel - Combining Mythic and Mass Effect

 I've been playing the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, though mostly ME 2 and 3, and I wondered if it could be put into a roleplaying game. Now there are a bunch of sci-fi RPGs out there, and they're all great games. However, I'm a huge fan of Mythic and wanted to use it instead, which proved to be easier than I thought. 

For this game, I'll be using several issues of Mythic Magazine, specifically:

MM #25:  One Page Mythic

MM #28:  Mythic RPG Narrative Combat

MM #31:  Mythic as a Rules Lite RPG

MM #45:  One Page Character Crafter

Abilities

All characters have 4 Abilities (Technically 5 with Toughness, but we'll get into that later.). Abilities can be positive or negative, with 0 being average. (In the upcoming Mythic rules, this will be changed, and when they do, I'll adjust these. I'm just going with these for now because they're easier for a brand new game).

These Abilities are also based on actions taken during a Class (MM 28):

Damage: This is for actions that make things worse for someone or something. Attacking an opponent, kicking down a door, and intimidating a victim all fall under this.

Defend: This is for actions that keep bad things from happening to you or other characters (or even things). These include ducking out of the way, blocking an attack, or even barring a door.

Effect: This is for everything else. Whether you are distracting a guard, hacking a computer, or exploring a star system, these all fall under Effect.

Power:  Most characters also have powers of some kind, and they fall under Combat, Tech, or Biotic. 

Power

Power allows characters to do all the fun things like they do in the games; set opponents on fire, hack turrets, and picking things up and toss them around. Oh, and don't forget trapping opponents in a spinning vortex before hurling a warp at them.

To use a power, characters add Power to whichever Ability they wish.

For example:

- Power + Damage can be Warp, Concussive Shot, Overload, or even Slam.

- Power + Defend can be Barrier, Defense Matrix, or Fortitude.

- Power + Effect can be Lift, Sabotage, Tactical Cloak, or Drone.

Cooldown:  If Doubles are rolled when using a Power, the power must cool down before it can be used again, which would be the next scene. 

Limit:  The Power ability cannot be higher than the character's highest Ability. For example, if a character has Damage +1, Defend 0, Effect +2, Power cannot higher than +2. However, if the highest Ability is raised, then Power can be raised as well, although it still requires Ability points to do so.

Races

The universe of Mass Effect is filled with species of all shapes and sizes. All characters of Level 1 or higher get a one-time +1 bonus to one ability, depending on their race:

Humans:  Choose.

Asari:  +1 Power

Krogan  +1 Damage

Salarian:  +1 Effect

Turian:  +1 Defend

Quarian:  +1 Effect

Geth:  +1 Defend  (Cannot be a Biotic Class)

Drell:  +1 Damage

Creating a Character

When creating a character, first come up with an idea. Then choose your Race, Class, and Skill (We'll get into weapons and armor later. For now, assume they're built into existing abilities).

Level

 Most character start at Level 1, but that's up to you. In addition to the race bonus, characters gain 3 Ability Points per level that can organized any way to player wishes.

Zero Level Characters:  These are low level characters that usually exist to give new characters practice in learning the game. A 0 Level Character gets no Racial Bonus and all Abilities must add up to 0.

-  So a Thug with +1 Damage could have -1 Defend.

Toughness

Toughness is a character's ability to survive life-threatening situations. It is similar to Hit Points in most games, but it is rolled instead of being kept track of.

-  Toughness is Equal to the character's Level + Highest Ability.

-  Use Toughness when rolling on the Incapacity Table.  (MM 25)

Skills

All characters start with 1 Skill. Skills grant a character a +1 on a non-combat action.

Examples of Skills include:

Pilot

Hacking

Medical

Leadership

Persuasion

Wits

Knowledge

With those in mind, let's create our first characters. Now these aren't the characters I'm using in my usual games. I'm just creating them to show the rules.

But where's the fun in that? Let's let Mythic help us.

First Character:  Male or Female?  (50%)  Male

Character Actions, Combat:  Free Damage.

Sounds like a Soldier to me.

Rammer:  Human Level 1 Soldier

Damage:  3, Defend: 1, Effect: 0, Power: 0, Toughness: 4.

Weapon: Avenger Assault Rifle.

Armor:  Basic.

Is he Alliance?  (50%)  No.

Are any of the team Alliance?  (Unlikely)  No.

Rammer is tough but he has a problem with authority. He's also lazy. But he's a skilled and fearless fighter.

Second Character:  Male?  (50%) Yes.

Character Actions, Combat: Break, Truce. 

Sounds sneaky to me.

Laslow: Quarian Level 1 Infiltrator

Damage: 0, Defend: 1, Effect: 2, Power: 1

Weapon: SMG

Armor: Basic.

Powers: Tactical Cloak, Overload

Laslow learned the commanders on his ship were planning to start another war with the Geth. He released the information that he gained but got removed from the ship in the process.

And the third member of the team:

Male?  (Very Unlikely) Yes.

Character Actions, Combat: Rough, Mechanical

Krix: Salarian Level 1 Engineer

Damage: 1, Defend: 0, Effect: 2, Power: 1

Powers: Combat drone, Overload, Incinerate

Weapon: Heavy Pistol

Armor: basic

Krix is a coward who prefers for technology to fight for him. Luckily, he's very good at technology.

Next time, we'll start their adventure.