Category Archives: genesys

The Death of Genesys ‘Confirmed’!

genesys, news, rant, RPG

It has been reported over the last few days that FFG are killing off their RPG department completely, and that they will no longer be producing RPGs.

The slight silver lining to the cloud is that already announced RPG products like the Keyforge campaign book will be published. But after the current commitments have been met, nada.

That means the Star Wars, L5R and Genesys RPGs will join the ranks of defunct RPGs.

It’s a shame that this is happening.

It kills off any hopes fans of the games had that FFG would be using outside contractors to produce new content for their favourite game.

There are other rumours or conspiracy theories floating around along with this news. These range from FFG are being sold off to Asmodee being sold off. But that’s just internet chatter trying to make 2 + 2 = 5.

I haven’t played the Genesys system but I do like it. Especially that it had the Android source book. The one drawback for me that applies to the whole group of FFG RPGs is the use of custom dice. Naturally these dice had the infamous FFG premium added on. They did produce a mobile app for the dice. Which was considerably cheaper than a physical set.

But we are about to get into the scenario I have for all modern board games that rely on an app for play. Support after the product is no longer published. It gets worse in this situation because the FFG software department went in the cleansing just after Christmas. So unless the Asmodee software team pick up the support and maintenance of the app. As soon as a future release of Android or iOS breaks it, that’s it. It’s a dead app. That’s assuming that FFG don’t pull the app.

The app was the only realistic option for players that want to use any of the RPGs going forward. The dice sets will get rarer and rarer, and more expensive because of this.

I suppose the only option left would be for players in the future to map the relevant custom dice to their regular versions. Not ideal, produces an overhead during play that could slow things down when doing checks. But still a work around.

The future of the licences that FFG have is an interesting one. I think some like the Star Wars one will be picked up. What the actual practicalities of that is I have no idea. Can a third party pick the RPG licence up? Can FFG sub licence those rights to a third party? I’ve no idea. But whatever the specifics we could be a few years off seeing a new Star Wars RPG.

As for seeing a L5R RPG. That’s a harder one to guess. I know it has it’s fans. But enough to warrant a third party approaching FFG about licensing it? I’m not sure.

I love the Android universe. An IP that it seems FFG are mothballing completely, joining Tannhauser.

I know Genesys is a generic system that players are meant to use to create their own worlds and adventures. However I felt it was under supported, especially the two source books they produced. Apart from the sample adventures they produced for conventions there was no other material produced for them. The Android source book was lucky that FFG had produced the Worlds of Android book for Netrunner.

I think Android and Terrinoth would both have benefitted from FFG producing adventures on a regular basis for them. As would the Star Wars and L5R games. They needn’t have been the multi adventure campaigns that WotC put out for D&D. But more single adventures along the likes that the Adventurers League gets, that form part of a season.

Yes FFG introduced the Forge for fan created content. But I’m not sure how popular that was or is. I do feel that was a little too late.

Regular official content helps sell a system. Not all GMs want to home brew. Some want to pick up an adventure and run with it. Being able to cater for both is important. Although you could argue that if that was the case then the Genesys RPG isn’t for them. But it should be.

I still hold onto the hope I can get an Android based campaign up and running. But the likely hood of it being Genesys based has taken a hit.

Velociraptor Adversary for Genesys

genesys, RPG

This is a follow up post to the one yesterday where I created a T-Rex adversary for Genesys using the quick build guide from the Expanded Players Guide (EPL) Chapter 2 Adversary Creation.

In this post I’m just presenting the stat blocks for two velociraptors that were inspired by the ones in the original Jurassic Park movie.

In the first Jurassic Park movie the velociraptors hunted in a pack. The pack consisted of an alpha female velociraptor and two others. So that is how I envisage these adversaries to be run in a Jurassic Park style scenario.

Just like yesterday the disclaimer continues over into this post.

If you have any suggestions, improvements, please leave them in the comments.

Creating a T-Rex Adversary for Genesys

genesys, RPG

After the earlier post about a Jurassic Park RPG I was inspired to try and create a dinosaur adversary for the Genesys RPG.

There could only be one dinosaur to create first for such a setting and that is the poster boy for the movies, and arguably the most iconic, the T-Rex.

Creating a stat block from scratch is unusual for me. In D&D I usually cheat and reskin an existing creature/npc for my use. It cuts down on the work involved prepping considerably. It also helps that D&D has a pretty large menagerie to choose from also.

Sadly being a generic system, with at the time of writing two settings books (a third in the works), the available pool of creatures to use as a basis is a lot lot smaller.

I’ll be generating this adversary using the quick build guide from the Expanded Players Guide (EPL) Chapter 2 Adversary Creation.

I’ll issue a disclaimer at this point. This will be my first ever adversary for Genesys (a system I have yet to play). So there are going to be mistakes. At no point do I claim to be an expert on the rules or in creating custom content for Genesys. And to take whatever I say with a vary large unhealthy pinch of salt. We may differ on decisions made, and I look forward to discussing those in the comments in a respectful and polite manor.

Adversary Type: When creating an adversary we have three options available for its type. Those being minion, rival and nemesis. For me the T-Rex can only be a nemesis.

Characteristics: From Table II.2– 1: Characteristic Arrays I’ve gone with the Huge Creature array. This is for an Elephant, or dinosaur.

Soak, Defense,and Wound and Strain Thresholds: This uses Table II.2–2: Soak, Defense, and Wound and Strain Thresholds, and the advice is to choose two options from the table. I went with Armored Hide and Giant Body for the T-Rex. Armoured Hide for the T-Rex seemed a natural choice. I’m giving the T-Rex a silhouette of 3. This allows me to save 4 for the larger dinosaurs. The T-Rex is also going to get the adversary talent. Following the advice in the EPL side box about avoiding compounded defences this will be the only change made in making the T-Rex tougher in combat.

Skills: Using Table II.2–3: Skill Packages I went with choosing two skill packages. It should be noted I did have the option of picking a third. The two I chose were Ferocious Creature and Predatory Creature. I felt they fitted well with the T-Rex.

Talents and Special Abilities: For this I used the provided Table II.2–4: Adversary Talents and Table II.2–5: Adversary Special Abilities. I think the T-Rex could only have the Terrifying ability. It’s such a natural fit for it.

Equipment: I went with one of the pre-rolled equipment arrays. The large beast or creature array seemed a good fit. It’s designed for large creature like elephants and dinosaurs! I just removed tentacles or thundering hooves from the weapons because the T-Rex has neither.

Here is the final stat block for a T-Rex that I came up with.

I actually found the quick build guide easy to follow. Although it was unclear on how to generate the power levels. In the end I just added up all the adjustments provided throughout the chapter for the options I chose to get a final figure. With any final value that was a zero becoming a one instead as per the guide.

Roar of dinosaurs

genesys, RPG

Yesterday a friend tagged me into a post on Facebook on probably the best and friendliest board gaming forum on that platform the Board Game Trading and Chat UK group.

The post I was tagged in was about an RPG that my friend said he would be interested in playing. He did point out in his comment tagging me that only last Wednesday at the Monthly Meet Up that RPGs did not appeal to him. And this took out the sting of any mockery and banter I could have thought up.

My friend had also tagged in another of our friends who he thought would also find the post interesting (which they did, and have already printed off the rules etc).

The post itself was about a members experience playing a home brewed RPG based on Jurassic Park.

The poster kind of put me off this home brew RPG. The use of coin tosses to determine outcomes was a major switch off. It just didn’t appeal to me. You can firmly place me in the dice rolling camp on this front.

Another thing said was that there is a high player death count during play. When a player died they took over an npc and continued playing. This didn’t sit right with me. Potentially it might at a stretch be ok in a one shot. But what about campaign play? This definitely doesn’t allow players to get into playing their character and develop them. Or what’s the point of a characters backstory when you know they will die easily?

I suppose when it comes to something like this I get confused as to why the original creator of the home brew RPG came up with their own system or using a mechanic very few RPGs use. There are some pretty good generic systems out there, Genesys, W.O.I.N. (Now) or Fate that come to mind.

The poster said that game is predominantly narrative. Which definitely systems like Genesys and Fate are suited for. Granted these systems may be more complicated than the simple one created/chosen by the creator. But these systems have already done the majority of the heavy lifting mechanics wise.

If I wanted to run a one shot or mini campaign in the Jurassic Park universe my gut is telling me go with the Genesys system, with a modern setting. The main bit of work I’d have to do is create adversaries stats for the dinosaurs.

Luckily over on Wikipedia there is an entry that lists which dinosaurs appeared in which movies and also the books (here). So to keep the amount of work down I’d chose a subset of them, keeping the iconic ones like the T-Rex.

As an aside D&D 5th edition already has stat blocks for dinosaurs, and has used them in the D&D Tomb of Annihilation campaign book. Plus there is the Ixalan Planes Shift setting that has them. So it’s possible to run a Jurassic Park inspired adventure with a fantasy theme if that appeals.

I’d want to move away from the high player body count (this isn’t paranoia), and concentrate more on the themes of the books and movies. Such as ‘Man vs Nature’, ‘Technology’, and ‘Power’. Plus look at building suspense and that feeling of being hunted.

I almost like borrowing the mechanic from the Strahd campaign book where at the start of the campaign the DM does a ‘reading’ to decide where certain key items are located and a location Strahd will appear. This could be used to decide key locations in the adventure that the players need to visit before they can escape, and when the big bad will surprise them before the climatic final confrontation.

There is also usually a double cross or traitor in the books/movie. So that is something I’d also like to try and include. Which would involve working with one of the players without the rest of the party knowing.

I really do like the idea of running a one shot in the Jurassic Park universe. It’s just I don’t think this home brew is the solution for me.

For those remotely interested in the home brew RPG here are the links that the original poster shared.

The Start Of My Android Handout

android, genesys, netrunner, RPG


Being a wannabe noob GM as I’ve said in a previous post Matthew Colville has a lot of good advice.

One such nugget is the campaign handout. A short document for the players telling them about the world they will be adventuring in, and helping them decide what characters to create.

So I’ve made a stab at writing one for the Genesys Android campaign I want to run.

It needs a brief paragraph talking about how mega companies really run everything. Plus it also needs a brief description for each character type.

But here is what I’ve written so far (stuff in italics FFG words not mine).


It is the future. The world changed. People did not.

“In the not so-distant future, humanity has spread across the solar system, unlocked the frontiers of cyberspace, and created millions of intelligent androids in its own image. At the heart of this progress stands a ladder leading to the riches of the stars—the massive space elevator called the Beanstalk. And at its base sprawls the biggest, meanest, and most exciting city on Earth: New Angeles.”

12 hours ago your life turned upside down. 12 hours ago a tsunami hit “parts of six districts and caused massive damage to New Angeles’ coastal infrastructure.” Early estimates put the loss of life in the tens of thousands. It is thought at least a thousand androids also died rushing into the wall of water trying to save human lives.

NBN vidcasts are wall to wall floating bodies, and human suffering in the wake of the tsunami.

Somehow you survived the brutal force of nature as it lay waste to the feeble man made structures in its way. Battered and bruised, you have ended up at one of the many emergency relief centres. All you have left in the world are the possessions you managed to grab as the water crashed into your home. You are one of the lucky ones.

You are first level citizens of New Angeles. You do not know each other. But you are all in the same emergency relief centre.

Early Inspiration from Shadow of the Beanstalk

genesys, netrunner, RPG

With the Android Shadow of the Beanstalk source book for the Genesys system dropping though people’s letterboxes in the UK (they landed on the door mat in the US a couple of weeks ago, and the pdf can be downloaded from the 5th March, no hint at the moment when the taster scenario will be released). I thought I’d write some initial thoughts from my twenty minute bath time soak this morning, where Shadow of the Beanstalk was my reading material.

I’ve only really looked at the GM section of the book which looks at creating an immersive world for the players and building adventures in the Android universe.

There is some great advice for GM’s in this section, especially for wannabe noob GM’s like me.

I particularly like the advice on creating a living world. Which bits of can be applied to other genres. They also map across to some of the stuff O’Neal talks about in his book The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics. Particularly about the npc’s lives not being a static thing.

It’s also this advice that can be used to seed future adventures, and also add colour and depth to the world.

Also part of the GM section is the adventure builder that uses a Three Act structure. Hmmm I wonder where we have come across that? They split it into Hooks (7 provided), Escalations (5 provided) and Climaxes (5 provided). And like an ala carte menu, you chose one from section A, one from section B, and one from section C and you have an adventure.

My planning…

For my own planned campaign I think I have now settled on a setting and a reason for the players to come together.

I’m going to set the campaign in the aftermath of the New Angeles Tsunami as detailed in the novella Monster Slayer by Daniel Lovat Clark. And hopefully explore the impact of such an event. Naturally there will be power vacuums and gang warfare going on as rival gangs try to exploit this opportunity to gain more power. At the corporate level there will also be fallout, as the other rival corporations take this opportunity to hit Weyland and GRNDL who were behind the tsunami. Much of this will play out in the newsfeeds during the adventures. However who knows they may get sucked into some of the power plays also.

Naturally the players will be survivors of this disaster and getting aid at an emergency relief camp. The starting equipment they have is all they were able to grab when the tsunami hit.

So what other stories will be running in the newsfeeds during ongoing adventures? The events of the novella Monitor by Leigh Alexander seem ideal material to play out in the background. Although the theme may not be explored.

Although Exodus by Lisa Farrell, will see parts play out in the feeds. I do want to explore the themes of this. Android/Clone rights are analogous to the battle for black rights, slavery and the underground railway (I’m sure the inspiration for Exodus or an influence at the least). I like that Android gives an opportunity to look at this difficult and emotive subject. So we will see protests and riots reported on the news. And players will get caught up in some of these as well I’m sure. I like the idea of having the players involved in the Android version of the underground railway.

Although the players won’t get involved the events detailed in the Mumbad cycle also make great material for background colour that highlight the Android/Clone rights.

The Flashpoint Cycle also is something I’d like to explore and have the players involved with. It’s something that can play out in newsfeeds and seed adventures for players as they get involved in the fallout from those infamous 23 seconds.

I’m going to avoid any cycles or events that are off planet for the time being. So I won’t have them in the newsfeeds for the players until I want to move the party off Earth. I need more information about the Kitara Cycle which is on Earth. Maybe the events could be mentioned. From an initial look they could tie in with the fallout of Exodus, and have the players getting revenge on Weyland.

So that’s my thoughts on direction, themes etc at the moment. What the first adventure will be I don’t know. I still would like to see what the two part taster scenario FFG was. It may be suitable as the starting point. Or something that can be used during the campaign. My early leanings are that I have the players do an intro one shot, maybe a rescue mission, then into the FFG scenario (if suitable).