First, let me reiterate the statement from our site's front page:
Tell me about the "MetaScape Experience"
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MetaScape is a massively advanced RPG (roleplaying game) system with a host of
sophisticated rules. It was designed for a small group of RPG players who have all
worked in the RPG field and love to talk RPG theory. So learning to play
MetaScape is kind of like a group of professional downhill skiers making the
ultimate run for themselves then saying "Here try our triple black diamond slope of
death" to the other skiers - hehe.
So, the question you must ask yourself is, "How good are your skis?" We don't want
any broken bones. If MetaScape is just too advanced for you and not worth the time
investment for you to learn, that's OK, don’t push yourself or your players.
Remember it’s supposed to be fun – not an ER visit.
sophisticated rules. It was designed for a small group of RPG players who have all
worked in the RPG field and love to talk RPG theory. So learning to play
MetaScape is kind of like a group of professional downhill skiers making the
ultimate run for themselves then saying "Here try our triple black diamond slope of
death" to the other skiers - hehe.
So, the question you must ask yourself is, "How good are your skis?" We don't want
any broken bones. If MetaScape is just too advanced for you and not worth the time
investment for you to learn, that's OK, don’t push yourself or your players.
Remember it’s supposed to be fun – not an ER visit.
Now, I'll copy a section from the first rule booklet:
The MetaScape Experience
Before diving into the rules, let me tease you with a few of the unique strengths and
why you may never return to any other RPG system. Now the hard part here is for
me not to write ten pages on how great MetaScape is – haha.
MetaScape has several very powerful and unusual aspects for an RPG system and a
lot more that I won’t cover – you’ll discover these other secret treasures for yourself
as you master the game.
What is it like to Play MetaScape? This will be answered in this section in an
interview format of questions and answers.
TELL ME ABOUT THE SETTING
Guild Space is a science fiction setting but it has a lot of space opera in it. There are
medieval planets like Calemor and advanced super science regions such as Aerolk
Space. Great empires exist such as the Zin-Shee Matriarchy (you can play Zin-Shee
by the way), the “evil” Empire, and the GUILD itself, plus many more.
Characters will get to adventure on foot, in vehicles ranging from motorcycles to high
tech military hover tanks; and, they will get to travel in space craft and even other
dimensions.
OK, HOW ABOUT MAJOR PLOT ELEMENTS?
There is an entire section called “Super History” in the Guild Space booklet (the
setting guide). It explains, to the GM (players should avoid reading that section) the
mega plots in the background. And there is another aspect (I won’t mention it here)
that allows the GM to create a massive super plot on their own.
Besides this, the Guild Space booklet lists a history going back for over six
millennium about strife, conflict, resolution, etc., such as imperial honored slave
practice in 1116 a.h., and the Guild establishes the House of Dha in 2889 a.h., etc.
WHAT KIND OF CHARACTER RACES EXIST?
I have seven rich races for players to choose from.
HOW MANY CLASSES DO YOU HAVE?
Well, some game systems have seven or eight, others may have a little over ten, but
MetaScape has 26! Here is a brief description.
ARE THERE ANY PICTURES?
Lots of professionally drawn pictures are sprinkled throughout the rules,
particularly the player booklets. Some of these pictures are drawn by Mark Maxwell
who did some of the air brush work for the NASA space program. There are well
over several hundred pictures all together in the rules and adventures. They’ll help
give you a really good feel for the setting.
Nearly every weapon, armor, and equipment item has a picture to go along with it.
The same for the many GUs (GM Units, such as aliens, known races, personalities,
etc.) and most of the primary ship classes and vehicles. And a lot more!
WHAT TYPES OF TECHNOLOGY EXIST?
MetaScape uses three richly developed primary sciences.
IS THERE A LIST OF SHIPS, VEHICLES AND ROBOTS?
You mean like the Knifewing-Class Starbomber (2 man ship), Heavy Cruiser (20
forward quad blaster cannons, 15 360 degree dual plasma cannon turrets, and I’m
just getting started), the super dreadnought and a lot more.
For transports there is the halberd-class armored transport (5 man high tech, quad
tracked tank), the Draca Khavaxx (large cyber enhanced gopher – hehe), or the handy
little hyperbike, and more.
Robots – MetaScape calls them automatons which is usually abbreviated ATM.
There is the robodog, Walker A-frame (two legged heavy combat unit), and more.
HOW MANY WEAPONS AND ARMOR CHOICES EXIST?
MetaScape has about 110 weapons:
• Sorce: 3 (weapons attuned to Sorce power)
• Natural: 8 (like punch, kick)
• Martial Art: 5
• Archaic: 12 (medieval style)
• Archaic Hurled: 6 (most are also melee)
• Archaic Ranged 4 (like Bow)
• Tech Melee: 7 (like plasma sword)
• Tech Hurled: 3 (like the Frisbee style Manta)
• Tech Ranged: 34 (blaster rifle, missile launcher)
• Cybernetic: 11 (cyber jaw)
• BioTech: 17 (web slinger)
MetaScape has about 38 armor types plus 17 pieces of archaic partial and 28 pieces
of cyber.
• Natural: 1 (skin)
• Martial Arts: 1 (skilled skin – hehe)
• Archaic Partial: 5 categories of 17 pieces (helmet, breast place, vambraces, etc)
• Archaic Full: 2 (Calemoran Plate)
• Archaic Shields: 3 (traditional shield)
• Tech Force Field: 6
• Tech Power Suit: 8 (like Marine Armor)
• BioTech: 7 (spider armor – like it sounds)
• Cyber Partial: 5 categories of 28 pieces
CAN A CHARACTER SPECIALIZE IN A SKILL OR WEAPON?
Can you ever. You can "master" at most feats (skills), weapons, and armor.
Mastering will roughly double to triple your effectiveness and open up other
possible uses. And feats, armor, weapons will have between 1 and 30 mastery
elements that can be learned. Fully mastering at all possible feats, weapons, and
armor would require an extremely high level character. I’ve never seen anyone get
even close. Some weapons would take three character levels of advancement just to
fully master that one weapon.
Here are some possible effects of mastery:
And it goes on and on. Each feat has a custom set of mastery elements for that feat
alone. With nearly 500 feats and 1 to 30 elements each, that’s an immense job of
massive quantity and detail that we did - all for your enjoyment!
DO ARTIFACTS EXIST?
Of course, MetaScape has Tech, Cyber, Bio, Psionic, Sorce, and even
Psychosomatic artifacts. They come in lesser, major, and Elite categories. Everything
from a wall ball (toss a ball that turns into a large granite wall), to jump boots, to the
Sword of Obiox (semi-evil sword of massive power), to a gun that shoots a ball that
transports into odd things like a pile of flaming wood or a steel girder.
Their are even artifact cars (vehicles).
HOW ABOUT POWERS, DOES MAGIC EXIST?
Oh yes, we have three exotic powers in MetaScape. With 44 psionic, 30
psychosomatic, and 47 Sorce feats. Or 121 total power feats:
ARE THEIR SUPER ABILITIES?
Yes, there are Omega powers. These are extremely potent powers that are governed
by AP (adventure Point) cost and use luck boxes to operate. And, even better, most
of them can be mastered at!
A few examples are “flight,” Super Speed, Super Luck, attunement, Super Gun (turn
your armor into a tri-pod mega gun as a power), and more.
COOL, IS THERE ANYTHING BETTER THAN OMEGA POWERS?
Well, now that you ask, there is an optional rule for the secretive MOTC Power. I’ll
say no more at this time.
ARE THERE ANY DEFINED GUILDS?
Yes, although it is easy to create guilds, clubs, organizations for characters to join.
Three are already designed for you, known as associations.
CAN CHARACTERS TRAVEL AND FIGHT IN SPACE?
Oh yes, there are full ship to ship and boarding combat rules. Most players elect to
have their character learn a ship officer position such as Medic, Captain, Tactical
Officer, Science Officer, Engineer, and more. Ship Officer roles are not trivial, far
more than a title. They have significant game impact.
Ship Officer roles also transfer to transports (multi person surface vehicles, kind of
like a large tank). There are full vehicle combat rules for these units as well.
There are several ways to travel around space such as hyperspace wedge, jump
gates, and using a huge quantum wedge to open worm holes.
CAN I CREATE MY OWN SHIPS, WEAPONS, AND MORE?
Yes, the GMing booklet has procedures for creating:
IS THIS A SIMPLE STAT BASED SYSTEM OR IS IT SKILL BASED?
Hehe, MetaScape is so massively skill based that it really reaches beyond what most
RPGers consider skills. MetaScape uses Feats which include skills as well as
enhancements, special rules, powers, and more. Feats are so encompassing that they
even include weapons and armor. There are approximately 500 feats to choose from.
DO ATTRIBUTES IMPROVE? IF SO HOW MUCH?
Character attributes like Strength, Lore, Arcane Resistance advance endlessly. The
advancement is medium slow but constant. Every level, a certain set of abilities gets
a free set of advancement rolls. And, the player may always buy additional
advancement rolls on any ability (ANY ability) as many times as desired to
compensate for a bad roll, or just because they want the ability better.
HOW DO YOU KEEP HIGH TECH FROM OVERBALANCING THE GAME?
That was a tough problem. With the advancements of technology, characters can
easily buy items that give a tech user a huge advantage over a medieval warrior
character. So, I came up with ETax. All possessions have a “game impact” number
called ETax. And, all character’s have a maximum ETax. Players may spend AP
(adventure points) and increase ETax if desired. It works great. There’s a lot more to
it, but that’s the basics.
WHAT IS THE HIGHEST CHARACTER LEVEL?
I hate nothing more, than to advance my character in a game (computer or table) and
hit a ceiling. Sometimes the ceiling is hard (level 70 is the max) other times it is soft
(the game simply falls apart once you get into the upper 20th levels). Well, in
MetaScape, there is no limit! MetaScape was designed so characters can advance
endlessly.
YEA, BUT AT WHAT LEVEL ARE CHARACTERS NON-PLAYABLE DUE TO
GAME BALANCE?
Honestly, I’ve been playing for 20 years and have never ran into an upper level
problem in MetaScape. The only thing I can say, is your list of abilities will grow
fairly large, so organization and frequent play is useful so you don’t forget to use the
powers your character has – hehe.
NOW TELL ME SOMETHING UNUSUAL ABOUT METASCAPE
There are a lot of unusual things, but here is a good one.
Luck: All characters will have 8 or more luck boxes. During game play any bad roll
may be lucked (cross off a box) and rolled again. There is a one luck per roll limit.
You wouldn’t believe how much fun this simple system adds to the game.
HOW DO RACE AND CLASS IMPACT ABILITIES SO THERE IS FLAVOR
TO THE GAME?
Nearly every ability in the game starts as an RC number. This stands for “Race
Class”. It is generated by rolling a racial and a class die. And there are unique Race
and Class die for nearly every feat, weapon, armor etc. in the game – it took tons of
time to design this race-class balance, but now it’s yours to enjoy.
So, every feat is made up of half class and half race as far as the RC die goes. This
means that every race/class combo is unique.
I’VE HEARD THAT METASCAPE IS A DICELESS GM GAME. WHAT DOES
THAT MEAN?
Well, MetaScape isn’t totally diceless for the GM, they have one single die that is
occasionally rolled to help make intensity decisions with critical and tremendous
results and a few other things. But basically, yes, the GM doesn’t roll dice. Rather,
the advanced die system that the players use rolls for both the GM and player at the
same time – like magic! Yes, it really does roll for both through the magic of the
doubling die.
This gives the GM more time to think about the game and focus on making it a really
enjoyable roleplaying experience for everyone.
I’VE HEARD THAT METASCAPE IS AN AL-LIB GAMER’S DREAM
For many fun reasons, this is true. The GM can create any being, star ship, door
lock, opponent, weapon, etc. with just one single number. So a ship could be a 10 or
12 or 2 or 300. The entire game uses the same scale for all things so a difficulty 10
door is as hard to open as a difficulty 10 opponent is to slay, as a difficulty 10 ship
is to shoot down. So an opponent of 10 has a 10 strength, 10 Dexterity, 10 Armor,
10 Vitality (health), 10 armor, 10 damage, etc. For more detail, numbers can be
pulled out such as an opponent that is a 10 (MR 16, Attack 5). This opponent has a
16 Movement Rate, 5 Attack and everything else is 10. There are several formats
used to quickly define opponents, ships, vehicles, and ATMs.
Because MetaScape is a nearly diceless GM system and a single number or small set
of numbers using the same scale can define anything, ad-libbing (making it up on the
fly) is extremely easy. “The characters look out on a space port, jump on the first
freighter they see and take off.” Only, you haven’t prepared for this at all. Oh, well,
at a snap decision the freighter is a 6/8 with dual forward pulse laser guns and one
small 180 degree ion turret. There - in about 10 seconds you have completely stated
out the freighter!
HOW MANY HITS DOES IT TAKE TO SLAY THE PROVERBIAL DRAGON?
Oh, now this is really cool. MetaScape uses an open ended die system that generates
results from 1 to infinity an a diminishing curve. So, usually rolls will be close to the
character's die type (typically 4 to 30). But at times huge rolls result. I've even seen
a roll close to two million once!
So, it is possible to slay the proverbial dragon in one hit!
And, every roll has a critical and tremendous (crit/oops) system built into it. This is
on top of the numerical results. This makes for an extremely dynamic game. All sorts
of fun and unexpected events occur during combat and regular play as a result.
CAN I USE MINIATURES WHILE ROLEPLAYING?
Oh yes, MetaScape was designed for rich miniature play. Though it can easily be
played without miniatures, everything was designed for miniature use first and
foremost. Most measurements are listed in sq (a board square). A sq happens to be
5 feet so the conversion is fairly simply, for non miniature play.
BLAKE MOBLEY, THE LEAD DESIGNER, IS HE ANY GOOD?
You can judge by reading the rules. But here are a few comments.
Before diving into the rules, let me tease you with a few of the unique strengths and
why you may never return to any other RPG system. Now the hard part here is for
me not to write ten pages on how great MetaScape is – haha.
MetaScape has several very powerful and unusual aspects for an RPG system and a
lot more that I won’t cover – you’ll discover these other secret treasures for yourself
as you master the game.
What is it like to Play MetaScape? This will be answered in this section in an
interview format of questions and answers.
TELL ME ABOUT THE SETTING
Guild Space is a science fiction setting but it has a lot of space opera in it. There are
medieval planets like Calemor and advanced super science regions such as Aerolk
Space. Great empires exist such as the Zin-Shee Matriarchy (you can play Zin-Shee
by the way), the “evil” Empire, and the GUILD itself, plus many more.
Characters will get to adventure on foot, in vehicles ranging from motorcycles to high
tech military hover tanks; and, they will get to travel in space craft and even other
dimensions.
OK, HOW ABOUT MAJOR PLOT ELEMENTS?
There is an entire section called “Super History” in the Guild Space booklet (the
setting guide). It explains, to the GM (players should avoid reading that section) the
mega plots in the background. And there is another aspect (I won’t mention it here)
that allows the GM to create a massive super plot on their own.
Besides this, the Guild Space booklet lists a history going back for over six
millennium about strife, conflict, resolution, etc., such as imperial honored slave
practice in 1116 a.h., and the Guild establishes the House of Dha in 2889 a.h., etc.
WHAT KIND OF CHARACTER RACES EXIST?
I have seven rich races for players to choose from.
- Anthropos – modern day humans with enhanced senses, skilled with
technology and tech power armor and weapons - Calemora – medieval race of stocky martial arts humans, no emotions,
adept at psychosomatics, good medieval warriors - Draca – brutal lizard-man race, lovers of cybernetics
- Kryll – gross, insectoid race with a hard carapace. They use biotechnology
and are excellent bio-gunners and bio-warriors. - Shanask – mysterious ghost like race that exists in a cloak, powerful users
of the Sorce - Zin-Shee Female – feline race, athletic and adept at Psionics
- Zin-Shee Male – ferocious feline race very athletic, acrobatic, and skilled at
martial arts and melee combat
HOW MANY CLASSES DO YOU HAVE?
Well, some game systems have seven or eight, others may have a little over ten, but
MetaScape has 26! Here is a brief description.
- Assault Mech – Heavy advanced tech weapons and armor, mostly ranged
weapons, designed to assault compounds or transports - Beast Master – Uses natural weapons (punch, bite, etc.) and shape changes
into animal forms and can summon a small and medium animal helper. - Bio Gunner – BioTech ranged fighter with unusual skills using the plant
side of nature. - Bio Warrior – BioTech melee fighter with unusual talents having to do with
life and healing - Blade – Master swordsman, high damage but little focus on defenses.
- Catong Dragon – Martial arts master
- Cyber Warrior – Cybernetic implants and weapons, hard to kill
- Death Stalker – A one on one judicial assassin, very bound by code and
honor - Destron – Heavy advanced tech melee warrior with limited healing abilities.
Very cavalier. - Dragon – Similar to a samurai
- Ghost – A warrior tank that focuses on never dying.
- Goliath – Heavy melee combatant, like the barbarian’s of old
- Guardian of Light – Honorable modern tech guardian warrior
- High Guard – Trapeze and rafter fighters who prefer to never touch the
ground during combat. - Marine – Advanced tech personal assault fighter, the commando of the
future - Mensi – Masters of mental manipulation and force fields
- Mutak – Use the power of psychosomatics to modify their bodies, shape
change, and fight with light melee weapons, very good at martial arts - Night Spawn – A dark class that likes to hunt their prey and terrorize it for
days before killing. Have unusual abilities with BioTech armor. - Ranger – Outdoors man or border patrol able to summon a large significant
pet to aide them. - Shadow Thief – An expert thief that uses powers of the mind to add to
their effects. - Siado – Acrobatic honor bound fighters who can manipulate several forces
to move objects - Slayer – A professional battle mage
- Sniper – Sniper says it all
- Warlock – Master magician, wielder of the Sorce
- Warrior – Expert melee combatant uses raw power and good old physical
melee weapons. - Wraith – A dark assassin that dabbles into the Sorce to aid in their work.
ARE THERE ANY PICTURES?
Lots of professionally drawn pictures are sprinkled throughout the rules,
particularly the player booklets. Some of these pictures are drawn by Mark Maxwell
who did some of the air brush work for the NASA space program. There are well
over several hundred pictures all together in the rules and adventures. They’ll help
give you a really good feel for the setting.
Nearly every weapon, armor, and equipment item has a picture to go along with it.
The same for the many GUs (GM Units, such as aliens, known races, personalities,
etc.) and most of the primary ship classes and vehicles. And a lot more!
WHAT TYPES OF TECHNOLOGY EXIST?
MetaScape uses three richly developed primary sciences.
- Biotechnology or BioTech: This is the science of living technology. Living
ships, living armor, living weapon, living equipment. It is gross, wet, slimy,
exotic, and unusual. - Cybernetics or CyberTech: Cybernetics is the science of enhancing the
body by adding built in technology or simply cutting off sections of the
body and replacing them with technology. - Technology: Technology all other forms of electronic, nuclear, light, etc.
based technology, other than cybernetics.
IS THERE A LIST OF SHIPS, VEHICLES AND ROBOTS?
You mean like the Knifewing-Class Starbomber (2 man ship), Heavy Cruiser (20
forward quad blaster cannons, 15 360 degree dual plasma cannon turrets, and I’m
just getting started), the super dreadnought and a lot more.
For transports there is the halberd-class armored transport (5 man high tech, quad
tracked tank), the Draca Khavaxx (large cyber enhanced gopher – hehe), or the handy
little hyperbike, and more.
Robots – MetaScape calls them automatons which is usually abbreviated ATM.
There is the robodog, Walker A-frame (two legged heavy combat unit), and more.
HOW MANY WEAPONS AND ARMOR CHOICES EXIST?
MetaScape has about 110 weapons:
• Sorce: 3 (weapons attuned to Sorce power)
• Natural: 8 (like punch, kick)
• Martial Art: 5
• Archaic: 12 (medieval style)
• Archaic Hurled: 6 (most are also melee)
• Archaic Ranged 4 (like Bow)
• Tech Melee: 7 (like plasma sword)
• Tech Hurled: 3 (like the Frisbee style Manta)
• Tech Ranged: 34 (blaster rifle, missile launcher)
• Cybernetic: 11 (cyber jaw)
• BioTech: 17 (web slinger)
MetaScape has about 38 armor types plus 17 pieces of archaic partial and 28 pieces
of cyber.
• Natural: 1 (skin)
• Martial Arts: 1 (skilled skin – hehe)
• Archaic Partial: 5 categories of 17 pieces (helmet, breast place, vambraces, etc)
• Archaic Full: 2 (Calemoran Plate)
• Archaic Shields: 3 (traditional shield)
• Tech Force Field: 6
• Tech Power Suit: 8 (like Marine Armor)
• BioTech: 7 (spider armor – like it sounds)
• Cyber Partial: 5 categories of 28 pieces
CAN A CHARACTER SPECIALIZE IN A SKILL OR WEAPON?
Can you ever. You can "master" at most feats (skills), weapons, and armor.
Mastering will roughly double to triple your effectiveness and open up other
possible uses. And feats, armor, weapons will have between 1 and 30 mastery
elements that can be learned. Fully mastering at all possible feats, weapons, and
armor would require an extremely high level character. I’ve never seen anyone get
even close. Some weapons would take three character levels of advancement just to
fully master that one weapon.
Here are some possible effects of mastery:
- Increase a weapon’s damage from a little up to double.
- Allow a weapon to attack multiple times and/or multiple opponents
- Use a weapon to knock an opponent over, back, break their arm, disarm,
stun, etc. - Armor defense and protection can be improved
- A power may have its range increased
- Transforming into a bear might gain more “bear-like” abilities such as
strength, bear hug, etc. - Climbing might extend to smooth glass-like surfaces or even ceilings
And it goes on and on. Each feat has a custom set of mastery elements for that feat
alone. With nearly 500 feats and 1 to 30 elements each, that’s an immense job of
massive quantity and detail that we did - all for your enjoyment!
DO ARTIFACTS EXIST?
Of course, MetaScape has Tech, Cyber, Bio, Psionic, Sorce, and even
Psychosomatic artifacts. They come in lesser, major, and Elite categories. Everything
from a wall ball (toss a ball that turns into a large granite wall), to jump boots, to the
Sword of Obiox (semi-evil sword of massive power), to a gun that shoots a ball that
transports into odd things like a pile of flaming wood or a steel girder.
Their are even artifact cars (vehicles).
HOW ABOUT POWERS, DOES MAGIC EXIST?
Oh yes, we have three exotic powers in MetaScape. With 44 psionic, 30
psychosomatic, and 47 Sorce feats. Or 121 total power feats:
- Psychosomatics: Power of the mind over the body to enhance attributes,
run faster, jump higher, see farther and, even separate ones molecules to
walk through walls or shape change into animals. - Psionics: The ability to use one’s mind to read thoughts, take over another’
s mind, make mental attacks, cause a target to fall down. And, Psionics also
includes invisible force fields to push, shove, pull, hold, levitate, create
spheres of protection, etc. - Sorce: Sorce is short for sorcery which sounds too corny for science fiction.
Those with Sorce power can perform great feats of “magic” such as shooting
Sorce bolts, ghost walking in another dimension, unlocking doors,
teleportation, etc.
ARE THEIR SUPER ABILITIES?
Yes, there are Omega powers. These are extremely potent powers that are governed
by AP (adventure Point) cost and use luck boxes to operate. And, even better, most
of them can be mastered at!
A few examples are “flight,” Super Speed, Super Luck, attunement, Super Gun (turn
your armor into a tri-pod mega gun as a power), and more.
COOL, IS THERE ANYTHING BETTER THAN OMEGA POWERS?
Well, now that you ask, there is an optional rule for the secretive MOTC Power. I’ll
say no more at this time.
ARE THERE ANY DEFINED GUILDS?
Yes, although it is easy to create guilds, clubs, organizations for characters to join.
Three are already designed for you, known as associations.
- Rangers: A loyal group that patrols and protects a region of space. Their
equipment is of average quality but they are nearly fanatical to their leader
and their purpose. Honorable to a fault. - Dha: Dha is the secret, ultra elite, black ops branch of the GUILD military.
If a character joins Dha, they are a paid special forces operative. - Freelancer: If a character has no association then it is, by default, a
freelancer. Don’t wave off this association, there are some huge benefits
such as “full and total salvage rights!.”
CAN CHARACTERS TRAVEL AND FIGHT IN SPACE?
Oh yes, there are full ship to ship and boarding combat rules. Most players elect to
have their character learn a ship officer position such as Medic, Captain, Tactical
Officer, Science Officer, Engineer, and more. Ship Officer roles are not trivial, far
more than a title. They have significant game impact.
Ship Officer roles also transfer to transports (multi person surface vehicles, kind of
like a large tank). There are full vehicle combat rules for these units as well.
There are several ways to travel around space such as hyperspace wedge, jump
gates, and using a huge quantum wedge to open worm holes.
CAN I CREATE MY OWN SHIPS, WEAPONS, AND MORE?
Yes, the GMing booklet has procedures for creating:
- New Class
- New Race
- New Association
- New Ship Officer
- New Professions
- New Feats and Mega
- New OMega
- New Handicaps
- New Weapons
- New Armor
- New Equipment
- New Artifacts
- New ATM
- New Vehicles
- New Ships
- New GU races
IS THIS A SIMPLE STAT BASED SYSTEM OR IS IT SKILL BASED?
Hehe, MetaScape is so massively skill based that it really reaches beyond what most
RPGers consider skills. MetaScape uses Feats which include skills as well as
enhancements, special rules, powers, and more. Feats are so encompassing that they
even include weapons and armor. There are approximately 500 feats to choose from.
DO ATTRIBUTES IMPROVE? IF SO HOW MUCH?
Character attributes like Strength, Lore, Arcane Resistance advance endlessly. The
advancement is medium slow but constant. Every level, a certain set of abilities gets
a free set of advancement rolls. And, the player may always buy additional
advancement rolls on any ability (ANY ability) as many times as desired to
compensate for a bad roll, or just because they want the ability better.
HOW DO YOU KEEP HIGH TECH FROM OVERBALANCING THE GAME?
That was a tough problem. With the advancements of technology, characters can
easily buy items that give a tech user a huge advantage over a medieval warrior
character. So, I came up with ETax. All possessions have a “game impact” number
called ETax. And, all character’s have a maximum ETax. Players may spend AP
(adventure points) and increase ETax if desired. It works great. There’s a lot more to
it, but that’s the basics.
WHAT IS THE HIGHEST CHARACTER LEVEL?
I hate nothing more, than to advance my character in a game (computer or table) and
hit a ceiling. Sometimes the ceiling is hard (level 70 is the max) other times it is soft
(the game simply falls apart once you get into the upper 20th levels). Well, in
MetaScape, there is no limit! MetaScape was designed so characters can advance
endlessly.
YEA, BUT AT WHAT LEVEL ARE CHARACTERS NON-PLAYABLE DUE TO
GAME BALANCE?
Honestly, I’ve been playing for 20 years and have never ran into an upper level
problem in MetaScape. The only thing I can say, is your list of abilities will grow
fairly large, so organization and frequent play is useful so you don’t forget to use the
powers your character has – hehe.
NOW TELL ME SOMETHING UNUSUAL ABOUT METASCAPE
There are a lot of unusual things, but here is a good one.
Luck: All characters will have 8 or more luck boxes. During game play any bad roll
may be lucked (cross off a box) and rolled again. There is a one luck per roll limit.
You wouldn’t believe how much fun this simple system adds to the game.
HOW DO RACE AND CLASS IMPACT ABILITIES SO THERE IS FLAVOR
TO THE GAME?
Nearly every ability in the game starts as an RC number. This stands for “Race
Class”. It is generated by rolling a racial and a class die. And there are unique Race
and Class die for nearly every feat, weapon, armor etc. in the game – it took tons of
time to design this race-class balance, but now it’s yours to enjoy.
So, every feat is made up of half class and half race as far as the RC die goes. This
means that every race/class combo is unique.
I’VE HEARD THAT METASCAPE IS A DICELESS GM GAME. WHAT DOES
THAT MEAN?
Well, MetaScape isn’t totally diceless for the GM, they have one single die that is
occasionally rolled to help make intensity decisions with critical and tremendous
results and a few other things. But basically, yes, the GM doesn’t roll dice. Rather,
the advanced die system that the players use rolls for both the GM and player at the
same time – like magic! Yes, it really does roll for both through the magic of the
doubling die.
This gives the GM more time to think about the game and focus on making it a really
enjoyable roleplaying experience for everyone.
I’VE HEARD THAT METASCAPE IS AN AL-LIB GAMER’S DREAM
For many fun reasons, this is true. The GM can create any being, star ship, door
lock, opponent, weapon, etc. with just one single number. So a ship could be a 10 or
12 or 2 or 300. The entire game uses the same scale for all things so a difficulty 10
door is as hard to open as a difficulty 10 opponent is to slay, as a difficulty 10 ship
is to shoot down. So an opponent of 10 has a 10 strength, 10 Dexterity, 10 Armor,
10 Vitality (health), 10 armor, 10 damage, etc. For more detail, numbers can be
pulled out such as an opponent that is a 10 (MR 16, Attack 5). This opponent has a
16 Movement Rate, 5 Attack and everything else is 10. There are several formats
used to quickly define opponents, ships, vehicles, and ATMs.
Because MetaScape is a nearly diceless GM system and a single number or small set
of numbers using the same scale can define anything, ad-libbing (making it up on the
fly) is extremely easy. “The characters look out on a space port, jump on the first
freighter they see and take off.” Only, you haven’t prepared for this at all. Oh, well,
at a snap decision the freighter is a 6/8 with dual forward pulse laser guns and one
small 180 degree ion turret. There - in about 10 seconds you have completely stated
out the freighter!
HOW MANY HITS DOES IT TAKE TO SLAY THE PROVERBIAL DRAGON?
Oh, now this is really cool. MetaScape uses an open ended die system that generates
results from 1 to infinity an a diminishing curve. So, usually rolls will be close to the
character's die type (typically 4 to 30). But at times huge rolls result. I've even seen
a roll close to two million once!
So, it is possible to slay the proverbial dragon in one hit!
And, every roll has a critical and tremendous (crit/oops) system built into it. This is
on top of the numerical results. This makes for an extremely dynamic game. All sorts
of fun and unexpected events occur during combat and regular play as a result.
CAN I USE MINIATURES WHILE ROLEPLAYING?
Oh yes, MetaScape was designed for rich miniature play. Though it can easily be
played without miniatures, everything was designed for miniature use first and
foremost. Most measurements are listed in sq (a board square). A sq happens to be
5 feet so the conversion is fairly simply, for non miniature play.
BLAKE MOBLEY, THE LEAD DESIGNER, IS HE ANY GOOD?
You can judge by reading the rules. But here are a few comments.
- I am an award winning game designer and worked for the largest RPG
company in the world as a designer and ran tournament RPGs throughout
America and even in Europe. This isn’t really that important, I just like to
brag! - I’ve been designing MetaScape for over 20 years. My target audience has
mostly been a group of long time, hard core gamers, so the system has
evolved to meet very advanced and critical pallets. - I have a degree in mathematics with emphasis on probability and statistics.
My die system is forged from those skills combined with my computer
science degree and quenched (if you will) in the proving waters of my elite
play testers.
| If you like these fun pictures and want more classes and races developed. Please vote by clicking on the Donation button below. |
(c) 2008 Mentalwinds support@mentalwinds.com
| "Strange alien horde lead by a super entity? Never heard of 'em." |
"I love the smell of
fear in the morning."
fear in the morning."
| "Hey, dude, high five!" |
| Draca Cyber Warrior |
| Marine |
| Kryll Bio Gunner |
| Zin-Shee Male Dragon |
| Races & Classes Below |
| "Hey, dude, high five!" |
| "Pump me up, body beautiful!" |
| "Look ma' no hands!" |
| "Now, you gotta ask yourself, 'Do you feel lucky?'" |
| "No where to park! Should have taken the shuttle." |
| "I know I can get off planet radio on this thing..." |
| "Did someone say 'Kitty, kitty, kitty'?" |
| "OK, I've just got four points I'd like to make before I go." |
| Calemoran Mutak |
| Scout Armor |
| ATM Walker A-Frame |
| Heavy Carrier |
| Draca Cyber Warrior |
| Zin-Shee Male Catong Dragon |
| Quad Launcher |
| Kryll BioWarrior |
| "Trick or Treat! And I dare you to smell MY feet!" |
| "Let's play mind games. I'll go first" |
| Zin-Shee Female Mensi |
FREE 650 page roleplaying Game!
You too can get a FREE, personal use, copy of the MetaScape II roleplaying game system
and the GuildSpace setting. GuildSpace is a science fiction/space opera setting.
and the GuildSpace setting. GuildSpace is a science fiction/space opera setting.
| MetaScape II |
And we give it all away for free, in hopes
you'll enjoy MetaScape and maybe show
your gratitude with a donation.
you'll enjoy MetaScape and maybe show
your gratitude with a donation.
| Welcome beyond Reality! |
| Shanask |