Infinity The Roleplaying Game

[Dozer]

1. Thanks for the link for the BETA rules, me and my group will give them a try this weekend.

2. My gaming group has one question so far. "Can you take your RPG character and import them into Infinity Table Top and vice versa?"

Right now there are two successful RPG's that play well with Miniature Table Top elements; Heavy Gear (1st and 2nd edition) and Iron Kingdoms RPG.
- Heavy Gear plays the same just adjusts damage by a factor of ten. The game from one type to another is simply scale.
- IKRPG uses the same stat block as Warmachine and Hordes but expanded. You could take with little work most PC's to the tabletop game and vice versa with the various monsters, soliders, and characters from the table top and put them into the RPG.

In both of these examples it's allowed players and GMs to have access to a clean and efficient combat rules for larger fights or fights that are more complex in nature. These have been some of the best moments in our experience in the games listed above. They stand side by side with favorite dramatic scenes and experince with dynamic relationships. Being able to default back to the table for those epic battles or boss fights would be awesome and I hope there is some leveraging of the current state of the IP.

No matter what you're getting a few sales for the main book since we're pretty big fans of RPG's and two of us are Infinity Players.

[Modiphius]

Dozer, we will be doing a conversion to take RPG characters on to the tabletop and vice versa. However the RPG game will play out firefights much quicker than the tabletop game - allowing you to have several actions scenes in one evening of roleplaying. However if you want to drop down to Tabletop scale and do a proper battle that's always fun!

[Mistake Not]

A simple formula to convert stats between the games would be fantastic, it makes ARMY4 basically a database for allies/enemies.

[Harlekin]

Less focus on tactical stats and combat and more focus on actual _role_ playing will be greatly appreciated.
For tactical simulation, we already have the best solution, Infinity: the Game

[M2Cat]

Playing RPG by forum opens some new opportunities for players and DM.
1. The game can become a constant play depending on activity of players/DM. There is no need to dedicate full night to gaming session (this particularly prevented me to play any pen'n'paper RPG). You can make as many posts/decisions per day as it fits you and your group. With widespread mobile devices you can play virtually anywhere and anytime.
2. If the forum engine can support restricted access to forum threads (or players make gentlemen's agreement to keep away from threads they are not involved) then mighty DM can feel like George Martin Jr. leading several separate storylines, diverging and converging them if he needs. There could be protagonists and antagonists groups influencing each other. Players could be introduced/extraduced with ease without harm. If desired they could have hidden motivation to stab/betray/switch to the dark (or light) side/unite with former rivals against bigger threat.
And so on...

[Scorch]

I have the feeling the RPG can really cement this community together. I mean, right now the forums are the only way we can get into contact with lots of people worldwide. And that is awesome. But we can never play the game we all like with each other. Tabletop Wargaming doesn't work well through walls of texts.

The RPG functions on an entirely different level, and via Hangouts, Skype, the forums, we can actually play with the people we've met over the years.
I really like the potential it has!

[Dozer]

Dozer, we will be doing a conversion to take RPG characters on to the tabletop and vice versa.

Thanks for the update.

I'm glad there will be something in place to take adavantage of all those minis and terrain we've picked up over the years. Just being able to move from one to the other as needed will be awesome.

However the RPG game will play out firefights much quicker than the tabletop game...

Win. This makes me super happy - not every combat needs to be put on the table, sometimes that can even kill the pace of the scene/adventure so I'm glad we have both options. I'm looking forward to seeing the systems for PC generation and PC development.

Please keep us posted - sounds like plenty of folks are eager to play.

[Modiphius]

The idea is not to repeat the rules of the skirmish game - Infinity is already awesome at what it does, what we want is to release the binds that tie us to the tabletop and explore the universe - talking, fighting, sneaking, whatever it takes. I for one will be using some of my Infinity minis as PC's even just to show the players where there characters are.

[H1ghlander]

What can you tell us about the character creation/progression system? For example, will it be structured like D&D with defined classes and levels? Or like Shadowrun where you purchase skills openly? Or will it be closer to Only War where you enter a class, but the class only provides aptitudes/proficiencies so you can buy certain skills/talents cheaper?

[Errhile]

I definitely hope for an open system. Luckily, the Mutent Chronicles beta we've been given as an example does not suggest a class & level based system (which is good, as I consider such systems damn inflexible). It is, however, a little less skill based than some of my favourite systems (which tend to have dozens of different skills a character could be profficient with). Still, Mutant Chronicles seems to be very combat-oriented...

[Harlekin]

Still, Mutant Chronicles seems to be very combat-oriented...

I just hope that's not true for InfiNity: the RPG... -_-

[M2Cat]

Still, Mutant Chronicles seems to be very combat-oriented...

I just hope that's not true for InfiNity: the RPG... -_-

Me to.
This would be a miss to have a combat-oriented RPG for a combat game. We NEED a narrative play!

[Modiphius]

What can you tell us about the character creation/progression system? For example, will it be structured like D&D with defined classes and levels? Or like Shadowrun where you purchase skills openly? Or will it be closer to Only War where you enter a class, but the class only provides aptitudes/proficiencies so you can buy certain skills/talents cheaper?

No classes or levels, you'll gradually increase your Attributes, Skills and Talents. With skills you'll need to decide to increase your Skill Expertise (increasing your Target Number to roll under), or your Focus - increasing your chance of a Critical Success and gaining a second Success on each dice.

Careers give you packages and choices of skills and talents plus gear

[Modiphius]

Still, Mutant Chronicles seems to be very combat-oriented...

I just hope that's not true for InfiNity: the RPG... -_-

Me to.
This would be a miss to have a combat-oriented RPG for a combat game. We NEED a narrative play!

Mutant Chronicles has a lot of combat, but also a lot of subterfuge, corporate intrigue etc - but it is set during two major wars for the survival of the species across all the planets - whilst Infinity is set during a war, but a focused war in one place meanwhile there's all kinds of adventure to be had across the rest of the Sphere.

In both games if you come ready for combat you're going to get banged up for carrying heavy weapons to the party. Social interaction is key to getting results, as much as stealth and knowledge, fixing old gear or dealing with bureaucracy. It really comes down to the game your players want - if they want a combat orientated game you can easily give it to them, if they want to spend their time in the elite parties of Pan O society that's fine too.

[Errhile]

If I could suggest something - design it more flexible. Careers giving packages and choices of skills / talents (I guess Talents are non-levelled abilities that affect dice rolls) and gear is again not-very-flexible way of dealing with things.
It basically limits the layer to those options that have been published.

We had a similar problem with Interlock in CP2020 - there were 10 careers, each had its own skill set (with some choices possible, eg. Tech had a "3 Repair skills of choice") and its own Special Skill characteristic for the career (nota bene I d now consider these special Skills one of the least thought thorough elements of that game). Which made for rubberstamp characters differing only by particular skill values.

Not the way I'd go here, definitely.

My suggestion: go similar way GURPS or Shadowrun went from the begining. Basically a point-buy system for attributes / skills / talents (and, in case of Shadowrun - I think what I had any experience with was 2ed - money for your starting gear), plus a handful or three character archetypes pre-made as examples / ready-to-use characters.
Well okay, GURPS tends to be little on the extreme side of having points values for everything out there, and everything being available for purchase with points...

Unless you mean "career packages" as minimum requirements in skills and attributes needed to enter / follow that career?

Blue Planet v2 also had a very nice system - a number of skill packages to be chosen to represent character's origins, childchood, adolescency, and then professional experience (typically in 3 levels for career options - novice, advanced and expert, with Expert being usually divided into several variants. For example, a Military Career was Basic military, Advanced military, and a choice of Expert Military - Land Warfare, Aphibious Operations, Engineering, Aerospace and so on). Then you could mix and match to represent whatever you need for your character's hisotry or career. For example, a Moderator from Bakunin - being a militarised police force - would probably have Advanced Military (not Expert, they are not that good after all) and Advanced Law Enforcement...

Bottom line - rigid classes / careers are IMO a bad idea.

[Harlekin]

I'm absolutely with Errhile.
IMHO "careers" are just classes without rigid levels and a new label. And that's not my cup of tea.
I hope for a flexible system like Fading Suns (v1 or v2) or Blue Planet (v1 or v2) when it comes to careers. Both offer a broad enough variety of "career paths" to make those look quite different to classical character classes.

I'm no big fan of math intensive point buy either. Something like old White Wolf's "get some points here, some there and some down there to be spend" - or even better FATE Core - is more my cup of tea.
All this "crunchy" stuff is fine when it comes to board games and miniature games, but I always try to keep those things out of my roleplaying games as much as possible. It's called ROLEPLAYing game after all and this imho should be the focus.

[Dozer]

I don't think 'crunchy' rule systems or 'dramatic' systems decide if you're roleplaying or roll-playing. I've played with crunchy`` games with a heavy combat system and we never once rolled dice because we were at a party and we were all roleplaying (Rifts). Meanwhile because of the way the adventure went down, similar group of players got stuck for a whole session in a running gun battle through Chicago while playing one of the common `dramatic` systems (nWOD). GM`s help alot - Players and GM`s working togther to make the best experience is the best combo. GM`s should have a idea when picking up dice is appropirate for the scene or needed to resolve whatever conflict has presented itself.

I don`t mind character class mechanics but I do prefer flexbility in my class mechanics ie: d20 3.5/Pathfinder flexible within class rather then the limited class mechanics in games like; Rifts, D&D 4th Edition, 40k Rpg's. Games like Warhammer Fantasy (1st and 2nd edition), Iron Kingdoms RPG, Starwars (Rebelion & Edge), and even Ledgend of the Five Rings have classes with lots of breadth and they are a good middle ground. I like Shadowrun, West End's d6 system, TSR's Marvel, Mutants and Masterminds, Heavy Gear, and Mechwarrior but I've watched new player get lost in the first couple of games if there is not enough premade character examples. Dramatics systems like oWOD and nWOD, Dragonborn and Cortex are great but some suffer with limited rules and mechanics needing a strong GM to come up with the rulings on the fly to make up for the systems lack of mechanics.

With that said, I understand from a design perepective if the folks making the Infinity RPG have classes/careers because it makes it more approachable to a wider audience. Maybe more adavanced rules in future releases could be planned for that would open mechanicaly player generation out of a class/career system.

[H1ghlander]

I'm with Errhile and Harlekin on the 'open system'. I far prefer RPGs in which you can simply buy the attribute/skill/talent upgrades (a la Shadowrun and Only War). Shadowrun is far more open, but I also like the aptitude system that was implemented in Only War.

I prefer these systems because they actually represent humans in real life more accurately. No person has a 'class', rather, just a set of skills and attributes that they've developed through their lifetime. For example, I am educated as a mechanical engineer, but my main hobby is karate. To 'make' myself in an RPG would be easy in Shadowrun. I could simply easily purchase skills/traits to reflect my education and martial training - not so much in D&D.

[CoveredInFish]

I'v played a vast selection of different RPGs and I have to say I don't prefer a specific type.

What I do prefer is having a system, that helps the players (including the GM) to tell the stories they wanna tell/play. So if a complex world with a huge selection of possible, colorful characters has to be modeled a classless system might be preferable (and I agree that the infinity world seems like that).

If all character types relevant to the stories to tell are modeled by the system I dont mind playing with character classes.

It comes down to this: does the system help or hinder the players to tell the stories they wanna play. Everything else is just flavor.

So .. a mechanical engineer with karate skills isnt part of the D&D storyverse and thus has not to be modeled by the rules. It COULD be part of shadowrun, so its rules do so.

I prefer light-weight systems with easy rules, since my play group has not much time and nobody reads and learns 400+ pages of rules (maybe except me).

We accept that the simulation of narrative reality might not be that precise or that gaming the game might not be a thing - since that would require complex rules.

[Errhile]

I don`t mind character class mechanics but I do prefer flexbility in my class mechanics ie: d20 3.5/Pathfinder flexible within class rather then the limited class mechanics in games like; Rifts, D&D 4th Edition, 40k Rpg's. Games like Warhammer Fantasy (1st and 2nd edition), Iron Kingdoms RPG, Starwars (Rebelion & Edge), and even Ledgend of the Five Rings have classes with lots of breadth and they are a good middle ground.

Legend of the Five Rings (1/2ed is what I had any experience with) is actually one of the very few systems where "class" system actually works IMO - but that is because of the strict, rigid nature of Rokugani society. You were born a samurai/nobleman, and you were raised as a warrior, priest or whatever. You are defined by it in the society's eyes, and you'll most probably die as one too.

Warhammer 1/2ed with its "professions" I woludn't call a "class-based" system, the four classes (academic, warrior, rogue, ranger) tended to have minimal impact on the character, and no impact on the career choice beyond the initial profession.

[R.D.N.O.]

Only minor downside of this is the 'Star Wars Edge of the Empire' game has very bad reputation in role playing groups for badly written rules. But hopefully this is not the case in infinity.

I actually felt the opposite. EotE is one of my favorites and I am happy to know its designer was behind this system as well. Its approach is radically different from D&D/PF.. but to say it's bad, that's not my experience.

Sorry i made a mistake. I was thinking of the 'previous' role playing game to edge of the empire. The older one was released around 2000. Hence i think we're in the clear for the new infinity mechanic. Major face palm for me (missing 10 years of being up to date with star wars stuff)

Very very much looking foward to this role playing game!
Like the old X-Com UFO computer game (which was story, building your base, research then augmented by missions on a map) i can see the two infinity games running in parallel. Role play scenarios, character development and storyline and the actual 'missions' are accomplished with the table top game. Even if its not exactly this formula i can imagine people will give this a go.I certainly will try and be DM and run through a campaign like this.

[Mistake Not]

I love Eclipse Phase's way of handling characters and skills.

But then I remember that the only reason I can create EP characters in about two hours is the very handy excel spreadsheet someone made and quite a bit of practice. Trying to stat out an EP character by hand is basically self-torture it's so ridiculous. Background, affiliation, then 1000 points to spend. At least 400 must be Active Skills, 300 Knowledge Skills; this budget also buys your gear, body (which is gear), stats.. everything. So while I'd recommend at least a glance at it I can't really say that I'd like the Infinity RPG to have a similar system. Their 'Lifepath' system is a lot more streamlined though.


Also I really hope there's rules for military, corporate, and civilian characters. They could just be simple background fluff bits though, that'd be fine too. As long as I get to use the CSU as my PC..

[Errhile]

Yeah, point-buy systems can get into micromanagement and undue level of detail pretty quickly.

Not that I'd consider putting a lot of effort and time into character creation is a bad thing on its own - if you had spent a lot of effort, you won't be risking the character needlessly. Ad your GM won't be killing the characters on a whim, knowing how long and painful it is to create new ones...

I guess having bricks to build with - like skill blocks in Blue Planet or Fading Suns (well, Polish edition I had in my hands was seriously botched - in translation I guess - so these didn't added up, but the idea was sound) look pretty like the way to go.

[Hero of Man]

....i can see the two infinity games running in parallel....

As cool as that sounds, from my past experience as a player and a DM for such a game, too many players add way too many real life variables to run in parallel. It sucks whenever this holds up one game but is inevitable; but its even worse when your game is being held up by another group. Of course, you can always puppeteer characters for people or have NPCs fill their slots for a mission, but that opens up a whole ‘nother can of worms.

Just something to consider is all.

[Modiphius]

Yeah, point-buy systems can get into micromanagement and undue level of detail pretty quickly.

Not that I'd consider putting a lot of effort and time into character creation is a bad thing on its own - if you had spent a lot of effort, you won't be risking the character needlessly. Ad your GM won't be killing the characters on a whim, knowing how long and painful it is to create new ones...

I guess having bricks to build with - like skill blocks in Blue Planet or Fading Suns (well, Polish edition I had in my hands was seriously botched - in translation I guess - so these didn't added up, but the idea was sound) look pretty like the way to go.

It's a very simple points buy - not super detailed, but enough to let you make real choices.

[Mistake Not]

Fun thing about Eclipse Phase is the stack and the principle of always being backed up.
Resurrection (resleeving) is totally an in-setting thing there.

This is the same for Infinity, with the Cubes. Just buy a new body and let your backup be the you that has always been.

[Hero of Man]

I might be able to run a Takeshi Kovacs game finally...

[Mistake Not]

There is no TPK, there's only massive loss of property.

..except for that one player who wants to play a low-tech character, like an Ariadnan operative. Those players just get to roll up a new character, they chose their fates..

[schoon]

This is the same for Infinity, with the Cubes. Just buy a new body and let your backup be the you that has always been.

To be fair, the state has a near monopoly on the "resurrection" process, so it may be a bit more challenging than it was in the excellent works of Richard Morgan...

I might be able to run a Takeshi Kovacs game finally...

Yes, you just might!

[H1ghlander]

To be fair, the state has a near monopoly on the "resurrection" process, so it may be a bit more challenging than it was in the excellent works of Richard Morgan...

Do remember that Handsome Jack had a monopoly on the New-U stations, but still let Maya, Zer0, Salvador and Axton use them…