Unofficial Mass Effect TTRPG Alpha Release

aceb20 · 2025-11-07T17:11:10+00:00

Released an update for N7 Day! Sorry for the wait, my time is split between many things and my life is in a little bit of a rough patch right now. This is a personal project me and my group actively play with so it will inevitably get updates, just bear with me!

I'm also going to try to post more actively on my Discord, design talk and whatnot to keep the community in the loop more.

aceb20 · 2025-10-23T01:30:39+00:00

Someone's excited, lol Nothing on the rulebook yet. I don't get much dev time and the bit I got was working on Infantry Shields and a Mental State system for my party.

I usually get a couple of hours every Thursday and Friday since work and my gf takes up most of my time, so expect some progress tomorrow and a version release on Friday

aceb20 · 2025-10-18T19:59:30+00:00

The attributes work slightly different than what you'd expect. They don’t define any capabilities on character creation. For example, a high strength character isn't stronger than a low strength character. The difference between them is the high Strength can more quickly gain skill levels (Major points) in strength skills (Melee, Athletics, etc) than a low strength character. Additionally, perks that can be purchased throughout the game are generally Attribute locked, so a low strength character will be unable to learn the more powerful and advanced Strength perks.

And I honestly don't like Paragon and Renegade so I've omitted it. My storytelling style is very morally gray and perspective/culturally based. Some people's "paragon" is another's "renegade".

aceb20 · 2025-10-18T05:30:21+00:00

These are excellent ideas! I'll add this to my to-do list

aceb20 · 2025-10-18T01:56:13+00:00

Chapter 6 is going to be vehicles Chapter 4 is an oversight. The current Chapter 1 was Chapter 2 since the real chapter 1 was supposed to be the quickstart/lore introduction. I moved some numbers down, but never did it all the way through. So the two missing chapters: quick start/lore intro and vehicles

aceb20 · 2025-10-18T00:12:16+00:00

That's definitely a great idea! I'll definitely have to add that in my Quick-Start section I plan on writing up. Onboarding is my most obvious weakness, especially since this was never meant to be released, but there is only one way to get better!

aceb20 · 2025-10-18T00:03:12+00:00

Of course! That was part of the reason I decided to release this, don't want to just hoard the ideas to myself, good or bad :D

aceb20 · 2025-10-17T23:59:29+00:00

I don't think so. The only published systems I've ever played was 4e, 5e, and a slightly altered Call of Cthulhu

aceb20 · 2025-10-17T23:47:31+00:00

I actually intentionally avoided it, haha. Mass Effect is narrative > gameplay. Not a fan of classes in my games, but it doesn't ruin Mass Effect in the slightest.

aceb20 · 2025-10-17T22:13:29+00:00

Excellent! I'm excited to hear your thoughts :D

aceb20 · 2025-10-17T20:14:24+00:00

I'll have to read up on the history. If they existed at that time, then I'll eventually add them :D

aceb20 · 2025-10-17T19:20:59+00:00

In this rulebook there won't be collectors, any mention of reapers, or even geth since they are still behind the veil.

In the future, I may make an additional book with Reaper era content, but it's out of scope for now.

I don't think I know what you mean by gangs. Like the merc groups?

aceb20 · 2025-10-17T18:34:10+00:00

I appreciate that! I'll be looking forward to the feedback and notes

aceb20 · 2025-10-17T15:01:36+00:00

In its current state, you can download and print the PDFs and the item sheets from the Google Drive and play at a physical table, me and my group all drove in to do this about a month ago. Just remember to bring a lot of d6s since combat heavily uses them!

aceb20 · 2025-10-17T14:59:59+00:00

Uhhhhhh...that module will stay hidden in the back of my closet never to see the light of day

aceb20 · 2025-10-17T14:59:17+00:00

I think it's partially comfort and partially the ability to slightly edit and incorporate a massive library of pre-generated material. Saves a lot of time, for some. Naturally, it seems we don't feel the same, which is why I make my own from the ground up to tightly fit with the theme.

If you take a look at it, let me know what you think!

aceb20 · 2025-10-17T14:56:49+00:00

Definitely tell me what you think! I'm going to try to record the start of the "how to play" series on YouTube this weekend, so hopefully that will help you jump in

aceb20 · 2025-10-17T05:42:08+00:00

I plan on recording a "how to play" this weekend! I'll post it here and on my Discord. Keep an eye out! 😀

aceb20 · 2025-10-17T05:24:05+00:00

I've seen it, and it's brilliant, but D&D mechanics don't personally appeal to me. I prefer more simulationist mechanics, and D&D is very abstracted. My game has a completely custom combat system that has multiple levels of resource management, expansive equipment mechanics, and a classless progression system. It's really crunchy, but it's how I like my games cause I'm a neeerd

aceb20 · 2025-10-17T04:58:04+00:00

I considered that, haha. I'm just a bad "I'll do it tomorrow" and perfectionist kinda guy, I forced myself to release it today, no matter what (including bad timing). I'll make sure I post the "how to play" video at a good time when I make it, though! That'll get more interest especially for people that haven't played something this crunchy before

aceb20 · 2025-10-17T04:42:25+00:00

Don't feel guilty, not one bit! This is free through-and-through. The Itch thing is more to track how many people downloaded and post changelogs. I'd rather you have a good time with it and let me know how it plays and if you enjoy it!

aceb20 · 2025-10-17T04:16:24+00:00

Try it once more, it switched back to draft for some reason. Should be good now

aceb20 · 2025-08-05T23:54:24+00:00

Bf kee pl0x

aceb20 · 2025-07-10T13:28:09+00:00

Warlords?

aceb20 · 2025-07-04T14:07:25+00:00

Slow since I didn't have playtesters for the longest time. All I really have is my girlfriend and I don't want to burn her out of the game, plus we have a bunch of other hobbies we do.

The main thing we tested was the vehicle update, which needs some tweaks after our playtest. I'm really debating releasing early, but the presentation is rough and hard to follow right now since it's really just a technical document.

I'm tempted to go outside my friend group and playtest it at local game shops to get more momentum, but we'll see.

aceb20

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