Just Like the Vids: A Mass Effect Fan Hack for Chaosium's Pulp Cthulhu - Character Creation
Free fan content for tabletop roleplaying campaigns inspired by BioWare's epic space opera video game trilogy
(Above: Mass Effect fan art [2021] by Eva Kosmos)
In the summer of 2022 I played the Mass Effect trilogy for the first time via the remastered Mass Effect: Legendary Edition (released in 2021). I had heard about it well before then but did not consider playing it myself, most likely because I just wasn’t much of a sci-fi fan back then—and I, as a teenager, also felt sheepish asking my parents if I could play a game known well for content that would have James T. Kirk’s immediate attention. After starting my first playthrough, I almost immediately regretted not having played it much earlier. I didn’t dwell on it for too long, however, as I became entirely invested in playing out my Commander Shepard’s story and ensuring the safety of the Normandy’s crew. I was entirely hooked, and I knew full-well I would want to keep up the high long after I finished the trilogy as well as share my excitement for it with friends.
Since Legendary Edition doesn’t feature Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer mode, I started searching for tabletop versions of Mass Effect. BioWare and EA (probably for the better) still have yet to capitalize on making an official TTRPG ruleset for their crowning sci-fi title (or really anything successful beyond the third game), so there are only fan-creations out there. So far, I have only found ones using the rulesets for Cyberpunk Red and variations of the d20 System. While I will absolutely not look down at the efforts and time the designers for each of these versions put into them, I just didn’t favor either ruleset (but I will be sharing links to them below in case my readers do favor them).1 So instead of working on my master’s thesis with the few weeks of summer I had left, I started drafting up a “hack” for Chaosium’s Pulp Cthulhu ruleset. I chose Pulp Cthulhu since I had been playing Call of Cthulhu as my game of choice since the pandemic and could remember and make up rules on the fly by that point, and it felt both crunchy and streamlined enough to help bring the vision of Mass Effect into a tabletop format. Pulp Cthulhu especially seemed like a decent base given that Mass Effect itself does draw in some “raygun romance” aspects to its story and characters but with a modern sci-fi aesthetic; the mechanics for gunplay, quickfire spellcasting, and unique talents also fit the overall gameplay style of the series.
For the last post of TTRPG July, here are the character creation rules for my unofficial fan ruleset for playing tabletop roleplaying game campaigns in the Mass Effect universe available for all to download and share. In this file you’ll get:
Options for playable Species and Occupations in the Mass Effect universe
Rules for Combat, Biotic, and Tech-based powers
A Unique Talent creation system
Mass Effect’s morality (Paragon-Renegade) system
Weapons, armor, and gear for adventuring through space
Some rules for Keepers (Game Commanders) and stat blocks for tried and true enemies in the Mass Effect universe
Consider these rules to be a mod for Pulp Cthulhu rather than a complete game—especially this part of them. Treat them as if they are under constant playtest; tweak, rework, or ignore anything that does not work for your table. If you do read through these and use them for a game session, feel free to comment what worked and what didn’t! I hope to be updating this down the road to include more options like an expanded “bestiary”, rules for ship and vehicle combat, and a scenario or two. As of now, I don’t have plans to officially purchase a license in order to publish it, but for something like Mass Effect which has fans of old school rpgs I think it’s even better to make this project publicly available than lock it behind a paywall. With that being said, snag your free download of Just Like the Vids below!
As a little bonus, Game Masters might wish to have some music to accompany either writing scenarios or gaming sessions, so here is a playlist I put together during my first playthrough with songs that I thought evoked the general mood of the games (if they didn’t reference or were featured in them directly). Most of them are from the ‘00s era of “edgier” music one might anticipate finding as the backtrack to fan-made videogame music videos along with more recent futuristic-sounding or techno songs.
This weekend, wrangle your friends, print out some character sheets, throw on these tunes, gather in your Combat Information Center (likely your kitchen or basement) and start your adventures through the Milky Way as you’ve always want to live them out!
Enjoy this fan hack, Game Commanders and squad-members! Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments whether your group ends up trying this out or simply if there are ideas you have just by reading this document. As I said above, I plan to release more installments of this hack and player feedback is the best thing a game designer can get if they want a successful game!
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Pulp Cthulhu: Just Like the Vids is an unlicensed fan project not made for profit or monetization. The Mass Effect franchise is owned by EA Games. Pulp Cthulhu and Call of Cthulhu is owned by Chaosium. The creator of this fan hack takes no credit for the names of entities, fictional events, and other articles originally developed by the aforementioned companies. The creator also condemns illegal, for-profit distribution of this fan hack.
JPVS Games’ Mass Effect d20: http://www.jpvsgames.com/masseffectd20/
Mass Effect 5e: https://www.n7.world/
Mass Effect: Frontier: https://x.com/mefttrpg?lang=en
Mass Effect d6: https://masseffectd6.blogspot.com/
This is a tremendous contribution for Mass Effect and Pulp Cthulu fans. Keep getting the word out there about its existence.
You are quite the instructor in helping to teach and give creative ideas to other gamers!