Introducing Resident Evil Genesys - A homebrew supplement for the Genesys Roleplaying System
If you are just here for the Resident Evil, skip this section for the next bold line.
It's been a real struggle for me lately. Over one year ago now, just a couple of months over a year ago now actually, I began working on a homebrew supplement for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition involving Resident Evil. I worked on it quite a bit and made a lot of progress on it. I even had this concept for a playable organization. Like your players(assuming you are a GM) could have a part in managing a corporation of various sizes and there'd be different mechanics and rules for dealing with that. Something to bring you into the world of Resident Evil where you see these villains manage massive organizations and develop viruses and such, I wanted to give that to players.
Well, reality sunk in that I just wasn't very good at this kind of thing and trying to adapt it to Dungeons and Dragons just wasn't working out. So I stopped the whole thing. Eventually I gave up entirely, no more long hours working on something that I just couldn't figure out. I just moved on to other things, and even opened up my own D&D server on Discord, which I managed for 10 months before having to move on due to my aforementioned personal issues with depression.
But then I mosey'd on over to this thing called Star Wars The Roleplaying Game. I never actually managed to play it but I love Star Wars so playing my own Star Wars character was exciting to me. I also loved the system, it was built on the Narrative Dice System, which gives you so many options in playing a character that I just couldn't get in something rigid like D&D.
Then this crazy thing happened where this OTHER system showed up called "Genesys". It was the exact same system from Star Wars, made by the same people (Fantasy Flight Games), except this one was setting agnostic. It wasn't Star Wars, it wasn't anything but rules and concepts for setting up your own unique setting. It provides examples and even gives weapons and enemies to fight for that specific setting. It has everything from Modern Day to Fantasy, Sci-Fi and even more specifics like Space Opera and Steampunk.
I then checked out the community for the system and was surprised to find so many "setting conversions" like Fallout, Final Fantasy(This link opens a google drive to the PDF), even a fucking incredible Alien setting. Seriously, it's so crisp I love it. And that's when it hit me, I've got a fucking Resident Evil bun in the oven! and I pulled up my old documents and then not only began re-converting them to a new system entirely, but also building so much more.
A lot of the settings I've seen have been fairly light reading. They don't have large documents with hundreds of pages of shit. Instead, they are very succinct. With Resident Evil, and what I want out of it, I couldn't exactly have one of those. Resident Evil has some real gonzo shit in it that I as a player would want to see represented. And as the guy making this stuff I knew what I had to do. So I began working. And working. And working.
It was so exciting working on some of this stuff. It was so frustrating working on others. To this day I look at some of the things within this document that I know people will yell at me about for being so stupid. Which I sure do hope isn't the case but I'm expecting the worse. I mean I will be opening myself up to criticisms with something I've been deeply attached and emotionally invested in for over a year now, which to date is the longest I think I've ever worked on anything and actually completed... Usually shit just gets abandoned and forgotten about. But not this. Not this.
So without further ado, here it is.
Introducing Resident Evil Genesys, a homebrew supplement for the Genesys Roleplaying System. (This is the part you should have skipped to)
Introducing an addon, based on Resident Evil Village! Link to that PDF
Resident Evil Genesys is meant to give players and Game Masters the tools they need to create a whole world of Bioterror and Fighting Bioterror.
New Character Options
New careers, talents, an archetype alongside weapons and new vehicles. Ever wanted to be a Progenitor Human who moonlights as a Bioweapon Designer in their sick new Stealth Bomber with their awesome gauntlets? Well NOW YOU CAN!
Random Monster Creation Tables
A ton of tables for you to choose from, or roll on to generate your own B.O.W.'s if you want to spice your game up with more than what's in the Monster Database.
Speaking of that
Monster Database
Featuring several iconic monsters from the Resident Evil series from the Tyrant to the Super Tyrant and just about everything in between.
Protagonists
Featuring most of the Protagonists of the franchise fully statted so a Game Master can throw them at their players and murder them. All the way from Leon S. Kennedy to Parker Luciani are awaiting you in this document.
Antagonists!
Featuring most of the Antagonists of the franchise fully statted so a Game Master can throw them at their players and murder them. HUNK, Albert Wesker, Jack Krauser, the gang's all here!
Plot Hooks
Good Guy plothooks! Bad Guy plothooks! I couldn't just throw people into the world without something to work with, so I've created 6(I think it was 6) plothooks that put characters into unique situations, some of which involve franchise characters!
LORE
So much lore, you'll say "WHY IS THERE SO MUCH LORE!?"
BOOKMARKS
This PDF is fully bookmarked out, including a working table of contents that take you where you want to go! Just download the document(Which is only 13MB by the way!) and check it out!
I'm not sure I can sell people on a free PDF anymore than I already have. The document (good or bad) speaks for itself. If you are interested in once again entering the world of survival horror, then hop on in and take a look around. I may have to reupload the document to make any changes so you should bookmark this page here if you are interested in Resident Evil Genesys, I don't want people to miss out on something because I deleted an old document.
Add stagger immunity to one of the various custom B.O.W. tables, and maybe look into more resistances and immunities as I may have definitely looked over that.
Obtain more feedback
I have decided to work on an adventure module for this setting to help give context to some of the concepts and themes that individuals unfamiliar with Resident Evil may have trouble wrapping their heads around or conceptualizing. I am by no means a Game Master, and this may be some time off still, but I am going to give it a shot and hopefully create an entertaining adventure for both player and GM.
Added a change log.
Gave the Hydra Shotgun the linked 2 weapon quality that is only available when spending the allotted Advantage.
Gave everyone their correct Samurai Edge statblocks.
Set the AMG's damage to +2 instead of +3, and increased the critical rating by one. Added a clause that the Concussive quality is only available after "charging" the weapon up by using the aim maneuver.
Added in some text to the weapon splash page explaining the rarity and intended methods for players to obtain the new weapons and equipment.
Removed the difficulty of using and combining herbs.
Added a section detailing some of the combinations of the herbs.
Fixed a couple of incorrect statblocks with the Blast weapon quality having ranks in it, when that's not exactly how that works.
Continued to fix my mistake of referring to "short range" as "close range". There is no close range, and yet I cannot ever remember that.
Replaced Claire's handgun with a stronger handgun.
Updated the t-Virus zombie's statblock and changed its Wound Threshold from 8 to 4.
Also updated the Zombie's statblock to clarify that a player must spend two maneuvers to move away from the Zombie once grappled.
Corrected an error stating three blue herbs restore 6 wounds and not strain.
Added Sheva Alomar information and statblock.
Added Piers Nivans information and statblock.
Added the changelog to the bottom of this page as Things To Come may be more immediately pressing for people looking back on this page.
Updated Ada Wong's text entry as well as her images.
Updated Jake's text entry to fix a typo.
Added Inaccurate 1 to Josh Stone's Auto-Shotgun.
Removed a crazy duplicate "contracting a virus" ruleset that somehow made its way into the document. I have no idea how that got there. I only ever had one version of the document so how there was a second one, I have no idea.
Fixed some of the Table of Contents which were originally not included, like HUNK, Wesker, Organizations, etc etc.
Fixed some typos that were embarrassingly obvious and yet I missed them.
Made some changes to how the Herb system worked. I wasn't a fan of blanket healing for wounds and strain so I decided to at least try and make it a little more interesting.
Finally updated both versions of Wesker and Barry's Samurai Edge to bring the damage lower because they were too high from before. In a previous version I only made a change to the Samurai Edge in Wesker's statblock, ignoring the one in the Weapon's tab. That has now been fixed, as well as Barry's.
Added a new Tier 4 talent, Secret Weapon Time.
Updated wording on infection rules.
Removed a weapon quality and specified one is only for monsters.
Clarified quite a bit on how Primary and Secondary Infections work, as well as the main differences between them.
Changed the mechanics of how infecting players work slightly. Changed gaining an ability to require two triumphs as the goal of these viruses are, ideally, to make players stronger, so gaining an extra ability should not be easy.
Started adding decimals to the version numbers because eventually, we're going to hit 2.0 and people are going to probably think it's a huge milestone, which it should be, so let's slow that down a bit before we get ahead of ourselves.
Fixed monster stat blocks so that all of their attacks are now included in them and formatted them correctly so they are no longer stupid.
Also fixed some inconsistencies within the stat blocks including a lack of appropriate symbols as well as poorly integrated abilities. Everything should flow much better now.
Things To Come
Add stagger immunity to one of the various custom B.O.W. tables, and maybe look into more resistances and immunities as I may have definitely looked over that.
Obtain more feedback
I have decided to work on an adventure module for this setting to help give context to some of the concepts and themes that individuals unfamiliar with Resident Evil may have trouble wrapping their heads around or conceptualizing. I am by no means a Game Master, and this may be some time off still, but I am going to give it a shot and hopefully create an entertaining adventure for both player and GM.
Resident Evil Genesys V1.7.4 - Changelog
Accurate as of 05/21/2019(US)
Gave the Hydra Shotgun the linked 2 weapon quality that is only available when spending the allotted Advantage.
Gave everyone their correct Samurai Edge statblocks.
Set the AMG's damage to +2 instead of +3, and increased the critical rating by one. Added a clause that the Concussive quality is only available after "charging" the weapon up by using the aim maneuver.
Added in some text to the weapon splash page explaining the rarity and intended methods for players to obtain the new weapons and equipment.
Removed the difficulty of using and combining herbs.
Added a section detailing some of the combinations of the herbs.
Fixed a couple of incorrect statblocks with the Blast weapon quality having ranks in it, when that's not exactly how that works.
Continued to fix my mistake of referring to "short range" as "close range". There is no close range, and yet I cannot ever remember that.
Replaced Claire's handgun with a stronger handgun.
Updated the t-Virus zombie's statblock and changed its Wound Threshold from 8 to 4.
Also updated the Zombie's statblock to clarify that a player must spend two maneuvers to move away from the Zombie once grappled.
Corrected an error stating three blue herbs restore 6 wounds and not strain.
Added Sheva Alomar information and statblock.
Added Piers Nivans information and statblock.
Added the changelog to the bottom of this page as Things To Come may be more immediately pressing for people looking back on this page.
Updated Ada Wong's text entry as well as her images.
Updated Jake's text entry to fix a typo.
Added Inaccurate 1 to Josh Stone's Auto-Shotgun.
Removed a crazy duplicate "contracting a virus" ruleset that somehow made its way into the document. I have no idea how that got there. I only ever had one version of the document so how there was a second one, I have no idea.
Fixed some of the Table of Contents which were originally not included, like HUNK, Wesker, Organizations, etc etc.
Fixed some typos that were embarrassingly obvious and yet I missed them.
Made some changes to how the Herb system worked. I wasn't a fan of blanket healing for wounds and strain so I decided to at least try and make it a little more interesting.
Finally updated both versions of Wesker and Barry's Samurai Edge to bring the damage lower because they were too high from before. In a previous version I only made a change to the Samurai Edge in Wesker's statblock, ignoring the one in the Weapon's tab. That has now been fixed, as well as Barry's.
Added a new Tier 4 talent, Secret Weapon Time.
Updated wording on infection rules.
Removed a weapon quality and specified one is only for monsters.
Clarified quite a bit on how Primary and Secondary Infections work, as well as the main differences between them.
Changed the mechanics of how infecting players work slightly. Changed gaining an ability to require two triumphs as the goal of these viruses are, ideally, to make players stronger, so gaining an extra ability should not be easy.
Started adding decimals to the version numbers because eventually, we're going to hit 2.0 and people are going to probably think it's a huge milestone, which it should be, so let's slow that down a bit before we get ahead of ourselves.
Fixed monster stat blocks so that all of their attacks are now included in them and formatted them correctly so they are no longer stupid.
Also fixed some inconsistencies within the stat blocks including a lack of appropriate symbols as well as poorly integrated abilities. Everything should flow much better now.