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ORtrail

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Everything posted by ORtrail

  1. I've ran a couple Superworld campaigns over the decades, and even though I've moved onto a different game system (Supers! Revised) for my super hero gaming, I'm fairly certain I'm mentally incapable of resisting the purchase of a new Superworld RPG. I'd prefer to see a fairly generic setting, as there are PLENTY of super hero settings that one could choose to set a campaign in either from setting supplements or other super hero RPGs. For example, if you remember Enforcers A Super-Powered Science Fiction Role-Playing Game from the late 80's, was set in the year 2046. Why? To my mind it added more work for the GM to figure out what had changed from the present day of 1987. Or you could run with Godsend Agenda, where there are several powerful factions of mostly aliens who posed as gods back in the old days. Or maybe you want to try the Rotted Capes setting, where a zombie apocalypse and super zombies make life tough for the remaining heroes. In other words, just give people a set of rules and let them worry about the setting details. Optional rules for specific settings would be fine too.
  2. Oh, that's a very cool animation of Ringworld in that link. I have yet to read any any of the Fleet of Worlds books, but the premise is perfect for an RPG campaign. The PCs would be the scouts looking for safe passage or creating it as needed. That said, I have some notes regarding an idea for a one-shot (convention game) Ringworld adventure. A Kzin father is ready to take his teenage cubs on the traditional hunting trip/rite of passage. It's a long journey to the out-of-the-way hunting preserve planet he has in mind, and the navigation system seems to be acting up, but that's all part of the challenge, right? Ringworld is a more crunchy version of the Chaosium system than most, so I might go with the more simplified version used in River of Heaven (based on OpenQuest). I made a few changes to the character sheet for RoH just to see how it would look. Which also reminds me that the art in Ringworld was good, but there wasn't a lot of it. Anyway, here is the first page of that sheet I threw together.
  3. I stumbled across some Ringworld/Known Space B&W sketches by artist Douglass Herring. He does nice work. http://www.douglasherring.com/GamesHTMLs/Games_Art_02.html
  4. Another supplement would have been so nice, lowering the bar to starting a Ringworld campaign. I've done some online searches for Ringworld resources/campaigns and most seem to date back to around 1999-2004. Nothing really active, but if anyone has a nice resource feel free to post it. What would it take to revive interest in Ringworld? Announcing a movie or streaming service TV series would certainly help, but some company would need to develop another RPG to go along with that. Just the rights to create another Ringworld RPG would be a big risk without something to raise awareness of Ringworld compared to its heyday back in the early 80's when it was pretty much mandatory reading for sci-fi fans. A Kickstarter campaign might mitigate that risk though, and maybe Ringworld is still fairly well known among the millennial crowd? Speaking of reading though, I sorted through my paperback books and found I had more Know Space books than I remembered. The first three Ringworld books, volumes II-VI of the Man-Kzin Wars, Flatlander, Crashlander, Tales of Known Space (a great title for a more comprehensive Niven-based RPG), Protector, and World of Ptavvs. I also had a copy of the Oct/Nov 1995 Omni Comics issue that included a story based on The Ringworld Throne. I'm still trying to dig that issue out from where ever it was stored.
  5. I'd also point out that many RPG gamers were fairly young back when Ringworld released, and learning to run a cohesive campaign outside of some fantasy world (where pretty much anything goes) took time to develop. Add in the lack of a robust internet and the resources that come with that, and an RPG that is supposed to be based on hard sci-fi? A big ask for teenagers to manage. Also, the stranding of the player characters seems almost mandatory. In Star Trek they players have Starfleet and orders to keep them around when the sensible thing is just to beam up and head out of the current star system when things start to go south. With Ringworld, just fly a few degrees spinward and you have a fresh start. Which is to say, I think I could pull off a Ringworld mini-campaign now, but I'd have to go back and re-read the source material (I never got around to reading the last Ringworld novel for example) and decide what kind of campaign I wanted to run.
  6. Oh yeah, trying to find someone or something in that Ringworld haystack could be the basis of a really long campaign. There was a Ringworld module in Different Worlds issue 37 (Luis Wu & His Motley Crew) that followed up on the ending of The Ringworld Engineers. They are sailing around exploring in an old Kzinti colony ship (a sailing vessel). When it can take several YEARS of sailing just to reach a new planet map, you have few worries as a GM about the players catching you without some prep work being done. Marooned on Ringworld would probably make for a better mini-campaign though. In line with the Battlestar Galactica suggestion, having to escort several thousand survivors of some disaster to a new homeland on Ringworld would also work. Not every area is created equal, but almost all the really good spots are already taken. It could make for a nice blend of combat and diplomacy. A campaign inspired by The March of the Ten Thousand by Xenophon, as the remnants of an expeditionary force march to an extraction point, would be fun too. The PCs would be the recon team helping to find a path forward. One more thought, since we are dealing with Chaosium and BRP rules, you might as well have Ringworld overrun by elements of the Cthulhu Mythos, right? All the heavy lifting of converting game rules to the setting is done.
  7. I ran a Star Trek campaign (Prime Directive by Task Force Games to be exact) and it was pretty painless. Each adventure was the 'episode of the week' and with the structure of Star Fleet it was easy to send the PCs here or there as the adventure needed. The players had no issues with being told they had to escort some alien ambassador to a conference and keep them alive before, during, and after. Typical Star Fleet assignments. The expectations were baked into the setting. In contrast, Ringworld just seemed wide open.
  8. I'm happy to have the boxset and the companion book; even got to play in one or two adventures back in the day. I've thought about running a short Ringworld campaign now and again, but given the insane size of Ringworld? You'd have to have something closer to a railroad set up for the Players. A focused campaign where you pretty much control where the PCs will go and what they'll see. You can't just let them roam free and drop in at random places on the Ring. Though if you had a list of mini-adventures, you could let them play explorers and decide what they find as they land here and there. A bit like exploring a Fringeworthy portal platform and the alternate rings found there. A one-shot with a party of Kzinti would be fun, right? Let us know if you move forward with a Ringworld campaign. I'd love to hear about it.
  9. I'm always up for adding another super hero RPG to my collection. Superworld was my go to game for a couple decades, before Supers! Revised took its place, but I'd like to see another take on supers using a BRP type system.
  10. My go to BRP Star Wars would be that fan supplement, Runequest Star Wars done by Design Mechanism. Sadly not available anymore, but most of the heavy lifting was done for you in converting the races, equipment, vehicles, force powers, and a few creatures.
  11. So... you're saying there's a chance?
  12. Interesting, it reminded me of playing No Man's Sky with the zoom and rotation.
  13. At some point, there will be a POD version of the RoH Companion on DrivethruRPG and/or Lulu? Shipping to the States would no doubt be expensive so those seem to be my best options.
  14. It's 7th edition that uses a D100 rating for characteristics? In which case, Cathulhu: Velvet Paws on Cthulhu's Trail uses an older edition. Cathulhu is not to be confused with Call of Catthulhu, another cat RPG with Mythos elements. If you want an RPG with cats, but less tied to the Mythos, there is The Cat RPG by John Wick, The Secrets of Cats, or even Strays (which includes dogs and other common pet animals).
  15. There was an unofficial Runequest Star wars PDF a couple years back, have you read that? I'm not sure how far you can go to blend BRP and a D6 pool system before you have your own game system. I agree that a BRP type system Star Wars game with lots of Jedi characters might be best run with Superworld. Every blaster and light saber is treated as a super power with different levels of power (2D6, 3D6, etc.). All the force powers become super powers. You would need to boost the Dodge rolls for the characters (Heroic Dodge at Dex *3?) or they need to wear some Armor, plus maybe a 'Force Blessed' hit point bonus? Spend 1 creation point to get a 3 extra hit points? Max of 2 creation points for extra hit points?
  16. I need to catch up on my reading of this. Running a WoA campaign is on my long list of RPG gaming I want to do someday, and I like seeing how someone else does. it.
  17. There was a D&D edition of this? Also, is it pronounced 'Ky Khan-guh'? "Ky Khan-gay'? While I've been burned out on fantasy games for a long time, I do like to see unconventional settings.
  18. I wonder if he's a fan of the movies?
  19. I've been using a tweaked version of River of Heaven, which is based on OpenQuest. I like to start with a simple base and add on some complexity as I feel it's needed. My focus with this is mostly for one-shot and convention games, where no one has to worry about mastering a new rule system. For a regular group campaign, I might go with with something more complex, but probably only if a lot of granular combat was needed to match the tone of the setting.
  20. Well, it has been about 25 years since the Ultraverse comics were a thing. Most of them were fairly good. I was matching up the Utraverse characters with their closest counterparts in the Marvel or DC universe. The Freex for example were runaway mutant teens, Mantra was the primary magic-user in the Ultraverse, Firearm was a former British secret operative, etc. Actually, Prime should be matched up with Shazam! as both are young teenagers who have an adult super hero form.
  21. I'd bring back the Ultraverse comic characters, to team up with the big Marvel and DC heroes. Night Man and Batman. Firearm and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Prototype and Iron Man. Mantra and Doctor Strange. The Freex and the New Mutants. The Strangers and The West Coast Avengers. I'd include Ultra Force and The Avengers/Justice League but many of those characters strain the BRP system. Honestly, except for the mostly human-level heroes which Superworld would do well, I'd use another system designed just for super heroes. Hmm, the Action Lab, Actionverse heroes would make for a fun crossover too. Stray and Batman, Midnight Tiger and Spider-Man, Molly Danger and Wonder Woman.
  22. I mentioned this to my local comic store owner by saying, "Chaosium needs to do the official John Wick RPG, written by John Wick."
  23. Mental fatigue, shell shock, not that hard to sell the idea that some people are going to snap under the pressure. Never thought about the contaminated water issue, but the problem growing worse the longer they stay works really well in your scenario.
  24. Checking the Big Gold Book, a rapier does 1D6+1 +DB compared to the sword cane at 1D6 + DB. You could modify the parry chance of the sword cane (say -10%) due to lacking the hilt or pommel or just cap the parry at 90% to reflect a less effective parry? I would make Sword Cane its own weapon skill, given the little but important differences it has with a more standard sword type. Or maybe require a character to practice for a couple days if they have the Rapier skill to get used to using a Sword Cane?
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