clarence

Ok, here’s the first part of Valerian. Please chime in if any of you disagree with my design choices.

Valerian

STR 13
CON 15
SIZ 12
DEX 17
INT 14
POW 13
CHA 16

Action Points: 2
Damage Modifier: –
Experience Modifier: +1
Healing Rate: 3
Initiative Bonus: 16
Movement Rate: 6 m

Hit Points: 14
Power Points: 13
Luck Points: 3

Culture: Urban
Career: Spatio-Temporal Agent

Next step, skills...

Haha, yes I probably should. Where do I start? Valerian having a DEX of 16?

The Valerian movie by director Luc Besson is almost here! To celebrate, we have added the spatio-temporal agent’s spiffy Astroship xb982 – both M-SPACE stats and deckplans – to FrostByte’s webpage.

Check it out here: http://www.frostbytebooks.com/#_blog

Aha, you know a bit of Danish then? But yes, Søren was indeed the initial spark of inspiration. I read 'Either Or' when I was 21 and found it both fascinating and rather difficult. Nowadays I think I would call it misanthropic. 

Considering how deadly space is for humans - no air, radiation, extreme cold - I think 'graveyard' is a reasonable name for a starship : )

Rules for modular droids and cybernetics are in the works. Perhaps not enough to run Blade Runner with RAW, but a good start. Starships are worked on a little bit. Not sure yet how to package those extra bits though. An M-SPACE Companion perhaps, in true BRP tradition?

First I need to finish Odd Soot however. I feel very strongly about this game/setting - it's been an amazing universe to play in and explore - and the writing process has been intensifying since early spring. A lot has been covered, but there's still much to do. Apart from the alternate Earth setting, it will also bring some psychological depth to characters, plague-infested insanities and a new take on Circles - complementing the rules in M-SPACE. 

Oh, and speaking of Kierkegaard, a Philosophy Engine casts a long, dark shadow over the entire setting. 

Regarding external writers, I welcome all ideas. I've had a couple of propositions so far, but it's too early to say what will become of them. 

Yes, it started as an hommage to the old existentialist. Then I realized the irony of calling starship a graveyard and it kind of stuck. Not much deeper than that, though I found Søren Kierkegaard's work quite fascinating many years ago. A bit on the pessimistic side but otherwise enjoyable. 

Do you know when you will start playing the Sidereal campaign?

Dark secrets are fun. Complicating character's lives even more so. 

Good to hear Kierkegaard is being used. BTW, the name is Danish and translates into churchyard or graveyard : )

Very nice write-up. Is it for your play-by-post game?

I hope you make a swift and speedy recovery.

Oh, that's interesting : ) Can you tell us more or is it too early in the project?

The two explosives in M-SPACE are:

Particle Grenade, Damage 3d8
Thermal Detonator, Damage 5d10

This is how I usually do it:

Splash/Area Effect: Roll full damage for targets within 1 metre of the explosion, to all locations. Damage is halved and affects one less location for every metre beyond the first. This means, in general you need to be 5 metres from the explosion to avoid serious damage. A successful Evade is possible if the target is aware of the incoming grenade (if thrown), halving the number of locations affected. Sorry for not being clear about all this in the rules.

For other options, like the Fragmentation trait, check this recent discussion on The Design Mechanism's forums:

http://designmechanism.freeforums.org/explosives-t2106.html

And make sure to get the free RQ Firearms PDF while you're there (if you don't have it already). It doesn't contain much in the way of explosives but a lot more about weapons in general.

Hmm, she won't win many social conflicts with CHA 6 : )

Love the maps! Good work. 

The funny thing with the Martian geography is that if I had a planet surface randomly generated looking like that, I would probably discard it. Such a massive southern landmass and only an ocean to the north - it just doesn't look right. And yet, that's how it is : )

BTW, here's an interesting piece on Martian timekeeping:

https://www.inverse.com/article/32283-humans-mars-timekeeping

8 hours ago, Joerg said:

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy has the colonists bombard Martian atmosphere with ice- and nitrogen-carrying meteorites to build up an atmosphere beyond what can be released from Martian soil. Not by direct impact but by aerobreaking in the atmosphere.

The other major geoengineering feat in Robinson's chronicles of colonizing Mars is a mirror array in the L1 position increasing the amount of solar radiation (at least in the visible and infrared).

I quite like the idea about terraforming without dropping meteoroids/asteroids on Mars, but here’s an interesting real-world concept for re-routing asteroids:

https://www.inverse.com/article/29303-made-in-space-asteroid-mechanical-spacecraft-project-rama

It turns the entire asteroid into an autonomous spacecraft, slowly steering it towards Earth in this case. But Mars should be possible too.

6 hours ago, Opiyel said:

I dig the article, especially since I'm sculpting a terraformed Mars in Grand Designer for my M Space game. I've always been more of a fan of terraforming Venus. One day we can. One day

Cool. Will you have a map to share?

Terraforming Mars seems much more realistic after reading this:

http://www.popsci.com/terraform-mars-climate-change

After 100 years the atmosphere is still too low in oxygen, but at least no vaccsuit is needed. And sending robots to do the initial work is of course very clever. 

Excellent. 

Good to hear you're still working on it!

Looks very nice. Well done : ) 

It would be interesting to hear how they affect game play. 

18 hours ago, heathd666 said:

ill try to remember to take pictures of all the character sheets and props from when i run it at gen con. its always very busy so i forget sometimes lol.

Please do! 

Interesting idea. Let me know how it works out!

M-SPACE has an optional section with simplified combat. They only have 11 Special Effects and no hit locations. Most of my players care very little for combat and they find the simplified rules quick and easy. 

Good read. I'm happy the Extended Conflicts worked out for you.

Thank you. I'm happy you like it.

Congratulations, both of you : ) I hope we will see more of Che's work.

1 hour ago, Matt_E said:

Wow, sounds like a recipe for real cognitive dissonance. :-)

Haha, well, I realized that reading about distant cultures, whether backward or forward in time, is surprisingly similar. Many historical cultures are so different from our that they just as well could have been on a different planet. Or even alien. Add technology to that and it can get quite interesting : )