clarence

Inspired by Tales of Terror published many years ago for CoC (and living a life of its own in some forum back then) I have written a handful of scenario seeds following the same concept but for sci-fi settings. Here is the first one. Feel free to contribute more seeds! I'm trying to stay under 800 words and after a short introduction three different developments are described. I'm also tagging them with a couple of descriptive terms for ease of use. The Theatre #terrorism #investigation The way the small theatre jokes vicsiously about the indigenous alien minority is not the worst - now they are suspects in a series of bombings. An old representative of the aliens', Socorro Nan Tali, makes contact with the characters. S/he, and many with her/him believes that law enforcement is not doing enough, and asks the characters to investigate both the theatre and the bombings. Something must be done before more people are hurt. 1. The connection between the theatre and the bombings are false. Visiting the theatre it is soon obvious the ensemble members are nothing but comedians, though not very good. Searching the last bomb site, an i'Dreeni sacred place for meditation, turns up both DNA and unusual ingredients not previously found, pointing in the direction of a small racist community on the outskirts of the city. Going after them with brute force will make them fight fiercely, with the characters probably needing help from the police, but infiltrating the community and spying out the masterminds of the attacks results in less bloodshed. 2. The Living Theatre of i'Dreeni is indeed a radical group, going from talking to action under the influence of a new member, Guerau Clara from a small racist community on the outskirts of the city. Sneaking around in the theatre will turn up both suspiscious behaviour and bomb-making ingredients. But catching the terrorists in action is not so easy... (see above). 3. A new member of the theatre, Guerau Clara, is actually an agent from neighboring planet Gerdr, trying to destabilize i'Dreeni by exploiting the suspicions between the two species. As a professional he leaves very few traces, but as he is quite bad on stage, he's been forced to bribe the leader of the theatre, Biel Leek, to not be kicked out. In a hidden compartment in his small flat a communications device can also be found. A simple but tedious tracking procedure will after a while give all the answers. The i'Dreeni: Amphibian humanoid (Strangeness 2) with fish-like scales and spindle-shaped head and limbs (limbs almost appearing to be segmented). Behaviour: Patient. Living in monogamous hermaphroditic pairs, taking turns giving birth, and at old age becoming a third middle sex. Appearance: Human-like in general body plan and size. Well camouflaged in i'Dreeni coastal landscape (light colors - beige, pale blues, light grays): -20% in Spot skill when trying to see an i'Dreeni. Large eyes with third semi-transparent eyelid mostly used underwater. Functional clothing. Communication: Sound. Two versions of language: One complex for use in air and a simplified version used underwater often over large distances. Skills: Swim 90%, Hide 75%, Stealth 75%. Natural weapon: Low-poisonous sting on wrists to stun prey when hunting. On humans the symptoms are dizziness for 30 minutes (all skills at -20%). The i'Dreeni are living off small water-dwelling lifeforms and algae, hunting and farming them in terraced systems of pools. Simple, open, rural buildings are scattered in small groups, often interconnected with the pool systems, with both wet and dry areas indoors. Have graciously shared their planet with various alien lifeforms for about 100 years, slowly becoming a minority. The i'Dreeni are mostly rural while the aliens (many humans among them) cluster together in small cities. They use high technology but mostly avoid it.

Splendid idea : ) I'm certainly looking forward to hearing more about this. Keep us posted on your work.

Ok, I get it now : )

The example is only a scenario seed I'm using to test social conflict mechanics on. Sorry if I was a bit unclear. There is a bit more to it than I wrote above, but the conflict situation is not much more than I stated above. You would make it two conflicts? Hmm, I will have to think about that for a bit... Which of the objectives would you use in the "halt the terrorist attacks" example above? I would simply call it persuade, but I'm unsure how to fit it into one of the four objectives (this is not a critique - I'm just trying to understand).

Interesting! Seems like a good mechanic for court intrigue. I like the concept "Target disposition" - I suppose that the GM keeps track of those values for later conflicts. And Deceit is a skill BRP could need. It seems to me that there is one active part (using a persuading skill) and a passive part trying to hold steady with their Willpower skill (or Insight to spot a lie). Is that right? I'm having a scene where the characters are trying to convince a group of freedom fighters to not send more suicide bombers to the capital of the repressive regime on Sychua. This feels like a situation where there are two equally strong parts trying to sway a group, where both sides will use Orate/Persuade. I'm also wondering about the Objective. It seems a bit limiting with only Friendship, Information, Service and Deceit. Using my example above it doesn't seem to fit any of the objectives.

Sorry, I'm not a FB user...

Ok, here is my take on Montjoy's system with some of Paolo's ideas incorporated: Social Conflict 2 Resolve (Hit Points): CHA or APP Attack skills: Fast Talk, Bargain, Persuade. Use opposed rolls. The different skills can be opposed in any combination (eg. Bargain vs. Persuade). Complementary skills: Perform, Command, Etiquette or any skill connected to the actual subject. Add 1/5 of the complementary skill to the main skill. Damage Bonus: Use the Damage Bonus chart below. Damage: 1d6 Composure (Armor): Recognized authority, frequently defaulting to 1/20th of Status Defeat: Resolve of 0, usually resulting in negative modifiers to social interactions for a period. "The easiest of the methods of attempting to adjudicate a case of opposed skills is to simply let everyone involved in the opposed check roll his or her chances for success as normal (any normal modifiers apply) and compare the results. The highest successful result rolled that is not a critical or special success is the winner". BGB As an alternative to Composure, 1/5 of the Status skill can used as a negative modifier when the person with the highest Status is attacked. Note: Fast Talk, if used exclusively by one combatant, will yield only temporary damage - it will last just a few minutes after the conflict is over. POW + INT, Damage Bonus 2 to 12, -1d6 13 to 16, -1d4 17 to 24, None 25 to 32, +1d4 33 to 40, +1d6 41 to 56, +2d6 57 to 72, +3d6 73 to 88, +4d6 89 to 104, +5d6 105 to 120, +6d6 121 to 136, +7d6 137 to 152, +8d6 152 to 168, +9d6

I think both of your systems have merits: Opposed rolls is probably a good idea, if only for the speed of it. The resistance table is not a favorite of mine though... Differentiating damage a bit seems right to me: An intelligent and POW-ful person can make a very stinging argument, even if his/her skill is not so good. CHA is to me a good choice for Resolve, as it finally lets this stat do some heavy lifting. Composure/Authority I can see as quite useful in many ways. Arguing with a king or his guard will be rather different. An argument will be harder to strike home with the king, if only because the character has to be more careful with his/her wording. Armor is one way of modeling that, or perhaps a fraction of the opponent's Status as a negative skill modifier. Some other thoughts: Are all skills equal in social combat? Fast Talk, Bargain and Persuade (in BGB) are three different approaches to social interaction. Can any of them be pitted against any other with equal success? Will Fast Talk yield only temporary damage, unless followed up by a Persuade roll? And how can Perform, Etiquette and Command help in a heated discussion? (And Paolo, I must say that you are a very harsh critic… Not to mention the irony of a thread about social combat turning into exactly that : )

And this:

Excellent ideas and a very good thread on RPGnet. There have been a few threads about new BRP products too the last few months, but they die very quickly. I suggest posting here if someone is posting BRP stuff there, so we all can chime in to keep the threads alive a bit longer. Some other recent BRP threads (in the Hype Machine): http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?750750-RuneQuest-6-The-Taskan-Empire http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?729093-BRP-Starships-2-0-(Free-PDF) : ) I'm not sure how effective it is to announce new releases in that sub-forum, but by adding a comment the thread is immediately bumped up to the top (as I just did with The Taskan Empire).

I'm thinking about including something like this in BRP Starships/Space, to offer an alternative to more action-oriented play. Not sure if I'm the right person to write it though...

Just rediscovered this thread… I still think the rules are really good. Is anyone working on fleshing it out?

[…] "In dystopian films, for which Blade Runner or Judge Dredd often provide the template, there is usually very little in the way of high-quality mass transit, epicurean-quality food is hard to come by, and everyone looks as if they got their fashion cues from Alice Cooper. Also, France no longer seems to exist in the future. Women wear a lot of mascara in dystopian societies. So do men. Even in the distant future, harmless, non-threatening young people will get tattoos in a desperate attempt to make themselves look scary. And as a general rule, whenever the camera descends into the lair of the rebel nerd who is trying to stymie the forces of darkness, the geeky upstart will be working on a computer that looks as if it was designed in 1978. It’s as though the smartwatch never happened." […] Read the rest of it here : ) http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/mar/19/dystopian-films-blade-runner-insurgent-future-grim

Lots of interesting suggestions here. Here are some of my reflections: - Turning the book into a complete, freestanding game feels like a last resort. There are fully functional systems around and another clone seems a bit unnecessary. I can see the practicality in having all rules in one volume, but I'm just not appealed by the thought of describing INT, combat rounds and so on. Though I must say that Atgxtg's take on the d100 system looks very promising... - Going independent is very tempting and DriveThru/RPGnow is where I get my files too. It seems like a good place to have the book. And Lulu for the print version. - I will keep Kickstarter as an option. If it turns out to be the best choice I could use a bit of support though (at least with the voice-over - I will let you know when the audition starts). - I'm not too keen on making it a monograph. I really like the concept, but as the design concept for the books are fixed I think it will not suit this project very well. The design of BRP Starships/Space is an important part of the project for me, I just think it wouldn't be the same without it. - I will keep the discussion going with Alephtar Games. I will know more in late April.

Yes, "Compatible with d100 roleplaying games" would probably work (though I suppose it could be mistaken to include RoleMaster or Eclipse Phase). Regarding a license, I have been in contact with Chaosium and it is a viable option. The problem is that I would need help from a handful (or two) of backers to pay for the license, and I really don't know if that is possible without a Kickstarter campaign. And I'm not too keen on that, even though it wouldn't take much more than, say, $400 to reach the goal. The work involved at the moment seems a bit overwhelming (a snazzy video with me speaking broken English? I'm not sure if I should smile or weep…). I might change my mind though : )

Thanks everyone for your support! And yes Paolo, I agree to the points you have made. The trademark issues can probably be avoided, but the compatibility takes a bit more work to pull off in a good way. And I just want to add, a bit contrary to what I wrote in an earlier post, that I'm also discussing publication with Alephtar Games as Paolo has showed renewed interest in the book. I'm keeping both options open for the time being, with Atgxtg continuing work on vehicles/gear/augmentations in the meantime (and hopefully one or two chapters more for me...). The benefits of a professional publisher is the much better reach of the book, and that I don't have to do things I'm not very good at (like marketing). I will let you know how all this develops.

I agree that doing this as an independent product will give more freedom. It will probably reach fewer people though, as I cannot compete with the marketing done by more established publishers. How about this: - A new title, "D100 Space". Does this work? - "Compatible with Basic Roleplaying, Runequest, Legend & OpenQuest" written on the front or back. - Most of the text left unchanged, except direct references to BGB. This means skill names (for example) will not always match with the compatible games. Is this a problem? In many ways this is the easiest (and speediest) way forward. The proposed new title is slightly awkward to me, but I think I can get used to it. I have very seriously considered Kickstarter. What puts me off is all the work I have to put into the presentation of the project - time I would prefer to spend on writing.

This is just a quick update on the progress of things. - The title has changed to BRP Space, to better reflect the content. - Atgxtg is working on the crunchy bits of the combined vehicle-gear-augmentation rules. - Special Planet Features has been added to the World Building chapter, as well as a description of the concept Deep State. - Aliens & Occupations explores ways to find plausible pursuits for extra-terrastrial lifeforms. - Rules for improving & inventing new gear. - New black & white art by David Sladek is continously being added (see example below). - Some lengthier examples of how the rules work are now included in the sidebars. - All chapters have been clarified & updated to be easier to follow. The biggest issue though is how to best proceed to get the rules in print. As BRP is a trademark of Chaosium there are a few things to consider. One route is to skip BRP altogether and go for "D100 Space" instead. Another approach is to make it a "pro" product (with all the financial and organisational repercussions that follows). I don't know yet which way it will go, and if you have any recommendations or suggestions I'm all ears. What end product would you like to see?

Mutant is a Swedish post-apocalypse RPG originally published in the early 1980s as a BRP game. It has thrived as a BRP game for many years, but recently a new version was released with a completely different set of rules. It's been very well received here in Sweden, and now it has been released in English. I warmly recommend it! There is an in-depth review at http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/16/16316.phtml

Ok, email is fine : )

Very efficient and space-saving. Looking forward to seeing it. What platform are you using?

Yes, that's what I've been thinking too. There are options in between the two extremes. And for augmentations there will definitely be some explaining to do and a few extra rules to go deeper into. But leaning towards the one-system solution requires quite a lot of synchronization between Atgxtg and me. The complexity of it might call for a joint document of some sort, to keep track of what needs to done and by who. Does anyone have suggestion regarding a good platform? Is Google Docs ok for this?

Ok, good to know. Does anyone else have an opinion about this?

Hmm, yes, I agree. One module to rule them all. That will probably work. My only objection is that it might be un-pedagogical. Too many options and being too generic can make the construction of objects a bit harder I think, especially if some of the options are for specific categories only (like different modes of movement). So: One large generic system for everything OR three smaller, very similar systems, optimized for three different purposes (vehicles, gear, augmentations)? I can see pros and cons with both. Would anyone else like to chime in here? Which one do you prefer? Well you did, didn't you? At least you got me on the right track with one of your comments a few weeks ago. So far it's working really well. Quite simple and very hands-on to make implants or exchange body parts.

Voice Controlled: I was thinking that all devices would get 1 type of control system standard. A device with two methods of control would cost extra. Basically 1 point per additional method. So voice control would be free if you couldn't steer the thing manually. My thought exactly. Does it take up a module to have a second UI? Skills: I'm thinking that giving gear a skill ( such as with an autopilot or robot) would be on a 1 point per 5% skill basis. Items that augment the user's skill rating would use the doubling progression , as it would keep the skill bonuses under control. That is 1 point for +5%, 2 for +10%, 4 points for +15%, 8 points for +20% and so on. An item that can do both, costs 1 point extra. Sounds good. Psionics: If we add PSI to the character we could see about adding PSI to the gear. Either as skill augmentation, POW (PSI?) boost, or PSI Point (Magic Point) storage device) Rules for psionics is in the works, it's taking a bit of time to get the right balance between feeling/flexibility/ease-of-use though. Armor: I am thinking we can give a X armor per points table. Then break up the total AP over hit locations v(most items will probably only have one location). To help with this I am going to try and reverse engineer the weight per AP values on the general armor table. Excellent. Building Robots with this: Yeah, why not? In fact, if I can pull it off, I'd like to roll this in with your vehicle design rules and allow us to add abilities to vehicles, or even design something like a Mars Rover that is a combination of device, robot and vehicle. IMO that would be the smart thing to do, and really cool. I have started on the rules for augmentations, that I want to stay as close as possible to the gear rules. The way they work now is that each hit location have 10 microModules, preferably exchangeable with the gear rules (making an implant of 2 modules of Damage for example). By changing all hit locations into "gear" you have a fully synthetic body, and it's also a way to build robots. And combining objects/functions from the vehicle and gear rules would be very interesting, making it possible to detail a vehicle in an interesting way. And vehicle, gear and augmentations (gear possible to attach as a body-part, body-part then integrating with a tailor-made vehicle). Personal-Scale Modules: I'm hoping to get this to work with mini modules that mass 0.1 kg (about 3.5 oz.) That is almost exactly 1/1000th the mass of a vehicle scale module -,making it easy to say that 1 vehicle modules gives you 1000 personal scale modules for adding things like an AM/FM radio, heater, headlights, cigarette lighter, bluetooth interface for a cell phone, and windshield wipers. Anything that needs to be smaller than this can be done by spending $$$ to miniaturize the item. Another module scale below gear/augmentations? So we have decaModules for starships, regular modules for vehicles (100 kg/module), microModules for gear/augmentations (body-sized objects, 1 kg/module), miniModules for really small stuff (0.1 kg/module). Perhaps the mini- and micro- prefixes should change places?