clarence
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Everything posted by clarence
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Voice-controlled motorcycle: We might need a User Interface function to cover cases like these. I'm thinking of Voice/Sound, Thought, Head-jack, Body (Species) etcetera. Psionics might also be interesting to add, to be able to mix gear and psionics in some settings. And I'm also thinking we might need Stats if we are to build robots with these rules, though the augmentation rules cover robot-building at the moment. And where do Fate Points go? A catch-all Stunts group? How's this list? User Interface Damage Movement Communicate Environment Enhancements Compute Scan/Sensors Store Manipulate Stats Skills Psionics (Armor: Buy AP separately, as for vehicles?)
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Nausicaa's gull-winged personal flier. Wingspan 5.8 meters, weight 12 kg, powered by twin jet engines. Designed for one pilot but can carry a passenger (uncomfortably) in a pinch. I calibrated the vehicle rules a few days ago by trying to replicate real-world vehicles (from trikes and fighter jets to armored boats), and they seem to work quite good for this one. The weight is of course very fictional. Personal Flier: 12 Modules, 12 kg, Supra-Light (Weight/100). Engine: 2 Modules. Pilot: 1. Passenger: 1. Flight/wings: Modules x3. (Trike: 400 kg, 9 modules, Ultra-Light (Weight/2). Pilot 1 Module, Engine 1, Cargo 1, Flight/wings: Modules x3. 6x2 m.) The Doctor's sonic screwdriver (an energy emitter Swiss Army knife that apparently does everything except actually drive screws, sorta like the watches in Spy Kidsthat had so many extras installed they couldn't tell time) I haven't seen this one in action, so I really don't have a clue, but could it be partly built with Fate Points perhaps? I suppose 1 µModule would be enough for, say, 4 Fate Points : ) Slayer laser lance (from the movie Krull). Sort of a high-tech musket, it fires a single laser blast then must be used as a melee weapon. Does it make sense? No, but it looks cool. 12 µModules. Damage/Energy Weapon 2 µModules (3d8? range: 10 m? ammo: 1 shot), Damage/Melee Weapon 10 µModules (1d8+1+db, range: long). I think the user's speed should be included in the melee damage too, but I didn't see anything about that in BGB.
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Very neat. And staying close to the starship rules is of course good. What functions are needed? Damage, Movement, Communicate, Environment, Armor, Enhancements (for stat increases and added/heightened senses)? So, a Boba Fett suit would be some Armor modules, Damage (mini missiles), Movement (Flight/Jet-Pack) and Communications. And some attributes defining each one a bit more.
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Using the damage ladder, among other things, from the Advanced Combat chapter crossed my mind too, for example nn Energy Weapon module where size and damage can be bought up in increments. For augmentations it will be almost similar. Looking forward to see more of your thoughts on this.
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BRP Starships 2.2, pages 95-97. Just a copy of the Traveller SRD tech levels with some add-ons.
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As a GM tool it makes more sense to me. A regular equipment list for players (a bit longer than it is now) and a chapter for the GM with modular gear-design I think will be a good combination. The similarities with the augmentation/cybernetics system I also find quite fascinating, blurring the line between organisms, implants and objects, and begging for some fundamental sci-fi questions to be explored. Trading modules for Credits and Tech Levels seems like a good idea.
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Do they have any idea how long it will take?
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I enjoy Hero system quite a lot and have used it extensively through the years, though it's been a while now. The flexibility and consistency of the system is elegant, but it takes too much time and effort for me at the moment : ) I tried constructing something like a Boba Fett suit with my improvised gear-design rules. While it worked out just fine, I felt it was a bit… pointless? (Not the right word, but something like that). Why not put the same gear together from an equipment list and just pay Credits for it? A modular system will of course set a physical limit to the amount of things/functions that can be added - that's good. (Armored Suit: 13 µModules. AC 12, 6 µModules. JetPack 4 µModules (Speed 4, Handling 4). Mini missiles (4), 2 µModules (heat seeking, 1d8, range 50 m). Line & hook (6 m), 1 µModule).
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Hmm, gear-design rules... At first sight it does appear a bit weird, but on second thought it might be just perfect. Perhaps not for standard equipment, but for those special innovative pieces of gear characters want to come up with. And the step from building augmentations/cybernetics with modules, to building equipment is not that big. What is equipment but implants that are not implanted? (I guess miniaturization is taken a bit longer with implants, and the connection with the neural system is of course unique (but needn't be)). At the moment I'm using what I call µModules to build augmentations - raising STR in the right arm and adding a pop-out needle gun, either with wetware/biotech or hardware/robotics, is very straightforward with this system. How the module sizes and weights should relate to each other between implants and gear needs a bit of thought though. This could be fun! Edit: I just hope we don't end up in Hero System-ism, where I think flexibility bogs down the rules a bit too much.
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More equipment should't prove too difficult. I'm not much of a gear type though, so any wishes, or even better short write-ups, of everyone's favorite equipment is more than welcome!
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1. Sorry, that was an unnecessary generalization. Many fantasy worlds are of course well constructed. About the "sci" part I'm not so sure though. Giant sand worms living on a barren desert planet - eating what? Not to mention Star Wars. Many times I find that "sci" is a thin veil covering a (hopefully) good story, telling us something about ourselves. And to me, that is not a devaluation of science fiction. 2. Sounds very good. I would like to see more of what you have. 3. Hmm, yes, I can see that. Well, let's see how work on the different parts proceed. If one the settings come together in a timely fashion it might be a good addition. The settings I have are not quite generic, one of them is a psionic-heavy post-empire saga and the other one is... something else : ) 4. Yes, the vehicle rules are an extension of the starship rules and I would very much like to hear your comments on it. I hope to have something for you in a week or two.
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I think River of Heaven is doing a good job with this - perhaps not in a near future, but definitely transhumanism. And about publishing now or waiting for more stuff to be finished, I think Chaosium is really giving the answers here. As long as I don't hear from them, we just can't publish anything else than a free pdf. And I still haven't heard anything from them, despite a handful of emails. It could be an option to just drop the references to BRP and make it a more generic d100 sourcebook, but for the moment I believe it's worth waiting a bit more for an answer. I think though that it once again raises the question whether there should be a more open "family name" for BRP games, to make it easier to go for self-publishing and community-based projects without worrying about trademarks and licensing. Looking at the market for fiction and the music business, this is no doubt a sizable part of the future for publishing.
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This is what the cover would look like if renamed to BRP Space:
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@nezeray: A good description of my thinking : ) Regarding settings, I have a bunch of notes for two quite different sci-fi settings (or rather two bunches of notes), but they are at the moment very far from the depth I would like them to have. And getting there will take considerable time. Regarding rules additions I have a bit more coming: Vehicle design, psionics and modular augmentations are all at the drawing table. Nothing is finished but the basics are sorted out. These rules, I'm thinking, could go either into the next version after this, or in a separate supplement. Including them in BRP Space 2.0 (or what it will be called) would make the book a bit more complete and justify the name even more.
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Aha, that might be a good idea. Ten years ago I thought someone ought to write BRP Space. I really had no plan when I started this, but it might be that BRP Space is a better name for it now. Though I also think the title BRP Starships together with a blurb describing the book as a general sci-fi add-on is probably clear enough to avoid buyers feeling disappointed. Anyone else got an opinion on this?
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I agree that more material equals more fun. At the moment there is no more material unfortunately. I hope to have some more in the coming months though, and it can either be included in BRP Starships 3.0 or in a separate Companion (the classic Chaosium way). Splitting up the material doesn't feel right to me. Having as much as possible relating to space in the same document just seems more practical.
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With proofreading almost done, we're just waiting for an answer from Chaosium about trademark issues. With my emails not being answered, I'm not sure how to make this happen with any speed. If anyone got a "hot-line" to Chaosium, it might be a good time to use it now : ) These are the three versions of the book being planned: BRPcentral, PDF: 78 pages, black & white. (No World Building or Aliens). $0 DriveThruRPG, PDF: 116 pages, color. $3 Lulu, print-on-demand: 116 pages, black & white. $7 + shipping Does this sound ok? Does it seem greedy to remove almost 40 pages from the free version? Or should the free version be even slimmer (removing Constructs and Advanced Starship Combat)? My thinking behind this is not to maximize profit, but simply to differentiate between the versions. It would be very illogical to have the same pdf both free and as a paid download. DriveThruRPG, if I understand correctly, will not allow someone to provide only free downloads, and still I think it's a good place to make the pdf available. Let me know what you think. I also want to repeat what I have written before, that while the project will not be strictly non-profit any longer, the profit will be fully reinvested into the project. The first step will be to pay the two artists involved, and the next step to make a full-color print version.
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That would be very good! Let me just check with Atgxtg how many pages he's done. I know Tired Librarian has about 20 pages to go, so I'm sure there will be at least something for you. Thanks for offering your help. Very appreciated.
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Yeah, I know : ) But I liked it.
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Yes, that's good. I will edit my post above to reflect this.
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Thank you g33k for your kind words! I'm happy you like it. Re exposure to vacuum, you are absolutely right about sight being affected. A character will be quite dead before losing sight. The rule is taken from BGB, and now that I'm looking into it a bit more, I think there might be a better way to handle it. "A rough estimate is that a human will have about 90 seconds to be recompressed, after which death may be unavoidable.[2][3] Unconsciousness is likely to occur within 14 seconds, primarily due to the much lower pressure outside the body causing rapid de-oxygenation of the blood (hypoxia)". Quote from Wikipedia links above. How about this then: Damage due to decompression speed. Explosive: 1d6+2, Abrupt: Emergency exhale or 1d6+2 Being a bit generous, characters should be able to stay conscious for about two rounds, 24 seconds. The first round you need a successful CONx5 to stay conscious, and the second round a CONx4 roll. For true heroic games, continue with CONx3, CONx2 the following rounds. Otherwise unconsciousness is automatic the third round. Surviving for 8 rounds (96 seconds) means loosing 1-2.5 hit points per round. Loose 1d2 HP every round, unless a CONx1 roll is made. I think the motive should be to keep most characters conscious for at least one round, to give them a chance to save themselves. With high CON and a bit of luck, a heroic deed can be squeezed in too. (HP loss at the rate of 1,2,4,8,16 is actually a bit steep if even the most hardy characters are to survive for 90 seconds.) Does this make sense?
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Just a quick update: Proofreading is going very well (many thanks to Atgxtg and Tired Librarian!) and I have contacted Charlie Krank a few days before Christmas about using "BRP" in the book. Edit: Just got a positive response from artist David Sladek to make a few more pieces of interior art!
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I wish more jobs were like that. And please continue with the suggestions. "Flavor" (or "some character" as Tired Librarian called it…) might be good in small doses, but not too much I think.
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Thank you Dennis! I'm very grateful. @Atgxtg: The free Acrobat Reader has a quite good annotation function you can access through the View menu. Give it a try if you want to, or we'll find some other way. Tired librarian is starting from page 1 - how about you start at page 50 (even though you wrote some of the text yourself…)?
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I skimmed this a few days ago and it seems very good. Looking forward to more!
