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Question: Will BRP contain more or less futuristic gear than a) Ringworld and FutureWorld.

Less than FutureWorld and much less than Ringworld.

Yep, as soon as the German translation of Mongoose Traveller has been pub-

lished (early June, probably), we will use parts of it for our setting, especial-

ly from the character generation chapter, the starship construction system

and the trade system.

However, we prefer the d100 system to Traveller's system for the "actual ro-

leplaying", so Traveller will only influence the setting, not the characters' ac-

tions.

Our group has just recently decided to "translate" our science fiction setting

from GURPS Traveller to BRP in order to play a game with less rules mathema-

tics and more roleplaying, where the setting is at the centre and the rules are

only (adaptable) tools to make the setting playable.

My opinion on D&D 4.0 should be obvious ... >:->

BRP Edition Zero has these informations:

- "For every year below the minimum age (18) ... subtract 20, 30 or 40 skill

points (based on level of campaign) from your character's professional skill

points." (= a "normal" character would get 250 professional skill points, redu-

ced by 20 skill points per year below 18)

- "For every year below the minimum age above, subtract 1 point from one

characteristic of your choice. The gamemaster may require that you make

SIZ one of these lowered characteristics."

But my point is that the literal meaning of "interplanetary" is misleading. Someone reading, say, the title of this thread may quite naturally assume ... the genre is space opera.

Not really, because true Space Opera would be "interstellar" ...

I didn't necessarily want to use the "romance" label ...

I am glad you did not use it, at least here in Germany "romance" is nowadays

used for "love stories" only ...

Hey and Welcome, Gianni12 !

Thank you for all the work on your settings, and please keep the results

coming !

I am having second thoughts on my first idea ... :eek:

Now I think that it might be better to have the Steel and Gunstones setting

on the same world as The Green, because the existence of these two diffe-

rent settings on one world would make that world a bit like the planet Tschai

of Jack Vance's Planet of Adventure series, which I like very much - and whe-

re I could easily "borrow" some good adventure ideas.

Just in case you do not know Tschai: Planet of Adventure - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Once they found the way to the planet by spaceship, the spacefarers would

still have to find The Green on this world, in order to locate the portal and re-

contact the Mamprusi, and the Steel and Gunstones setting could be a very

good (and unexpected) place to have them start that search.

By the way, where in (or near) the region of the Steel and Gunstones map do

you imagine The Green to be ?

And: I just now realized one of the reasons why I really like this map - its sty-

le is quite similar to the maps of the AD&D Birthright setting, which I enjoyed

very much. In fact, in a way my Pharos IV setting is a kind of "Birthright in

Space".

Thank you very much !

By the way, my favourite scene of this adventure was when a scientist

among the colonists attempted to get some DNA from one of the Mamprusi

("My hypothesis is that they are descendants of genetically uplifted Terran

great apes, so this planet must be a Lost Colony !").

The Mamprusi in question turned out to be female, and she completely mis-

understood the scientist's intentions - as did her mate, the leader of the

Mamprusi group.

The player's attempts to roleplay his character's explanation of what he re-

ally was after by pantomime would have been worth an entrance fee ...

A few days ago I have "jumped the gun" and have used The Green for a first

adventure with characters from my setting.

While investigating the Gate left behind by the Builders in a ruined outpost in

the Great Rift of Pharos IV, they inadvertently activated the Gate and were

transmitted to a portal under the mountains north of The Green.

Since the characters lacked the equipment for an exploration of the region,

they decided after a few encounters with giant spiders and thelike to "hole

up" near the portal and try to figure out a way to use it in order to return

to Pharos IV.

However, they had to go out to search or hunt for food, and this proved to

be extremely dangerous. In the end they only survived with the help of a

wandering group of Mamprusi.

While the characters concentrated on staying alive, the ARC scientists back

on Pharos IV managed to re-establish the Gate's connection with the portal

on Green (as the planet was named), and a security service team rescued

the characters.

The Gate is still extremely unreliable, and the characters lacked the equipment

to determine the precise astrographic position of Green, but I have no doubt

that the ARC (Avalon Research Center) will try to find a way to return to

Green: Some of the organic materials used by the Mamprusi could be most

useful for the colony on Pharos IV.

The players liked this adventure very much, and they especially liked the

Mamprusi - one of them will probably "borrow" them for his own fantasy cam-

paign.

Thank you very much for the map !

There are currently four unexplored systems on the edge of my setting's

Demara Sector, and I am toying with the idea to use your very interes-

ting Steel and Gunstones setting as the native civilization of a planet in

one of those systems, unless of course it becomes a part of the Shared

World and is on the same planet as The Green.

While I have no problem at all with long texts without illustrations, I have to

admit that I would welcome some map or sketch of the Steel and Gunstones

setting - it would make it much easier to comprehend the text.

Is Steel and Gunstones worth continuing?

Of course it is !

Sorry, I am just quite busy with things not related to roleplaying, and there-

fore visit the forum not very often, and also do not often give feedback.

However, rest assured that I do read the material, and hope you will continue

to post it.

In my Pharos IV setting I use the traits as "cultural traits" to give the players

an impression which traits (behaviour, ideas, etc.) are typical for the cultures

of the various planets of the setting, and therefore have been a part of the

education of their characters, and now are expected of them by their fellow

citizens.

While the characters do not have to share these cultural traits of their home-

worlds, it gives the players an additional little help to imagine and play their

characters, and to understand their background universe.

To give an example, if a player has a Flexian Belter as his character, he knows

that Flexians are expected to be able to care for themselves, and that other

Flexian Belters will rarely offer to help him, because this might be seen as an

insult.

Chaste - Lustful

Energetic - Lazy

Forgiving - Vengeful

Generous - Selfish

Honest - Deceitful

Just - Arbitrary

Merciful - Cruel

Modest - Proud

Pious - Worldly

Prudent - Reckless

Temperate - Indulgent

Trusting - Suspicious

Valorous - Cowardly

By the way, a very similar list, meant to be used for NPCs, is in BRP Edition Zero.

Of those that have not already be named, my favourite is Erdenstern. They

produce their music specifically for roleplaying games.

The website has an English text, too:

O* Erdenstern — Fantastische Musik

The catalogue works, and I managed to log in ...

Well, it is getting stranger and stranger ...

I used your link, and got a security warning:

Es besteht ein Problem mit dem Sicherheitszertifikat der Website.

- which means that my browser thinks the website is dangerous.

I found those files and posted them. Enjoy!

Thank you very much, the files are really interesting. I especially like the

"Invent" skill on the character sheet - a great idea for my science fiction

setting.

Hello and Welcome, Vagabond !

I like your system, but I think it needs some modifications for certain circum-

stances.

One example is swimming. According to the description of the Swim skill in the

Zero Edition:

- (Special Success) "If the optional fatigue system is used, the fatigue

point cost for swimming is reduced by 1/4."

- "In calm waters, Swim rolls are needed only once per turn. Swimming in

rough waters requires a Swim check each round."

- "Your character can tow a buoyant object of up to his or her own SIZ+2

indefinitely, assuming a free hand or some means of attaching the object

to your character."

For my setting (a science fiction water world) I will need rather detailed Swim

rules.

I think that I will reduce the fatigue point cost for swimming depending on the

Swim skill of the character (not only the type of success) and the equipment

of the character (biomimetic drysuit, flippers, etc.), and that I will also have

to find some way to handle encumbrance differently.

I could imagine that it could make sense to design similar houserules for other

settings and skills.

BRP Zero includes a somewhat basic Fatigue Points option. The fatigue points

are calculated as the sum of STR and CON.

In principle, it does of course make sense.

However, at least here in Germany the authorities would only react if a

German publisher would misuse the logo, and even then they would hard-

ly do more than send the publisher a letter to ask him to stop it. He could

safely ignore the letter for a year or two.

And the idea to complain as a German citizen to, for example, the Italian

authorities about something an Italian publisher has done ...

Unless you put a lawyer behind it, complaints of that kind usually do not

go very far.

I appreciate and support your intentions, but I have serious doubts that your

idea really would work.

For example, we could hardly prevent the use (or misuse) of "our" logo by any

publishers, unless we would in some way become a legal entity, and would be

willing to file lawsuits against anyone using "our" logo without our permission.

Since there are (as far as I know) still no rules for European (= EU-wide) non-

profit organizations, we probably would have to establish legal entities in all

of the EU member states to be able to "protect" our logo in any meaningful

way.

And without protection the logo would not really be useful for customers, I

think.

In my opinion it would be easier to use something more personal, perhaps a

short line written by the forum administrator or thelike, instead of a logo.

To copy and use a logo is rather easy, to copy and use a personal opinion

under a certain person's name is illegal in any case and any legal system.

Some characters in my science fiction campaign have skills over 100 %. I use

such skill levels to deal with high negative modifiers which make some tasks

impossible for "normal" characters, from scientific breakthroughs over the in-

vention and implementation of entirely new technologies to more "mundane"

tasks like piloting a shuttle through a dense field of space debris or a subma-

rine close to an active undersea volcano.

It takes quite a lot of specialization, dedication and patience for a character

in my campaign to become one of those extremely few "galaxy class"-experts

who can do the "impossible" jobs, but some players enjoy such character con-

cepts and careers. For them, it is something to be the setting's "Einstein" or

"Red Baron". Besides, it also helps to gain influence and money ...