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Well, there is at least one reader waiting for that stuff ... Edit.: I have used your system for some calculations for both real world vehicles (e.g. the research submarine Alvin) and science fiction vehicles (e.g. a re- search submarine I designed with GURPS Vehicles), and your system is doing very well. To give an example: Alvin has a safe depth of 4,500 m, which according to your formula would require 32 AP. The real vehicle has a hull of 50 mm of ti- tanium, which would give it an AP 27 on your table - quite close enough for my purposes, especially since Alvin is a small vehicle with a pressure-resistant form, which helps to absorb pressure and reduces the need for armor at least somewhat. Your system did even better with my science fiction submarines, which have more conventional forms, and I am now looking forward to using it with anti- gravity vehicles and spaceships.

You are right, and indeed only few creatures from Earth (e.g. drifting sea weed, deep sea coral, dolphin, whale shark) have made it to Pharos IV. All other introduced plants and animals came "from other colonized planets", which means I had to invent them. Fortunately there is a friendly marine bio- logist on another forum who lends me a helping hand now and then, by tel- ling me which of my ideas is possible, and which is nonsense. And yes, there are some remnants of the native fauna. Most are rather un- interesting (snails, worms, etc.), but there are also the so-called "octopoids" which inhabit the deep sea trenches of the planet (and which, in fact, are not native at all - but this would be a very long story about undiscovered ruins and previous alien visitors). So, Pharos IV really is a truly alien environment, but this is exactly what I had hoped for: An interesting world to build, and a true challenge for the players. My only serious problem is that I seem to be running out of truly good ideas for animals and plants before Pharos IV is sufficiently "stocked" ... Thank you very much for your remarks !

Again, thank you very much - especially for the Swiftsure submarine, which provides an excellent design example for my water world setting. I was looking for the Vehicle Design Rules and Vehicle Modification Rules (both version 4.1) you mentioned in your file, but unfortunately I seem unable to find them ? Thank you !

@ Atgxtg: This looks like a very useful idea. Right now I have only one remark: It could be useful to differentiate between necessary crew and accomodations for surplus crew (e.g. medics, scientists, marines etc.) or passengers.

This is one of the best fantasy backgrounds I have seen for quite a while. It gives a very good explanation both for the existence of strange monsters and the existence of dungeons of varying degrees of danger and protection (the tombs of the Azchir and those of their more or less powerful servants), and it gives the entire world (or at least the parts once ruled by the Azchir) a fascinating ancient history that is connected to the Gates. Please continue, I am looking forward to reading more of your ideas.

Well, my SF is not that "hard" ... FTL drives and hyperspace tunnels do exist, since astrophysicists do not rule them out completely (at least some do not), and weird aliens also do exist - although they usually have to be very alien to be believable. As for immortals and psionics ... sorry, no.

@ Puck: Yes, you have a point there - in a Star Wars-like space opera I would pro- bably prefer the Trogod to one of those races who look completely different from humans, but act and talk like the people next door. If you think of space opera, it should not be too difficult to adapt the Tro- god. In the end you would only have to replace their magic (they could still believe that it works, so it could become their religion ?) with techno- logy and "modernize" their culture, I think. @ soltakss: The idea of the Seeder races ... it would be a possibility, but I have to ad- mit that I do not like it. Our DNA and our entire biochemistry are closely lin- ked to all the other parts of our planet's biosphere. The Seeding could only work if the Seeders would seed entire biospheres, because otherwise the "humans" on other worlds could not even eat native plants and animals, be- cause a different biochemistry would either prevent them from deriving nou- rishment from them, or would kill them off immediately. And if the Seeders would indeed seed entire biospheres, all the inhabited worlds would look mo- re or less the same ... However, I am one of those "Hard SF" guys (at least most of the time) and therefore have a sad tendency to spoil space opera fun - you may just as well ignore my "grunts" in such cases.

@ Atgxtg: Thank you very much for the info on carbon fibre and titanium !

Thank you very much for this material, it really is very useful. By the way, do you have any idea where Carbon Fibre and Titanium (the two most common materials in my setting) could be in your table ? Thank You !

While the Trogods doubtless are a very fine fantasy species, I doubt that they would do well in a science fiction setting. In my opinion they are too much like humans to make a convincing alien species, like for example the Puppeteers or the Trinoc of the Ringworld RPG. Even if you would give them a very alien culture and technology, they would still look more like some strange human sub-species than like aliens, I think.

Thank you very much, a very good idea ! I have looked it up and ordered "Natural Selection" right away.

Over the years there have been various "undersea environment" supplements for some of the RPGs (D&D, Transhuman Space, Traveller, etc.), with rules for activities under water, equipment and sea creatures. However, up to now I was unable to find out whether something of this kind was ever produced for one of the BRP-based games, be it fantasy or science fiction. If you know of any such material (I am especially interested in unusual "non- monster" sea creatures like the Wrillabees from the Ringworld RPG ...), could you please let me know ? Thank You !

Oh, how considerate - you are trying to make me feel at home !

Thank you very much for this information ! The colonists in my Pharos IV-setting come from different planets with diffe- rent cultures, and I was looking for a way to "mirror" these differences in the character generation for quite some time. Attributes and skills did not really work, but traits could well be a way to do it, because they could directly influence the behaviour of the characters, not only their abilities. So, I will give it a try and design different sets of traits for the characters' home cultures. I think I will not use these traits in the Pendragon way, with dice rolls in game, but I will find some in-setting way to "reward" the players for adhering to their cultures' typical traits instead. Thank you again for a good idea.

An interesting idea. Did you use the traits in the Star Wars game only for Jedi Knight characters or for all kinds of characters, including Fringers and Scoundrels ?

Yep, I am also convinced that roleplaying has something to do with fun and with personal taste. But I have been told over and over again that only "old-school roleplaying" (Dungeons and Dragons, Tunnels and Trolls, etc.) is "real roleplaying", while all other games are somehow flawed, and the World of Darkness games are especially "wrong", because they encourage "narrativism", which "leads an entire generation of young gamers away from true roleplaying" - and so on. And on. And on - ad nauseam. It is especially bizarre because most of the missionaries of this creed are less than twenty years old, and know "old-school roleplaying" about as well as I know life in the Middle Ages - from hearsay only. But the less they know, the more aggressive they are. Call of Cthulhu players have been called "swi- ne wallowing in their desire to be driven mad", to give just one example of that "style" of debate. Ah well, I am far off topic now, but when something touches that sore point, I am likely to go off ... sorry for complaining, so.

I like both ideas. I am always on the lookout for interesting ideas for my world, and I often have ideas which seem interesting, but will not fit into my world's framework, so a place to "trade" ideas would be nice. And a place to discuss new world elements before throwing them at the players (and having the bad ones being thrown back at me) would also be a great advantage.

Yes Oh yes. Over here we have some people who travel from forum to forum in order to explain with missionary zeal the One Right Way to roleplay, based on their pseudoscientific roleplaying theories, usually insult all those who re- fuse to join their semi-religion badly, and in most cases get thrown out of the forum in question. However, some weeks later the next missionary appears ... I am a rather peaceful person, but there are moments when I wish Attila the Hun could lend me a helping hand with some of these people ...

Not at all, I just wanted to explain from my point of view why I would appre- ciate the kind of solution you proposed.

While I would have no problems at all if others would copy my world's material and change it in any way they like, I would find it difficult to accept if they would make changes to my "original" material, which is the "canonical" material on my world for "my" players. This could force me to work with (and remember) at least two different ver- sions of my world, the one in the wiki and the "true" one at home, and this could become quite unnerving, I think.

@ Trifletraxor: Not only for Cthulhu, they are also doing quite well in our science fiction set- ting. That one-legged oldster can be rather dangerous with a gauss harpoon in his hand ... @ Charles Green: Of course you are right, we always leave it to the player to decide whether he / she wants to accept a character with "weak" attributes, or prefers to reroll for a "better" character. And I have to admit that we sometimes "balance" a "weak" character with in-setting advantages (like lots of contacts for the oldster) that make sense with the character in question.

It depends on the style of roleplaying one prefers. In our group we consider it far more important who the PC is (biography, personality, motivations) than what the PC can do (attributes and skills), and it can be quite a roleplaying challenge to play a crippled old man or a child (= a "weak" character) instead of the usual hero, whom everyone of us has played dozens of times already. Besides, playing a "weak" character means that you have to develop new me- thods of solving old problems, a test of cleverness and creativity. Playing an average hero is a simple task, once you have done it a couple of times, and after some years of roleplaying (thirty years in my case) you can do it while asleep. It even becomes quite boring. So, why not try something different, and play the clumsy clerk or the one-legged oldster ? But, again: In the end it is purely a matter of personal taste.

An equal / even playing field is an excellent idea if the PCs have to compete against each other, but at least in my game this is rarely the case. And to establish such a playing field with the enemy (e.g. PCs and monsters having equal stats) seems to be somewhat counterproductive. Having "strong" and "weak" PCs in the party usually makes the game more re- alistic, and offers additional opportunities for roleplaying, I think.

If we decide to use Gates to connect the worlds, even a different background should be no real problem, the Gates could still connect worlds in "parallel uni- verses" with completely different political etc. background situations, even with slightly different laws of nature (e.g. to allow for different FTL drive phi- losophies). In my opinion, this approach could make it even more interesting than a sha- red background, but that is probably a matter of taste. Pharos IV currently uses the "Honorverse" of David Weber's Honor Harrington- series as its background, but it could easily be "moved" to any other back- ground where a remote human colony on the very edge of the explored space is possible.

Thank you, and I hope my colonists will one day be able to visit The Green - most of them have never seen any kind of forest, and can only dream of the things that might be discovered there.