rust

An interesting organization needs some kind of internal conflict. In the case of

the Pegasos Society it is a rift between the society's members on Earth and the

settlers on Duat. While the members from Earth tend to see the society as a

research organization, the settlers think more of the future of their community.

This split has been increased by the "Prophecy of Nathan Kohn", a letter writ-

ten by an eminent French occultist and contact of the Pegasos Society to one

of its members, where Kohn claimed that the gate between Earth and Duat

will close in 1940. Many of the settlers on Duat are afraid that Kohn is right,

and pressure the Pegasos Society to prepare for such an event, for example

by building stockpiles of raw materials on Duat, by moving the society's im-

portant assets like its technical library to Duat, and so on. The society's lea-

dership on Earth is convinced that Kohn got it wrong, and is therefore unwil-

ling to react to alarmism by spending a huge amount of money on what they

consider unnecessary preparations.

So, what if any Earth plants and animals have been able to "go native" near the colony? Who needs alien monsters when renegade hogs or cattle are determined to help themselves to the colony's hard-earned food and water supplies?

Thank you for an interesting idea, I will put it on my list.

The most likely suspects for this kind of trouble would be goats, because of their ability

to survive well in arid regions, their intelligence and their agility. And wild goats would

make some game for hunting ...

This campaign will require a couple of non-standard skills, like for example Engineering,

Geography and Survival. Therefore I have decided to reduce the overall number of stan-

dard skills by introducing some new more general skills which each replace a number of

the standard skills: Athletics covers Climb, Jump, Swim and Throw, Perception covers Li-

sten and Spot Hidden, and Stealth covers Hide and Sneak. This way the total number of

skills on the setting's skill list remains approximately the same as in other settings, and

the players do not have to distribute their characters' skill points among more than the

usual number of skills.

Other than the secret society aspect, is there any other Mythos connections? Are any of the races of the Mythos present on the planet? Do any of the Elder Gods or Great Old Ones have a presence or influence here?

The Pegasos Society is very interested in the Mythos, for the reasons mentioned in the

post above (gate magic, technology, etc.), but until now there are no other connections

with the Mythos.

Whether the races and powers of the Mythos have a presence or influence on Duat is at

this moment still unknown, but I would definitely not rule it out (or give more details on

a public forum ... ).

There are a couple of ways how the characters can come into contact with members

of the Pegasos Society, here are just some examples.

A somewhat typical case is the unexplained disappearance of a member of the socie-

ty. He may have told his relatives and friends that he and his wife and children plan-

ned to emigrate to Australia, and later on they might even receive letters written by

him from Australia, but if someone would investigate on the spot in Australia it would

become obvious that the person never arrived there and that the letters were posted

to them by someone else. What really happened is that the person emigrated to Duat

and covered this up with a story about Australia and the help of society members the-

re.

Another example could be the Pegasos Society's search for an alternative to the gate

at Perpignan, because without such an alternative any malfunction of the Perpignan

gate could become a desaster for the settlers at Porta. Informations about magical ga-

tes can be found in Mythos texts, so some operatives of the Pegasos Society will soo-

ner or later visit the places where such texts are traded, like auctions, or stored, like

libraries. And if the Pegasos Society is convinced that a specific text contains useful

information, they may well decide to attempt to buy or if necessary even steal it.

And then there are the various alien technologies of Mythos races, which could prove

useful for the Pegasos Society's operations. While the members of the society will not

ally with Mythos creatures and will not become servants of some Great Old One, any

other opportunity to aquire alien technology could well tempt operatives of the society

into action.

But ... if the region has several active volcanoes and lava beds, why doesn't it have metals?

Duat certainly has metals, perhaps even near the settlement, but until now none have

been discovered. The search is still going on, and sooner or later the settlers will find a

source they can exploit and will develop the technology to work the metal.

Also, did Duat have ancient monster-filled jungles and seas that have become petroleum and hydrocarbon beds? Is there coal buried somewhere beneath the sands?

This is another question which has not yet been answered, although the society's scien-

tists keep working on it. Their main problem is to get beyond the lava fields and the

desert in order to take a look at other, perhaps less hostile environments of Duat.

If water and soil fertility isn't a problem, perhaps they could plant groves of trees to supply lumber in the future (as well as fruit, resins, charcoal and other useful products).

Indeed. One of the tasks of the Pegasos Society's botanical expeditions was to search

for useful trees which would be able to grow on Duat, and the settlers have started

tests with several species of trees from Earth's arid regions. I hear that eucalyptus

from Australia is doing fine.

Another, more theoretical problem is the position of Duat and its sun Aton and its dis-

tance from Earth. The society's scientists have already created a detailed star chart of

the part of Duat's night sky which is visible from Porta, but until now they did not find

any correlation with the night sky of Earth. It therefore seems that Duat is very, very

far from Earth.

Those members of the Pegasos Society who were born on Duat and operate or study

on Earth could become the society's most interesting roleplaying element, because

their upbringing on Duat and their loyalty to the community there makes them diffe-

rent from most other people the characters are likely to meet - somewhat "alien",

perhaps even sometimes "creepy" because of their different customs, manners and

values.

On the Duat side, what are conditions like in this alternate world? Obviously, it can't be too hostile to terrestrial life or the settlement wouldn't have survived. How big is the colony and how is it run? What local resources does it have and what does it need to bring in from Earth? If the portal were suddenly shut down (for instance, by PC activity), could the colony maintain itself and keep going? How big is Duat and how much of it has been explored so far? Are there any sentient beings there to challenge the colonists for supremacy? What notable flora and fauna exist to make the colonists' lives ... interesting?

It is somewhat understandable that the Egyptians who created the gate mistook Duat for

their religion's underworld. The region at the other end of the gate is a semi desert valley,

north of it is a high mountain chain with several active volcanoes and large lava fields, in

the south is rocky desert. The only native vegetation consists of primitive algae, lichens

and mosses. Otherwise the - small - explored region of Duat is much like Earth, a planet

of a yellow sun, although without a moon, a breathable atmosphere and a gravity which

feels normal.

What looked to the Egyptians like barren underworld turned out to be fertile land for the

settlers, who knew how to use wind power to pump water up from a subterranean aquifer,

who were able to introduce useful plants and animals from the arid regions of Earth, and

who received the necessary supplies through the gate while they were building first their

research outpost and then a permanent settlement.

At the moment the settlement Porta, run by a governor sent by the Pegasos Society from

Earth and an elected local council, would hardly be able to survive on its own. While it

has some agriculture and a number of craftsmen, there are no known sources of metal,

and all technology still has to be imported through the gate.

The size of Duat is currently still unknown. The Pegasos Society's scientists think that it is

slightly smaller than Earth, but this is mostly guesswork. The explored part of Duat is al-

most exactly a circle with a radius of approximately 200 kilometers, half the range of the

one airplane that was transported to Duat. Somewhere south of this explored region seems

to be an ocean, because the few clouds which occasionally bring rain to the valley come

from the south.

While the Duat settlers have not yet encountered any higher animals - and certainly no in-

telligent natives - in their region, it is quite possible that other parts of Duat hold some sur-

prises ...

I tried to upload a map of the explored region of Duat, but for some reason the forum re-

fuses to allow me to upload it.

Another point to consider is what kind of demographics are there? Is it just society members that are in need of support from the other side? Or are there workers who being lower members of the society rung are there to do grunt work?

All settlers on Duat are members of the Pegasos Society. The settlement originally began as the

society's research outpost, but then some of the researchers decided to stay there for good, and

after the Great War many society members and contacts became disillusioned of the situation and

future of Europe and chose to try a new start on another world "without poison gas and trench

warfare".

Since it has got an inter-dimensional Jamestown to care for, just how large is the Pegasos Society at this point? How many members on each side of the portal? Is it centered around or near a specific location, or does it have branch offices scattered around the globe? Just how advanced is the group's knowledge and technology? Are we talking merely cutting edge, or crazy Buck Rogers stuff? Since they've got a city to supply and maintain on the other side, how has the Society managed to maintain discipline and secrecy? Obviously, colonists sent to Duat are essentially trapped there and can't squeal, but workers and agents on this side could spill the beans, even accidentally. How does the Society fund its activities?

The headquarters of the Pegasos Society is at Pegasos Manor near Edinburgh in Scotland,

owned by the Collins family. However, the centre of the society's activities is near Perpig-

nan in southern France, on the estate where the gate is operated and at the nearby facto-

ry of Pegasos SA, a company also owned by the Collins family. While the society has many

contacts all over Europe and in the United States, it does not have branch offices elsewhe-

re.

The Pegasos Society is led by Hector Collins, the son of the late Edward Collins who disco-

vered the gate and the world beyond it. He serves as the chairman of the society's council

and makes all important decisions. The society is financed through the membership dues

and donations of its members, but most of the money comes from the profits of the com-

pany Pegasos SA.

At the moment the Pegasos Society has approximately 200 active members on Earth and

another approximately 250 settlers on Duat. Some of its leading operators on Earth were

actually born and raised on Duat and only serve a couple of years on Earth before they re-

turn to their homeworld. Since these Duat born members tend to be most loyal to their

community on Duat, they are usually the ones responsible for the secrecy of the society's

"special" operations.

The society's technology is definitely cutting edge, but it is not futuristic. It is most advan-

ced on the fields necessary to support and expand the settlement Porta on Duat, less so

on other fields of science and technology. However, the Pegasos Society has contacts on

the staff of several research centers and universities, for example the Miskatonic Universi-

ty in Arkham in the USA, and usually can aquire any informations it considers useful in a

rather short time.

I will try to answer the second part of your questions a little later.

It began with Napoleon's expedition to Egypt. One of the scholars who accompanied that

famous expedition brought a strange artefact back to France, where it ended up in a cel-

lar room of an estate which was much later bought by a wealthy guy from Scotland. He

discovered the artefact and realized that it had a lot of hieroglyphs on it, and so he deci-

ded to ask a friend at a German university to translate these hieroglyphs. According to

the translation the artefact was a portal to the Duat, the underworld of the ancient Egyp-

tians. They followed the translated instructions, and to their surprise the artefact indeed

created a portal.

However, it was not a portal to any kind of underworld, only to a very strange new world.

Once they had found the way there they decided to explore this world, and in order to do

this they and some of their trustworthy friends founded the Pegasos Society. This society

established an outpost on the world they named Duat, and over the years what had star-

ted as a temporary outpost developed into a permanent settlement, supported and sup-

plied by the Pegasos Society on Earth.

The members of the Pegasos Society kept the existence of their ancient portal, of the new

world Duat beyond the portal and of the settlement there secret. However, exploring Duat

and developing the settlement required advanced knowledge and technology as well as at

least some knowledge of the Mythos, and getting all of this by legal means proved difficult.

Therefore the Pegasos Society soon turned to rather cavalier methods of obtaining what it

considered necessary, including for example espionage and the occasional theft.

Some of those who came in contact with the Pegasos Society considered it as another se-

cret society with questionable aims, others mistook it for a more dangerous Cthulhoid cult.

Investigating the Pegasos Society and finding out what it really was up to and what really

was going on was immensely difficult - a task for true adventuring investigators ...

They make both the Japanese and the Germans of World War II look like wimps in comparison. Eek!

The guy who ruled Germany during World War II greatly admired the Spartans and

praised them as a role model for Germany ...

I wish someone would make a sourcebook for BRP/RuneQuest/OpenQuest that focuses on the Spartans and their allies/enemies.

I am not convinced that this would be a good idea. A historical Spartiate had rather

little individual freedom and therefore would not make a very good player character.

There are also some elements of Spartan culture which would be considered quite

repulsive nowadays, like for example the rite of passage which required the murder

of a slave to be accepted as an adult.

A random thought just occurred to me, you could probably portray a "realistic" version without prep by using a d100 roll and using a bell curve to see how good a random NPC is at something. Most of the time you'd get the stereotypical "average", but every once and a while you'll have some deadly bandits and some hilariously incompetent guards.

It is certainly possible, but the very high results could create a problem for the internal

logic of the setting, because it could become difficult to explain why there suddenly is a

true master swordsman (or whatever) no one has ever heard of before. This may be ac-

ceptable once or twice in a campaign, but it becomes quite implausible if it happens mo-

re often.

And what about Ringworld, which is quoted in the Credits of the Big Golden Books ? Is it a good game too ?

Yes, I think so, in fact I consider it the best science fiction game produced for

the d100 system so far. Its only problem is that it contains lots of information

about the Ringworld, but little useful material about the Known Space, becau-

se unfortunate licensing problems killed the line before a planned supplement

about the Known Space could be produced. So, if one wants to use the Ring-

world as a setting, the game is all one needs, but if one wants to use the en-

tire Known Space as the setting, one has to improvise a lot to add to the ma-

terial provided by the original boxed game and the one companion published.

I usually have a few basic buildings (store, tavern, etc.) and a number of typical NPCs

prepared and can use them whenever I need such an everyday encounter for the play-

er characters. In my settings I use two generic types of civilians, the more common

one has average stats and skills plus a high professional skill, the other one is a mem-

ber of the local militia and therefore also has a low level weapon skill or two. If I want

to make a conflict more challenging, I can always have a patrol of the city watch or a

small mob of angry citizens nearby. However, I rarely need to improvise, the players

and the actions of their characters tend to be rather predictable, the characters nor-

mally have obvious intentions (relax, gather informations, buy equipment ...) which

enable me to plan the relevant encounters in time, random movements through the

setting and thelike are extremely rare. It certainly helps that I ask the players at the

end of each session what their characters plan to do during the next session and pre-

pare accordingly for that session, keeping the characters busy with and interested in

whatever they had planned.

He was the master.

Then you might like this one, especially if you do not know it already:

Wonder how others have resolved this.

I basically ignored it. Once a character was converted from the Traveller system to the

BRP system I only used the BRP game mechanics in playing that character.

Hmmm, try these ones ...

Thank you very much, the GEMA guys who black out You Tube videos in order

to force Germans to buy the stuff instead of listening to it for free missed one

of the three.

Science fiction doesn't get much harder than this ...

Very hard indeed, because that video is "not available" from Germany.

What would be more valuable? A generic "here's how to do Sci-Fi with BRP, now go make your own universe" book, or specific settings, whether based on existing fiction or not?

I would prefer the generic science fiction toolbox, for example something similar

to GURPS Space, but from an economic point of view a "killer setting" would pro-

bably be better for Chaosium.

Maybe I am looking in the wrong places and somebody can tell me where to look.

There are a couple of good science fiction settings out there which are at least as

hard as 2300AD, two examples which use the Traveller system would be Orbital

by Zozer Games and Outer Veil by Spica Publishing:

Orbital - Zozer Games | DriveThruRPG.com

Outer Veil - Spica Publishing | DriveThruRPG.com

Why the outrage?

An outrage ... damn, I missed an outrage. That's what one gets when one looks

at other forums while the interesting things happen here.

Is the ransom price the same as the weregild price in RQ3? 7x annual for ransom seems really high.

I doubt it, weregeld and ransom were not directly related, in fact they were

usually traditional customs of very different cultures. Otherwise one might

have the problem that the relatives of a captured person would hesitate to

pay his ransom because they could demand weregeld if he were killed by his

captors ... "keep him, kill him, and pay up".

Another month later ... any news on River of Heaven ?

While I know that I should be more patient, I really want this game and have

put my favourite science fiction setting ideas on hold until I have it ...