rust

The forum was moved to another server, and some posts got lost because of this.

This is actually more a problem of trolls than of dwarves, many of the dwarves of the Norse mythology (e.g. Hreidmar and his sons Fafnir, Otr and Regin, also Andva- ri) obviously had no problem to move around in full daylight, their "special feature" was the ability to shapechange into animals. However, the otherworld creatures of the Norse mythology were rarely well defined, in the end they had the abilities and weaknesses the author of the tale wanted for his tale. For example, there is even a tale where a human becomes an elf after his death, a king of the dwarves (Alberic) has a name which means "elf", even Gandalf was originally the name of a dwarf, and so on. Therefore I think that stats for these beings are not of much use. They are a kind of spirits which are and can do whatever the plot requires, and human attempts to "classify" them into different "species" are just an attempt to understand what can- not really be understood by humans.

I am somewhat sceptical, because in the real world the relation between the amount of alcohol a person has consumed and the symptoms the person suf- fers depends on a multitude of factors and is impossible to reduce to any sim- ple formula. While the body mass index helps to calculate the alcohol concen- tration in the blood, the consequences of this alcohol concentration vary wi- dely. A well known factor which makes a simple relation between alcohol and body mass and resulting symptoms questionable is food (e.g. when, how much, how fat did the person eat ...), but there are also subtle differences in the in- dividual biochemistry which influence how fast the alcohol is neutralized. So in the end a blood alcohol concentration which is sufficient to kill Person A can result in only comparatively mild symptoms for Person B. This is of course im- possible to simulate with game mechanics, even a random "fudge factor" is un- likely to work well, and therefore I prefer a referee decision based upon the specific situation to a formula. But this is just my opinion, if your system does work well for your campaign it is of course fine.

The closest they had to hollow needles were small tubes, but their diameter was much too big for an injection, and since they did not know much about bacteria and desinfection any attempt at an injection would most probably have resulted in an infection, which could even have become fatal because of the lack of antibiotics. Of course, magic could change all that, but histo- rically an injection under medieval conditions would have been a bad idea.

I suspect this is a bit beyond the average Legend setting, the hypodermic needle is an invention of the 19th century, and an injection with medieval technology in- struments would almost certainly result in rather nasty complications.

Answering you, but if that was a mistake I will not repeat it.

Indeed. For example, in German the traditional stats are ST, KO, GR, IN, MA, GE, ER and BI. An alphabetical ordering would only lead to confusion.

I think you should ask here: Issaries, Inc.

This is how the Ringworld RPG did it, where it made sense because an affluent futuristic high tech society would most probably use genetical engineering to ensure that no severely handicapped humans with extre- mely low characteristics are born.

It could be that you need Matthew Sprange's permission instead, because his Mongoose Publishing currently holds the license for 2300 AD.

I see your point and agree with much of it, although since BRP itself is a generic system I still think that a generic supplement (like those for magic, etc.) would fit in pretty well - at least I have not seen many complaints that those generic supplements already published were of little use because there is no specific de- tailed setting for BRP. Edit.: Of course one can always use the technology material of another system, like GURPS or Traveller. I just wonder whether we should encourage players to buy BRP material or material of other games, and from a business point of view the approach "buy from the competitor, he has what we do not have" does not seem utterly convincing.

For fantasy settings I normally use the price lists of the Harnmaster system, they are by far the best researched price lists for pseudo-medieval settings, although the material for GURPS Low Tech is also pretty good. For science fiction settings I prefer the various GURPS books and supplements, they have fewer strange quirks than those of Traveller, which do not handle an economy with diffe- rent technology levels well. However, the new version of 2300 AD is based upon the Mon- goose Traveller system, but seems to handle the economy somewhat better, and depen- ding on the quality of its next few supplements I may use it for my current setting.

I think a reliable method to find out what a science fiction roleplaying game needs is to take a look at the games which are successful, and all of those I know inclu- de the kind of supplements which BRP is still missing. Even the comparatively gene- ric and rules light Savage Worlds - certainly not Hard SF - has a Sci Fi Gear Toolkit, a Sci Fi World Builder Toolkit and a Sci Fi Bestiary Toolkit, and science fiction's hea- vyweights like Traveller and GURPS Space typically have a whole range of such sup- plements. The fact that these supplements sell rather well (much better than, for example, adventures) demonstrates that a majority of science fiction gamers con- siders them important enough for their games to spend money on them. We could debate for years whether these customers are right or wrong, but it does not take a genius to suspect that BRP will fail as a science fiction game if it does not offer its potential customers what they expect of a science fiction game, and this very obviously includes at least a detailed technology system.

While this works well with an experienced referee and proactive players, you only have to take a look at any one of the science fiction game forums and to read the newbie questions there to see that a lot of people are convinced that they need the details of a comprehensive system to run the game, like the range of missiles, the speed of vehicles, the mass of that piece of equip- ment, and so on, because this is what their players ask them for. It is easy to decide such things on the spot, but without experience and foresight it is also easy to run into inconsistencies and contradictions within a rather short time, and these in turn tend to lead to lots of debates and a damage of the suspension of disbelief. So, yes, one can design and play a campaign of any genre with a minimum of published material, or even completely without it - but do not expect a newcomer or someone with some experience with a de- tailed system only to succeed at it and have fun with it.

Not really, partially because those systems are not compatible (the Ringworld tech- nology is significantly different from the Cthulhu Rising technology, etc.) and partial- ly because there would still be no design systems for starships, vehicles and all the other stuff. Unfortunately technology is a key element of science fiction, and in or- der to attract science fiction gamers a game therefore needs a much better treat- ment of technology than the various versions of BRP can currently offer. Right now an attempt to sell BRP as the system for science fiction campaigns is similar to try- ing to sell a fantasy roleplaying game without a magic system.

I think this is not quite true, because the Ringworld RPG included informations about all human colonies of the Known Space, several detailed starships, descriptions and game stats for several alien species from other worlds than the Ringworld, and some rather good equipment and weapons, so it was quite possible to run adventures off the Ringworld, too. Unfortunately the Ringworld RPG was never completed as planned, so it only offered a very small selection of the various science fiction elements - just enough for a few adventures, but without the design systems a true campaign would have required.

For example because it is somewhat boring to play the accountant for everyday expenses like food, drink, clothes and such, which could be handled with the abstract method of a wealth / lifestyle level, while in a trade campaign it can be fun to bargain for a few percent more or less, which can better be handled with a currency. However, this is just one way to handle it, personally I prefer a currency system with a fixed monthly lifestyle expense of the characters.

I think it should be possible to combine a wealth level system and a currency system, similar to the way it is done in the new Pavis - Gateway to Adventu- re supplement for HeroQuest. The wealth level system could be used to deal with the everyday economics (monthly wages, lifestyle expenses, etc.), whi- le a currency system could be used for the trade elements of the campaign. It would require a system to convert money into wealth levels, but it should not be too difficult to handle this.

It did, and there are also the science fiction versions of Call of Cthulhu (Cthulhu Rising, etc.), which also work quite well. I am looking forward to the Open Quest science fiction setting by the same author, John Os- soway, which will basically be Cthulhu Rising without the mythos, and should be very easy to convert to standard BRP.

I prefer currency to abstract wealth levels, but when I use wealth levels I do it as you described it. The only difference is perhaps that I also use cultural diffe- rences, the Affluent character from a tribe of poor desert nomads has a different kind of wealth (e.g. lots of goats instead of lots of coins) and is less wealthy out- side of his culture's realm than the Affluent character from a city of merchants (e.g. lots of coins, but not a single goat), who may in turn find that the nomads do not accept coin and consider him a poor fool who burdens himself with metal when he travels into the desert.

I hope they did not subtract the cost of the envelope and the postage for the cheque, otherwise you might end up having to pay cash on delivery ...

I think this is a bit misleading. A sandbox setting can have any degree of detail, and it usually needs even more detail than other types of setting, because it has to offer the characters a huge variety of hooks and options for their activities, in order to enable them to interact with the setting on their own, without any pre- planned adventure provided by the referee.

This is unfortunately rather unlikely, because my new job does not leave me a lot of spare time.

Indeed. An adventure needs a more specific and detailed idea than a setting, and it has to fit the setting, the campaign arc and the group of characters to be really good, and one usually has to think of several plotlines to be at least somewhat prepared for whatever strange plans the players may come up with. I think I have learned to do it reasonably well for my campaign with my players in my setting, but I would very much hesitate to try to do it for other players in other campaigns.

I missed that, and did not find any news about science fiction stuff for BRP on Chaosium's website. Could you please tell me where to look for such good news - thank you.