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Thank you very much indeed, but I doubt that I will have the time and energy to translate my Thalassa material.

Indeed. I am one of those who prefer to create their own settings and their own adventures, in the case of the adventures mainly because the available commercial ones rarely fit into my settings and therefore would require simply too much work to adapt them.

Well, but what would your character prefer ? Looking at our world's history, collaboration with a powerful conqueror was far more common than resistance to the death. Besides, collaboration can be the best way to prepare for resistance. I am thinking of people like Arminius, a Germanic noble who was sent to Rome as one of his tribe's hostages, became a decorated Roman army officer, returned to Germania as the aide and friend of the Roman governor - and lured three Roman legions into an ambush were they were utterly destroyed, the worst defeat the Romans ever suffered. Sure, he could have been "heroic" and preferred to die rather than work for the Romans ...

Mercenaries usually go where the money is, they rarely are too much influenced by their religious or national roots to take a good job offer. A non-Gloranthan example could perhaps be the Thirty Years War, a war fought over religion as well as over national interests. However, the mercenaries almost always joined the force which currently paid best, no matter which religion or nation that force fought for, and they did not hesitate to change their allegiance when a better opportunity presented itself, fighting one day for the catholic Spaniards and a month later for the protestant Swedes.

The automatic fire rules from CoC ... hmm, could look rather similar to this here: Automatic Fire If using automatic fire an attacker can make one pull of the trigger in one combat round. The automatic weapon will then continue firing until the trigger is released or the ammunition is expended (called full auto). Some weapons are limited to fire a burst (i.e. 2 or 3 bullets) rather than full auto, while others may be switched to fire semi-automatic (single bullets), and/or burst or full auto. For full auto: the player declares the number of rounds (bullets) to be fired, which may be any number up to the capacity of the gun before rolling the dice. Due to the recoil of automatic weapons, it is very hard to place a high number of rounds in a single target. To simulate this, the number of bullets fired is divided into a series of volleys, with an attack roll made for each volley. A volley is a number of bullets up to or equal to the firer’s Submachine Gun (SMG) or Machine Gun (MG) skill divided by 10 and rounded down: simply read the tens digit of the skill value. Regardless of skill, a full auto volley is never fewer than 3 bullets. For example: a character with Firearms (SMG) 47% would fire four bullets in a volley. A character can fire full auto (multiple volleys) in a single round until their ammunition runs out, although the chances of hitting reduce after the first volley has been fired. For burst fire: one pull of the trigger fires 2 or 3 bullets, this being considered the best combination of accuracy and conservation of ammunition. This is simply treated as a volley of 2 or 3 shots (depending on the firearm; the user’s skill plays no role in determining the number of bullets). When firing semi-automatic (ie. multiple single shots): apply a penalty die to each shot, making a skill roll for each bullet fired, just as when firing multiple rounds from a handgun see Handguns, Multiple Shots (page 113). Rolling to hit with automatic fire: First attack roll: apply the usual rules for a firearms attack roll (set difficulty by range and then apply any modifiers). Second and further attack rolls: add one penalty die (or remove a bonus die) for each additional attack roll. If this would incur three penalty dice, stick with two penalty dice and raise the difficulty level by one step (from Normal to Hard, Hard to Extreme, Extreme to Critical, or Critical to impossible). The attacker must make a fresh attack roll for each volley (or burst) of shots or whenever they select a new target. All targets should be within a reasonable arc of fire (around a sixty-degree arc). Ammunition is expended when moving between targets (one bullet per meter/yard). This is simply additional wasted ammunition, and for convenience is not factored into volley size, attack rolls, or the quantity of shots that can be made before incurring penalty dice. Resolving each attack roll: If the attack roll is successful: half of the shots fired hit the target—roll damage for half of the shots (round down, minimum of one). Subtract any armor from each shot. If the attack roll is an Extreme success: all shots fired hit the target, the first half (round down, minimum of one) of which impale. Subtract any armor from each shot. As for all firearm attacks, if the difficulty level of the shot was Extreme, the best possible result is a successful hit and not an impale.

I remember that I once was browsing Renaissance Deluxe for this limit on the number of Philosopher's Stones and also did not find it. It is either very well hidden - or there is indeed no such limit.

No, this is not a Thalassian aquaculture floater, I know that, but I think it can give an impression of the approximate size and shape of such a floater: huge, flat, two keels with a work platform inbetween, aquaculture equipment below the platform, landing pad for VTOL-aircraft, and so on. Edit.: Meanwhile I found a better picture of something similar to a Thalassan floater, it is on the next page.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I am actually working on two rather different campaigns, Thalassa and Meridiana. Since I have already described Thalassa in some detail I will post here only a general overview of the Meridiana setting. Meridiana is an alternate history setting based on the assumption that the islands known as Falkland Islands in our real world were settled by German veterans of the Thirty Years War, fleeing as far as possible from their destroyed homeland. The first phase of the campaign, approximately from 1652 to 1815, dealt with the early years and the development of the colony and used a mix of Runequest Pirates, Renaissance Deluxe and some other (mostly „piratical“) games as its system. The second phase, from 1815 to about 1930, used the Call of Cthulhu system, especially the German version of Gaslight, and ideas from a couple of Pulp games. The current third phase, from around 1930 to about 1965, uses mainly the World War Cthulhu system, Darkest Hour and Cold War. As mentioned elsewhere, for the next and likely final phase I have decided to use the Mythras system. Since Meridiana covers several centuries it has some similarities with the Pendragon game, for example a focus more on family histories than on the stories of individual characters and long spans of downtime activities of the characters between their actual adventures. The style of the adventures has changed over time. In the first phase they were closer to a fantasy style, for example when the characters had to risk their lives on long and dangerous sea voyages or had to defend their islands against the Spaniards and other unfriendly neighbours. In the current phase the focus is now much more on diplomacy and politics. Well, that much as a first impression of Meridiana. At the moment I do not intend to post a more detailed description, but I will of course answer any questions.

There are no whitespace pages in the PDF, and to have something printed on the whitespace pages of the hardcopy would require another electronic file. I doubt that this would be worth the effort for such a small booklet as Mythras Imperative, and I am not convinced that a different content of PDF and hardcopy would be a welcome idea. However, just my thoughts.

Finally a few informations about weapons on Thalassa, and then I think I have posted all the currently designed potentially interesting stuff ... Thalassa is not a nice setting for characters who love guns, the laws concerning weapons are very restrictive. Any weapon which could damage one of the vital systems is prohibited, and introducing any weapon which could cause a hull breach of a domed habitat is a serious criminal offense. This limits Thalassa's usual combat style, called Diver Style, to only a few readily available weapons. The most common weapon on Thalassa is the Sonic Stunner Rifle (SSR). It is non-lethal in open spaces, can cause minor damage in confined spaces and usually causes serious or even lethal damage underwater. It is mostly used by the Thalassa Rangers, the local police force, and also for example by aquafarmers and dolphineers for underwater hunting. The other common weapon is the speargun. It is a much less expensive underwater hunting weapon than the SSR, but it requires more skill to hit a target, and many Thalassians dislike it because they consider its use to be a rather cruel way to kill animals. The dive knife, the third weapon covered by Thalassa's typical combat style, is actually more a diver's tool than a weapon, and very rarely used in any kind of fight.

In the case of the Competence rule we are talking about professionals dealing with tasks of their professional field, where their career training - resulting in a skill level of at least 50% - enables them to deal successfully with all Standard problems. Characters from other careers without that professional training may have to make skill rolls for Standard tasks of another career, no matter how high their level in the relevant skill may be. To return to the pilot example, the pilot with a skill of 49% is either not a professional shuttle pilot and gained his Pilot (Aerospace) skill outside of that career, or his training did not result in a skill on the Competence level. Under normal conditions he should not fly the shuttle at all, but in an emergency he may be the only pilot available. But since he lacks the proper training and experience of the right career he has to make a skill roll. As for skill rolls in general, I completely agree with you. Skill rolls should only be requested for important activities where a failure would have major consequences, not for everyday tasks. For example, driving a car on a normal road in average weather does not normally require a skill roll.

No, it does not scale, it is just a simple rule to avoid unnecessary skill rolls and to encourage the players to put at least 50 skill points into the important skills of their characters' careers. A pilot with a 49% skill would have to make a normal skill roll for all tasks - provided that he would be allowed to fly a shuttle at all.

Thank you very much, this looks very good indeed.

Well, I usually found it easier for example to delete or combine skills than to introduce additional ones, or to delete rules from a system than to add them to a system.

Perhaps you would like to buy one of my excellent time machine construction plans, all you need to get a look at BRP Essentials yesterday are a little tin foil and a not so little amount of money ...

While there are many interesting personalities among the Thalassians, there are only two true VIPs .. Joanna Cavorte Joanna Cavorte was the captain of the IIS (Interworld Interstellar Service) explorer starship Ulysses which discovered the hyperspace corridor between the Sol System and the Poseidon System and explored the system and the planet Thalassa in 2198. Cavorte used her huge financial reward for the discovery to retire to Thalassa in 2214 and to contribute to the con-struction of the planet's second seafloor habitat in 2220. When the habitat was finished in 2225 Joanna Cavorte moved to her apartment there and the Thalassians voted to name the habitat Cavorte Domes. Carlos Rose The planetologist Carlos Rose was the leader of the terraformers among the colony preparation team that landed on Thalassa in 2212 to construct the Thalassa Downport and the first seafloor habitat and to initiate the moderate terraforming of Thalassa. The colonists named the first habitat Port Rose after Rose had managed the difficult rescue of the crew of a da-maged submarine, which made him the first local hero of Thalassa. This fame and his considerable leadership skills enabled him to win the election of Thalassa's first governor in 2216, and he remained in this office until today.

Hmm ... I am normally not a friend of additional skills because this can lead to a skill creep, which forces the players to spread out their skill points over too many skills, resulting in a character's set of comparatively low skill values. So, in the case of Police Procedure I would probably make it a specialization of the Law skill (Law / Police Procedure), Domestics I would consider a part of a character's general knowledge (or the lack of Domestics a roleplaying thing), in the case of Streetwise I would probably make it a Lore skill (Lore / Underworld), and instead of Handyman I would use Mechanical Repair,

If I have the choice I would this time very much prefer the game stats.

While I really like River of Heaven its granularity is a little low (OpenQuest is perhaps the "simplest" - not meant in a derogatory sense - of the d100 systems), and I suspect that it could prove difficult to convert between River of Heaven and any d100 system with a higher granularity, like BRP or Mythras.

During the work (well, more fun than work) on the first version of the setting's system I decided to use the Competence rule from the Expendables RPG, and I think I will also use it with the Mythras system. Competence means that a character with 50+ % in a core skill of his profession will always succeed, no skill roll required, when the task difficulty is Standard or less and the task is directly related to the character's profession. For example, a shuttle pilot with Pilot (Aerospace) 50% or better will never crash his shuttle under normal conditions.

And a little guide for the tourists .. In 2226 the only settled area of Thalassa is the Archipelago Region, one of the planet's three comparatively shallow regions, with an average depth of only about 150 meters. The Thalassa Downport is a combination of huge floaters on the edge of the Archipelago Region. It is big enough for orbital shuttles and the colony's few VTOL-aircraft and includes a seaport for the transfer of cargo between the downport and the colony's various watercraft. The communication, navigation and research satellites orbiting Thalassa are controlled from the downport. The Transworld Mining Corporation has its local office at the downport. Thalassa's capital Port Rose is a domed seafloor habitat designed for up to 15,000 inhabitants. The assembly, the governor and the ICDA representative reside there and the Thalassa High School, the Thalassa Research Institute and the Port Rose Hospital have their facilities in Port Rose. On the surface near Port Rose are the aquaculture floaters and industrial floaters. The second settlement, Cavorte Domes, is also a domed seafloor habitat, designed for up to 10,ooo inhabitants. It houses, among others, the Thalassa Terraforming Institute, the Thalassa Biotechnology Institute (currently working on biotech artificial gills) and the Thalassa Dolphineer Station. There are of course also aquaculture floaters on the surface near Cavorte Domes. The two seabed mines M1 and M2 are actually huge floaters with the drone control centers and ore refining equipment, the actual mines on the seafloor are worked by remotely con-trolled drones only. On the southern edge of the Archipelago Region is an artificial coral reef created by the colony's marine biologists as an element of Thalassa's ongoing terraforming.

Well, you could have the current version of the material which will be available to the campaign's players right now, but unfortunately it is rather dry stuff - and in German. I cannot promise that I will ever have the time and energy to translate all of the material into English, in my experience adding to the material is a lot more fun than translating it ...

In my professional field, nursing, the "whiff test" is a test for bacterial vaginosis ...

Hello Atgxtg, every help is most welcome, and a simple system would be especially welcome. In my previous settings I put the focus of the "science" in science fiction very much on the hard sciences and the technology, but in this one I intend to put it more on the soft sciences and to keep the technology more in the background. Therefore any approach that could help me to keep the science/technology parts of the setting simple would be a boon.