rust

I think what rust has a problem with, is having 4.6% of the human population with profound mental disabilities. That would be the chance of a 5 or less on 3D6.

(...)

Or he might just have a problem with fitting in, sentient dolphins on a 3d6 INT scale. If humans go back down to 3D6, then everything else has to be adjusted.

Both problems, in fact. To use 3D6 for INT would create a situation in my set-

ting where a non-sentient dolphin would be more intelligent than almost 5 %

of the colonists - the dolphin would indeed become an acceptable candidate

for the colony's parliament. :shocked:

Gee, you'd think any species that wanted to colonize a water world would be smart enough ...

Well, you know, these are humans ...

Which begs the question, how DO your undersea motorists change a flat 3 miles down?

All they can do is to call a tow sub ...

For Rust's underwater game, mightn't the colonists have some sort of seabed crawler for collecting minerals, or clams, or whatever else useful may be half-buried in the muck?

Indeed, but I decided to give them somewhat crab like walkers (the Partan

Walkers of post 12 of this thread), because six legged walkers seemed more

useful on the often rather broken ground of the seafloor.

Both BRP and Call of Cthulhu include stats for a Wolf, and the differences be-

tween a German Shepherd / Alsatian and a Wolf are small: Alsatians have a

bit more Strength than Wolves, Wolves have a bit more Dexterity than Alsa-

tians.

Actually, I have no problem at all with a person who has a profound mental disability (as would be reflected by an INT of 5 or less) not having as much cognitive ability as a smart animal.

This may be true, but I find it hard to imagine how to introduce them into

my science fiction setting without having the characters visiting a mental

hospital ...

Thank you very much indeed. :)

Not that it counts, but I'm voting for the Aqua-car.

I will think about it. I like the idea, but I would have to change a couple of things,

for example the habitats would need some new kind of "wet lock / dry dock" for

the cars, I think.

I still have my "dolphin problem" mentioned earlier: To roll 3D6 for INT does

not make sense for human characters when a Hawk has INT 3 and even a

Zombie has INT 6. Since even a dumb human should be more intelligent than

an animal or a zombie, the roll has to have a result above 6, and I think a

minimum intelligence of 8 is right - so in my view the 2D6+6 is a good deci-

sion.

An alternative could be "roll 3D6 and ignore results below 8", but this would

seem somewhat strange to me, because it would turn out to be more com-

plicated than "roll 2D6 and add 6".

Maybe they would have some sort of "ground" vehicle.

I am still not sure how to handle this. Inside the domes they currently use ei-

ther conveyor belts (I hope this is the right word) or small electrically powe-

red vehicles (somewhat like golf carts, too small and slow to need any stats),

and outside they use either diving hardsuits with small water jet backpacks,

the Partan Walkers mentioned earlier or submersibles.

Ground vehicles ... I have to think about it.

You're just fishing for a K factor for skimmers, right?

Caught again ...

But what if you had been choosing stats for an "incompetent head of a physics department"? Are the stats driving the plot, or is the plot driving the stats? Not saying one way is better than another, just asking a question.

The stats are driving the plot, as far as there is a plot, because our setting

is a "sandbox" without prepared adventures, where the players are free to

decide what their characters are going to do next - which is one reason why

I need a lot of NPCs to fill all the available "slots" instead of only the compa-

ratively few NPCs a structured adventure would require.

The "sandbox" concept of the setting is also a reason why I prefer not to

choose stats for the NPCs, but generate the stats randomly and try to get

some inspiration out of them - having to come up with that many interesting

ideas would simply be impossible for me.

Besides, who actually ROLLS NPC stats?

Since I needs lots of NPCs for my setting, I hope to delegate that task to my

computer one day.

Besides, I really prefer to generate most of my NPCs randomly, mainly to pre-

vent them from becoming stereotypical and predictable, but also because the

results are more realistic.

Plus, this method also forces me to come up with interesting explanations why

a certain NPC is in a certain position.

For example, when the head of the physics department of the research insti-

tute has a low INT, there has to be a reason why he holds this position: Ne-

potism, a failed experiment that resulted in brain damage, a drug addiction ?

- ideas I might never have considered if I had started by choosing the stats

for a "head of a physics department".

No comments, I wonder if that is good or bad?

They look very good, but as a science fiction player there is not much I could

write about "archaic" ground vehicles.

For my setting a human INT of 3D6 would lead to a situation where the ave-

rage trained dolphin would be more intelligent than a sizeable number of the

colonists - in fact, the dolphin could begin to train those colonists.

Thus I prefer the simpler (and possibly quicker) opposed roll resolution. The players are more willing to abide by the result of the roll if the outcome is clear cut, and it can lead to some quite fascinating twists in plot line! :thumb:

In my case it is negotiations (diplomacy, politics, trade ...). While I feel able

to improvise acceptable modifiers according to the situation and the ideas of

the players, an opposed skill roll system provides a comparatively simple and

fast system to determine the outcome of any negotiations, and it is transpa-

rent and thereby prevents the players from complaining about arbitrary deci-

sions.

Harshax, I tested your Opposed Rolls system this evening, it worked perfectly

well and the players liked it - Thank you again.

Thank you very much, for me this is all I needed. :thumb:

Would it help the OP if we started a new thread that codified opposed results in chart format, like it is done for Combat? I think I can put this together fairly quickly.

I would be interested in this, too.

My current campaign will soon begin to include a lot of diplomacy, politics and

trade negotiations, and there is a very good chance that your ideas will prove

more useful than my own system.

I use the BRP book as a toolkit to add various of its options to my homebrew

system, which is a science fiction mix of GURPS (world building, some tech-

nology) and Mongoose Traveller (lifepath character generation, trade, some

technology - increasingly replacing GURPS) plus BRP with some ideas from the

Ringworld RPG (our roleplaying system).

For me, BRP has worked exceptionally well, enabling me to convert from the

other systems to BRP with ease and leaving only very few gaps I had to fill

with houserules for our newest "human colony on a water world"-setting and

campaign.

My only minor problem with the BRP book is that there are so many interesting

options that it is sometimes difficult to choose the right ones for the setting

and campaign, and to judge whether the ones that look best for any specific

purpose will work together well enough.

Flat disc floating in a void ...

I ... will ... not ... propose ... the ... name ... Discworld ...

Whow, glad I could resist that temptation ... :innocent:

Thank you, it is quite useful.

link?

index [basic Roleplaying Wiki]

Thank you for the tip. I just downloaded The First Book Of Things, I had

been curious for quite a while, but found the price slightly high.

Is it in the right ballpark/aquarium?

Thank you very much, it fits perfectly - especially because it gives the

walker lots of "surplus" power for heavy construction equipment and the-

like.

Thank you very much for your offer.

The Partan Walkers are built at a low science fiction technology level. They

are civilian vehicles used mainly for sea floor construction and similar tasks.

They have a crew of 2 (pilot and marine engineer), their size is ca. 7 m long,

almost 4 m high and about 10 m wide, looking somewhat like a mechanical

crab. They have a weight of nearly 20 tons and can move at a top speed of

ca. 20 kph, with the average speed closer to 10 kph. The maximum safe

depth is 400 m.

The walkers are powered by radiothermal generators, but I have not yet cal-

culated their power requirements, mainly because I found it difficult to deci-

de which amount of the power they might need for the modular construction

equipment (power drill, power shovel, etc.).

Roughly, I think K halves for walkers, and about 1/8 or so for underwater, for about K=1.32.

Unfortunately I cannot test this formula, my setting's "Partan Walkers" only

have a description, but no stats. GURPS Vehicles did not work well for their

design, so I keep waiting for the relevant Mongoose Traveller supplement in

this case, too.

So, until July these walkers just keep walking - without power plant output,

mass and speed.