rust

Among the animals that appear in my Enki II setting as creatures introduced

into the planet's biosphere, once terraforming has begun to change the pla-

net's environment, are two species from Terra, both able to live in the kind

of environment Enki II will have in the campaign's future:

Vikunjas at the low end of the scale of creatures that need stats, and Yaks

at the high end of that scale - these two species will be the reference for all

other creatures, so I should get the stats right.

These are the stats I think could be about right:

Vikunja

STR 10

CON 10

SIZ 8

INT 4

POW 10

DEX 10

Move 10

Hit Points 9

Damage Bonus none

Armor 2-point fur

Attack Bite 20 % 1D3

Skills Sense 50 %

A Vikunja looks like a slender Alpaka, with a length of about 1.50 m, a height

of about 1 m and a weight of about 50 kg.

You could compare a Vikunja to a small Antelope, I think.

Yak

STR m 30, f 20

CON m 20, f 15

SIZ m 40, f 30

INT 4

POW 10

DEX 10

Move 10

Hit Points m 30, f 22

Damage Bonus m + 3D6, f + 2D6

Armor 3-point fur

Attacks Horn 25 % 1D3+db

Ram 25 % 2D6+db

Trample 25 % 2D6+db

Skills Sense 50 %

A male Yak has a length of about 3 m, a height of about 2 m and a weight of

about 1,000 kg, female ones are considerably smaller.

You could compare a Yak to a Bison, I think.

(And I am looking forward to the adventure when the characters will have to

transport some grumpy Yak bulls to Enki II - Space Cowboys, Yeehaah ! >:->)

However, these stats are just a first attempt to get it right, and any advice

or help would be most welcome.

Thank You !

ORtrail, Puck, thank you both for your help to find an excellent article !

My first thought is some kind of Native American site or something from the ancient Middle East.

Cold, unfortunately.

Yesterday I finished the campaign's core BRP-Traveller-system.

The characters will be generated with the regular Traveller "lifepath" charac-

ter generation system, although we will use Careers and Event Tables adap-

ted to the setting, and afterwards the attributes and skills of these charac-

ters will be converted to the BRP system.

For the skills we will use this table:

No skill = 10 % (easy "untrained" tasks only)

Skill Level 0 = 40 %

Skill Level 1 = 60 %

Skill Level 2 = 70 %

Skill Level 3 = 80 %

Skill Level 4 = 90 %

For the attributes we will use this table:

Trav 02 = BRP 03

Trav 03 = BRP 04

Trav 04 = BRP 06

Trav 05 = BRP 08

Trav 06 = BRP 10

Trav 07 = BRP 11

Trav 08 = BRP 13

Trav 09 = BRP 15

Trav 10 = BRP 16

Trav 11 = BRP 17

Trav 12 = BRP 18

SIZ, POW and APP, which have no Traveller counterparts, will be rolled ac-

cording to the BRP rules.

Once the characters have been converted, we will play them as normal BRP

characters, with attribute rolls (Idea Roll, Know Roll, etc.) and all that.

However, there will be no Experience Checks, because we will use Traveller's

character generation system throughout the campaign.

This system subdivides character generation into four year terms of service

in various careers, with a possible change of careers and new skills and also

events at the beginning of each new four year term.

While in Traveller this "time structure" ends when the character is generated,

we will use it to structure the entire campaign time: Characters will serve for

four years in a certain career, and will then have the opportunity to choose

a different career or to stay in the previous one, and will get the additional

skills for the career they did choose.

At the same time the GM will roll for a possible promotion and for events du-

ring the new four year term, and will use the results as "plot elements" for

the character in question during those four game time years.

I am not yet sure that this system will work, but I think it is good enough for

a start, and I will be able to improve it during the campaign.

Apart from that BRP-Traveller-system, most other campaign elements have

also been designed, at least their outlines are now there.

The background universe and its technology assumptions (based on Travel-

ler and GURPS, mainly) are ready, a couple of starships and of important equip-

ment items have been designed, and maps have been sketched.

Even the first four adventures are now more or less ready for play. The first

one will be the detailed exploration / survey of the planet Enki II (using the

material from Traveller's World Tamer's Handbook), the second one a mission

to find valuable natural resources sufficient to finance an outpost that could

grow into a viable colony with a long-term terraforming program of the planet.

Adventure three deals with the discovery of a downed spaceship and the sad

end of the famous scout who was the first to explore the Enki system, and

adventure four with the discovery of some alien ruins, where the characters

may find data that could lead to a first contact with an alien species.

By the way, here is a sketch of those ruins. It is based upon the plan of a

world cultural heritage site, but I am almost sure that no player will recognize

where the idea came from.

Reprints of the magazine?

I do not think so, because quite a number of issues are no longer

available, so they probably just sell their stock of old originals.

Thank you very much, it seems I will have to order copies of the two issues

from Different Worlds Publishing, that material is most probably good enough

to spend the money.

Oops, those two issues are no longer available ...

Man, you sure put in quite a bit of work in your settings! Have you ever thought of going professional?

No, thank you, I really prefer to do it just for fun and without any kind

of responsibilities.

Besides, I "borrow" too much from all kinds of sources, so my settings

could hardly be published commercially without causing serious copyright

problems ...

Different Worlds once was Chaosium's roleplaying magazine. As far as I know,

it is no longer published, although Different Worlds Publishing still exists, and

still sells copies of the old issues.

Thank you !

I am holding my breath ...

While working on my new science fiction setting, which has the colonization

and terraforming of a barren desert world as its background, I have been told

that Different Worlds once included an interesting article on terraforming that

might prove useful for me.

This article, written by Doug Houseman, appeared in two parts in the Diffe-

rent Worlds issues 22 and 23.

Unfortunately this article is quite dated, and not necessarily useful anymore,

and ordering copies of Different Worlds is possible, but rather complicated and

not exactly cheap from over here.

Perhaps someone who has the issues 22 and 23 of Different Worlds could be

so kind to take a look at the article, and tell me whether it would be worth

trying to get a copy ?

Thank you very much !

Thank you !

And here we have a first sketch of the Sapal Sector of the Solar Federation,

where Enki II is located.

As you see, I have decided that this time space will not be flat: The coor-

dinates under the planet symbols give the "height" of the system within the

galactic disk, in this case all of them at "-" or below the height of Sol, which

is used as a reference.

It took me a while to do all the square root handling to calculate the distan-

ces in the sector in a three-dimensional space (I hate math ...), but I think

that the little additional "realism" was worth the trouble.

And from now on the players of the astrogators among the characters will

have some real math to do in order to arrive at the right system ... >:->

A nice idea, I will put in on my list - thank you !

By the way, this is a first sketch of what Enki II will look like ...

However you intend to use it, it is just great !

(... and I am looking forward to seeing the new material on vehicles ...)

If we send the book in and it does even marginally well (remember I have never done anything like this before so to be realistic it may be kind of lousy), then we can always add the other stuff later.

Chaosium has a very long tradition of Companion volumes, so a "The Green

Companion" is almost a must do for you...

Besides, from what I have seen until now, and with all the work you put into

it, The Green will definitely not be lousy.

While "hard" SF does not require to give a player a plausible explanation

whenever a character asks for one, such a plausible explanation should

always be possible (no contradictions with the basic laws of the setting

universe), and the GM should have at least an idea of the explanation

(to avoid such contradictions), I think.

So, if the player's character asks why that river is flowing upwards, the

GM can just shrug and tell the player to let his character attempt to do

some research and find the explanation.

However, the GM should be prepared to come up with a plausible expla-

nation in the case that the character really does the research ...

That's part of what I am getting at. "Hard" Sci-Fi is a different animal.

Sci-Fi with a Psi Adept is not "hard". It may be Sci-Fi, and it may border

on Sci-Fantasy, but it is not "hard" Sci-Fi.

Yep, I think now I understand it, and agree.

By the way, Traveller can be played as "hard" SF, too, especially the GURPS

and New Era versions are well suited for that kind of game, although I have

to admit that psionics do not fit in well.

The "maximum psionics level" I ever used in one of my settings was the em-

pathy and telepathy ability of the Treecats from David Weber's Honor Har-

rington novels, and I regarded even that as a "borderline case".

And yet with the fantasy wizard, the same explanation suffices.

Ah, well, I would not really want to call that an explanation ...

Otherwise, while I do see your point, I think you are missing one of the

basic differences between (at least "hard") science fiction and fantasy:

In my opinion Science Fiction does require details, explanations and plau-

sibility, because this is the "science" part of it, if you neglect this you

have just average fiction.

The GM and or player needing to have knowedge (or having knowledge) about

seismology has nothing to do with it. The setting is provided by the GM. The

level of detail is left up to the GM. The reality is there does not need to be

a fault line, molten lava, etc. described at all.

Once again, it depends ...

In a science fiction game you may well have a character with geology, pla-

netology or seismology skill, and this character's player may well ask for a

plausible explanation of the events in more or less scientific terms, because

this is what his character would look for.

In a fantasy game, none of the characters is expected to think in scientific

terms and ask such questions. A fantasy character may attempt to explain

the events in his world in religious or magical terms, which are much easier

to handwave than science, I think, because religions and magic often con-

tain contradictions that would ruin the suspension of disbelief if they would

appear in science.

Yep, thank you again for an interesting link !

I think all you would have to do would be a minor change in the name to

avoid a confusion, as Green is definitely not an in any way protected term.

Using "Into The Green", "Dangers Of The Green", "Life In The Green" or any

other such combination as the title of your work should be fully sufficient

to solve the problem.

An easy way to find out whether a change of the title is necessary at all

(and I am not convinced that it is, as there are several cases of identical

titles of RPG materials) could be to ask Chaosium, as they will publish the

monograph.

Don't worry, I do not think that The Green is dead or in danger to die.

Thank you very much for the interesting links !

Well, it depends somewhat on what kind of complexity one is looking for.

For my science fiction settings I want a high level of complexity / plausibi-

lity / "realism" when it comes to the astronomy (world building), the tech-

nology (equipment, vehicles) and even the economy (trade rules). This is

why I use GURPS material, although equally good material could doubtless

be written for BRP, too.

On the other hand, I want a smooth (easy to learn, easy to play), charac-

ter-oriented roleplaying system with a high flexibility, one that I can easily

adapt to any of my settings, and here in my opinion nothing beats BRP.

So, complexity for the setting, because there (at least in "hard" science

fiction settings) complexity gives colour and depth to the setting, makes

the suspension of disbelief easier, and gives more choices to the players.

But not "complexity" when it comes to the roleplaying rules themselves, be-

cause there complexity usually means that the system gets in the way of

the roleplaying, and this often ruins the suspension of disbelief.

In my opinion, BRP has the (almost) perfect roleplaying mechanics and ru-

les, it just lacks some good genre supplements for genres like "hard" SF.

The players had a namegiving debate, and the result is: The second planet

of the star Enki in the Sapal Sector of the Rim Region will be named Tashara

by the colonists.

Phil McGregor, co-author of Space Opera and several other science fiction

RPG materials, is currently working on a series of technology supplements

for Mongoose Traveller, the Dark Star Catalog.

He thinks (as do I) that Traveller's technology assumptions are quite outda-

ted, and that the equipment of Technology Level 9 and above will therefo-

re be much more "futuristic" than depicted in Traveller.

He plans to publish the first part of his Dark Star Catalog of science fiction

technology for Traveller (power generators and expedition gear, probably)

before Christmas, and more material next year.

Others are also working on new technology for Traveller, and for example

Flynn's Guide to Robots with a design system for robots and drones will

probably be published within the next month or so, and the Translight RPG

(a percentile system, compatible with BRP, I hope) with some interesting

equipment could also be published late this or early next year.

So, there is much good science fiction technology "in the pipeline", but it

will not yet be available at the start of my campaign, which is one reason

why I designed several ways to introduce it into my setting once it has

been published.

You can always equip your players characters with high tech stuff. But when they have arrived on the planet the euqipmet stops to function. Maybe its sabotage or something else?

An interesting idea, but unfortunately my setting currently has no source

of real high tech equipment, the technology level of the background uni-

verse's core worlds is only slightly higher than the technology level of the

remote colony worlds on the rim of explored space.

However, one of the planned campaign events is a first contact with an

alien species with a more highly developed technology and (if the player

characters do not fumble their Diplomacy rolls ...) an interest in trade.

I intended to use this as a means to introduce some new technology from

the upcoming Traveller supplements (e.g. the Dark Star Catalog, etc.) in-

to the setting, but it can just as well serve as a way to introduce some

of the technology from your links.

And then there are the alien ruins on Enki II, and once the player charac-

ters have discovered and excavated them, they may well be able to sal-

vage some few really very high tech artefacts from there (and to use them,

provided they have some special successes with the relevant technology

skills ...).

So, I will introduce higher technology into the setting and campaign "by

and by", and some of your ideas will doubtless find their way into the set-

ting, too.