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Perhaps this could be interesting: Reality of the Street? A Practical Analysis of Offender Gunshot Wound Reaction

My copy of Runequest (1980) has ca. 120 pages, BRP Zero has almost 400 pages (although much of it is non-Fantasy), so there obviously are some dif- ferences ... However, those differences are not fundamental ones, and I think that it would not be difficult to move from Runequest to BRP and back, since the basics are identical. From my point of view, the differences are mainly in the details and especially in the number of options.

What about a combination of the declining and rising Empires ? I could well imagine an old Empire with a declining core and and a vibrant, rising rim. Or two Empires, like the old declining Vilani Empire and the young rising Terran Empire in Traveller.

There is already a rather good Perry Rhodan RPG, although the system is com- paratively complex. It is a d20, originally published for the German fantasy RPG "Midgard", decades before D&D used a d20 system: dorifer.com However, the Perry Rhodan RPG is no success, not even over here. While the fans of the series like it because of the many background informations, most roleplayers obviously find it too difficult to "get into" a background universe which has developed over more than 40 years, with literally thousands of ra- ces and a timeline of more than 2,000 years.

It once was, for a very short time, but it was no success in the USA, mostly because of the (for US readers) very unusual format - imagine a small booklet, about the size of National Geographic, with about 70 pages with only very few black and white illustrations.

While I have no use for it in my science fiction setting, I still consider Harn- master as by far the most realistic combat system I have seen - although I disliked it a lot to have character after character die from shock or wound infection long after the combat was over.

Ah, now I understand what you mean, and agree. There is a major weekly science fiction booklet series here in Germany, "Perry Rhodan" (running for 2000+ weeks now ...), where the Terrans have develo- ped a kind of nucleosynthesis machine providing them with the basic raw ma- terials for their industry. However, there is still a lot of trade in blueprints, finished goods and especial- ly organic chemicals (which are difficult to synthesize from elements).

If I remember it right, Barbara Tuchman gave a number of examples of the effects of medieval weapons in her book "The Distant Mirror". It seems that the differences are not so big, with the exception of blood loss, which ob- viously is higher in wounds caused by cutting weapons (more wound surfa- ce to bleed from).

While I think the replicators would be an interesting idea, I would not like to have anything of that kind in my setting, because it would very much reduce (if not eliminate entirely) the need for interstellar trade - and with it a clas- sic science fiction adventure source.

You could even add some more realism by introducing a tiny, but real chance that someone goes into a mental shock in a combat situation without having received any damage at all. It is quite surprising how many people, even trained ones, faint, "freeze" or act irrationally when they see or smell blood or wounds or hear other persons - especially ones close to them - scream in pain.

Hello and Welcome, Gundamentalist !

Thank you very much ! My problem (apart from being lazy ...) is that I only have the time either to continue to develop the setting while our group is playing it, or to translate it. While I hoped that the basic setting would one fine day be "complete", with no more need for any major additions except in its ongoing timeline, the play- ers have developed a tendency to continually explore new areas of the set- ting - which in turn forces me to develop and detail these areas. Ah, well, one day I will finally manage to convince them to stay at home for a while, doing some intrigues and politics, and then I will have the time to begin the translation ...

I agree, I think this would be a better approach than trying to design a com- mon world. And it reminds me that I have still not begun to translate my setting into Eng- lish, and meanwhile it has grown to almost 100 pages ...

Ah, I really would like to have something like this in my science fiction water world setting, but unfortunately the colonists would never introduce such a monster to their world ... :eek: But, wait - I now have an idea what they might encounter the next time they visit another planet to look for something harmless and useful for their world's biosphere ... >:->

Perhaps they think that Jason should know the content already well enough, and would be happy not to have to see it for a while ?

It depends on the setting. In my science fiction setting a character can only be hit once in any combat wit the setting's typical weapons. The first hit usu- ally kills the character. If he should survive, the hit location is only of interest to the medics at the hospital, who must know which limb to regenerate. But that is normally quite obvious ... >:->

Yep, it also looks very interesting, but currently I am mostly looking for stuff that could enable me to improve my setting (deep in my heart I am probably more a world builder than a roleplayer ... :eek:), and Universalis seems to create a different setting each time it is played, and seems to put comparatively little emphasis on settings.

Unfortunately, no - I did not even get the one I am expecting. For some unfathomable reason it seems easier to send a copy of the new BRP to Australia than to my FLGS here in Germany.

And, why we are at it, you seem to have mentioned something about a science fiction scenario named "Outpost 19" somewhere in the download section ... :shocked:

Ah, well ... people are likely to show some passion when it comes to their favourite games... and I think it is far more passion than "snobbery" ... Still, of all the major RPG forums I have seen there is only one where I would call the discussions more "civilised" and "constructive", and where "attacks" are even more rare than here. :thumb: But now, sorry and: :focus:

Thank you very much for the information and the links ! Although my bank account keeps screaming "No, don't !", I obviously have to buy this RPG - apart from being a most unusual and interesting game, it could make an excellent tool to give my water world setting some more depth (ah, kind of a pun ...).

While Hit Locations may be quite useful in a game with lots of melee combat, they are not really that useful in my science fiction setting. So, no.

Ah, well, it probably was just the usual Australian problem with datelines, time warps, and all that - or that cross-Earth tunnel from the USA to Au- stralia has finally been completed ... :eek:

Thank you very much for the links ! I found the sea cucumber biopolymer and the electrolocation informations most interesting. The goldfish chain seems to be something that should be tested on the person who came up with this idea ... >:->

There is sometimes a kind of "self-fulfilling prophecy" at work. We once had two shops here, and the owner of one of them (originally a true RPG shop) was convinced that the age of roleplaying games was over, and that people now wanted to buy tabletops, miniatures and trading card games. He acted accordingly, reduced the number of RPGs available, and as a result those people who wanted to buy RPGs soon all went to the other shop (origi- nally a fantasy and science fiction bookshop), whose owner told me that he was convinced that the number of people buying RPGs was growing steadily, and who therefore expanded his stock of RPGs very quickly. Today we still have those two shops, one selling no more RPGs because the people are no longer buying RPGs, one selling lots of RPGs because more and more people want to buy RPGs. And both shop owners simply refuse to believe my explanation of what had happened, because their experiences prove that this cannot be true - one remains convinced that RPGs do not sell anymore, the other remains convin- ced that the number of RPG players is growing rapidly...