rust

Personally, I could go for an empire on the rise. I'm more into the exploring the unknown than dealing with cleaning up the already known:)

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.

Maybe Chaosium should just pick up the license for Perry Rhodan? At least it might go over big in Europe. And will fulfill the need for a BRP space opera game everywhere else.

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.

I'll have to see if this Perry Rhodan series is translated into English.

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.

If I wanted to play uber-gritty, I use HarnMaster. Until this thread, and the discussion regarding shock, I thought it beat all other injury systems hands down.

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.

Maybe the word 'replicate' is the wrong word to use. It would be more like a mining operation except it's recreating basic elements and their combinations from what's being thrown off from a sun. It would simply be mixing and matching atoms and molecules from solar radiation.

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).

Hmm. I think I see your point. Question is, do you think the study is valid for historical injuries (swords and arrows)? I'm thinking it isn't.

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.

So apparently if you want a relatively realistic damage system, you track blood loss, have some kind of a shock check system based on damage, and probably have some kind of threshold system for disablement, and then have a long term effects chart of some kind (possibly based on injury locations). Just remember that blood loss isn't usually the one that ends the fight, and its probably the one that a hit point model looks _most_ like.

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 !

I have been looking forward to this for some time. All the little hints and teasers sure makes Pharos sound interesting. If this setting ever hit the shelf (in English) I would certainly pick up a copy.

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 would suggest that instead of individual races people could make up individual worlds or planets similar to Rust's Beneath Alien Waves. That would allow for a bit of individual freedom as well as allowing other people playing BRP sci-fi to visit the world for an adventure or two.

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 ... >:->

I would think yours would be the first one to be shipped out:confused:

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 ?

I just don't understand games without Hit Locations.

...

In real life, you hit someone in part of their body and that part of the body is injured. Hit Locations model that pretty well, in my opinion.

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 ... >:->

Here's a game I know nothing about beyond the product description, but seems to be in the same vein as Shock.

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.

By any chance did anyone else get a book they didn't expect?

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:

I'd always seen it as a place to discuss BRP in a civilised, constructive way: and that means BRP in all its forms. The site certainly succeeds to a certain extent, but the level of unmitigated system snobbery that pervades is highly disheartening, as are the attacks that occasionally get levelled.

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:

This is definitely off subject, but the game Shock: Social

Science Fiction has an interesting take on the sci-fi genre...

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 ... >:->

Plus, he was of the opinion that all gaming is going to strategy gaming, anyway, so that's the reason they are stocking so few rpgs anymore.

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...

Its interesting that the consensus on here seems to be that D&D 4th ed is moving in the wrong direction for a RPG.

I do not think that it is the "wrong" direction for a RPG, and I have no doubt

that many roleplayers will consider it the "right" direction and welcome the

changes.

However, with its focus on the combat system it is definitely moving in the

wrong direction for my way of roleplaying and my preferred setting.

For example, it is simply impossible to create most of the character types

of my setting with D&D 4.0. Both the combat-oriented character classes

and the level system prevent it.

(I still want that record ... )

Could you sell it to other people too later through Lulu or something while Chaosium was still selling it, or make it available for download at some site?

While I think that you should of course ask Chaosium, it may be interesting

for you that Cthulhu Rising is available both as a Chaosium monograph and

as a free PDF.