sladethesniper

:thumb: You're officially nominated to make the BRP Dune PDF!! -STS

Is the question how to reconcile reality to a system or to make a system that accurately models reality? I use a different "scale" for my games that seems to work better than that found in BRP...although it does lead to large numbers >:-> Oh yeah, SL is Super Light (smallest version you can buy), VL is Very Light, L is Light, M is Medium, H is Heavy, VH is Very Heavy and SH is Super Heavy. [table]Type|Damage|Caliber SL Pistol|1d4|.22 rimfire, .25 ACP VL Pistol|1d5| .380 ACP L Pistol | 1d10| .38 Special M Pistol| 2d6| 9mm H Pistol | 1d10+1d4| .45 ACP VH Pistol | 2d8| .44 Magnum SH Pistol | 1d10+1d8| .454 Cassull SL Machine| pistol 1d5| .22 rimfire, .25 ACP VL Machine| pistol 1d6| .380 ACP L Machine pistol | 1d10+1| .38 Special M Machine pistol| 1d10+1d3| 9mm H Machine pistol |1d10+1d5| .45 ACP VH Machine pistol| 2d8+1| 5.56mm SH Machine pistol| 1d10+1d8+1| 6mm, 7.62mm x 39 SL SMG| 1d6| .22 rimfire, .25 ACP VL SMG| 1d10| .380 ACP L SMG| 2d6| 9mm M SMG| 1d10+1d4| .45 ACP H SMG| 2d8| 5.56mm VH SMG| 3d6| 6mm, 7.62mm x 39 SH SMG| 2d10+1| 7.62mm SL Carbine| 1d10| .380 ACP, 9mm short VL Carbine| 2d6| 9mm L Carbine| 1d10+1d4| .45 ACP M Carbine| 2d8| 5.56mm H Carbine| 3d6| .30-30 VH Carbine| 2d10| .44-40 SH Carbine| 3d8| .444 Marlin SL Assault rifle| 2d6| 9mm VL Assault rifle| 1d10+1d4| .45 ACP L Assault rifle| 2d8| 4.45mm M Assault rifle| 3d6| 5.56mm H Assault rifle| 2d10| 6mm, 7.62mm x 39 VH Assault rifle| 2d10+1| 7.62mm SH Assault rifle| 4d6| 8mm SL Rifle| 1d10+1d4 |.17 Bee, 4.45mm VL Rifle| 2d8 |5.56mm L Rifle| 3d6 |6mm, 7.62mm x 39 M Rifle| 2d10+1 |7.62mm H Rifle| 4d6 |.400 Weatherby Magnum VH Rifle| 5d6 |.500 H&H Nitro Express SH Rifle| 6d6 .|50 BMG, .700 H&H Nitro Express SL MG| 1d10+1d4| 4.45mm VL MG| 2d8 |5.56mm L MG| 3d6| 6mm, 7.62mm x 39 M MG| 2d10+1 |7.62mm H MG| 4d6 |10mm VH MG| 5d6| 12.7mm SH MG| 6d6| 14.5mm SL Shotgun |(Shot 1d3 x 1d6) (Slug 1d10+1d4)| .410 bore VL Shotgun |(Shot 1d4 x 1d6) (Slug 2d8) |28 gauge L Shotgun| (Shot 1d5 x 1d6) (Slug 3d6) |20 gauge M Shotgun| (Shot 1d6 x 1d6) (Slug 2d10)| 12 gauge H Shotgun |(Shot 1d8 x 1d6) (Slug 4d6) |10 gauge, 12 gauge 3 1/2 Magnum VH Shotgun| (Shot 1d10 x 1d6) (Slug 5d6)| 8 gauge SH Shotgun| (Shot 2d6 x 1d6) (Slug 6d6) |4 gauge[/table] [table]Ammunition types|Effects Dual Purpose| ½ AV ½ damage if wearing armor, if no armor damage x 1.5, Armor Piercing|½ AV, ½ damage, Wadcutter|damage x 1.5, AV x 2, ½ range, Semi wadcutter |damage x 1.25, AV x 1.5, 3/4 range, Reverse semi wadcutter |damage x 1.5, AV x 2, 3/4 range, Full Metal Jacket |standard damage, Total Metal Jacket |AV -1, Solid construction |AV -3, Soft Point |Damage x 1.25, AV x 1.5, Pointed Soft Point |Damage x 1.1, AV x 1.25, Ballistic Tip |Damage x 1.25, High Pressure |Damage x 1.1, Very High Pressure |Damage x 1.25, High Velocity |Damage x 1.25, range x 1.25, Ultra Velocity |Damage x 1.5, range x 1.5, Hollow Point |Damage x 1.5, armor x 2, Fragmenting/Frangible |Damage x 2, will not penetrate any armor or cover[/table] [table]Weapons modifications|Effects Accurized|Range x 1.5, Accuracy +10%, Cost x 100% Scopes|Increase accuracy by +5% AND increase range by 10% equal to the magnification power (usually 4 to 12), Cost 50 IM per mag. Laser sights|Increase accuracy by +10% BUT target has a 50% of noticing....not good for ambushes, Cost 200 IM IR Laser sights|Increase accuracy by +10% BUT target cannot notice unless they possess IR vision, Cost 400 IM Cryogenically aligned barrel|Increase accuracy by +5%, Cost x 100% Muzzle compensator|Increase Burst Value by 1, Cost x 25% Free floating barrel|Increase accuracy by +5%, Cost x 50%[/table] Odd calibers...there are some PC's who want to "design their own" guns and this is perfectly fine. These are known as wildcat cartridges, and those who make them are called wildcatters. It requires some knowledge of ballistics, gun smithing, physics and some equipment. This setup will cost 5,000 IM. It will also need a skill called "wildcatting", that will enable the character to design his own rounds. The process is much less designing as it is modifying common rounds for other effects. Extending the range or adding damage are the most common ends, but there are also those who seek to create more accurate rounds as well. Take a weapon and determine if you want to add range, damage or accuracy. There are tradeoffs involved. If you want to add range....remove damage. Lower the dice by one "class" for a 50% increase in range. Thus a 2d6 weapon with a range of 30 becomes a 1d10 weapon with a range of 45 or a 4d6 weapon with a range of 50 becomes a 2d10 weapon with a range of 75m!. To increase the damage, you lose accuracy...for every +1 to damage, you lose 5% accuracy, but you cannot add straight +1's you have to add them in dice multiples...therefore to take a 1d8 weapon to 2d6 means a +4 and a 4 accuracy! In order to add accuracy, you lose damage. For every +2 you lose 1 damage. So to gain a +8 accuracy you would lose 4 damage, so a 1d10 weapon becomes a 1d6 weapon. As you can see they all have tradeoffs, but if you want to spend a lot of time shooting and making your own weapons, wildcatting is for you. All of these modifications can be made multiple times as well as make use of the previous ammunition charts! Caliber Modifications [table]add|lose +1 Damage| 5% Accuracy +50% Range| drop damage by one class +2 Accuracy| 1 Damage[/table] Armor Values! [table]Material|AV Padded armor| 1 Glass | 1/inch Paper | 1/inch Rope | 1/inch Thick padded armor | 2 Thin leather armor | 2 Plastic, soft | 2/inch Ceramic | 2/inch Ice | 2/inch Metal sheeting | 3 Studded leather armor | 3 Plastic, hard | 3/inch Heavy studded leather armor| 4 Chainmail | 5 Bronze cuirass | 5 Splint mail | 6 Wood | 7/inch Aluminum | 8/inch Heavy chain mail | 6 Steel cuirass | 7 Light plate armor | 8 Concrete | 8/inch Field plate armor | 9 Plate armor | 10 Class I |10 Class IIA |12 Class II | 14 Class IIIA | 16 Class III | 20 Class VI | 50 Vehicular Class I vs Kinetic |20 Vehicular Class II vs Kinetic |40 Vehicluar Class III vs Kinetic |50 Vehicluar Class IV vs Kinetic |75 Vehicular Class V vs Kinetic |120 Vehicular Class I vs Explosive| 100 Vehicular Class IIa vs Explosive| 200 Vehicluar Class IIb vs Explosive |300 Vehicluar Class IIIa vs Explosive |450 Vehicular Class IIIb vs Explosive| 600 Vehicular Class IVa vs Explosive |900 Vehicular Class IVb vs Explosive |1200[/table] Big Guns Don't know how much use this is, but if you like big guns, here is a big list of guns that I have statted up. The caliber of the weapon is in the first table, the type of ammo and damage mods is below it. For example a 120mm Hyper Velocity, Armor Piercing, Fin Stabilized, Discarding Sabot - Depleted Uranium round does (300 max damage x (4 for hyper velocity + 2 for armor piercing + 2 for discarding sabot + 2 for depleted uranium =) 10 to be 3000 max damage which can be written as 5d6 x 100 and it has a +1 to hit as well (Fin Stabilized)!! [table]Caliber| Damage using HE warhead| Blast Radius = 1/100 damage in Meters (minimum is ½ m) 15mm | 6d6 | 1/2m 20mm |5d10 | 1/2m 25mm| 6d10 | 1m 30mm| 7d10 | 1m 35mm| 9d10 | 1m 40mm| 10d10 | 1m 45mm| 11d10 | 1m 50mm| 12d10 | 1m 60mm| 15d10 | 2m 70mm| 18d10 | 2m 80mm| 20d10 | 2m 90mm| 22d10 | 2m 100mm| 25d10 | 3m 110mm| 28d10 | 3m 120mm| 30d10 | 3m 125mm| 31d10 | 3m[/table] Ordnance modifiers for projectiles: [table]Warhead modification|Damage x, Notes Hyper Velocity (HV) | Damage x 4 Fin Stabilized (FS) | +5% to accuracy Discarding Sabot (DS) | Damage x 2 Depleted Uranium (DU)| Damage x 2 Armor Piercing (AP)| Damage x 2 High Explosive Dual Purpose (HEDP)| DR is ½, penetrating damage is not reduced High Explosive (HE)| base damage High Explosive Armor Piercing (HEAP)/High Explosive Anti Tank (HEAT)| Damage x 2, DR is 1/4, penetrating damage is not reduced Explosively Formed Warhead (EFW)/Self Forging Projectile (SFP)| Damage x 2, DR is ½, penetrating damage is not reduced High Explosive Pre Fragmented (HEPF)| DR x 2, Blast Radius doubled High Explosive Plastic (HEP)/High Explosive Squash Head (HESH)| Damage x 2, DR is ½, penetrating damage is equivalent to ½ of base damage Incendiary (I)| +1d10 incendiary damage Tracer (T) | +1 accuracy on next combat round[/table] Oh, and as a house rule to simulate skill in shot placement...1/10th skill percentage is added to the damage, so a pistolero with 68% in handgun adds +6 to his damage (if it penetrates the armor)...to simulate shooting you in the eye instead of depending on wonky hit tables (always aim for center mass!). It makes combat very deadly...most people I have shot only needed one round to stop and two to die. Thanks Trifletraxor! -STS

I use Star Wars as 2/5's and WH40K as another 2/5's of my space campaign...Sith vs. Chaos Space Marines and Jedi vs. Sisters of Battle..oh yeah...and PC Inquisitors...all BRP'ed up! If only the Demons of Copyright Infringement wouldn't utterly destroy my every molecule, I would so put this stuff up for all to see (and ridicule ) As far as conversions go...they aren't that hard. I usually just cut and paste Wikipedia and add in the game stats where appropriate (but that is for personal use and no one sees those awful printouts but me)...the hard part is formatting (easy these days...just save as .rtf) and getting "correct" data from the lot of sources out there. Doing an "original work" is just a pain if it's for home use, you know? -STS

Ethesis, Welcome! I like your setting a lot. I would hope that you add to it. While there is not enough there for me to run a campaign on it as it, for some reason I think that Mistworld will make a very interesting "stop" for either a Star Wars game that I run OR (much more likely) a wonderful place in the Eye of Terror that my stalwart Inquisitor Acolytes must go in an upcoming Dark Heresy game :thumb: For some reason this seems a perfect place to go for some magical/nefarious purpose :innocent: Thanks. I am always looking for good ideas to use in my games. Very much appreciated. -STS

Here's the nifty prologue. This has not been edited, so it's cut and paste-tastic right now :ohwell: Vhraeden is a dichotomous mix of High Technology and Magic. Vhraeden, the chaotic jewel of the universe. Vhraeden, where gods and devils battle in the heavens, the hells and the streets. Vhraeden, where magic and technology coexist. Vhraeden is a world where dragons rule countries, cults infiltrate international business and deities vie for government contracts. Vhraeden is Black Banks and Chop Shops, Shadow Ops and Corp Cops, easy money and hard living, Elven supremacists and Dwarven separatists, high magic and ultra tech, elementals and constructs, ancient cults and megacorps, aquiculture and slave farms, arcologies and castles, dragons and gods, angels and demons, guns and swords, rocket launchers and magic staves, helicopters and wyverns, airframes and steam trains, science and alchemy, psionic amplifiers and empathic dampeners, fast cars and magic horses. Corporate boards and magic cabals vie for power. Dragons work to limit the power of the gods. Ultratech and Alchemy compete for dominance. A world of High Magic and High Technology, where elves aren't happy, Orks aren't stupid and Humans are not the dominant species. What if "Human nature" was actually sentient nature and actions had consequences in this world as they do in our own. This is a world where culture determines more than the language you speak, it determines how you see the world and is the dominant force in a beings' life. Welcome to Vhraeden, a game setting unlike any other. Vhraeden is a place of contrasts. There are all of the traditional fantasy role playing elements such as a relatively low tech environment, high magic, dragons, undead, dungeons, castles, wizards, swords, gods, clerics, rogues and bards. Kings and Emperors rule their lands with an iron fist, in a feudal system with armored knights as the pinnacle of society. Mages live in heavily enchanted towers exploring the limits of the occult. Rogues engage in all manner of unsavory activities to further the plots of the guilds and adventurers are seen with a mixture of awe, fear and contempt. All of that is found on Vhraeden. There are also a lot of traditional sci fi/cyberpunk elements such as mega corporations, high technology, secret experiments, conspiracies, spies, mercenaries, contracts and lots of guns and gadgets. There are also angels and demons, humans and orks, powered armor and ancient ensorcelled armor, elven supremacists and feline freedom fighters, swords and autocannons, wyverns and attack helicopters, weapons and rituals of mass destruction. Think Blade Runner meets Lord of the Rings. This is a world where there are no limits for those cunning or violent enough to make their own rules and carve their own destiny. Vhraeden rewards intelligence, strength and internal motivation over outside influences. The title of this work is descriptive of the setting. Vhraeden is a complex and dark world where billions of sentient beings live and interact with each other as well as gods, devils and other unique beings. Within this milieu, conflict is inevitable. Blood symbolizes the violence inherent in a world with over three billion beings spread over scores of nations, tens of races, hundreds of cultures and countless loyalties. Make no mistake, this is a violent setting, but unlike other settings, the nature of conflicts are explained and none of them are as bland as good versus evil, since this setting is purposefully and heavily shaded in grey. Blood will be spilled, there is no question of that. The only variables now are whose, when and how much. Steel and Iron Will describes the other central conflict within this setting, technology versus magic, or more generally the conflict between cultures. This is a world where magic has existed for thousands of years, but its presence has not somehow stopped progress, but assisted it. The reason for the dichotomy is that magic is an art and a science that takes a lifetime to truly master, and the longer lived races simply have more time to learn the most difficult of rituals and spells. The shorter lived races faced a severe shortcoming when dealing with magically inclined races until the invention of hard technology, so called because technology continues to progress beyond the level of those who developed it. Technology allows for rapid development, while magic does not. A being does not have to know how an internal combustion engine works in order to use it. The reverse is true of magic or psionics, a being must be intimately familiar with the theories of magic and the mental disciplines in order to use even the most simple of these abilities. Thus, magical societies and beings are forced to be specialized in their skill sets, while technological societies and beings are allowed to be much more general in their skill sets while still enabling them to be competitive with magical cultures. This setting was developed, on and off, over the course of thirteen years. The basic premise that began this process, and guided it the entire time was "would magic have stopped progress in this area?" The design process I used, basically, was to take a generic magical medieval world and extrapolate eight hundred to a thousand years in the future and this is the result. I tried to maintain the purity of the multitude of genres by allowing many of the conventions to simply coexist. To answer the question of "what is Vhraeden?" requires three answers. First, Vhraeden is a world where anything is possible. It is a place where magic and technology coexist, as well as psionics, shamanic magic, elemental magic, empathic abilities, divine magic, biotechnology and alchemy among others. This is a world where time and progress have worked the environment into its present state. Secondly, Vhraeden is a one of a kind setting that can be added to almost any pre existing campaign. There is a wealth of organizations, innovative ideas, spells, powers, equipment and rules that I hope this setting will be useful in some manner for every gamer. Third, this is a complete role playing game in the classic style. More that a simple collection of rules, stats and small adventure hooks, Vhraeden is all of that plus a complete worldbook. Simple rules and quick combat surrounded by vibrant, complex world full of history, personalities, plots, secrets and lots of equipment. You have our word that we will not publish a book that we would not buy ourselves. In other words, all that you need to provide is dice, imagination and paper. -STS

Here's the table of contents: Chapter I Vhraeden Today Chapter II History of Vhraeden Chapter III Technology of Vhraeden Chapter IV World of Vhraeden Chapter V Races of Vhraeden Chapter VI Organizations Chapter VII Religion Chapter VIII Rules Chapter IX Character Creation Chapter X Equipment Chapter XI Bestiary Chapter XII Running A Campaign Chapter XIII D20 Conversion Yes, it has D20 conversion but like I said, I am trying to get it published...so pulling D20 gamers to a new setting with easier rules seems like a good idea. I don't know what other stuff people would like to see...or how Creative Commons works with regard to trying to sell stuff later on. I am looking for playtesters/mechanics editors... -STS

Game: Call of Cthulhu, 5th edition Supplement: Masks of Nyarlathotep OR Strange Aeons...depending on who you ask... -STS

To be fair this thing isn't something that just popped up... I had started it with five pages in a spiral notebook in Algebra II back in 92-93. I added about 10 pages in 2002 and about 100 pages a year since then... Half the book is just gear, skills and monsters without any great inspiration just there for completeness...so really it's only about 300 pages of "setting". -STS

Arduin?? I hope that is in no way similar to Arwyn from LOTR... Never heard of it...time to google it... It is big because it started out as a stand alone game...and since I am remiss and have yet to get the BRP reading edition, I have no idea how compatible it is. It is compatible with Call of Cthulhu and Stormbringer...but since I had to put 14 different kinds of magic and all the races in there, it just kept getting bigger. Edit: Just saw it on Wikipedia...uh, thank you? -STS

Striking Into Darkness Part II First team, followed by Osmet, flowed across the street and into the temple. A spell made rapid, soundless work of the door locks. Saemael waited until Osmet emerged from the interior blackness to signal his group into the building. Saemael smelled the metallic tang of blood in the air. Osmet had made the first kill of the night; probably the four security officers that intelligence predicted. Inside, the blood of dead Ophidians made a black sheen upon the glaringly white stone of the temple floor. The vertical spray patterns indicated that it was high pressure arterial bleeding that was responsible for the deaths of the guards. Arterial bleeding, no doubt, released by Osmet's expert blade work. The sight of the decapitated bodies merely confirmed Saemael's suspicions. The elves began to slide into four member teams. Into the rooms, they broke off straightaway with neither a word nor a hand motion. Nothing needed to be said. Everyone knew the drill. Seconds passed. Only a few muffled thunks of arrows penetrating flesh or the wet hissing of blades opening bodies were the only noises to escape the assault. There was no need to activate their spheres of silence, all of the magic they possessed operating simultaneously would certainly overload the concealing magic and the abominations would be very displeased to discover them. Luckily, no Ophidians were blessed this night by their infernal god. Saemael smiled ruefully as he stepped over the fallen creatures, cursing their souls in his heart to burn forever in pain and anguish. He hated them. It was right to hate them. They were inferior, scaly and strange. When the first floor was cleared, the elven infiltrators climbed the stairs to the next floor with swordsmen in front, archers behind and mages in the rear. Somewhat surprisingly, the second floor proved as easy to secure as the first. Saemael frowned. Something didn't seem quite right here. It was never this easy....Never. Certainly not in the center of one of their cities. Something was wrong, he could feel it. Just as the group was making their way to the third floor, the world exploded into violence. Saemael was in the front rank as they sped up the stairs, they had to clear the confines of the stairwell, attack through the ambush. He felt the cold embrace of dread in his gut a split second before a volley of corrosive acid bolts impacted to his left. An elven soldier, Ivben, screamed as the acid burned through armor, flesh and bone. His swords drawn, Saemael rushed forward and slashed at the darkness that concealed his enemies, they had spheres of darkness and of course the detection magics he possessed were either disabled or unable to detect that quality of magic. Saemael's darkvision was useless, but his training allowed him to fight with only a slight reduction in effectiveness. Screams and explosions raged around Saemael until spheres of silence expanded to envelope him. Robbed of sight and sound, he felt useless and vulnerable. He sidled further into the room, hoping to emerge from the demonically cast darkness and silence. He felt the stifling silent inkyness dispelled around him and the battle raged. The Ophidians had the elvish infiltrators in a crossfire of arrows and spells. The elves were pressed against walls or contorted behind any available cover where they attempted to return fire. Several lay dead on the floor and others' lifeblood spilled down the white marble steps. Eldritch magics rumbled behind Saemael. They thundered past him as spheres of fire flew down the wide hallway until they exploded in midair. The Ophidians had erected a one way antimagic barrier, exceptionally powerful, since all four fireballs had been stopped without overloading it. Lightning fast, Saemael's swords were scabbarded and his composite shortbow was at the ready. An Ophidian fell with an arrow through the eye. Then, another fell after the first, an arrow piercing his scaly neck. All of the remaining elves were firing arrows accurately into the Ophidians. Saemael knew that the four snipers posted on the roofs of the adjacent building were doing all they could, although it was woefully ineffective in relieving the pressure on those inside the Temple. Their fields of fire were simply too limited. Electricity arced down the hallway and impacted Khievan Ghen with horrifying force. His head exploded in a shower of steaming blood and brains. His headless body set to burning as the lightning shot out of Ghen's spastic limbs towards the surviving elves. Chained Lightning... Spheres of concussive force slammed into Saemael's left greave, breaking his forearm and shattering his shortbow into splinters. The skirmish line was faltering for the elves were caught basically in the open on the third floor landing. There was nowhere to go except forward or back and one way was death while the other was dishonor and death, since this was obviously an ambush, the Ophidians would have a team sealing off the second floor. There was nowhere to hide; nowhere to run. Saemael's right arm flew down of its own accord. He drew his sword, ground his teeth, and sprinted towards the enemy. A shift of reality to Saemael's right and his target appeared to assemble from the air. Shokoru Zhehn had just teleported into the midst of the assassins sent to kill him. A demonseed elite, Shokoru was a demigod and a nigh immortal opponent, ancient and vile. Without thinking, Saemael shifted his weight and leapt at his target. The magical energies flaring from his sword swept in a wide arc towards the half Humanoid, half snake abomination that dared to defy the very laws of nature by existing. Shokoru Zhehn's four muscled arms were wielding weapons of exotic ferociousness. His dully gleaming scales were covered in tight weave quicksilver chain mail to his waist. The demon's arms, with paranormal agility, easily parried Saemael's charging attack. The strength and sheer weight of the enormous Ophidian's body lent itself well as he effortlessly slashed through the Lanthan's black armor as if it were not metal at all, but only paper. The silver blade of the Ophidian slid coldly, deeply, into his elven assailant. With a sickening splatter of blood upon stone and scale, Saemael was limply impaled upon the Shokoru's blade. Casually flinging Saemael off his sword, the grey black serpent slithered toward the surviving elves. Paralyzed from the waist down, Saemael moaned and painful tears formed in his failing eyes. With sheer determination born of desperation and a knowledge of impending death, he clawed his way across the floor, hoping to kill the abomination before his lifeblood escaped him. The four armed demonic man serpent was well protected from magical or mundane damage. This was obvious or he would have been felled by spell or steel immediately. Strike Team 144 were experts at killing, and it was a challenge to all of elfdom that Shokoru Zhehn had lain down by teleporting in to personally destroy his attackers. Two arrows flew towards Shokoru, immolating themselves as purple flares that splashed sparkling ashes over him and caused waves of magical protection to slough off in a dissipating cascade storm. The arrows were fired by the snipers deployed on the roof outside the Temple. Shokoru roared sibilantly and spat acid upon Surah who fell to the floor, groveling and clutching horribly at what was left of his face. The abomination's long, constricting tail choked Aliana's life from her. Her beautiful face turned blue in his hideous coils. Saemael swallowed and tried not to think of the pain in his own body. Shokuru's four arms were engaged in a whirling dance of steel with Osmet, who dodged and wove about the serpent with practiced skill. As the two great warriors slashed and parried with one another, the seconds past. Surah's screams finally ended in one agonizing moan as his life finally dissolved into a viscous puddle of various shades of bloody crimson and brackish green. Aliana struggled. She punched and pulled upon the massive tail that held her fast. She writhed helplessly one last time as her neck was crushed. Blood poured out her ears, mouth and nose. Several Ophidians rushed to the window through which the sniper's arrows had entered. They began to lay down a withering barrage of arrows with shortbows. Two clerics began to chant behind the snipers and added their hellish firepower to that of the archers. Walls exploded, air turned to poison and fires erupted from their fingertips and flew towards the elvish sniper teams. There would likely be no more help from the snipers. Fighting against the need to die, Saemael continued to crawl towards his enemy. Osmet and Nuatha were the only elves still standing. Osmet engaged the demonseed with a pair of silver blades that danced like flame while Nuatha was rapidly firing spells towards Shokoru. For his part, Shokoru was withstanding the steel onslaught of Osmet with his bottom pair of arms. With the other set, he dispelled, deflected, retargeted and cast spells at a remarkable rate. Nuatha could barely cast a spell and dodge in the time that it took Shokoru to cast a spell, react to her spell and cast another one. This was a battle that needed to be decided quickly. The mission must be fulfilled, regardless of cost. Nuatha spun her hands in a circle of power, frost blue tracers around her fingers signaling the beginning of a great spell. Suddenly, before she could finish the arcane chant, her head was snapped back and a razor sharp blade yanked cruelly across her neck. A magically cloaked Ophidian had crept behind her and killed her with one draw of his weapon. Crimson exploded from the grinning wound, geysering out ten feet in a fan shaped pattern. The spell, complete, but undirected, discharged, flash freezing her body, her assassin and the red fan of gore as the temperature dropped by a hundred degrees in an instant. Osmet, realizing his entire group had been destroyed in mere seconds, had no choice but to press his attack and hope for glory. Shokoru's tail wrapped around Osmet's legs. One hand grabbed the elven warrior's belt and another slammed hard into Osmet's face with devastating force. The blow echoed throughout the room with a shattering, ripping, splattering sound that heralded the complete destruction of both Osmet's magical helm as well as his face. The Elf's weapons flew from his suddenly flaccid hands; his life ebbing away in the air like acrid smoke. A voice like none that Saemael had ever heard came from out of the great serpent; a voice that seared the soul with its sibilant melody and harsh deepness. "A'Sha Lahra Ss'Vash Val'Harish!" Shokoru screamed out to his father, his god Ss'Vash, and viciously ran the elven commander through with two wicked and deadly straight swords. Resembling oddly a child's psychotic marionette, Osmet's body began to spasm in its final death throes upon the upraised swords. The blood ran down the silver blades onto the torso and arms of the snake. Shokoru's hideous face turned for a moment in Saemael's direction. He smiled, a visage that Saemael knew well for it was the look of victory on the face of a superior adversary. Somewhere between the pain of his body and the shock in his soul, Saemael must've started to scream. Everyone was gone, destroyed, devastated. No one was spared except him. His lover, his commander, his friends...people he had known for most of his 300 years and had fought beside through many campaigns... all dead by these degenerate demonic trash. His mind gave way in the darkness of that hated and abominable Temple. Saemael wailed and cried out repeatedly until the monsters grew tired of his misery. Finally, they allowed him a measure of peace. They simply shot him through the skull with an arrow as they might've any minor vermin that dared violate the sanctity of their devilish god's Temple. Sar'Than Valanian knew the mission was a failure when there was no telepathic contact within two hours, the appointed time. When the team missed the next communications window, there was no doubt about the fate of the Strike Team. Sar’Than felt a quick moment of weakness as he allowed a second of sadness to fill his soul for his lost team. He knew that it was hopeless, but he would follow the normal procedures for such things. He would keep a cloaked teleportation area available in case someone had survived, but The Chosen of Ss'Vash never took prisoners. Sar'Than informed Lucius Kreb'iun, and it was now his unfortunate task to inform Executor Silesia of the missions' failure. The telepathic signal chimed in Silesia's mind, and he allowed the mental circuit to form. Silesia was seated in his chamber with four of his proteges. He took the call in silence, not wishing to cloud their minds with operational details while they were in the midst of another project. "Executor, I regret to inform you of the probable loss of ST 144. They have missed their communications window." Silesia nodded in acceptance of the news; he knew that there was no reason for Osmet to miss communications unless he was dead. If Osmet was dead and he was by far the most exceptional warrior on the team, then the entire team would be as well. Silesia concentrated and formed the telepathic reply in his mind, "The proper protocols will be observed. Continue to keep me informed until confirmation is gained." Lucius acknowledged and cut the link. "Now then, let us continue," Silesia said aloud. The four Elven apprentices nodded in response to the request and began the situation reports again. Silesia listened for only the pertinent details. His acolytes continued to give data and he continued to act interested. Nothing new was being reported that Silesia didn’t already know or suspect. The world was in chaos, about to go down in flames, and he simply couldn’t force himself to care. When the four elves had finished speaking, Silesia dismissed them with a wave of his hand and they turned and exited the chamber of the Executor of Manipulation. When they had gone, a slight tinge of ozone filled the chamber and a sheet of blue electricity formed and shaped itself into a circular gate. Silesia did not bother to look, for he knew that it was Aressa Y'Thulsa, the self styled political manipulator. "I must say, Vladimir, these gatherings of your’s are entirely too long...and boring" she said as she walked through the gate and it dissipated into nothing behind her. "Aressa, I allow you access to my sanctum for only one reason, which has nothing to do with entertaining your perverse pleasures. Have you the information I requested?" Aressa strode over and sat languidly upon one of the four plush-covered, marble benches facing the imposing obsidian desk Silesia sat behind. She smiled sardonically, "Of course, I am but a humble servant of the Empire". With that, she conjured a sealed envelope and sent it slowly through the air towards him. Silesia snapped his fingers, and the envelope was opened slowly. Its contents, a single sheet of crisp parchment, was unfolded by silent, invisible hands. The unseen servant telepathically read the message to Silesia. He smiled a predatory grin and focused on the Elven woman sitting on the bench. Her impudence annoyed him. She was foolish, believing she had some type of power here. Silesia could have banished her to any number of abominable places with a simple spell, barely more than a thought. Yet, Aressa leaned back on the bench with her shapely legs leisurely crossed, with a look of boredom on her face. Everything in her posture irritated him. If it were not for the fact that she had access to information he did not.... As it was, as long as she was useful, she would continue to exist. However, it would bring a smile to Silesia's lips when her soul was finally imprisoned in the Soul Diamond upon his desk. Traitors were anathema to Silesia, but he did occasionally have to make use of them in order to ensure the eventual victory of A'Lanthas. Sacrifices at all levels were required, although only the Veid Krusus seemed to understand this truth. "Aressa, you may leave now, and consider your invitation to have been rescinded,” he looked down at the desk, instantly banishing her from his attentions. She stood to go, huffing slightly as she did so. Just as she spoke the words to open the gate, Silesia added softly, “If your services are required in the future, I had best be able to find you." He knew the implied threat would not be lost on her. After her departure, Silesia allowed himself another moment of silent sorrow for the loss of Osmet and his unit. They had served the Empire faithfully, and Silesia was tired of having his soldiers be sent on fools' errands by The Pure. The most recent Martyrs of the Race would be missed, at least by their commander. Regretfully, their names would be added with Silesia’s own hands to the Wall of Sacrifice. Fin Hope you like it. -STS

Striking Into Darkness Part One The 15 elves of Strike Team 144 joined hands inside a ritual circle. They were members of the Veid Krusus, the feared Black Hands. Standing in their midst was Sar'Than Valanthian, a wizard who specialized in the creation of portals and teleportation. His eyes shown with an electric blue light, otherworldly in origin and frightening to behold. His power was absolutely palpable in the room. His melodious voice chanted the ancient rites of the Lanthian sages; rites as old as the world itself and more terrible than the gods. Flinging his thinly muscled arms outward from his body, Sar'Than called down the mystic energies that began to coalesce around the circle. Light burst forth from him and filled the inside of the room, painting the damp, stone walls a pale aquamarine. His eyes were shining bright, though his pupils and irises were lost in a blinding sea of blue power. The voices of the other elves in the strike team were suddenly deafened by a loud, snapping and crackling boom. Everyone instinctively ducked their heads as if a blow were about to fall and their eyes flinched shut. Only their training kept them from answering the fearful desire to run or to draw weapons. Instead, they clinched their teeth hard and held tight to one another's hands. The circle could not be broken or the spell would be lost. The sharp odor of ozone like the smell of the air after a thunderstorm assailed their noses. The nauseating sensation of warped time and the whooshing feeling of trans spatial travel filled their heads with spinning waves of vertigo. Their stomachs lurched and threatened to bathe everyone in the meal they had last shared. Someone briefly wailed in dismay for what seemed like an hour, but was merely a millisecond in magic space and twisted time. Teleportation was wearing on the soul, hard on the mind, and worse for the inexperienced or the very old. Though the spell probably lasted only a minute, it seemed an eternity before the screaming sounds of hurried time and flying space was finished. The darkness that replaced the blinding blue light and the silence that met the aching ears of the travelers was almost as horrible as the spell had been. It was a sudden stop that allowed the inertia of moving spirit to continue while the body no longer moved at all. The head wheeled. The heart beat erratically in the chest. The soul desperately reached out to cling to something familiar. This is why it was not completely unknown for healthy individuals to drop dead after a teleportation of this magnitude. It was, also, why it was so very important that the Strike Team hold tight to one another's hands. Those hands were the lifeline. No one lost his or herself in the time void as long as their brethren had hold of their hand. Saemael opened his eyes, though his body demanded to keep them shut. He knew very well that danger could be lurking just on the other side of the darkness shield that had been magically constructed to protect them from prying eyes. The darkness couldn't hold the danger away for long. It simply allowed them a moment's respite to recover from the teleportation sickness. He forced his labored breathing to slow and using the techniques taught him by ancient masters, he slowed his own heartbeat to a more gentle pace. He did all of this in less than a minute's time and yet, he still felt that it had taken too long. He needed to make it second nature. He chided himself for a second as the veil of darkness fell from around himself and the other Strike Team members. Nuatha, his new bride and fellow member, blushed for a moment when the darkness dissipated and realized she had been clutching harshly to Saemael's hand like a fearful child. She composed herself quickly and Saemael smiled inwardly for it. Whenever she was most vulnerable was when she was most beautiful to him for it happened so rarely. She was known as an ice maiden for more than just her ability to cast terrifying spells of freezing might. Saemael looked at the other team members. His eyes had already adjusted to the natural darkness of the valley that surrounded them. He quickly checked his own weapons, instinctively fingered his amulet of magical might that hung about his neck, and ran his hands over the long tail of his white hair that hung down his back. His blue eyes scanned the fourteen other elves of his team as they all followed the same type of routines themselves concerning preparation for battle. Nuatha reached over and placed a hand on his shoulder. Saemael turned suddenly, realizing his senses were already razor sensitive. He knew he needn't fear her. Her eyes were closed and her dark lips formed silent words of magical might. A cold ache filled his arm where she touched it. The new power coursed down Saemael's arm and into his hand. He smiled again. . Saemael accepted his lover's power into himself. Nuatha opened her eyes and grinned. "It will allow you to call forth ice, Saem. Simply reach your hand out and touch the enemy and they will freeze." She whispered the instructions to him and pantomimed the motion. He groaned and rolled his eyes. "I know that already," he quietly snapped at her, "How many times do we have to do this before you stop telling me that? You act like I'm still new at this...or like I'm an idiot." She shook her head and turned away from him. He knew he had been unnecessarily harsh, but he knew, also, that she would likely forgive him after the battle was done. He swallowed hard and simply hoped she'd forget. Apologizing was not his strong point. Most would've said that the more "gentle" arts were completely out of his grasp. He accepted that this meant he would not be invited to many parties at court, but he definitely would be leading the armies. That's all that mattered to him most of the time, but when it came to Nuatha, he wished fervently that his tongue could be left in its scabbard as easily as his sword. Solva Pe'Rial Osmet motioned with one arm for everyone to come forward to where he stood. Saemael moved silently and quickly to join the semicircle in front of Osmet that had formed out of the other members. He noticed that Nuatha did not come to stand next to him and it bothered him only for a second. He had to force her from his mind. He had to force his mind into a place of battle; a place where soft and worried thoughts of his lover could endanger his ability to survive. Nuatha would be doing the same. Osmet's dark armor did not shine in the night. His eyes were old, though his body was still strong and muscled. His short swords hung at the ready on his slender hips. His hair was kept very short cropped, which was unusual for Lanthian males, and a magical helm covered his head. With a simple set of signals, Osmet gave them a quick battle formation and marching order. It was nothing new to Saemael. Only Ivben seemed unaccustomed to it which was not surprising considering his young and inexperienced nature. Osmet simply took the young Elf under his own tutelage and decided Ivben would be traveling next to him in line even before they had teleported here. Ivben took it as an insult. Osmet knew this, but considered it a necessity. He, also, knew Ivben would eventually mature enough to realize it had been the best decision. It would likely save many. One inexperienced soldier could inadvertently kill them all. The first team lifted themselves out of their kneeling stances and began to quietly creep up out of the valley. Saemael waited until the first team had moved about one hundred paces. He then stood and motioned for the rest of his team to do likewise. They did, even though he noticed that Nuatha's eyes were still narrowed at him as she stood. As she moved away, he noticed her expertly scan her sector for enemy. Saemael looked back at his team every ten to fifteen paces as they made their way through the dense jungles. Wordlessly, he communicated with each of them through hand motions, as well as Osmet. Then, Osmet communicated with Sar'Than Valanthian back in Lanthas with a ring of telepathy he wore upon his hand. They made good time in the cool jungle night despite the sopping wet and extremely thick vegetation and the swarming of infuriating wing infested vermin that tormented their every step in the dark. Lamman Kievan Ghen, the leader of team one, was exceptional at effortlessly navigating through any terrain. The team had teleported into a valley a mere two hours past sunset and started traveling within two minutes to their intended destination. They halted every hour for ten minutes to verify their location, their route and to relay this information to Sar'Than, even though all of this was known. It was standard operating procedure to scry on any official operation that took place in the confines of the dangerous and abyssal jungle of the Emerald Empire. Five hours of hard marching under load was negligible, but with the physically enhancing magics the team were currently bestowed with, there was no issue of strain or fatigue. The team was just as capable as they were five hours ago. They crested a ridge line and the city of Shera'vien spread out before them. This was where the operation became much more risky. They began the descent into the rugged valley floor. They knew that their target was in city, and with a fair degree of certainty which building. The issue was that the infernal Ss'Vash's power grew more intense nearer his temples. The entire realm was coterminus with his planar home which made magic extremely difficult within his borders and simple scrying almost impossible. For this reason, only special operations teams and exitus class mages could operate within those lands. Sar'Than was an Exitus class mage and was able to breach the misty veil that surrounded the Emerald Empire from prying eyes, yet even his power was spent uselessly when attempting to scry within several thousand yards of one of Ss'Vash's temples. Rings of telepathy were also affected and for this reason, the team knew that once within the perimeter there could be no emergency teleportation. The outskirts of the city began to form in their range of sight; the peculiarly arched and faintly luminescent Imperial architecture starkly contrasting with the blackness of the jungle. Saemael saw the first team begin to break into pairs and alternate advancing with pulling security for their opposite number. Halting his members to allow the first team to infiltrate into the city, he signaled for his group to split into their pairs. They did and Nuatha came to his side. Her dark eyes still betrayed her low simmering anger towards him. She had not yet forgotten. Saemael growled inwardly and rolled his eyes as he had anytime he remembered his hastily spoken stupidity from earlier in the night. He also wondered for the millionth time why he would have insisted that she continue to work with him. Why hadn't he pressured her into retiring for family life? Once again, the answer came to him unbidden. "I love her and because when the going is tough, I know she can take care of herself...and me. Besides, she'd learn to hate me if I took this from her. Nothing thrills her so much as taking an enemy down. Even my love is no match for that,", he thought. Running a hand through his long hair, he forced the thoughts from his mind once more. This was no place for such things. Thoughts of this nature would only distract him from his job and potentially undermine their mission. The mission. Saemael's face formed into a flat frown. This mission did not meet with his approval, nor Osmet's. The mission objective was simple, assassination. The reasons for the assassination were also simple. The target was responsible for the recent spate of cult activity in the Second Founding, and the Council of Purity would brook no interference in the affairs of the Second Founding. Political destabilization and cultural manipulation required a fine touch and any sort of random factor could wash away decades of work. That was not to be tolerated and so Executor Silesia had spoken, and now it was being done, by Strike Team 144. First team was stealthily maneuvering along both sides of the road. Like shadows, they glided against soundlessly near walls of the buildings, ducked below windows and peered down alleys. They left no place unscanned. These elite soldiers, magically enhanced and superbly trained, were fast blurry predators, marvelously deadly and hungry for the kill. They slipped into the city and avoided contact. Their presence would be revealed soon enough. Early discovery would result in death, failure and disgrace; none of which were acceptable to them or the A'Lanthan government. They arrived at their objective, the Temple of Ss'Vash Val'Harish, which meant The Temple of Ss'Vash the Benevolent, in their hated tongue. Thallis and Khuva, the first team snipers, broke off and began to scale the walls of a building facing the temple. Saemael looked over his left shoulder and made eye contact with Kir and Ayaen, and signaled for his sniper pair to follow suit. They nodded and went off vertically into the night.

Hi all...well here is a small synopsis of my new Steampunk-ish BRP setting... 606 pages w/o artwork over 60 playable races 11 continents/landmasses with 6 regions and 42 nations 8 explanar/extraterrestrial locations over 50 NPC's 15 different magic/technological systems 15 organizations It has high tech, fantasy, Cthulhu Mythos and a lot of culture specific skills. Right now it is being edited for the second time and undergoing it's second playtest. The setting is fine, everyone seems to like it, but the width/breadth of skills seems to give some players pause... there are 173 pages of skills and powers so I might have to cut that down a bit :ohwell: What follows is a short story that was published previously as a teaser, so see if you like it: Hope you like it. I can put some more generic stuff up if there is any desire for it...and as always, if I am out of line, let me know and just delete it. -STS

Greetings Lupercal. As for opening a thread about my game, it seems a bit of a self promotion, doesn't it?? I guess I can open a thread about it, but if it appears a bit unseemly, feel free to remove it friendly moderator :innocent: -STS

Not really sure where this goes, so if it needs to move... In answer to a lack of gamers, I have now added two more acolytes to the BRP goodness. My homebrew game is off to a wonderful start...until they got to skill selection. It took them over an hour to decide what to play out of the 50 races available, but finally decided on a anthro lion bounty hunter and a snow elf elementalist. Stats and gear went well enough, but they were a bit put off by the skills (house rules: No base skill for anything, you have to buy everything with INT and EDU points). The character creation took a longer time than I thought, but I forget that they are only now learning multiplication so I shouldn't be too hard on them when they look at 1550% of skill points and give me the blank eyed stare... Pre-gen characters from now on, I think. Characters should be complete tomorrow and play should commence next weekend (4 day, woo hoo!) with the family. So far the group consists of a nymph elementalist mafioso, a lion anthro bounty hunter and a snow elf elementalist...I think I might have a goblin PI as an NPC that travels with the group. Anyway, just wanted to say that I am doing my part in creating tomorrow's geeks today -STS

These are books that I want to see in print: I have lots of PDF's and homebrews already. A GOOD wild west book (no supernaturals...The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) I am in the process of cutting up Spellslinger D20 and Werewolf:Wild West to get something useable. Aliens Universe (I have the Cyberpunk mod, though and having made changes it is nice to use, but just...ugly) Star Trek (that lasts for more than a year or doesn't use some weird, hard to convert system) Resident Evil (if it had a more Mythos flavor and other stuff to fight besides zombies) Hellboy (the GURPS version is like 45 USD!!) Hammers Slammers! *possible threadjacking* I have (over the past 19 years) converted just about everything to BRP...including everything D20...and mashed them all into a MetaCampaign that I call Deep Black...which now occupies 6 binders with names like "Pulp Fiction: 1920 to 1950", "Dark Ages" and "Near Future", "Sci Fi" and of course "Modern", with the largest one labelled "Fantasy Worlds". As such, I currently have the following turned into BRP (usually by changing character creation and importing/exporting weapons and gear): Robotech (all of them, and as soon as Shadow Chronicles shows up...oooh, I can't wait) RIFTS Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Dungeons and Dragons (2nd Ed and 3rd Ed...along with all the settings: Dark Sun, FR, Greyhawk, Spelljammer :eek: , and OF COURSE Ravenloft which is handy for Call of Cthulhu: Dark Ages!!) Chill (remember that one?) Traveller (three versions...) World of Darkness (about 45 books all told of old WoD, and of course the Dark Ages versions...new WoD is bland and cheap by comparison) Star Wars (WEG and D20) Star Trek (FASA Trek, LUG Trek and even Prime Directive!) Marvel Super Heroes Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Warhammer 40K (Inquisitor and Dark Heresy) Jovian Chronicles Stargate Babylon 5 Farscape D20 Modern Renegade Legion In Nomine Lord of the Rings Cyberpunk - 100% pure awesome! Shadowrun BattleTech (Classic and the new Dark Ages) Various GURPS books (Cthulhu Punk, Supers) Mekton (about 5 books in there) Species (I totally suck) plus my home brew steampunk setting... All of those get put in the same "universe" and allows my games to freely (though rarely, with the exception of Star Wars) travel between them. Everytime I find something nifty (such as DUNE, which is kicking my butt...still), I just add it in...usually with a bit of timeline tweaking. The new settings that I am working on (and may eventually make it past the "notes" stage): CoDominium Universe Dune ConSentiency Universe (Jorj X. McKie rocks and so do the Calebans...those are mythos beings if I ever saw one!) Apocalypse Troll (really it is only 2 characters and an alternate timelines so I am just being lazy) Converting the entire DCU...but that is hard because so many of the characters just suck. :focus: -STS

OK, yeah, that is fading a bit...that stuff needs time, and from what I can see, this generation and the next don't want to "slow down" in the least. -STS

So, yeah...CT into BRP...I'd like that ALOT. My own forays into big Mecha and BRP usually scare people when they roll out with hundreds of HP and weapons that do thousands of points of damage... A more...sane...approach would be nice to see. Apparently borrowing from Palladium, adding physics and cooking with BRP gives me 120mm cannons that do 300 damage with HE warheads, and that just doesn't *seem* right, ya know?? So, when it comes out, I'd be more than happy to see it. -STS

With BRP or using a kitbash of Palladium and BRP (they are very similiar...)?? My next game is a steampunk/fantasy/high tech BRP game...starting tonight with the kids and wife, hopefully...of course the kids are going to want to play something other than the 68 races I have :confused: Why are they so difficult to please?? I'll see how it goes. On the Robotech idea, I am fairly sure that my son is going to want to play an orc with a VF-1S tonight. -STS

Thanks everyone for the welcome. This is probably one of the nicest forums I've ever been to... Welcome bartmoss As for the game, I am desperately looking for some beta playtesters since most folks I know play D20 :mad: and don't want to learn a "new" game or they are involved in long term games... The only issue is that I would eventually like to get it published, but failing that, it will be placed under creative commons and able to be freely downloaded. To be honest the only reason that I would like it to be published is to offset the costs of the artwork I want to put in it...I am a big believer in artwork setting the "mood" of the game... -STS

I agree that it appears that there seems an imminent demise of our hobby...but... My two children love gaming...though their level of "involvment" is still strictly dungeon crawls and battles...they lack the experience to do heavy role playing that CoC requires, so for now it is dungeon crawls...but they do love it and they will be very happily tossing cash into the gaming monster's gullet for years. I think the new generation is being "grown" by old gamers plus there is good ol' WoTC creating new gamers with it's vastly popular D&D line, add in WizKidz with HeroClix and of course the massive amount of computer RPG's and MMORPG's...there are more than enough gamers...that isn't even counting the hard corps mini-crowds that old Wahammer/WH40K gamers are making out of their kids, and the thousands of CCG players out there... So we have plenty of gamers, but instead of just pen and paper gaming, they have a choice of playing CCG's, MMORPG's, miniatures, computer games or table top... And frankly, all of the other types of gaming take less investment in time, and time is the one thing that nobody has enough of...so while there isn't a lack of gamers, there is a lack of gamers with time, and when given a choice between playing a game that takes a bit of time but still scratches the gaming itch or reorganizing your schedule and the schedule of 1 to 5 other people to play a game...and repeat that schedule fixing on a weekly or bi-monthly basis for months or years...that just isn't going to happen. There are two forces at work here. One is that there is not enough time. I know lots of gamers...and they all have the same problem, no time to game. I live in a house with 3 other gamers and we still have trouble finding time to just sit and game for 4 hours a week. When faced with school and work, bill paying and errand running, and of course extended absences up to a year...gaming, as much fun as it is, falls to the wayside. It is much worse for other people. The other force here is divisiveness...I like to call it the false division...between gamers. Gamers are gamers...whether you play Magic, or D20 or BRP or World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XIII or Warhammer 40K...all gamers. Each of those focuses on different aspects of gaming, but they all share the same focus...taking the gamer to a different more exciting place/reality as an active participant. It would be nice if D20 gamers did not see Warhammer40K gamers as the enemy, but rather people who are gamers and play something different and just enjoy being a "geek". On the subject of PDF's...I love them and I am happy I have a few gigs worth of them, but I like paper...I can sit down with an old CoC supplement for hours and be happy, but staring at some PDF for more than 30 minutes irritates me. I am happy that I have them as opposed to nothing at all, but I do much prefer hardcopy, but that is just me (as a dinosaur) speaking of a preference. My kids are trained to read off computer screens for hours and have no difficulty switching between electronic and hard copy. I am told that is due to the new "easy reading" fonts that are being used, but be that as it may, I still prefer to flip pages. Just my opinion on a few things. -STS

Since 3-d space could be be much more efficiently utilized underwater, there might be some sort of layered appearance to interior structures, and if the aliens are travelling horzontally much the time, it might give the visual impression that the city appeared somewhat porous as there could be multiple openings to different areas of dwellings and sections of architecture. This might have cities "growing" vertically at the same rate as they grow horizontally. Just a thought. -STS

Greetings all. I got here by following links and looking for more stuff to fill my gaming library with. My wife and I are long time gamers. I started off in 1989 with Palladium Books ROBOTECH. My wife and I have three bookshelves and several bookpiles filled with all sorts of gaming goodies (Elric, Chill, Star Wars, CoC and 30+ supplements, 2 ed. D&D, about 50+ D20 books, Traveller, MegaTraveller, and on and on...) but at this point (19 years of gaming) we pretty much only play two systems BRP and D20...everything from all other books is quickly converted to those two systems and that is all that we play (well, that and Magic:the Gathering ) My wife and I write a lot of CoC stuff and are just about finished with a 600+ page steampunk game using BRP... Anyway, I am hoping that this can be my BRP home...there seem to be few places online that seem to appreciate it... many are far more concerned with making complicated rules than in memorable settings and enjoyable games. "Rules should be invisible to players, or at least not a constant obstacle" -STS