Rurik

I am starting a PBP MRQ2 and figured I'd advertise here as well as on the MRQ forum.

Characters will be human, and the majority should be soldiers. The is based around a remote keep and the players will be the garrison. There is room for a couple of non soldier types, but the focus will be military.

The setting is 'typical' fantasy, a feudal early iron age kingdom. This is to playtest a scenario I have been working on that is designed to be generic.

All magic systems are available, and I will be using Common Magic, but at the base chance without the +30% for magic rich worlds.

I'll be running it on rpol.net.

If anyone is interested let me know.

Does every Player need to own the ruleset with Fantasy Grounds or just the GM hosting the game?

Also, If the GM has an Ultimate license can unlicensed players use rulesets?

Ahh, look, feeding two young lovers to the cthulhuoid thing from beneath the sea, how sweet!

Seriously, I never realized what a threat to the world Norwegian Marine Biologists were. They're worse than the Hermetic Order of the Silver Twilight!

As an FYI there is absolutely no indication in the blurb on Amazon that this a BRP supplement.

The good news is that Amazon carries it. Sweet!

Well rurik I'm not opposed to genre labeling it just becomes a bit of a puerile exercise. The other thing to consider is that that some people here are considering writing material and they are feeling constrained because they don't know what genre to write in or they feel that there is a thing called genre convention and they feel they need to write to that convention. Thats actually showing a real negative consequence of genre labeling as its actively misleading people into restraining or obstructing their creativity. I divide the two because RPG material is highly fragmented and its purposes and audience is widely different.

I would argue that the on this board, the audience for Literature in the Sci Fi/Fantasy vein and Gaming Material are very much the same. We know that everyone on here is a gamer, and I suspect most of them read Fantasy and/or Science Fiction.

Labelling is a form of categorization. Almost everyone agrees some categorization is useful. What is subjective is the amount of categorization needed. You find it useful to distinguish Literature and Gaming Material (and it is). Without any labeling all we would have is 'Artistic Expression'; Writing, painting, music, sculpture, gaming, etc, all would be lumped together. Now breaking something down into 'Near Future with an Alternate Recent History Transhuman Politically Right Military Hard Science Fiction Gaming' is probally going too Far (though I'm sure there is someone out there who be like "Hell Yeah, that's what I'm talking about baby - where do I pre order!).

Don't take any of this wrong - I'm not attacking your views and they are well thought out and conveyed and respectful. This is all in the spirit of healty discussion and I wouldn't want you take it any other way.

Also, is that Star Wars supplement going to be Hard Sci Fi?

Keep in mind that SciFi isn't a genre calssifed by setting, either. You can run a SciFi adventure in modern day, or even a historical setting. For example, imagine if the Romans had traded with the Chinese and discovered gunpower.

In your example, (which few people would recognize as sci-fi by the way, though that's beside the point) you are still establishing the genre by defining the setting. You are establishing the rules of the game world: just like ancient Rome, but with gunpowder. That's setting.

It is besides the point. Something is correct regardless of how the majority interpret it. Most people would claim that 2 + 3 x 5 = 25, and most people are wrong. What most people would recognize as SciFi, isn't (most "sci-fi" films and TV shows are, at best, only part time SciFi).

The reason for the confusion is because most people don't know the terms used to define/classify a genre. They see spaceships and say "sci-fi". They see someone running around with a sword and say "fantasy". Many terms, such as Horror and Terror are used interchangeably when they actually have different meanings.

I think we've established that there are no 'official' terms to classify a genre. Some things only exist because most people define them that way, and that appears to be the case for genres. This means that a 'genre' is whatever most people agree it is. I'm sorry to say, but if 'most people' have a the same idea of what a genre is - then that's probably what it is

I gotta come down on Thalaba's side. The point behind Genre Labels is shared understanding. They are only useful as far as most people have a similiar understanding of what they mean. If 90% of the people at a gaming/comic/manga/trek/b5 convention think sci fi means something, I gotta say that they are 'right'. Lanuage evolves from common usage. 'Google' is now an official verb, 10 years ago it wasn't, but since everyone used it as one they put it in the Oxford English Dictionary and now it is.

Personally, I'd call your example Alternate History, but not science fiction. I never really considered Steampunk as Science Fiction, though it is obviously closely related.

Hi guys,

*is it safe to come back in this thread yet?*

That depends what you mean by the label 'Safe'.

Two bannings and a threadlock later we are 'safe' from infantile ridicule, but now we have to worry about Big Beetle watching over us.

[MONTY PYTHON] Help, help, I'm being oppressed! [/MONTY PYTHON]

Simon - just dropping by to agree with everyone else who's advising you to ignore the whole genre thing when you're writing. If you've got a cool idea for a game book that's going to be fun to play, go ahead and write it. Don't even *think* about genres - that's for the marketing guys later, or for if you need to punt your book to someone in a soundbite "It's a far future dying earth technofantasy setting... it's a far future transhuman hyper-advanced cyberfusion space opera... oh god just read it, pleeeeease?"

Well chris i think that is an excellent summary of of the issues so far. Its unfortunate we lost soltakss at some point in the process he kinda lost interest on p3 of the thread. So for his benefit I'll just state that if your going to develop a product don't worry about the genre thats a consumer perspective. Write it and let the publisher work out what it is.

Don't listen to them Simon! Write Hard Sci-Fi. If you need any help with what that means PM me.

Guys, guys, guys. Some of you can't let go of the genre gig. You see it bites deep into people. Once that conception exists some just can't let go and now we are talking about sub-genres??? So I take it we have hard sci-fi which is in turn split into the following: Semi-Erect, Fully Erect and John C. Holmes Erect. How is this creating any better an understanding? Ask yourself this once you have placed a text or RPG into its neat little pigeon hole marked "hard sci-fi" or just sci-fi. Other than giving you some general idea as to the content, how has the very act of doing this improved your understanding of the text or made you a better writer? I won't argue the point since its a reflective exercise.

Your are correct that the genre label does not help understand or analyze the material (be it literature or gaming material - why do you make a distinction between the two kinds of creative output anyway? ). Once I heave read the material I have the whole body of the work to judge it by - the genre label is useful before I read it, and if I want to give someone else who has not read the material yet a quick understanding of the what to expect.

I also think that genre labels are more useful for communicating what something is not rather than what something is. In my earlier example I described Hard Sci Fi and intentionally used someone describing a setting as Science Fantasy. Now if a person described something as Hard Sci Fi I would be asking myself "Ok, does he mean the same thing I do by Hard? Or is he thinking John Holmes when I all I want is some soft core?". However, if he describes something as Science Fantasy it is pretty safe to assume that it is not what I want.

How do I express a common (possibly known by others) combination of elements using only one or two words (point of reference)?

This is only possible if you and the other person(s) have agreed upon exactly the same terminology,

and then it does not matter much whether you use an agreed upon genre name ("hard sf") or any

other word ("brrblmuth") to get the idea across.

But that is the point behind these labels, that there is a certain shared understanding about what they mean, so that a lot of information is passed between two people who may have never even met before with one or two words.

The fact that these labels are useless for academic discussions may be true (or may not be - but that is a whole other discussion), but that does mean that these labels are not useful at all.

If I am looking for a sicence fiction setting that is based on real scientific principles as we understand them today applied to a future setting that of course is completely made up but at least the author tries to make his imagined future a feasable possible eventuality, and someone describes something to me as Science Fantasy, I know it is NOT what I am looking for.

It is an innate glitch with Ruriks OS. I have it on an inside source.

Haven't used the board much since the upgrade. Must learn Polls though.

OK. Got it. Do NOT preview the poll post before submitting it to get to the poll questions. :/

Can one delete their own posts?

This was supposed to be a poll. It never let me add poll questions? Is the board broken or just me?

Well I was going to post what I thought was a thoughtful response to this thread I must admit I am now afraid of being ridiculed and humiliated by someone who does not share my viewpoints.

They may even make a new account that resembles mine and start a thread just to ridicule me some more. Ah how brave the anonymity of the Internet makes some people.

Oh well. This board still probably holds some kind of record for how long it has operated before someone turns into a total jackass.

Welcome back from your self imposed exile. I was beginning to think that you had run across another trollkin.

Naw, just been away from gaming for a bit. I've been kinda Lurking. Though if you want to reduce the chances of me being done in (again) by a pesky trollkin GO VOTE TO KILL THE DAMMN D100Rules Trollkin!

Less Rulilawyercus than Preventicus.

Fair enough, Rulilawyercus does carry some negative connotation which was not my intention (though to be fair lawyers really do server a necessary function is society - we need them so the politicians don't look quite so bad...). I blame the hobbits.

From now on I dub thee Rulicicus Preventicus Misrepresenticus Primericus.

man what

Simon's bored.

Either that or someone else is bored and making fun of Simon.

EDIT: Oops, it seems in the time between when I wrote this and when I posted it Conrad has been outed as the Bored Party.

Either that or someones else is bored and framed Conrad for making fun of Simon...

Just further proof that hobbi... err, halflings are an abomination and should be elimated at all costs.

There mere existence creates all kinds of problems, as proven by our esteemed Emeritus Rulilawyercus Atgxtg.

(I won't mention the SIZ 2 STR 24 Dwarf someone once rolled up in RQ2).

It is worth pointing out that BRP does NOT include the traditional RQ magic systems of battle/spirit magic, rune/divine magic, and sorcery. It's magic systems are completely different and not based on RQ/Gloranthan magic. So out of the box it can not recreate that aspect of RQ.

There is the Basic Magic monograph available from Chaosium, which is a straight reprint of the RQ3 magic systems, but it needs some (relatively easy) conversion to be used with BRP.

Happy Birthday and thanks for all your hard work.

Even though you are a filthy Uz creature of darkness you're not half bad in my book.

P.S. Shouldn't there be an animated party hat smily emoticon?

Well, actually ... I am only sophisticated, I am not old.

True, I was born when Sputnik was started, but this just means more time to

become more sophisticated, it has nothing at all to do with age. :cool:

I'm the other way around. Old, but not so sophisticulated.

Ehh... Around 2 weeks? It's not highest on the priority list.

The Wiki had most of the information on the shared world - I was just going to reference it when I noticed it's gone.

Nah, he's our forum-slave, doing whatever we want to make us happy.

Maybe we don't beat him enough.

Also, please note that Caldaia is not a marketable name in Italy.

Would Caldaea work better?

Where's the Wiki?!?!?!?!?!?!?

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

I'm not so sure about that. I haven't read MRQ2, so I can't make any comparisons. From what I've seen from the character sheets and previews, there is still a lot of MRQ1 stuff in this that I don't like (Resilience, Pestilence, opposed rolls).

Pestilence? No, no, no, it is Persistence.No wonder you avoided MRQ1 like the plague.

/Rurik abrubtly does an about face and leaves the pool hall he just entered in search of a suitable babe to use as an offering.

I would love to do a firearms book (or several) for BRP. Just a question of finding time and figuring out what to include. Don't think anyone (except maybe me) wants twenty pages of high-cap 9mm pistols that all have exactly the same game stats. By the same token, who would be happy with an M4 that is not loaded with optics, lights, IR pointers and the like. So much to include. So much to consider.

Maybe not pages of pistols with the same stats, but if you threw in spot rules for ratings like recoil, concealment, how common a weapon is and varied the reliability some you could come up with quite a bit of variety for a bunch of 9mm pistols. You could even add footnotes for some weapons (very reliable in desert, unreliable in heavy humidity, etc) for more variety. Some people would eat that up. Pistol - Heavy just doesn't carry the same gravitas as Desert Eagle. I like my .454 Casul, y'know (no I don't really have one - but that is what I play games for:)).

I think some people would eat that up. I would.

Throw in some decent suppressive fire rules and I'd buy it in a heartbeat.