Atgxtg
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LOL! I've got to write some RPG stuff with seneschal someday. When I started thinking of how to do this, I thought of the gadget rules in the Latest Doctor Who RPG. In it they do describe items by function.
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Yeah, pretty much. Other functions: Compute:. I was thinking it could either give a bonus to skill rolls (something needed I think) and/or reduce the time it take to figure out something. Scan: Used to locate and gather information on a target. Note that you'd have to figure out just what it is scanning for, but an item couldbe able to scan for multiple items (basically +1 module or cost per additional item). Store: I'm thinking about storing information here, but it might apply to other things. Manipulate: Ability of item to interact with it's environment. Skill: Item either gives a skill bonus or can performs a skill on it's own. Probably both. Maybe even reduce the difficulty. I was thinking that something like macrobinculars could be built by giving them a Scan skill bonus and a range stat. Maybe even something like making a scan skill roll easy if within the range stat. Now we should be able to build tricoders, the mars rover, and even robots.
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More historically focussed adventures/campaigns?
Atgxtg replied to michaelsbagley's topic in Renaissance
FGUs Privateers & Gentlemen springs to mind. The RPG rules part of it is modeled very closely on Chasoium's RQ2. FGU did another RPG, Flashing Blades, which, while not as BRP friendly, is still one of the better RPGs for that era. There were a half dozen adventure for FB, and they are mostly portable. FB uses fixed hit points, and skills rather than levels (although non combat skills only have a few degrees of skill), so a conversion isn't all that difficult. . -
My thoughts on that is that it works. You can do anything to a personal scale weapon with the advanced combat rules that you can do to starship scale weapons and it works. All without adding another set of rules. What I think we could do is assign equipment functions (what they do), and attributes (how they do it) and then used the advanced combat rules to customize the equipment. For example, a weapon would have the function of inflicting damage, and possible the range attribute (to show how far out it can inflcit damage), and some sort of ammo attribute. A jet-pack would have a move function, showing how fast it could go, and attributives for capacity (how much it can move), and some sort of range attribute (to show far it can go before it needs to be refueled), a comm device would have a communicate function (lets you talk over distance), a range/signal STR attribute (how far you can talk), and a time attribute for how long you can use it before the battery runs out, a vacc suit would have a environmental function (perhaps several since it provides air, heating, cooling, anbd some radiation protection) and a time/duration attribute (how long you can use it before the air runs out). In theory we could make just about any piece of equipment or fine tune something to fit a particular setting just by adjusting the functions and attributes. -What I'm thinking of doing is putting everything on the "ladder" the way damage is. -I'm also thinking that I might be able to put this on a per module basis for personal equipment. That is, rather than requiring someone to pay 50% more for a 25% increase the range, they might be able to buy a 5% (or 5m) improvement for 1 module. -I'm also also thinking that II'd like to "zero out" the ladder so we could build items from scratch rather than modifying existing gear. -But mostly I'm thinking we could use a list of functions. I want to see if we can cover most of the bases for what things can do, in a general way. THat should make it easy to fill in the blanks, for stuff we missed. Oh, and I say in a general way, because I think some things do the same function but in different ways. For instance, voice radio and wif-fi would both be forms of communication, so they would both be covered under the same general function.
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Thanks, that gives me an idea of how to work the progession for tech and the size of items. I might be able to get it to work with the powers rules. My only major concern is that the lineral improvment for powers might be too cheap. A weapon with a 5D6 energy blast in a SciFi game is a lot deadlier than a 5D6 blast in a superhero game. But I can scale down the advanced combat rules from BRP Starships. I might just put the "powers" on the same doubling progression. A "personal scale" 5D6 blaster pistol would have ten doubling, and cost around a quarter million credits. At that's at the default TL of 13. That looks like a safer starting point.
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Speaking of which, where is the tech level table?
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Senseshcal's got the idea. I'm not thinking of having players build equipment as much as giving the GM a tool that helps him build the right items for a particular setting as well as a idea of how much things should cost. The idea is that the more points you place into mass (or modules) the bigger the item will be, while the more points you leave out of modules increases the cost. For example a 10 point item that is 10 modules big might weight 10kg/SIZ 2, and cost 10 credits, while one that is one 1 module big might only weight 1kg, but cost 100 credits. But this is mostly for a GM aid. Although the PCs might use it occasionally to invent something to deal with a particular problem-in grand Star Trek tradition.
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BRP is. THat's why I said Ironically. One route I was thinking or for items is to build the item using points and then paying for some of the point cost with weight/size/bulk of the item, some with money, and some with tech level. For example, a computer with INT 15 (45 points) might be a tablet in the modern world, something that fills an room in the 1960s, or a microdot in the near future.
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Well... What I'm thinking of is letting you build whatever it is you want with points. The cost will be based on what functions the item (or weapon) does, and how well it does them (flying at 200mph as opposed to flying at 2 mph). Then you decide how many points go into modules (the bulk/SIZ of the item) and how much go into cash. The idea is the smaller you make the item the more it will cost. Oh, and I'm hoping ot factor tech level in there. Basically, the higher the TL the smaller/cheaper the item should be. Edit: Ironically, I was thinking of using the Powers rules to handle items, but since that was an attempt to incorporate a Hero System-esque point buy system into RQ/BRP I'm not sure if you'd like that approach.
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This might be a weird idea, but you know we could scale down the advanced starship rules to character scale and use it as the basis to design hi tech weapons. We could probably even come up with a way to covert modules to weight. Something like 5 or 10 modules per kg or so. Come to think of it, the same process could be done for other bits of gear. For instance a space suit could comprise of protection (Armor), a comm system, environmental system, with air and energy supplies . All of which could take up modules (and weight). I could probably reverse engineer weights from the full suits of body armor to get a mass/armor rating and eventually a "how many modules per AP" thing.
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1) Well, a lot of what people take as Science Fiction isn't. Star Wars is really a Fantasy story with high tech trappings. And yeah, a lot of TV SciFi is really just a morality play that uses the trapping of SciFi to make a social comment in a veiled way. Racial tensions between Greens and Purples rather than between Blacks and Whites. 2) Not much yet. I know some of the math behind it,a nd am hoping to simplify it with a table. 3) I think what we need is mostly the trappings for SciFi.hand comms, laser pistols, flying cars, that sort of thing. BRP covers a bit of it, but not really good enough to run a campaign. Before someone jumps in here and claims that we don;'t need all that stuff, I like to point out just how much stuff BRP has for low tech fantasy settings. At least a half dozen different types of sword.Three or Four completely different out magic systems. SciFi really gets the short end of the stick. I don;t think there are two different laser pistols. 4) Cool.
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I really hate the new software Triff is using, it's so hard to quote text now... 1)What do you mean "we"/ Lots of people use quite a bit of scientific groundwork for medieval/fantasy worlds. As for why space setting get a lot more, it's because Sci is part of SciFi. Also, it's harder to explain certain things without magic to back it up. It's also hard to players to "forget" thing threat they know of. About 99% of fantasy RPGs I've played it had diseases spreading through germs, despite the fact that germ theory is a fairly recent development. 2) The reason why I'd want to use the SIZ table is because a star's Luminosity is a logarithmic function of it's magnitude. Since the SIZ table is also a logarithmic function I could use it to sidestep the (more than usual) complicated math. Likewise the habitable zone, or biosphere of a star is a square root function, and that can be done simply by dividing by two on a logarithmic table. 3) As far as setting goes. Having a fleshed out setting, even if it is something small at the end of the book, appeals to most GMs. But I think as long as there is enough in the book to cover most of the bases for a SciFi campaign. 4) Oh, and I'm a bit curious about you vehicle design system. I assume it is an extension of the spaceship rules? There is something I would like to go over with you about vehicle speed in an atmosphere. Basically, to go twice as fast you need four times the thrust (i.e. four times the engine modules). .
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Are there such things as loyal UNIVERSE players? I bought the game, played it, and while I thought it had a couple of interesting wrinkles (modular ship design springs to mind), I didn't think it had enough to gather a loyal fanbase. It pretty much was an attempt to recreate Traveller but written in SPI's "wargame" style. Quite a few RPGs and real world info exists that can help with things like world and star system building. It's mostly a case of doing the work. Hmm, I think I could work up a really easy method of placing planets and determining a star's habitable zone using the SIZ table.
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Maybe it's worth waiting until the other stuff is finished? If you did up a setting or two you could really make it a SPACE supplement. I know I got some stuff somehwere for working out things like a star's biosphere.
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Cannon's weren't mounted broadside, but damage was still by weight of shot rather than per gun. You're still going to end up with a half dozen to a dozen guns or so being fired at once. At least to start with. Once the battle gets going reloading can get interesting. Ammo didn't get standardized until the time of the Spanish Armarda.
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I think you are out of luck. From what I've read McCaffrey was very free with Pern games early on, and now I hear that it is not much sought after. Basically it would cost too much for what it would generate in revenue. That's sort of a problem with most popular licenses. The RPG fanbase is so small that the licenses do not generate enough revenue to make them viable to the RPG company. Pretty much every RPG based on a license has gone bellyup. SJG does get to put out a lot of supplements along those lines but they are all pretty much one shot affairs. That is they produce a book that adapts the setting to GURPS and then give it no support. Most of the SGJ licenses are 2nd or 3rd tier settings too. They are popular enough to have a good fanbase without being too expensive.
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Oh, just a heads up on cannon. Most RPG stats for RQ and related RPGs tend to have it so that one cannot hit would do a lot of damage to a ship, and a full broadside would easily sink a ship. Realistically, a single cannon ball isn't going to be much of a threat to a ship. Yes, it might punch a hole in one, damage the rigging, or even knock down a mast. And they certainly can decimate the crew or sink a rowboat easy enough. But, realistically, it's the cumulative effect of multiple hits that disable or sink a ship. That's why these ships could slug it out for hours. You pretty much need to roll a critical to really affect a ship with a single hit. It's like throwing marbles at an elephant. What you might want to do is work out a damage rating based on the weight of the broadside. For example, you could tale the total weight of shot fired and read it as the "Unit Frontage" on the Unit damage table on page 21 of S&S. If you factor in the ship's armor rating, it might not work out too badly. Or you might need to use a fraction of the weight. If you just wanted one roll for the whole ship then: Crtical: 200% of weight (or 2d6x10%+130%) Special: 150% of Weight (or 2d6x10%+80%) Success: 100% of Weight (or 2d6x10%+30%) Failure: About 50% (or 2d4x10%) weight Fumble: About 25% (or 1d4x10%) of weight. If you wanted to factor in for each gunl then: Critical: 2 x weight (for that gun) Special: 1.5 x weight (for that gun) Failure: Gun missed (do not add in) Fumble: Gun failed to fire, mishap (do not add in)
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Yeah, for starters: http://ageofex.marinersmuseum.org/index.php?type=shiptype&id=1 http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/page/c/caravel.shtml http://www.thenina.com http://www.christopher-columbus.eu/columbus-ships.htm If I wasn't right in the middle of a Blizzard I could go to the library and get a couple of books. Oh, and notice that the tonnages for the Nina (50-75 tons) and Pinta (70-101) tons vary depending on source. This is partially due to the method used to calculate tonnage. Back in the old days, they used to estimate tonnage based on length, beam, and draught, with a fudge factor to account for the curvature of the hull. It wasn't an exact science. It started to turn into a science when the British launched a ship which sank right out of drydock.
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Be wary, all tonnages are not the same -especially when dealing with older ships. Sometimes people mean cargo tonnage, other times they mean deadweight tonnage, still other times they mean gross registered tonnage, and still yet other times they mean displacement. As a result, you can see "tonnage" ratings between 100 and 500 for the same ship. Stuff I've seen on caravels show an average cargo capacity of around 40-50 tons, and an average gross tonnage or displacement of around 100 tons.
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Sailing speed is probably more a factor of heading and wind strength, too. Hull shape and streamlining certainly helps, but with a sailing ship wind and sail configuration is key. You're not going to gain on someone if you got a headwind, and he doesn't.
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Yes they are simple, but you loose out on some aspects (increasing with high skill, criticals remaining rare, etc.). There are some other ways to do it, but it's still a trade off. Frankly, if I were going to go with a roll high variant, I probably wouldn't add the skill score at all but still keep it as the target value. Kinda like what Pendragon does.
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Maybe you should give it a more expansive title then? Right now, I think only about half the book is about Starships, so it a bit misleading to call it that. If you were paying money to buy a RPG supplement about starships, and half the book was about something else, how would you feel? I'm not saying the other stuff isn't good, just that if you are going to sell this you need to make sure that you point out the contents.
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Okay. In BRP you have success levels - that is you can get critical success, special success, fumbles and such depending on the die roll. With a roll low system it's easy to incorporate. The good results are at the low die roll end, bad results at the high end. But if you use a roll high method, you probably want to put the good results up at the high end. Otherwise it gets complicated because someone with a 90 skill who rolls a 90 (total of 180) will get trumped by someone with a 20 skill who rolls and 01 (a critical in standard BRP). Now you can try to fix this by "reversing" the success tables, subtracting the success chance from 101% to get a roll high equivalent. For example if someone had a 3% critical chance and a 12% special chance, they'd become critical 98+, special 89+.The bad thing about that is that you would still have to deal with cases where success level would require you to trump the total score. For instance one character might get a total of 150, but lose to a character who only got a 120, but who rolled a 99, and got a critical. Another option would be to base success levels on the difference between each side's total. Maybe beating the opponent by 50 is a special, beating him by 100 is a critical, or some such. That works, but now ties the result to the opponent's roll. That means that someone will never be able to roll a critical parry to stop a critical hit, and so on. So you'd probably have to do some more fiddling with the rules. See what I mean?
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I think there were Caravel stats in Chaosium's White Wolf book for Stormbringer. THey use a format that is pretty much the same as the one used for RQ3. I think I have some notes for statting them up in BRP, too. I'm not familar with the stats used for ships in RQ6, but if you let me know what they got, I'll see what I can do.
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If it were up to me, I'd just put the staship stuff in the starship pdf and make aliens, world building and constructs each their own separate pdf. Maybe flesh out the other sections a little more. Either that or add in a game setting and expand it into a to a full RPG.
