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Oh, I didn't mean to suggest that we shouldn't have such structure in Sci-Fi. I only wanted to point out that such things probably wouldn't happen realistically since those are capable of building such structures have better alternatives. For example the whole Space Elevator concept becomes obsolete if a society can somehow build a single stage to orbit spacecraft that somehow isn't mostly fuel, something common in most Sci-Fi settings. The Elevator works great for us because real spacecraft need to be over 90% fuel to get into orbit. So for something to exist in a Sci-Fi setting would tend to suggest what technological limits a given society is working under, or that something was build by a more advanced society for another less advanced culture. All of which can help to springboard ideas.

2300/AD did the space elevator beanstalk concept. One thing about mega-structures (Space Elevator, Ringworld, Dyson Sphere, etc.) is that any culture than can build such a structure doesn't need to, and probably wouldn't want to. It's like if a species can fly they probably won't build a great road system.

Answer: What makes you think I saw the cover? Nice. If I had known that back when the game first came out I would have bought it just for that. But just seeing the title "Dynamic D100" on the forum somewhere doesn't indicate any of that.

But is is similar to the old personality traits in Thieves' World. Personally I think player skill/attribute rolls would be better than giving the animal a trained trait though, since traits can go up or down over time, and I don't see a trained animal becoming less trained over time. I could see the level of trained applying a modifier of some to Animal Handling rolls. It should be easier to train a dog than a wolf.

Oh, and let's not forget RingWorld. IMO it probably would have done better as a generic sci-fi RPG, without the Larry Niven stuff.

Probably. If you can post an idea of what you are looking for I can probably suggest a few RPGs closer to the mark. For, instance, I'd say that Pacesetter's Star Ace was probably functionally closer to what Star Frontiers was trying to be that Star Frontiers was. That is a fairly simple Sci-Fi RPG that was fairly easy to learn and play. Star Ace used the same basic game system as Chill, but optimized for Sci-Fi rather than horror.

💯💯💯 Exactly. A human is wirting it for humans to read it. So setting aside the question of if a human author could write a convincing genuine alien, they wouldn't want to, as the audience would still need to understand and possible relate to said alien. THen there are the reasons the author used an alien in the story in the first place. Yup. Plus until we have an actual alien on hand to critique it, how would we really know if the author got it right in the first place? Yeah, but in most sci-fi aliens either act like humans with some strange personality quirks, or as some sort of animal, insect or plant with human intelligence. So players in RPGs are generally stuck falling back on old tropes. At least that's what they want us to think. ; Yeah. I think as far as alien-type aliens go, Traveller probably does it the best. 2300AD in particular had some interesting aliens, from the friendly bio-enginnering, Pentapods, to the antagonistic no-pain no-brain Kafers. Sure, but there is a difference between what works in media and what works in an RPG. For example, in the old d6 Star Wars RPG, Wookiee don't speak Basic (i.e. English), but the game suggests that some other PC take the language and be able to understand the Wookiee, so that the Wookiee can converse (normally) with the other PCs. Otherwise, a PC that cannot communicate with the rest of the group would be a significant obstacle to game play. So in general aliens tend to be humans with some odd mannerisms and some special traits that differentiate them from standard humans, and for the most part have to be. I suppose how well that workd out depends on how well the alien, and it's culture are fleshed out, as well as how well the player can role-play it. Hmm, I wonder how a game would go if everyone though they were alien or human and it turned out they weren't?

You ask, we reply. It's a working system. THat might not be as big of a fanbase as you think, nor have a huge crossover with D100 RPGs. Plus Dynamic D100 isn't the same as Final Dynamic Special i Which isn't really a brand per say, but a crossover anime that is less well known than any of the Go Nagi shows is derived from. And is Dynamic D100 actually set in a Go Nagi style multiverse with Mazinger, Getter Robo and such? Or is it more generic? FYI if it covers actual Getter Robo, you probably got me hooked! Fair enough. As long as the stats port over. That GMs who want to tinker with the setting (or if it's Earth, just have a old vintage vehicle sitting around) can easily adapt what the wish. Good. I think it would be a good idea. As would some sort of cyborg option. Imagine, the PCs have a tough battle but finally managed to defeat Boss-Kaiju of the bad guys. Then next season the have to face the new and improved Mecha-Boss-Kaiju!

Thanks for claifying that.

I think that is basically true of most "alien species" in fantasy and sci-fi fiction and rpgs. Pretty much all the 'named" species I can think of from fiction are basically humans with a few odd cultural and physical quirks. I think that depends on what the game gives the player to work with. A player can't really just creature a whole new culture and manner of behavior to an existing species. The player has to work within the parameters of what has already been established. They will if they act counter to what the alien is supposed to be like. If a PC Wookiee talks and behaves like a professor from Oxford, wears a three piece suit and a bowler hat, and disavows what cultural details we've been given so far, people are going to want a good explanation. Nor do I think there is a way for humans to act "genuinely alien" in the first place, since we've never encountered any aliens that we could use as a reference. So aliens end up acting like odd humans because we as humans, understand humans, and use them as the base template for our conceptual aliens. THen we make them differernt from humans in a few ways to make them seem alien. Anything "genuinely alien" might behave in waves that we wouldn't understand. Alternatively, it might be that any sentient aliens might have to be so functionally similar to humans that they might indeed behave and think very similar to us. For instance, just to develop space travel would probably require an understanding of mathematics, physics and other sciences similar enough to our own to ensure some similarities in though processes.

Yeah, multiple RPGs have had something similar. It suits most "heroic" type genres. You want you heroes to seem vulnerable and suffer complications and problems or else they just look like they are blessed, not heroic. It's why Batman running into a burning building to save a child is more heroic that Superman doing it. It's also one of the reasons why Clint Eastwood often got beat up in his movies before coming back and taking out all the bad guys at the end. It's part of what makes his success believable. He succeeds but he pays for it by getting banged up along the way. He certainly does in the books. In most of the books Bond get's captured and tortured or beat up by the Major Villain. The films are (usually) kinder to him.

I think the problem isn't the complexity, but in the name. I for one didn't know that Dynamic D100 was a mecha game until you mentioned it in the ORC thread. Now, I'm not really following Revolution D100 so I might not have bought Dynamic D100 even if I knew it was a "vintage mecha anime" game, but not knowing that pretty much ensuired that anyone insteded in a mecha game who was not verse in Revolution D100 wouldn't even consider it. "Dynamic" does have any special mecha connotations, and instead just makes me think of a game focused towards the action genre. Kinda like how Pulp Cthulhu is Cthulhu adventures in the Pulp Genre. So I think getting the message out of what the game is about is key. Secondly, based on the game's granndaddy, BRP Mecha, I'd say soltakss is right that skills should be the same between games. In fact I'd say vehicles should be the same as well. That would make it much easier to port over vehicles from other sourcebooks to the game to allow games based in different times. For instance a GM might want to set a game in the 1950s and use 1950s tanks and aircraft, while another GM might want to run a Macross type peroid piece and use vehicle designs from the 1990s, a third GM might want modern day stuff, and so on. If Dynamic uses different stats that the other Revolution games then GMs will have to redo stats for anything not included in Dynamic. If the stats are the same, they can just port them over. So the more compatibility the better. Thirdly, I'd suggest putting in a chapter on Kaiju along with some sample generic Kaiju. I could see kaiju have some basic types each with their own perks and flaws that would make them a bit different to build than mecha. There is a good deal of crossover in the Giant Robot and Kaiju genres so it fits the game, and adds a whole new layer of possible adversaries (or allies). Cyborg kaiju would be another cool idea. It also might make the game interesting to kaji fans who might otherwise not want a mecha game.

2d20 games sort of do that with their Momentum/Threat mechanics. Roughly speaking, when PCs success in tasks they build up a pool of momentum points that can be drawn on to improve future rolls. But a player may opt to increase their threat total instead of using momentum (or when they are out of momentum). The Threat pool is then used by the GM to create further problems for the PCs later on. Crtics of 2d20 note that players can just always draw on momentum for every roll to offset the additional Threat, causing a perpetual feedback loop of escalation.

That makes sense. I suppose that would depend on how the Revolution D100 version sells compared to the BRP version.

It's not that difficult. Both are skill based, and it's pretty easy to covert from one to the other. Especially is you convert 3d6 probabilities to percentile. I think I did a coversion sheet like that years ago to adapt ICE Robin Hood supplement (also uses HERO system). THe hardest bit is with advantages and disavatages but if you are using BRP chargen that won't come up, except for aliens and supernatural creatures. Vehicles and Gear don't have to be converted but instead replaced with the appropriate BRP stats. For instance you don't have to convert the bad guy's Luger P08 over, you can just use the BRP/CoC stats. It not even all that hard to figure out Handling, SIZ, and Speed stats from the HERO stats. But the big thing Justic In has going for it is that much if not most of it's material is setting and genre related rather than game mechanics. So there is a lot of helpful advice for setting up and running a pulp game. Yeah, Daredevils is a bit tougher, to convert. Mercenaries, SPies & Private Eyes perhaps moreso. THere are a few other good pulp RPGs out there too (Spirit of the Century, Thrilling Tales) but my main reason for suggesting Justice, Inc. was that it was more focused towards the setting than the game system. Plus it's only $10 on Drivethrurpg.

Pulp Cthulhu, which you arelady mentioned, is probably the best BRP source, with reguarl Call of Cthulhu probably being a good soruce too, as much of Lovecraft's work was orginally published in the pulps. The Investigaor Weapons series of supplements for CoC , especially the book for the 1920s, is a good sorucebook for the firearms available at the time. I also suggest looking outside the BRP-derived systems for inspiration, too. . There are some older Pulp genre RPGs such as Justice Inc., while not BRP based, are still good resources for a pulp campaign, and much of the game mechanics (in this case HERO system) can be adapted easily to BRP.A lot of the material in the game, such as the advice on writing adventures for the different types of Pulp stories (Crime-fighting, Espionage, Action, Horror/Occult, Detective/Mystery, Spicy Stories, Science Fiction, Western) and how to plot& prepare an adventure are system neutral. Naturally, the pulps themselves are an invaluable resource for what works in the pulps and what doesn't.. Some of the films are serials of the 1930s and 1940s could work as Pulp stories too. In fact many of them were adaptations of Pulp heroes.

Oh, I was not aware of that. Sorry but I don't follow Revolution D100 as closely as BRP. I suspect that would only make sense if you could get a real anime license to do that with. Actual Gundam s will do better than generic Gundam. Okay, but since UGE is something like 99% the same as the old BGB, doesn't that also mean that if someone already has the original BRP version they won't have much of a reason to buy the UGE version? For instance, say that I already have BRP Merrie England, what would be the point of my buying a UGE edition? I can't think of anything in the book that would need to be changed to make it UGE compatible. Yeah, you could. Optionally you could just just do aBRP addition for Merrie England with the BRP Game mechanics info or maybe even a core boook with two sets of stats. That would increase your potential customer base. Not everyone who plays BRP player Revolution D100 and vice versa. But that's your call.

Did you ever see Spawn of Fashan?

Software, that's cheating! LOL! RM Chargen wasn't too bad. But the game was the most table heavy RPG I can think of. THe supplments didn't help either, since they were loaded with optional rules and alternate chargen rules. If you even get the chance, have a to look at KABAL. All the modifiers were in percentage increments and multiplied by each other, so you pretty much had to run it from a calculator, back when calculators used to cost real money. I had a handheld computer and could go back into the equations to change values and could barely run the game in "real time".

I have to ask about BRP Mecha. You've noted previously that due to it's nature it's not an easy book to adapt to Revolution D100, so maybe ORC would be a better option.

If you think MERP was crunchy, don't ever look at RollMaster RoleMaster. MERP was a streamlined version of RM. I found MERP wasn't too bad, but then I photocopied all the key tables(Attack Tables, Fumble Tables, Maneuver Table, Weapons Table, Price Tables), and stapled them to a 9 panel double sided GM screen I made from manila folders.

Yeah, it was a stand alone supplement, which was pretty much par for Sci-Fi RPGs.

Why would that matter? He already owns Other Suns, and could print it as a stand alone game. Nothing to be gained by putting it under the ORC umbrella, and accepting the restrictions and changes necessary to do so.

Yes but they did publish it. I think most of the FGU's games were written by independent authors who had to go to a game company such as FGU to get their game published. Independent publishing was much harder back then. No desktop pulbishing to speak of, no PDFs, no print of demand, no self printing. If someone wanted to print a game they needed to pony up enough cash to hire a professional printer, and even most of the big companies back then were run on a shoestring budget out of someone's garage. The whole Avalon Hill/RQ3 deal was made for somewhat similar reasons, although distribution probably matter as much or more there than the economics. Which is something of a mixed bag. On the one hand the author kept the rights and control over Other Suns, on the other hand it's out of print and might never be seen again, whereas the stuff FGU controlled has become available in PDF form on Drivethru. There are a lot of good RPGs from the past that are sort of lost because of things like that. That fits the time period. Back in the late 70s/early 80s the RPG market was made up of a lot of gamers who loved to game and who loved to show thier recent work to each other and get each other opinion on things. Superworld was Steve Perrin seeing in he could do something like Champions with RQ/BRP. Back then most designers knew of each other, and would have been flattered if someone used one of their ideas in their own RPG. I wish that it had gotten a boxed set the way Superworld did. FW is mostly good stuff, it just that it had to squeeze a table of contents, chargen, alien races, money, setting, technology, starter adventure and a full page character sheet into 20 pages.

Yeah, and a few others, (lets not forget Future * World). Other Suns is closer to RQ mechanically, FGU borrowed quite heavily from RQ/BRP on more than one occasion (Other Suns, Privateers & Gentlemen). FASATrek had a lifepath system of sorts in the chargen, though, which helps a bit the the Traveller connection. I was just trying to emphais that Star Frontiers wasn't any sort of Space BRP type game.