Jason D

As noted above, Dustin tried in vain to contact the original author, but no one seemed to have contact info for him.

I know enough people who've dealt with Japanese companies over RPG adaptations to comfortably say that if Chaosium said they were licensing a Japanese anime IP, I would call them up and plead with them to reconsider. It was possible to do more than that, but the GM advice was horribly brief, and the game wasted something like 50 pages on episode-by-episode descriptions, rather than game content. Both games are, I think, owned by the same publisher now, and they're technically still "live" game lines.

Wow... that combination makes my head explode. I can't imagine any two settings as fundamentally different in tone.

Aliens was published as an RPG from Leading Edge Entertainment a couple of decades ago. It was astonishingly crunchy, and even had neat little minis packs of Colonial Space Marines and aliens. I don't necessarily think it would be a particularly great RPG, though, unless you broadened the scope so much it became unrecognizable.

Here are a few of the names of "high profile" game settings that might work as RPGs, and have never been attempted (to the best of my knowledge): Logan's Run - post-apocalyptic setting, science-fiction elements, etc. X-Com - the computer game... an established IP, alien invasion and action Heavy Metal - a grab-all name that wouldn't need to be tied to a specific IP or comic strip within the actual magazine... just a crazy mix of pulpy sci-fi and action, with a sexy quasi-European rock-and-roll angle Fallout, Mass Effect, Starcraft, etc. - probably outside the budget of any RPG studio to afford as an IP

I'm curious if anyone can list a "high-profile" sci-fi setting that isn't either already licensed or has enough name-brand recognition to warrant the license fee. Star Wars - licensed by WEG, then WotC, now sort of abandoned Star Trek - licensed by FASA, then Decipher, died with Decipher... now probably out of anyone's price range A Princess of Mars - protected by Disney now, probably out of anyone's price range Battlestar Galactica - licensed by MWP, now abandoned Dune - licensed by LUG, then by WotC, abandoned due to problems with licensor Ringworld - licensed by Chaosium, unavailable due to problems with licensor Serenity/Firefly - licensed by MWP, successful game line that ran its course The Matrix - licensed once by Decipher, problematic, was never published Riverworld - done by GURPS Planet of Adventure - done by GURPS Doctor Who - licensed by Cubicle 7, still in development Starship Troopers - licensed by Mongoose, has run its course Babylon 5 - licensed by Chameleon Eclectic, then Mongoose, has run its course Red Dwarf - obscure RPG, not a big seller Farscape - licensed by AEG, poor-quality game, game line retroactively killed before release After those, I have a hard time thinking of name-brand sci-fi settings... Buck Rogers? Flash Gordon? Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? Blade Runner? Terminator? I have a short list of a few interesting sci-fi licenses that haven't been made into RPGs, but I'm curious if anyone can name others I might be overlooking.

It's a California thing.

Charlie sent it to me, saying "Mark this up!"

I didn't buy mine, but it's nice to have.

I'll be hanging around the MWP booth for some of the convention. I've done work for them (Serenity, Battlestar Galactica, and Supernatural), and agreed to run some demos for them.

Who's going to be there? Aside from me, that is...

Technically, the spider venom is the active characteristic (it is attacking), while your character's CON is the passive (defensive) characteristic. However, the % chance is the same, whichever label you give either side.

And for fun, here's the list of Psychic Abilities from later in the powers chapter. Psychic Abilities Summary Following are ten new psychic abilities presented in this sourcebook. These work exactly as other psychic abilities in the core rulebook and can be utilized by player characters, at the gamemaster’s discretion. BEAST CONTROL: Befriend and guide a non-sentient creature through a psychic link. FINDING: Discover the location of a specific thing. FLESH WEAVING: Reshape living tissue and bone into new shapes. HEALING: Restore lost hit points through psychic healing. MESMERISM: Hypnotize a target. MIND TRAP: Create a psychic prison to ensnare an intended target. POSSESSION: Take over the mind of a target by switching places. PURIFICATION: Remove disease, poison, or harmful contaminants from a living being’s body. SHAPING: Mold and reshape a natural substance as if it were clay. SHROUDING: Cloud perceptions to avoid notice. WOUNDING: Create psychic wounds with physical manifestations.

Each of the planets and significant locations in our solar system* are described in enough detail to inspire and run adventures, but it's not a full-fledged world book. * and to be clear, these are Earth, the Moon, the Sun, the asteroid belt, the Kuiper Belt, Mercury, Mars, Venus, Uranus, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Planet X (otherwise known as Pluto). Some of the larger celestial bodies such as Ceres and Vesta are also included.

There's a section that covers a number of methods, from straightforward (rockets, space guns, etc.), weird science (crystal "star elevators", teleporters, etc.), paranormal/supernatural (astral projection, celestial kidnapping, dreaming, etc.), and simply unexplained passage ("I fell asleep in a cave and woke up on Mars!"). The mechanics of how players get from one world to another is entirely determined by the nature of the campaign.

As a clarification... those aren't all new. That table includes the ones from the core rulebook, and adds new ones.

Chapter Three: Powers provides considerable expansions to the mutations and psychic powers offered in the core rulebook. Rather than provide a sample power, here's the random determination table from the Mutations section: (my apologies that the table is munged... I don't have the time to translate it over for board-viewability) Result Mutation Description 01-03 Adaptability - Survival in unusual environments. 04-05 Additional Sensory Organs - Additional eyes, ears, etc. 06-07 Allergy - Skills reduced by contact to an allergen. 08-09 Amphibious - Able to breathe underwater. 10-11 Biped / Quadruped - If two-legged, forced to walk four-legged. 12-14 Camouflage - Skin has a concealing texture or color. 15 Charged - Emits electric current. 16-19 Coloration - Unusual coloration (minor only). 20-21 Congenital Disease - Suffers from a debilitating disease. 22 Conjoined Twin - Has a connected twin. 23-24 Decreased Characteristic - Characteristic decreased. 25-26 Disease Carrier - Carries (but is immune to) an infectious disease. 27 Group Intelligence - Part of a hive mind. 28-29 Hands - Has extra hands or prehensile limb. 30-31 Hardy - Resistant to damage. 32-33 Hollow - Character has a large internal cavity, or is hollow. 34-36 Hybrid - Has an animalistic trait. 37 Immortal - Does not age, resists the natural causes of death. 38-39 Incomplete - Missing one or more portions of anatomy. 40-42 Increased Characteristic - Characteristic increased. 43-44 Independent Appendages - Appendages can detach and move independently. 45-46 Infested - Infested with parasitic creatures. 47-48 Keen Sense - Has one or more sharp senses. 49-50 Leech - Must drain characteristics to survive. 51-52 Luminescence - Emits a light from body. 53 Magnetic - Is magnetic. 54-55 Malleable - Body and features are pliable. 56-58 Metabolic Improvement - Has a beneficial but unusual metabolism. 59-60 Metabolic Weakness - Has a disadvantageous and unusual metabolism. 61-62 Misplaced Sensory Organs - Irregularly-placed sensory organs. 63-64 Missing Sense - Missing sensory organs. 65-66 Natural Armor - Has natural armor (scales, horn, hide, etc.). 67-68 Natural Weapon - Has natural weapon (spine, claw, teeth, etc.) 69 Non-bipedal Body Structure - Unusual body structure. 70-71 Pain Immunity - Immune to sensations of pain. 72 Pain Sensitivity - Low resistance to pain. 73-74 Pheromone - Emits chemicals that can affect others. 75 Radiant - Emits heat or cold. 76-77 Radioactive - Emits radioactivity. 78-79 Reduced Sense - Impaired or missing primary sense. 80 Regeneration - Able to heal rapidly. 81-82 Sensitivity - Has an unusual affinity for a substance. 83 Speech (Mimicry) - Can imitate animal noises, or speak clearly. 84-85 Structural Improvement - Has an unusual and beneficial body form. 86 Structural Rearrangement - Anatomy is configured strangely. 87 Structural Weakness - Has an unusual and disadvantageous body form. 88-89 Synesthesia - Sensory inputs are crossed or combined. 90 Toxic Blood - Blood is toxic. 91 Unnatural Appetite - Must devour non-food items to survive. 92-94 Unusual Skin - Skin has an unusual characteristic. 95-96 Venom - Emits a natural poison. 97 Wings - Has wings and can glide or fly. 98-00 Gamemaster or player’s choice - Pick or roll again.

As mentioned in the other thread, I thought I'd throw out some previews of the manuscript (still in progress), from various spots. Here's a section from Chapter 2: Characters, introducing a newish element in character creation process called "Concept". This sample contains a handful of the concepts (more than a dozen are provided), and bear in mind that it has not yet been edited or proofread. Concept Before a name is picked, any dice are rolled, and even a gender is assigned, the gamemaster should encourage each player to pick a “character concept” for his or her character. A character concept is a sort of role or identity that helps provide focus during character creation and gameplay. The character concept provides the players a quick identifier to help decide what profession and skills will be appropriate, and can even inform decisions such as gender, name, appearance, and personality. Following is a list of classic personality archetypes suitable for Interplanetary adventures: Absentminded Intellectual: Brilliant yet lacking concentration, you tend to get lost in your own head. You have a wide range of expertise, yet sometimes commonplace tasks are beyond you. You frequently find yourself out of place in social situations, as if you’re in another world. Brute: You’re big, strong, and tough as nails. You’ve never been much of a decision-maker: any problem usually ends up with you hitting someone. Maybe you’ve got a temper you can’t control, or you might just like to hurt people. People think the worst of you, and usually you’ve got a hard time when it comes to making friends or doing things the legitimate way. Charismatic Scoundrel: Somehow, despite your personal magnetism, you found yourself on the wrong side of the law. You’re not evil, but the honest life just isn’t for you. You might be a con man, a smuggler, or a dealer of illegal items... using your charm and your wits to get by. Grease Monkey: Doesn’t matter if it’s your job or just a hobby, you like taking things apart and fixing them. When confronted with something broken or something you can make better, you’re quick to roll up your sleeves and get to work. The more complex the system, the more engrossed you are. Plucky Adventuress: You grew up at the side of a traveling parent, whether an Egyptologist, ambassador, or missionary, and you’ve got daring in your veins. The world is too great to settle down in, so you roam the world with aplomb, getting in and out of the many scrapes that come with your choice of life. Socialite: Adventure... danger... these are not things you seek out. Instead, you’re much more at home hobnobbing with the wealthy and the notable. Despite your best intent, you’ve nonetheless been drawn into a world of peril, and it’s all you can do to keep your tuxedo (or gown) pressed and your martini glass full. Page XX of Chapter Seven: Gamemastering includes a section titled “Archetypes” that provides additional archetypes, mostly suitable for non-player characters or alien characters. If the gamemaster is allowing players to devise alien characters, players should be allowed to consult that section for inspiration.

I'm turning in the manuscript at the end of June, having given myself a 2-month deadline for completing it. I'll include some preview stuff over the next few weeks if folks are interested.

I'm in the same boat as you... I liked the first story, and then as I ploughed through the omnibus, I liked the stories less and less, until by the end I decided I was never going to read anything by Harrison again.

There isn't an official errata document, and I'll admit that it's my fault. Edits for the book were done by Sarah Newton, Ben Monroe, Rodney Leary, me, and another couple of people at Chaosium over a period of a few months. Charlie and I must have exchanged about a hundred emails in that period, and in some cases, there were edits to edits, such as Sarah catching some of my blunders even when I was correcting other blunders. I was privy to my own edits and those that came from Sarah, but outside edits went straight from the editors to Chaosium, in electronic and in physical form. I thought someone was compiling edits somewhere at Chaosium, but I believe that edits went straight into the electronic manuscript. Compiling an errata for the zero edition would involve full weeks of work, poring over the dozens of submitted edited files from multiple editors, sifting emails for them, retyping those that were made to hardcopies of the book, organizing them, and then weeding out the duplicates. It's a task that's simply beyond my bandwidth for the foreseeable future. I don't know if Chaosium has the resources to put to the task, but you can always email Charlie or Dustin and ask.

I was talking with Dustin Wright earlier this week about Interplanetary and other additional BRP books, when I mentioned that folks here on this forum called it the Big Yellow Book. He said that he'd sort of hoped that folks would refer to it as the Big Gold Book, to avoid confusion with the phonebook (though it rivals it in size). Thought I'd ask that, as a favor to Dustin, future commentary refers to it as "gold" rather than "yellow". And good things were indeed discussed to follow IP out the door... hopefully much more rapidly!

An awesome and somewhat obscure game called Worlds Beyond uses the BRP system, officially with Chaosium's approval, and is pretty much exactly what you want. Starship construction rules, space combat, etc. It's unfortunately long out of print. Chaosium got a boxload of copies and sold them all quickly, and tried to get the rights to a new version, but I believe they couldn't ever get the original IP holder to agree. Here it is on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/Worlds-Beyond-softcover-core-rules-Worlds-Beyond-RPG_W0QQitemZ290414249018QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item439e09c43a Here are two entries on abebooks.com: http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=1220248799&searchurl=kn%3Dfrank%26sortby%3D6%26tn%3Dworlds%2Bbeyond%26x%3D0%26y%3D0 http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=2158927865&searchurl=kn%3Dfrank%26sortby%3D6%26tn%3Dworlds%2Bbeyond%26x%3D0%26y%3D0

Here are my thoughts: Use the following optional rules: Choosing characteristic values Higher starting characteristics Education/Knowledge Roll Cultural Modifiers Nonhuman characters Point-based Character Creation Step Six Increased Personal Skill Points Total Hit Points Skill Category Bonuses Complimentary Skills Skill Ratings over 100% Psychic Powers and Mutations to handle aliens and mind powers - they shouldn't clash at all Dodging Missile Weapons Page 311 has a helpful illustration next to the Space Opera setting description A phaser combines the blaster, disintegrator and stun functions Medi-kits were pretty much straight out of Trek It could work well... just spend some time browsing on Memory Alpha and take a lot of notes.

No... it doesn't have mapping, but then, I'm one of those gamers who's never, ever cared for a tabletop battlemap.