pansophy

IMHO it is hard to find a nice descent hard-scifi setting. If there would be something out there that really attracts me, it would be easy to convert it to BRP. Problem is I do not see a descent hard-sci-fi setting (any system) that I or my players want to play. Looking at sci-fi novels there is also nothing current out there that would make me want to start a game in. It is either all old and no longer developed or new and uninspiring. Or simply not enough source material to start a setting on. I would love to have an established setting mixing "The Black Hole", "Aliens", "2001", "2010", "Serenity", "Pandorum" and some others into something good. But all I can find is something like "Star Wars" or something weird that includes strange magic and psychics. Nothing wrong with that, but nothing that we want to play. Maybe I am looking in the wrong places and somebody can tell me where to look. And until I find something better we will stick (or be stuck) with the 2300AD setting, which is old, does not feel very futuristic nowadays, is too focused on the Bug war and no longer developed. But it does provide a solid base to build up on and I can mix the TTA setting into it and some other ideas without running the risk something official comes out that renders my developed universe obsolete. But it would be nice to have a ready made setting for BRP, I agree. And if it just would be for NPC stats and equipment. But then, all that is provided by "Operation Ulysses", which not too many people realise as a foundation for a sci-fi setting. It is done very well, looks good - but I guess Eric did not get enough feedback to convince him to further advance the setting. So my point: before complaining "there is no current hard sci-fi setting out there", try Operation Ulysses, email Eric how it is and write a descent review. Eric is willing to write something, so people have the chance to actually support him and maybe influence the setting. It is a chance to develop something, to be part of it and to advance it to something people want to see. Spawn some ideas, give him something to work with - instead of just sitting around and wait for "the one setting" - it will never happen. Well, this includes me, too. I really should write the review now. Sorry, I didn't want to sound rude, but I think the last part needed to be said.

Does anybody know if there will there ever be a PDF version of this? Shipment to Down Under is a bit expensive ...

Are you referring to "Dwelling of the Ancients"? I like it, have not played it, though. I must admit all of the Quickstart rules adventures are fun to play for an evening. And that's how I roll. I would love to see more of these "Evening One Shot" adventures, all compiled in one book. Different genres, provided PCs and let's go "straight into action".

You can only spot, what you are able to see. Spotting something does not mean you are unable to see it. It is just the awareness to realise a detail that you would otherwise miss or that will pass as "common". In my opinion there is no need to come up with a "house rule for using optics", as these are simply tools to make it possible to spot some detail at all. If really necessary give optics a "+x%" to the spot roll, but I would not see why you would ever need it.

OK, thanks for the PDF, Paolo. One word: excellent. I only skimmed the file so far, but I must say I am impressed. To be honest, I was not expecting the genre would appeal to me, but just after skimming through it, I got lots of ideas ow to use this book. Great work! It seems easy enough to build vehicles/air or spacecraft with the help of the rules and that makes it extremely versatile. There are Mecha combat rules in it and it scales between characters and Creation (which could also be monsters as I see in the setting). This book is damn useful! During the next weeks I will read through it and then we will see how it holds up when I am finished with it *lol* It it keeps its promises, this will be the rules to stat my 2300AD vehicles and spaceships. Thanks again!

Count me in PA is my favorite and I play more PA games with BRP than other genres. If there would be a book that uses the BRP rules as a baseline, adding a bit of specialities for the setting and is scalable between gritty and "over the top", with a nice setting in it, and heaps of monsters (that are described & created and not "build" with the Super Powers chapter) - you'll get my word I'll buy it. Both, the Hardcover and the PDF. Add a fitting character sheet and decent layout with good pictures - I promise to buy it although it might be more expensive. Currently I am using "The Mutant Epoch" as a guideline. Decent art, developing setting and easy to convert as it is a percentile (but not d100) game. Also, have a look at the Chaosium Website. There was a counter about "What would people like to see" on it, and PA ranked at least second.

convinced. Just ordered it Hope the shipping costs to AU do not ruin you - I want to see more good games from Alephtar Games!

And an other question: I can see stats for ships. Is it possible to build other vehicles apart from Mecha?

Not quiet a BRP monster guide, as it uses the RQ3 critters as a basis. Also Movement rates are given in CoC measurements and not in BRP measurements. So it is NOT a BRP monster guide in every detail - only a general d100 guide.

hahaha, yes. I think it is the ink they used, noticed that as well while skimming through the Pegasus German CoC books.

Paul, have a look at the Errata Thread in my signature. There's the official answer by Jason Durall. "Pg. 214: The last sentence of the first paragraph under “Autofire” should be deleted."

Well, looking at my copy of Worlds Beyond .... I do not understand the hype. It uses "a kind of" the BRP system, and the starship creation rules are very generic. To be honest, they do nothing that a good starship combat game could not do. Go and buy "Starmarda", "Warcosm" or "Full Thrust" for a good set of space combat rules. And these systems come with starship creation rules as well. Trust me, you won't feel a difference. It's not worth 50$ IMHO. More like 10-15 bucks. BTW: the "HARP SF XTREME" rules seem to be good for RPG space combat and vehicle creation. Not sure about the price tag though. I will stick to my minis rules

Not as far as I know. But as I own it, what are you looking for? Maybe I can answer your questions ...

You forgot to mention First Aid. In Modern and Future Settings the value is 30% flat out, but in Historic/Fantasy settings it is INT*1. Depending on setting, "Fly" also depends on an Attribute. Also, the optional rule "Skill Category Bonuses" is nice and adds a bit of flavour. In the beginning I was thinking Attributes should affect Skills in higher detail, but after a while I came to conclusion that skills are really independent of a persons Attributes. Attributes can limit a persons Skills, but they do not really affect them too much. To me a skill is 90% knowledge/technique and the rest might be effects triggered by Attributes. But that is only my opinion. Other people might be thinking different.

Yep, since I moved to Australia, I learned how to bind my own books very quickly. A bit of Wood-glue, a press and some japanese paper ... easy made softcover. I sometimes do the saw-in stitching as well to keep them from falling apart. And I find this procedure is only marginally more time consuming than using a binding machine.

I have to agree. My book has only been opened twice to look through it, but rules are always referenced using the PDF. It is just so much faster to find them (search function). Also, if you have a PDF editor, you can add bookmarks to it, making it even better. I do not want to miss my hard copies, though.

Both systems (OQ & Legend) do not offer rules for firearms or modern settings, though. Maybe RQ6 with the Firearms add-on is worth a try, but then again, it is a commercial license.

When I did the BRP 2300AD stuff, it was not a problem at all to get permission from Marc Miller to use his setting material and the artists to use their already published artwork. In fact, they offered me some more art to use it for free! All I had to do is a) give credit to them and copy only necessary setting information out of the books. So, I was able to add some fluff, but not too much that would make their products obsolete. Over all it was a fun thing to do and everybody was very supportive. Personally I would prefer to see the BGB used as the "main rule book" and new settings "overriding" some parts of it. A good example is Mythic Iceland and the Alephtar setting books. The tell you in a chapter which rules are modified and what skills are used different or were renamed. Then they tell you which optional rules to use (or recommend). Essentially this makes it very easy to just publish the setting without the need of having it approved by Chaosium (at least if you do it on a non-profit basis). Maybe Nick can tell you more about how it would work when you publish it this way as a commercial company. On the other hand: if you want to have all the rules & setting in one book, I guess you would need to use an OGL rule system or permission of the owner. But I like the idea of having the rule book and the setting book separate better.

hm, your progression table reminds me on the CORTEX rules system ... they used this progression table for all stats and skills. Good system IMHO, but it was inconsistent and not well supported by MWP. Anyway, you are right, the thread was about alternatives. Just wanted to add that the current table is not that bad and there is a reason for it.

To be honest, there is no SciFi setting out there that would keep me or my players interested for more than a year. Don't know why that is, maybe it is the lack of available content. So our workaround currently is to adapt different adventures from different sources to BRP and use them. Works quiet well and as we switch the GameMaster with every adventure, the universe is created by everybody. We came up with some rules before starting this way, so we make sure there is nothing in the game we do not like to see (e.g. Orcs, church, magic, teleportation). I can say the universe we created this way is very open, vast and full of surprises. Virtually everything is possible, and the best thing is we finally could use all the adventure modules out there and play them. It does not really matter there is no written background available, the adventure modules created the known background by them self. You need a common basis though, some ideas and a list of things you want to see and you do not want to see. A good help was the game "Microscope", although we did use it only as a guide how to create the setting, rather than following the rules. It created a nice framework we follow for three years now. And to be honest: my first sci-fi game was Star Frontiers and the setting information in there was about 6 pages of text. We still managed to play that game for a decade, without buying anything else. Inspiration from books and movies found the way into the setting, and never were we itching for something "canon". Nowadays my thought is: the more stuff is available, the more you feel missing something. So break free of this habit and use what's already available. Simply bolt it on to your setting and you see how good it actually works.

Trouble starts with an alternative when you have values outside the usual range, e.g. STR63 against STR66. You would need to come up with a different formula every now and then, while the Resistance Table still works (35% chance in the example above). And that is why I like the resistance table as it is.

Ah, small mistake. Autofire adds +5% per additional bullet AFTER the first one. I will update the examples and explanations later ...

Cool! Please let us know once the pre-order starts!

Hey Rosen, are there any rules in the book for fighting Mecha Robots with handguns/Heavy Weapons? I mean, this is obviously futile, but I am interested if there is any scaling in regards to SIZ and STR and a comparison to human values ...

1) increase Initiative/DEX ranks by 5 points. Or lower Strike rank value by 1 or 2. Rest as Filbanto said