drohem

I don't see this extreme: presumably some Gates would link islands and land masses, and there is the old standard of sea going vessels.

Yeah, I'm cool with whatever. I am down with fantasy.

There's all kinds of things you could do with the Gates:

They are one-way into our shared world.

They are relics of some unknown ancient culture, and how to operate them is lost to the sands of time.

There is no predictability to their operations.

They are currently 'dead' or inert.

It takes great engery to power and use them.

Etc, etc...

My contribution would be of an island continent. The dwarves are the main protagonists and a magocratic human empire is the main antagonist. It is a fantasy setting. A new race and cutlure of anthropomorphic humanoid animals is emerging and carving out their slice of the pie.

Well, I could possibly see a mish-mash of both fantasy and science-fiction. If we are going to use the Gate mechanic, then this can easily be achieved. I could also envision Star Trek meets Spelljammer in the cold black. There is a well established precedent in fantasy settings that magic can be used for air and space travel.

I would suggest option #3. It works best for me, since I have only created an island continent; about the size of Australia.

I a sure that there are some people who have developed a whole planet with land masses, races, and cultures, but I would venture that most have just focused on one area.

Option #3 would be the more than likely be the best way to integrate everyone's ideas with the least amount of the pigeon-hole effect.

Thanks Shaira!

It's a very nice sheet; neat and clean. Great job!

IMO, anything that makes character skills and stats more dynamic is a good thing. That's why I like the idea of having a separate bonus and base. One determines how quickly you advance (based on your stats), while the other determines how good you start based on racial/cultural background. I also like having multiple stats affect a category (with multiple categories benefiting from any one stat as well). That way you avoid one-dimensional aspects that other games tend to create. Oh! I'm a fighter, so I've got a high str and con. So my skills that base on those stats are good, while the ones based on dex and int aren't so hot (and never will be since I'll learn them so much slower).

Where those values are set can vary wildly based on the game setting and specific campaign, but I think that preserving that granularity is useful.

I am in agreement here. I like the idea of having multiple characteristics contribute to a category modifier. I like that each skill has its own base chance, and that a certain skill's base chance can be altered due to cultural background. All this work is really done once at character creation, and thereafter it only simple addition/subtraction to modify a skill and/or category modifier.

Hello and welcome MattyHelms!

Belated welcome Jack Tar!

well, maybe floating collections of seaweeds and organisms can create an artificial island where birds and mammals can live and breed.

I hit the big 4-0 this year, and I am rapidly approaching the next tick (May ).

Well, I voted for a shared world for BRP. I am cool with the Gate shared world option as well. Gates are a staple in fantasy and science-fiction and allow for a creative mish-mash while maintaining the feel of continuity, IMHO.

Maybe look at shortening the skill list by make a few skills more broad and encompassing, rather than creating sub-divided characteristics.

Such as Athletics which would cover all physical skills like dodge, swim, climb, jump, throw, etc.

Ok, so I assume then that they have re-introduced shellfish then.

What about cephalopods? Squid, octopi, cuttlefish, etc.

What about sea turtles?

Well, they'll have to re-introduce plankton, as mentioned. Also, coral is very important to the marine life chain.

Hi and welcome Rust!

What about the Hawk? That was designed as a fast attack craft and looks damned cool!

Space: 1999 Catacombs- Hawk

Now, I know it doesn't feature as part of the Moonbase Alpha fleet, but its still too cool a ship to ignore (and who's to say that Koenig doesn't have a couple stached somewhere in a secret hangar that he hasn't even told Dr Russell about in one of their little trysts...?)

Hey, that's a really cool idea! :thumb:

Well, I am glad that I shelled out the cash for these (total of like $55 for all booklets and shipping). I was pissed off at the time because it thought it would be like what the BRP Zero edition is today. I felt tricked when I received them and discovered that they were actually the RQ3 books with the serial numbers filed off. It was partly my fault as well because I didn't do any research before I purchased them. I randomly decided to visit Chaosium's website and saw several monograph books for BRP and assumed that it was a revised and greatly expanded version.

Don't dispair though; if you own RQ3 then you have the BRP: the Chaosium System monographs. All you have to do is delete any reference to Glorantha and you are good to go!

Does anyone remember the hardback edition of Stormbringer that GDW released in association with Chaosium? The one where all the pages fell out about 2 days after purchase, despite trying to be as careful as possible when handling it?

Yup! I own that one too. ;-(

And that's why I say this isn't going anywhere. If we have fundamentally different premises, most of our discussion is, by its nature, going to be talking past each other.

Well, I wouldn't say talking past each other; I would say more like agree to disagree. We both understand each others premise.

When in all other ways he was less competent than every other character, unless your premise is that his capabilities are irrelevant to engaging him, I don't know any other way to read this.

Acknowledged.

That said, I'm coming to the conclusion that my premise on this--that problems character generation cause players are genuine systemic problems--are also foreign enough to you that any further exchange is pointless.

Oh, come on Nightshade. Don't be so silly and melodramatic

It was just plain silly to say that the only way a GM can engage the skills and abilities of the sailor occupation was to present a boat in every session. There are plenty of other ways that a GM can engage the skills and abilities of a sailor without resorting to a boat in every session. You are an intelligent and imaginative person and I am confident that you could come up with plenty of other ideas to engage a sailor character.

Again, don't be so silly. I comprehend your premise. I simply disagree with it. I don't see RQ3's random character generation method or the optional character generation methods as a systematic problem; it's that simple. I can't honestly believe that you are trying to be condescending in your posts, but when you use words like 'foreign,' 'dismissive,' or 'elitist' it is hard to stay positive. I'm going to chalk it up to the nature of forums and the written word; without context things are easily taken the wrong way.

Seriously, I wished I still lived in Glendale. I grew up in Glendale and lived in the L.A. until a few years ago. I did most of my gaming and made my RPG purchases at the Last Grenadier in Burbank. Once in a blue moon, I would make up to that RPG shop on Colorado past the Pasadena City College (I can't recall the name at the moment :ohwell:). Anyway, I would love to discuss these things in person over a beer or cup of coffee.

That's awsome! :cool:

Pictures are worth a thousand words

Colin,

I have a rare opportunity to thank you for your work here, so I'm taking it.

Thank you for your work on Talislanta.

It has brought me much enjoyment over the years. Also, for your others works; some I own and some I haven't had the chance to obtain yet.

Also, I just picked up a|state and I think it's a pretty darn cool game as well. :thumb:

Cheers!

Drohem

Hello and welcome cleombrotus and Colin!

And if it was one person out of all gamers, I'd find that a relevant statement, but given I've personally seen it be an issue for at least a dozen people at one time or another, and heard of many more, that's clearly incorrect, so I return to my statement that the only question can be how widespread a problem it is.

You stated that if one person had a problem, then it was problematic. This is a ridiculous claim. I would say that if even a dozen or more gamers had an issue out of the number of potential gamers out there, then it is still not a problem.

Except they clearly weren't the default case, and as such, if a GM had no problem with it but a player did, he was simply stuck. In addition, the alternate methods had their own issues.

The GM is the finally arbitrator in their game, so that statment is nonsensical. Find another game and GM if you don't like the rules the GM chooses.

To a degree, but I don't think there's much subjectivity in saying that a character who does everything worse than other characters is inferior by a reasonable objective metric.

One man's trash is another man's treasure. I guess I can find value and potential in almost any character. The potential for objectively inferior characters is a possibility for any game system that uses random generation. Accept it or don't play a game with random generation.

No, I'd say its a desire to have a character that doesn't feel like a second stringer. To dismiss that as poor roleplaying is to have an essentially pointlessly elitist definition of roleplaying.

No, I'd say it's child mentality that forces them to always play superior characters. In any RPG game or group, there are players who will have to play second stringer to one or more characters. It's the nature of the beast, and to say otherwise is foolish.

And I'd characterize it as poor design that makes it necessary for him to do so. A routinely generated character shouldn't require extra effort on a GM's part to feel involved.

That is another ridiculous statement. All game sessions and campaigns require extra effort for the players and characters to be involved.

And I'd claim that if I needed to do so in every session, that's the game expecting more than is reasonable. It shouldn't be necessary to make sure every adventure involves a boat to make a character feel useful.

Now are you being ludicrous: there are plenty of ways to engage a sailor character without having a boat in every session.

Sorry, I don't know how to do the quote-in-quote thing, so please don't read anything into it.