Conrad

Hyperspace Scars

Sometimes an area of space can be damaged by a natural event such as a Supernova or an artificial event such as a powerful ancient weapon. These areas are called Hyperspace Scars and have an effect on Interstellar Travel.

Nice idea!:thumb:

I guess it's true: there is no such thing as a truly original idea:lol: I'll have to see if this Perry Rhodan series is translated into English.

The Perry Rhodan books are guilty of half inching a few concepts from elsewhere in SF too!

It sounds very good, although I have to admit that I would probably buy

only Supplement I, the Worlds Beyond rewrite.

I will e mail Dustin to ask if Chaosium has any plans to reissue a revamped version of the game.

So, that looks like 2 projects to me. The first - a Worlds Beyond rewrite involving the best of Ringworld minus the setting (but with the "implied" setting), to cover the Space Opera / Hard Tech games - effectively a "rules expansion" for BRP. The second - a completely new beast Which Has Not Been Written Yet, which might use some of the rules from the SF Rules Expansion (ie planetary design, some vehicles, etc), but would ignore stuff like computer programming skills, in favour of its own background - ie effectively a "setting sourcebook".

How does that sound?

Cheers,

Sarah

Could a supplement be large enough to combine the two and make Chaosium some money?

Many of the elements Shaira was describing fit into Iain M. Banks' Culture novels...

Regardless, I agree that the interesting bits of science fiction gaming are deep under the chrome and rayguns. Hell, the "chrome and rayguns" paradigm is, what?, 50 years old now?

We'd also have to define Humans' place in the culture found in the new environment.

What specific things do we want to tinker with? How do these changes interact with each other?

Too many things, and you run the risk of a setting that's too alien for most gamers to invest in. Too few things (or not developing them deep enough), and you are in danger of seeming cliche.

This thread's very interesting...

I thought that "chrome and rayguns" went right back beyond even E.E. Smith's Lensman series.

If Iain M. Banks Culture books don't alienate readers then they could be used as some sort of starting point for developing a more modern type of space opera roleplaying for BRP.

As for things seeming cliched, even modern space opera has its recurring ideas, but that doesn't hurt a roleplaying game that needs commonly accepted tropes to keep players from being alienated.

It seems that I am a bit more old fashioned ...

But then, I am almost as old as dirt, and being old fashioned probably fits

me well. :cool:

I'm in my mid forties and although I love Traveller and Firefly, but I would like to see a supplement for BRP that enables a GM to run space opera that is of a more modern type, like Iain M. Banks or Alastair Reynolds or Charles Stross. There are plenty of Traveller type roleplaying games out there.

The future I extrapolated from Lovecraft's references was always much more 'psychedelic' and 'weird' than just a 'conventional' SF setting with Cthulhu still lurking in the background.

I always took the Tsan-Chan and Dark Conquerors as being examples of humanity slowly... losing it's humanity... of becoming a part of the Mythos... of moving among the stars in concert with the Mi Go and the Elder Things... knowing of them and being part of that 'community'... men moving between the stars by means of 'spells' and 'light envelopes'. Extra-dimensional entities being an accepted part of hazardous reality... like asteroid-fields and black holes... that require proper 'ritual' to keep clear of. Not in some Warhammer 40K neo-luddite way... but as a full on understanding of science/mathematics as 'magic'.

I guess I see it as a sort of Transhumanist setting... with the various elements of Mythos reality taking an equal role to nanotechnology and cybernetics/biotechnology in creating the 'new men'.

Very dark and cold and... ultimately... depressing.

Have you ever heard of Darkspace by Monte Cook?

1301 Dark Space

It was Lovecraftian space opera. It would make for a good BRP conversion as it has magic, softech and SF all in one universe.

. I'd give her the following: Danger Sense, Eidetic Memory, Intuition, and maybe Precognition. Serenity herself would be a Space Vehicle, Transport as described on pages 270 and 271, though without FTL or energy shields.

Note that while I'm not saying you'd need to copy the show's characters, this is just an example of how you'd translate it to BRP.

I kept thinking " Do I really need the new BRP book? I already have lots of rules to cover space opera games". Then I read the quotes above and realised how much better my games would be with rules for eidetic memory etc. Now when is that darned rulesbook gonna hit the shores of Britain?

As and when I know what Chaosium intend to do with it, I'll say more, but at present I'm not sure when or even what exactly they'll do with it.

Cheers,

Nick

I hope that it sees the light of day. I'd very definately buy it!:thumb:

IThings like:

i.) The impact of extreme longevity on humankind

ii.) Ubiquitous and cheap AI

iii.) Easy geneering

iv.) Ubiquitous PSI or pseudo-PSI*

v.) Stop being impressed by computers - the future probably won't even perceive them as discrete objects, they'll be everywhere and invisible

vi.) Heaps of artificial lifeforms, and blurring of distinctions.

vii.) Dimensional technology, including instantaneous travel in certain cases, harnessing of gravity, as yet unknown tech, a la Rudy Rucker

viii.) Relativistic effects meaning temporal integrity is not required in societies - people may be out travelling for 10 years whilst 1000 years pass locally. Different evolutionary / technological levels constantly clashing, returnee culture shock, etc.

ix.) Extreme evolutionary, social, philosophical and linguistic divergence as humanity spreads out over millennia. Not just Asimov-type divergence, but *major* freakout stuff.

x.) Money as an interstellar lingua franca, but not really used within societies themselves.

I'd like to see a BRP SF rpg with ships that are alive, can change their colour (and shape) so that they strobe madly when going into combat. I'd like to see an option to be able to play living space craft as well.

I'd like to see a space opera game where there are no baseline normal everyday humans. Every character would have some sort of enhancement.

Any Browncoast here?

Is Browncoast anything to do with Firefly?:confused:

I'd never heard of Worlds Beyond until now, and I have to say that I didn't know how poor I was until I heard of those riches ...

All the more reason for us to try to get the game, or sections of it, published by Chaosium in some form. As Dredj says,there are many typos and some editing to be done if it were to be republished.

However in the interim can I recommend Cthulhu Rising. It is free and has starships and starship combat that would not be out of place in any space opera.

Here it is:

[ CTHULHU RISING: Game Downloads ]

Enjoy:D

I think it would also be interesting to contemplate a SF sourcebook for BRP which combines the best elements of Ringworld RPG (minus the Ringworld-specific content) with things like space combat and world generation from Worlds Beyond. That would be up there with the "magic book" as priority items for BRP rules expansions!

Cheers,

Sarah

This is a fantastic idea. If I can contact Frank Shewmake I would like to ask him if he'd allow the ship building/space combat and world generation rules from WB to be published in a chaosium BRP supplement. If being the operative word.:ohwell:

Mind, I also want to see something explicitly SF and NON-mythos for BRP - and I'm still waiting to here exactly what Chaosium are going to do with Outpost 19, the SF scenario I sent them a while back, once the editing is complete.

Cheers,

Nick

Can you tell us more about Outpost 19?

I will dig out my book, today. But I'll hang on, since I'd rather not get into any legal issues.

Dredj, are there any questions that you may wish to ask Mr Shewmake, if I manage to collar him ( this question applies to anyone else interested in Worlds Beyond)?

dustin@chaosium.com is the guy to talk to.

I know from him that Chaosium has the rights to reprint WB, but I don't know what other rights they may have or be interested in procuring.

Many thanks for that link and information.

Soon, after I dig through my stuff after a move, I will post the Worlds Beyond FTL rules.

Dredj, before you do that you may want to contact Frank Shewmake to ask if it is okay.

Come to think of it Mr Shewmake might still have the missing chargen tables still knocking about in a file somewhere. It would also be interesting to ask him if he intended to publish any more products for Worlds Beyond.

Can anyone give me a name and e mail address at Chaosium so that I can inquire about contacting Mr Shewmake? Since this thread shows that there is a (small) amount of interest in contacting the author I may as well try to do so. At the least we may get an interesting interview with Mr Shewmake out of it.

I'd like to see Worlds Beyond get a new lease on life... but I kind of doubt there is much of an audience for it that isn't already satisfied with some version of Traveller.

I'd love to see an official Traveller BRP book, though it is unlikely. I never liked any of the game systems for any of the Traveller games and, after seeing how Future World did things, thought that BRP would make a good system for that universe.

I might try to convert Worlds Beyond to BRP using Stefan Mathias's Traveller BRP notes, seeing as both Traveller and Worlds Beyond are very similar in outlook.

Maybe you can email Chaosium, too:)

I did.

Chaosium's catalog is filling up nicely with both old and new stuff, well worth a look pretty much every day now.

Among the old stuff, they now have Superworld available. If I understand the description right it's basically the same as the box set, but slightly modified for the new BRP.

And Nephilim.

Could this be a sign that Chaosium are thinking of supporting both games?

I'm not a huge supers fan (I've only played Golden Heroes) but I'm suddenly tempted.

Didn't like Nephilim ( I thought it was a White Wolf game that had accidentally been published by Chaosium!), but Superworld was wonderful:thumb:. If they have modified it for use with DBRP then I'll definately pick up a copy.

GH was a fun little game. It would be good to see a conversion of its simpler superpowers system for use with BRP or Superworld.

conrad,aikighost....look in the mirror. That is where the sulky children will be peering back. Brats with a keyboard.:eek:(I'm 43 years old for Nyarlathotep's sake!:ohwell:)

Frankly I am beginning to be embarassed I have the same hobby as you little shits...no, wait, I don't. Not even similar. Your hobby is trying to rattle someone elses' cage, isn't it? ( You were the one calling names, so I think you should reconsider that opinion!)

You are both on my ignore list now, and there is no possibility of communication between us again. You do the same for me, little shits. Congratulations.( Further proof that you don't have the staying power or will to actually run a game. Your tantrum reminds me of my son's behaviour, and he is two years old.)

I'm laughing at Badcat for his mental inflexibility, impatience and lack of maturity, like I have to laugh when my son throws a strop. These appear to be the main reasons why he isn't running a game.

Badcat, please take some advice from an old timer.

Take a break, have a holiday from roleplaying. Then you can come back to it all with a fresher mind.Frustration makes people do strange things.

Learn some tolerance and patience. All good things come to those who wait ( and are prepared to run a game). I wish you good fortune with eventually finding the right group for you.

Hey! How come your guys aren't 'juiced up' on how BRP1 will play? :mad:

Cripes! I'd better explain myself then! I am excited about DBRP. However if it is like a fusion of Stormbringer 5th edition and the latest Call of Cthulhu rules, then I've been pretty much running that for the last few years. A lot of what I've read about in the new rule book I've already got. If I haven't then I've got some other rules that function in a very similar fashion e. g. psionics rules.

I'm am looking forward to seeing the robotics rules and the example of a giant robot. The environmental damage rules would be nice to have a look at.

But I often wonder why Chaosium didn't issue a compendium of rules using the Stormbringer system (sans background) as the core, years ago?

I hope to see a revival of interest in BRP,to the level of the days of my youth, when the top games were D&D, Traveller and Runequest.

I'll repeat as needed. You don't like it, tough.

We get the picture. Now grow up and stop behaving like a spoiled child.

It has become a mindless habit, and it is mediocre.

That is my opinion, and I back off not one...tiny...iota.

It is also a fact that it is mindless and mediocre.

I wonder if there are D&D fans out there that are writing the same thing about BRP? I don't think most of them are even bothered about BRP right now, not with 4e just coming out.

In what way is D&D mediocre? Just because the majority of "mindless" gamers play it?

I've seen no end of griping about other peoples' games that either comes across as frustration or sour grapes that their beloved game isn't the most popular. Well, thats constructive, isn't it?

It doesn't help you find a gaming group to run BRP with, or encourage D&Ders to take a positive interest in BRP, to describe them all as mindless. They're not, and some of them run and play BRP games. Frustrated and impatient attitudes are more likely the biggest impediment to running BRP based games with these groups.

I used to run GURPS and the only group I could find, when my friends all vanished off to uni, were vehemently anti GURPS. They wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. It took me a year of playing D&D and other non GURPS games before they eventually came around to realising that my GURPS games weren't the ultimate blasphemy.

I ran GURPS games for them for 5 years on and off before I ran into BRP and never looked back. I'm still gaming with this group, and they're playing my BRP games. But right now everybody is juiced up on what D&D 4th edition is going to play like.

A bit of patience and a more tolerant attitude would be much more productive for you than frustrated name calling. Try it, it might even work.

Yes. BRP is better than D&D, and it's a good thing to say so at every opportunity. In this case it also helps us sympathise with Badcat, beleagured as he is in 'WotC Central' amidst blinkered D&D hordes. The main problem, as I understand it, is no-one will even try BRP there, so he can't run a game. I understand his frustration. If only we could engage the D&Ders in petty name-calling, then at least they'd see there's an alternative...

I agree BRP is a better gamesystem than any of the various different D&D rules.But that is only my opinion, and perhaps that of many of the people on this site. However calling D&D players "mindless" or "blinkered" isn't the most intelligent thing to do. What next, perhaps they are brain dead?

D&D is the most popular rpg going and will be so for a good long while. To gripe about it because it is more popular sounds more like sour grapes than reasonable argument.

Sadly BRP will never be more popular than D&D, no other gamesystem will. But there is always a niche for other games to be played. Rather than waste time and energy railing against the most popular rpg perhaps using that energy looking for a suitable group is the wisest thing to do.