Conrad

Thinking about it a GM screen would come in handy. Uninjured with nil underhandedness, just an inquisitive intelligence that is running RoH right now, and enjoying it.  

One of my friends asked the same question on the D101 games Facebook page. Here was the answer. I hope it helps, Marcus. 

The setting could easily be used with threedeesix's Star Frontiers conversion. It would be fairly easy to adapt it to the Operation Ulysses, Mission to Epsilon, and Spacejack! monograph scenarios.   However it would be better to buy those monographs than waste your cash on Starfarer 2250, unless you already have the Starguard! miniatures rules and want a quick rpg add on to those rules. Being tied to the quickstart rules limits severely the amount of detail for such stuff as the multivisor, and there are no psionics rules, though they are part of some creatures talents, and some equipment. Also some of the robots are all a bit samey, and could have benefited from a more varied selection, like adding the Decapillar, instead of the bland Philot Military Training Robot.  They also use weapons, but most of them have no skill rating for this use. The MOM bot can conduct battlefield repairs on robots but no skill is shown. Very poor indeed. The aliens seem a bit too samey in their stats, and could have done with a more imaginative interpretation than is done here. They also would have benefited from the full BGB rules being used to quantify them. Finally the art in places is atrocious, and could have been better. What a pity that Chaosium chose to licence this without doing some quality control. 

What an oddly quirky setting, but with some interesting bits! The extraordinary items are obviously inspired by D&D. The Sonic Meditation Box, which allows for an increased Psi point recovery rate , and the Psychic Medallion allows for one psychic power if you don't already have one, are interesting. But psychic powers, while mentioned, are not included in the book, you'll need the BGB to use them. The Vest of Useful Items and Regeneration Bracers look interesting too. I like the many types of grenades too, but that's because my players just love to blow themselves up given half the chance. Nuclear or nerve agent? Yes they have those. 

There are no space combat rules. And no planetary generation rules, though there is a planetary classification table. There is perhaps too much detail on what clothing a character has. There are many old school style alien races statted, and most of them are of the humanoid animal (see the link in the  post above for an overview). There are also many types of robots statted too, from warbots to cargo bots.  The book also contains some short notes on using the miniatures rules from Starguard! and Starwar 2250 with the BRP rules.

On 13/03/2018 at 8:20 PM, Lou Goncey said:

 It is basically a post Star Wars space opera universe...

It is based upon the Starguard! miniatures combat game first published in 1974, so it precedes Star Wars by 3 years. So it is a pre- Star Wars space opera setting. http://tin-soldier.com/sgdp.html

Lou, is there a space combat system? Are psionics part of it? I'm interested in the thing, but the preview wasn't all that informative.

On 07/03/2018 at 7:52 AM, seneschal said:

The Monster Men

Source:  Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Monster Men, 1913

 

Good for Astounding Adventures adversaries!

Was Green Hell ever published? I can't find any reference to it other than the article already linked to. 

In the Thennla Campaign sourcebook under the heading Types of Deity the Titans are mentioned.  Lesser Titans like the Planets are mentioned. I was wondering what those planets are called, after all, I'm sure that Venus, Mars, and Jupiter aren't part of Thennla mythology? I know it is only a minor background thing, not a setting breaker,  but it would be nice to know.  Any ideas on what to name them? 

Thanks for your helpful replies, gentlemen. 

Is there an official source for gauging the height and weight of PCs from their SIZ? I'm converting some alien races from a sourcebook and would like some guidelines as too how their weight and height translate into Legend. 

On 03/10/2016 at 10:27 PM, Newt said:

I shall definitely be creating some new Augs for the upcoming River of Heaven Companion.

I'm glad that the RoH Companion is upcoming. I think RoH is one of the best Si Fi games going, no harm and no foul. 

I'm not selling my beloved copy, but on ebay someone is selling a copy that is described as being in "good condition".  http://www.ebay.com/itm/WORLDS-BEYOND-RPG-ROLEPLAYING-GAME-MANUAL-FRANK-S-SHEWMAKE-OTHER-WORLD-GAMES-/112460687848

10 hours ago, Joerg said:

Mainly because here on Earth the magnetism of the molten core deals with some of those issues.

Lower gravity might cause a lower density in higher layers of the atmosphere, too. Our ozone layer is created several kilometers up.

 

I wonder whether radiation control needs to be left to the atmosphere, though. Leaving Mars in its current orbit means that there is less desirable light available than a terraformed surface might want, so a mirror array like Kim Stanley Robinson's L1 Soletta could be a good idea. Now if that array was selective in what radiation it would let through from the sun, the major source for unwanted radiation activity would be under control. The array system would need to be able to react to changes in the incoming light. It might even convert the energy from "unwanted" emissions of the sun into an artificial magnetic field through photovoltaics.

Even with a soletta you would need some form of protection from solar flare radiation, since Mars has a very thin atmosphere, and no magnetic field worthy of the name.

15 hours ago, Matt_E said:

Ah.  You said "solar", so I was not thinking about cosmic rays.  Yes, the more, the better, as far as that goes, and any/every molecule counts, as a massive deflecting body.  I would not call UV radiation "quotidian" (you do wear sunscreen, right?), but it is certainly less energetic.

If you're going down that road, there is also the magnetosphere to consider.  I don't know about that, for Mars.

 

"Quotidian" was a word I used because it is radiation that occurs every day, while x and gamma rays resulting from solar flares is not an everyday occurence. Generating a magnetic field for Mars would be something that would be good for protection.

16 hours ago, clarence said:

Hmm, why does Mars need a denser atmosphere than Earth for protection? 

No magnetic field. 

8 hours ago, Matt_E said:

Adding CO$_2$ will not block the problematic UV rays.  You need oxygen for that, which has its ozone allotrope.  You could use a UV absorber other than oxygen, I guess, but whatever else you might choose, I'll bet you shouldn't breathe it.

I'm not writing about quotidian UV, but stuff from solar flares, like X rays, and also stuff like cosmic rays that aren't caused by solar flares . A nice thick atmosphere will act to lessen exposure to such radiation.

On 25/06/2017 at 11:02 PM, clarence said:

Terraforming Mars seems much more realistic after reading this:

http://www.popsci.com/terraform-mars-climate-change

After 100 years the atmosphere is still too low in oxygen, but at least no vaccsuit is needed. And sending robots to do the initial work is of course very clever. 

If you cart some of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Venus over to Mars you would have the same effect. What most articles on terraforming Mars don't mention is the fact that you need a denser atmosphere than Earth's to block solar radiation that is harmful to living things.

I was looking at the History of Superhero RPGs on the Age of Ravens blog and I came across an entry for a Spanish RPG called Superheroes INC that has apparently been influenced by BRP.  "A Spanish RPG, this is actually the second edition of the game. The first edition published by Ediciones Cronópolis in '95 had a couple of supplements, but the company folded. A new publisher- La Caja de Pandora (Pandora's Box)- decided to revise and reissue the game in a striking way. They published separate basic manuals for each of the six character types: Inhumans, Vigilantes, Magic, Mutants, Gods, and Tech. That's a neat concept except that each had different bits necessary to play the game. A later revised edition put everything together into one version. The game itself apparently leans heavily on Basic Role-Playing (BRP). "    http://malditorol.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/analisis-superheroes-inc.html

 https://boardgamegeek.com/rpgitem/68155/superheroes-inc-arcanos

On 09/06/2010 at 6:05 AM, pansophy said:

The W13 remembered me on the movie "Dark side of the moon" where a junk robot used everything it could find to build a hell of a machine. There was a PA flick as well, where a women did find a skull in the Wasteland and brought it home. The thing then started to build together a death machine.

Sounds like this movie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_(film)  I just ordered R&R and can't wait to take a look at it. 

17 minutes ago, clarence said:

M-SPACE has an optional section with simplified combat. They only have 11 Special Effects and no hit locations. Most of my players care very little for combat and they find the simplified rules quick and easy. 

I'm all for simpler rulesets.

2 hours ago, soltakss said:

Personally, no, as I cannot understand why you wouldn't want to use Hit Locations.

 http://designmechanism.freeforums.org/gm-notation-query-t2012.html

If there were optional rules in Mythras for getting rid of locational hit points, replacing them with general ones (generated by Con plus SIZ/2) would you use those rules instead? Do you think such rules would encourage more folk to run Mythras? 

Well, that's a first. Luckily I was able to contact the author to ask him about the aliens in the background. For Legend fans it looks like a good setting for converting to Mercenary Breed, as it is a more interesting background than the Argo Galaxy.

"Desperate for resources, humanity colonised the solar system, terraforming the other planets where it could and setting up huge artificial environments where it could not. After a number of false starts humanity developed effective star travel and sent out starships to explore the nearby stars in earnest. Though the development of the stardrive was expensive and time-consuming, pressures from a planet almost depleted of resources and gasping for room meant few options were left.

After years of fruitless search for extra-terrestrial life, the accepted theory was that humanity was alone the universe, separated from any other interstellar civilisation by the millions of years of history. Imagine the surprise of the first explorers when they encountered not just one, but many other races exploring the stars. Some were humanoid, others were totally unlike anything humanity had ever seen; some were friendly, others were hostile in the extreme.

Despite the hope of the optimists, the contact led to an increase in the already-existing conflict for land between the oxygen-breathing races of the galaxy. Scuffles for resources had already grown into a state of continual, low-key war, governed and complicated by numerous local treaties between dependent colonies, free worlds and the core systems of each species. Furthermore, each free world felt able to deal with other free worlds, whether to declare hostilities or to declare alliances. The presence of the ambitious and flexible humans of the United Nations of Earth (UNE) aggravated this cold war.

Whilst they lost the early encounters with the more advanced races, later encounters were frequently won by the more adaptable humanity, leaving the older species concerned that they would lose their status in the galaxy. Rather than ally against the UNE – an act which would be impossible for some species anyway – the older species attempted to tie humanity's hands with a treaty that they believed would undo the gradual dominance of the UNE.

The agreement, called the Sirius Treaty by the UNE, states that outright war and weapons of mass destruction are outlawed. It limited the use of technology on primitive planets, attempting to protect those civilisations from exposure to influences that could readily destroy them. Slavery, such as that of forced, unpaid colonies is abolished. There is more, but the key is that violators are denied access to the planets on which they violate the treaty, or are dealt with by a new, independent force set up to monitor the treaty: the Invigilators.

The Invigilators are cybernetically enhanced sophonts using the best technology the treaty species can supply. This peace-keeping force was given resources and technologies to make them independent of the other species and able to function as a self-contained force. Though totally committed to the tenets of the treaty, the Invigilators quickly adapted their role to monitor interaction and development on newly-discovered planets, ensuring the local development of technology is not affected by interactions with off-world technology.

Though it successfully limited outright, interstellar war with the devastating, high-tech weapons available to the starfaring species, the treaty brought even further chaos. The UNE, humanity’s Core Worlds, and the MetaCorporations rapidly founded new institutions to fight limited war. The almost indolent, older species quickly found themselves having to adjust to keep up.

Non-Interference? The UNEST Legions...

The principle of non-interference embodied within the treaty forbids the use of any technology higher than that in general use on a protected world. No advanced species is permitted to give less-advanced species new technology: the primitives must make their own discoveries. Anachronous technology cannot even be taken on-planet.

Critics have already pointed out that this is likely to 'freeze' development. Several situations have already arisen where the locals have developed their own answers to problems using inventions that were possibly inspired by off-world technology. But the Invigilators acted swiftly, according to their directives, and suppressed the technology, wiping out those who committed the infraction. However, the treaty races quickly established that using precedents from their own past avoided the attentions of the Invigilators completely: the technology, in-period, was justified.

This became a gift to the UNE. With its long and intensely varied history of war, humanity merely looked at its past and found the means to obey the letter of the treaty – if not its spirit. From the Romans to the Mongols, from the English longbowmen to the Samurai, Earth had a plethora of highly effective models, in a wide range of technologies on which it could base a new type of soldier. The UNEST-SF were created, able to adapt to any historical circumstance with the best humanity could offer.

The UNE forces are already given the best implants earth could provide. To a Star Marine, tactical datajacks, combat nanofactories, subcutaneous comlinks and subdermal armour were a necessity. But when that same star marine picks up a Roman sword, dons Roman armour and joins a legion of the UNEST, a new breed of warrior is born. He becomes the special forces legionnaire, a soldier wearing and carrying equipment that looks just like that of their historical counterparts, but each item of equipment is the result of the best GM, ceramic and and metallurgic technology earth can build. And with his cybered upgrades being an invisible, intrinsic part of himself, he cannot be accused of taking illegal technology down to the planet’s surface.

This is a soldier of the UNEST-SF. Though armed with a sword, his subdermal armour, hidden comlinks and cybernetic implants make him a potent adversary. And he needs all the advantages he can get when he faces the duplicitous species of the Sirius Treaty, and the might of the Invigilators!"

 http://www.sceaptunegames.co.uk/shop/hyperlite.htm

Interesting answers there gentlemen, but does Newt have the cash to buy an old school space setting from someone else? Wouldn't it make better business sense to make up an old school space setting, Like SWN ( https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/15/15458.phtml ) or file off the serial numbers of an old setting, like the OSR rpgs do ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_School_Revival )?