Conrad

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 )?

Why bother with licencing someone else's setting when it is far cheaper to create your own?

Minor quibble. The centre of the galaxy is exploding in a runaway chain of supernovae in Niven's Known Space setting. It isn't an expanding black hole that they're fleeing from.

Sure it is an awful lot of work, which is why I wrote "maybe of Precursor design" because an earlier higher tech civilization would have made it. But you don't have to engage in such a megaproject all at once. Smaller domes would be an excellent way of slowly making a Worldhouse. Over time, as the colony expands, all the domes eventually cover the surface of the world and are linked together.

That's why I wrote "maybe of Precursor design". Dyson spheres are less likely than Stapledon rings, which is a ring of habitats encircling a star. Dyson got his idea from Olaf Stapledon anyway.

Why not have a world that isn't in the habitable zone, but is totally covered by a huge bubble (maybe of Precursor design) that absorbs all kinds of light on the outer surface and uses it to produce a fake sky and sun on the inner surface, regulating temperature to produce a Class M environment?

Maybe the secret is to ask, and if ignored, keep asking till you get what you asked for. I'm looking forward to the RoH Companion too.

You can get a lot of mileage out of the huge effort of terraforming as plotlines for scenarios. Terraforming failing may also provide such plotlines too. And planets may have been terraformed (xenoformed?) by precursor races but over vast time periods the terraforming may start to fail, due to evolution of the sun off the main sequence, or terraforming tech needing maintenance, or even terraforming organisms dying out or changing due to genetic drift.

That's an interesting hypothesis. Do you have any links to scientific papers on it, as I'd love to read them? I have a few doubts about it though.The late heavy bombardment period would have peppered the inner solar system with impactors. Any hitting Mars should have gotten rid of some surface material, including sulphur, due to the low escape velocity that world has. If Earth's surface was scoured of sulphur too, by impacts, then I don't see why Venus would not suffer a similar process, since it has a slightly lower escape velocity than Earth. But not by that big a difference. Lastly, life adapts, and over time may have learned to live with a high sulphur content. The Star Trek episode involving space hippies relocating to an apparently edenic world, only to find the abundant plants, and fruit, to be deadly would be the kind of scenario that would result from plants incorporating sulphuric acid.

Not really, the secret is to ASK. Nicely, and say "Thank you/arigato gozaimasu/danke schon/merci beaucoup" afterwards.

Das ist sehr gut! Danke! :D

Looks like you didn't even read my reply at all before you posted "No they've been discontinued." But you don't need my permission to reiterate what I've already written, nor do you need Soltakss's either. As for salty Soltakss saying that I'm not perfect I never said I was, so please stop straw manning Solty. It amounts to telling lies.

I wrote "looks like they've been discontinued on other RPG selling websites as well. Probably to do with the licencing lapsing." So your reply makes no sense. Please read what I have written before you reply to it.

Does anyone have access to some RoH character sheets that aren't so ink consuming? I just want a plain stat sheet without all that black space as background, atmospheric or not.

The Lensman series and The Demolished Man are more my influences, but psychic powers could easily be abused by do gooders, and they could eventually end up being regarded as space fascists.

"Speaking of which, are the Legend Stormbringer supplements no longer available, or is it just me who can't find them on RPGNow?" It looks like they've been discontinued on other RPG selling websites as well. Probably to do with the licencing lapsing.

Interesting. Sorry for the thread derailment. I was looking for a reason to get WEG Star Wars for my son. I wonder who at Chaosium wrote the game?

Some kind of spacebound Psi Police would make for a great RPG, especially for OQ, as it is sufficiently different from RoH's territory (I can see it now, OQ Psi Space!). I wonder why the only thing I can think of that sounds anything like that for RPGs is GURPS Lensman? I know that the RPG Space Opera has lenses in it as well, but as far as I can find there was no official Psi Cop Campaign published by any RPG company. Am I correct, or wrong about this?

Does anyone have Hyperlite: The Sirius Treaty? If you do can you please tell me about the various alien races in that game. The Sirius Treaty

There is a set of cyberpunk rules for Call of Cthulhu, which should be useable with the BGB. https://www.rpg.net/realm/cyber/rules.html If you have any of the old Cyberpunk 2020 stuff you can also find rules on converting from that system to Call of Cthulhu here. http://littlezeus.free.fr/jdr/CyberPunk - JdR/CyberPunk [ENG] - JdR/Cyberpunk 2020 - Interface Magazine 2.2.pdf

I'd be interested.

I would love to see an old school style space opera setting in the style of Star Frontiers, for OQ. Am I alone in this desire, or would others like to see such a thing? Such a thing would most likely be more popular than RoH as space opera is easier to get your head around than Hard SF.