Lloyd Dupont

Stumbled on some Chaosium tweet about Australia and... I couldn't resist add some input!  

First this particular tweet is about an investigative plot twist!
Koala has similar thumbprint to Human!

Which begs the question.. who, or what, else has similar thumbprint hey?!
I will let that question hang unanswered....

Then they have a link about "Terror Australis" where they talk about the main major cities... (Sydney, Melbourne....)
https://www.chaosium.com/terror-australis-2nd-edition-hardcover/

As a contemporary Australian, I can tell you, even today, in everybody's mind, there is like 6 cities in Australia... and the rest is more or less... the bush.. with dots of population here and there....

Finally, they are missing my favorites attraction, as a former inhabitant of Darwin, we have our own Roswell!
That is right! Alien visited us!
Somewhere in the middle of the hot nowhere that is the Northern territory:
https://wikitravel.org/en/Wycliffe_Well
https://www.ntnews.com.au/lifestyle/abduckted-im-not-quackers-but-aliens-stole-my-feathered-friends/news-story/ae17b48a07184d78ce408613e1f6acbb

43 minutes ago, Atgxtg said:

Ooohh, just think what or who could be on the ship in cryofreeze.

I was not planning on a twist on that.. what would you suggest?
I won't make any "monster story" though... and I don't see why there would be someone or something in cryo freeze in a ship that was lying on a fine (until now) inhabited planet....

In fact I am still debating on how the escape would work... The game will start with some forcefield dome sabotage (city life system goes kaboom, mysteriously) followed by some unfortunately coincidental space bombardment by the ultimate MoO bugaboos, the Antarians... And I was thinking someone could think of some place where some space ship could be stolen to get the fuck out of there... that's the premise I have in mind for now for adventure 1...

Not sure how to make a game session out of it, practically though...  😕 

5 minutes ago, Atgxtg said:

You could always have them inherit the ship from some unknown benefactor. Strings optional.

So many options!  

In fact, the first adventure, which need to be fully fleshed out yet, will be escape from doomed planet, and the ship will be a salvage and free acquisition from there!  

6 minutes ago, seneschal said:

If They provide you with a ship and cargo, They can tell you where to go and what to do with it.  Maybe They have means of keeping tabs on you to make sure you do as you are told.  What happens if you slip up, or don't follow the plan due to circumstances beyond your control?  What happens if They slip up, and you see something you weren't supposed to, or wind up someplace you weren't supposed to be, or get loaded with another carrier's cargo?

That depends who is your patron?

I think if you borrow from the state, you will need to pass an ability check (i.e. minimum in some skills) to get it, and then it will be an advance to payback as you see fit in a timely manner. And they can easily get you anywhere in a 100 light years radius!  

Private entreprise might follow a similar pattern but ask from some more specific mission on more tighter deadlines.. but with better initial ship?....

It's only Master of Orion as far as flavor, races, and technology and background atmosphere is concerned.... But the players would just be scrubs, or a space grubs, or a spaceship owning grubs, struggling to get ahead, not the leaders of the empire by any means!  

I already have the starting scenario.. which will start with a big bang!

At this stage no patron...
But I have a reputation system in the works, and was strongly angling for the patronage idea.. this whole discussions convinced me to take that idea to the next level! As in they will give you a spaceship!
Side bonus for GM, they will take you to jail if you destroy it without cause.. 😛 

Wow... the hidden content is extra cheeky! 😮 

And, btw, this short discussion gave me some good idea and clarity now!

1 minute ago, Ian Absentia said:

44 minutes ago, Lloyd Dupont said:

I got an idea though... the player will be the typical spaceship traveller outsider type... so play as usual... but if they ask.. I'll tell they can always go to register to local government office for free goodies...

Back in the day, I used to hate the notion of playing a "subsidised merchant" in Traveller.  Freedom!  Yeah, then I got a job and saw how liberating the scenario was.  You have a patron, they provide you with missions and baseline operating expenses, and you get to fill in the details during the several weeks between reporting for updates and resupply.  Luxury, if not resulting from frugal bookkeeping, came from side jobs that didn't interfere with the company mission.  My players actually loved it.

So, TANSTAAFL, yeah, but at least the bread and meat are complimentary -- you supply the condiments.  In that instance, the company is the "administrative body," but it could be a government as well (or a private finacier).  The political aspect is who's footing the bill and why.

I had that has a vague idea.. but you took it to the next level with some added clarity!  

it's Master or Orion.

Players will be denizen of a (soon to be fragmented) space empire that is 100 light years wide!
With FTL ship crisscrossing it at 500 times the speed of light!

not sure how exactly the "boundary" works though.. I am still wondering about that... Obviously there will competing space empire.. and maybe a void between galactic arms.. (spaceships only have about 9 parsec ranges without refill, or 14 by stretching it.. although I guess it could make sense to really stretch it to 30.. though I plan to add space travel damage, so perhaps not...)

mm... this look like a difficult topic...

I got an idea though... the player will be the typical spaceship traveller outsider type... so play as usual... but if they ask.. I'll tell they can always go to register to local government office for free goodies... which include food, a small basic flat and an hoverbike... and one could do that on most well developed planet... seems like vague and mild enough....

and also free internet where it is available!  

and maybe some attractions, like holosimulator (think star trek virtual reality room) could be free! (but not the extra popcorn!)

Thanks yall for your input!

Hi,

I am working on my scifi setting... and I want the initial condition, at least, to be quite ideal... as in a very successful hyper advanced future, one could easily dream to live in.

Now my conundrum is I don't think the current status quo is the image of an ideal society... I was thinking to add universal income! Year free money! (like Star Trek! it's not just me! )  Free spaceship in only 4,165 sessions! 😛 

On the other hand I want to avoid any political message, it's usually detrimental to good story... Further we usually have poor tracking of player expense, so do I really need to add money on top?!

Anyway, long story short, how could I make the initial starting condition look (socially) like an idea place to be, without becoming political, or add pointless book keeping...

12 minutes ago, Ian Absentia said:

Actually...as long as we're discussing super-saturated sand, silt, or clay, human bodies (and other animals) are buoyant in the quagmire.  It's the struggling that causes cavitation/suction and exhaustion.  If one can relax, and you're not face-down, you'll eventually float like a cork and you can paddle your way across the surface.  So the actual contest, after failing a DEX save, is an INT check to keep your cool, followed by fatigue/CON loss (whatever you're using in your game) for every failed roll until you're exhausted and drown.

Actually, I seem to recall quicksand rules from somewhere, too, but can't recall.  And they surely operated on the same misconception of how it works.

!I!

Handy survival tips!  

Also, do the starfish! 😛 

That depends...

Are they super intelligent monkey from the moon?! 😮 

I don't know that needed any clarification! 😅
But that is indeed what I meant... 😜

It's the iVersion of Glorantha! Because it's the 21st century!  

Glorantha has enough love already!

It's BRP which needs more of it!  

8 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

Accelerating upwards? Better hope it doesn't hit anything after accelerating by 1 g for 1625 years!

have no fear, it would be limited to the speed of light anyway!  

9 hours ago, Ali the Helering said:

Refer to your nearest flat-Earth pundit for their latest theory. I have a fondness for one propounded at a recent conference, that the world is flying upwards. 🤣

Strange as it might be, this is quite close to general relativity that state, with simple experimental evidence that I could relate if needed, that one does not feel the pull of gravity, instead it is space that is space itself that is going down due to gravity, pulling us with it!
So, it's kind of similar!  

Another wild idea... which is similar but more percentage friendly... How about you give DEXx5% bonus to all agility skill, but also include a difficulty penalty (typically 50% or more) to all said skill at the same time!

So all those agility skill become Skill% + DEXx5% - Diff%, or maybe Skill% + (DEX-Diff)x5%?

Ha, I see!

In my homebrew, in progress, MoO thing every skill starts at 20%. Very simple to understand for everyone!
I do have professional and standard skill (like in Mythras, again!)

Mm... listening to you I came with a another wild idea (one which I partially use, BTW ) ... hangon, it's going to be wild, wild as in quite different from BRP basic mechanics.... (not suggesting you do that, just giving you food for thoughts!)

What if.. most skill will be used as contest on a Resistance table like mechanic?

For example, to do power resistance I do POW+Willpower/10% vs POW+Magic/10% on the resistance table (though I don't use the resistance table, I do D20+resist >= 11+attack)

For you climbing skill it will then be DEX+Climb/10% vs Cliff Difficulty

Well... discussion might be a better word then, and it's what I mean...
You only need 2 people, that might even totally agree, to start a discussion!

Keep the debate discussion going, races are a great cinematic moment...

I don't think the GM "should" do anything...
But I love tinkering too, so I will bring here my own related ideas here for you to ignore!

- INT and DEX (for example) already have a strong game impact, so one should not be to worry too much about them..  
- I don't like simple skill check that fail way too often, which remind me that BRP action difficulty (page 175) suggest doubling the skill for easy action
- I was having the same personal complaint for APP to be fair, and I also didn't like how 18 was only 1.8 times better than 10, so after much soul searching, I settled on each skill having a special (so called leading) characteristic that is used for its skill improvement, where the experience roll bonus, instead of being INT/2 is (Leading Characteristic - 10)

Other than that one could also do like Mythras and update skills starting percentage to be based on something like characteristic x2

I thought all proud American have dynamite in their cupboard, just in case they need it?
You know, 2nd amendment, and supporting weapon maker bank account kinda things?!