Lloyd Dupont

Mmm.. it's a good question, one that me made pause for a little while... And maybe one could argue that perhaps some stunt could be free... Indeed, the typical one that unlock a combat effect / manoeuvre on a normal attack instead of a critical / advantage ought to be of the free kind. But I am going to advocate below, with 2 examples, that some should definitely have limitations. One is a stunt from Blood Tide, Flashing Blade, give a character an additional number of melee attack in a given round for a cost of 1MP + 1MP/attack. I think we can all agree that, if such a stunt were to be introduced in the game, it would need to have some sort of limitation. Also I like to think of (some) stunts as ultimate. A good ultimate is an ace card that you gleefully hold in reserve, not something that you dish every round or it somehow lose its ace value. For example a stunt in Blood Tide give a damage bonus of +1D6 bonus damage dice . And for the sake of argument I could be considering a version that even give +2D6 or maybe +3D6, maybe requiring both martial and also allegiance prowess. However I wouldn't like my dishing that damage single attack on every single round....

I too thought of something like that. Then I forgot! thanks for reminding me I will write down a few alternate rules as try out suggestion reminder now!

I guess I will give it a go... It's not like I haven't submitted my player to many rules experiment! 😅

I loved stunts from the BRP supplement "Blood Tide" and I loved stunts in "Revolution D100" Preparing my future scifi campaign I am trying to formalise all the home made home brew rule I plan to use neatly and try to write down neatly a plethora of start stunts idea. In the particular case of combat stunts, I was going write done many inspired by Blood Tide, and just like Blood Tide I was about to make them cost MP. But then it hit me.... What if I used Fatigue instead? 😮 I guess sure, hey, why not? The question is I am not playing BRP at the moment and I wonder if there was anyone here who are definitely NOT number lovers, yet use fatigue in their game easily enough with good effect?

Cooking fumble: Everything was merrily simmering in my pot, ready for a beautiful Pad Thai! Then it turns out, I was confused, I didn't buy tamarind past, I bought massaman curry paste! 😕

I am not too much into horror so I just passed on that... But just now I just read a glowing critic on no less than new scientist! 😮 https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24532690-600-color-out-of-space-another-nicolas-cage-film-thats-so-bad-its-good/ Might watch it after all! 😅

Mmm.. I might need this TShirt celebrating the achievements of Weyland Yutani Corp when I GM my scifi adventures! Even though I don't plan on having Xenormorph and it will already be full of aliens.. it set the evil megacorporation tone that I like!

Rock version!

I know it's an old one, but since my thoughts were on that topic, I couldn't help but think (again) with some joyful glee... If you are on a space odyssey to a mysterious planet, and the tone of the setting is one of mysterious alien horror... (Which is not the tone I am going for, this time, unfortunately..) Don't bring Baked Beans! (Anyway, anyone knows that Baked Beans are made by Weyland Yutani those days. Which speaks volume! 😮 ) (Weyland Yutani, best R&D company, right? Definitely in my setting! ) Here is why!

If you really must ask.. it was a normal planet, with dark sky (light on oxygen) and with normal trees... I was inspired by Arcanum (Master of Magic)

Even though I live in Australia now, I grew up and lived in France for a while. We love a lot of food over there, including mushrooms. Even more so for wild mushrooms! What is the RPG connection you ask? Well you see, in my latest dark elf fantasy campaign people where kinda stranded in the world of dark elves, where the main staple food was giant bugs and mushrooms. And even though, you know how it goes, we were just talking around a table, I couldn't get my players to agree that, at the very least, some mushroom ain't that bad.... They can't wait for their (imaginary!) character to go back home and eat "real food"! 😅🤣 Mushrooms just ain't much of a thing here in Australia!.. 😮 Oh.. and don't get me started on the possible edibility of giant bugs. I think it just didn't caught with them ether! 😛🤣

Ha.. missed that! Anyway Norway looks beautiful! I have to move over there now!

As a side note, initially I planned the adventure to start after the capital planet have been set to ruin in a times of turmoil.... But I got a new better idea... Adventure will start before the coup and Antarian attack. And in the first series of investigation the player will uncover a secret independentist society that is researching a method to lure the Antarian at some location (the Antarians being the big bag voodoo of MOO with a supreme technology, living in a parallel dimension, they are like Cthulhu, in a way! 😅)... Then later when the Antarians will contribute to the downfall of the capital world... Player will have a clue as to whom is to blame! 😮

I am thinking people only invest in viable system.. either there are mining opportunity, or ancient Orion relics, or maybe it's a fuel outpost (in those case it can super hostile).. Otherwise.. it would at least have a terraforming potential.... (if not already agreeable to life, but those planets are uncommon). Dry ice, btw, would be perfect for a planet with terraform potential! turning into greenhouse gas that will (slowly) warm the dead cold planet! In the case of the players I am still undecided.. just want to make it dangerous.. and maybe I will have some unfortunate time outside the protective cities domes for drama purpose...

As a side note, there is one planet that I do indeed intend to be primitive. The Illithid planet (aka D&D mindlayers). Not because of regression or because Bulrathi were afraid of psionic powers, but because Bulrathi decided to make it a state secret and employ some Illithid in the secret service. So this planet is not being colonised. I have no plan of adventure there in the near future.. it's just a bit of personal lore for fun for now.... Initial adventures would be on an hostile planet, people live under domed city (force field dome) outside of dome there is not enough oxygen and it's deadly cold.... not entirely decided on the biome yet, might be just an icy planet without oxygen (currently terraforming)... the idea is that it feels definitely alien and hostile to life... And the stellar system is set up for mining and the player's planet to be, hopefully one day in a remote future, an agrarian world...

I think there might be multiple approach /camps... On one hand, for the pure horror lover... One is not really scared much nowadays.. but slowly losing control of your character could provide a fun simulation and minigame... A different kind of horror lover could argue that slowly discovering that there are entity with a magical and technological might far beyond our grasp, with an hostile ethic and also both so far, yet so close in some way might be naturally scary enough.. and then there are... stupid people (cultist) who try to bring them here? That's scary enough, no need for SAN... The only frustrating part here.. is that they will never come.. otherwise the game will end... And finally, without being into horror at all, a menagerie of cold uncaring (or downright destructive) godlike creature that have a vague interaction with the world can provide an interesting background for adventures. Regardless one is into horror or not. Ultimately it's your game, you play what you want!

About uneven technological level there is a premise missing.... Is it the master of Orion influence, perhaps.. but it goes like that.... While most planet where adventure would happen seems full of life form. In fact most planet started empty until an alien space faring race came here and started terraforming, or mining, or something... So where there is life there is tech, because otherwise there would be no life... And technological regression would simply mean death in many places... Even on earth where there still technology underdeveloped tribe, it's because they have't caught up. There a not many case of technological regression. Communist china perhaps... so it's why Bulrathi can't be too oppressing.. otherwise I wouldn't believe in a successful space empire... Anyway there might be some technologically primitive places but: 1. it would need to be on planet naturally good for life (otherwise everybody would die on the hostile biome), no space colonist would waste a terran planet, they will be quickly invaded (nobody in master of orion will let such a planet alone and I am pretty a real space civilisation wouldn't either) 2. more importantly I would see it as a personal failure, like "I find it hard to develop modern day adventure so I fallback into the fantasy genre" Maybe one could argue there is no such thing as realistic scifi adventure and falling back to medieval society is necessary... but I haven't given up trying yet! So I won't do any medieval one unless I give up or finally master the modern day investigation!

Comments on point Questbird More to the point, and I am paraphrasing here "the Bulrathi administration encourage numerous semi official agencies to solve local problems". I think this is a very promising and believable lead for endless plots!

Since that seems to excite people, here are the technologies I am considering in my settings... Roughly like today + - slightly better AI. Can hold a conversation but is not creative or independent and similar material science - (plausible) Alcubierre - Van Der Broeck drive - (aka FTL "drive") - (plausible) entangled box for Ansible like point to point communication (finite communication capacity, fine for a spaceshiph, but must be refreshed continuously for planets) - (pure fantasy) repulsor field that let you do various things such as forcefield, impulseless drive, floating car, artificial gravity, tractor beam - (plausible) small fusion plant (olympic pool sized) - (mostly fantasy) teleporter - (pure fantasy) psionic powers (teleportation, short term premonition, mind control, telepathy, remote vision) - (plausible)cloning and human augmentation - (plausible)extra long healthy life - (fantasy)Blaster gun (a bubble of plasma surrounded by a bubble of repulsor field) , disintegrator gun - (plausible)much better battery and biofuel (algae source) As a side note. car would look pretty much the same (electric with wheel), hover bike might be seen in city, outside of cities I might have more flying machines... But they are forbidden in city due to risks concern.... Long life will cause some sort of migratory pressure.. People don't go on hostile resourceless and hostile planet... unless there is money to be made Many settled planet have terraformation effort... and protection domes around city, particularly on hostile planets... Typical work would be much like today + researcher... I have to write my idea on typical trade and biome but.. I haven't written it yet and it's going to be long....

But, the slimy tentacles!!!! 😮 😛

This last post of your seems more relevant! I will have 3 answers.... First, what I was really wondering (and to show how it differs from the answer so far): Ok, say the player are private detective, or insurance investigator or something like that, and my initials games center around some shop being vandalised or shop owner being assassinated, what kind of (scifi hitech) setting would allow the player instead of the police be the one to investigate? And I am not talking about some rare occurrence, I am thinking of this to be a common occurrence.. what would this society look like and still be a believable scifi society? Now to react to your comments: - how come every scientific breakthrough is not know everywhere? just like today! USA have their own secret war machine, yet they even sell them! And most country know the secret of building a car, a TV, a computer.... - How come population doesn't revolt? Population on Bulrathi's empire planet is mostly Bulrathi clone, they have as much reason to revolt that the poor have to revolt against the rich.. Other alien races are minority... Bulrathi colonist and military relocate people to maintain an even mix of alien race on their planets (they don't genocide) and submerge them in larger Bulrathi clone population - How come planetary ruler (or consularis, as I call them) don't revolt? Well if one planet revolt on its own it will get the whole empire's army on its doorstep next month... One could ask why hasn't Ireland successfully separated from UK yet? But yes clearly the slow speed of travel was an issue for efficient empire control... (the Empire is no more, so it'd different "today") Finally, in true Master of Orion fashion, one's empire invade planets, to get a bigger population, to do more research and development. So the name of the game is not suppression of knowledge, but its exact opposite. Now, it seems to me you challenge the basic assumption of Master of Orion as potentially unrealistic... And suppression should be the game, you say. It's an interestingly shocking thought... (One I will have to think more about it....) But for now, I think there is a fair reason for Master of Orion heavy development to be the main politic. This (former) Bulrathi Empire is not alone, it has competing alien empires to contend with, and it needs to keep up to keep its own independence... And, btw, now that it is broken apart, competitor are coming.... If you don't know Master of Orion, perhaps you know Civilisation? It would be like playing Civilisation and invading many cities just to destroy all the building inside it and constructing nothing afterwards.... It wouldn't be a successful empire building strategy... But hey, one can argue that the real word is not so heavy development oriented that Civilisation and Master of Orion, so perhaps this whole approach is wrong. Ultimately it could be a pure literary choice and both approach might perhaps be realistic outcome. But I already chose my outcome. Save for the nagging question at the top.... "what kind of, preferably developed and dystopian yet successful scifi, society would rely on private investigator for solving many of its crime"?

I think I saw it.... https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087597/ But I forgot! 😮

PHP?! I didn't people were still using that nowadays! Sorry, I am totally submerged in the C# world, no idea what's going on elsewhere...

What does that even means? Psionic is more realistic than FTL you think?! 😮 One can say Disc World is more realistic that Star Wars, and this has nothing to do with the technological or magical premises, and all to do with the kind of society that achieve it or what people make of it... I think it's a fairly accepted use of the word "realistic" when on criticise fiction work like fantasy or scifi. And, anecdotally, not that it matter, Alcubierre drive are almost theoretically possible. Also I don't like the Star Wars premise, so stop beating a dead horse please. It's... Monthy Pyhthonesque? However, this totally blind and forceful evangelism of Star Wars despite my clearly and adamantly stated dislike and disinterest of the setting might stem from a question I entertain myself me hope...... (because if not... there is more troll here than I thought 😕 ) In most urban fantasy they fight monsters that nobody else sees and believe. In StarWars or just medieval fantasy there is no law and order, no camera and news paper, no coordinated police force and one can go gung ho.... So what if there is no monster and fast planet wide communication, and strong military force that can crush any annoying citizen.. what is an adventurer to do? I am still struggling with coming up with a dystopian technology developed future that take advantage of such setting and empower, say the private investigator type... But I am really not interested in many of the answer so far... I guess we might be just fighting human desire to get the last word at this stage and I should just accept defeat...

I thought about it this sleepness night... Ansible tech might be required for realistic for multistellar empire success (particularly when warp speed is limited, so far, to only about 100 lightspeed) And it might not be that much of a deal breaker against hidden solar system (a feature that I fancy, but maybe I am fighting some sort of realism too here)... The travel time and cost being the biggest limiting factor. After that all those "forbidden solar system" can be reported has having little of value, save for a few asteroid in all public databases... Ansible give rise to the possibility of useful warp detectors. I still have NO deep space detector of warp ship, that seem too improbable. But one can imagine solar system detector that easily give a few hours warning of impeding fleets, if any. It will still be too late in most cases though. The counter to that, as I see it, is space stations. While planetary defence is indeed a thorny question... I might throw some Psilon, Geth, Klackon & Antarian attack and I wonder how it will come to be... But I was mostly wondering what society would look like, what job people have, what place crime, and disorder will have.. I am starting to have some ideas... Oh, and also, I came up with the idea that warp drive are automatically shut by large gravity field... Hence one can't warp from anywhere to anywhere.. and one can't accidentally warp into a planet/star/blackhole.. For warpdrive, not that it matter much, I plan to use Van Der Broeck bubble. Basically an Alcubierre drive (i.e. a custom moving space time bubble) that is connected by a microscopic point to the normal space time.