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Fringeworthy & BRP


Mysterioso

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Any one ever play Fringeworthy with BRP? 

Way back when, I loved the absolute freedom that Fringeworthy gave; pretty much any possible scenario was possible. 

OTOH, the game system itself was very crunchy and thus it never really stuck with our group due to that. (It also crushed any hope I had for trying the other Tri-Tac games.)

Thinking about it now, Fringeworthy, if bumped to say 2025 rather than 1999 for the ring discovery in Antarctica, would actually be a very good BRP game as it would highlight the flexibility of the system.

http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2011/03/retrospective-fringeworthy.html

 

Edited by Mysterioso
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I own a copy and find the concept interesting and full of potential. I never ran the game myself, but did convert it to GURPS at one point years ago. It is similar to Stargate but actually predates it.

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I quite enjoyed Fringeworthy when it came out. We played all of the Tri-Tac games back in my high-school days. 

It wasn't an inspiration on the Big Gold Book, though it would be easy to run such a campaign. 

However, one big inspiration was an article that appeared in Different Worlds magazine about a multi-dimensional campaign where the player characters were world-hoppers. I can't remember the reason they were going from world-to-world, but I remember that they had high-tech watches that signaled when/where dimensional rifts would be, and there would always be some signal to them where it was... like a giant pillar of blue light that only they could see, emanating from the crossworld gate. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

However, one big inspiration was an article that appeared in Different Worlds magazine about a multi-dimensional campaign where the player characters were world-hoppers. I can't remember the reason they were going from world-to-world, but I remember that they had high-tech watches that signaled when/where dimensional rifts would be, and there would always be some signal to them where it was... like a giant pillar of blue light that only they could see, emanating from the crossworld gate.

That sounds like Godwar: How to Run a multiverse Campaign, by Mike Sweeney, in DW # 29. The PCs work for Tao, or Tau, to correct imbalances throughout the multiverse. :) 

Edited by Conrad
An imbalance in the textverse.
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http://www.basicrps.com/core/BRP_quick_start.pdf A sense of humour and an imagination go a long way in roleplaying. ;)
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  • 2 months later...

Having been a Fringeworthy GM, and tangentially worked for Tri-Tac, I can tell you it is a great setting.  (We will stick to the setting here)

If you are going to run a Fringeworthy game, remember that it should feel a lot like a Star Trek Original Series episode.  The idea was that they would travel to a world, interact with it in a moment of crisis, and leave... much like a Star Trek episode.  There was also the optimism and positive view of things for the most part that was present in the fringe.  Now such upbeat ideas are not completely in vogue, but now you know where the original designer was going with it.  

The advantage of the setting is the innate background explaining (to a degree) why we have the Pathways, who build them and why.  There was a lot of material that was implied in the books (especially the later edition).  The advantage of the implied concept is that you could do what you wanted as there was no "cannon" to follow.  

This worked for me really well.  All my section of the Fringes were all Earth Alternate world and the occasional pocket stops.  Other people had their "earth platform" go to a straight alien world.  What ever you like to generate is what you should do.  Remember, you need a game world/ location every week or two in a Fringeworthy game.  It behooves you to have a back stock of worlds before you start.  

Also remember that you can send them back to worlds they liked, as they are not freebooters but part of a bigger organization.  These repeat visits work well for extending the shelf life of your worlds portfolio.

Having Mellor as an implacable opponent throughout the pathways gives you a lot of options, especially since you could just have "mutant mellor" do all sorts of things.   Most of the antagonists are single world affairs.  Having a big opponent that conflicts with you on the pathways really changes the complexion of the game setting.  

Just some thoughts.....

Oh 

Long, long ago, there was supposed to be a list of possible worlds published.  There is supposedly a child of that list still wandering around that was compiled on a Fringeworthy mailing list.  I have yet to see it.  Still you could lift worlds from multiple sources.  

 

 

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Outpost Games did a quarterly magazine, Infinite Crossroads which was devoted to Fringeworthy.  There is also the Fringeworthy Catalog of Alternate Worlds & Platforms supplement, which is full of descriptive blurbs to be expanded upon by the GM. 

That Tri-Tac game system though, the insane level of detail for the wound location charts was actually fun in a super crunchy way.  Today, I'd use BRP and you could convert modules/adventures from a wide array of other RPG games and turn them into Fringeworthy locations. 

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