Worlds Beyond

[Vile]

I used to think a generic SF rules companion* would not be commercially viable, until I looked at how popular GURPS Space is. The advantage of putting a "BRP Space" out sooner rather than later is that it provides a unifying basis for people to go off and write their own, fully BRP-compatible setting books under the Chaosium license or directly for Chaosium itself.

On the other hand, if everyone comes up with their own rules for their own setting, not only are they wasting effort re-inventing the wheel but the result might be further dilution of the "core" of BRP.

I'm not saying it would be easy, nor that I am qualified to write more than a small part of it. But I am saying it would be commercially viable, and provide a valuable common ground for launching SF BRP settings. As for not having enough time to create our own setting backgrounds ... actually, most of the gamers I know spend more time "armchair-gaming" than "tabletop-gaming" these days. I haven't been able to get a game together in over a year, but I have managed to co-produce a pretty extensive Traveller setting in that time.

*Everybody knows a BRP rulebook needs a companion

[Nightshade]

The problem is that what will work for dedicated toolkit systems like GURPS and Hero may not work as well outside of it, and BRP is sort of neither fish nor fowl in that regard; its a somewhat generalized system, but until now its never really been presented primarily as a universal system. (And I say this almost never having used it for any of the specific worlds versions of it were presented for).
As someone noted, its almost always been packaged as the system to use to play very specific worlds. I'm not entirely sure heavily fishing in the pond that the two big universal systems swim in is going to work for additional products, though it'd be nice to be proven wrong.

[Conrad]

Originally Posted by Vile

I used to think a generic SF rules companion* would not be commercially viable, until I looked at how popular GURPS Space is. The advantage of putting a "BRP Space" out sooner rather than later is that it provides a unifying basis for people to go off and write their own, fully BRP-compatible setting books under the Chaosium license or directly for Chaosium itself.
*Everybody knows a BRP rulebook needs a companion

GURPS Space popular? With astrophysicists? The main failing of the current edition of GURPS Space is that it has no background that is ready to use.

[Conrad]

Originally Posted by rust

On the other hand, it could be useful to "test the water" with a generic BRP
Space PDF monograph, and it could create important feedback for a possible
later printed version with the improved rules from the monograph plus a set-
ting, I think.

Such a thing would be nice to see, but is there even a market for such a supplement? A few of us posting about such a thing may not give Chaosium the impetus to publish even a monograph. And even if it did you know how slowly Chaosium is in publishing such stuff.
We may be better off getting our heads together and cobbling a BRP Space supplement together ourselves.

[Simlasa]

Originally Posted by Conrad

We may be better off getting our heads together and cobbling a BRP Space supplement together ourselves.

I can see that moment when Nightshade, Soltakss, and Badcat all come into stellar alignment on weapons stats...
I can hear the harp music and the angelic choir... the glistening golden tablets handed down from on high...

But for now I think I'll just keep stealing stuff from Ringword, Future*World, and Worlds Beyond.

[rust]

Originally Posted by Conrad

Such a thing would be nice to see, but is there even a market for such a supplement?

According to Chaosium's poll, 20 % of the voters want a Science Fiction set-
ting for the new BRP, and even Fantasy has got only some more votes than
Science Fiction.

If the poll is trustworthy, almost 300 persons have already declared that SF
would be their favourite setting, and this should be good enough to try a PDF
monograph with SF material, I think.

And Ashes to Ashes could well be an example that Chaosium is able to move
faster than a glacier. With Worlds Beyond, Ringworld, Future World at hand
it should not be extremely difficult to produce a PDF within an acceptable
time frame.

[Conrad]

Originally Posted by rust

According to Chaosium's poll, 20 % of the voters want a Science Fiction set-
ting for the new BRP
If the poll is trustworthy, almost 300 persons have already declared that SF
would be their favourite setting, and this should be good enough to try a PDF
monograph with SF material, I think.
And Ashes to Ashes could well be an example that Chaosium is able to move
faster than a glacier. With Worlds Beyond, Ringworld, Future World at hand
it should not be extremely difficult to produce a PDF within an acceptable
time frame.

The poll might not be all that trustworthy if a certain SF fan repeatedly evened up the score with the fantasy voters.
Maybe Cthulhu Rising should be given higher status than just being a monograph? Maybe Chaosium would do well to issue it as a lavish supplement?
Ashes to Ashes is fantasy by the way

[Vile]

So, who wants to do what?

[Conrad]

Originally Posted by Vile

So, who wants to do what?

That depends on what needs doing. Starships and space combat have already been done really well here:


http://www.cthulhurising.co.uk/downloads.php



Dustin Wright on Worlds Beyond:


The answer to your question is "perhaps."
I've had some difficulty in contacting the author/publisher.


We live in hope.

[FunGuyFromYuggoth]

I would submit that a very robust ruleset is freely available from the 1980s for the Star Frontiers game. It is available as a resource to be mined for GM's (especially those who remember with affection the old Star Frontiers game).

The rules are convertible (deduct the setting specific information) and theoretically usable "out-of-the-box" with BRP because they rely on percentile dice ratcheted to a six level system on four skills: Piloting, Astrogation, Engineering, and Gunnery. A possible conversion could have Levels 1=1-15%,2=16-31%, 3=32-47%, 4=48-63%, 5=64-79%, and 6=80-95%) from here, but of course I am speaking about Knight Hawks (their starship rules). An explanation of how they can post it online without the Powers that Be raining locusts, blood, and lawyers on them here. I would not recommend the full-on wargaming experience in the advanced rules, but you can have some fun with their rules for economics (how to make and lose money), mining, movement--and of course, combat!

A second boxed set called "Knight Hawks" followed shortly. It provided rules for using starships in the setting and also a set of wargame rules for fighting space battles between the UPF and Sathar. Included were counters for starships, two-ten sided dice, a large folding map with open space on one side and on the other a space station and starship (for use with the included adventure), and the adventure SFKH-0: Warriors of White Light.