From: Tun Kai Poh [t_poh@hotmail.com] Sent: Saturday, January 02, 1999 1:33 AM To: blue_planet@MPGN.COM Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - The Lesear Effect The first fiction box in the main rulebook has always intrigued me - a biochemically-induced "sense of wonder," what a concept! So, I've decided to write it up as a game effect. I made some logical assumptions - you have to be an aquaform modi to experience it, cetaceans experience it too, etc. Comments, anybody? Kai Poh (currently vacationing in his homeland of Malaysia) * * * The Lesear Effect The "hormone induced euphoria" known as the Lesear Effect has been observed in both modified and genie aquaforms, and cetaceans are also subject to this unique experience. When an aquaform human or a cetacean is immersed in Poseidon seawater for the first time, the subject is overcome with intense feelings of well-being and contentedness, of which the exact biochemical process has been extensively recorded. The psychological effects, on the other hand, are considerably more varied, and the only thing experts can agree on is that it is a very subjective experience. Because virtually all Poseidon natives experience the Lesear Effect shortly after birth (and in the case of cetaceans, during birth), it is believed that this creates a deep and lasting "imprint" on the native's undeveloped brain, and scientists are only beginning to study what effects this may have on later development. Normally, the euphoria makes the subject somewhat oblivious to any surroundings (apart from the water) and lasts for a few minutes. Occasionally, however, the Lesear Effect can have more serious side effects. Due to their direct contact with seawater through gills, squid aquaforms are statistically more likely to experience side effects, although these are still rare. Normal effects: -1 level to Awareness for 1-10 minutes Side effects: 2% chance for diver aquaforms and cetaceans, 5% chance for squid aquaforms. Side Effect Table (roll d100) 1-40: Extended Euphoria. -1 level to Awareness for 1-100 minutes. 41-60: Extended and Intense Euphoria. As above, and a further -3 levels to Chemical for 1-100 minutes, -1 level to Agility and Dexterity as well as all physical actions based on Agility or Dexterity for 1-10 minutes. 61-80: Potential Postconscious Experience. Calls for a Constitution check; if failed, a comatose dream state results for 10-1000 minutes; if successful, an Extended and Intense Euphoria occurs instead, as above. 81-90: Profoundly Postconscious Experience. Comatose dream state results for 1-10 Poseidon days. 91-95: Fitful Hallucinatory State. -2 levels to all actions and -4 levels to Awareness, lasting 1-10 minutes. This is followed by a Profoundly Postconscious Experience, as above. 96-100: Special Effect. GM's discretion. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Auberon [fskln1@uaf.edu] Sent: Friday, January 01, 1999 11:59 PM To: blue_planet@MPGN.COM Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Character Generator V1.90 Ml10@aol.com wrote: > > Hi, > > It never fails. As soon as I mention that I am close to completing a personal > project, I get a project with a tight deadline. > > Anyways, my Javascript BP character generator is now at version 1.90. Version > 1.95 will include some biomods (only those that effect stats ) and the derived > stats. Version 2.0 will include the CGI backend that will produce something > that looks like a character sheet and will archive the characters created for > other GMs to use as NPCs.. > > I am looking for feedback on version 1.90. Mainly to find any bugs that I > might have missed. Also any suggestions on how to improve the look of it will > be welcomed as well. > > Only human type species will be included for a while. This is because the > other species do not have many professions to chose from. (BP 62) Grumble grumble grumble Actually, they should be able to do anything a human can do -- they'd be great sub pilots, although they wouldn't be inside the sub. The only thing I can think of off the top of my head that cetaceans couldn't easily do is pilot inside an atmosphere; the craft would have to be completely refitted, and the cargo space would be cut down. On the other hand, unlike humans, they navigate natively in 3D, so they should be good pilots, particularly space pilots. -- +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= "I never get involved in my own life. It's too much trouble" - Michael Garibaldi (Babylon 5) *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Tun Kai Poh [t_poh@hotmail.com] Sent: Saturday, January 02, 1999 9:19 AM To: blue_planet@MPGN.COM Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - Colonial Times article Well, I thought I'd resume my reporting of news on Poseidon. Here comes a batch of articles fleshing out the Blue Planet... I thought I'd post them here, first, where more people would see them. Missing Journalist Rescued DYFEDD: Yesterday, an ERT crew located and rescued Colonial Times journalist T. Kai Poh from a remote island off the coast of Westcape. Poh, a longtime contributor to the Colonial Times News/Net, had been missing and feared dead ever since his jumpcraft vanished in that region during a tropical storm, two months ago. ERT paramedic Gordon Subramaniam told reporters: "We were lucky to spot the remains of his hopper while flying through the area. It turned out a nearby native village had taken him in. Unfortunately, it was inhabited solely by female natives belonging to some sort of strange fertility cult. They had him stripped and tied down for a ritual of some kind, and they were crawling all over him. We had to fight them off with stun guns and bare knuckles, but thankfully, we rescued him. Funny thing, though...he struggled against us and screamed unintelligibly as we hauled him into the VTOL. You'd think he wanted to stay or something." Poh suffered from dehydration and minor bruises, and remains in stable condition at Dyfedd's general hospital. Doctors said that he was feverish, and kept asking them to "send me back to Paradise." - Gail Arthur, CTN/net Poaching Activities Worsen HAVEN: A joint report issued today by the GEO Justice Commission and the GEO Natural Resources Commission revealed that the frequency of serious poaching offenses in the Archipelago has gone up nearly 50% in the last six months. Sunburst poaching activity alone has nearly doubled. Coral harvesting, which causes serious harm to many protected species living in reefs, was also cited as having gone up significantly. Furthermore, only six Warden licenses were issued in the past six months, as opposed to 29 in the six-month period prior to that. A source in the Justice Commission, who declined to be identified, claimed that this drop was due to the recent wave of attacks targeting Wardens. Nine Wardens were murdered in the Pacifica Archipelago in the first six months of 2199. Famed ecologist Nelson Ifube commented on the report: "The recent realization among (black marketeers on both worlds), that entire microhabitats will soon vanish due to predation, has not slowed down the rape of the planet. Rather, it has accelerated it! As species are endangered, they become more rare, more sought-after. Their prices skyrocket, and the poachers become even more desperate to bag them before they're gone." - Gail Arthur, CTN/net Danzinger Opening Marred By Blimp Incident LEBENSRAUM: The long-awaited opening of the Rolf Danzinger Oceanarium, here in the rapidly growing Hanover Industries company town, was celebrated today with style and pomp - but also with an unexpected bang. The Danzinger's Open Ocean Exhibit Chamber, featuring the largest collection of ocean blimps on Poseidon, and packed full of eager visitors, was filled with confusion and terror when one of the blimps exploded. Although the blimp's fiery demise only resulted in a harmless mid-air hydrogen flash-fire, guards could not keep the crowds from panicking, and a stampede ensued, in which two people were injured. Hanover Industries spokesperson Gertrude Baum announced that all visitors would be issued full refunds. "We also vehemently deny the rumor that manpower problems forced the Hanover Security Service to man the event with raw recruits," she said. The cause of the blimp's detonation is unknown, but after reviewing surveillance files, the HSS has ruled out foul play. "Some field scientists have observed blimps spontaneously combusting in the wild," suggested Baum. "It is very rare, but it has been known to happen." - Kai Poh, CTN/net ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Chris Sakal [csakal@erols.com] Sent: Saturday, January 02, 1999 2:05 PM To: blue_planet@MPGN.COM Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - >Don't get me wrong, I like Niven, but I don't know if I'd go so far as >to call him hard sci-fi. As for the others, a really great resource for >the kind of space adventure you could do in BP would be 2010 -- >politics, science, the unknown, and cool aerobraking scenes. I know this is old, but I can't let this one go by. Niven is (or rather, was) an astrophysicist for crying out loud! He's designed worlds that are nothing but a gas torus around a massive body and worked out the physics that allows it to exist! If he's not hard SF, then there is no such thing. Chris Sakal csakal@erols.com *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message.