From: Leif Magnar Kj|nn|y [leifmk@pvv.ntnu.no] Sent: Monday, August 03, 1998 7:30 AM To: blue_planet@MPGN.COM Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - GURPS conversion and GEN CON On Mon, 3 Aug 1998, Jens Alm wrote: > >And it's going quite nicely BTW. I think there is more than one of us here > >doing that. > > > I have a seaplane of the Catalina variety made with GURPS Vehicles for my > GURPS Blue planet campaign. The reason to have a seaplane in favor of > jumpcraft would be maintainability, fuel-efficiency and cost. Plus, it's > cool :) Since you're using GURPS Vehicles, I'd advise you to also look at developing jumpcraft as hybrid VTOL/lifting-body vehicles; these would use full power only when taking off and landing (usually), and normally cruise around on vastly reduced power while relying on aerodynamic lift to stay up -- and they will be *much* cheaper than winged aircraft. Leif Kj{\o}nn{\o}y | Skyclad: "Life's just a process of delamination, www.pvv.org/~leifmk| stripping your hopes, dissecting them gently. Math geek and gamer| I've opened my heart and to my consternation GURPS, Harn, CORPS | when I peered inside it was small, dark and empty." *************************************************************************** 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: Monday, August 03, 1998 6:30 AM To: blue_planet@MPGN.COM Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - Other Systems I don't know about changing Blue Planet to another system - granted, the really cool thing about the game is the setting, and if you and your players are having fun then that's pretty much the point of the whole endeavor right there, but still, I can't help but feel that you're missing some of the feel of the game if you change it to a system with significantly different mechanics. For one thing, there's no balance in the character creation system internal to the system, there's no system for deciding on what occupation package you get to buy and how much stuff you start with - if you want to be an ex GEO Marshall loaded to the gills with firepower you can as long as the GM lets you, and you'll kick ass in combat, and there's really nothing that makes being a scientist equally deadly (or anywhere close really, and that makes sense). It's a way of doing things that makes sense for seasoned gamers who actually want to role-play, rather than to build the most powerful character possible so they can kill things and amass hoards of treasure. Secondly, the combat system in Blue Planet is DEADLY. You really don't want to get shot, or hit by anything that's even fairly strong or toxic (which is almost all of the wildlife in Poseidon). I think that you would loose some of the realism (and certainly all of the detail that comes with getting hurt in Blue Planet, I like knowing that somebody has broken ribs, minor spinal damage, and internal bleeding (and all of the relevant modifiers to action that follow) from a polypod hitting them rather than just him taking 10 hit points of damage) if you were to go to a system that is based on numerical hit points of any kind. I also like the way that tasks are handled, the way that no human, no matter how strong he is, can even come close to being as strong as an Orca. Humans just aren't strong on the same scale - you can try to have a tug-of-war with a whale if you want, but you're going to loose, period. If you were to GURP that, for example, killer whales would cost a LOT of points to have an obscene strength, which isn't really what you want to do, it just seems that this wouldn't carry across very well. Anyway, that's just my 2 cents, take it or leave it. Hit a man on the head with a fish, and he'll have a headache for a day Teach a man to hit himself on the head with a fish, and he'll have a headache for the rest of his life *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Andy Wills [andy@olywa.net] Sent: Monday, August 03, 1998 3:19 PM To: blue_planet@MPGN.COM Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Other Systems(longish) Chris Sakal wrote: > > I don't know about changing Blue Planet to another system - granted, the > really cool thing about the game is the setting, and if you and your > players are having fun then that's pretty much the point of the whole > endeavor right there, but still, I can't help but feel that you're missing > some of the feel of the game if you change it to a system with > significantly different mechanics. Agreed. My feeling is that CORPS has similar enough results, and some things like the skill tree(overall skill +specific skill) are similar enough to do fairly direct conversions, so I'm not losing much of the "feel." > For one thing, there's no balance in the character creation system > internal to the system, there's no system for deciding on what occupation > package you get to buy and how much stuff you start with - if you want to > be an ex GEO Marshall loaded to the gills with firepower you can as long as > the GM lets you, and you'll kick ass in combat, and there's really nothing > that makes being a scientist equally deadly (or anywhere close really, and > that makes sense). It's a way of doing things that makes sense for > seasoned gamers who actually want to role-play, rather than to build the > most powerful character possible so they can kill things and amass hoards > of treasure. Conversely, it makes as much sense for munchkins to play a system without play balance, because they can create ultra-powerful characters. Of course, they wouldn't be munchkins since they aren't breaking rules. Anyway, it's almost as easy to ignore the point values in a point-based system. > Secondly, the combat system in Blue Planet is DEADLY. You really don't > want to get shot, or hit by anything that's even fairly strong or toxic > (which is almost all of the wildlife in Poseidon). I think that you would > loose some of the realism (and certainly all of the detail that comes with > getting hurt in Blue Planet, I like knowing that somebody has broken ribs, > minor spinal damage, and internal bleeding (and all of the relevant > modifiers to action that follow) from a polypod hitting them rather than > just him taking 10 hit points of damage) if you were to go to a system that > is based on numerical hit points of any kind. Which is why I didn't go to a system based on numerical hit-points :) Seriously, the combat system seems fairly slow, especially since I don't have the rules memorized. The system I'm using delivers the same type of results, at (for me, other's mileage may vary) three times the speed, probably would be twice if I knew Blue Planet and didn't have to look some stuff up. > I also like the way that tasks are handled, the way that no human, no > matter how strong he is, can even come close to being as strong as an Orca. > Humans just aren't strong on the same scale - you can try to have a > tug-of-war with a whale if you want, but you're going to loose, period. If > you were to GURP that, for example, killer whales would cost a LOT of > points to have an obscene strength, which isn't really what you want to do, > it just seems that this wouldn't carry across very well. Right, which is why I'm using Natural Aptitude (makes it easier to purchase levels in an attribute) to simulate this. It doesn't carry across perfectly, but functionally. Plus, most of them should be fairly easy judgement calls. (Right, your human is trying to wrestle an Orca? You lose) In any case, what I weigh when converting to another system is: How much "feel" do I lose in the game and how much time do I have to spend convertiing it vs. how much better is the system I'm converting to and how much time is saved by players already knowing the (generic) system? In this case, _I_ thought CORPS was a moderately better system, I'd save a good amount of time from players already knowing it, AND it is an easy conversion--1 or 2 hours, max, including details. IMHO, of course. -Andy *************************************************************************** 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: Monday, August 03, 1998 5:28 PM To: blue_planet@MPGN.COM Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Other Systems(longish) I personally use the BP rules because I'm too lazy to convert to another system, and while much of the BP system is complex, it ain't broken and I kind of like the scaled attributes and detail in the character generation system. Now, eventually I'm going to get my Call of Cthulhu rulebook back from West Virginia, and then my Blue Planet players will really start to worry. It probably won't be too hard to convert at all... Poseidon? A long-forgotten "holy world" sacred to both the Star-Spawn and the Deep Ones... The Blight? Oh, some idiot at Fischer Foods summoned Shub-Niggurath and pissed her off... The Aborigines? A servitor race working to protect the sanctity of the Holy World... The other details I have yet to work out in full, but that's my general idea for my Call of Poseidon game. More to come, in time... Kai Poh ______________________________________________________ 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: Monday, August 03, 1998 6:32 PM To: blue_planet@MPGN.COM Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Other Systems(longish) I dunno, hard SF and gothic horror are not generally two great tastes that taste great together. 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. From: Andy Wills [andy@olywa.net] Sent: Monday, August 03, 1998 9:20 PM To: blue_planet@MPGN.COM Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Other Systems(longish) Chris Sakal wrote: > > I dunno, hard SF and gothic horror are not generally two great tastes that > taste great together. I think(hope?) he was joking. Of course, if people think Blue Planet is a mature RPG, wait until I run my Blue Planet/Macho Women with Guns crossover. Just Kidding, -Andy *************************************************************************** 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: Monday, August 03, 1998 11:33 PM To: blue_planet@MPGN.COM Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Other Systems(longish) > I dunno, hard SF and gothic horror are not generally two great tastes that >taste great together. It wouldn't be hard SF anymore, of course - the wormhole would be a magical gate that scientists can't explain, and the aborigine nanotech would be replaced by Lovecraftian superscience. But the level of detail in the setting and CoC are a match made in Heav- I mean, Yuggoth. It'd likely be a lot like a Delta Green campaign, with lots of conspiracies and counterconspiracies (GEO's parapsychology department, with old files about the weirdness that may have caused the Blight, would be at work on Poseidon, big time... as would Incorporate agencies), dark modern horror and End Times paranoia. Of course, the other good way to combine horror with SF is by following the model of the "Alien" movie series, especially the first two films. And there's plenty of precedent. Jeff's "Deep Sh*t" scenario at the conventions last year was basically "The Abyss" meets "Aliens". I've already done horror-themed scenarios involving encounters with the aborigines. And there are quite a few possibilities for horror in Archipelago's Access Denied areas, like the situations on Coronado Station and Kraken, and the terrible secret of Keepsake. All I'm doing is taking it one step further and putting Lovecraftian elements behind all of it... Kai Poh ______________________________________________________ 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.