From: Greg Benage [gbenage@ix.netcom.com] Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 1998 1:03 AM To: blue_planet@MPGN.COM Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Notes on character creation -----Original Message----- From: Tun Kai Poh To: blue_planet@MPGN.COM Date: Tuesday, December 08, 1998 12:19 AM Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Notes on character creation >As far as reflecting the setting goes, the Backgrounds aren't that bad; >after all, the post-Blight world is pretty much divided between the few >have-alls and the teeming multitudes of the have-nots. Still, it would >be nice to have a bit of a middle ground. Yeah, hopefully we'll have a chance to flesh them out in future supplements. But please, feel free to customize! We wanted to make the system as freeform as possible while still providing guidelines, and we certainly don't want players to feel constrained by the list of sample of backgrounds provided. Anyway, to answer the question -- how to create a charismatic, educated, intellectual? Start by advantaging or double advantaging those stats, of course. Your physical stats will be lower than usual, of course, but that can be offset if necessary to the conception. Choose an Urban, GEO, or Incorporate origin and a cosmopolitan, sheltered, or wealthy background; finally, choose the appropriate education level for your character. I'd think with a double advantage in Intellect, an urban origin, a cosmopolitan background, and a university degree you'd be off to a good start. That said, it is certainly easier to create a super trooper than it is to create an Einstein. That's intentional, to a great extent. Despite all the advances in human modification in BP, it's not really possible to directly enhance intelligence, learning, or experience except the old-fashioned way. True geniuses are much, much more rare in 2199 than perfect physical specimens. Intelligence amplification, through implant computers and the like, has the potential to change that. However, this technology really involves an improved ability to process and store information, rather than intelligence enhancement. This is reflected in the mechanics by modifiers to appropriate tasks, rather than bonuses to Intellect or Education. And those bonuses are extremely significant. Hope this helps, Greg Benage Biohazard Games *************************************************************************** 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: Tuesday, December 08, 1998 12:06 AM To: blue_planet@MPGN.COM Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Notes on character creation >Specificly, how exactly is one to create a character that's charismatic, >educated, or (particularly) intellectual? Admittedly, it's possible, >but not very likely. Also, stats are (justifiably) difficult to raise >with ChIPs. Hahaha!! My friends make fun of this rules quirk all the time... because it does in fact seem like the Backgrounds are skewed towards forcing players to create uncharismatic, undereducated, unintellectual, emotionally dysfunctional loners with dark pasts (look at the sample character in the chargen section). Or, to put it another way, as one player put it: "Abusive, Criminal, Dangerous, Illness, Independent, Minority, Poor, Street, Tragic... aren't there any NORMAL Backgrounds in this game?!?" And he does have a point. There are too many "dark" Backgrounds and after reading a lot of them, they all start to sound the same. There are only a few genuinely positive Backgrounds, and even then, they're slanted towards the opposite extreme, like Wealthy or Sheltered. If you're not a spunky independent street-kid from a poor neighborhood forced into a life of crime after the death of your loving parents because of a racist police assault, you have to be a sheltered rich whiz-kid raised on an Incorporate orbital colony (okay, a slight exaggeration). As far as reflecting the setting goes, the Backgrounds aren't that bad; after all, the post-Blight world is pretty much divided between the few have-alls and the teeming multitudes of the have-nots. Still, it would be nice to have a bit of a middle ground. Kai ______________________________________________________ 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: Monday, December 07, 1998 9:38 PM To: blue_planet@MPGN.COM Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Undercurrents 6 & 7 BIOHZD@aol.com wrote: > [snip] > begun thinking about future issues. For a while now I thought it would be cool > to have a theme for each UC, where all the issue's features, at least in part, [snip] > What does the list think of this idea? I kinda like it. I wouldn't want to see it done to the point where the issue was completely useless if the theme wasn't involved in my game, but it's a nifty idea. > The current plan is to dedicate the next two Undercurrents to specific social > groups on Poseidon, including articles, NPCs, scenarios and even equipment > that are unique to the groups in question. Issue #6 is going to be cover > hybrid biology, culture and characters, with a chaotic survival scenario set Right on! More later... > in the colony of Bright Savanna. Issue #7 will be dedicated to cetaceans, > including new gear, NPCs and an adventure designed specifically to feature > cetacean characters. This is one thing I'd like to see... A lot of the things that we've seen so far are either pretty exclusively oriented at people, or ceteaceans are included in a "Oh, and you could try this if there's any of them there big fish around." I'm not complaining, the vast majority of the characters I've seen, particularly the players in my game, are human (more or less). It'd just be kinda cool to see a setting or scenario where humans are the bastard stepchildren -- something do with the Theogeny, perhaps, or dolphin politics. > 1. On the list-serve, and in the various reviews and other public forums, > there has been almost no discussion of the hybrids presented in the BP > universe - virtually none. I find this a little strange considering the > enthusiasm that has been shown for the cetaceans. As a result, I am curious as I think that part of this, for me anyway, is why play a human in a funny suit when you can play something totally other? A lot of games have funny-suits; all the races in Shadowrun, or AD&D, whereas not many have something totally *other* > to what the list thinks about the whole hybrid thing. Do you guys dig/dislike > their presence in the BP universe? Do you use them in your games? As PCs or > NPCs? Are they an active part of your backstories even if your players to not > play them? I like them, and have had a player generate one (and then leave town after one session). I was thinking of using an all-hybrid colony as a setting in one or two sessions, but if there's going to be more material on them, I'll probably wait until it appears. While I'm on the subject, tho, when given their own space, do hybrids live like "normal" humans? Do they invite the presence of other modis, or chimps? What about culture? I seem to remember that they're remnants of a supersoldier program, but whose? Or have they invented their own social standards? > Personally the hybrid concept has really grown on me, and has actaully become > one of my favorite parts of the BP social-political landscape. In fact, one of > the only two BP characters I have (that I have ever had, actually) is a > Sylvan. I like the cats better tho. I did have one player generate a cat -- a civvy pilot. He was *very* unhappy on the one occasion when he had to swim for it. > 2. We know that cetacean characters and culture have become a favorite of BP > players, so we would therefore like to request and encourage submissions for > the cetacean issue from you. Articles, equipment, NPCs, scenarios, anything > the will add to the culture and playability of orcas and dolphins in BP. In > fact, we are so interested creating an anticipated and useful treatment of > this popular topic that we are planning on making UC #7 a special double issue > - you know, a real whale of a newsletter. ; p What about an all-cetacean combat unit? As for the themes thing, one I'd like to see is issues themed around the GEO, or the various Incorporates, to flesh them out a little, give us a more clear idea of how, as an example, working for GenDiver is different from working for Dundalk, or the GEO. -- +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= "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: Suvi Ylioja [suelyl@utu.fi] Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 1998 2:07 AM To: blue_planet@MPGN.COM Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - Re: Blue Planet Women, Hybrids, you name it... Hello everybody (sfx: *delurk*), Add one more double-X chromosomed mammal to the count. Now's the opportunity to chuck in my 2 cents... ... better make that my bucketful of small change. I am an aspiring game moderator in the very slow and meandering process of creating a campaign. A friend of mine happened to buy the BP sourcebook, and eventually gave it to me on a sort of permanent loan (since I was borrowing it about once a day). My future campaign will most probably be a sort of synthesis of the universes of Blue Planet and that of the book "Golden Witchbreed", by Mary Gentle (Is anyone on this list familiar with the book? Witchbreed and BP have many themes in common, as a campaign idea it just might work) I'm going to use BP rules (probably), but redo world history and many other aspects of either source of inspiration.. I like hard science fiction. BP does not IMO qualify, neither does Witchbreed. I'm going to try to nudge both slightly into a more hard SF direction, for example trying to define the level of available technology. I really don't like the cyber/biotech in BP (or, at least the minimal information approach that makes it just a special effect). Hybrids aren't believable either, but as I am something of an anime fan (*blush*), I have a hard time convincing myself that I can't really justify including Cats and Silvas into my future game world. Incidentally, given the speech impediment the Cats have, I thought a derogatory term used of them by humans could be "Sylvesters". (Cats and Silvas aren't human IMHO, but what are they then? The sourcebook isn't very clear on that. Certainly they can't interbreed with humans (naturally at least) so they are effectively a separate species. Do Cats exhibit catlike behavior either instinctively or culturally?) The recent discussion about space travel I have found very interesting and useful. Which gives me an opportunity to present a hypothesis: (/ACCESS DENIED) If the Creators created the wormhole between Poseidon and Earth, shouldn't there be other wormholes linking these two planets to whole chains or webs of worlds? (/ACCESS ENABLED) On to another topic. One of my primary interests is biology, and the BP sourcebook provides woefully inadequate information about Poseidonian (?) life. About all there is is the "Resource and Hazardous Species of Poseidon" section, with its descriptions of 25 species or species groups and "A Survey of Ecosystems Unique to Poseidon". I'd have liked much more information on the ecology, natural history and diversity of life on Poseidon. *Why is fast fungus such an effective decomposer of bioplastic? *How similar is the biochemistry of Poseidon life to that of Earth? (practical applications: Would humans be violently allergic to some group of species? How susceptible are humans to nerve toxins in Poseidon life?) *Why can parasites from Poseidon infect humans? *How have the animals introduced by humans affected the ecology of Poseidon? *What are the main groups in the diversity of life on Poseidon? *What adaptations have evolved in the lifeforms of Poseidon for dispersal between islands and hurricane survival (or both combined)? I would hope this sort of information would be of interest to more than the dedicated speculative biologist. Having some sort of coherent picture of the ecology and diversity of life on Poseidon would really help, for example, when a game moderator has to create additional species that will fit in with the currently defined ones. This mail seems to be losing coherence fast, better quit. Sorry about the rambling (ranting?). (*wince, press "send", duck and covers*), -- >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Yu Shuwei "Side and tumble and fall among The dead. Here and there Will be found a utensil." -racter <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: P. Marquard [CanisLupus@vip.cybercity.dk] Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 1998 6:04 AM To: blue_planet@MPGN.COM Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Undercurrents 6 & 7 Greetings and Salutations! On 07-Dec-98 22:47:12 BIOHZD@aol.com of BIOHZD@aol.com wrote about: "[BLUE PLANET] - Undercurrents 6 & 7". B> I've been sitting here working on Undercurrents #5, and as is inevitable, I've B> begun thinking about future issues. For a while now I thought it would be cool B> to have a theme for each UC, where all the issue's features, at least in part, B> explore a single aspect of the BP universe. We did a little of this with the B> Hydroshot elements of UC #2, and it looks like issue #5 may have a good fast B> fungus infestation by the time it's done ; ). Anyway, we thought it might be B> neat to formalize this theme thing - maybe just for the next couple issues, B> maybe for good. B> B> What does the list think of this idea? That is great idea. That way one can all the needed information for one particular subject in one place instead of having 7-15 different places to look. By all means, go for it. -- #Greetings, Marquard# *#-= Canis Lupus =-#* #CanisLupus@vip.cybercity.dk - 2:238/188.9@FidoNet# *#AMIGA - the choice of connoisseurs#* *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Disturbance [disturb@ibm.net] Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 1998 8:06 AM To: blue_planet@MPGN.COM Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Undercurrents 6 & 7 >1. On the list-serve, and in the various reviews and other public forums, >there has been almost no discussion of the hybrids presented in the BP >universe - virtually none. I find this a little strange considering the >enthusiasm that has been shown for the cetaceans. As a result, I am curious as >to what the list thinks about the whole hybrid thing. Do you guys dig/dislike >their presence in the BP universe? Do you use them in your games? As PCs or >NPCs? Are they an active part of your backstories even if your players to not >play them? Well, I've yet to run a campaign of BP -- lack of time for the most part, we're lucky to game twice a month and we've got a pre-existing Earthdawn campaign -- but I found the hybrids fascinating. I've worked up a few NPCs for a Rogues' Gallery, including a hybrid pilot with a vendetta against one of the Incorps, and a native healer, that I'd be happy to contribute if you're looking for NPC submissions. Disturbance The Ork In Black http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/1440/index.html *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@mpgn.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message.