Anybody ever used the Blue planet in OTU?

[Morte]

Anybody ever used the Blue planet in OTU?

There seem to be a lot of used Blue Planet sourcebooks going pretty cheap these days. I was wondering how well it might work in an OTU game as a more-detailed, often-visited world, e.g the PCs homeworld or their regular patron's base of operations.

Are there any glaring compatibility issues?

 

[BrennanHawkwood]

I have just about all of the Blue Planet stuff (1st & 2nd edition) and would say that it could be used fairly easily.

Naturaly it would need to be tweaked a bit to make it fit just right, but it is a really well done description of the various facets of a 'human friendly' world. The setting itself has more of an early space travel feel with the exception that biosciences are pretty advanced. Cybernetic implants and extensive gene mods are a basic part of the original game.

Overall I'd say it should be easy enough to use the information about the world, the ecology and the cultures found there and leave out whatever doesn't really fit YTU.

 

[kafka47]

I have been toying with the idea to run Blue Planet in my Long Night Campaign (pre-Milieu 0) whereby two star systems separated by a Jump 4 rift. One colony set up by the original inhabitants when jump technology was common but wanted a simpler existance. The other one, the Long Night hit harder and has only regained J2 therefore having to make the trip in two leaps.

Alternatively, the people of the Blue Planet could be Scanians sitting on an Ancient (whoops, I mean Aborignie) site just waiting for an Imperium to come along...

 

[Morte]

Well, we'll see if this is any good...

 

[signless]

Blue Planet kicks butt. The aborigines are cool and *alien*...and the neverending quest for Long John would make a good hook...especially if your game is set somewhere in the Solomani Rim.
Poseiden is like Bellerophon...with *balls*.
I personally think the whole collection is worth getting, simply to read about a species of ocean-going dreadnought called a "greater white".

 

[robject]

Hey Signless, I'm intrigued... what are the aborigines like? And what's the deal with Long John? Fill me in, I'm clueless about Blue Planet.

 

[Malenfant]

I'd recommend that robject be filled in via Private Message, that seems to be the tradition when people ask about BP on rpg.net anyway.

There are some nifty plot secrets that BP fans generally like to keep er, secret and not spoil for anyone on a public forum - largely revolving around what the Aborigines are and what Long John is

.

 

[SanDragon]

Waaaahh!! I must remain in The Long Ni... dark. In my ignorance.

 

[JustinThyme]

This from a late-comer, there's talk of other material, but I only have a region atlas: Archipelago, a screen: Access Denied, and I'm *still* reading what I've found out to be a first version but have yet to reach any rules of play.
So, what's all this other material, and have I purchased a lot of dead fish?

 

[Malenfant]

Sol - yeah, you've got the first edition.

The new edition consists of:

BPv2 Player's Guide - all the chargen stuff.
BPv2 Moderator's Guide - all the GM secrets and background. These two are the corebooks and are VERY chunky and chockfull of info.

Frontier Justice - life as a GEO Marshal
First Colony - Haven sourcebook
Fluid Mechanics - Equipment book
Natural Selection - Poseidon sourcebook
Ancient Echoes - Cetacean sourcebook

I don't have the first two so I can't comment on them, and Fluid Mechanics is a fairly standard tech book, but Natural Selection and Ancient Echoes are awesome. You won't find a more detailed description of a planetary environment and alien ecosystem than Natural Selection - if there were books like this for worlds in Traveller then it's just be amazing. Ancient Echoes provides some history for the Cetacean races and loads of stuff about psychology and outlook and cetacean-centred technologies - it's a great addition to the line.

Unfortunately, FFG dumped the line after letting it languish for ages

. Biohazard apparently now have the rights back, but I have no clue if they're going to do anything further with it. There were plans for an Incorporates book (Black Crusade) and an Earth/Solar System corebook (World of Hurt), but they've come to nothing so far.

But still, there's a lot of good stuff out there, so it's worth tracking down if you can find the new edition. You can get the first four supplements on the list above as a single pack for cheap too, so keep an eye out for that.

 

[JustinThyme]

This may sound immature, but I purchased these items "used/new" because of their covers. Loverly. Archipelago is a great desktop! But I had no idea of the amount of storyline in the rule book. I'm over half way through the read, and as I stated, I have yet to read a Rule!? Is the later material the same info, or does one have to buy the new library if interested in playing?

 

[BrennanHawkwood]

The Player's Guide and GM book repackage most of the material from the v1 book and Archipelego. There is some new material and the game mechanics themselves are significantly changed. I've heard various opinions on wether it is worth getting the PG and GM book if you have v1. As for me, I've got both and do not think I wasted my money.

IIRC FFG dropped the line because the contract between them and Biohazard had reached its specified end point. There has been talk about occasional new material being made available via the internet, but the people who made the game all appear to be pretty busy busy with where life has taken them so it may or may not happen.

 

[JustinThyme]

I knew it! Now you've got me curious.

 

[signless]

robject...I can't tell you any more...the Incorporates are monitoring my net traffic...and the GEO Marshalls have been sniffing around the hab lately. But I CAN tell you that the aborigines aren't...what was that noise? Is anybody out the...

*seriously* I got into BP for the background material on water worlds. It's truly astounding. I tend to skim and then heavily modify or ignore rules...since it all gets bundled into MTU, anyway.

 

[clementk]

I've seen Gurps Blue Planet in the FLGS but not the other books. I don't really play Gurps but can always convert it to BESM and good source material is always welcome. Is it worth pursuing the FFG etc. books instead of or in addition to the Gurps version? I assume the artwork if nothing else is different.

I already have Gurps Planetary Survey 5 Tobibak (which is an ocean world), THS Under Pressure, and Ex-Cox'sun now Moot-Jester-in-Training Asu comes from an island world. I also liked the idea of Seaquest and Blue Submarine no. 6 was fun. So it sounds like BP could be useful to me, a good read if nothing else. I just don't want to get Gurps BP and the FFG book and get the same information twice.

Casey

 

[Morte]

Well, I've just bought the setting four-pack cheap on eBay. I daresay I'll at least mine stuff from it, or with any luck plant it wholesale somewhere IMTU.

I've always like water worlds, and when I saw the Cetus Liner, which is styled like a flying boat, I got the idea for a slightly isolated cluster somewhere, which just happens to be mostly water worlds of various kinds, with lots of starhips designed for water landings traipsing around. I think I could have some fun with that, and the BP books should help.

 

[Malenfant]

GURPS BP might be ueful if you have GURPS Traveller. But it's only one book that basically summarises the setting, and you'd be missing out on all the juicy material in the FFG BP books.

I'd suggest going for the FFG books instead.