High Colonies RPG
- Thread starter kafka47
- Start date
Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
It is a good game, isn't it...I always avoided it "back in the day". I never gave it much of a chance.
I was definitely judging a book by its cover. From browsing it, HC is a good game.
-S4
I was definitely judging a book by its cover. From browsing it, HC is a good game.
-S4
Good background... I wasn't so impressed with the rules as I recall. I didn't even know Challenge had any articles for it - now I'll have to locate them. As an alternate setting for space gaming, it was pretty neat - lots of small polities, exploration, intrigue, all that good stuff. I just had the rulebook in my hand last night while rooting through other stuff...
Well, it was rip of 2300AD (Near Space) & Traveller at the same time without too many fancy handwaves because it wanted to stay grounded in realism**. The artist/game designer was also influenced by the emergence of cyberpunk and thought hard how to integrate into a Hard SF background, as a result he was not also one to shy away from nudity or mature themes. For me, it is part of the countless games that you wish would see more of in the market. Little engines that hopefully influence the bigger engines and drive the hobby forward.
**This is not to say some of predictions were terribly naive but they reflect a home grown feel/desire. i.e. Soviet Manned Lunar Base by 2000 & Corporations taking an interest in Near Earth orbit and actually building something larger than a basketball.
**This is not to say some of predictions were terribly naive but they reflect a home grown feel/desire. i.e. Soviet Manned Lunar Base by 2000 & Corporations taking an interest in Near Earth orbit and actually building something larger than a basketball.
M
Malenfant
Guest
Sounds like SJG's Transhuman Space is similar (without the 'wasteland Earth' anyway).
mbrinkhues
SOC-14 1K
After a short look through Challenge I came up with three articels:
+ One dealing with mercs on shore leave
+ One dealing with a shuttle taking hostage
+ One dealing with an old base that is still alive
Aside from that it seems only the base rulesbook.
@Malefant:
Rather different feeling to it tech-wise. No Nanotech, no Bodyshells, No Infomorphs. Gen-tech was used as a weapon in a war and is looked at with care and restrained. Tech is more 20th century level mostly.
Cyberpunks Deep Space or Clark/Preuss "Venus Prime" is more to it in feel and style.
Btw: If we drop the last book (That Preuss wrote on his own IIRC) what about Venus Prime as an RPG background?
+ One dealing with mercs on shore leave
+ One dealing with a shuttle taking hostage
+ One dealing with an old base that is still alive
Aside from that it seems only the base rulesbook.
@Malefant:
Rather different feeling to it tech-wise. No Nanotech, no Bodyshells, No Infomorphs. Gen-tech was used as a weapon in a war and is looked at with care and restrained. Tech is more 20th century level mostly.
Cyberpunks Deep Space or Clark/Preuss "Venus Prime" is more to it in feel and style.
Btw: If we drop the last book (That Preuss wrote on his own IIRC) what about Venus Prime as an RPG background?
R
Roger Calver
Guest
Well you can get it from Amazon US and cheap.
http://www.amazon.com/HIGH-COLONIES-Science-Fiction-Playing/dp/B000E1DDKY
http://www.amazon.com/HIGH-COLONIES-Science-Fiction-Playing/dp/B000E1DDKY
Transhuman Space, well, dealt with Transhumanism whereas the objective of High Colonies was create viable Hard SF Gibson-like future (or parts of Cyberpunk 2020 - most notably, Deep Space) where Mankind remains scattered throughout the Solar System and the long struggle that might eventually take us to the Stars. But, in the meantime, we have to live on L5 stations, lunar stations, extraplanetary stations without so much as a single wave of a hand. True, there is an Alien Race there but I would rather ignore that, it was just for all the geeks who couldn't understand how SF could exist without aliens.
So, if anyone, is looking for CT game with an edge or cyberpunk wedge...check out High Colonies.
M
Malenfant
Guest
There's still a lot you can borrow from TS though. TS has a lot of genetic engineering tech that sounds like it could fit into High Colonies. But keep in mind that the gibson-like stuff (Near Orbit, Deep Space, etc) did basically evolve into the transhuman stuff over time anyway (heck, IIRC Gibson himself had some nanotech stuff in books like Idoru).
The space stuff in TS could translate very well though, there's lots of Lagrange colonies and stations on the other planets and moons in the solar system. Also DP9's Jovian Chronicles would be another one to look at for that sort of thing.
The space stuff in TS could translate very well though, there's lots of Lagrange colonies and stations on the other planets and moons in the solar system. Also DP9's Jovian Chronicles would be another one to look at for that sort of thing.
M
Malenfant
Guest
JC might well be what you're after, the setting sounds similar (though it has more giant robots and less cybertech). I don't think CP 3.0 has anything useful in it though.
I would agree, the JC universe is well worth looking at. If you have a few spare credits I would invest in the two Art of the Jovian Chronicles pdfs from Drivethru, These have a great illustration style which really give you a feel for it. Loads of moon bases, mars domes, oneill orbital colonies and warring planetary factions & all on our own familiar doorstep.
- I would personally ignore the big manga exosuits though.
- I would personally ignore the big manga exosuits though.
M
Malenfant
Guest
The Ships of the Fleet books are very cool fluff books too, with lots of plans and commentary from crewmembers. They don't tie well with the historical continuity (being set a few years ahead of the main timeline) but they're a good read.
Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
I've only given it a cursory looksee, but the rules and background are what caught my eye. From my short skip through the pages, the rules didn't seem anything like T2300. It's one of those "roll a number of d6 but only a certain number on the d6 are good" types of systems.
I put it on my reading shelf for further investigation.
A new edition of High Colonies is supposed to be underway. The original brought a complex background (I stole a fair amount of it - Earth destroyed, thousands of national, corporate and religious outposts scattered from Mercury to the Kuiper Belt struggle on for my universe "Tempest" I run with GURPS and Traveller) but the ships had few details and were hardly Hard-SF, personal combat gear was good but the combat rules lacked relevance to Space environments, etc. Maybe the Rebot will fix that.
Free copies of a sampler from Columbia Games with the Kickstarter. I backed it, but actually rather underwhelmed so far.
I was hoping for Harn-level detail for near space, considering the publisher, but instead got rather blah style and content. Some of the art is re-used from the original and is simply poor, the included weapon art is mismatched, with an LMG pictured as an assault rifle, the SMG an Ak-74 and the flash rifle a HK G-11, seriously 200 years from now and that’s the best we can hope for?
The timeline which becomes sci-fi from 2027 Is extremely optimistic and honestly pretty nonsensical for the most part. Vague details on mostly corporate colonies are dry and uninteresting. Passing mention of Alpha Centauri. got my momentary attention, but no real details yet.
Nothing on ships and travel either, hopefully more thought and imagination applied.
Sorry, nothing promising to report but here’s hoping.
I was hoping for Harn-level detail for near space, considering the publisher, but instead got rather blah style and content. Some of the art is re-used from the original and is simply poor, the included weapon art is mismatched, with an LMG pictured as an assault rifle, the SMG an Ak-74 and the flash rifle a HK G-11, seriously 200 years from now and that’s the best we can hope for?
The timeline which becomes sci-fi from 2027 Is extremely optimistic and honestly pretty nonsensical for the most part. Vague details on mostly corporate colonies are dry and uninteresting. Passing mention of Alpha Centauri. got my momentary attention, but no real details yet.
Nothing on ships and travel either, hopefully more thought and imagination applied.
Sorry, nothing promising to report but here’s hoping.
