Very interesting. Well for me Alien Isolation is to blame, I just love the way the ships and station look in that game and it is so close to the alien movie.

I also like the Idea of a humans only SciFi. Everything a bit simpler, FTL Travel in suspension/cryosleep etc. No lasers or blasters, just good old fashioned projectiles. Add in a dose of Blade Runner, stir to serve ;-) Not sure how I will handle space battles yet though. And its just an idea at the moment.

Last edited by Chaosmeister (10/14/2014 12:49 pm)

Chaosmeister wrote:

Had another read through and there is a lot I like. Well thought out and well written to boot.
Some stuff I have been thinking about:

Will add the carrers Scientist/Genius  Dilettante/Noble Drifter/Beggar Hunter/Scout and need to think up some Boons / Flaws that would be fitting for these careers as well. 

Propably will create some Boon/Flaw Background packages. Like "Spacer" "Heavy G Worlder" "Toxic Atmosphere Worlder" etc. as generic background packages.

 Need more Cyberware ;-) Since characters do not really handle money in any practical sense cyberwear as gear would not make much sense as in other games would it? The player would just need to do some lucky rolls to get all cybered up if it was gear only, there would be no progression. I usually prefer Cyberware as gear and not as boon, that is why I am asking primarily, you all have propbaly more experience with BoL then I do :-)

I thank you for your examples for the PSI abillities, magic is the hardest part to adjudicate in BoL for me.
After some thinking I would structure it differently though. PSI talent can do all of the of PSI areas like a mage could. A boon would give a bonus to a specific area then. But I guess this is really purely a matter of taste.

I have not read the latest rules iteration of BoL yet, but I gather the way damage is done is calculated differently in the newest version? I think that could be useful to implement.

Finally I would also suggest to use the 2D10 vs 12 Variant from Honor+Intrigue. I think that the higher range and that it is harder to get autosuccesses would benefit a Sci Fi Campaign with a more "Realisitc" tone.

 

You make some good points. I'd be interested in seeing what you come up with.
As for money in the game, I took to using the wealth system from Honor & Intrigue,
I find it suits my style of gaming.

I've started the process of writing up my home brew setting.
It's the setting I've been using on and off in various sci fi games for years and I'm in the process of writing it up for BotV.
I call it "The Bleeding Edge". A little over 90 systems spread out across dozens of parsecs.
Over the next few weeks, I'll be trying to label all the systems and nebula clouds. I'll update the map as it goes.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106432046/Bleeding%20Edge.png
After that, I'll see if I can write up a brief paragraph or two for each system, but realistically that part is likely to be a long term project.

It's a largely humanocentric setting that crosses "Alien" with cyberpunk and "Firefly".
 

Last edited by nerosfiddle (10/16/2014 8:29 am)

While writing up my own setting I have come to a small hitch. I would like to introduce some form of tech levels, but I am not quiet sure how to handle that. I was thinking someone using items from a higher or lower tech level has a difficulty modifier to using them, depending on the difference in Tech level (Ranging from TL 1-5). So someone from a TL 2 World using a TL 3 item would need to do a Tricky check. Damage would also be modified when it comes to weapons. TL 5 Weapons would do normal damage agaisnt TL5 equipped Characters,but +4 Damage against someone wearing TL1 Armor.That is he thing I ma most worried about, what to do if someone is unarmored? And what about beasts?
Similarly it would modify any aquisition roll. If you want to buy a TL 4 weapon on a TL2 World that would be two steps removed and a Hard Check. The other way around, buying a TL 2 Item on a TL 4 World would be an easy task.

I do like the simplicity of the "Primitive flaw" though. Maybe I am overthinking and overcomplicating it.

For task rolls across tech levels, either increase in difficulty or penalty dice is the way to go.

I don't think higher tech weapons should do more damage, a bow, rifle or laser are all going to be similar imo, it's the armour that would make the difference.

I can imagine that higher tech could allow a weapon greater damage yeild with less mass/size up to a point.
In Trek the hand phaser comes in 3 sizes (pocket, pistol and rifle) with each being a devistating weapon for being hand held. The sizes seem to be enhancements to power supply and range.
In Star Wars a blaster is a blaster with blaster rifels having somewhat more punch and range. These are merely observations of the films, I did not reference any tech info on the subject.