KawangaKid

Re: Is "ether" real? If that's the case, then we should stop calling it ether because it's confusing. We should call the original concept of ether oether, and the new concept... nether! Well, either nether or naether. Neither has been used before, or have they?

Re: Terran Empire and TvTropes.org Thanks for all the feedback and ideas! I'm gonna think about it more and summarize what's here into a more detailed series of "TV Series summaries" so I can figure out the various possible campaign ideas and progressions along several "seasons".

Re: Terran Empire and TvTropes.org Interesting ideas! I wasn't aware of the Nibu Gemani (because I didn't get to pick up Galactic Champions due to the evaporation of a regular Champions group), but the Void Messiahs sound interesting enough and low key enough, yet local enough to be a hidden threat. I'm reading through the other suggestions (an very true comments), and will consolidate them in the future. I'd like to revisit something else, however... Prominent Races! A lot of races in Terran Empire, in the main text and in the sidebars. In order to fulfill specific roles however: "Ancient and hidebound Proud Warrior Race Guys who may double as Scary Dogmatic Aliens. Their ships will typically be purple, green, or gold." - My slightly sideways take on this -- the Velarian Confederation! They have the Fassai as the Proud Warrior Race Guys, and the Velarians will have to have a slight shift into Scary Dogmatic Aliens. Sadly, they're not scary at all, and neither is their dogma. Must read the book again. "A genocidal alien race that's either The Virus, Planet Looters from 'beyond known space' or a full-on Horde Of Alien Locusts. Either way, their ships tend to be red, purple, black, or other "evil" colors. - genocidal, eh? I'm kinda at a loss. Perhaps the xenovores further corrupted by a project of the Thanes or the Void Messiahs? A wise/spiritual Closer To Earth race decked out in Crystal Spires And Togas. These are often Human Aliens and/or Elves IN SPACE, possibly the Neglectful Precursors, if they're already extinct. If there's a metaphysical aspect, these guys will be brimming with it more than any others. - Who could these guys be?

Partially as an intellectual exercise, and partially to see how feasible it is to mine the Terran Empire setting to resemble the "Standard SciFi Setting" and Space Opera tropes, I'm listing below some of the elements found on tvtropes.org and seeing how it matches up. Basic Premise: "In the far future, the [human group] fights a pitched battle against the mighty [alien name] Empire, but deep in the mysterious [region of space], among the ruins of the past, a darker threat looms." Assuming it's in the reign of Marissa, let's take a look at the 'fill-in the blanks' elements and nominate candidates: the human group - the Terran Empire, but perhaps a sub-group of that Empire alien empire - the Thorgons are the easiest to pick on, I suppose region of space - well, maybe the Varanyi and a secret in their past? or the Malvans? or the Thane and the servants of the Elder Worm? Then there are the common elements, which include: Easy FTL travel (check -- there are two types, in fact) Space Is An Ocean (check -- and talk about fleets, there are several for the Terran Empire) Space Marines (check -- marines, army, and more special troops) Mystical/Metaphysical elements, generally including Psychic Powers (we have the Telepaths and Psionics here), Life Energy (eh?) or something else simaller to Functional Magic (assuming we drop the whole Champions bit, would this include the Mandaarians and the Thane?). More later. Feel free to throw in your own two bits.

Re: Free-flying cyborg insects steered from a distance I'm afraid.

Re: Miles Vorkosigan RPG

Re: Interdimensional stories Does the Amber series count as mystical, because it also involves our world? That being said, there's a series of novels by Charles Stoss known as the Merchant Princes series that deals with trade across alternate histories by bloodlines who are capable of such travel. Also, Jane Jensen (author of the series of Gabriel Knight games) came out with a semi-mathematical/mystical novel titled Dante's Equation. As for anthologies, there are many. You may wish to check out Sideways in Crime by Lou Anders (ed.) (Solaris, 2008) which includes Chris Roberson's fun, but somewhat rushed short story "Death on the Crosstime Express".

Re: The Galaxy With Two Supermassive Black Holes: Will They Trigger One of the Most V

Re: Screenshots Haha! I love it! Did you feel the Monarch's sting? ("But Monarch butterflies don't sting...")

Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles Oh noes! That'll teach me to reply without reading the entire thread first. Yeah, I'm reading through Starmada myself, and trying to see if I can play it against someone locally.

Re: Reminiscing About Star Fleet Battles

Re: Star Trek: Goodbye Majel Roddenberry Bye, Majel! Be at peace.

Re: Thank you from ComStar! As I mentioned in the other thread, I came in too late to support you guys (I was gonna snag them in December) and I don't really buy printed RPGs anymore (small condo, growing child), but I am eager to see what you guys come up with for the SF genre soon!

Re: Alien comet infiltrates solar system Amen.

Re: Traveller HERO: end is approaching CRIPES! I MISSED IT! I was waiting for my Christmas bonus, and thought the license would expire in December! Agh! *melodramatic death shudder*

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Illium was the last one I finished, I believe. By Dan Simmons. No, wait... Book 1 of the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson.

Re: Nexus universe Actually, Space Ghost was one of the main inspirations for Nexus. Especially since Space Ghost killed his opponents in his first four(?) appearances. And then the parents stepped in... The original concept was to have an executioner - a man driven to kill mass murderers - but only in self defense. He has dreams that make him relive the deaths of all those his target was responsible for. They get more and more painful until they start to manifest physically on him. If he lets 'em continue, he'll die. Hence the original moral conflict.

Re: help with ship clasifications This is COOL!

Re: Nexus universe I loved the Heads. And the ability to fusionkast energy from the heart of a star. The Quattros and the Gucci assassins. And the Merk, of course.

Re: Crimson Skies Plane Conversion I'm not too clear on what's been coming out for Crimson Skies recently, but I've been looking at what I can mine from the Ace Combat series of games for Crimson Skies. Here's a link to the Wikipedia entry.

Re: "TaleSpin" as a pulp setting Didn't Talespin come out in DVD last September?

Re: Orion's Arm Worldbuilding Project It's very large - while very large I think that there needs to be more visual design on the ships and various cultures to differentiate them from the others in the setting.

Hullo everyone - has anyone gone through this site thoroughly? It seems to have massive amount of mineable Hard SF / Transhuman SF material in it, but I'm trying to slog through all the info. Has anyone done any conversions or character builds?

Re: Traveller Hero, a major announcement And shouldn't there be only one "l" in Traveler?

Re: Friends, 1934 Now all that's needed is to figure out some adventure storylines for the crew...