Mongoose Publishing

Pete,

I just read the CT Aliens module the Darrians and then the GURPS Humaniti book, especially the Darrians sections and then I found the Mongoose Darrians book in Travelling Man's 50% off Spring Sale.

I have to say you have done a great job. Nuanced, weaving between the different versions, building a very compelling society and homo species that slots neatly into the Vulcan place in my SF archetypes, with a subtle mixing of elfs and (and tell me if I am wrong) more than a hint of Swedes in there. I was relieved you dropped the Knights of Darrian and went with a meritocratic and egalitarian society.

It's all good, but the equipment (which is not a section I usually dwell over as a GM) was carefully written with a good eye for how the system works, and detailed enough for verisimilitude.

Well done, I shall have Darrian Science Academy ships popping up in my campaigns from now on.

One errata that I am sure was caused in the final proofing or is due to my foolishness:

One page 3 it states that one rolls a series of dice for characteristics, e.g. Strength is 1D6+3 and Dexterity is 2D6 and so on. Then there is a Darrian Citizen Characteristic Modifer table which makes mods, such as -1 STR or +1 EDU. Are these cumulative, or alternatives? Do I roll 1D6+3 for STR and then subtract -1?

One page 6 we have characteristic rolls for Darrian Aslans, do these interact with the modifier table on page 3 or do I ignore that?




--

Tom Zunder
http://www.zunder.org.uk
http://www.gamingtavern.eu
http://tzunder.livejournal.com

"Ni Dieu, ni Maitre"

In my copy, it's a standard 2d6 roll, modified by the DMs on the native Darrian table. The Aslan table is not culmulitive with the native darrian table and used for Aslans orginating from Darrian worlds of .7g or less.

tzunder wrote:
I have to say you have done a great job. Nuanced, weaving between the different versions, building a very compelling society and homo species that slots neatly into the Vulcan place in my SF archetypes, with a subtle mixing of elfs and (and tell me if I am wrong) more than a hint of Swedes in there. I was relieved you dropped the Knights of Darrian and went with a meritocratic and egalitarian society.

Being a swede and loving the Darrians, I must say that I appreciate this statement, but I am curious in what way you think that Darrians resemble Swedes.

But yes, this was the best book I have ever seen about the Darrians, and I especially love all the small mysteries that you added in there in the "Darrian Worlds" chapter.

Not too much ancients, which I first feared when I saw the book and just enough of them when you read the books.

Rusty_Unycorn wrote:In my copy, it's a standard 2d6 roll, modified by the DMs on the native Darrian table. The Aslan table is not culmulitive with the native darrian table and used for Aslans orginating from Darrian worlds of .7g or less.

In my copy (printed) the text modifies the dice rolls, and then after that there is the native Darrian table. The two are not the same and it is not clear if they are cumulative. Pete assures me to ignore the text and just use the table. It wasn't him...

As to what reminded me of the Swedes, well it's cliches I know but I worked with and in Sweden and I'd say:

Meritocratic
Egalitarian
Non sexist
Value consensus over conflict

and one from the old Norse days

Exile as a form of social censure.. which beautifully creates a dissenting underclass for GMs to use and for deviant PCs to come from.

tzunder wrote: As to what reminded me of the Swedes, well it's cliches I know but I worked with and in Sweden and I'd say:

Meritocratic
Egalitarian
Non sexist
Value consensus over conflict

and one from the old Norse days

Exile as a form of social censure.. which beautifully creates a dissenting underclass for GMs to use and for deviant PCs to come from.

sounds fair and quite correct, i must say. Now I just have to get goldish skin, pointed ears and better tech at home nd I will be a good darrian

The OP's point threw me too when I was rereading the book the other day. What I realised is this:

The text in the paragragh gives the characteristic rolls.

The following table is for modifiers to the MAXIMUM characteristic allowed.