Traveller: Blue Planet

Participant-Observer

Banded Mongoose
The Blue Planet setting seems to be in limbo between editions, ever since FFG stopped publishing it.

Both previous rule-systems were pretty spiffy and worthy of revival in their own right, but I think that Poseidon would make a great background for Traveller. Unusually for the settings mentioned as possible Trav settings, interstellar travel is expensive and fairly uncommon. Lots of lush detail about the world's hostile ecosystem, suspicious bio-engineered/ modded first generation "natives", mysterious/ unknowable alien "aborigines", and inter-corporate politics feature. It's a genuinely "political" "cyberpunk" setting.

With lovely 1st edition artwork, please. :)

Any thoughts?

(PS. I also think that Poseidon would make a great setting for adventures in the Dredd universe: the powers and responsibilities of the GEO Marshals are very "Judge-like".)
 
Blue Planet's very, very close to my heart - my very first bit of freelancing was doing the adventure at the back of Natural Selection. I was running a campaign of it earlier in the year, which went really well.

(Well, most of the planet got trashed by a superstorm, and GenDiver became a freaky hive-mind entity, but it was fun.)
 
Mongoose Gar said:
Blue Planet's very, very close to my heart - my very first bit of freelancing was doing the adventure at the back of Natural Selection.

Kudos. That was a great book. :)

Mongoose Gar said:
I was running a campaign of it earlier in the year, which went really well.

(Well, most of the planet got trashed by a superstorm, and GenDiver became a freaky hive-mind entity, but it was fun.)

Now, wouldn't all this suggest to you that it would make a great Traveller setting? 8)
 
Oh, no question - BP's chargen was lifepath-based, and the tech levels aren't dissimilar once you ignore Traveller's cheap anti-grav. The problem is that Blue Planet's fanbase wasn't big enough to support the game back in the day... although with the printing press, smaller print runs are feasible...hmm...

...I'm going to send some emails.
 
It'd be awesome if Mongoose could get Blue Planet out again on the Traveller license... (btw, I loved Natural Selection. So much awesome information in there, I wish every world in a scifi game could be that detailed!)
 
Great.... More stuff I'd feel compelled to buy.... :roll:

Blue Planet was an excellent setting, plenty of background and interestingly different.

In what other game could you play a gene-lifted cetacean?
 
Mongoose Gar said:
The problem is that Blue Planet's fanbase wasn't big enough to support the game back in the day... although with the printing press, smaller print runs are feasible...hmm...

...I'm going to send some emails.

That would be fantastic. Thanks. :D

(It'd be a shame to see such a thoughtful SFRPG disappear.)
 
I second the Blue Planet setting.

FFG has stopped the publishing but the original creators have kept the rights.
 
Perhaps it has few supporters, but the ones I've listened to are vocal and very, er, supportive. I think it could go well using Traveller rules, as a sourcebook/campaign setting, or as its own game built on the Traveller base, or -- best of both worlds -- both concepts in one volume.
 
Blue Planet would definitely be right up there as a good setting/licence for the Traveller rules.

The 'realistic' tone of the game fits the setting perfectly - and indeed, would promote the setting within a 'family' of other noteable settings also being done with this ruleset.

Of all the possible gameworld licences that would work with Traveller, Blue Planet is probably the one that I'd choose above all others.
 
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