The cover of Blue Planet 1st version |
|
| Designer(s) | Jeff Barber, Greg Benage, Jim Heivilin and Jason Werner |
|---|---|
| Publisher(s) | Biohazard Games (v1) Fantasy Flight Games (v2) |
| Publication date | 1997 (v1) 2000 (v2) |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction |
| System(s) | Custom (v1) Custom "Synergy System" (v2) |
Blue Planet is an environmentalist science fiction role-playing game and setting from Biohazard Games.
Contents |
The first edition was demonstrated and released at Origins in 1997 to critical acclaim, receiving a nomination for the Game of the Year Origins award.[1]
The rulebook, weighing in at just under 350 pages, is almost a worldbook, with about five-sixths of its length dedicated to the alien setting. In keeping with its environmentalist theme, the game was dedicated to Jacques Cousteau, and 10% of the profits were to go to his Cousteau Society.
The game received criticism for its overly involved character generation system and extremely lethal combat system. A second version of the game was later released in 2000 in association with Fantasy Flight Games. This used a new role-playing game system commonly referred to as the Synergy System instead. The rules and modules were released in several books.
There was also a GURPS Blue Planet conversion[2] of the original product released in 2002 by Steve Jackson Games.
The intellectual property of Blue Planet passed back from Fantasy Flight Games to BioHazard in 2004. [3]
On 7 May 2008, RedBrick LLC, publisher of the Earthdawn and Fading Suns roleplaying games, announced they had licensed the Blue Planet property from BioHazard Games. Since then they published "Ancient Echoes", which was originally produced in very small numbers and only in softcover.
Blue Planet is fairly unusual among sci-fi RPGs in that its setting is exhaustively researched and scientifically accurate.[1] It is set on an alien water planet, with believable climate, geography, ecology and political situations.
200 years from now, the human race has irreparably damaged its environment. Uncountable plant and animal species have gone extinct, and humanity has just begun rebuilding in the wake of a 75-year worldwide famine. Just before the disaster, a mysterious artificial wormhole was discovered a fair distance out beyond the edge of the solar system. Expeditions discovered that the wormhole led to another star system around Lambda Serpentis, 35 light years away. The second planet of the system was covered with a single vast ocean and was suitable for human life, and was named Poseidon. One major colony ship was sent there before civilization collapsed on Earth, and the colonists were given up for as lost.
The GEO (Global Ecology Organization) and various Incorporates (read: Megacorporations) then rebuilt the Earth's economies (but not ecology) and recontacted Poseidon, only to discover that the colonists have gone "native," abandoning their run-down technology for simple, tribal life as fisherfolk. When the discovery of a "xenosilicate" ore revolutionizes genetic engineering, a new gold rush brings new settlers, greed and Incorporate warfare to the planet, threatening to destabilize the ecology of Poseidon. Some natives start ecoterrorist groups to protect their oceans from being despoiled, while the GEO tries to maintain law and order with genetically engineered soldiers. Meanwhile, the rarely-glimpsed and enigmatic aborigines which dwell beneath the ocean surface begin reacting to the human presence.
The native colonists of Poseidon are genetically engineered to be able to function underwater, either breathing through gills or possessing a high-capacity diving lung, as well as small fins to aid in swimming and saltwater-resistant skin. Additionally, the game includes genetically "uplifted" dolphins and orcas as playable characters on either side of the native/immigrant dichotomy.
The first edition of Blue Planet (V1) and the second edition (V2) use a similar system. V2, which is called the Synergy system, is a much more streamlined version of V1. While V1 used a percentage (d100)system, V2 used d10s. Also, the combat in Synergy completely rewritten. Avoiding the use of hit locations, introducing a new initiative system and using a more abstract armour and damage modelling instead of the in complex damage tables and more detailed armour types from V1.
In Synergy the average attribute is 0 and the human range is from -3 to +3, while the skills may range from 1 to 10. The higher the number the better the attribute or skill. Aptitudes can be bought for skill groups, which implies natural talent on the given group. Depending on the level of the aptitude it increases the number of dice rolled in tasks. Synergy uses a roll under system. You add your attribute and skill together and your have to roll below that number. Depending on one's aptitude with the given skill one may roll with 1,2 or 3 dice, keeping one of the dice results.