The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Blue Planet is a glowing example of what a small company with big vision can accomplish, if enough thought and care is put into the product. It is over 340 pages of informative background which includes everything, including corporate profiles, government hierarchy, flora and fauna, an extrapolated history, maps, equipment, biotechnology, cyberware, and all of it is presented in such detail that no supplemental releases are necessary. They would certainly be welcomed if they are of this high caliber, but the world can be used as a detailed setting without any further information.

It all starts with the front cover, and so will I. This is where most RPG rulebooks shine, regardless of what horrors lie within, and Blue Planet is no exception. The near abstract underwater photograph is embellished with clearly alien beings, and the murky blue world of the cover is an appropriate preview of the warm, enveloping world that is Poseidon.

The table of contents is a little sparse, only offering the 6 section titles, but the book comes with that rarest of RPG traits: an adequate index which can be used to quickly locate specifics.

Welcome to Blue Planet

This section introduces the state of the world in the year 2199. There are two pages dedicated to the usual "what is role-playing" concerns, followed by a 14 page timeline which mixes real history with fictional extrapolation, all punctuated with quotes from news sources and individuals. This guides the reader from the familiar present, with the Human Genome Project and the AIDS epidemic, to the dark future where the world is devastated by the Blight and a Lorentzian wormhole is discovered beyond Pluto.

On the Frontier

This section offers up a rich background for the world of Poseidon (Lambda Serpentis II), the seemingly hospitable planet which was found at the far end of the wormhole. There is a map for the planet of Poseidon in Mercator projection form, adding to the feeling of reality. This is followed by detailed subsections concerning the general history and culture of the planet, the return-to-basics culture of the first colonists who were abandoned for decades by an economically depleted Earth (the Natives), the introduction of genetically enhanced cetaceans, the introduction of the Global Ecology Organization (GEO) which is the defacto government on Earth, a detailed summary of the Pacifica Archipelago (including two more maps), and synopses of the corporate presence on the planet.

Beyond the Frontier

This opens with a description of the climate of the waterworld, including levels of cyclonic storms and regional temperature ranges. A selection of the decidedly alien flora and fauna follows, presenting the species as potential natural threats rather than as moving targets. There is an introduction to oceanography which will prove useful to land-locked GM's, such as myself. Finally, there is a summary of what is known of the mysterious Aborigines, seemingly intelligent squid-like beings who move about Poseidon as if with an unfathomable agenda.

World of Hurt

As if providing a detailed setting on the planet of Poseidon were not enough, this section presents a detailed view of events back on Earth. It is an interesting variation of the usual post-nuclear ruined world, the destruction this time coming in the form of an engineered plant virus which went horribly wrong, devastating the grain crops of the world. Without adequate grain, animals starve, and the world is plummeted into food riots and depression. This tension leads to limited nuclear exchanges, and the fabric of society is slowly dissolved. It is not exactly the blatant and leather-clad apocalypse of Mad Max, but in many regions conditions are approaching a sort of futuristic Dark Age. Just as an aside, complaints have been raised about how unbelievable this disentegration of Earth's governments is. There have been doubts raised whether the depletion of natural resources on this scale would, indeed, lead to such chaos. I find it as realistic as, say, the world resorting to anarchy because of global nuclear warfare. And it is a refreshing take on the cliche of a a dark future. Finally, there was a recent proposal to release an engineered fungus in Florida which would selectively destroy marijuana crops, proving that this fictional Fischer Virus is not entirely far-fetched.

More Than Human

Lots of detailed descriptions of genetic engineering, cyberware, equipment, and vehicles here. This is the one section of the book which have could have benefited from the inclusion of more illustrations, but those which are included are realistic depictions of weaponry and electronics. This section, while mostly a catalog of what can be bought by characters, is nearly as complete as other systems' separate equipment supplements. Another example of the Biohazard staff going above and beyond when it comes to content.

Game Mechanics

So Biohazard saved the worst for last, flying in the face of showbiz logic. The combat mechanics are, as has been adequately detailed in other reviews, clumsy and make use of too many charts and conversion factors to determine what happens to those unfortunate enough to be shot or crushed by an uplifted Orca. The combat system could have been simpler, but if a GM finds himself resorting to frequent combat in this rich setting, then it is almost poetic that the mechanics be complicated. As I did not envision using these convoluted rules that often, instead relying on role-playing, I suppose I am less bothered by their impracticality.

Regardless of their complexity or inadequacy, they are certainly deadly. If you have too many characters live through such colorful results as "mangled flesh between eyes and neck" then I agree that the combat rules might become tedious, but I would imagine that combat ends quickly and messily for the most part.

Non-combat mechanics are a percentile based system, which is simple, effective and fast. Modifiers are in increments of 5, and the skill level is the chance for success. Nothing could be simpler, unless you count some of the coin-flip mechanics showing up nowadays.

Character creation is quite free-form, emphasizing creativity over raw point values. I would imagine that GM's will have to apply some limits or ranges for players to follow, otherwise you might have Bill Gates interacting with the local grease monkey, which would be a challenge even to GM's who revel in such dichotomy.

So much for the content in black and white (and that, incidentally, is what these rules are printed in), but what about the feel of the world?

It is hard to squeeze all of the good things about Blue Planet into one review. It is a well-written mix of real history and science with believable extrapolations. Everything herein is on the conservative side of sci-fi, with the wormhole being the most theoretical element, and that is nearly peripheral. This is very much Bruce Sterling sci-fi over Isaac Asimov sci-fi. Computers are quicker and "smarter," but far from robots with a code of ethics. Firearms are essentially improvements on existing technology, rather than gauss guns or particle beam projectors. It is rather a low tech version of 2199, but probably not too far from the truth, especially in light of the Blight and global depression.

Poseidon is a mix of cyberpunk and the Old West. It is very much a frontier world, with laws being enforced by GEO Marshals, prospectors staking claims on the ocean floor, and clashes with natives and aborigines. Instead of a rush for gold, this world is the source of a mysterious ore, dubbed Long John, which provides the template for immortality. The competition for this "fountain of youth" ore is ferocious, and claim jumps usually happen 6000 meters beneath the surface of the warm, alien oceans. The coporate powers are here, manipulating things from the background, although most of them are more concerned with the bottom line than world domination. There are the usual trappings of cyberpunk, with biotech and cybernetic modifications, but it plays more like an accepted and logical extension of our cosmetic surgery rather than a psychosis-inducing technology.

There is more plot in Blue Planet than could be used by any single GM in a decade. Liberally sprinkled throughout the rules are special Access Denied boxes, which detail behind-the-scenes plots taking place on Poseidon, in the asteroid belt, on Mars, and back on Earth. There are criminal, corporate, governmental, native, and more mundane subplots proffered in abundance. There is also the truth behind the Aborigines, which could be a campaign in and of itself.

There are also minor elements which, while not vital, add to the whole atmosphere. For example, I appreciated the real-world sounding names for Poseidon and it's islands, such as Sierra Nueva and Sandy Hook. All too frequently worlds are designed with hip or clever names, which is appropriate to some genres but would be sorely out of place here. If Posedion had been called, oh say, Waterworld, and its major archipelago called the Neo Tokyo Cluster, then it would have been a wink and a nod at genre fans, but reality is usually a little less colorful. Blue Planet captures the feel of such details perfectly.

Finally, what about this liberal slant which the system is notorious for? I am probably biased on this point, being more liberal than conservative, but I will offer my honest opinion. Eco-terrorists are a major subplot in the rules, and this makes absolute sense to me after Earth has been decimated by ecological based disasters. I would expect that there would be militant religious groups if the world had been devastated by Satan and His Infernal Horde, and although I am not a religious man I would hardly have taken offense at a realitic Christian resistance movement. It just makes sense that extreme occurrences of one slant produce extreme and opposite reactions. I think some guy even wrote a theorem about that as it pertains to physics. Look at the world today, with old growth forests being harvested and the sort of militant response that has produced. Now expand "old growth forest" to include "all plant life," and I think you would admit that the backlash would be enormous amongst the radical fringe. Sure, the fringe is small in general, but a disaster of that magnitude would probably bolster its ranks and motivate extreme actions. This is completely divorced from the politics of the writer, it is simply a realistic response given the nature of the world.

I am not familiar with Jeff Barber's politics, but I think he is as much a supporter of violent eco-terrorism as Swift was an advocate of eating children. It's fiction, but many readers of Blue Planet have chosen to single out the "liberal" or "eco-conscious" themes as the Truth behind the writer's agenda. Well, the world also includes some incredibly powerful Marshals, virtual one man armies and courts-of-law, so is Barber glorifying a police state? Or is it simply another plot element? I choose to think the game was created by people who do respect the natural world (but what sort of human being doesn't?), but I believe the "tree-hugger" reputation it seems to have garnered is as likely as it being pro police state.

When I played AD&D, did I actually believe that Gygax et al were extolling the virtues of slaughtering anyone different from yourself? Is AD&D just a thinly disguised ode to racial hatred? No, I don't think so, and I never felt personally insulted by its trappings. I choose to think of Blue Planet the same way, and would hope that people aren't avoiding the system because of the pre-conceived notions of a minority of gamers.

In closing, I will mention that Blue Planet will require an experienced GM who values plot over action. It is definitely akin to a detailed novel you can drop characters into. The mechanics can be sloppy and it will require a lot of re-reading to absorb all of the details. It is not an easy camapign, but being a simulationist at heart I think it is terrific. If you prefer fun systems with quick dice rolling conventions, then this might not be for you. Still, the size and completeness of this game ranks it amongst the best.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Blue Planet
Author: Jeffrey Barber Category: game Company/Publisher: Biohazard Games Line: Blue Planet Cost: $27.95 Page count: 342 ISBN: none SKU: BZG3000 Capsule Review by Roger Taylor on 08/26/99. Genre tags: Science_fiction Space	Blue Planet is a glowing example of what a small company with big vision can accomplish, if enough thought and care is put into the product. It is over 340 pages of informative background which includes everything, including corporate profiles, government hierarchy, flora and fauna, an extrapolated history, maps, equipment, biotechnology, cyberware, and all of it is presented in such detail that no supplemental releases are necessary. They would certainly be welcomed if they are of this high caliber, but the world can be used as a detailed setting without any further information. It all starts with the front cover, and so will I. This is where most RPG rulebooks shine, regardless of what horrors lie within, and Blue Planet is no exception. The near abstract underwater photograph is embellished with clearly alien beings, and the murky blue world of the cover is an appropriate preview of the warm, enveloping world that is Poseidon. The table of contents is a little sparse, only offering the 6 section titles, but the book comes with that rarest of RPG traits: an adequate index which can be used to quickly locate specifics. Welcome to Blue Planet This section introduces the state of the world in the year 2199. There are two pages dedicated to the usual "what is role-playing" concerns, followed by a 14 page timeline which mixes real history with fictional extrapolation, all punctuated with quotes from news sources and individuals. This guides the reader from the familiar present, with the Human Genome Project and the AIDS epidemic, to the dark future where the world is devastated by the Blight and a Lorentzian wormhole is discovered beyond Pluto. On the Frontier This section offers up a rich background for the world of Poseidon (Lambda Serpentis II), the seemingly hospitable planet which was found at the far end of the wormhole. There is a map for the planet of Poseidon in Mercator projection form, adding to the feeling of reality. This is followed by detailed subsections concerning the general history and culture of the planet, the return-to-basics culture of the first colonists who were abandoned for decades by an economically depleted Earth (the Natives), the introduction of genetically enhanced cetaceans, the introduction of the Global Ecology Organization (GEO) which is the defacto government on Earth, a detailed summary of the Pacifica Archipelago (including two more maps), and synopses of the corporate presence on the planet. Beyond the Frontier This opens with a description of the climate of the waterworld, including levels of cyclonic storms and regional temperature ranges. A selection of the decidedly alien flora and fauna follows, presenting the species as potential natural threats rather than as moving targets. There is an introduction to oceanography which will prove useful to land-locked GM's, such as myself. Finally, there is a summary of what is known of the mysterious Aborigines, seemingly intelligent squid-like beings who move about Poseidon as if with an unfathomable agenda. World of Hurt As if providing a detailed setting on the planet of Poseidon were not enough, this section presents a detailed view of events back on Earth. It is an interesting variation of the usual post-nuclear ruined world, the destruction this time coming in the form of an engineered plant virus which went horribly wrong, devastating the grain crops of the world. Without adequate grain, animals starve, and the world is plummeted into food riots and depression. This tension leads to limited nuclear exchanges, and the fabric of society is slowly dissolved. It is not exactly the blatant and leather-clad apocalypse of Mad Max, but in many regions conditions are approaching a sort of futuristic Dark Age. Just as an aside, complaints have been raised about how unbelievable this disentegration of Earth's governments is. There have been doubts raised whether the depletion of natural resources on this scale would, indeed, lead to such chaos. I find it as realistic as, say, the world resorting to anarchy because of global nuclear warfare. And it is a refreshing take on the cliche of a a dark future. Finally, there was a recent proposal to release an engineered fungus in Florida which would selectively destroy marijuana crops, proving that this fictional Fischer Virus is not entirely far-fetched. More Than Human Lots of detailed descriptions of genetic engineering, cyberware, equipment, and vehicles here. This is the one section of the book which have could have benefited from the inclusion of more illustrations, but those which are included are realistic depictions of weaponry and electronics. This section, while mostly a catalog of what can be bought by characters, is nearly as complete as other systems' separate equipment supplements. Another example of the Biohazard staff going above and beyond when it comes to content. Game Mechanics So Biohazard saved the worst for last, flying in the face of showbiz logic. The combat mechanics are, as has been adequately detailed in other reviews, clumsy and make use of too many charts and conversion factors to determine what happens to those unfortunate enough to be shot or crushed by an uplifted Orca. The combat system could have been simpler, but if a GM finds himself resorting to frequent combat in this rich setting, then it is almost poetic that the mechanics be complicated. As I did not envision using these convoluted rules that often, instead relying on role-playing, I suppose I am less bothered by their impracticality. Regardless of their complexity or inadequacy, they are certainly deadly. If you have too many characters live through such colorful results as "mangled flesh between eyes and neck" then I agree that the combat rules might become tedious, but I would imagine that combat ends quickly and messily for the most part. Non-combat mechanics are a percentile based system, which is simple, effective and fast. Modifiers are in increments of 5, and the skill level is the chance for success. Nothing could be simpler, unless you count some of the coin-flip mechanics showing up nowadays. Character creation is quite free-form, emphasizing creativity over raw point values. I would imagine that GM's will have to apply some limits or ranges for players to follow, otherwise you might have Bill Gates interacting with the local grease monkey, which would be a challenge even to GM's who revel in such dichotomy. So much for the content in black and white (and that, incidentally, is what these rules are printed in), but what about the feel of the world? It is hard to squeeze all of the good things about Blue Planet into one review. It is a well-written mix of real history and science with believable extrapolations. Everything herein is on the conservative side of sci-fi, with the wormhole being the most theoretical element, and that is nearly peripheral. This is very much Bruce Sterling sci-fi over Isaac Asimov sci-fi. Computers are quicker and "smarter," but far from robots with a code of ethics. Firearms are essentially improvements on existing technology, rather than gauss guns or particle beam projectors. It is rather a low tech version of 2199, but probably not too far from the truth, especially in light of the Blight and global depression. Poseidon is a mix of cyberpunk and the Old West. It is very much a frontier world, with laws being enforced by GEO Marshals, prospectors staking claims on the ocean floor, and clashes with natives and aborigines. Instead of a rush for gold, this world is the source of a mysterious ore, dubbed Long John, which provides the template for immortality. The competition for this "fountain of youth" ore is ferocious, and claim jumps usually happen 6000 meters beneath the surface of the warm, alien oceans. The coporate powers are here, manipulating things from the background, although most of them are more concerned with the bottom line than world domination. There are the usual trappings of cyberpunk, with biotech and cybernetic modifications, but it plays more like an accepted and logical extension of our cosmetic surgery rather than a psychosis-inducing technology. There is more plot in Blue Planet than could be used by any single GM in a decade. Liberally sprinkled throughout the rules are special Access Denied boxes, which detail behind-the-scenes plots taking place on Poseidon, in the asteroid belt, on Mars, and back on Earth. There are criminal, corporate, governmental, native, and more mundane subplots proffered in abundance. There is also the truth behind the Aborigines, which could be a campaign in and of itself. There are also minor elements which, while not vital, add to the whole atmosphere. For example, I appreciated the real-world sounding names for Poseidon and it's islands, such as Sierra Nueva and Sandy Hook. All too frequently worlds are designed with hip or clever names, which is appropriate to some genres but would be sorely out of place here. If Posedion had been called, oh say, Waterworld, and its major archipelago called the Neo Tokyo Cluster, then it would have been a wink and a nod at genre fans, but reality is usually a little less colorful. Blue Planet captures the feel of such details perfectly. Finally, what about this liberal slant which the system is notorious for? I am probably biased on this point, being more liberal than conservative, but I will offer my honest opinion. Eco-terrorists are a major subplot in the rules, and this makes absolute sense to me after Earth has been decimated by ecological based disasters. I would expect that there would be militant religious groups if the world had been devastated by Satan and His Infernal Horde, and although I am not a religious man I would hardly have taken offense at a realitic Christian resistance movement. It just makes sense that extreme occurrences of one slant produce extreme and opposite reactions. I think some guy even wrote a theorem about that as it pertains to physics. Look at the world today, with old growth forests being harvested and the sort of militant response that has produced. Now expand "old growth forest" to include "all plant life," and I think you would admit that the backlash would be enormous amongst the radical fringe. Sure, the fringe is small in general, but a disaster of that magnitude would probably bolster its ranks and motivate extreme actions. This is completely divorced from the politics of the writer, it is simply a realistic response given the nature of the world. I am not familiar with Jeff Barber's politics, but I think he is as much a supporter of violent eco-terrorism as Swift was an advocate of eating children. It's fiction, but many readers of Blue Planet have chosen to single out the "liberal" or "eco-conscious" themes as the Truth behind the writer's agenda. Well, the world also includes some incredibly powerful Marshals, virtual one man armies and courts-of-law, so is Barber glorifying a police state? Or is it simply another plot element? I choose to think the game was created by people who do respect the natural world (but what sort of human being doesn't?), but I believe the "tree-hugger" reputation it seems to have garnered is as likely as it being pro police state. When I played AD&D, did I actually believe that Gygax et al were extolling the virtues of slaughtering anyone different from yourself? Is AD&D just a thinly disguised ode to racial hatred? No, I don't think so, and I never felt personally insulted by its trappings. I choose to think of Blue Planet the same way, and would hope that people aren't avoiding the system because of the pre-conceived notions of a minority of gamers. In closing, I will mention that Blue Planet will require an experienced GM who values plot over action. It is definitely akin to a detailed novel you can drop characters into. The mechanics can be sloppy and it will require a lot of re-reading to absorb all of the details. It is not an easy camapign, but being a simulationist at heart I think it is terrific. If you prefer fun systems with quick dice rolling conventions, then this might not be for you. Still, the size and completeness of this game ranks it amongst the best. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)