The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Wow. What a game. Blue Planet is about mankind¹s settlement of a watery new world, but it is also about the advent of powerful new biotechnology, corporate power, ecological devastation, and building new communities. Poseidon, the blue planet of the title, is the centerpiece of the game, but there is also information on Prosperity Station, the gateway to Poseidon; Earth; Luna; Mars; and asteroid mining in both the Sol and Serpentis systems.

Ok, so why I am I writing a review of Blue Planet v1.0 days before Version 2.0 comes out. Well, first, this is a mighty-fine game, and Version 2.0 promises to be even better. Second, the used copies of Blue Planet are likely to soon hit the market as people upgrade to 2.0. Finally, I¹ve been procrastinating on this review, and if I didn¹t get it done now, there would be no point in doing it.

Future History

Blue Planet takes place in the year 2199. During the 21st Century, humans expanded out into the Sol System, establishing settlements on Luna, Mars, and the asteroid belt. In 2078, a wormhole was discovered beyond the orbit of Pluto. In 2080, the Argos expedition travels through the wormhole to the Serpentis System and discovers Poseidon, an Earth-like world with a complex biosphere inexplicably based on DNA. In 2086, the Cousteau colony expedition leaves for Poseidon. Most of the colonists have been biomodified to adapt to the watery world. The colonists begin to settle and explore Poseidon, expecting a resupply ship from Earth to arrive in ten years. It doesn¹t arrive.

In 2090, a genetically engineered virus designed to attack a parasitic fungus is released in Southeast Asia and begins to attack grains and grasses. The Blight had begun. In 2091, the Earth had a population of 10.5 billion people. The Blight lasts for 30 years. Earth¹s political institutions are overwhelmed by the Blight. Incorporate states are formed in countries where multinational corporations, such as Biogene and Hanover Industries, could demonstrate that they had the resources to restore social and political order to the region. The United Nation¹s Global Ecology Organization (GEO) is created to respond to the Blight and authorized to enforce its mandates on member states. By 2120, Earth¹s population is 4.8 billion.

On Poseidon, the colonists set out exploring and settling the planet. They did not know what was occurring on Earth and did not suspect that anything was wrong until the resupply mission failed to arrive in 2096. For nearly nine years, the colonists continued to hope for the arrival of the resupply mission.

In 2165, a recontact mission finally arrives to find Poseidon populated by 40,000 natives, descendants of the original colonists. Most on Earth thought that the colony had died out. The natives have been on their own for 79 years. In 2172, the first five hundred new colonists arrive. In 2186, a xenosilicate is discovered on the floor of Poseidon¹s oceans that allows for more accurate and more efficient manipulation of biochemistry. A gold-rush begins, as colonists and business interests rush to Poseidon. By 2199, Poseidon¹s population is two million.

On the Frontier

Blue Planet is about life on Poseidon¹s new frontier. Part wild west, part biopunk, Blue Planet provides a richly detailed setting where colonists and Incorporates rush to leave the damaged Earth and seek their fortune on Poseidon. Meanwhile, the natives are struggling to hold on to their homes, communities, and lives. Blue Planet includes detailed information on Haven - Poseidon¹s principal city - the activities of the GEO and the Incorporates on Poseidon, the natives, and local flora and fauna. There is also information on other settlements. There is even a chapter on oceanography! And, in the background, are Poseidon¹s true natives, the elusive and enigmatic ray-like aborigines.

But that¹s not all! There is also a 33-page section, entitled ³A World of Hurt,² that describes Earth and the other human settlements in the Sol System. There are 46 pages of hardware, biomodifications, and vehicles. There is a 15-page chronology of future history. Also, scattered throughout the book are ³Access Denied² sidebars. Each Access Denied highlights a particular feature, institution, or faction on Poseidon, discussing its current activities and goals for the future.

More than Human

Blue Planet has an elaborate character generation system, but it is one of the best character generation systems that I have seen. To start with, players have a choice of playing a human, a human with biomods, a genetically redesigned human such as the gilled Poseidon natives or the four-armed spacers, a dolphin, or a killer whale. All characters have the same 14 attributes: seven physical and seven mental. Attributes are ranked on a percentile scale, and all of the human varieties begin with a 50 in each attribute that is then modified during character generation. The Awareness attribute, though, is actually the average of the individual scores for the five senses. A simple and elegant way to model variations between a character¹s sight, hearing, etc.

Some cetacean attributes are scaled. For example, while all human attributes are scale five, dolphins have Dexterity scale 1, Endurance scale 7, and Strength scale 6. Each attribute is ranked normally, but the larger scale attributes are much more powerful and effective than lower scale attributes. In other words, Dolphins are almost always stronger than humans and can always outswim them, but humans are far better than dolphins at manipulating objects. A similar scaling mechanic is also used for damage (i.e. when a character shoots at a hovercraft).

Next is the character profile, a character¹s origin, background, education, goal, motivation, and attitude. All elements of the profile are chosen by the player. A character¹s origin can be on Earth, Poseidon, or elsewhere in the Sol system. Characters from Poseidon can be from families that were natives, Incorporate, GEO, or colonists. Characters from Earth can come from one of the surviving cities, a free zone enclave, a free zone wasteland, or Earth orbit. Each origin provides skills and increases two attributes while decreasing two attributes. For instance, a Poseidon native receives +10 in Awareness and Endurance and -10 in Dexterity and Education. While an urban Earther receives +10 in Charisma and Education and -10 in Awareness and Endurance.

A player next chooses the character¹s background from a list of fifteen backgrounds describing the social environment in which the character grew up. Sample backgrounds include cosmopolitan, criminal, illness, minority, poor, and sheltered. As with origin, each background provides skills and increases two attributes while decreasing two attributes.

A character¹s educational background is formed through basic education (through secondary school), university, military, graduate training, technical training, and/or vocational training. A player is allowed to develop an educational background consistent with her concept of the character and the character¹s history. A character¹s base Education attribute is determined by the level of school completed and can be modified by advanced training in law school, the military, or other fields. A character¹s level of school plus advanced training also determines the number of Character Improvement Points available for increasing skills.

A character¹s goal, motivation, and attitude are chosen from lists of descriptive terms that can be used to describe the character¹s personality. Each list includes 15 possible descriptors.

Most of a character¹s skills, however, are determined by the choice of profession. Professions denote the character¹s way of life and can range from guide to gangster, civilian pilot to teacher, scientist to native elder, GEO Marshall to native sell-out. Thirty-nine possible professions Each profession provides scores in several skill groups. Skill group scores modify all of the skills in the group. Sample skill groups include firearms, computers, athletics, life sciences, and vehicles. Skill group scores can only be obtained through the choice of profession and can never be increased.

The choice of profession also provides a character¹s standard of living, resources, and an edge appropriate to the profession. For example, a trader¹s edge is being able to attempt a luck role to make a sale and a miner¹s edge is increased damage resistance (they are a hardy lot).

Next, a player gets to choose the character¹s biomods. Biomods can range from the genetic redesign of an aquaform or a spacer, to metabolic biomods such as respiratory filters, to implanted biomods such as an immunological symbiote, to full body biomods such as myo-skeletal enhancement, to traditional cyberware such as a neural jack. There are no mechanics for choosing or purchasing biomods, but the biomod descriptions include notes on their availability and costs, and a character¹s profile and profession should guide the choice of biomods. Some players could, however, attempt to abuse this freedom by loading up on biomods.

There is a lot to like about Blue Planet¹s character generation system. The skills and skill groups are very appropriate to the genre and setting. Characters also begin with a wide range of skills (Although having only one skill for piloting airplanes, submersibles, and orbital shuttles is a bit much). The character generation system is also almost impossible to min/max.

The character generation system also does an excellent job of encouraging players to begin roleplaying their characters. A character is more than just a mercenary. Each character has a distinctive background so that you could wind-up with complete party of mercenaries but each with a distinctive background and personality. One is a Poseidon native, from a rural community, with little formal education, but with technical and military training. Another is from Mars and its byzantine political culture, and she has a university degree and military training. Another grew up in a religious community in one of Earth¹s freezone wastelands. All three are mercenaries by profession, but they are each distinct individuals.

Blue Planet¹s Education and Experience attributes also do an excellent job of modeling these characteristics. As described above, a character¹s Education attribute score is based on formal training. A character¹s Experience is determined by his background. Education attribute rolls are made when attempting to recall or use information not covered by a skill that may have been learned during education. Experience rolls are used to represent a character¹s common sense and worldliness.

The Blight

The bad parts of Blue Planet¹s character generation are that it is time consuming and requires a lot of flipping back and forth through the pages. A character generation worksheet is provided to help facilitate character generation. A character¹s attributes, based on modifications resulting from choices made in the character profile, are also as likely to provide negative modifiers as positive modifiers for skills essential to the character¹s profession and the player¹s concept. The other problem is that it is prohibitively expensive to increase attributes through experience. For example, a character with a 41 Dexterity would spend 50 experience points to increase his Dex by one point, and he would still have a -5 Dex modifier!

The good news here is that Blue Planet can easily be converted to Chaosium¹s BRP system, Aftermath¹s BCS system, Spacemaster, or any other percentile based system. Which is something that you will probably be thinking about after you¹ve read through the game mechanic sections.

Skill tests are made by rolling against the relevant skill plus attribute modifier. Tests can be modified by levels, each of -10. This is a pretty harsh difficulty modifier, particularly when you consider that almost every game that uses a d20 or percentile mechanic applies modifiers in -1/-5% increments.

Combat rounds begin with Initiative attribute tests. Actions are consumed in a number of phases determined by a character¹s Speed attribute. What¹s new is that instead of rounds, characters continue to act according to their Speed until the situation is changed by additional events or new conditions, when new Initiative tests are made, and actions begin counting down again.

Combat is a pretty complex affair with distinctive attacks and defenses, hit locations, and damage ranks, rolls, scale, and damage effects tables. In some ways, the combat system seems to be an interesting hybrid of Aftermath and Rolemaster. Reportedly, v2.0 employs revamped and streamlined mechanics. As a bonus, the vehicle combat section includes information on the use of radar and stealth technologies and on the use of sonar and submarine warfare.

Blue Planet lacks a gamemaster section which is a problem only because there are no simplified rules for generating NPCs, no introductory scenario, and no discussion of how to structure campaigns on Poseidon.

Beyond the Frontier

The star of Blue Planet, though, is the richly detailed setting. The setting descriptions and Access Denieds include dozens of adventure ideas ranging from Incorporate warfare to GEO law enforcement to Neo-Rastafarian rackets to native freedom fighting to exploring the wildlife and environment of a worldly that is still sparsely settled and largely unknown. My only quibbles with the setting information is that I would have liked more detail on how the natives governed themselves during their 79 years alone on Poseidon and information on how Poseidon¹s property law (a key issue in a game setting based on colonization and mining). Also, it is often difficult to see how the primitive native communities developed out of the highly educated and trained members of the Cousteau expedition. The Incorporate plot lines involve many of the conventions that cyberpunk stories and games have done to death. Also, I have trouble believing that corporations would really want to take on the responsibilities for running a state when it is so much easier just to buy influence. Still, you only ask these kind of detailed question after you have gotten thoroughly enrolled in a game.

Blue Planet employs a distinctive graphic style that compensates for the minimal amount of quality black and white art. There is a very limited index and the table of contents is all but worthless. The good news is that Blue Planet is well supported and that the Access Denied GM screen and resource includes a detailed index. Biohazard Games¹ web site, www.biohazardgames.com includes a wealth of scenarios and additional information.

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

Blue Planet v1.0
Author: Jeff Barber Category: game Company/Publisher: Biohazard Games Line: Blue Planet Cost: $28 US Page count: 342 SKU: BZG3000 Playtest Review by Jeb Boyt on 07/26/00. Genre tags: Science fiction Space	Wow. What a game. Blue Planet is about mankind¹s settlement of a watery new world, but it is also about the advent of powerful new biotechnology, corporate power, ecological devastation, and building new communities. Poseidon, the blue planet of the title, is the centerpiece of the game, but there is also information on Prosperity Station, the gateway to Poseidon; Earth; Luna; Mars; and asteroid mining in both the Sol and Serpentis systems. Ok, so why I am I writing a review of Blue Planet v1.0 days before Version 2.0 comes out. Well, first, this is a mighty-fine game, and Version 2.0 promises to be even better. Second, the used copies of Blue Planet are likely to soon hit the market as people upgrade to 2.0. Finally, I¹ve been procrastinating on this review, and if I didn¹t get it done now, there would be no point in doing it. Future History Blue Planet takes place in the year 2199. During the 21st Century, humans expanded out into the Sol System, establishing settlements on Luna, Mars, and the asteroid belt. In 2078, a wormhole was discovered beyond the orbit of Pluto. In 2080, the Argos expedition travels through the wormhole to the Serpentis System and discovers Poseidon, an Earth-like world with a complex biosphere inexplicably based on DNA. In 2086, the Cousteau colony expedition leaves for Poseidon. Most of the colonists have been biomodified to adapt to the watery world. The colonists begin to settle and explore Poseidon, expecting a resupply ship from Earth to arrive in ten years. It doesn¹t arrive. In 2090, a genetically engineered virus designed to attack a parasitic fungus is released in Southeast Asia and begins to attack grains and grasses. The Blight had begun. In 2091, the Earth had a population of 10.5 billion people. The Blight lasts for 30 years. Earth¹s political institutions are overwhelmed by the Blight. Incorporate states are formed in countries where multinational corporations, such as Biogene and Hanover Industries, could demonstrate that they had the resources to restore social and political order to the region. The United Nation¹s Global Ecology Organization (GEO) is created to respond to the Blight and authorized to enforce its mandates on member states. By 2120, Earth¹s population is 4.8 billion. On Poseidon, the colonists set out exploring and settling the planet. They did not know what was occurring on Earth and did not suspect that anything was wrong until the resupply mission failed to arrive in 2096. For nearly nine years, the colonists continued to hope for the arrival of the resupply mission. In 2165, a recontact mission finally arrives to find Poseidon populated by 40,000 natives, descendants of the original colonists. Most on Earth thought that the colony had died out. The natives have been on their own for 79 years. In 2172, the first five hundred new colonists arrive. In 2186, a xenosilicate is discovered on the floor of Poseidon¹s oceans that allows for more accurate and more efficient manipulation of biochemistry. A gold-rush begins, as colonists and business interests rush to Poseidon. By 2199, Poseidon¹s population is two million. On the Frontier Blue Planet is about life on Poseidon¹s new frontier. Part wild west, part biopunk, Blue Planet provides a richly detailed setting where colonists and Incorporates rush to leave the damaged Earth and seek their fortune on Poseidon. Meanwhile, the natives are struggling to hold on to their homes, communities, and lives. Blue Planet includes detailed information on Haven - Poseidon¹s principal city - the activities of the GEO and the Incorporates on Poseidon, the natives, and local flora and fauna. There is also information on other settlements. There is even a chapter on oceanography! And, in the background, are Poseidon¹s true natives, the elusive and enigmatic ray-like aborigines. But that¹s not all! There is also a 33-page section, entitled ³A World of Hurt,² that describes Earth and the other human settlements in the Sol System. There are 46 pages of hardware, biomodifications, and vehicles. There is a 15-page chronology of future history. Also, scattered throughout the book are ³Access Denied² sidebars. Each Access Denied highlights a particular feature, institution, or faction on Poseidon, discussing its current activities and goals for the future. More than Human Blue Planet has an elaborate character generation system, but it is one of the best character generation systems that I have seen. To start with, players have a choice of playing a human, a human with biomods, a genetically redesigned human such as the gilled Poseidon natives or the four-armed spacers, a dolphin, or a killer whale. All characters have the same 14 attributes: seven physical and seven mental. Attributes are ranked on a percentile scale, and all of the human varieties begin with a 50 in each attribute that is then modified during character generation. The Awareness attribute, though, is actually the average of the individual scores for the five senses. A simple and elegant way to model variations between a character¹s sight, hearing, etc. Some cetacean attributes are scaled. For example, while all human attributes are scale five, dolphins have Dexterity scale 1, Endurance scale 7, and Strength scale 6. Each attribute is ranked normally, but the larger scale attributes are much more powerful and effective than lower scale attributes. In other words, Dolphins are almost always stronger than humans and can always outswim them, but humans are far better than dolphins at manipulating objects. A similar scaling mechanic is also used for damage (i.e. when a character shoots at a hovercraft). Next is the character profile, a character¹s origin, background, education, goal, motivation, and attitude. All elements of the profile are chosen by the player. A character¹s origin can be on Earth, Poseidon, or elsewhere in the Sol system. Characters from Poseidon can be from families that were natives, Incorporate, GEO, or colonists. Characters from Earth can come from one of the surviving cities, a free zone enclave, a free zone wasteland, or Earth orbit. Each origin provides skills and increases two attributes while decreasing two attributes. For instance, a Poseidon native receives +10 in Awareness and Endurance and -10 in Dexterity and Education. While an urban Earther receives +10 in Charisma and Education and -10 in Awareness and Endurance. A player next chooses the character¹s background from a list of fifteen backgrounds describing the social environment in which the character grew up. Sample backgrounds include cosmopolitan, criminal, illness, minority, poor, and sheltered. As with origin, each background provides skills and increases two attributes while decreasing two attributes. A character¹s educational background is formed through basic education (through secondary school), university, military, graduate training, technical training, and/or vocational training. A player is allowed to develop an educational background consistent with her concept of the character and the character¹s history. A character¹s base Education attribute is determined by the level of school completed and can be modified by advanced training in law school, the military, or other fields. A character¹s level of school plus advanced training also determines the number of Character Improvement Points available for increasing skills. A character¹s goal, motivation, and attitude are chosen from lists of descriptive terms that can be used to describe the character¹s personality. Each list includes 15 possible descriptors. Most of a character¹s skills, however, are determined by the choice of profession. Professions denote the character¹s way of life and can range from guide to gangster, civilian pilot to teacher, scientist to native elder, GEO Marshall to native sell-out. Thirty-nine possible professions Each profession provides scores in several skill groups. Skill group scores modify all of the skills in the group. Sample skill groups include firearms, computers, athletics, life sciences, and vehicles. Skill group scores can only be obtained through the choice of profession and can never be increased. The choice of profession also provides a character¹s standard of living, resources, and an edge appropriate to the profession. For example, a trader¹s edge is being able to attempt a luck role to make a sale and a miner¹s edge is increased damage resistance (they are a hardy lot). Next, a player gets to choose the character¹s biomods. Biomods can range from the genetic redesign of an aquaform or a spacer, to metabolic biomods such as respiratory filters, to implanted biomods such as an immunological symbiote, to full body biomods such as myo-skeletal enhancement, to traditional cyberware such as a neural jack. There are no mechanics for choosing or purchasing biomods, but the biomod descriptions include notes on their availability and costs, and a character¹s profile and profession should guide the choice of biomods. Some players could, however, attempt to abuse this freedom by loading up on biomods. There is a lot to like about Blue Planet¹s character generation system. The skills and skill groups are very appropriate to the genre and setting. Characters also begin with a wide range of skills (Although having only one skill for piloting airplanes, submersibles, and orbital shuttles is a bit much). The character generation system is also almost impossible to min/max. The character generation system also does an excellent job of encouraging players to begin roleplaying their characters. A character is more than just a mercenary. Each character has a distinctive background so that you could wind-up with complete party of mercenaries but each with a distinctive background and personality. One is a Poseidon native, from a rural community, with little formal education, but with technical and military training. Another is from Mars and its byzantine political culture, and she has a university degree and military training. Another grew up in a religious community in one of Earth¹s freezone wastelands. All three are mercenaries by profession, but they are each distinct individuals. Blue Planet¹s Education and Experience attributes also do an excellent job of modeling these characteristics. As described above, a character¹s Education attribute score is based on formal training. A character¹s Experience is determined by his background. Education attribute rolls are made when attempting to recall or use information not covered by a skill that may have been learned during education. Experience rolls are used to represent a character¹s common sense and worldliness. The Blight The bad parts of Blue Planet¹s character generation are that it is time consuming and requires a lot of flipping back and forth through the pages. A character generation worksheet is provided to help facilitate character generation. A character¹s attributes, based on modifications resulting from choices made in the character profile, are also as likely to provide negative modifiers as positive modifiers for skills essential to the character¹s profession and the player¹s concept. The other problem is that it is prohibitively expensive to increase attributes through experience. For example, a character with a 41 Dexterity would spend 50 experience points to increase his Dex by one point, and he would still have a -5 Dex modifier! The good news here is that Blue Planet can easily be converted to Chaosium¹s BRP system, Aftermath¹s BCS system, Spacemaster, or any other percentile based system. Which is something that you will probably be thinking about after you¹ve read through the game mechanic sections. Skill tests are made by rolling against the relevant skill plus attribute modifier. Tests can be modified by levels, each of -10. This is a pretty harsh difficulty modifier, particularly when you consider that almost every game that uses a d20 or percentile mechanic applies modifiers in -1/-5% increments. Combat rounds begin with Initiative attribute tests. Actions are consumed in a number of phases determined by a character¹s Speed attribute. What¹s new is that instead of rounds, characters continue to act according to their Speed until the situation is changed by additional events or new conditions, when new Initiative tests are made, and actions begin counting down again. Combat is a pretty complex affair with distinctive attacks and defenses, hit locations, and damage ranks, rolls, scale, and damage effects tables. In some ways, the combat system seems to be an interesting hybrid of Aftermath and Rolemaster. Reportedly, v2.0 employs revamped and streamlined mechanics. As a bonus, the vehicle combat section includes information on the use of radar and stealth technologies and on the use of sonar and submarine warfare. Blue Planet lacks a gamemaster section which is a problem only because there are no simplified rules for generating NPCs, no introductory scenario, and no discussion of how to structure campaigns on Poseidon. Beyond the Frontier The star of Blue Planet, though, is the richly detailed setting. The setting descriptions and Access Denieds include dozens of adventure ideas ranging from Incorporate warfare to GEO law enforcement to Neo-Rastafarian rackets to native freedom fighting to exploring the wildlife and environment of a worldly that is still sparsely settled and largely unknown. My only quibbles with the setting information is that I would have liked more detail on how the natives governed themselves during their 79 years alone on Poseidon and information on how Poseidon¹s property law (a key issue in a game setting based on colonization and mining). Also, it is often difficult to see how the primitive native communities developed out of the highly educated and trained members of the Cousteau expedition. The Incorporate plot lines involve many of the conventions that cyberpunk stories and games have done to death. Also, I have trouble believing that corporations would really want to take on the responsibilities for running a state when it is so much easier just to buy influence. Still, you only ask these kind of detailed question after you have gotten thoroughly enrolled in a game. Blue Planet employs a distinctive graphic style that compensates for the minimal amount of quality black and white art. There is a very limited index and the table of contents is all but worthless. The good news is that Blue Planet is well supported and that the Access Denied GM screen and resource includes a detailed index. Biohazard Games¹ web site, www.biohazardgames.com includes a wealth of scenarios and additional information. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)