>>12248169
The UCL was essentially maritime law applied to space travel, and was surprisingly straightforward for a committee-created code. As a result, the Space Police had a fairly easy time of their original duties - escorting Futron Project ships, protecting them from Blacktron raiders, and investigating criminal offenses that occurred on vessels - offenses that were, thankfully, rare in those days.

After the raids became more blatant, and Blacktron vessels began raiding FP outposts directly, the Corporate Accord was passed, allowing the FP to treat Blacktron as a national body instead of merely a corporation. This allowed them to begin taking out Blacktron bases, declaring war on them officially. It also cleared the way for more corporations to legitimately take to the stars, and to found their own colonies, assured that in doing so they would be recognized by the vague terms of the Corporate Accord as national bodies themselves.

The first was the Japanese MTron corporation, previously a leading company in robotics, who had fallen into financial problems in recent years. Funded by an influx of would-be colonists, they set themselves up as the first formally-recognized commercial cargo vessels to use the brik drive, as well as the first publicly-accessible interstellar flights.

>>12248270
At first, the MTron vessels were merely used as an auxiliary for Futron Project resources, as well as for tourist trade on their own colonies; they refused to service Blacktron colonies. The extra cargo capabilities were welcomed during what was technically wartime, and helped the resource-stretched Space Police to slowly overwhelm Blacktron forces.

It wasn't until the next corporation stretched its wings outward that the Blacktron threat was nullified, however. The Tienshan Mining Group had colonized the recently-discovered M-Class planet Krysto, and was busily working at mining the planet - not only for the amazingly versatile substance Orangium, an isotope that was quickly built into their own tools and adopted by large slices of the galaxy as a power source, but also for water. Krysto was a world with two frigid, but inhabitable, poles, a tiny temperate zone, and a vast swath of uninhabitable volcanic belts about its equator. The result was a planet buffeted by constant, violent snowfall.

This was also Blacktron's last temptation. Attempting to secure the Orangium mines as a way to boost their steadily-crumbling production, the Blaktron forces did not realize that A) they had committed far too much of their resources to the invasion, B) their vessels, which were specialized for space travel, would have issues icing up in the moisture-laden atmosphere, and C) the Space Police had already gotten word of their plans. The defeat was crushing; within the year, only a few distant outposts were still controlled by Blacktron forces, all of which were cut off from each other, and considered widely to be little more than bandits.

I would like to request more.

>>12248422
After this, there was a massive influx of new groups seeking their fortune in the stars. The UK-based Unitron and Franco-Italian Exploriens began setting down roots, as did the Canadian-based Spyrius Corporation - which unabashedly admitted to stealing the brik drive, and most of their technology, instead of developing it themselves, pointing to the legacy of Apple and Microsoft.

It was at this time that the aliens made themselves known.

The first two examples of first contact were nearly concurrent. First, a ship emerging from brikspace was followed - and destroyed - by a sleek vessel with a half-disk shaped front end. A message transmitted from the hostile ship took nearly a year to decode, but stated in essence that further incursions into their space - the dimension that brik drive accessed - would not be tolerated.

The Insectoids proved to be much more amicable to human presence. The initial contact, made by the Exploriens, proved that at least one race out there in the galaxy was intelligent and - more importantly - didn't want to kill us. A nonagression pact was quickly hammered out, languages shared, and in the wake of the struggle against the UFOs from Brikspace, the queen of the Insectoid people gifted the collective factions of humanity with information on a propulsion system that would allow us to pass through Brikspace without being detected by "The Aggressors". It worked - seemingly. The incursions from the transdimensional entities became far more sporadic, and easier to deal with. However, the new drive slowed travel considerably; its maximum speed was less than half that of the previous brik drive. And, in a twist that conspiracy theorists claim is far worse than the previous invasions, the queen now claimed that mankind owed them a favor - one she would collect on if she ever needed it.

>>12248631

From that point on, travel further from Earth resulted in contact with countless alien species. Mankind has proliferated among the stars, always going outwards, always seeking the next frontier. The Space Police are still around, although their aim has become more domestic, as the colony worlds have become less like scientific outposts and more like any other city on any other planet. Each of the other factions mentioned has remained, in some form...

The Futron Project is still responsible for most near-Earth settlements, including the Mars base. They were the ones responsible for discovering the long-dormant Martian civilizations that rested beneath the dusty soil, and for sharing the brik drive with our neighbors - although the Martians have declined to use it so far, more than content with their self-sufficient communities. Futron Project vessels tend to be mostly scientific affairs, with top-of-the-line sensor arrays and onboard labs, although lightly armed. Their only agendas are exploration, and furthering diplomacy with extraterrestrial entities. However, the Futron Project has been slammed as being a "humans only" club, and even their spinoff peacekeeping force, the Space Police, has been criticized for anti-alien prejudices.

The FP is on excellent terms with Unitron. They deal extensively with MTron, but consider their commercial leanings to be a detriment to their focus. They do not trust Spyrius, and avoid them whenever possible. Blacktron forces are under a shoot-on-sight order. Exploriens is viewed as a rival more than an ally, mostly because of their close connection to the barely-trusted Insectoids.

THIS IS A GOOD THREAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL GOOD

>>12248727
Unitron is considered by many to be the fringe-world equivalent of the Futron Project, and that's not too far off. Their cities tend to be a bit more stark and utilitarian than the Futron equivalents, with security cameras monitoring every square inch of public space. They tend to be a better-armed people than the Futron Project, and have heavily armored their vessels, so that most light assaults are futile; this has significantly lessened their reliance on the Space Police, to the point where their own colonial security forces can handle most problems that arise. Likewise, their manufacturing and mining divisions - which are widespread and highly profitable - are run with a keen eye to oversight and zero tolerance for corruption or laziness. They are far more suspicious of extraterrestrials, as the first contact with "The Aggressors" resulted in the destruction of one of their colony vessels; any nonhuman living in a Unitron colony is essentially treated as a second-class citizen.

Unitron is on excellent terms with the FP, although they are wary of what they consider to be pro-alien sentiments running through their ranks. They are outrightly hostile towards the "Xeno-loving freaks" of Exploriens. Spyrius gets a bit more respect in their eyes, as at least those blokes are trying to earn a living, and doing it without shooting at people (if they can help it). MTron, likewise, is viewed with admiration and respect, though the tourism angle pushed by MTron colonies raises a few eyebrows among their ranks. Blacktron are nothing but common criminals and are to be treated as such, though they're surely no threat anymore, and the Insectoids... creepy little buggers... well, let's just say that if anything is to happen to one of their vessels in Unitron space, they wouldn't complain.

>>12248748
I do! Thank you, sir.

>>12248845
Exploriens has filled large sections of the fringe, their name saying it all; the corporation is almost insatiably curious and xenophilic. They have a limited R&D department, mostly dedicated to adaptation and improvement of alien technology they discover and/or trade for, which has made their vessels some of the most distinctive, and - to outsiders - difficult to operate in known space. An Exploriens ship may have an Insectoid Orangium power cell, Squidfolk inertial dampeners, and a Silicin-designed computer bank. Their colonies are set up as immense trading posts, with nominal tariffs making another decent chunk of their profit margin.

The Exploriens are on good terms with the FP, although they wish they'd just stop whining about the Insectoids and see that people are people, even if they're chitinous and cybernetic. They are on outstanding terms with the Insectoids, having nearly won over the inwardly-driven, isolationist people. They are on poor footing with Unitron, and are not seeking to improve things with the "backwards, provincial bigots". MTron is just another company to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, and while they are not hostile towards them, they have to wonder about a company that treats this new frontier in such a menial way. They are openly hostile towards Spyrius, as trading and refining alien tech that they've traded for legitimately is a main source of income for them, and they're not fond of those that would steal it. Oddly, they have little problem with the straggler Blacktron colonies - as long as they stay in their own corner of the galaxy.

One of the first "big" lego sets I've ever gotten: the Unitron Star Hawk II. God I loved that thing.

>Futron

>>12248953
MTron is all about two things: Service, and style! They see no reason why the wonders of space shouldn't be available to the public at large, and likewise don't see why it shouldn't be as comfortable as possible - as long as they're willing to pay for it. To that end, MTron colonies are heavily urbanized, high-tech wonderlands that are aimed at tourists as much as colonists. MTron vessels have vast cargo holds, reflecting well their status as a middleman, dealing with anyone with a pocketbook to be opened. They also tend to be sluggish and oversized... while the colonies are practically pieces of art, the vessels MTron uses are almost universally worn, fidgety, and substandard in capability. They're reliable - almost supernaturally so, for things held together by spit and duct tape, and you'd never know they were in such shape if you were to ride on one as a passenger - but most other vessels can fly rings around an MTron ship.

MTron trades openly with the Exploriens, the Futron Project, and Unitron, figuring that their credits spend as well as anyone's - and besides, all that political crap they're having problems with will wash out eventually. They consider Spyrius to be a competing company, but will ally with them readily if the proper contracts are in place. They will even service Blacktron colonies, as long as they've got some backup and a loaded ion cannon. The Insectoids, however, don't seem to be affected by the power of positive marketing, and want nothing to do with MTron... possibly owing to a diplomatic error in their early negotiations.

>>12249031
Spyrius. The universe's greatest hackers, programmers, and data-traders. If it's out there, they want to know about it, and to hell with restrictions. They consider themselves to be the last true gentleman pirates in an age where DRM is almost mandatory, where someone'll shoot you for just memorizing a blueprint. They're not bandits - they're bon vivants, rebels making a statement, and making a profit at the same time! Their colonies tend to be arcologies, tight tunnels of winding passages with visible wiring and access ports for easy maintenance. Not exactly welcoming, but it's quite easy to live there - as long as you know a little something about basic electronics and engineering. Most of their colonies serve as listening posts. Their ships are decently armed, lightly armored, and VERY maneuverable. The saucer-shaped vessels have been upgraded steadily since they cracked a few scans of Aggressor ships, making them some of the quickest, most annoying ships out there. Don't expect anything larger than a light freighter, though.

Spyrius is on questionable terms with the FP. They can get along beautifully, as long as Spyrius doesn't let on just how much they know about their hidden files. They deal openly with Unitron, and like their funds just fine - if only they didn't have their heads up their rear ends as far as aliens go. There's a fine line between healthy paranoia and idiocy. They aren't on good terms with the Exploriens, but are fascinated by their discoveries. Blacktron is nothing more than a bunch of idiot bullies, the sort of people that beat them up in school - the sort of people they take no small delight in shooting down. MTron is just too glossy on the surface, with nothing worthwhile beneath - they can deal with them, but only if there's something in it for them. And the Insectoids? They don't know what to make of them, but they have such wonderful toys!

>>12249139
The Insectoids are by far the largest alien empire that the factions of man has discovered. Encompassing no less than 300 hive planets, they are a people that are content. They have ceased explorations, conquests, and all external activity, focusing inward, on improving their own lives. Supported by genetic therapy and cybernetics, the average Insectoid lives to be over 300 years old, and may hit 400 if she's lucky. The only thing that has pulled the quasi-bugfolk out of their introverted state has been humans - such a varied, contradictory bunch! The Insectoids are fascinated by them, for a variety of reasons, including the fact that their history and philosophies are so closely mirrored.

The Insectoids are on excellent terms with the Exploriens, whose curiosity is infectious to them, and nostalgic of their own first steps into space. They admire the productive drive of Unitron - if only they weren't so shortsighted. The FP are much like themselves in agenda and drive, and easy to negotiate with. MTron are children playing with toys they do not understand, and do nothing to contribute to the greater good. The fools of Spyrius are not much better - but at least they have a philosophy to guide them, even if it is a laughably simplistic one. And Blacktron is to be pitied, a broken people, waiting for death to finally take their society.

rolled 4 = 4

You should keep this thread going.

>>12249023
Oh, bloody - I've been spelling it wrong this whole time, haven't I?

Well, no sense in deleting all the previous posts. I'll just fix it in further ones.

>>12249202
In their cold, cold bases, the people of Blacktron see themselves as a proud group of warriors. The first to break from Earth's tightly-controlled regiments. The first to seek their fortune in space, free of the countries that would hold them back. The first to defy Terran rule! They bite their tongues back at the thought at being the first to fail - they are still alive, after all, and still waiting for their time to rise. Blacktron colonies are military camps, where harsh conditions and cloning spit out some of the most conditioned, perfectly-trained soldiers of all time. However, they are poorly equipped - while their ships are certainly nothing to laugh at, having picked up bits and pieces of key technology in their raids over the years, their designs keenly focused on power and speed, they are still behind the times, and short on numbers compared to their foes.

Blacktron considers FP to be the great enemy, to be destroyed at any cost. Unitron are a militant branch of the FP, and are to fall in short order after their primary foe is gone. The Exploriens are dreamers who are trying to find their own way in the galaxy, even if that way is naive and ignoble, and are to be left alone. Spyrius has such potential - if only they would stop snatching at the purse-strings of the foes and strike at their faces! MTron is but a tool, a neutral party to purchase the tools needed for their eventual rise to power. And the Insectoids are an unknown quantity. Either they will be a turning point, and will join Blacktron when the time comes, or they are an obstacle, to be blocked off from their enemies long enough to take them out. Time will tell which it is.

>>12249309
Therein ends what I have thought up so far. Obviously this needs more, but I'm a bit stuck as to the crunch for this. What say you, /tg/? What would work well for this setting?

rolled 7 = 7

>>12249354
I really like it, I tip my hat to you sir.

>>12249354

Sadly, as soon as you mention lego, you KNOW it will devolve into SHIT LET'S PLAY WITH LEGOS NOW. Not like that's a bad thing. But yes, very good, will make for a good setting.

Will you be doing one for the aqua setting?

Microscale space for ship battles?

Pic related.

>>12249513
Only because glorious fleets of battleships would be kind of hard to build and store at higher scales.

>>12249479
Possibly. If I do, I'm going to merge it with Power Miners/Rock Raiders/Exo-Force as a future on-Earth setting.

Still need a system for this, though.

Not half bad, OP. BrikWars campaign setting?

>>12249539
Actually, there are two possible BrikWars homebrews to make of this.
1. Necromunda-like small gang campaigns using either the 2005 rules with supplements or the original rules
2. A full-fledged pen-and-paper RPG built off of the original rules in all their labyrinthine glory.

Legos are the shit, I do freelance work as a modeler / texure artist and I contribute alot of my mindset to playing with them as a kid.

>>12249544

...That could work. If you could reverse-engineer Brikwars v2 and rework it as an RPG as well as a tabletop wargame... change some of the rules about damage and get a starter unit list together... keep the Rule of Fudge and how the rest of it functions...

Ooh. This has some possibilities. I was thinking pure RPG for this, but... this would work.

>>12249583
On reflection (>>12249577) there's not enough meat in BrikWars v2 for a real RPG.

I haven't seen all of the original rules, but they have healing, spell-casting, repair, lots of weapons, that sort of thing. All you really need to do is figure out how to use construction points as XP, set up advance schemes, (spend countless hours balancing that), and start writing content.

>>12249656
Too true. Working through the text files now.

It may be a while before I have anything, but this is a good start.

So... since we've got a system... more ideas for fluff? Or just a general Brikwars thread?

What I got from all this would be some kinda TBS RP of some sorts with your friends. Where you build shit and whatnot like that. Hmmm..... it'd be a cool video game but just doing it in person might be easier.

>>12249707
This isn't /v/. No one's mentioned video games.

>>12249707
You're not talking about the Turner Broadcasting System, so what does TBS stand for? Turn Based System? Tactical Battle System? Tronium Blast Shot?

Blok Heresy: Roleplaying in the Multicolored Plastik Goodness of BrikSpace

I want to see this project come to fruition, particularly as I can't find the guy who was making a Morrowind PnP. Accordingly, there's an email in the field.

I'm currently reading through the original rules (http://www.brikwars.com/rules/2001/2001-brikwars.pdf) and taking note of what would be useful for this project. Thoughts will be posted.

Robo Force here, could we get some love?

Okay, so our setting corresponds to Tech Levels 6 and 7. Individual factions will fall somewhere close to that.

These rules are still geared to tabletop play, but this is fixable.

We need a basic mechanic for stats. This could be done with modifiers, or it could be done the way BW handles most unit stats: stat advances increase the size of the die or number of dice rolled, e.g. 1d6, 1d8, 1d10, 2d6, so on. I don't know how that would work statistically; anyone care to chime in? I like the latter plan, because it will probably mean less to change from BW.

>>12249765
The so-called "Robo Force" has set up shop on Titan, and is quite content to stay there. A group of engineers and obsessive hobbyists, the RF's goal is nothing less than advancing robotic technology until they can create a full-scale, fully functional Gundam (or Megazord, or what-have-you. Different geeks, different goal, same broad stroke). They have had some luck with smaller-scale robots - about the size of a tank - but they still lack the resources to manage anything larger with any success. Most of their creations are sold off to be used for mercenary work or for entertainment - at least one of their robots was a centerpiece in a major Bollywood sci-fi holo released last year.

While not formally allied or shunned by any group, rumors have begun to circulate that the RF was actually commissioned by Blacktron to build a new line of crawlers for them. They deny such claims vigorously... but then, surveillance shots of their newest work have raised a few eyebrows.

Christ I wish there was a Traveller group around here I could join. I would beat them over the head with this setting so hard. Anyway, contributan:

The Martians, as a rule, are not a particularly ambitious people. Despite some incredibly advanced technology, some of which points to a warlike past, modern Martians are generally unlikely to start a fight without an extremely good reason. This is not to say that they are weak; more than a few outlaws have discovered to their dismay that the warmechs scattered around almost all Martian settlements are more than just archaeological curiosities. But on the whole their society feels directionless, as though their only goal is to continue to exist. Some humans have been heard to remark that the only appreciable difference between Martian settlements prior to their awakening and the same settlements afterwards is that they're a bit less dusty.

There are, of course, a few Martians who buck cultural norms in favor of a life of excitement amongst the stars. Generally such individuals are found in the Space Police or aboard MTron vessels, and Spyrius is always eager to snap up a few Martians (and whatever tech-savvy they keep in those weird triangular heads of theirs). The galaxy at large has a mixed view of such rebels, much as Earth at large has a mixed view of their old seafaring pirates. On the one hand they make for a fine tale of triumph over societal pressure, but when these free spirits go bad they go bad hard. Some of the galaxy's most feared pirates are Martians, and why not? You'd be scared too if a green guy crashed onto your hull wearing two tons of steel and guns.

On the nods - should this thread be up in the morning, I'll add some more... keep brainstorming, /tg/. You guys rock.

>>12249969
Thanks man, this is incredible.
Super nostalgia explosion.

vote archive
vote archive
vote archive

Archived on SupTG.
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/12248169/

So what about the transparent-green martians from the Mars Mission sets?

I'm going to definitely say that stats should be treated the way BW v1 handles them: increase die size, then die number. There could be two separate advances for each stat, one increasing size, one increasing number, but that would be both unnecessarily complicated and prone to imbalance.
Increasing only the number of dice wouldn't allow enough variety in stats, and dice pools are too far from the original rules.

Stat dice for minifigs and the like are d6, d8, and d10. Small creatures, robots, etc, might have d4 stats.
The stat progression in this scheme would be:
Average minifig PC: 1d6
Gifted in the stat: 1d8
Experienced: 1d10
Exceptional: 2d6
Heroic: 2d8
Demigod: 2d10

NPC stat adjustments or miscellaneous feats/equipment for PCs might give them +1/-1 in each of these categories.
Note that this scheme will make failure very common; in BrikWars v2, lots and lots of Use rolls don't get made, sometimes with hilarious results. This system, though, should probably be biased more towards the awesome heroics of that spaceman quest and less towards everything dying a la BrikWars.

I don't know probability well enough to tweak it in that direction.

>The Aggressors
>FFFFFFFFFFFF

>>12250053
Man, I'm not sure I will ever understand those aliens.
Why'd they make 'em essentially immobile crystalline chunks of glowing plastic rather than re-use the similar Life on Mars ones?

This thread is epic.

>>12250053
Ah crap, didn't know about them. Competing species maybe?

>>12250125
Slumbering constructs, long-forgotten, from the Martians' warlike past. Explains the crystalline appearance.

>>12250106
What, because under the crazy helmet it's got a happy face, or because it means that Kai, Elzam and Zengar have been secret alien agents all along!

>>12250163
I like it. Also explains why all of their vehicles are bristling with a small armory's worth of guns.

>>12250170
That face is the face of death.

He smiles, not because he is sure that he can beat you. He has killed you the moment he entered the field. He smiles because he is going to enjoy your death. Immensely. On aesthetic levels that your pathetic mind can barely comprehend.

Your death will be a work of art they will speak of for centuries to come.

>>12250208
Yeesh. We picked the wrong cosmic back yard to cut through.

My apologies to anyone who's just here for the awesome fluff. I feel it would be considerably more awesome with a setting to play in. If a chorus of voices calls for me to stop cluttering up the archive, I'll start a new thread or retire to get a PDF together.

That aside, what are our stats?
BW v1 gives us Move, Power, Armor Value, Skill and... not much else. The rules for determining hit points can be tossed right out.

Move can be used as-is.
Power is effectively strength, and can probably be used as-is. We need to figure out what to do with it, though.
Hit Points are obviously necessary, but are a derived stat in nearly all systems.
Armor Value is a function of a lot of things, and will be sorted out later. Just remember it exists.
Having one Skill value and roll for everything isn't suitable for a RPG. At the very least, we need something similar to Dark Heresy's WS and BS, and hopefully a number of other skills as derived stats.

I'm going to go ponder this for a while and return with ideas. In the meantime, please name the system. "Blok Heresy" was a joke. Remember that using "LEGO" anywhere will lead to me being assraped by unsmiling Danish men in suits, so I'm following the "Brik" convention.

>>12248169
This thread, and Futuron, altogethor, it is like children around the world had been playing different aspects of the same massive lego universe when they were little.

>>12250053
The shriveled crystallized remains of dead "Life on Mars" Martians, either from some cataclysm (explains why they're being dug up) or their natural dying process.

>>12250236
Dude, keep going. Crunch is as essential as fluff.

>>12250240
Pretty much. It's almost primal at this point.

Hey. Hey you guys.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTEQqmLW4HE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPE24-_M5hM

>totally not viral marketing, even though I work for the company making it

>>12250236
We could refluff some system about space combat, particularly one with a focus on designing and building the ships, but it wouldn't have that crazy modular feel.

And Brikwars really wasn't meant for something like this. So as far as I can see it's going to be rather a bit of work either way.

>>12250319
Heh. Is it the best job ever?

>>12250319

Oh cool! I'm in the beta. Got some feedback for you:

The game sucks.

>>12250365
>Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory has nothing on NetDevil. The Louisville-based video-game company is developing LEGO Universe, an online game based on everybody's favorite building toy, and as part of its research, the toy manufacturer sent the outfit a sampling of some of the building blocks it would be working with. NetDevil now boasts in the vicinity of ten million LEGO bricks, one of the largest known collections in the world. Not surprisingly, the company's HQ is like a super-sized version of every kids' dream: LEGO models everywhere, video games stacked sky-high, energy-drink-guzzling techies zipping around the cavernous space on scooters. The bad news is that aside from VIPs and a handful of very lucky local school groups, very few outsiders have gotten a chance to see this stash. Still, when LEGO Universe comes out later this year, Coloradans can be content in the knowledge that the inspiration for this wacky online world is just down the road.

>>12250392
Are you 6-12 years old?
No?
They don't give a shit.

>>12250413
>ten million LEGO bricks
YES PLEASE

>>12250365
You're sort of right. BW 2005 isn't made for something like this. I still don't believe that BW Original was ever intended to be played, but it's a pretty extensive system.
If this is too daunting a project, consider homebrewing an XP -> Construction Points system that would allow people to play Necromunda-like campaigns with small BrikWars 2005 armies.


Okay, so I still need an underlying mechanic for stats and skills that won't make every fight end when all the combatants drop their weapons and trip over them.

Until I have a flash of insight there, here's my current list of skills and derived stats. In the spirit of BW2005, I want to keep things relatively simple and full of fudgy goodness.

>>12250494
Derived Statistics:
Hit Points: The sturdiness of the squishy stuff under your space suit/exoskeleton.
Armor Value: Whether stuff pings off your chest or punches through and leaves a bloody hole to be patched up by a Medik.
Initiative: Your ability to shoot first when confronted by alien bounty hunters or sundry other threats.

Skills:
Melee: How readily and how hard you hit things
Ranged: Your marksmanship and familiarity with the vast array of ranged weapons to be found in BrikSpace
Mekanikal: Your ability to build and repair simple machines and then coax them into doing your bidding
Teknologikal: Your ability to use computers and advanced teknology and to do SCIENCE!!!
Pilot: Your ability to handle vehicles from exploration rovers to small surface-to-orbit starships.
Medikal: Your familiarity with human, and to a lesser extent, alien physiologies and how to patch them up.
Social: How well you relate to other people and how easily you convince them of your point of view.
(Magikal: Your abilities in an obscure, possibly alien, and definitely unnatural field. You would do well to keep this from your crewmates.)
Other skills: As always, Fudge rules over all. If you need to roll to see how well your character plays the 11.5-stringed Martian tekno-zither, make up a reasonable stat value and justify it.

>>12250498
I like it, but I'm mostly here for giant laser-spewing fleets excising layers of bricks, twisted wreckage spinning off into the void.

>>12250558
Just hijack the Rogue Trader space combat rules and make lego versions of items and ships.

should we make a 1d4chan page for this? This is some shit that deserves to get done. both the setting and a lego RPG system would be a glorious success.

>>12249539
Rock Raiders were on another planet, though; they left Earth to get the deposits of Brickonium guarded by the Rock Monsters.

How do I know? The largest set I ever owned was the Loader Dozer, and even now I have three sets of all the parts used to make the crew.

Fuck, I miss Rock Raiders. Power Miners are NOT an aqequate replacement.

Also, I STILL want the HQ set from the Johnny Thunder on Dinosaur Island set.

>>12250558
Yeah, I know. This system is meant to be BrikWars' Dark Heresy. Its Rogue Trader will, Deo volente, come at some other time, if I feel confident enough in the system to add rules for a larger scale and direct integration with BrikWars games.
For the moment, why not get a group together and play BW 2005? You can easily houserule in anything you need to get Rogue Trader-style human interest in your space battles. If you want straight-up space battles, follow the advice about using this fluff with an existing space combat system.

I want this to be a LEGO- and BrikWars- infused soft SF system, a setting where a ship full of intrepid explorers crash-lands on an alien planet, and they get out, dust themselves off, take out some tools, put everything back together, and fly off. Or they refashion the ship into a makeshift station and set out mapping the area and trying to survive. Or they build a big, rumbling, jet-powered death machine and set off to conquer the natives and return with alien technology. It's walking a fine line between enough realism for a RPG and enough mutability and imaginativeness for LEGO.

>>12250684
That's awesome. I gotta find a time when most of my friends are free now.

I don't want this thread to die, so here's a little update.

I still haven't read through most of the BW 2001 rulebook. Instead, I've put together a truly daunting To Do list, which still includes "define basic mechanic" and "decide on Statistics". That, however, is coalescing. I'm going to forge ahead with the stat advancement scheme mentioned earlier and generally keep things as close to the way BrikWars plays as seems feasible: roll the appropriate Skill with any bonuses or penalties against your weapon's Use Rating (the Attack Roll), and if you roll higher, roll your damage die. (Here's where it diverges) Any damage in excess of your target's Armor Value is applied to their hit points. There won't be armor saves, except maybe for energy shields or something.

All of this stuff will need to be sorted out in a playtest, but that's far in the future. Not too far. I know /tg/ is an impatient lot, but this is equal parts rewriting Dark Heresy with a different basic mechanic and homebrewing BW2001.

I've also written a little bit about the difference between Skills and Statistics (they're pretty loosely linked), lifted the Cover mechanic essentially untouched from BW2005, and begun to think about a combat action economy and a Called Shot mechanic. All over the place here.

Bump for the cool pictures, if nothing else.

Alright, heading to bed for a bit. Haven't made much progress since the last post, but I'll return.
I've been adding skill descriptions and uses and some special rules, including sprinting in combat (and some of the rules governing movement; still need to add zero-G and terrain) and stun weapons, which could end up ungodly powerful unless I'm very careful with them.

Tomorrow/later today I'll elaborate on what the Statistics are and what the pre-balancing stat/skill advance scheme is. I know, cart before the horse. It's way easier for me to port BW rules and adapt DH features than it is to come up with a statistically-sound system.

Don't let this die, hm? And if The Goddamn Duck comes back, set him to fluff-writing. It's not a talent of mine. If this does die, look for "BWRPG" in the future or come up with a better name so I can use that.

So are there any factions that haven't been covered yet? We haven't really hit on the ice planet guys beyond the blurb in the backstory.

This thread needs more ships.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27826007@N05/sets/72157606675308064/

COMMON TECHNOLOGY

-Brik Drive-
All but ubiquitous, the brik drive works on Quantum Brik Tunnel technology; in an instant, the drive "takes apart" the building blocks of reality, shifts the ship sideways through said hole, and repairs the hole. Thanks to the Insectoids, the new drives allow ships moving through the "other space" without attracting the attention of the native species, via keeping them partially in phase with their home dimension. A brik drive jump can allow a ship to travel from Earth to Pluto in less than an hour. The drives typically use refined Orangium discs as a power source, but other energy supplies do exist.

-Ion Drive-
The chosen sub-light drive of most of the galaxy, ion drive is cheap, reliable, and incredibly compact. An ion drive propulsion unit the size of a frisbee is sufficient to move a ship the size of a VW Bug. Most ships, however, use multiple ion pads for maneuverability's sake, or - in the case of fighters - potent ion turbines, which also provide a secondary power source for shielding units and weaponry.

-MagDrive-
MTron ships use their own proprietary sublight drives. Close examination has shown that they use potent magnetic fields, but how that works in the void of space has never been determined exactly. The drives are closely guarded knowledge, and - while inferior in most regards - are far superior as far as energy consumption, taking next to no energy to use. For now, this presumably magnetic drive system appears almost... miraculous.

>>12254840
-Weaponry-
If one was to catalogue every piece of weaponry found on every ship in the known galaxy, the list would be several hundred pages long. There are countless known starship weapon systems, most of them existing in multiple distinct subtypes. The most commonly used weapons include railguns, ion cannons, masers, torpedoes, and a few solid-shell weapons.

-Shields-
Shielding technology remains fairly consistent through the various factions. Quantum force fields are either projected in a bubble from the ship via external emitters, or on the surface of the ship's armor through an internal emitter web. The former is prized because it gives a bit of leeway for the ship to escape damage if a sufficiently large explosion were to damage the shields, and the latter because in saving energy on projecting the shield outward, it is possible to strengthen the shield greatly.

>This Thread
I have no hands and I must fap.

>Magnetic drive
Magnetohydrodynamo drive? Using the fabric of space as a medium?

>>12255015
MIRACLES.

MOOOOOOAAAR!

MEMO FROM SPACE POLICE CENTRAL COMMAND

The team that was in charge of security at the Brick Daddy trial has been moved to public relations for the remainder of the month, after which point they will be sacked. If we have one more screw up of that level - EVER - the Futuron Project is going to liquidate our entire department. And I don't think we want that, do we?

Also, getting too much heat for nonhuman prosecution. Avoid pulling over nonhumans for minor offenses (IE, traffic) until our ratio normalizes. I don't like profiling, even in reverse, but we can't afford any more negative PR.

>>12255038
Miracle? No. Just involves manipulating oscillating electromagnetic frequencies on a sub-quantum level. Something about Boson Entanglement etc.

An incredibly slow, but exceedingly energy-efficient method of propulsion.

>>12255264
Sir, your lack of knowledge regarding three-month old memetic humor shocks me.

But yes, that would work nicely.

this is glorious.

also, you all know this is how the Lego Universe MMO will play out right?

there will be a grand /tg/ presence there... it must happen

rolled 7 = 7

>>12253833
>>12253833
Fucking anvil ships.

>bowels evalwa
Not sure if that is a good sign.

Bumping once more.

Alright, so I've hit a bit of a snag. As I mentioned earlier, BrikWars uses die size increases and roll-over difficulties. This is okay on the tabletop, because every unit in a BW game is going to die anyway and spectacular failures just add to the fun. In a RPG, though, we want our characters' chances of success to be a little more predictable.

Converting to a roll-under system, besides making this even more DH-flavored, means a complete break with BW mechanics and reversing the die progression (dice get smaller as characters become more skilled).

I can knock down the variance and make things more sensible by basing this on d6 and having the default progression be adding 1d6 with each level in an attribute. That's perilously close to a dice pool. I also want to include alternate progressions, possibly as feats, that allow characters to take more (trading 3d6 for 1d20) or less (trading 1d8 for 2d4) risk in a skill.

On reflection, BW v1 does suggest buying additional dice for stat increases, and this can be made a bit more granular with the occasional d8 or fixed modifier. Back to work with the multi-d6 system.

Advice and criticism are welcome.

>>12256543
No problem with dice pools here.

>>12256543
Here are the three schemes I am choosing among.

Scheme 1 is wonky and probably won't survive.

Scheme 2 is easy to understand, but results in piles of dice being rolled and is a little boring and predictable for a system based on BrikWars.

Scheme 3 probably has some issues with granularity or balance, though careful choice of XP cost will fix some of that. On the other hand, it involves several die sizes, doesn't require piles of dice, and allows players a little more choice in their characters' stats. Another option for adding skill ranks with Scheme 3 is putting the second, "reliable" roll as the next rank. The explanation there is that a die size upgrade represents new knowledge, and switching to two dice represents comfort with the new knowledge.

So, /tg/, what would you rather play?

Scheme 2

Though I would prefer they all be d8s, but that's because I'm insane.

>>12256956
Do you have 6+ d8s lying around?!

Anyway, for the sake of glorious balance and so that I don't stop making progress on this system, I'm going to use Scheme 2. There may also be an (Attribute) Gambler or Risky (Attribute) feat that allows characters to trade in 2d6 for 1d12.

>>12248631
anyone else wanting to call them the ANTI-BLOCKS instead of the aggressors?

"Blok energy is what will end the universe! In our world, we have ended all forms of Blokvolution so as to stop the Blok energy from destroying the universe!"

or they can be fluffed as mega blokians.

>knotentr except
captcha, what are you getting at?

>>12257799
That's a bit dramatic for this universe, and a TTGL reference. Besides the rulebook already includes the YottaBrik corporation, renowned for making shoddy products that don't integrate well with other systems, but with the occasional diamond in the rough.

What about the more specialised companies of Aquazone and Rock Raiders?

Bumping for awesome.

Current Statistics:
"
Strength measures the raw power your character can use to hit an enemy, pry up deck plating, or carry a heavy load.
Athletics represents your character's overall physical condition: their ability to run for extended periods, jump long distances, absorb impacts, and endure the physical punishment .
Dexterity includes your character's reaction time and fine motor control, skills suited to piloting vehicles, aiming weapons, and tinkering with the innards of machines.
Intelligence sums up your character's overall mental capacity, including their ability to learn, reason, and apply knowledge.
Personality represents the strength of will, charisma, assertiveness, and other qualities your character needs to be a successful megacorp CEO or, more likely, a hero on the frontiers of BrikSpace
"

A Wisdom or Wits stat might be nice, but there really wouldn't be much to do with it. Aside from that, I think that all these need are clever names. Suggestions?

As a reminder, they have the same advance scheme as Skills at the moment, but they also influence the derived stats of HP, Armor Value, Initiative, and Move. Formulae for deriving those stats are on the list.

The working name for this system is BrikSpace. Once I have enough of a system to avoid embarrassing myself, I'll clear it with Mike Rayhawk, the creator of BrikWars. On that note, make sure that you don't use any trademarks, LEGO or otherwise, in the fluff. As far as I can ascertain, Futuron, Spyrius, Blacktron, et al are no longer trademarks.

Badabump.