Blue Planet (role-playing game)

Infobox RPG
title=Blue Planet


caption=The cover of "Blue Planet" 1st version
designer=Jeff Barber, Greg Benage, Jim Heivilin and Jason Werner
publisher=Biohazard Games (v1)
Fantasy Flight Games (v2)
date=1997 (v1)
2000 (v2)
system=Custom (v1)
Custom "Synergy System" (v2)
genre= Science fiction
footnotes=

"Blue Planet" is an environmentalist science fiction role-playing game and setting from Biohazard Games.

History

The first edition was demonstrated and released at Origins in 1997 to critical acclaim, receiving a nomination for the "Game of the Year" Origins award. [http://www.comicfoundry.com/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=75]

The rulebook, weighing in at just under 350 pages, is almost a worldbook, with about five-sixths of its length dedicated to the alien setting. In keeping with its environmentalist theme, the game was dedicated to Jacques Cousteau, and 10% of the profits were to go to his Cousteau Society.

The game received criticism for its overly involved character generation system and extremely lethal combat system.Fact|date=February 2007 A second version of the game was later released in 2000 in association with Fantasy Flight Games. This used a new role-playing game system commonly referred to as the "Synergy System" instead. The rules and modules were released in several books.

There was also a "GURPS Blue Planet" conversion [http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/blueplanet/] of the original product released in 2002 by Steve Jackson Games.

The intellectual property of Blue Planet passed back from Fantasy Flight Games to BioHazard in 2004. [http://www.biohazardgames.com/whatsnew.html]

On 7 May 2008, RedBrick Limited, publisher of the Earthdawn and Fading Suns roleplaying games, announced they had licensed the Blue Planet property from BioHazard Games.

Setting

"Blue Planet" is fairly unusual among sci-fi RPGs in that its setting is exhaustively researched and scientifically accurate. [ [http://www.biohazardgames.com/inquest.html BioHazard Games] ] It is set on an alien water planet, with believable climate, geography, ecology and political situations.

200 years from now, the human race has irreparably damaged its environment. Uncountable plant and animal species have gone extinct, and humanity has just begun rebuilding in the wake of a 75-year worldwide famine. Just before the disaster, a mysterious artificial wormhole was discovered a fair distance out beyond the edge of the solar system. Expeditions discovered that the wormhole led to another star system around Lambda Serpentis, 35 light years away. The second planet of the system was covered with a single vast ocean and was suitable for human life, and was named Poseidon. One major colony ship was sent there before civilization collapsed on Earth, and the colonists were given up for as lost.

The GEO (Global Ecology Organization) and various Incorporates (read: Mega-Corps) then rebuilt the Earth's economies (but not ecology) and recontacted Poseidon, only to discover that the colonists have gone "native," abandoning their run-down technology for simple, tribal life as fisherfolk. When the discovery of a "xenosilicate" ore revolutionizes genetic engineering, a new gold rush brings new settlers, greed and Incorporate warfare to the planet, threatening to destabilize the ecology of Poseidon. Some natives start ecoterrorist groups to protect their oceans from being despoiled, while the GEO tries to maintain law and order with genetically engineered soldiers. Meanwhile, the rarely-glimpsed and enigmatic aborigines which dwell beneath the ocean surface begin reacting to the human presence.

The native colonists of Poseidon are genetically engineered to be able to function underwater, either breathing through gills or possessing a high-capacity diving lung, as well as small fins to aid in swimming and saltwater-resistant skin. Additionally, the game includes genetically "uplifted" dolphins, orcas and sea lions as playable characters on either side of the native/immigrant dichotomy.

Notes

External links

* [http://bpwiki.beachheadonline.com/index.php5?title=Main_Page "Blue Planet" wiki]
* [http://www.biohazardgames.com/bp.html "Blue Planet" page] at Biohazard Games
* RedBrick's [http://www.blueplanet-rpg.com "Blue Planet" web site]
* Fansites:
** [http://seahawk.110mb.com Dark Water]
** [http://www.bluedive.nl/ BlueDive's Pages]
** [http://www.njae.me.uk/Category:Blue_Planet Neil's Blue Planet wiki]
** [http://bleue.planete.v2.online.fr/ Bleue Planète] (french)