Aug 3, 2019 6:27 pm
Had a player recently drop the game. Looking for 1 or 2 new players to dive in.
Blue Planet, 2nd Edition is a science fiction RPG that could be described as "ocean punk" or "water punk". It was originally created by Biohazard Games, with the second edition published by Fantasy Flight. It uses the Synergy Game System, which is a d10-based "roll under" system. The game's claim to fame is that it was written by actual marine biologists, so the world building and creatures are said to be very scientifically realistic. The RPG has obvious environmentalist themes.
The premise is as follows: In the future, the human race has irreparably damaged the planet. Uncountable plant and animal species have gone extinct. Earth is in bad shape, but humanity finds hope for its continued existence. A wormhole is discovered beyond the edge of the solar system. Expeditions find that the wormhole leads to another star system 35 light years away. The second planet of the system is covered with a single vast ocean and is suitable for human life. The planet is dubbed Poseidon. One major colony ship is sent to study the planet and prepare it for large scale colonization.
Unfortunately, shortly after the colony ship leaves, disaster strikes in the form of a seventy-year long worldwide famine, resulting from a century of ecological damage. Wars break out and civilization nearly collapses. In the wake of failing world governments, numerous Incorporate States rise to power (read: mega corporations). The UN creates a new international institution with unprecedented levels of authority, the Global Ecology Organization (GEO), to fight the famine and help rebuild Earth's economies. In the midst of this turmoil, the colonists on Poseidon are completely abandoned and forgotten for nearly a century.
GEO and the Incorporate States eventually make recontact with Poseidon, only to discover that the colonists had gone "native," abandoning their run-down technology for a simple, tribal life as fisherfolk. When the discovery of a "xenosilicate" ore revolutionizes genetic engineering, a gold rush begins, bringing new settlers, greed, and Incorporate warfare to the planet. Pollution and thoughtless mining of Poseidon's oceans are threatening to destabilize the planet's ecology. Some natives start ecoterrorist groups to protect their oceans from being despoiled, while the GEO tries to maintain law and order with cybernetic soldiers. Intelligent dolphin and orca "uplifts," as well as various genetically-enhanced transhumans, have relocated to Poseidon to live a life free from the prejudice they experienced on Earth. And through it all are the stories and urban legends that another sapient species, an alien race, inhabits the deepest parts of the ocean...
The year is now 2199. Maybe you're a settler who has come to make a new life for himself on Poseidon. Maybe you're a xenosilicate miner hoping to strike it rich in the new frontier. Maybe you're a native insurgent who is fighting against the exploitation of his home. Maybe you're a uplifted cetacean seeking freedom from the shackles of humanity. Maybe you're a corporate agent tasked with reaping the potential profits of this new world. Maybe you're a GEO Marshall trying to keep it all from falling apart.
Blue Planet is a sandbox... a sandbox filled with water.
Last edited August 3, 2019 6:41 pm
