Jovian Chronicles (DP9) - any good?

[dead]

What's Jovian Chronicles? How long has it been around? Can I get a d20 version of it? I've never seen it but I have heard about it; is it very obscure?

 

[Hawkshere]

BTW, is Traveller as an independent system (no GURPS or d20) still being supported?

Kinda.., yes. As mentioned, all the original Traveller (what has come to be known as Classic Traveller, or CT) books are currently available in a reprint series published by Far Future Enterprises. FFE is basically Marc Miller, the game's original creator, who still owns the rights to Traveller.

Additionally, the T20 material published by QLI/RPGRealms is dual statted for both T20 and CT. Setting material like the Gateway to Destiny sector book are largely edition independant. They also sell a cheap reprint of the orignal CT core books here.

Traveller does include some mild, fairly low powered psionics, and on the scifi 'hardness' scale registers closer to the middle than the extreme. FTL travel, power generation, and gravity technology are extremely advanced, while other areas are more modest. No blasters or light sabers, etc. Jovian Chronicles would appear to be a significantly harder setting - no FTL travel, etc.

Athough this doesn't help you now, another scifi game setting originally published by GDW is getting an update in the future. 2300AD was a much harder scifi setting that featured FTL, but otherwise was pretty gritty near-future sort of setting (its setting is a continuation of the Twlight:2000 timeline, IIRC). 2300AD has been out of print for years. It looks like QLI has picked up some of the rights, and is doing a T20-based update game called 2320AD. At the rate that QLI gets products made, there's no telling how long the wait on this will be, but it's something to look for in the future.

 

[SableWyvern]

Jovian Chronicles is part of the Silhouette System by DP9 (ie, their version of BRP or d20), and isn't obscure. It's one of the members of the established pack that sits behind White Wolf, Palladium and the d20 Conglomerate in the sales game.

Any decent game store should be stocking it.

The newest versions of DP9 products are double-statted for Silhouette/d20. How well it actually works with d20 I don't know, as I've never been interested in using d20 with a DP9 setting, and have thus only briefly skimmed the relevent sections.

 

[Hawkshere]

What's Jovian Chronicles? How long has it been around? Can I get a d20 version of it? I've never seen it but I have heard about it; is it very obscure?

The Jovian Chronicles website link.

 

[nsruf]

But what makes Transhuman Space almost unique is that it doesn't only have futuristic technology, but also examines how they will impact and change society. In other settings there's often a couple of silly reasons (or no explanation at all) why society still looks similar to society at the end of the 20th century (or worse, the 1950s). Not here.

I've considered picking it up for quite a while. The main reason for not doing it is that I grew disenchanted with GURPS. How reliant on game system is Transhuman Space really? Many GURPS sourcebooks are excellent background material for non-GURPS campaigns, but converting things like cybernetics, genetic modifications, etc. from the GURPS advantage/disadvantage system to say d20 Modern seems like a lot of work.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I've considered picking it up for quite a while. The main reason for not doing it is that I grew disenchanted with GURPS. How reliant on game system is Transhuman Space really?

Most of it is background, and not rules. And the version of GURPS Lite included in the hardcover version (it's also downloadable from the SJG website) should give anyone a good enough grasp of the GURPS rules to convert it.

Many GURPS sourcebooks are excellent background material for non-GURPS campaigns, but converting things like cybernetics, genetic modifications, etc. from the GURPS advantage/disadvantage system to say d20 Modern seems like a lot of work.

Most of the nonhumans will have have an ECL depending on their model (this should work out fairly well - baseline humans, being older, will have more actual character levels than young parahumans). Bioroids could actually have a few levels in a "bioroid class", similar to D&D monsters.

The biggest headache are going to be the software characters - they have no STR and Con scores, but as long as they maintain backups, they cannot be killed permanently... How do you work that one out?

 

[nsruf]

Most of it is background, and not rules. And the version of GURPS Lite included in the hardcover version (it's also downloadable from the SJG website) should give anyone a good enough grasp of the GURPS rules to convert it.

Hehe. I own the full rules and several supplements, even played it for quite a while. I just don't like GURPS much anymore - too clunky, too many (often redundant) options, and too easy to break despite the point system.

But if its mostly background, working with another system that is already geared for SF should be a minor problem. So maybe not d20.

 

[doghead]

The DP9 stuff is good. Simple but effective. I actually like the granular nature of it. It tends to discourage the whole "insert pseudo-science bit here" hardware race. The "number of dice rolled is equal to skill" with "bonus is equal to stat" works nicely. Talented inexperienced characters can pull off amazing stunts, but skilled charcters can be relied on to get it done. Jovian is probably a better choice than Heavy Gear if you are looking for a space based game. But, at least the last time I played it, it was all insystem.

Classic Traveller is a really solid game with a good solid science basis. the little black books, available in reprint as noted, allow you to build worlds, spaceships, robots as well as significantly expand the character generation choices. There is not much in the way of character improvement built in, but this just shifted the emphasis onto in game success.

I'm not familier with Trans Human.

 

[Tsyr]

I got the Jovian Chronicals starter pack a year or so ago, and so far have been very happy with it. It is, to my mind, a very well done setting, and the system is quite good.

 

[nsruf]

I got the Jovian Chronicals starter pack a year or so ago, and so far have been very happy with it. It is, to my mind, a very well done setting, and the system is quite good.

If you have the starterpack, maybe you can clear up some confusion: the DP9 store lists the players handbook as a hardcover product, except for the starterpack, where it is called a softcover. Is there a special softcover edition only for the starter pack, or is this an error?

(see here)