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HU has Century Station, BTS2 has Lazlo Agency, NB has the Nightlands, other games have their special settings or areas of interest. But what about N&S? Shouldn't there be mystic martial arts monasteries? Mercenary run and/or war torn cities? High-tech cities where the gizmoteers create wonderful toys? Agent training facilities? Personally, I'd like to see the world setting of N&S much more fleshed out, even though I adore the basic game premise which allows me to adapt N&S to just about any genre.

A template of creation for things like Temples, fortress strongholds, and the like would be nice.
Maybe something similar to the Megaversal Builder, only for those very settings you mentioned Kuseru, as opposed to Dimensional Planes (although, a map of the Hells of the Yama Kings would be kinda neat).

I've seen or come up with several "alternate" settings for N&S that might fit what you're looking for, though I expect Recon Sourcebook 3 long before I expect another N&S setting book.

Here's some:

Gettin' Medieval:

Setting: Mid to late 1600s or 1700s; Medieval Asia.

Research: Basic medieval-setting movies may be enough for a generic cinematic campaign. (Hero, Crouching Tiger, Seven Samurai or other Kurosawa epics, etc.), though in-depth research will be needed for a more historically-based campaign and is recommended for a cinematic one as well.

Plot: Characters play old skool martial artists fighting for or against the various dynasties of China, Japan, Mongolia, and others. Any MA characters or OCCs from MC are good as is. Other character classes will require some fixes. Gizmoteers are still possible but will require a lower-tech approach, possibly using devices built from springs, gears, water wheels, pulleys, etc.

Skills: Obviously this would require new skill programs and limited skill seselctions.

Tech: Low. No more than basic matchlock or wheel lock firearms. Gadgets will be built using springs and inginuity. Cybernetics will be limited to spring-loaded fantastical creations ala Ash's "robotic" hand in Army of Darkness.


The Age of Science:

Setting: Late 1800s. European powers dominate the globe. Steam and science are king. The old ways are dying out as a new scientific age that promises to solve all human problems dawns. Campaign may be a realistic campaign based on the real world of the 1870s-1900, or may be a fantastical "Steam punk" land out of Verne and Wells books.

Research: Reading old 19th century SciFi or modern Steam Punk genere is good for a general cinematic setting, but historical research is needed for a more historical campaign and is recommended for any campaign.

Plot: Characters play any standard OCC from N&S or MC, though tech will be limited to Steam era. The entire world is your stage with many possibilities: Asia, Europe (prowl the foggy streets of London), America (the western frontier is full of conflict and even a lot of Chinese culture), or Africa.

Skills: Standard with omission or alteration of some of the more high-tech skills.

Tech: late 1800s. In a fantastical "Steam Punk" campaign many of the high-tech may be replaced with "steam" versions, such as steam-driven cybernetics!

Frontier 2000:

Setting: This is the setting of the Big Trouble in Lunar China game I post here. Present day alternate history. Some seemingly minor historical changes in the late 20th century led to a world where permanent colonization of space is a reality by 2000. Permanent space stations and moon bases are in place.

Research: Sci Fi books (obviously) and movies or a study of modern NASA ideas. 2001: A Space Oddesey is a must. Mutants in Orbit can give some ideas for fanciful life in space.

Plot: Standard N&S with a slightly higher tech level and a new theater of operations. Now the many space-faring nations of the world (I used the US, USSR, EU, China, Japan, and India) are in a new colonial race for control of the seemingly limitless resources of space.

Skills: Standard, though new space-based skills may be necessary.

Tech: High. Modern-day with advances in space technology.


I'll post more later...

It should be said too that Slags' Contrafactual History of BTiLC is an excellent and entertaining read.

how about Shangri-la. this gives you a few roads you can go down.

ancient china feel or future china feel. anciengt china feel would have martial arts presented in mystic environment, fleshing out MC or BTS/NB in the olden days, when our current legends/myths were formed.


Future China: could be martial artist in uber tech setting, maybe a dark future setting or more fleshed out Rifts Tech Japan. tech anime setting.



a book could flesh out Tournaments. ddelaing with martial art duels and a place geared to finding the best hth fighters, training regime and so on. tournaments have a lot of potential for a really good setting.



mercenaries setting/recon type source book: a city under siege or continually war, and the role espionage agents/assasins's/ninjas, warriors play.

Shangri-La sounds cool. Anything ancient always has a lot of potential.

No need for a future-version: we already have Rifts Japan, and China I &II.

Tournaments would be awesome.

to do SB's for N&SS/MC, we first need to know what they are.

these books don't know what they are, and generally speaking they are used in conjunction with other PB titles, HU,BTS,Rifts,NB

for a book entitled N&SS, there arn't many ninja's in N&SS, only a martial art called ninjutsu, and most people arn't really happy with that either.


the Superspies arn't all that super, and tend to be all the same, highly educated, have handful of cybernetics and have a martial art equal to the people who spend their lives learning the martial arts and nothing else.



the gizomoteers apart from the spy who uses gadgets are redundant, and really should be NPC on the whole. just seems a hangover from Q/M from James Bond.



CS for HU you can see where they coming from, i.e MArvels New York, or DC's Gotham/Metropolis.

Lazlo Agency for BTS again is part of BTS, and you can see where it is coming from, same for Nightlands or astral plane for NB.

the rpg first has to know what it is. MC is meant as a SB for N&SS, yet it gives a feeling of a distinct rpg.

a good SB for N&SS would be covering the badguys or NPC organisations.

but N&SS needs an identity for it to work as an rpg on its own, rather than as source material for other PB's rpg lines.

DBX wrote:to do SB's for N&SS/MC, we first need to know what they are.

these books don't know what they are, and generally speaking they are used in conjunction with other PB titles, HU,BTS,Rifts,NB

Maybe by some people, however others use N&S as their basic setting and use the other titles as expansions.

for a book entitled N&SS, there arn't many ninja's in N&SS, only a martial art called ninjutsu, and most people arn't really happy with that either.

Nope, no White Ronin, not no never.

the Superspies arn't all that super, and tend to be all the same, highly educated, have handful of cybernetics and have a martial art equal to the people who spend their lives learning the martial arts and nothing else.

Only in the "revised" edition.

the gizomoteers apart from the spy who uses gadgets are redundant, and really should be NPC on the whole. just seems a hangover from Q/M from James Bond.

So, like the Hardware class from HU.

CS for HU you can see where they coming from, i.e MArvels New York, or DC's Gotham/Metropolis.

Lazlo Agency for BTS again is part of BTS, and you can see where it is coming from, same for Nightlands or astral plane for NB.

...and this changes things how?

the rpg first has to know what it is. MC is meant as a SB for N&SS, yet it gives a feeling of a distinct rpg.

Funny, it's pretty clearly defined on page 6 of revised N&S. And while MC may give you the feeling of a distinct RPG, it doens't for those of us who play N&S.

a good SB for N&SS would be covering the badguys or NPC organisations.

Not no White Moth, KRAK, PPAA, or Shining Dragon Path, nope.

but N&SS needs an identity for it to work as an rpg on its own, rather than as source material for other PB's rpg lines.

That's funny, I find N&S has a better identity than Palladium's other lines, being useful for generating games in fantasy, historical, contemporary, and futuristic genres.

Kuseru Satsujin wrote:Nope, no White Ronin, not no never.

Psssst, it's "Moth"!

acreRake wrote:

Kuseru Satsujin wrote:Nope, no White Ronin, not no never.

Psssst, it's "Moth"!

My bad, I was thinking of cool "ninjas" and didn't have enough coffee in my system.

My bad, I was thinking of cool "ninjas" and didn't have enough coffee in my system.

You should keep coffee beans instead of rice in your ninja survival/emergency kit.

Sentinel wrote:You should keep coffee beans instead of rice in your ninja survival/emergency kit.

I actually go with green tea powder and caffeine pills in my survival kit.

Kuseru Satsujin wrote:

Sentinel wrote:You should keep coffee beans instead of rice in your ninja survival/emergency kit.

I actually go with green tea powder and caffeine pills in my survival kit.

Gotta be lighter than a bag of rice.

Sentinel wrote:

Kuseru Satsujin wrote:

Sentinel wrote:You should keep coffee beans instead of rice in your ninja survival/emergency kit.

I actually go with green tea powder and caffeine pills in my survival kit.

Gotta be lighter than a bag of rice.

Actually, I should just get a camelback with an IV hookup instead of a drinking hookup and put liquified caffeine in my system directly. (Heh, maybe then I'd be able to finish all my projects.)

I had an idea for a Steampunk Wild West setting using N&S as the base system.

DBX wrote:to do SB's for N&SS/MC, we first need to know what they are. these books don't know what they are, and generally speaking they are used in conjunction with other PB titles, HU,BTS,Rifts,NB

The books already know what they are, a framework to hang whatever game idea you want upon.

DBX wrote:for a book entitled N&SS, there arn't many ninja's in N&SS, only a martial art called ninjutsu, and most people arn't really happy with that either.

And who are these people that aren't happy?

DBX wrote:the Superspies arn't all that super, and tend to be all the same, highly educated, have handful of cybernetics and have a martial art equal to the people who spend their lives learning the martial arts and nothing else.

I guess that all depends on which O.C.C. you pick and which version you use.

DBX wrote:the gizomoteers apart from the spy who uses gadgets are redundant, and really should be NPC on the whole. just seems a hangover from Q/M from James Bond.

Considering the Bond films are a source of inspiration for the game, that would be right.

DBX wrote:CS for HU you can see where they coming from, i.e MArvels New York, or DC's Gotham/Metropolis. Lazlo Agency for BTS again is part of BTS, and you can see where it is coming from, same for Nightlands or astral plane for NB.

And that's fine for those games.

DBX wrote:but N&SS needs an identity for it to work as an rpg on its own, rather than as source material for other PB's rpg lines.

It has an identity, as a chameleon that can shift to whatever you want.