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Ringworld (role-playing game)
Encyclopedia
The Ringworld science fiction
role-playing game
was published by Chaosium
in 1984, using the Basic Role-Playing
system for its rules and Larry Niven
's Ringworld
novel
s as a setting.
" (also the commonly used title for Larry Niven's future history
science fiction
series) is about 80 light years in diameter with 10,000 stars, including Human Space (40 light years diameter, 524 stars in 357 systems, 30 billion humans, ⅔ on Earth
), as well as neighbouring Alien civilisations. Important Alien civilisations include the Puppeteers
, paranoid pacifist herbivore centaurs, and the Kzinti, carnivorous warlike felines, who fought multiple wars over hundreds of years against the Humans, being defeated each time. Human allies include intelligent dolphins and orcas.
"Known Space" only serves as a background for the game. The game is intended to be set on the Ringworld
itself, an enormous single world discovered at the far reaches of Known Space, a ring around a sun at approximately the orbit of the Earth. It is 997,000 miles wide, about 125 Earth-diameters. The total inner surface of the ring is equal to that of 30 million Earths. The ring is spun at a speed to provide 0.992G of gravity on the innerside, while 20 giant shadow squares at about the orbit of Mercury occlude the Sun to provide night. It was constructed by the Pak Protectors, now mostly extinct, who had a common origin with humans. The Ringworld is home to some 30 trillion sentient inhabitants from up to 2000 hominid
species. The world is described in a series of novels by Niven, Ringworld
, The Ringworld Engineers
, and, after the game's publication, The Ringworld Throne
and Ringworld's Children
.
The role-playing game contains a great deal of technical details about the setting, more than the fiction the setting is based on. The game setting details are complete enough that some Ringworld fans not interested in role-playing buy the game just for the background material.
Information from the RPG, along with notes composed by RPG author Hewitt with Niven, were later used to form the "Bible" given to authors writing in the Man-Kzin Wars
series. Niven himself recommended that Hewitt write one of the stories for the original two MKW books, although this never came to pass.
, such as the (so-called) Ghouls, Vampires, Giants, Sea People, and others.
This Ringworld focus has been a criticism of the game. The Ringworld role-playing game is not a 'full' science fiction RPG, like Traveller
, including, for example, rules for starship construction, space combat, travel to different planets and systems, and so forth. Instead, the game and rules focused on parties of characters exploring the Ringworld itself, and, despite its vast size (with a surface area larger than that of all of Known Space's inhabited planets put together), many who bought the game felt limited by this one world setting.
, with eight basic characteristics: Strength, Constitution, Mass (equivalent to Size in other BRP games), Intelligence, Power, Dexterity, Appearance and Education determining secondary attributes such damage modifiers, hit points, and skill rolls.
At creation, each character gets to spend a number of points (based mainly on age, Education, and Intelligence) on skills determined by interests or career choice. Each of the three playable races has specific tables for the creation of characters. Character Skills are based on percentages. To succeed in a skill, the player must roll under the relevant skill with modifiers on percentile dice.
Another critique of the game system has been the large effect of character age on skills, usually considered the most important character attributes. In Niven's future world, the deterioration of age has been largely reversed, so humans live hundreds of years. Therefore, a 200 year old character will have vastly more skill points than a 20 year old, with little compensatory advantages for the younger one.
Only two publications were ever published, the Ringworld role-playing game box set itself, and the Ringworld Companion, both in 1984 by Chaosium. The magazine Different Worlds
, issue 37, featured a Ringworld adventure, "Louis Wu & His Motley Crew." The article "The Dolphins of Known Space: A new race for the Ringworld Game" appeared in Dragon Magazine
issue 95.
, John Hewitt, Sherman Kahn, Lynn Willis
, Sandy Petersen
, Rudy Kraft, Charlie Krank, Ed Gore, and Jeff Okamoto. It came in a box set with four books: the Explorer Book, Technology Book, Gamemasters Book, and Creatures Book, a sheet of cardboard miniatures, reference and character sheets, and a set of dice
: 2d20, 1d8, and 2d6.
), Canyon, Down, Gummidgy, Home, Jinx, Margrave, Plateau, Silvereyes, "We Made It" and Wunderland. Finally, it gives rules for non-human, Kzin or Puppeteer, player characters, and a glossary.
. There is also an introductory scenario ("The Journey of the Catseye") intended to begin a Ringworld campaign. The characters are hired by Captain Gregor Lopez, famous explorer, for a journey to the Ringworld that does not go completely as planned.
The book starts with a diagram of the Ringworld and its star, EC-1752, new humanoids, aliens, plants and animals, technological objects, and original errata. There is some information on spaceships (Human and City Builder), hyperspace
, a map of Human Space, and statistics for vehicles used on the Ringworld. Then there is a new race, the "Agamans", desert nomads, and a scenario involving them, "The Sand Eaters". Finally, there is a three part scenario named "The Kaladians", about the defense of travelling merchants. Both scenarios can be integrated into the campaign given in the basic set. None of these three additional races appear in any of the Ringworld novels.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
was published by Chaosium
Chaosium
Chaosium is one of the longer lived publishers of role-playing games still in existence. Founded by Greg Stafford, its first game was actually a wargame, White Bear and Red Moon, which later mutated into Dragon Pass and its sequel, Nomad Gods...
in 1984, using the Basic Role-Playing
Basic Role-Playing
Basic Role-Playing is a role-playing game system which originated in the fantasy-oriented RuneQuest role-playing game rules...
system for its rules and Larry Niven
Larry Niven
Laurence van Cott Niven / ˈlæri ˈnɪvən/ is an American science fiction author. His best-known work is Ringworld , which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics...
's Ringworld
Ringworld
Ringworld is a Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award-winning 1970 science fiction novel by Larry Niven, set in his Known Space universe and considered a classic of science fiction literature. It is followed by three sequels, and preceded by four prequels, and ties into numerous other books set in Known Space...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s as a setting.
Setting
The setting is a distant future based on extrapolation of as much hard science as Niven had available. Specifically, it's the 29th century. "Known SpaceKnown Space
Known Space is the fictional setting of some dozen science fiction novels and several collections of short stories written by author Larry Niven. It has also in part been used as a shared universe in the Man-Kzin Wars spin-off anthologies sub-series....
" (also the commonly used title for Larry Niven's future history
Future history
A future history is a postulated history of the future and is used by authors in the subgenre of speculative fiction to construct a common background for fiction...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
series) is about 80 light years in diameter with 10,000 stars, including Human Space (40 light years diameter, 524 stars in 357 systems, 30 billion humans, ⅔ on Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
), as well as neighbouring Alien civilisations. Important Alien civilisations include the Puppeteers
Pierson's Puppeteer
Pierson's Puppeteers, often known just as Puppeteers, are a fictional alien race from American author Larry Niven's Known Space books.- Biology and sociology :...
, paranoid pacifist herbivore centaurs, and the Kzinti, carnivorous warlike felines, who fought multiple wars over hundreds of years against the Humans, being defeated each time. Human allies include intelligent dolphins and orcas.
"Known Space" only serves as a background for the game. The game is intended to be set on the Ringworld
Ringworld
Ringworld is a Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award-winning 1970 science fiction novel by Larry Niven, set in his Known Space universe and considered a classic of science fiction literature. It is followed by three sequels, and preceded by four prequels, and ties into numerous other books set in Known Space...
itself, an enormous single world discovered at the far reaches of Known Space, a ring around a sun at approximately the orbit of the Earth. It is 997,000 miles wide, about 125 Earth-diameters. The total inner surface of the ring is equal to that of 30 million Earths. The ring is spun at a speed to provide 0.992G of gravity on the innerside, while 20 giant shadow squares at about the orbit of Mercury occlude the Sun to provide night. It was constructed by the Pak Protectors, now mostly extinct, who had a common origin with humans. The Ringworld is home to some 30 trillion sentient inhabitants from up to 2000 hominid
Hominidae
The Hominidae or include them .), as the term is used here, form a taxonomic family, including four extant genera: chimpanzees , gorillas , humans , and orangutans ....
species. The world is described in a series of novels by Niven, Ringworld
Ringworld
Ringworld is a Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award-winning 1970 science fiction novel by Larry Niven, set in his Known Space universe and considered a classic of science fiction literature. It is followed by three sequels, and preceded by four prequels, and ties into numerous other books set in Known Space...
, The Ringworld Engineers
The Ringworld Engineers
The Ringworld Engineers is a 1980 science fiction novel by Larry Niven. It is the first sequel to Niven's award-winning Ringworld and was nominated for both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1981.-Origin:...
, and, after the game's publication, The Ringworld Throne
The Ringworld Throne
The Ringworld Throne is a novel by Larry Niven, first published in 1996. It is the direct sequel to his previous work The Ringworld Engineers...
and Ringworld's Children
Ringworld's Children
Ringworld's Children is a 2004 science fiction novel by Larry Niven, the fourth in the Ringworld series set in the Known Space universe. It describes the continuing adventures of Louis Wu and companions on Ringworld.-Plot summary:...
.
The role-playing game contains a great deal of technical details about the setting, more than the fiction the setting is based on. The game setting details are complete enough that some Ringworld fans not interested in role-playing buy the game just for the background material.
Information from the RPG, along with notes composed by RPG author Hewitt with Niven, were later used to form the "Bible" given to authors writing in the Man-Kzin Wars
Man-Kzin Wars
The Man-Kzin Wars is a series of military science fiction short story collections , as well as the eponymous conflicts between mankind and the Kzinti that they detail...
series. Niven himself recommended that Hewitt write one of the stories for the original two MKW books, although this never came to pass.
Game play
The players initially play explorers from Known Space, sent as scouts to the Ringworld. They can be anthropologists, artists, doctors, police, or even zealots, who will explore the mysteries of this huge artificial world and its inhabitants. Basic characters can be humans from a dozen planets of Human Space, Puppeteers, or Kzin. Later play can see characters from Ringworld speciesHominids of the Ringworld
The Hominids of the Ringworld, like the humans of Larry Niven's other works about the Known Space fictional universe, are descendants of the species called the Pak, whose "breeder" stage resembled Homo habilis, and who utilize a symbiotic virus to then develop into a hyper-intelligent Protector...
, such as the (so-called) Ghouls, Vampires, Giants, Sea People, and others.
This Ringworld focus has been a criticism of the game. The Ringworld role-playing game is not a 'full' science fiction RPG, like Traveller
Traveller (role-playing game)
Traveller is a series of related science fiction role-playing games, the first published in 1977 by Game Designers' Workshop and subsequent editions by various companies remaining in print to this day. The game was inspired from such classic science fiction stories as the Dumarest saga series by...
, including, for example, rules for starship construction, space combat, travel to different planets and systems, and so forth. Instead, the game and rules focused on parties of characters exploring the Ringworld itself, and, despite its vast size (with a surface area larger than that of all of Known Space's inhabited planets put together), many who bought the game felt limited by this one world setting.
Game system
A character is initially defined by his species or world of origin, which affects characteristics (for example, by determining the gravity to which it is accustomed). Then the players roll randomly for a certain number of defects, character age, and characteristics. The system used is Chaosium's Basic Role-PlayingBasic Role-Playing
Basic Role-Playing is a role-playing game system which originated in the fantasy-oriented RuneQuest role-playing game rules...
, with eight basic characteristics: Strength, Constitution, Mass (equivalent to Size in other BRP games), Intelligence, Power, Dexterity, Appearance and Education determining secondary attributes such damage modifiers, hit points, and skill rolls.
At creation, each character gets to spend a number of points (based mainly on age, Education, and Intelligence) on skills determined by interests or career choice. Each of the three playable races has specific tables for the creation of characters. Character Skills are based on percentages. To succeed in a skill, the player must roll under the relevant skill with modifiers on percentile dice.
Another critique of the game system has been the large effect of character age on skills, usually considered the most important character attributes. In Niven's future world, the deterioration of age has been largely reversed, so humans live hundreds of years. Therefore, a 200 year old character will have vastly more skill points than a 20 year old, with little compensatory advantages for the younger one.
Publications
Different Worlds
Different Worlds was an American role-playing games' magazine, now defunct.-History:Different Worlds was launched in 1979 by Greg Stafford to promote the role-playing games from his own editing house, Chaosium...
, issue 37, featured a Ringworld adventure, "Louis Wu & His Motley Crew." The article "The Dolphins of Known Space: A new race for the Ringworld Game" appeared in Dragon Magazine
Dragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
issue 95.
Ringworld Box Set
The Ringworld role-playing game box set was titled "Larry Niven's Ringworld: Roleplaying Adventure Beneath the Great Arch", referring to the way the Ringworld looked from its interior surface. The authors are credited as Greg StaffordGreg Stafford
Francis Gregory Stafford , usually known as Greg Stafford, is an American game designer, publisher and shaman.-Glorantha and gaming:...
, John Hewitt, Sherman Kahn, Lynn Willis
Lynn Willis
Lynn Willis is a wargame and role-playing game designer who has done work for Metagaming Concepts, Game Designers' Workshop, and Chaosium.Willis began by designing science fiction wargames for Metagaming, starting with the Godsfire in 1976. He also designed the microgames Olympica and Holy War...
, Sandy Petersen
Sandy Petersen
Carl Sanford Joslyn Petersen is a game designer.Petersen was born in St. Louis, Missouri and attended University of California, Berkeley, majoring in zoology....
, Rudy Kraft, Charlie Krank, Ed Gore, and Jeff Okamoto. It came in a box set with four books: the Explorer Book, Technology Book, Gamemasters Book, and Creatures Book, a sheet of cardboard miniatures, reference and character sheets, and a set of dice
Dice
A die is a small throwable object with multiple resting positions, used for generating random numbers...
: 2d20, 1d8, and 2d6.
Explorer Book
This book begins with a character sheet. It introduces role-playing games, then covers character creation, skill use, and combat. It presents a detailed history of humanity between the 20th and 29th centuries. It then describes eleven human worlds: Belt (the asteroid beltAsteroid belt
The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets...
), Canyon, Down, Gummidgy, Home, Jinx, Margrave, Plateau, Silvereyes, "We Made It" and Wunderland. Finally, it gives rules for non-human, Kzin or Puppeteer, player characters, and a glossary.
Gamemaster Book
The Gamemaster Book begins with technical essays on the Ringworld, from physical construction, to life on the ring, with diagrams. There is a section on the "City Builders"—a Ringworld race that dominated the Ringworld, built floating cities, and sent spaceships to explore other worlds, until a mysterious technological virus destroyed their empire. Another section lists unanswered questions about the Ringworld. There are suggestions for creating scenarios and campaigns, and information on technology of various humanoid species of the Ringworld, and additional rules, including gravity, Credit Rating, and psionicsPsionics (role-playing games)
Psionics, in role-playing games, is a broad category of fantastic abilities originating from the mind, similar to the paranormal psionic abilities that some people claim in reality.- Common features :...
. There is also an introductory scenario ("The Journey of the Catseye") intended to begin a Ringworld campaign. The characters are hired by Captain Gregor Lopez, famous explorer, for a journey to the Ringworld that does not go completely as planned.
Technology Book
The Technology Book gives rules and descriptions of the equipment employed by the explorers of the 29th century, categorized into generators, computers, medical equipment, tools, vehicles, weapons and defenses.Creature Book
The Creature Book gives rules and descriptions for creatures, divided into Aliens, Humanoids, Animals and Plants. Many races get specialized hit location tables, characteristic maxima and minima, skills and traits.Ringworld Companion
This supplement was published not long after the box set. The authors are credited as Greg Stafford, John Hewitt, Sherman Kahn, Lynn Willis, Sandy Petersen, Rudy Kraft, and Charlie Krank.The book starts with a diagram of the Ringworld and its star, EC-1752, new humanoids, aliens, plants and animals, technological objects, and original errata. There is some information on spaceships (Human and City Builder), hyperspace
Hyperspace (science fiction)
Hyperspace is a plot device sometimes used in science fiction. It is typically described as an alternative region of space co-existing with our own universe which may be entered using an energy field or other device...
, a map of Human Space, and statistics for vehicles used on the Ringworld. Then there is a new race, the "Agamans", desert nomads, and a scenario involving them, "The Sand Eaters". Finally, there is a three part scenario named "The Kaladians", about the defense of travelling merchants. Both scenarios can be integrated into the campaign given in the basic set. None of these three additional races appear in any of the Ringworld novels.
External links
- Ringworld RPG fan site
- The Ringworld Role-Playing Game: A Re-appraisal From Other Reviews on "Known Space: The Future Worlds of Larry Niven" fan site