# Honor Harrington RPG setting!



## Shadowdancer (Jan 16, 2004)

QuikLink Interactive, the publishers of Traveller T20, have acquired the rights to do a SF RPG setting using the Honor Harrington series of books. The link.


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## DMScott (Jan 17, 2004)

Yeah, there's some discussion over in the d20 forum:

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=74536


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## tetsujin28 (Jan 18, 2004)

Never heard of it.


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## s/LaSH (Jan 19, 2004)

tetsujin28 said:
			
		

> Never heard of it.




Well then, go to http://www.baen.com and download David Weber's On Basilisk Station (book 1 in the series). The publisher wants you to.

In slightly more detail, the Honor Harrington series is often described as 'Hornblower in space'. It's about an interstellar war that resembles Star Trek only insofar as they have spaceships, and I for one think it's very very good if you like consistency in your scifi.


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## takyris (Jan 19, 2004)

As an alternative view, I read "On Basilisk Station" on paper and didn't think much of it.  It's *good* military SF, but good military SF tends to be somewhat stock, characterwise, and I found the protagonist to be a bit bland.  She's good, everyone else is unimaginative, evil, or obedient, and she triumphs over impossible odds.  A lot.  I do not wish in any way to imply that this is inherently bad, but it is not my personal cup of tea.  That said, I'm very interested in what kind of RPG develops from it, because I thought that the science of ship-to-ship combat was very well thought out.

(I probably wouldn't like reading Horatio Hornblower either, although I am enjoying watching the episodes on A&E.)


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## Teflon Billy (Jan 19, 2004)

I wish someone would make a Miles Vorkosigan RPG...that's the flavour of "War in Space" that I like.


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## Hypersmurf (Jan 19, 2004)

Teflon Billy said:
			
		

> I wish someone would make a Miles Vorkosigan RPG...that's the flavour of "War in Space" that I like.




There's a lot more wiggle-room for a designer.  Bujold tends to gloss over technical details.  That's a big ship.  That's a fast ship.  That ship's got more plasma cannons than that one.

Whereas Weber revels in them, and we know mass, length, maximum acceleration, number and layout of lasers, grasers, and missile launchers, effective ranges of beam weapons, effective ranges and stand-off ranges of missiles in multiple drive settings, ammunition storage figures, bunkerage mass allocations... for any number of classes of ship.

-Hyp.


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## mmu1 (Jan 19, 2004)

Teflon Billy said:
			
		

> I wish someone would make a Miles Vorkosigan RPG...that's the flavour of "War in Space" that I like.




GURPS Vorkosigan is supposedly finally in the production stage...

Bujold's books show pretty well the difference between human-centric and gadget-centric sci-fi. In the Vorkosigan books, high technology matters only because of how it affects human nature and relationships, not because spaceships with big guns and alien artifacts are kewl.


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## redhawk (Jan 19, 2004)

*GURPS Vorkosigan*



			
				Teflon Billy said:
			
		

> I wish someone would make a Miles Vorkosigan RPG...that's the flavour of "War in Space" that I like.




Steve Jackson's all over it.

GURPS Vorkosigan. In the works now. As usual for such things, Steve's working closely with Bujold to get the details and the world correct.

Redhawk


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## tetsujin28 (Jan 20, 2004)

redhawk said:
			
		

> Steve Jackson's all over it.
> 
> GURPS Vorkosigan. In the works now. As usual for such things, Steve's working closely with Bujold to get the details and the world correct.
> 
> Redhawk



Never heard of that, either. Shows what happens when you're a classicist ;-)


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## Hypersmurf (Jan 20, 2004)

tetsujin28 said:
			
		

> Never heard of that, either. Shows what happens when you're a classicist ;-)




Honor Harrington and Miles Vorkosigan will be classics 

-Hyp.


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## s/LaSH (Jan 21, 2004)

Hypersmurf said:
			
		

> Honor Harrington and Miles Vorkosigan will be classics




'Will'?

'Do'.

If you ask me.


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## Hypersmurf (Jan 21, 2004)

s/LaSH said:
			
		

> 'Will'?
> 
> 'Do'.
> 
> If you ask me.




Well, yes, I agree   But I was trying not to oversell 

-Hyp.


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## mmu1 (Jan 21, 2004)

Hypersmurf said:
			
		

> Well, yes, I agree   But I was trying not to oversell
> 
> -Hyp.




I don't think the Honor Harrington novels come anywhere close to the Vorkosigan series, if only because Miles going manic-depressive over something is vastly more entertaining than reading about Honor having another one of her frequent bouts with depression, low self-esteem, guilt and sexual disfunction.


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## Hypersmurf (Jan 21, 2004)

mmu1 said:
			
		

> I don't think the Honor Harrington novels come anywhere close to the Vorkosigan series, if only because Miles going manic-depressive over something is vastly more entertaining than reading about Honor having another one of her frequent bouts with depression, low self-esteem, guilt and sexual disfunction.




I think the biggest mistake Bujold ever made was chapter 9 of _A Civil Campaign_.

You see, I used to reread the Vorkosigan books start to finish because I enjoyed them.

But now I read them all as an excuse to reread that chapter.

Best chapter ever.

And now the rest of the books - while still brilliant - don't quite live up to what I now know she's capable of writing.

Damn it 

Whereas Weber hasn't done that to me yet, so I can enjoy all of the Honor books on their own merit 

-Hyp.


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## s/LaSH (Jan 22, 2004)

I guess it depends on what you're looking for in a book. I read Honor Harrington primarily for the space battles and nice big numbers, and Miles Vorkosigan for the audacious little - um, the social element. And I go away happy.


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## Hypersmurf (Jan 22, 2004)

s/LaSH said:
			
		

> I guess it depends on what you're looking for in a book. I read Honor Harrington primarily for the space battles and nice big numbers...




Yeee-eah 

Weber and Eric Flint have something in common: a tendency to break off narrative in the middle of hectic action to spend a few pages giving some technical or historical detail.  

Flint does it in the Belisarius books - it's been a while since I read them, but I have vague memories of something like a bunch of cataphracts throwing a volley of plumbata... and then a long explanation of how the war darts had evolved from the Roman Legionnaire's pila, and how many they carried, and what the standard tactics for their use were, etc, etc... and then the darts hitting their targets.

Weber does the same thing, sometimes.  And I've met people who find it quite frustrating, but it's never bothered me.

Although I do occasionally skim over some of the technical lectures when I'm _re_reading one of the books.

-Hyp.


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## mmu1 (Jan 22, 2004)

I liked the first couple of Harrington books, but if I never read about bomb-pumped X-ray lasers, and a six-legged cat meeping or bleeping or whatever it is it does reproachfully again, I'll be a happy man.


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## Hypersmurf (Jan 22, 2004)

mmu1 said:
			
		

> I liked the first couple of Harrington books, but if I never read about bomb-pumped X-ray lasers, and a six-legged cat meeping or bleeping or whatever it is it does reproachfully again, I'll be a happy man.




_Bleek!_

-Hyp.


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## mmu1 (Jan 22, 2004)

Hypersmurf said:
			
		

> _Bleek!_
> 
> -Hyp.




How could I forget. It's the same sound a smurf makes when you step on it. 

Edit: I just had a revelation. Honor is always an emotional mess because that miserable furball is sitting there going: "Bleak! Bleak!" all day long. It's subliminal.


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## Lurks-no-More (Jan 22, 2004)

mmu1 said:
			
		

> How could I forget. It's the same sound a smurf makes when you step on it.
> 
> Edit: I just had a revelation. Honor is always an emotional mess because that miserable furball is sitting there going: "Bleak! Bleak!" all day long. It's subliminal.




I've long thought about a slightly twisted AH Honorverse where she _doesn't_ get linked with Nimitz, becoming something closer to what her detractors in the books claim her to be.

Preferably portrayed through the eyes of Michelle Henke, her best, and just about only, friend and her unofficial, government-appointed watchdog that keeps Honor steady on the fine line between oddity and outright nuttiness.

For extra fun, add a wildly paranoid streak about treecats. ("I don't trust the furry buggers, Mike. They are hiding things from us, watching and waiting and infiltrating our government! Look, even your cousin's got one spying on her!" "Uh, right, Honor. But please, stop staring at Elizabeth. It makes her nervous, and it makes her security people even more nervous.")


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## Skytheen (Nov 29, 2015)

There finally is an Honor Harrington RPG
http://waveyourgeekflag.blogspot.com/2015/11/honor-harrington-rpg.html


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## darjr (Nov 29, 2015)

According to that link It isn't out yet. It is still in play test.


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## Skytheen (Nov 29, 2015)

I added links to the PDF, you should be able to go right to it now


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## darjr (Nov 29, 2015)

Thanks man. Looks interesting. Have you run it or played in it?


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## Dog Moon (Nov 29, 2015)

Wow, this took almost 12 years to come out?  Hope it's good considering the length of the wait...


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## darjr (Nov 29, 2015)

I think it went through several iterations. Plus the company wasn't focused on other things than the war game for a long time. Small shop with a lot to do and a bit of a perfectionist means things can take a while. Though I must say the products are pretty good, not all to my taste, but good.


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