Questbird

Or, if you use Linux or open source software, Scribus. Ah, too late you have Affinity. Never mind.

It just requires a bit of common sense. If the statement of intent was to attack, and the target changes to another within range, sure do the -5 DEX rank and allow it. It's still an attack in range, still very close to the original 'intent'. If the player wants to pivot to something completely different like run across the room or perform first aid on a fallen comrade, then don't.

In BR:UGE, Random Armor Values are an option, described on p.132, and the random and nonrandom armor values are listed in a table on p.175. It recommends you don't use hit locations if you use Random Armor Values.

Don't worry about setting such limits. After a few games of BRP (and maybe some dead or starving characters) your players should naturally start making more rounded characters.

As @g33k said, don't worry about balance for such things. Old One (Elf, similar to Vadagh from Corum) Aloof, intellectual, distant and long-lived. Must have a special reason to leave Whispering Earth and mingle with the lesser races. Instead of selecting a set of natural abilities and a cultural background they add 30 skill points to each of the following: Conceal Object, Dodge, Evaluate, Insight, Million Spheres, Natural World, Other Language, Own Language, Physik, Potions and one class of weapon. They can never begin the game with Chaos points Old One (Quarmallian) Now shadows of their former selves, this race now lives underground in ancient Quarmall. A very few agents and exiles creep around the surface world. Instead of selecting a set of natural abilities and a cultural background they add 30 skill points to each of the following: Bargain, Dodge, Fast Talk, Move Quietly, Million Spheres, Other Language, Own Language, Potions, Scent/Taste, one Mentalism magical skill and one non-Chanelling magical skill from Spell Law* (learning each of which earns a Chaos point). They can never begin the game with Law points. They cannot learn Chanelling/Divine magic. * I use BRP-adapted Spell Law from Rolemaster as one of the magic systems

That's what I did -- use both but at half the original bonus

I run an Elric! campaign set in Nehwon. Elric! (and Magic World) have skill bonuses for 'natural abilities' which add 20% to a set of skills depending on whether a character is crafty, cunning, physical or persuasive. However I also wanted some cultural skills. So I ended up with adding 10% for culture and 10% for the 'natural abilities' (which I like). Example: 'Natural ability': His or her first impulse is to try to outsmart an opponent or to gain an advantage. Give 10 points each to Bargain, Conceal Object, Disguise, Evaluate, Fast Talk, Hide, Insight, Natural World, Oratory, Own Language, Pick Lock and Search, and to any one class of weapon Cultural: Barbarian (Cold Waste) +5%: Search, Move Quietly, Hide +10%: Climb, Jump, Natural World Pick Two +5%: Sailing, Art (Dance), Art (Sing), Dodge, Oratory, Swim Pick One +10%: Craft, Known Kingdoms, Art (Play instrument), Track Pick Three +10%: 1H Axe, 1H Hammer, 2H Axe, 2H Hammer, Bow, Dagger, Shield, Sling, Spear, Staff, Throw, Brawl And then they get the 250 points to spend on their Profession skills.

I'm curious: what do you think is the problem with the religions? I do know Harn reasonably well.

I did see the locational tables in your mail, which is why I was a little surprised not to see them in the book. Actually just now I used those tables to help my son who was stuck on a theme for a homework short story 😀 So it has already been useful! I understand though, that having the emphasis on the open-ended, imagination-stimulating roll rather than the more limited generator table (and especially if there are too many of them) is a good design choice for a game like this.

I bought TREY and I am quite impressed with it. The Oracle dice (d10, d8, d6) is an interesting way to answer questions. I liked the idea of having the physical orientation of the dice sometimes a factor in the answer. TREY seems like something that could be used when designing adventures or testing games. Rather than being a set of generator tables*, which no matter how varied are ultimately limited by their contents, TREY is a more open-ended imagination stimulant, a bit like the I Ching or Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies (or the classic Magic 8 Ball), though specifically aimed at RPGs. Thanks @clarence for a thought-provoking tool! * Although maybe I did expect a few more generator tables than there were.

You might want to try something like Mythras, with its moderate crunch level, hit locations etc. The Mythic Britain supplements could help with the atmosphere of Hârn. I reckon Aquelarre with its gritty medieval vibe would work very well with Hârn (also has hit locations; does it in a superior way to RQ/Mythras in my opinion) Cthulhu Dark Ages might work also. For non-BRP systems, I've refereed Maelstrom (these days Maelstrom Domesday) and Dragon Warriors in Hârn in the past. Each of those has a 'British' vibe which suits Hârn quite well. As for the magic system, well that's where you need to do some work. Magic systems are very specific to a setting and make a big difference to a fantasy campaign. Hârn is supposedly a 'low magic' setting, or one where magic is at least relatively uncommon. I usually find the default BRP system to be inadequate. However using your table as a guide, the BRP way would be to have those 6 convocations as separate skills, with whatever strictures that allow you to acquire one or more of them.

Probably right about the Conquistadores era. My particular interest is the Inca Empire and that area of South America, more than Mesoamerica. Maybe an alt history where Waska beat Atahualpa in their civil war and Pizarro got defeated at Cajamarca? Then rather than erasing the Europeans, they could be the unknown enemy to watch out for.

Yes please!

Unfortunately in these litigious times all of these properties are owned by some corporation or another. The history of RPGs is littered with examples of games which have used some licensed IP or other -- with the blessing of the owner, mind you -- only to lose the rights to someone prepared to pay more, or for some other reason. This sometimes means entire games can no longer be sold by their original publishers. Eg. Lord of the Rings (ICE, Cubicle7 and now Free League), Elric of Melnibone (and various other Eternal Champions -- Chaosium), recently Conan (Modiphius recently lost the rights to another company which I think is making a D20 game), Lankhmar (TSR, Mongoose, Savage Worlds, Goodman Games). It's exacerbated by RPGs not traditionally making much money compared to their source material books or films, so the rights holders shop around for something which gives them more bucks.

@colinabrett was very into Cyberpunk for BRP. He even uploaded some of his work here:

My players were already playing Elric! when Magic World was released. They weren't aware of the history of the name and they just laughed at it.

There's an excellent free BRP variant called Fire and Sword, available right here on BRP Central. It's by Ray Turney, one of the original creators of Runequest. It uses roll-under d20 mechanism (you can use d10 for super easy tasks and d30 for super hard ones). Ray's design notes are fantastic too, explaining his d20 choice among other game design decisions.

I like Elric!/Magic World for Sword and Sorcery. OpenQuest is another rules-light d100 variant which would probably do what you want with Conan. It also has the advantage of being currently in print and supported. There was even a Conan-with-the-serials-filed-off adventure setting called The Savage North for it.

The fonts are quite small in BR:UGE, especially in the tables. But there is a lot of information to pack in. Disclaimer: I do need to use glasses these days 🤓

I played that at Arcanacon years decades ago. My character (an artist) pulled off the King in Yellow's mask and went completely insane.

I can confirm from my recent purchase that the Australian warehouse has stock now 😍

Well then I'd like to purchase the hardback..."soon" too.

I would like to order this from Australia but there don't seem to be any copies in the Australian warehouse right now.

I always thought Drive and Ride were general: if you can ride one beast, you can ride 'em all, at least as far as BRP and game balance is concerned. Similarly with Drive. The cost is some realism but the benefit is less fiddliness and wasted skill points: "Oh you've got Drive Toyota Corolla, you can't possibly know how to drive this Honda!"

I'd be very interested to hear about these Ki rules too. Land of Ninja isn't exactly easy to find these days.