GianniVacca

Yes, Gianni, but to what audience did it sell well?

I don't have the slightest idea (I wish there were stats...). I suspect people younger than us but older than kids

Paolo, I tend to agree with you; however, they say this boxed set has sold well in France: http://www.black-book-editions.fr/index.php?site_id=74

Quoting from the blurb:

You will find in this boxed set everything you need for your very first role-playing session:

• a 2 page visual that lets you "see" how a role-playing game works,
  
• complete rules (from character generation to combat through magic use),
  
• 4 ready-to-use scenarios, each in 2 hours, and making up a single history full of surprises,
  
• a beautiful cardboard GM screen (one side illustrated for the players, and one side with all the tables for the GM),
  
• a complete set of dice (D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, and D20)
  
• 5 full-colour character sheets,
  
• the map of the village of Clearvale.
  
• 
  

I guess a BRP primer box set aimed at a more juvenile or casual market would be the way to go, if at all. That way the product could possibly sit on the shelf of a general Toy & Hobby shop, rather than the less common and the more secular Comic & RPG stores. It would have to be very 'flashy' to say the least, to compare with the artwork on D&D and Pathfinder. The game itself would have to have a quicker advancement system following archtypes, as that's what the kiddies want, and its more in line with MMOs as well, which many of them will be playing. I have heard good things about Rod's 'Classic Fantasy' monograph, so something like his work in a quality box with great artwork may be the thing.

I don't want to dampen anybody's enthusiasm but without something like a strong licence backing this, I suspect it would only end up with Chaosium losing money.... (Mythos anyone?)

Why do you need guidance if you've got 100 ideas to every page?

Because there are so many names that are not indexed or explained anywhere. I could make 'em up but I'd love to know what Sarah'd meant when she wrote 'em!

A pity.

Yeah... About every page screams 100 ideas but you need guidance, the setting is quite weird and out of the usual science fantasy settings.

Try http://www.alephtargames.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=39%3Ahistorical&id=53%3Amerrie-england&Itemid=57 - the files are on the left hand side below the cover picture.

Weird. It does work now. LOL... What is "Blols"? (guess you meant Blois)

On the other hand, I would be interested in other eras too

Actually The Celestial Empire covers Imperial China from the Táng to the Qīng, i.e., from 618 to 1911. People usually don't realise that about 80% of wǔxiá films are set in the Qīng (1644-1911). That's hardly mediaeval

hi-resolution, full colour map of Merrie England drawn by Emperor Mi.... er, Colin Driver.

Can't access it (I have tried Firefox, Chrome, and IE).

Deleriad, what you write is correct: Carcosa would've certainly worked better with BRP. However (and this ties in with the "2012" thread in the other forum), the standard engine for OSR products is D&D. I guess it's up to us to try and reverse the trend!

What is Lamentations of the Flame Princess about? It has a very evocative title. From what I've read it is a "DnD retro-clone". Is there anything that really sets it apart from the other ones?

Yes, definitely. The tone is very adult-oriented whereas most D&D products are (at least in my eyes) rather teenage-oriented. Amongst the adult oriented stuff are graphic representations of death, etc., to remind the players that when one dies it's actually a horrible thing. The adventures have little in terms of over-the-top D&D monsters but rather stick to humans and demi-humans with the occasional monster, which always has a history. This is very much like what you find in the old Gloranthan adventures for RuneQuest.

Then there are background books: Vornheim, possibly the best city supplement I've ever seen; Carcosa, already mentioned; Isle of the Unknown, which is a sandbox setting with a mysterious, large island (almost 100,000km²), and which I haven't read yet.

Frankly the only thing I do not like about LotFP is the engine [even though it's been somewhat improved compared with D&D; check it out it's available for free on the web-site] -- but then resourceful GMs can always adapt anything to their favourite game engine.

Hi. I for one would like to see more adventures and less campaign settings -- I think much has been covered by now both in historical and geographic terms. What is lacking in the BRP part of the indie hobby is the incredible frenesy of the OSR movement. There are scores of high quality (crappy too of course but I tend to concentrate on the interesting stuff) "original frp" adventures out there and since I do not use that system it is a pain to have to produce BRP or T&T (my favourite systems) stats for those.

My take on all of this proliferation of RQ-like systems

Crisis of multiple Runequests

Definitely not a 'crisis' IMHO. The more the merrier. The proliferation of D&D retro-clones has definitely created momentum for the OSR movement rather than its opposite.

I have just bought the Carcosa source book: http://www.lotfp.com/RPG/products/carcosa

Unfortunately the stats are not BRP-based, but the text is pretty light on stats and heavy on setting, so it shouldn't be difficult to use with BRP. Note that the basic approach is very different from your standard CoC and even Dreamlands campaign, it's more horror meets science fantasy (à la Brian Lumley: http://www.brianlumley.com/books/cthulhu/dimensiondreams.html)

Shameless self-promotion dept:

I've thought it a shame there weren't any BRP-related grog blogs.

Er... there's mine (see sig), and I am sure there are a few others.

Wow! I'm impressed. I've posted my (very brief) impressions on my Celestial Empire blog: http://celestialempire.blogspot.com/2011/12/renaissance.html

It is land with many different cultures (six, if I recall correctly). Some 'earth goddess' types in the south west, Polynesian-like Rightarm islanders, and more Sartarite-like in the north. I don't remember the other ones. I believe there are some past issues of Tradetalk describing Esrolia, plus a French web-site: http://kethaela.free.fr/

I'm currently refereeing a blog-game in RQ2-Prax.

http://rqzit.over-blog.com/ should anyone be interested

Er, the Lovecraftian "deities" in the 1st edition of the AD&D Deities and Demi-Gods? I can't possibly think of a rolegame further away from Lovecraftian horror than AD&D.

My unfinished Atrilia BRP-rolegame has many peoples, religions, etc, inspired by western Africa, most notably by the Yoruba. Sorry, it's in French.

http://www.basicrps.com/atrilia/fr/jdr/

Er, what's Renaissance?

Newt, you may want to correct the preview file... On page 2 it says "WHEN THE THAT SWORD"

Also it says Lankamar instead of Lankhmar.

Nice. I love handouts, props, etc. I dream of being able to print out my own little cards with this kind of information.

Oh, this is not a problem. My Glorantha varies *a lot*

Anything available in dead tree format in time for the Eternal Con 2012?