Al.

Pete Maracini's (sp?) RQ site has some expanded rules on Dragonewt magic/effects for RQIII Al

I shall check my copy when I get home, seems I missed that then Quite probably. I wanted to make it mechanically different to blast but it might be better to just clone the rules. Although I am loathe to do so. Al

It certainly has bits which no other edition has, although I like the 'yes we can' attitude of Elric! personally. The enchantment rules have certainly inspired some of the GM characters in the Great PenDragon campaign and Ritual Magic slots seemlessly into Magic World to describe the tantalisingly brief descriptions of other types of Magic. That's a house rule which we've used in an expanded form in all sorts of BRP-type games. such as Demon Weapon: max additional damage is equal to mudane. i.e. my Demon Greatsword could do 2d8+2d8 max even if I spent MORE than 8 MP/PP/OtherP on it. Al

This has been brought up in other threads but I want to take a slightly different slant, so please forgive any duplication. In MW attacking spells (Blast,Fire/Frost, Lightning et al) did 1d6 damage per PowerPoint spent. In BRP this becomes 1d6 per 3 PP spent (albeit PP in BRP are subtly different from those in MW). Some fear that this watered them down somewhat. For myself this does not worry me. A Mage can still throw a beast of a spell occasionally and a powerful mage should have some additional store of PP anyway; although I am tempted to make it 1d2 per PP similar to the Elric! roll table just for granularity. i.e. PP......Damage 1.......1d2 2.......1d4 3.......1d6 4.......1d8 5.......1d10 6.......2d6 7.......1d8+1d6 8.......2d8 9.......3d6 However we then get to the point, why bother with Blast? Fire will ignore armour and get lots of people. Whilst Blast hits but one poor sap who gets the advantage of their kinetic (i.e. normal) armour(s). Even though Fire and Frost are now two separate spells (rather than 1 in MW) they are each individually much better than Blast. Suggestion Physical attacking spells can be Dodged. This does take an action (and so either takes up one of your two actions that round or imposes a cumulative -30% penalty on further Parries and Dodges depending on how you rule) This should be a HARD Dodge (i.e. Halve the Dodge skill) Just as if the target were dodging a thrown missile. Fire or Frost - that's it. No more changes. But you do get to affect or drive off lots of baddies, and it ignores physical/kinetic armour already anyway. Blast - there is an additional penalty of -(10 per PP spent)%, theory being that a more powerful blast is either faster or generally more difficult to avoid. i.e. a 5 point Blast imposes a -50% penalty on target's Dodge and will inflict 1d10 if it strikes home Lightning - no additional Dodge penalty BUT there is a chance that a LIVING target's heart stops when several thousand volts are applied across it. The target makes a roll against Con x(10-PP spent)* to avoid death AND then takes damage calculated as above/as normal for burning regardless * minimum of Con x1 roll if 9 or more PP are spent. Any thoughts? Have I missed owt? Al

Which is a fair and reasonable point. And this being the internet, far from unecessary. However I have a question rather than strong opinion. What is the advantage you see in 'rolling high' with a d100? That's a genuine query that is, not a loaded question. Al

I think Matthew the Dragon Lord has it. A Zombie is a shambling reanimated corpse with zero will and little co-ordination, a Mummy is a far more terrifying animated corpse with full memories and will. Of course it will not be swathed in bandages so it will look ickier but may not burn so well If the corpse is nice and fresh then it might look a bit like Bruce Lee's nipper....... Al

Guilty, oh so very guilty. Most of the changes have only been made clear to me by queries about them on these here pages. Even worse I almost subconciously houserule the new rules in ma heid when I do see that they are different. Al

Cool adventures? An open setting? Isn't that what the old rpg magazines always promised us? And (with a couple of noticeable honourable exceptions) completely failed to deliver. I've spent £s on (old) White Dwarf, Adventurer, Last Province, GMI, Arcane looking for these. Will I buy Outpost 19? Hell yeah Will I buy The God Machine? Hell yeah Would I buy others? Hell yeah Would they be more interesting and useful than another quirky gameworld tm? Hell yeah Or a compilation of yet more rules which I'll only forget anyway? Hell yeah* Is that man spot on about too much tedious detail? Hell yeah Al * Plus I like the look of what SQs turning into and there's less to remember so if I do run with d100s it'll be with that and any rulesmods for BRP will be no use to me anyway

Making the effect of a successful Taunt or Intimidate a Hard Parry or Dodge by victim seems a good combination of BRP RAW and Savage intent. (If your comment about effect being too mild was directed at the Survival Guide I posted remember that is for Pendragon which uses a d20 not d100 so +-5 or +-10 is severe there, but would of course be trivial in BRP) A point to remember Savage Worlds has two levels of success Success Raise BRP has three (as written) Success Special Critical So 'we' would need to take that into account. i.e. Taunt Success victim's Parries and Dodges next round/turn to act are all HARD Special as above and they lose their Attacks next round/turn to act Critical victim loses next chance to Attack, Parry or Dodge FWIW I'd prefer something like matching Orate vs. Pow x5 for a Taunt/Intimidate Al

I'd love to claim credit but I nicked it from David Dunham's PenDragon Pass rules. I THINK that he originally called them stunts and then changed to Feats after D&D3 was released. But I maybe rationalising my anti-D20tm bias! I think that it's great as its a simple umbrella rule which allows for lots of different narrated effects. Al

Wussy answer: It depends. On GM, Players, mix of Players, venue, system, plot, style of game for example I like 6 as a an absolute maximum. I personally prefer 4. I've run with 8 who were prepared to share spotlight time. But I played in a long Dragon Warriors campaign as one of 15 players. It worked fine. The plot was simple, the fights needed lots of peeps in the party and we were all (most of the time) happy to shut up and let one person talk at a time. Al

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IS PRETTY MUCH ALL OPINION WITH BUGGER ALL IN THE WAY OF FACTS TO BACK THEM UP I have used Japanese terms out of shear laziness. Please insert Cantonese, Danish, Greek, French, Korean, Latin, Mandarin, Min, Wu equivalents as necessary. Martial Arts = Oriental Romans with Gladius 'one inch of tip is worth any amount of edge' ooh er missus, fnah, fnah or alternatively Martial Arts maybe have been developed West of Suez <Insert previous blather about occidental schools dying out and Korean Toxophilly reigning supreme> Dichotomy between Dojo and Street. This is all pretty much a modern phenomenon. Us pampered Westerners can avoid physical violence in day-to-day life. A Professional Warrior (Samurai, Hoplite, Housecarl, Gladiator, Legionnaire et al) would have had dojo training AND day-to-day experience. There are people today who train in modern dojos who also do fighting prior to or alongside training as well. Some dojo training is more realistic than others Thug would own Martial Artist Hmm maybe. Although I'm forever being emailed a videoclip of a young man walking his partner through a park, getting jumped by two oiks and then unleashing a fury of pugilism. Maybe reference the point above. Repertoire of Secret Techniques Hmm maybe. And/Or a Kata is a sequence of moves which might be learned as a physical memory response to a situation. And/Or Training removes the need to learrn everything from scratch. Pete's groovy skill/10 as damage roll capped by weapon max Ooh that's clever I like that. I'd probably double the numbers (off the top of ma swede) My current preferred BRP-stylie Martial Arts rule Elric! When you hit 101% wit Brawl skill you add +1d3 to unarmed and Cestus damage My current preferred modification When any Melee (Weapon) skill hits 101% add 1 extra damage die Axe 101% Great Axe 2d6+1d6+2+db Pole Axe 3d6+1d6+db Brawl 101% Unarmed 1d3+1d3+dB, Cestus 1d3+2+1d3+dB Sword 101% Katana 1d10+1d10+1+dB; No-Dachi 2d8+1d8+dB Super Ninja Death rule Elric! also had 'Impales' on a natural roll of 01. I want really stupidly high skills to have a benefit so I changed that to skill/100 (with a minimum of 01 if skill is 100 or less) Since I already (through laziness really) use the SBIII style skill/10 double damage and ignore armour critical though, the Elric! Impale aren't no use so I make it 'victim is dead or KOd at victor's discretion' X Rule is more realistic No it bloody isn't! Realism and RPG rules go together like The Sun and Journalistic Integrity. 'About right' 'sort of believable' and 'not complete loose stool water' are about as much as we can aim for.* Al

Did you not? Fair point then. Ah I see, I inverted the argument you were making. I do think that a Master would get more benefit from using a No-Dachi than a Sai. As striking with perfect timing with the No-Dachi is going to involve more Force, Mass, (and possibly )Pressure than with the Sai He certainly killed a lot of people with his Bokken. According to his own book. The No-Dachi was not widely used. Why not I know not for sure. Although I could guess. Assume (correctly) for a second that I am too lazy to check my book, is there an entry for Bokken? Off-the-cuff I'd have given it 1d6 (+1d6) but that does not materially affect your argument! That certainly has merit. Going back to your Bokken dilemna one would expect 'non-existent-romanticised-perfect musashi' to get a bigger bonus than 'real musashi' than 'average kenjutsu sensei' than 'joe slicer-dicer'. Whether that would be best addressed by fiddling with the Martial Arts rules not so sure. Al

Deep breath Al, deep breath I very much disagree with a lot of this. Boxing/Pugilism is a Martial Art. The various (and there was lots) of schools of Broadsword fighting was Martial Arts. 'Martial Arts' = chop socky is not universally true. What has happened is that Oriental schools of Martial Arts have stayed alive whilst (most) Occidentals have died or marginalised. For ex. the majority of international Toxophilly (Archery) coaches are Korean. Coz the culture of Archery (and payment from state to study it) is alive and well in S Korea. Don't mean that no one in the West ever learned how to shoot in a Bow. The No-Datchi is a heavy weapon, so is the Tetsubo. I've seen Sensei use a Bo as quickly as an oik uses a pair of escrima. It are not universally true that Martial Arts weapons are small and light. A lot of the weapons we* think of as being 'Martial Arts' weapons Sai, Kami, Tonfa, Nunchuka, et al (those weapons whose use is suffixed with the Okinawan Te rather than home islands Jutsu or Do) are peasant's weapons. Developed from agricultural tools to allow the invaded to have some method of fighting armed Samurai. They have specific techniques to cope with someone using an inherently better weapon. I do not believe for a second that a Sai wielded by a Master would be more of a NinjaMegasaurus than a Bokken or Katana wielded by a Master. But WTF do I know? Al * with 'we' being sufficiently loosely defined for me to be able to use this phrase as suits me.

Following a discussion on pitfalls in BRP and how to avoid them http://basicroleplaying.com/forum/basic-roleplaying/1083-things-watch-out-2.html Harshax asked whether we could work on a BRP translation of the Savage Worlds Survival Guide. The original guide may be found here Pinnacle Entertainment Group Downloads Essentially it is a very clear, explicit description of the different options which players have in combat. (This even more important in Savage Worlds than you think as vanilla SW combat makes the association of drying paint watchers look like dangerous, exciting mavericks) I have uploaded BRP Central - Downloads - COMBAT Survival Guide a PenDragon style version of these as some sort of starting point. I now declare this mini-project open. Although I have no power to enforce this nor right to insist I would suggest that we stick as closely as possible to RAW and if necessary extrapolations of the RAW using the same BRP principle sin order to maximise utility for maximum number of players. Al

Sure Pinnacle Entertainment Group Downloads You want the link 'Combat Survival Guide (By Paul Casper)' Al

Done Its in the 'Gamesmastering' section. I also nicked Atgxtg's comments on combat deadliness and cellotaped them on. Al

There's a definite sweet spot with RQ games where the Characters are skilled enough to avoid a Clouseauesque comedy errors in combat but also short of being almost guaranteed a success (or a Special success) on every roll. (I have much less experience with Level-based games but is suspect that the same is also true there) I have been cornered by very dull people droning on with an adenoidal whine about their WereRat Magus Harley-Davidson Rider or Dreamlands Investigator with 02 SAN because of all of the pacts and Mythos knowledge they have or their Level 20 Paladin/Assassin/Magic-user Beholder with seven 18s or their Dr ManHattan-Wolverine clone. But there is also a genitalia-size boasting trap from the low-powered-games-really-make-you-suffer-for-your-art-and-marks-a-REAL-roleplayer crowd. WTF any of the above has to do with the original post is beyond me but this place is cheaper than professional therapy. Al

Um sortof SBIII flavoured Criticals are double damage and ignore armour which makes them more powerful than RQIII/newBRP Specials and potentially more powerful than Crits in the same systems. Certainly having a more granular system for crits (having more 'levels of success') CAN add to the game (I've used 5 different levels in the past). Both making resolution of the combat (as opposed to resolution of the roll) quicker and the game more funnerer. And once internalised by everyone at the table they are just as quick as having 1/10th equals critical. However if 1/5 and 1/20 are not internalised then (unless you are the sort of super-organised GM who has slots for Special and Critical for all skills on the character sheet and you do not use any kind of modifier) the (fairly simple) functional Maths and explanations thereof does interrupt narrative flow. It is very tempting to say that dividing by 5 or 20 is easy 'you just divide by ten and then double or halve' and that is true as far as it goes. However it does add an extra step. Not a difficult step for sure but a step nonetheless. Summary Campaign games and other games where people have invested time in internalising the rules Rosen's advice for using the Specials and Crits is spot on. One-off or very infrequent games 'tis less clear cut. Al

Starting chances in skills are LOW. This can lead to a real comedy of errors. Have an idea of what skills players have boosted (easier if you did pregens!) this will show you what they are interested in and also have a chance of succeeding. There are lots of available skills Linked to the above. If I have put all of my Personal Pool of skill points into Arts and there is no chance to test them then do not be surprised if next time I create a combat monster to better cope with the challeneges which you pose for me. There are lots of potential modifiers Let the players have an idea of what they are. 'Ah ha so even though I have no Shortsword skill I can default to half of my Mace skill? And attacking from behind adds this much, ganging up this much, from higher ground this much; now I can make an intelligent decision rather than throwing my dice out of the pram at having no chance to succeed or giving up and letting the Big Bad take over the world' You might also find it EASIER to choose either ONLY multipliers (half, double, triple skill, etc) or linear (+10, +20, etc) rather than combine both and get bord of the Mathematics. Finding Clues about the world It is very easy to ask for a 'Spot' or 'Listen' roll to find a vital clue. (I mean clue in the broadest sense, not just finding the footprints of the Butler what killed the scullery maid but also the Hellhound padding around just around the corner) But what happens if they all fail?! Do you then allow an Idea roll. And if that fails a Luck roll? In which case with that many second chances they obviously needed the information so badly that you should probably just have given it to them! Or do you just with hold a vital piece of info? IMMOO there should be a bare minimum piece of information which anyone who does not fumble will get and then juicier tidbits for those who do succeed (or special or critical) Vanilla BRP combat is dullsville Some of the spot rules make it much more fun. The Savage Worlds fan community have created a combat survival guide suggesting different strategies and cool rules to make use of if slugging it out is not working. If you have time hunt it down and reformat the combat spot rules in a similar manner. BRP Combat can be deadly It really can. So make sure that NPCs are prepared to surrender, ransom or run away and that PCs know that they can too. There are lots of different Powers For the first game just choose 1 (or even none) to avoid having to guess what the interactions will be. There are some very bright and very BRP-savvy GMs on these forums who have not yet unearthed all of the possible combinations and complications. Don't expect to be able to yourself straight off the bat. FWIW Sorcery looks simplest. Renaming it makes it suitable for most settings. Of course I ran Elric! games for a long time so I may be confusing my familiarity with simplicity. Character Creation takes time Even with the marvellous double-page spread aide memoire it is time-consuming. That is fine if you want players to have control of their alter egos and see it as a price worth paying but just be aware. Two slightly more general points but might be of use if you are running your first game with a system. Referring to the rulebook is weak and slows play Let the PCs know that you are not going to do it. That you will make fair judgment calls. But that AFTER THE GAME you will be happy to talk them through with players and so maybe change what you would do NEXT TIME. Players who throw hissy fits are boring So do not invite them and don't accept it at the table All of the above quite clearly correct and needing no qualification or justification. Al

Not by choice but coz its the first one what I learned and so what my poor addled brain falls back on. The Old Stormbringer version of 10% of skill. I used to flit between lots of alternatives when running a (too) long campaign some years back, but any BRP games which I run now are at a club where we have lots of different systems so players and I all find 1/10th easiest to remember and use. Al

I use it. Have loved it since first seeing in Elric! I see it the other way. The personality skills are what a character is good at / interested in separate and independent from their parents and upbringing. It doesn't quite sit right with me how many skills are common to two or more of the personality types. Having said that I've never managed to come up with a better one and the catchall customised option means that I do not really need to. Al

HALF-Melniboneans, surely? TAXI! Al

Partly I don't agree and neither does my pigeon but we might be wrong Sort of. If we are looking for very different things from a combat system then we may well not reach common ground. But I've previously argued for or against X on forums and later on the counter argument has been useful/made more sense to me No they ain't and I get very twitchy over the use of the word 'realism' in discussing RPG rules. 'Believable' or 'not immediately obviously complete bollocks' are as close as aim for now. But there are LOTS of ways to achieve 'Believable' or 'not immediately obviously complete bollocks' Al