Chaot

Put this man to work!

Dude's a genius.

On 3/10/2017 at 7:01 AM, Conrad said:

If you're not looking at spending too much cash, then OQ is the fantasy rpg. May I also recommend Crucible of Dragons, which is a setting for OQ that you could get lots of mileage out of.  https://d101games.com/books/openquest/crucible-of-the-dragons/ 

Oops. It looks like I just 'accidentally' bought the book and pdf! (discounted right now at $18)

Guess I'll just have to sit by my front door and wait for the mailman.

I actually don't think there was ever a pdf made and distributed for Corum.  It was produced right before that really took off.

I let POW be trained like other stats.  I also handle experience a little different.  I give 'experience points,' about 4-5 per session.  These can be banked or used to increase either stats or skills.  No increase chance for skills, they increase either by the average or by point die roll.  For stats you need the stat points +1.  If a character has a POW of 15 they would need 16 points to increase their POW to 16.  If they had a POW of 17 they would need 18 points.  Works well enough.

I'm more familiar with the spell lists from MERPS but I absolutely love them.  There was  an Elemental Paths system in Runequest Elric stuff that I wanted to use with elemental spell lists tagged on.  Haven't had a chance to do it yet.

I like to track in such a way to make bookkeeping simple and combat flow quick. If I don't have some sort of metric though, I feel that I run the risk of making a whole scene become arbitrary. I feel this takes away from the successes of the players. I run a very fine line between prep and improv and will often be quizzed afterwards about whether certain section of the adventure was preplanned or winged. I try not to pull back the veil too much but I like to let players occasionally know that they had a great idea and we went with it.  I also like to let them know when they accomplished something on their own terms.  Sometimes this centers around combat. If I'm going to write a figure down, then I'm going to stick with it and see how the story plays out.

That being said, one benefit with minion rules is that players notice when I'm asking them whether they hit versus how much damage they did.  As soon as I ask for damage dice they know that they are in a potentially dangerous fight.

The only spell in there that's really dangerous is Summon Demon.  I'd let the players choose whatever spell they think fits and have them come up with a back story on how they learned that spell.  Maybe it's just my players but the spells are usually so specifically focused on one effect that my players generally forget that they have them.

I have always just run it as something like Sorcerer's Talons would take up 4 INT spots.  You can cast it however many times and at whatever power level you want.

Charles Green has published material similar, first in Gods of Law and then expanded upon in Dragon Lines.  I've been running games like this since Gods of Law and love it.  My NPCs fall into three categories: Minion/Mooks like in this article, Regular NPCs and Important NPCs.

Regular NPCs is just a step up from a minion.  The only things I write down is Dex, Hit Points, armor and damage, 1-3 skills that are most important to the NPC, Magic Points and Spells if necessary.  Saves me a ton of time that I can better spent elsewhere.

If the NPC becomes really important, he or she then gets a full write up.

Welcome you two.  I don't go as far back as you but my first and strongest D&D love is the Rules Cyclopedia.  Have you two any experience with BRP types of games?  They are typically percentile based and some of the big names in the field are Call of Cthulhu, Runequest and Stormbringer.  There is a thriving community of games around the D100.  It's mostly what we talk about here.  Look around and see what you like.

I've often thought there should be a play by post forum here although I will be the first to admit that I'm generally terrible at play by post.  

As I said over in the reddit thread, Devil's Gulch, Aces High and the Cakebread and Walton stuff for steampunk.

Howdy!

Now get back to work!

1 hour ago, tooley1chris said:

If my labors of love helped make anyones game more enjoyable then I'm one happy guy.

I say without reservation that you are an inspiration and your work is a huge addition to the BRP community!

1 hour ago, Darmath said:

Not sure what you meant by this?

It means that CT will publish.  It think it's a great idea.

On July 21, 2016 at 0:22 PM, ColinBrett said:

My son has just expressed an interest in GMing a Pokemon campaign. Do you mind if I borrow the rules you've posted already and pass them on for him to use?

You may use any and all of it.  I fleshed some more stuff out and we've played around with it a little, but with Pokémon Go out I feel like I've made the system too complex!

Thank goodness for Sentinels of the Multiverse.  I'm traveling and did not bring some of my conversion notes so I've relaxed on writing up abilities.  SotM has kept us very busy though.

So, I think I'm going to track battle points for the pokémon.  These can then be spent to increase abilities.  I've put together a chart that is similar to the Demon Table and set up so that it can be used to randomize pokémon a little bit and be used to tell how many battle points are needed to increase an ability.

So, one of the issues I'm running into.  I want this to be up and running by tomorrow...  ...oops.  On a positive note, I think the basic mechanics are hammered out.  I've a start on translating abilities.  I have this.

I've got half of the pokémon advancement down.  I think once I get more of the abilities translated and I have a wider look at what I'm getting myself into I will be in better shape.

7 hours ago, Mankcam said:

If you're making your own character sheet and after simplicity, then you could always make the game Characteristic focused and use the CoC 7E skill levels as a guide: (crit =01, Extreme = 1/5, Hard = 1/2, Regular = full score, fumble = 00).

Hmmmmm.... maybe, maybe...  four skills that are largely static but vary depending how difficult the task is...  

I've already decided to drop sailing, drive and ride from the skill list.  I don't see a reason to make characters develop three skills (or why it would be necessary to differentiate between the skills) and I couldn't think on a good name that incorporates all three of them.

I think I would just have three, Easy, Regular, Hard.  I was thinking about using Unknown Armies doubles rule.  If you roll a success and it's also a double it's a critical.  If you roll a failure and it's a double it's a fumble.  It's funny.  I'm sure if you dig deep enough you can find me ranting someplace about how much I hate dice tricks.

I also can't believe I left some sort of Hero point system out.  That must be in there.  So I think I may be dropping the regular skill list.  The only skills will be the main four and the Pokémon Trainer skill and Pokémon Type skills.  I like how that shifts the emphasis away from the PC a bit and more towards the PC's minions.

Now I have to start doing some translating of abilities and figure out how Will figures into it.  Side note on Will, I renamed it to Resolve on the sheet.  

21 hours ago, TRose said:

 I would consider the Pokémon as bound Demons except they are not trying to eat the Pokémon masters and you have to capture them instead of summoning them. But that just me.

I love demons and use them a lot, but it's more tracking than I want to do with this game.

20 hours ago, auyl said:

My initial thoughts are to have them have certain skill increases to a certain point. Once they reach that point, have them roll against their POW on the resistance table to see if they evolve. This depends on the type of Pokémon and what their key attacks and abilities are. Once they get to that level, you add the evolution sort of like a d20 template on top of the Pokémon. You might want to invest or find a Pokémon guide from the Gameboy, DS and 3DS games so you can go through what all the evolutions are. Some of these critters evolve more than once so you might have to create multiple evolution levels.

I like it.  I've dropped POW but I think I'll tie the chance to evolve into the Trainer's [Pokemon] Type skill.  When I introduce the pokemon I'll jot down the minimum scores needed to evolve.

I do have my daughter's pokemon guidebook but it's many years out of date by this point.  I will have to pick up another.

So, this morning I've been cobbling together a character sheet.  No place near done, but I've hammered out some skills.  Not set on them but it's a start.

Pokemon Training (kind of looking for a new name for this)
Art/Craft
Athletics
Bargain
Build Gizmo
Driving (I might take this out because it seems that Trainers tend to walk a lot but I do remember seeing Team Rocket in various vehicles.)
Healing (thinking about renaming)
Perception
Performance
Riding
Sailing
Trickery

I want to keep the list short and I'm not sure if I'm missing something important.  I'm purposely not giving Trainers a fighting skill.  If they mix it up in combat they'll need to make a Muscle roll or a Dodge roll to get out of there.

Thinking about dice tricks and having just read CoC7...

Maybe for pokemon strength and weakness I'll just use flip flopping from Unknown Armies.  If a pokemon is strong against another type it gets to flip it's roll so that if the player rolls a 5 and a 2 the result is 25.  If it is weak against the opposing pokemon it is a 52.

Maybe a success with the Pokemon Trainer skill gives the pokemon a bonus die a la CoC7.

Maybe the Pokemon Type skill is rolled against to improve your pokemon's abilities and determine whether they evolve.

22 hours ago, Mankcam said:

That time again. Gee it comes around quick mate 

Quick enough, brother.  Quick enough.  (That was a tough school year, which is also why I haven't been around here as much recently.)

So, here's what I'm thinking as a stat block for a trainer.  I've taken some liberties.  These are not because I'm worried kids can't handle long stat blocks but because I would rather deemphasize the typical seven as individually important.  These are tied into attribute rolls like normal BRP, but I've changed them around a little bit.  Characters are created by distributing a 10, 12, 14, and 16 to each stat.  Two stat points can be moved, leaving a trainer with a minimum possible score of 8 and a maximum of 18.

Strong x5 = Muscle %
Fast x5 = Dodge %
Smart x5 = Idea %
Smooth x5 = Fast Talk %

Combining Strong and Fast will give you the character's Hit Points.
Combining Smart and Smooth will give you the character's Will.  (I haven't set on a name for this yet so am calling it Will.  I will change the name as soon as I figure out how exactly it interacts with the trainer's pokemon.  It is there to augment the pokemon's efforts in battle.)

Skill
I have to list these yet.  It will be a short list.  I will probably include some freeform skills that the players make up in here too.

Pokemon Trainer Skills
This is a special list of skills very important for the aspiring trainer.  The first skill in the list is the Pokemon Trainer skill.  It is used during a pokemon battle to give your pokemon an edge by coaching it on it's next move and encouraging the wee little beastie.  Following that is the pokemon type skills.  These increase when you succeed in a battle with that pokemon type and when you study that pokemon type out in the wild.  There are a lot of pokemon type skills, which is why you, as a pokemon trainer, want to walk everyplace you go.  Bump into a new pokemon, fill in your pokedex and bump up your type skill.  I also might give the battling pokemon a small bonus if the trainer's skill in that type is high.  Hence why Misty sticks with Water pokemon and Brock sticks with Rock.

Normal
Fire
Water
Electric
Grass
Ice
Fighting
Poison
Ground
Flying
Psychic
Bug
Rock
Ghost
Dragon
Dark
Steel
Fairy

So let's look at Pokemon themselves.  I want to keep them short.  I sat down and noodled out what I thought I would need.  This is the result/

Pokemon Name, Pokemon Type, Defense Value, Hit Points, Energy
Ability 1, success %, damage, effect, cost
Ability 2, success %, damage, effect, cost
etc
Strong Against: +20%, +damage
Weak Against: -20%, -damage

I think this covers everything except evolving.  I have to nail down the mechanics on how the ability % and damage are increased.  I may even allow the ability cost to decrease as the pokemon gains experience.  Those are the bones.

22 hours ago, Mankcam said:

If you can get away with stating up the Pokemons as just their powers and HP then I reckon that's all you'll need.

I'ld just consider all Pokemon characteristics are automatically within normal range (no need to record their values, they would be 9-11), and just use descriptors like 'small' 'large' 'quick' etc to indicate which characteristics are outside of those norms, and which Skills/Powers to list for the Pokemons. That way you could almost emulate those Pokethulhu cards, which would allow for quick conversion.

It shouldn't be too hard...

Much of my thoughts too.  If a pokemon is really quick or has a quality that really stands out I might just throw it in as an ability.

22 hours ago, Mankcam said:

If you have Pulp Cthulhu you could easily rebrand the pulp archetypes with the names for the archetypes you listed

I actually do not have it.  It was vapor ware for so long I don't think I actually realized that it was published!  What are the archetype names in Pulp Cthulhu, out of curiosity?

22 hours ago, auyl said:

Wow, my mind is already spinning with ideas for this. But just to add to the above, you could also add in stats at which they have a chance to evolve. When they evolve they may become weaker for a bit but will get better than the upper levels than its previous state. Of course pokemon are known to do this more than twice so it's really about how far you want to take it.

I really need to figure this bit out here.  I think the kids would tear me apart if I didn't have some sort of way to evolve their pokemon.  Any ideas how to institute it?  Ideally I would like to hit on a method that keeps player's like Ash happy (with his never evolving but still viable pikachu) while allowing pokemon to evolve in a manner that's faithful to the shows.

I am also at a disadvantage here because I have not actually played a pokemon game or really watched an episode.  Everything that I know is through osmosis, from it being on in the background and from reading about it.

10 hours ago, Mankcam said:

Another tip on playing with kids is to import the Bonus/Penalty Dice option from CoC 7E to replace the numerical modifiers in OpenQuest or BRP BGB.

It will be in the free CoC 7E Quickstart if you don't have the full edition of CoC 7E.

It ports across cleanly, its quick with no maths involved, and it adds a fun gamist touch that kids and newbies enjoy.

I find my kids tend to create colourful cinematic situatons just to give themselves the advantage of using the bonus dice, so it is much more flavoursome than the standard dry numerical modifiers.

Additionally its simple if you ever want to add a Talents system - you just pick a talent concept, then add a bonus dice to whichever skills that talent is enhancing for a particular situation.

This sounds great!  I don't have CoC7 either...

I have not, but it seems like a great little world to run around in.  Do a once over on the spell list to remove the really powerful ones from easy access to PCs.  Make sure any PC using summoning has to do some really unpleasant stuff to get results.  Hit the ground full tilt.

New York schools go long into summer.  However, my kids will be free on the 28th, as will I.  I promised them a Pokemon game and it's time to deliver.  So now I'm presented with a tiny little challenge... how am I going to do Pokemon with BRP?

First are the trainers.  I'm grabbing the Character Archetypes from Grimm; The Bully, The Dreamer, The Jock, The Nerd, The Normal Kid, The Outcast, The Popular Kid.  I'll be cutting a bunch of the skills out and renaming some.  Probably look at OpenQuest for that.  Two things that will be added.  First is a Pokemon Trainer skill that acts like a Command [Battlefield] skill.  The second is some sort of Pokemon Trainer willpower attribute (which may just end up being POW).  The command skill will help determine how well a pokemon battles and the trainer's willpower will act as some sort of bonus ability to keep the pokemon in the battle.

Next up, the pokemon themselves.  I bounce back and forth between stating all the wee beasties up or just listing them as powers on the Trainer's Sheet.  The Pokethulhu game does a good job of boiling the essence of a pokemon down to a few attributes.  Regardless, I want to create a cheat sheet that lets me look at a pokemon card and quickly convert it.

Ideas, encouragement and even neigh sayers are welcome.  I'll likely post my results here.

On June 2, 2016 at 3:42 AM, Krister Sundelin said:

If it gets translated, I will push for keeping the title "Järn". Metal umlauts and all.

Also, woo! My first post here! Hello everyone! Nice to meet you all!

Welcome Krister!

What is the likelihood of a translation?