Chaot

10 hours ago, jux said:

In BRP you can only advance a skill and in this example it would be something that represent sword fighting, but it would be cool if you could open up new "levels"/powers for gear as well.

There's always Lucky Trinkets, Heirlooms and Named Items!

Hoody Hoo!

Edit to add:  Got the pdf.  Kobolds on Giant Bats.  Nice!

T&T is my second love.  Here's an interesting bit about combat stunts.

http://www.tunnelsandtrolls.com/articles/daretodarosavingrolls.shtml

I think that Wealth Levels and coin tracking are both reasonable approaches, it's just that's not what I''m into right now.  I could see using a more structured system in the future, especially if the game involved reconstructing an estate or something like that.

Side note, I like to watch new players pick gear and compare it to old players picking gear.  Not to generalize too much but It's usually shock followed by passing greed and then a real evaluation of what their character would likely have.  Once a player made a pirate.  I put the book in front of her and told her to outfit her character.  She was surprised and wanted to see how far she could push it so she said that she was taking a pirate ship.  I asked her how many crew members were on board.  She thought a minute and said she didn't want to start with the ship, she would work towards one in game.  I admit, I was a little disappointed she didn't take the ship.

I've stopped caring about it, kind of, because I realized that as a GM the wealth level of the PCs doesn't stop me from presenting whatever challenges I want, it just changes their options and motivations.  When I'm a PC I find that I've been frustrated because I had some goals that required money to achieve and I never seems to get there.  So I keep that stuff pretty hand wavy.

At character generation I give them their starting money and then I give them an equipment list (usually it's the '...And A Ten Foot Pole' book from RoleMaster).  I tell them to take whatever they reasonably think their character would have.  I haven't had anyone be unreasonable yet and if it happens I'll just ask them to revise their list a little.  During a storyline (for lack of a better term) gameplay revolves around what's on the sheet and what the PCs can earn/find/steal/beg/borrow.  Between storylines, when there's a bunch of downtime of the characters, I ask how much they spend/make and how they do it.  Again, my players have been pretty reasonable.  They get to be empowered regarding their storyline and character and I get to take whatever they come up with and use it in game or not depending if it hooks me.

It comes in part from wanting wizards to be able to participate in challenges against each other that occur in fiction.  To do Mim and Merlin your casters would have to be throwing around a bunch of shape changing spells, which is unlikely.  To do Price and Karloff they would have to have a bunch of conjuring spells, also unlikely.  This sticks particularly because those two contests are really contests of wit, not really power.  Wrapping it all up in a ritual game hand waves that whole bit and allows it to happen.  Plus, it has built in stakes so that INT check is earned.

I do agree that there are other ways. I'll add simple INT stat training in.  I believe there are rules for it in the Elric! rulebook but I'd have to check.

On March 10, 2016 at 7:18 AM, tooley1chris said:

Me and the good Mr. Monroe had a conversation about this when Deep Magic came out in Advanced Sorcery. Mages rely on INT to gain new glyphs but how do you raise INT?

A battle of wits, winning strategy games such as chess. Exercising your PCs brain in a library. Not cannon but logical. 

There's a spell that I want to write up for both magic and sorcery, thinking of calling it something like Wizard's Venture or Margery Gambit for magic and something else for sorcery.  It's basically a gambling/gaming spell.  It involves the two wizard parties and (at least) an additional third party as an observer.  The wizards agree to a wager and the third party approves.  They then enter into a wizard's duel that pits INT v INT.  It's kind of like the duel between Karloff and Price in The Raven or Mim and Merlin in Sword In The Stone, only it takes place in the mage's minds and the third parties get to observe.  Wizard games basically.

The sorcery version would be similar, the difference being that I kind of think the wizards bargain 'things/possessions' while the sorcerers bargain obligations.  A sorcerer's duel is more like making a pact with a sorcerer for them to do a specific task for you.

Of course, the real purpose is offering an interesting in game reason for allowing the PCs to raise their INT.  

On February 7, 2016 at 4:13 PM, smiorgan said:

I must say I much prefer the old Elric! rules for INT-space to the updated MW rules. 

I agree, however if one wanted to compromise they could rule one INT space per 8 POW a demon has.  That's slightly more forgiving.

When it's time for actions, players will often stop and study their character sheet, which slows things down and tends to make their responses less creative.  Encourage them to just call out actions without worrying too much about their skills.  Only call for rolls when it makes the game exciting.

On March 7, 2016 at 0:43 PM, tooley1chris said:

It will be both a random generation of items using charts and dice, and a large list of random pregenerated items that would be more common. 

I have some notes that you might use about player created enchantments.  I'll send them to you this weekend if you want them.

16 hours ago, Mankcam said:

I did trim the skill list a bit, but not overly so, I found the skill structure in OQ to be reasonable and not overwhelming for my lads. We use OQ Basic, so all magic is Basic/Battle Magic and I just rule that if you are a Wizard you can choose Spells whereas everyone else gets those powers as 'potions' so once used they are gone. It works pretty well so far, and I used the advice from the full OQ rules on how to make up Specialist Warriors and Wizards and just went with that.

I have OQ Deluxe and just tool a look at it again.  It's good.  I might be modeling some stuff off of it, like using it to guide trimming the skill list and maybe it's approach to combat skills.  Two things I want to do is adjust the professions list so that they sound more heroic than shopkeeper and open up Sorcery/Magic so that you don't have to get 16 Pow/Int to use it.  I want to trim down the spell lists to some basic starter spells that they can use to help define their characters and leave the other spells for special in-game events.  I will reserve summonings and creating magic staves/wands etc to characters with 16 in Pow/Int.  I'll probably do something similar to you with potions/scrolls because consumables are fun!

12 hours ago, wombat1 said:

Also, the world building material, which simplifies my life tremendously.

I love world building material, especially when I can draw from it at random.  I find most campaign history stuff to be dull, rarely impacting actual play to any great extent.  I'm more excited by the ideas and connections that come up during play.  I was just poking around to see if I had C&S.  I thought I did, but I can't seem to find it.  Didn't C&S have a thing where character creation was impacted by a star chart?

I voted BRP but it's really Elric! with bits and pieces added every time.

Not running anything right now sadly.  Haven't found time for it.

I would like to run a game I'm just calling Monster World using Elric! as the base rules with combat styles from RQ6, Magic from BGB and Classic Fantasy and a few other bits here and there.  The big gimmick is that we throw balance to the side and use Tooley's Big Book of Monsters to role up characters.  Otherwise it's a straight forward high fantasy game (but, like, the king is a beholder and his advisor is an intelligent strain of green slime).  We've got characters made but haven't had time for an actual session.

I've been meaning to start up a game with my kids too.  Something to do with them for a few hours on the weekend.  I got them hooked with Hero Kids but I think it's time to move to BRP with a shorter skill list and pictures.

On March 3, 2016 at 2:51 PM, wombat1 said:

Began a new fantasy campaign on Saturday, for the moment using the big gold book with bits and bobs out of  Chivalry and Sorcery,

What are you using from C&S?

I like it.  Are there stages of being wounded or is it 'one and done'?

Just seeing this thread and I'm posting here so I can find the thing again.  It's got me thinking.

How did the Maneuvers work out for you pansophy?  Did you end up expanding your list?

For spells?  It was like Elric!  I'll look tomorrow to confirm but I'm sure.

Love it.

I'm sorely tempted but can't commit right now.  If a position at the table opens up this summer though I might reevaluate.  Have fun!

Excellent review Outsiders!

Big Damn Book of Monsters

Ok people, go out and download this right now.  I'll wait...

Got it?  Ok, open it up... 448 pages! Yes, amazing.  How many critters?  By my very quick count estimate?  Five hundred and ninety one.  Yes, 591.  This thing is fantastic.  Well done sir, well done.

Edit: To add.  One of the neat things about the pdf is the special abilities translations Chris did.  Figuring out how to represent some weird power is one of the fun things, I find, when translating D&D into BRPisms.  Chris did a wonderful job on these.

13 hours ago, SDLeary said:

The "damage" was then opposed by CON (don't remember the multiple but I think it was x1) on the Resistance table. The results of a successful roll would vary depending upon location hit; arms, weapon dropped, head, KO, etc. Armor did count.

Interesting.  I don't use hit locations but I'm tempted to try this out using weapon damage v hit points on the resistance table.

Things I've done in my game.  After a successful grapple the attacker can try to choke the opponent unconscious using the Drowning spot rule.  Each round attacker must succeed with grapple and opponent makes progressive Con checks to stay conscious.

Using Major Wounds there's always the possibility that someone might pass out during a fight if they lose half or more of their hit points.  I add a death countdown that is measured by negative hit points as well.  Depending on the game I usually set this at the character's Con or at half the character's Con.  Once hit points reach zero the countdown begins.  The character is unconscious and near death but can be stabilized with a Physik check.  

A 3rd!?  Man, now you're just getting greedy.

The nice thing is there are so many BRP genre books now you can pick what you want and strip out/adapt the rules to your preferred poison.

I think in a very real way that story is something that comes after a roleplaying session.  Anything in the GM's head does't exist until it hits the table, then there are going to be as many different versions of it as people at the table.

The point that mechanics play a role in how the story develops is valid.  If you've got three games set in Arthur's court and one is Pendragon, one is Wushu and one Savage Worlds these stories are going to look different.

As for D&D being a boardgame, early D&D at least encourages PCs to role-play and think.  If you don't approach a problem sideways you'll end up with a TPK.

I've tracked individual wounds in Elric!  They received their own Physik rolls and healed at their own rate.  Still a HP system and not quite what we're talking about here.

So I guess the answer is no.