Chaot

I love sorcery and summoning and have used it a lot with Elric!/SB5/Corum. I started rewriting it to address some issues I have with summoning, both to streamline it and de-emphasize the how effective item binding is.

As far as spells go, my players often forgot about them. They are generally very niche.

Summoning is insane and the best bang is binding into an item. I wanted to make pacts a more attractive option in gameplay. I did some streamlining and started doing a little balancing. As Mugan and Atgxtg says though, as it stands Summoning introduces a big power gap.

On 3/22/2023 at 1:01 PM, smiorgan said:

The original BRP version of Classic Fantasy had a magic system based on BRP Maagic. But then Classic Fantasy migrated to Mythras.

This is what I came to add. It was a neat system and you could level up your spells for different costs.

I honestly don't remember either. I thought he unleashed them and they got slaughtered. But maybe then he killed something else with his hand and it took their place?

I guess I just need to reread the chronicles....

I'm sorry this is a really specific question but I only vaguely remember and I can't find the information elsewhere.

As we know, basically put, the eye can see into worlds beyond where Corum's previously killed enemies wait for his call. The hand can gesture these minions to attack Corum's current enemies. Once defeated, the old minions are replaced by the new ones.

At one point though, I seem to remember that his ended minions did not survive and his pool of critters was now depleted.  I forget how he replenished this pool and it's driving me mad.

Can anyone help, or direct to the particular story?

You are too kind sir. I am but an avenue to adjectives and d00 rolls!

12 hours ago, g33k said:

Rather amusingly, the "ai" shows it doesn't actually have any understanding of what it's doing.

I've said the same about some favorite GMs....

I may have been accused of the same...

So, I know this is an oldish topic but I just saw it and wanted to point you towards Simon Lipscomb's RQ3 Dragonlance page!

https://web.archive.org/web/20060107112508/http://www.physiol.ox.ac.uk/~sl2/dl/dlmain.html

There are some real gems in his writeup, great myth write ups, and I particularly liked his take on the Towers of High Sorcery.

I will take a look at that too, Thanks AG. I might have to do less work than I thought.

On 2/25/2023 at 6:57 PM, g33k said:

I'm thinking you should look at RQG's "Passions" mechanics as a way to measure corruption/etc.

You're right, I should look at them again. I'm sightly familiar but it's been a while since I've read it. One thing I don't like about the systems that I've kinda leaned on (Call of Cthulhu and Unknown Armies) is the 'ok, now you're crazy. here's a list of crazy stuff' aspect. I've also looked at Afflictions from Darkest Dungeon as well as some stuff from other random games. But Passions seem to align pretty close to what I'm thinking about.

On 2/23/2023 at 5:16 AM, TheTallTom said:

I like Curse of Strahd for the most part, but the Vestiges are Dark Powers definitely got removed from my play of it!

I haven't run it but I think it's a great read. I may include some aspect of the vestiges if I ever run it but the idea that they EQUAL the dark powers is just silly to me. You go from this vast, cosmic horror to the vestiges. Just don't like it. I also felt that the soulless was unnecessary too.

Thank you for the vote of confidence on my current plans. Sometimes it's hard for me to decide what plays into the setting and what is a little too indulgent in my own tastes. 

I love reading stat blocks, but at my table it's usually Defense/HP, Attack/Damage, any special effects that I want.

If at some point I have to get into specifics, I just add it. Keeps it flexible.

Well, thanks. The fact that you're excited about it makes me want to work on it more. The goal is for these power systems to have a trade off. Like Mentalism. The character has trained their brain to an insane degree so as to be able to effect the world through sheer mental power. But this takes a toll on the person's body. Benign things have a minor effect on you; nausea, headaches, a few lost hit points. Major feats of Mentalism should come with the possibility of death if the character pushes too far.

Mesmerism is its own problem. It falls under the rules of Mentalism but even benign acts of mesmerism involves taking away a part of the subject's free will. This is definitely dark powers territory.

I don't go for the whole new 'the Vestiges are Dark Powers' thing that the new edition has. The vestiges are tools of the dark powers but the dark powers permeate the domains. They are far more than singular enemies with a singular personality that you bargain with. The main focus of the dark powers is temptation and corruption. I have a simple tally system to show how much the dark powers have taken an influence in a character. Blessings, boons, miracles and curses all fall within the dark power's domain. They specifically look to exploit character weakness to ensnare them in whatever cosmic game the dark powers are playing.

In the old literature, innocence was something that could stand against the dark powers. I've adapted this into something that I call Fortune instead. Fortune can be gained by selfless acts and helping people, and by standing against the forces of darkness.

My goal is to provide enough of a structure for the gm to use the dark powers as corrupting influence without being too overtly obvious and also providing enough support so the gm knows what sort of things might happen to a character when the character has attracted the dark powers' attention.

Thank you for the kind words! I have stuff in various states of completion right now. I haven't been running a game in Ravenloft so I only pick up the documents every once and a while.

My big push right now is the powers systems. I'm trying to find a happy medium of being streamlined, fitting the setting, and having different systems work slightly differently. 

The basic powers system break down into three categories. Mind Stuff, Magic Stuff, Weird Science Stuff. Then there's a separate Dark Powers Stuff that players don't have much control over. These systems will work fairly similarly so you're not going to have to remember a bunch of crazy rules. There will be a few differences though.

Those categories are broken into stuff like Mentalism/Mesmerism, Spiritualism/Summoning/Binding, Charms/Fetishes/Potions, Ritual Magic/Sorcery/Witch Craft, Miracles/Curses, etc. But it will ultimately look more like grouping 'spell/ability lists' by genre with a bit of overlap.

I'll see what I have that's presentable and maybe update my documents here.

Aas has been said over and over Elric! or Stormbringer 5th ed.

Sometimes I just want something. That when the old editions of Storbringer come out. I really only like them for one shots though (or, at least, very loosely strung together with lots of characters dying off).

Since it hasn't been mentioned yet, See Hwarmgaarl and Die is pretty effective at showing how crazy the Young Kingdoms can be. It goes from a simple diplomatic mission, to bad news to total chaos really quickly.

I've run it a couple of times and always had fun doing it.

Haven't seen any conversation here about current ai. I've played around with it to generate everything from bullet points to fleshed out scenarios as well as having it run me through short games.

One of the current things with the ai is that it is allergic to conflict. This will be a bonus if it decides to rise up and overthrow homo sapiens. 

If you look at the Elric! demon rules, Superworld, Simon Phipp's Runequest page or anything that Charles Green has written you'll see that BRP can do high fantasy.

I once read a description. GURPS is like lego blocks. BRP is like clay. I've run Call of Cthulhu games where everyone dies and Elric! games where a small band of adventures cut through an army.

D&D is its own thing. 

Charles Green is brilliant and he should be let loose to develop whatever he wants. He has an amazing ability to balance game mechanics with genre, while keeping everything simple.

Edit: Also, whoever is doing the edit on these interviews, stop adding in a cross fade. Just use a simple cut. Cross fades imply the passage of time. 

1 hour ago, DreadDomain said:

Sorry, I don't understand the question.

I said strike ranks to illustrate the fiddly bits of Mythras. I misspoke because it's been years since I've read the book. Hit locations, action points, and combat maneuvers is why I don't run Mythras at my table. I'm just not interested in tracking that stuff. Thus my preference.

Combat Styles was brilliant. The rest of it is unnecessary. At the end of the day I want a system that helps me tell a story. I really don't care if a die roll tells me if I hit someone in the right arm.

I'm a die hard brp fan and yet I haven't bought anything in years because there's nothing that is streamlined that interests me. I wish we in the brp community would get crazy again. I want the monographs back. I want people throwing things against the wall to see what is cool.

I don't want hit locations. Sorry, they never did anything for me.

On 9/18/2022 at 11:01 PM, Bilharzia said:

Strike Rank calculation! Sheesh you're telling me! Truly the bane of many a Mythras combat encounter. 

On 9/19/2022 at 4:53 AM, DreadDomain said:

Mythras never used strike ranks and even when its direct predecessors ...

Yes, yes, yes. Can we substitute action points for strike ranks and add in combat maneuvers?

The point is, if I'm looking for a generic fantasy rpg I want something fast and fun. I have no doubt Mythras is fun but it is not as elegant as Elric! or Magic World was. Seriously, Combat Styles was a stroke of genius compared to weapon types. No idea why it had to be muddied up with a bunch of other combat rules.

On 6/7/2022 at 7:51 AM, Bilharzia said:

Mythras and the Monster Island

They're good books, but they aren't a substitute. All those hit locations and strike ranks getting in the way of my fun.

 I use Pages because I tend to work on a mac. I have the adobe suite for video editing purposes though and I plan on taking a look at InDesign and Illustrator.

On 5/15/2022 at 11:23 PM, g33k said:

<ahem>

Paging @Chaot
@Chaot to the doomed courtesy telephone, please...

That's very kind of you to think of me g33k!

On 5/16/2022 at 1:07 PM, davewire said:

The game is an entire toolset on how to run horror mysteries and I think, with little work, Ravenloft can be run as an investigative scenario. The premise of original module follows a group traversing the halls of Castle Ravenloft, seeking a way to put an end to Strahd and escape the misty borders of Barovia whilst trying to avoid the eye and ire of its dread lord and maintain their composure. Searching for ways to survive a powerful entity that is beyond human means by arming one’s self with knowledge and discovering powerful artifacts is very CoC.

Yeah. I've been running games in the Domains of Dread on and off for years using BRP. If you do a search for BRP Ravenloft you'll see a bunch of random things I've written down.

I love it. I think it fits perfectly. Granted, I'm using Elric! as a base rules set so the characters are a bit more hearty than an Investigator but the concept is really strong. In fact, when Curse of Strahd first came out my impulse was to run it with CoC 6th edition. (I'm not really up to speed on 7th edition).

You're spot on here. The great thing about it is dropping all the crappy D&Disms and reimagining the scenario through CoC mechanics. Combat takes a back seat to conversation, exploration and planning. Strahd is also a great foil because the dude loves to hear himself talk. He's so much more powerful than the PCs that he has no problem toying with them. I think it's perfect for CoC.

I have Enlightened Magic and Liber Ka. I don't think these rules were integrated into that book. I actually vaguely remember going over them from the yahoo group but any copy I might have downloaded is long gone now.

I'm pretty sure Slaying the Dragon has some unique stuff that hasn't been revisited.

I heard years ago that Snead released these notes into the wild. They were updates to the Nephilim Alchemy rules.

I haven't successfully tracked them down and I was just thinking about them today. Does anyone have these notes? Does anyone have a lead on where I might find these notes!

Cheers!