Chaot

Indeed, there's a bunch of stuff I still haven't picked up, like Mythic Iceland, Celestial Empires, Swords of Cydonia, heck, I still need to pick up The Laundry. I should hope that with Chaosium's move to a new server they would have taken care of any security issues they were having...

Yes, they do something similar I would say. So does adding a martial arts skill. But it's fun to come up with alternate systems and see how they play out. When it doesn't work out it goes back into the pile to gestate and get pulled out again. When I was reading ORtrail's system here I was thinking about how I might use it. I was thinking about how it might fit in with a magic martial order, thinking particularly about the Taken from Black Company. It would also be good in campaign settings where one wants an even more pronounced difference between skilled and non skilled combatant.

On Damage Categories. Yeah... I see your point. That could get really messy quickly. When I was fiddling about with it I was looking directly at the HarnMaster armor tables, so slash, crush, impale and fire (or whatever they're called in HarnMaster) and the goal was to use it with a fantasy system. Thinking about it though, it's inadequate to really cover all possibilities and probably easier to refer to spot rules to determine that stuff. Damage Bonus and Combat skill stuff Ahh, yeah, I see. Yeah, that's a pretty slick hack. I can dig it. It's certainly a way to do it. Which I think your system does well, actually, now that I've digested it. Yeah, that makes sense. Elric! uses a system of closing. If you've got a small weapon against a long weapon you want to work yourself through their guard. Once your there, you can attack with your small weapon while your opponent has to put distance between you in order to bring their weapon back into play. It works well enough, but has only really come into play in my games when a player had a demon dagger. Daggers aren't often trained high as they have such a low damage base. It's sad, but if there's nothing else factoring into the choice, that's a logical decision for the player to make. That's one of the reasons why I was playing with divorcing damage from weapon type. But I'm moving into realms where I've only made rough sketches and broad strokes.

Hi Mark, Shea here. Forgive typos and brevity, but I'm posting from a phone. I think your expectations for what is making a game for the love of it in a niche of a niche of a niche hobby and market is a bit unreasonable. If Rod were doing this for money he'd probably decide to mow lawns instead. I'm sorry some of your emails went astray, but when I've found Rod reachable he is always generous with his time and ideas. If I hadn't found him reachable in a given instance (which I don't think has actually happened to me, just saying for argument) I'd respect his space. He's not a company. He's a single author (who wrote something pretty brilliant). I'm not sure taking Rod to task in this thread is productive or appropriate.

I should refresh before I post. I think smoothing out the Damage Bonus table is a good thing.

d2 progression If you walk up the die types and add a +1 between steps you get this Which is a little smoother. Or you can go with the progression that Atgxtg. If you decide to go the d2 route and the spacing of increases just remember that you're going to be dealing with hits that both do higher minimum damage and higher maximum damage. As Atgxtg said, big beasties are going to be SCARY. d2s also have the issue in that they are not AS simple for the player to roll. I tried it years ago and found that almost every time they had to roll a d2 I would have to say, roll d4, 1-2 equals 1, 3-4 equals 2. All of that is really just crunching the numbers until you see something that appeals to you though. As far as weapon damage goes, I think that's a great simplification. I have two ideas that I haven't really tested yet, but fall into a similar path. 1d4 for small, 1d6 for medium, 1d8 for large and 1d10 for really large is great to run with as is, I think. Then I thought it would be neat to classify the weapons into damage type and armor into protection type and adjust weapon damage up or down one step depending on armor type. Something that adds a second layer of complexity so that the players have a dilemma about weapon choice. If there's no dilemma, they are going to just choose the one that does more damage. Plus, it's fun to weigh options and gratifying when choices pay off. On to the second part, what happens, I think, when you tie damage bonus increases directly to combat skill is that damage output escalates very quickly. This is fine if it is what you are looking for, but it makes highly skilled foes much more dangerous and it makes challenging the PCs without killing them harder. Awhile ago I was looking at the MP for Demon Summoning table in Elric!, the one where it shows how much a magic point can buy in skill percentage and damage. I was thinking, what if you just got rid of weapon damage and based damage on combat skill? Kind of as a really light system, you know? It was a way of reemphasizing equipment and focusing on character concept. Sort of, "yes, he fights with a metal yo-yo, but he's so good with the thing he'll take your head off" sort of thing. It didn't sit quite right because of what I mentioned above. When base damage output is directly tied to skill it creates pronounced power discrepancies. I still want to revisit the concept though and maybe allow two tracks, one to improve combat skill and one to increase damage output. I just haven't honed into something I like yet. But! Do it and see what happens. BRP's a strange beast and I think there's some serious promise in pursuing your ideas.

It does a bang up job of it! I popped around to ebay and amazon and some rpg resellers and I'm not seeing CF right now. I have seen it on ebay and noble knight games in the past though.

Howdy ORtrail. Funnily enough, I've played with something similar! When I get some time, I'll put my thoughts on it down here.

I've said it elsewhere, but I'll say it here. I think this is an very smart move for you, Rod, and a missed opportunity for Chaosium. There are two main things that Classic Fantasy brings that are not present in other Chaosium publications. Classic Fantasy plays with archetypes in really cool ways. Similar things were hinted at in the original Magic World, but Classic Fantasy really pushes it into something special. The second is the Magic system, which is really well developed in Classic Fantasy and could easily be ported to other systems. Additionally, had Chaosium pursued a bit more aggressively they could have had two fantasy systems that address two different fan factions. There would be others, like myself, who would pick up both CF and MW because they like BRP and fantasy. Chaosium would also have two game systems on the market which actually support high powered play! Regardless, I think it's important that you has some autonomy to develop CF. It really is a gem.

Welcome to BRP! My opinion of the Classic Fantasy stuff is very high. It takes D&D and does it right. Really lovely system and the author is great. Hard copies of Chaosium's monographs will occasionally disappear from their website when they get sold out. Generally, I assume, Chaosium restocks them and up goes the hard copy again. In the link soltakss provided, the author says he is exploring porting Classic Fantasy to a new publisher/system. I think this is a smart move, but am uncertain whether this means that Chaosium will not be restocking their hard copy of Classic Fantasy.

That's a fair point. One of the nice things about developing the material over there is, while I don't receive a whole lot of feedback on mechanics, there are people who know Ravenloft as a setting much more thoroughly than I do. I've got a lot of stuff hashed out now, so cleaning it up and putting it here makes some sense, I think.

Yes. One way in which I see these rules as being useful is with the conceit that the character is a 'hero' and so combat operates a bit outside of the standard. The Intellect doesn't have to be a master combatant to make use of their Acuity bonus but their intelligence does make them a better fighter. Combat skill and raw talent are separate things. While not necessarily realist, it's kinda fun. Because I developed these while using Elric!, damage bonus holds across the board regardless of weapon types. So in the case of Finesse, the trade off is striking first with a decent damage bonus but slightly lower weapon damage and lower hit points. Thus far I haven't experienced any real concern about 'balance.' I would like to put it through it's paces with systems where crush, impale and slash are determined differently as well as systems where different weapons types are more effective against different armor types. Thanks!

I'm thinking about starting up my BRP Ravenloft thread over at RPGNet. Would there be interest in me reworking and cleaning up the material generated from those threads as blog posts here or is that too redundant.

Please note that my preferred poison is Elric! Things may break down differently using another BRP flavor. I had played a number of other games before I fell for BRP. If I had to pin down the most influential games though it would probably be RC D&D and MERPS. One thing that was a bit of a rough transition was the Size stat. I liked the idea of it but I was a bit soured on how important it was mechanically for combat. If one wanted to be a powerhouse on the battlefield they were channeled into making a hulking brute of a character. This goes against my preference that a system should be able to support Fafhrd and the Mouser as equals on the battlefield. Yes, Fafhrd is stronger and Mouser is quicker, but despite the advantage of first strike, I was finding that players would pump up Siz if they wanted to play characters who dominated the battle field. The exception to that would be missile weapon users, who would gladly sacrifice increased damage bonus and hit points for a quicker turn in combat. So I changed it. Damage Bonus was broken down into Brawn (Str+Siz) and Finesse (Str+Dex). Brawn is used to power and leverage your way through a situation and is suitable to any weapon type. Finesse is good for small and medium weapons, where placement and speed can be more important than leverage. So, that made me happy and my players didn’t complain. Things worked fine and I even started seeing some smaller fighters. More recently, I mentioned this in a thread here someplace and some very perceptive poster, whom I’d have to pull up the thread again to place a name to, asked why not expand this to the other stats. Well, I watched RDJ’s Sherlock Holmes sequel the other day and it was enough to get me to put down my ideas. The Intellect Some have the ability to read a foe so finely that said foe’s actions are so easily predictable that The Intellect is able to counter any move with alacrity and deadly accuracy. Beware such an opponent, for a misguided sniff or casual shift of your weight, or an unthinking blink could easily be your death. Acuity Bonus Intelligence of 16 or higher. (Str+Int) There are three ways in which a player may use this damage bonus type. The character must either engage the subject in conversation (1-5 minutes time), observe the subject in one round of combat without being a participant or spar with the subject for three combat rounds using their standard damage bonus. At the end of this period, the player may make an Insight roll. If successful, the player may use their Acuity Bonus. Every five rounds, the player must reevaluate the situation, requiring another Insight roll. If they succeed, they can continue using their Acuity in combat. If they fail their roll, they must reengage their opponent in one of the three above manners. The Mystic There are those with such an innate sense of the primal power surrounding them that they can channel this magical energy into an attack. The Mystic is one such as this. A mystic feels the strength of the sword, the presence of the air, the very life force of their opponent. Through effort of will, The Mystic may take this connection and loose it during combat. Animus Bonus Power of 16 or higher. (Str+Pow) At the cost of 2 mp per combat round, The Mystic may use their Animus in combat. If The Mystic’s magic points are reduced to zero, The Mystic looses consciousness. The Charismatic When The Charismatic enters a room, everyone knows. Their swagger and grace, their every move announcing certainty. Some Charismatics use banter to throw a foe, others have cultivated a cool and calculating, but effectively imposing demeanor. They are leaders of men, able to inspire their comrades to feats of arms that would be otherwise impossible. Regardless of style, The Charismatic has enough force of personality to tip the advantage in a fight. Inspiration Bonus Charisma of 16 or higher. (Str+Cha) There are two ways in which the Inspiration Bonus may be used. When engaging a foe or foes, The Charismatic rolls their Fast Talk skill. A success indicates that the character is intimidating, disarmingly clever or distracting enough to use their Inspiration bonus instead of the standard damage bonus. When leading warriors into battle, The Charismatic may rouse their troops using an Oratory roll. If successful, the troops may use The Charismatic’s Charisma score to calculate their damage bonus. This lasts a full ten rounds or until the troops experience poor fortunes in combat. At that time, The Charismatic may roll another Oratory roll to rally the troops. This Oratory roll does not need to conform to the timeframe usual for an Oratory roll.

I'll add that I've had a chance to give it a quick read. This week end I'll be going over it again and doing a write up. Great stuff!

This looks great. Only have had a chance to watch the opening yet. WIll watch the rest later. Fun stuff!

Just to be clear, I'm also totally happy if you just want to put the jpgs up as is as an example of someone's dog eared document for random generation in their campaign. However you want to approach it, I'm fine with. Ah, that's so fun. Can't wait to see the results!

I'm familiar with Cthulhu Dark Ages. If you would like, I will read your work and give you feedback on it, whatever that feedback is worth.

Damn, it looks like they had to cancel their slow shipment rate. It was a time when an order of $120 or was free (not that that helps much if you're only looking to pick up one book).

They're fun. At the time, Sorcerer was the only profession I allowed to have Summon Demon, I think, and the profession had to be rolled, not chosen. I think I had some other short write ups for some of the added professions and a very short descriptor of the places but I don't have the info anymore. Sadly, most of my files from this time period are gone. All I have left are the occasional hard copies that I find tucked away. When I have a chance, I'll type this up for you though.

Absolutely. Do you want me to pretty it up or do you want to take the info and do it yourself? Or do you just want it as is.

Thought I'd share these. I wrote them up long ago because random generation is FUN!

I need to play this. Like, NEED to. Now.

The agony of waiting!

yup, very true on the magic point issue. I think I tied to spell level xd6 where x equaled the level of spell attempted. I'd have to dig it up to be sure though. But you're the one with the practical knowledge. I defer to your judgement on this.