Chaot

On 11/9/2021 at 10:01 AM, Barak Shathur said:

1. Initial move. Everyone gets to move their MOV score.

What does the MOV score actually represent? If I have a MOV of 6, how far can I go?

You could try tracking down Byron Alexander. He hasn't posted on these boards in years though. 2015 is last login.

You could go to amazon. The book is available there for $32.

https://www.amazon.com/Brp-Witchcraft-Byron-Alexander/dp/156882324X

I am allergic to hit locations. Had I scene the poll my vote would have gone to hit points.

6 hours ago, Jakob said:

One thing that keeps bothering me about "classic" BRP (RQ, the big gold book, the current SRD) is that often, there is not a clear distinction between when a skill would apply and when a Characteristic x 5 (or x3 or even x1) roll. Why can't you make an Agility roll to dodge something? Bascially, because there's a dodge skill. It kind of bugs me ...

So I wondered: Could you make the Characteristic x5 roll a standard alternative to a skill roll for a "crude" approach? Some things are crude in themselves, of course, like breaking stuff with sheer force, so it would make sense that that would be a STRx5 roll, anyway. But maybe you are good with your hands, but have never learned to lockpick - so you could still try with a DEXx5 roll. However, there would be a catch: I'd say that with the crude approach, you never get a critical, and you always get some unwanted side-effect: A lock would be broken if you open it with DEXx5 instead of the Lockpicking skill, or you'd make a lot of noise, take a lot of time. With knowledge-based tests, an INTx5 would only ever get you a general idea and never something specific. And some tasks still might just need you to have and apply the skill (like reading a specific language).

You could even say that, after failing a skilled approach, you could re-try with the crude approach in some cases (if you have enough time, if the task is repeatable); that would be a bit like pushing a roll in CoC7, because it would entail a negative consequence.

To me, it seems like a nice way of keeping specific skill largely separate from your characteristics (so you can be a good climber even with DEX and STR at 6, because you just have learned it and know exactly how to do it right), but still give a siginficant role to characteristics (the guy who knows nohting about climling but has DEX of 16 will probably do well as well, but leave some equipment in the wall because he doesn't really know what steps to take in what order).

For me, it breaks down into two things. If you have some skill, everything is a success unless it is done under duress. But we have to look at numbers. For me, 30% is trained, 60% is experienced, 90% is mastery, everything else is heroic. I only have someone roll if I feel the task is outside of their skill level.

For a 'crude' skill, if you want to do it, I would assign a roll that goes between x1% to x5% depending on how you see the difficulty.

Whatever moves the story forward is the best approach.

On 11/5/2021 at 11:02 AM, Mugen said:

My comment was not specifically about skill oppositions. I also think someone with 200% should have better crit and special success chance than someone with 95%.

Exactly, Skills at this level are dicing for crits. I personally enjoy it and take the advice from Elric! that a beginning character who is skilled in combat should look to begin in the Combat 101%.

On 11/5/2021 at 4:11 AM, DreadDomain said:

As an example, I prefer Characteristics in the 1 to 20 range (almost all BRP games) as opposed to 0-100 range (à la CoC 7e) if only because when it gets outside of the human range, it becomes a bit wild with say a STR of 350 or 675. However, playing CoC, I am warming up to the 0-100 range but for CoC only.

Personally, I keep the 'natural range for humans from 3-21 but I have no problem with magically/cybernetically altered humans or other creatures being way up there in the crazy high range, depending on the game.

Lords of Tarsa and Swords of Cydoria were also excellent, overlooked monographs. All in all, there was a lot of great material in those monograph books.

Someone over at reddit found a copy of his work and is trying to dig up more information. 

Curious if anyone here has any info.

The two part adventure is pretty dire. It is good for stealing things from though.

I love this! This is great. Quick technical note, a dissolve implies passage of time. When you cut the interview together the shot reverse shot should be just straight cuts. No dissolves.

On 3/1/2021 at 8:37 PM, g33k said:

It would be!

OTOH, if one could rally a half-dozen (or a dozen, or a score, etc) of fan-artists who could do it for love, for "I owe you a beer," or "for the exposure/cred" -- it'd be a lot less work for each one...

 

That would be fun. I'm not an 'artist' artist but I can sketch.

12 hours ago, NickMiddleton said:

I have a comp copy as a contributor, and it looks like that - iirc they did sell print copies at one point, for those who wanted hard copy.

Yeah, but it didn't have that white boarder, did it? Mine doesn't have the white boarder.

Edit: Oops, never mind. Saw it was the Quickstart rules. Going to go drink my morning coffee now....

Yeah, Fight, Flight, Freeze is a common description of the effects of fear in general and several systems use it. His describes UA's rather involved system really well and even UA uses those three for the basic fear response.

What I'm trying to change is the way it's invoked. Instead of me describing some nasty beastie and then saying 'roll for Fear' I want the PCs to be the ones to decide that the Fear effect is taking place. The PCs decide if the extra oomph they get from Fear is worth risking the possibility of an Affliction.

Since Ravenloft is a setting about heroes against the dark powers and I hate telling the PCs how their characters feel, I want Fear to be someone beneficial. I want it to be something they are invested in roleplaying and using. I'm not opposed to them racking up several Afflictions and becoming a walking bundle of psychological disorders. I hear Dr. Dominiari has made some wonderful advances with the clinically insane.

I’m constantly going back and forth about Fear and insanity. I’ve toyed around with a few systems and they all left me cold. They were either too invasive during game play or they sat in the background and were not used. Today I looked at an old character sheet and felt the itch to try it again.

Fear
This should be something both detrimental AND beneficial to the character. In addition, the player should have some choice in the matter in how Fear is affecting the character.

At any point a player may declare that their character is in a state of Fear. When in a state of Fear, the player can choose what the character focuses on. The player has three choices, Fight, Flight or Freeze. Fight gives you a +20% bonus to any Combat moves you take. Flight gives you a +20% bonus to any movement skills you have. Freeze gives you a +20% bonus to any thinking or communication skill.

When can Fear be applied? In general, Fear can be invoked when a character is either in direct threat of harm or is observing something that would cause them an intense feeling of shock or disgust.

Every time a character is in the state of Fear a Fear Check must be made. A Fear Check is determined using Power x5%. If a character succeeds on their Fear check the state of Fear works as above. If they character fails their Fear Check they develop an Affliction.

Afflictions
Madness is something that is present in Ravenloft. There are plenty of story ideas that can be tied into it. Madness is also a staple of gothic horror. So how do we use it in a fun way? It should be important. It should be something that will affect gameplay for the character. It should be something that the player has some buy in.

Afflictions only occur if the character has entered the state of Fear and has failed their Fear Check. When the fail the Fear Check, two things happen.

1. The character can attempt to take an action. The player may choose whether this action is a critical success or a critical failure. Either the horror of the situation has imbued the character with a sudden burst of energy or clarity and they are ready to react or the character is so shaken that failure is inevitable. Again, this is the player’s choice.
2. The character develops an Affliction. This is a mental or personality quirk that is now part of the character. It can be removed through Hypnotism or by committing one’s self to an asylum.

I haven’t fleshed out the Afflictions yet. Not sure if I’m committing to this setup enough to flesh them out. I kinda like it because it's heavily biased towards players making the decision to engage with it. Are they going to gamble for a short term benefit? It's not something I'm forcing as a GM.

Thoughts?

This is only available via pdf or is there a printed book? I do believe I’m adding it to the collection!

Edit: Never mind, I saw your comment at drivethru about getting to electrum. Here's one more purchase to get you there.

On 1/23/2021 at 4:09 AM, soltakss said:

The preview does not contain any spells, unfortunately, but gives an idea of what the rules contain.

Hey Simon, the Alchemy rules, is it just imbuing potions with spell effects or is it something more complex?

11 hours ago, Lloyd Dupont said:

Mmmm... I totally missed the Mythras angle! 😮
Obviously my answer had nothing to do with your concerns...
Let me stress though, that location HP are nothing specific to Mythras hence it was easy to get confused!

Personally I wouldn't advise to use Mythras so.. here you go! 😛
Although.. Ideally I would advise to have a look at all D100 systems to get many rule tweak ideas.. (I am fond of tweaking!)

Wait, is this post directed at me? I was specifically talking Mythras because RogerDee was talking Mythras.

Doesn't matter the system, RQ2, RQ3, Elfquest, the BGB (which I'm listed as a play tester), Mythras, whatever. I've never liked Hit Locations. As I said, it may be an allergy.

I assume this is using the Mournblade system and not BRP?

On 2/7/2021 at 7:14 PM, Questbird said:

Yeah The Green and Swords of Cydoria were two of my favourite monograph settings too (also Rubble and Ruin).

Lords of Tarsa was really good too. Fractured Hopes had huge potential but was too short to due the setting justice.

On 2/9/2021 at 6:58 PM, Lloyd Dupont said:

Many D100 fantasy game and players love them.. but in fantasy game with a good armor, location really increase durability, since the overall HP (sum of all location HP) is much higher than just (SIZ+CON)/2. As long as you don't get major or serious wound in one strike it's a big boost. Meanwhile you can also one shot minion with a good headshot.

Elric!/Magic World characters are VERY durable as written without hit locations. Hit locations, action points, combat special effects, it all leaves me a bit cold. Why would I jump over to Mythras when I could use a system I like? I'm not saying that other people shouldn't enjoy it, just that I would rather start with a base that I feel is solid and add little bits from other systems as needed. It's really kind of sad because it's been a long time since I've looked forward to a BRP book coming out.

There's only one situation that I've been tempted by hit locations. I've contemplated using them in a Dark Sun game, where the emphasis is survival and the PCs are scrapping for any advantage they can get. Having to piece meal armor might be fun. Even then I think I would just settle for a partial armor rule.

On 1/29/2021 at 5:46 AM, RogerDee said:

or use Mythras

I'm allergic to hit locations and while combat styles are a step in the right direction I'm not a huge fan of their implementation.

11 hours ago, RogerDee said:

My only gripe with BRP is lethality, such that I am tending to go freeform, and allow players a list of traits, etc that they can pick from to make them exceptional, kind of like in Pulp Cthulhu. I am not into games where players are ne'er do wells, I want them to be heroes and all the baggage that comes with that, no matter the setting.

I understand this opinion but I think it's more about how you set your power level. Granted, I began play with Elric! where characters are encouraged to have skills above 100%. When you pair them against the average town guardsmen, who would generally have 30-40% in skills, the PCs really shine. When they do get into a lethal situation it's usually because they worked themselves into it.

On 12/16/2020 at 10:38 PM, Superworld for Adults said:

I am currently running a Supetwprld campaign, st in the turn if thr 19th to 20th century. Its kind nf of a Tesla punk setting. It has been real interesring. So far its been Hellboy , Deadlanfs ,Cthulu , and a little DC anf Marcel Universe shaken up with a Michael Moorcock , Alan Moore flare  Its like a Star Wars Penny Dreadfyl . 

That sounds great! I ran a short campaign using SuperWorld a few years ago but it was kinda tongue in cheek. We set it in the '80s cause that's what it was written for. If I remember correctly we generated characters completely randomly, but I may be misremembering on that. It was a great time.

Anyway, welcome to the boards Superworld for Adults.

5 hours ago, Armchair Gamer said:

Madness shows up primarily in integration with psychic/psionic powers, so it can be easily left out if you don't want to use them. 

Hey AG! Long time.

Yeah, as opposed to something like Cthulhu where you are going to have multiple characters dip into insanity, I think I'd rather keep madness as a special case. I think I'd prefer madness to be the result of magic, a curse, the intervention of the Dark Powers, a trip to Vechor, a glamour from the fey in the shadowfell, stuff like that. I agree something like Dead Calm is a great approach to managing madness. I should probably work that into the Mesmerism ability.  

I agree and am happy to hear it backed up. These games seem to play out like a mixture of Hammer Horror, Fearless Vampire Slayers and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. If there was a madness system that worked well with that mix I would jump at it. Everything I've tried so far hasn't really worked well and I've been relatively happy with the normal fear that you mention in your post.

3 hours ago, Lloyd Dupont said:

Plus neither D&D (since Ravenloft is a D&D campaign) nor undead / dracula movie take the madness angle, why would you?

D&D had a Fear, Horror, Madness check that was save v. paralyzation with a Wisdom modifier. If it was a fear check you just dropped what you had and ran. Horror checks had, like, six possible reactions to the situation. Madness would give you a chance for mental afflictions. It wasn't a particularly good system, but it was there.

I'm relatively happy with the stuff I've posted so far. Next up is my take on the various power systems. They are in various states of completion. I will probably post Mesmerism stuff and Curses next.

I have an issue. I keep going back and forth on whether I want to include a Horror/Madness mechanic in this writeup. I have included one in the past based on Unknown Armies but I found it too intricate for Ravenloft. A simple mechanic like in Cthulhu would be better suited but I don't feel that the Sanity spiral is really thematic for gothic horror/adventure.

I could adapt the one published with the various D&D Ravenloft materials but I find them all to be clunky. Another option is to just run Ravenloft without a Horror/Madness mechanic. Thoughts? Opinions?