Chaot

Where do magic items come from? Yes, some are conjured by mad wizards high atop their towers or fervent alchemists in their labs bending the laws of nature to their wills. Some are crafted in eldritch smithies or woven by fey creatures. But other items of power are born by the deeds of men, heroes who rise to become more than their origin. Much like these heroes, certain items, by virtue of their use, gain a power of their own. Happenstance can awaken a potential that further use nurtures. Over time, this mundane item reflects a shadow of the hero who bears it. The item becomes an item of power. In the course of gameplay, if a PC rolls an 01 for a skill check or an 00 on the resistance table, they may invest a point of POW into an object of their choice. In combat, if a PC rolls full damage for their weapon and the strike is a killing blow or if they roll full protection for their armor and that roll saves them from death, they may invest a point of POW into an object of their choice. Their character attributes their success on the the presence of said object and that belief, coupled with the investment of POW, is enough to empower the object with a touch of magical ability. The object grants the bearer bonuses depending upon how it was created. If the object was granted power through use of a skill roll, the object now grants the bearer a +5% on all rolls involving that skill. If the object was granted power through use of a Resistance Table roll, the object now grants the bearer a +1 on the stat that was involved in the original contest. If the object was granted power through a damage roll, the object now grants the bearer a +1 to their damage. If the object was granted power through an armor roll, the object now grants +1 to their armor. Once an item has become empowered, its enchantment can continue to grow. When a PC repeats the extraordinary action that allowed for the POW investment, the item gains in strength. If the PC rolls a 01 in the item’s skill, they increase the item’s bonus by +5%. If the PC rolls a 00 on the Resistance Table on the relevant Stat, they increase the item’s bonus by +1. If the PC rolls full damage on a killing blow, they increase the item’s damage by +1. If the PC rolls full protection on an armor roll that would have killed them, they increase the item’s protection by +1. These empowered increases are limited. An item can only gain a specific bonus a maximum of four times, matching but not exceeding either a +20% or a +4. Note that any item can be empowered. For example, it may seem natural to empower a pair of boots or a cloak with a Move Quietly bonus but one can also choose to empower a necklace or a dagger with the Move Quietly bonus. As long as the person is actively wearing or using it, the bonus will apply. It’s a matter of the character’s belief and concentration that imbues the magic to the item. Items with more than one Empowerment Items may be empowered multiple times, granting bonuses to more than one skill or attribute, following the guidelines above. Gurdo the fighter has a pair of gloves that currently have a +10% combat empowerment. Gurdo just made a check and is able to increase damage by +1. She spends her point of POW and decides to place it on the gloves as well, so now when wearing the gloves she has a +10% bonus to hit and a +1 on her damage. Bonuses on items do not stack. If you have an item that gives you a Listen bonus of +15% and an item that gives you a bonus of +5%, your total bonus defaults to the highest. You would have a bonus of +15%. If an item already has maxed it’s bonus out at +4 Strength you cannot empower it again for additional Strength bonus points. An empowered item’s bonus can only be increased once per game session.

A film crew actually has some sense and skills. Make them vapid reality television talent! You mentioned supers. I've heard great things about a book called Ex-Heros about some supers during Z-Day as a serious (as you can get) look treatment.

I dig this. Hell, I might even drop it down to 10% per mp. Also the suggestion of looking to sorcery spells with added San rolls to fill in any magic gaps. Are the skill % cost the only limiting factor to starting spell selection?

Sounds good. In Elric!, at character generation, the player can choose to take three spells or add 20 extra skill points to three skills.

So, I pulled out Sailing on the Seas of Fate and White Wolf. The ships match up, except in White Wolf the Pan Tang Galley has a Hull Quality of 3d6. So it looks like it should be 3d6. Odd typo that.

Not quite true. Classic Fantasy is a great game that merges RQ with D&D. I don't think it has any intention of going away either.

Possibly check White Wolf and and see what they have it in as there? I breezed through the Chaosium Digest but didn't see a Sailing on the Seas of Fate errata. I did take a trip down memory lane though. Tons of good stuff in there.

Thanks Triff! Sad. I lost my magic item thread. Ah well. I'll start it again.

PK Games, Elric Kin Slayer has a tendency to eat gods for breakfast. You’re looking at him at his peak. He should be a monster. You’re also mistaking Elric’s abilities for Stormbringer’s abilities. Two separate entities with divergent goals. I think Elric and Stormbringer are pretty spot on. If I were to take issue with NPC write ups, I’d be howling about Moonglum’s demon weapons. Looking at Elric proper, he certainly has a breadth of skills that couldn’t be matched by a beginning character, but take Stormbringer out of the equation and take Elric without time to prepare and a beginning character has an incredibly good chance of taking him down! An experienced PC has a much better chance of dancing straight on with Elric. Remember, Stormbringer spends the novels playing Elric. The White Wolf is a tool, dependent on the Blade, and Stormbringer greatly enjoys letting Elric know it. Groking Elric!/SB5 means embracing the question of whether to ride on your criticals or splitting your attacks or lining up a riposte. Failing a skill on a straight roll really isn't an issue. It's whether you've allocated enough resources to overcome the opponents defense. Sometimes this means cleaning up the mooks so they are not a drain on you, sometimes this means splitting your attack three times so that your opponent is operating at a -90 when your buddy moves in for a heavy blow. When you wrap your mind around it and really get a chance to put it through it's paces, you'll find that it leads to epic play. I think you may just be used to other BRP games pegging skill levels differently. As for the question if anyone plays at that level. I would run a game at Elric's level, yes. Between the Actorios and Elric's sorcerous prowess he would have an insane amount of resources to bring to bear on a game. You'll note though that there's no way Elric can bind Stormbringer. Stormbringer gets to be the GM's toy.

This is the crux right here, I think, but I don't think it's insurmountable at all. In my head, it's not so an issue of the rules falling down so much as in how they're framed and scaled. Part of it certainly is re-figuring what HP mean in game terms and adjusting to an heroic scale. Then you need to get the mix of special abilities right and provide a mechanism to allow for advantage due to story elements. I think a key could lie in Dragon Lines and it's section of genre awareness. Hell, mix Dragon Lines with it's mook rules and special abilities in with Elric! with it's sleek combat system and scale and you're halfway there. In the first draft Jason actually did have a unified Powers system that was to be used to build one's own magic system or faith system or psionic system or what have you. It was through the feedback of the playtesters, myself included, that Jason decided to go with integrating the old systems into the main rules. I think that was the right call, especially at the time, as it showed the breadth of options that you could take BRP in, and because many of the rules were out of print at the time. I'm not sure how many of us predicted the wealth of material that would come out later. I certainly didn't.

Ah. When I first saw the notification it wouldn't link me to anything and the notification wouldn't go away. Those two bugs seem to have disappeared now and all is right with the world.

Sir, from you I bear it as a mark of pride. No ritual suicide here.

I see a Notification about them and I have no idea what they are. Much Thanks.

That is good stuff there. I'm currently doing some BRP conversion stuff for Ravenloft over at RPGNet. Maybe when I'm done with that I'll jump back in to Dark SUn. Never did get to run the Athas games I had planned.

I'm suure Shannon will have it tucked away someplace. I also think I have the file stored locally on one of my drives. I will see if I can't turn it up.

Love it. Just to let you know, though I'm being quiet I am digging your thread here. In regards to the Robot 'Knights', if I were stating them up I would drop the POW and APP and give them fixed INT due to their nature as robot constructs. I would also up their Brawl attack from a base of 1d4 to a base of 1d6 due to their robotic nature.

Hot damn! Puck, you just made me a very happy Chaot.

Well said, sir. I share the sentiment.

I can dig it. I need lo look at my copy of Classic Fantasy but I'm pretty sure Rod does some similar things in there. What I like about it is that it gives the players some fiddly bits to play with. In general, I see this as a good thing. When I'm a player, I sometimes like fiddly bits. It gives me something to hang my hat on. It gives me a named trick I can pull. When I run a game, I tend not to like fiddly bits as much. I'm a heretic, man. Chop that BRP up and see what you get.

Thirding the 'run some test combats' suggestion. BRP combat can be tricky and it runs to individual taste. My games generally have the PCs with combat skills well over 100% versus NPCs that break down like so (off the top of my head). 30%, local farming taking up arms 60%, militia member or soldier 90%, captain of the guard, grizzled soldier 120%, weapons master Something like that. Anyway, guns and combat as written is really scary. There are ways to tweak the system though. Run some and I'm sure someone here will help trouble shoot any problems.

Well, Evil Lyn knows Skeletor's got the raw power. That's why she rolls in skull's crew. She might call him over because she wants to do some strong arming of Earth. She might call him over because it would stretch him too thin and she could then double cross him. She might be the one contacting the players. Skelemeister could be in transdimensional psychic contact wiht Professor Simonton to set up the Earth end of the portal to bring Skeletor to Earth. Evil Lyn might just be happy being the mystic big dog on Earth and might want this stopped. Don't get me wrong, I behind your idea all the way. Just be ready for the groans and the hurled objects. And at the end of the session, you should do a recap stressing the valuable life lesson learned.

Well, it does if you want them to be smaller than a cat. If they're sprites, nixies, pixies, brownies or whatnot their SIZ should probably reflect that. Found this in Miskatonic yesterday and thought of you. STR 1d4 CON 1d4 SIZ 1 INT 2d4 POW 1d3 DEX 2d6+8 Mov 6/3 climbing HP 2 Weapons: Bite 33%, damage 1 Massed Attack 99%, see below Armor: none, but little people are tiny and invisible. While unseen, an attacker's player must roll D100 equal to or less than POW to hit a creature. If visible, their small SIZ and high DEX halve firearm and missile attacks; hand to hand attacks are at full skill. The drunkenness required to see the little people imparts a penalty of its own (up to -30 percentile adjustment to rolls and skills.) Spells: All little people know the Sleep spell. Little people of POW 3 also know Summon Banshee and Unseelie Transformation. All are faerie spells. Skills: Climb 95%, Hide 95%, Jump 90%, Sneak 90%, Spot Hidden 45% Sanity Loss: Enduring an invisible little person's harassment costs 0/1 SAN. Seeing a lone little person costs 0/1d2 SAN. Seeing an angry horde of them or suffering a massed attack costs 1/1d6 SAN. Massed Attack: Little people usually attack only in strength. When swarming, 1d20+5 goblins leap on and try to overwhelm an enemy. If the number of little people overcomes the target's STR when matched on the Resistance Table, the victim falls and loses any attacks that round and the next round as well. Each combat round a victim is swarmed upon and felled, divide the number of attacking goblins by three to determine how many points of bit damage the victim suffers. Round down fractions. The Sleep spell is a group spell the fairies cast. Each provides a mp and then it's mp:POW to see if target falls asleep. Summon Banshee is a blood ritual where one of the little people is killed to summon a big bad monster and Unseelie Transformation is a pact a human can enter in with the little people. When the human dies, the little people collect the corpse and turn the dead human into a living member of the little people. May not be of use to you, but I feel beholden to mention that my favorite version of the Goblin is in one of the Dreamland books. The stats are mostly 1d20s. Gives wonderful randomness. Pair it with a Brian Froud aesthetic and my day is made.

I dig it man. I've got to pick up Pendragon again. Are you using the magic system in 4th edition? That's the book I have. Always thought that iteration of Pendragon would make a kick ass Shanara game with a few minor tweaks. It sounds cool. How would this play out? Or if the PC spends their Soul too quickly, right?

You sir, have failed one too many SAN rolls. So, Skeletor is all about scheming and consolidating power. The problem is he’s about as subtle as a hammer to the skull. If he shows up, he’s going to assess the scene. If he’s impressed, he’s going to want whoever is present to take them to whoever’s in charge. If he’s unimpressed, he’s going to loudly set up shop. There’s room here for Skeletor to be swept up by a government agency, keyed in conglomerated corporation or a secret society. It’s very possible he shows up and makes a big noise, resulting in military action. Skeletor’s not above running tail between legs when he’s outclassed, so there might be a big dust up, Skeletor retreats, reassesses the situation, then makes his move. Skeletor is fine with entering into alliances with those he views as equals or betters as he’s got an angle on betraying them anyway. If Skeletor lands, he’s going to be very loud. A Skeletor event is likely to destroy a large city or two or a small country or two. Evil Lyn is much more circumspect. She’s more likely to blend in, take stock, and then start with the nasty sorcery. If she lands without Skeletor, she might construct a ritual to bring him through to Earth. Alternatively, she might decide to leave the bonehead and set up shop herself. If she decides to bring Skeletor over, it’s likely because she wants to use his raw power to consolidate gains herself. There’s plenty of fun to be had with Evil Lyn as the head of a new cult as she pulls together the resources to open a dimensional gate. Should she ignore Skeletor, she’d likely focus on building her power base. She had a few infernal contacts in Eternia, she might want to make some on Earth. Evil Lyn is powerful and dangerous and Skeletor knows it. Should she disappear, he’s likely to get paranoid and start looking for her. Skeletor might make his way to Earth whether Evil Lyn wants him to know about it or not. If they come over together, Evil Lyn might get Skeletor to think a bit more before blowing things up. They would likely be a lot more dangerous to the PCs but would also provide an avenue for the PCs to play one against the other. Also, in the old comics, Evil Lyn was really Evelin Powers, an astronaut that crashed on Eternia in Queen Marlena’s space ship. Evil Lyn would have Earth knowledge and be very dangerous. Now, if one or more of the goons show up with Skeletor or Evil Lyn, they’re likely to go along with whatever plan is put forth. On their own, they could be a lot of fun too. Much less planning and much more terrorizing. Easier to take down as well. I would suspect that if I sprung this on a group that hadn’t bought into the premise, I should be very wary of thrown objects.

What if there's no skill roll? In combat Prowess is only used as a metric of how much damage the character can do. This is how I would break down the weapons categories but the damages stills weighs the weapons against each other. In the right hands, I want that dagger to be as dangerous as a gun. I was actually thinking about it holding across the board. Swap out missile damage for Prowess damage. Of course, the level of tech that I tend to get up to is flintlocks and blunderbusses, so that's the scope. Still the thrust of the rules is to emphasize the character's adroitness and not the equipment they use. Someone picks up a high powered rifle and they have a high Prowess then they're going to do significant damage with it. Someone with low Prowess and a high powered rifle might make their shot but, because of their low Prowess, only clip the target or inflict a flesh wound.