dracopticon

Yes, I should use more barter and I think it's more the model in the rural areas, especially since I am running a low fantasy campaign. But I should be mentioning, it isn't low-fantasy right now. It's very high fantasy at them moment. Then a great catastrophe happens and everything gets much more low fantasy - but with chaos effects -  minus the magics since the Gods have barred all knowledge like that after the catastrophe. The lives of the characters are also many hundreds of years after this catastrophe. Am I making any sense here?

Lead is also poison, so there is of course a "shortage of health". Bad puns aside, I am thinking of other possible materials for coin. Maybe ceramics...

Thank you!

And now, I "just" have to figger out how to adjust this table for the denominator in my game: lead coins. The other, more precious metals are all very seldom seen in this setting of mine. It is almost always only the high nobles and royalty that have access to the better metals, except lead. Metal weapons among more successful middle class member *can* be of copper or even bronze, but is exceedingly rare even then.

That's was smack dab in the middle what I wanted Atgxtg! Many thanks. It's at least easier to convert from that list you gave me, than anything else I've come across in my searches.

Is that "d" as in "denarii", the same denominator they use in Pendragon, and the like? 


//Erik.

Hello!

My question(s) stem from the world construction I am dealing with these days. I am trying to complete a generating system for my own RPG, the EBROS system (and world), a fantasy setting emulating a kind of low fantasy "Europe" (around 1400s without the powder weapon technology) on another world. There is a continent spanning empire called Magna Rex on the main continent and several other independent states there as well as many others on two other continents.
The status system/table for PCs that I use for my game is the following, heavily influenced by "Central  casting: Heroes of Legend" and the BGB book (see pic)

My question is: Is there a starting money per status (and profession) table or suggestion somewhere?

Thanks for any help! //Erik.

Great Grief! One of my absolute House Gods are now gone. I own one of the books that was his personally, bought from him on Ebay, the first edition Runequest. As I am a serious collector of all Chaosium materials over the years except Superworld and Nephilim, this is the man that started my turn into the GOOD stuff. I will mourn your passing Greg, and light a candle.

May your soul go to Orlanth and Yelm both. You were at least as mighty and as warm in your friendliness as them. 

Kindest possible thoughts, Erik Brickman.

Each to his or her own.

On 2018-01-12 at 8:38 PM, soltakss said:

I am not sure if I have your email address 

Sorry for the late reply here! No, unfortunately I am not well versed in Spanish. So I have to decline that version. Thanks anyway! //Erik.

Hello Soltakss! Is it possible for you to send both parts of the adventure to my address too? Kindest regards, Erik.

11 hours ago, MOB said:

Yes - Masks is long-of-out-print but in great demand. There are many CoC players who'd like to own a physical copy of this campaign but can't.

The MoNC is not a Chaosium product; it was produced under license by Sixtystone Press. To encourage people to fund the project, the MoNC Kickstarter stated that the physical book would only be made available to backers (plus a certain number of extra copies, now all sold). This means further reprints are unlikely, but that is up to the MoNC creators. 

Certainly an option if/when these campaigns come back into print!

Good answers there all over, MOB. And yes, things are out of print, new players must get their hands on the goody stuff, just as I have. But puh-lease, Chaosium (not that it's a BIG chance you'll be reading this) make sure the new version(s) are all extensively play-tested and exposed to meticulous proof-readings to detect potentially unnecessary material, like I feel a lot of the new material was in HotOE 2nd ed...

Quantity is often a poor replacement for quality.

On ‎2017‎-‎12‎-‎08 at 10:33 AM, MOB said:

This is what various reviewers have said about Masks over the years. Click on the links for the full account of what they say.

"...widely considered one of the best RPG adventures ever made" —Gizmodo."

...

I totally agree that the published works/editions of MoN is very good and have gotten great reviews, nobody denies that. But still ANOTHER version? Is that really necessary? I'd say further physical reprints of the MoN companion would be better (not just PDFs!). And why not make companions for every greater campaign, like one for Horror on the Orient Express, one for Spawn of Azathoth, and one for Beyond the Mountains of Madness and so on. Players would certainly buy that!
 

 

Sorry but I don't feel OK with this. This is somewhat of a "disease" today, when size and glossy coverings is more important than the actual content. I am gamemastering ("keeping") the Horror on the Orient Express 2nd ed these days, and I have a lot of complaints about it, compared to the first edition. Almost all the extra material/scenarios is subpar or present such a large step-off from the main story that they only represent unnecessary obstacles to getting the campaign underway and in a flow. It's a lot like when Peter Jackson decided to make the Bilbo movie in three parts. It didn't make the film better IMO, quite the opposite.

There's too much focus on the size and not the actual writing.

I just spontaneously have to express my sincerest happiness for the general usefulness and fast accessibility of the 7th Edition Quick-Start Rules booklet. I know it's not really fast of me, as it's been up for some years now, but THAT is what the gist of the BGB should be according to my taste. Light, only the core mechanics and lots of room to house rule the existing guide lines.

On ‎2017‎-‎11‎-‎12 at 2:27 AM, TheNecromancer said:

Hi,
I'm afraid I don't really understand the spell "Summon Elemental".

In "BRP Classic Fantasy" the spell is clarified as such:

Using the Stat-range given in BRP for the Fire Elemental it has a minimum SIZ of 9 and HP seem to based on SIZ+CON (not SIZ+CON/2)
Creating three versions Weakest - Average - Best we get:
W with 9SIZ-12HP-3POW | A with 16,5SIZ-27HP-10,5POW and B with 24SIZ-42HP-18POW
But since the stats are rolled they don't scale with SIZ. A 9SIZ (level 2) elemental might have good CON and therefore higher  HP than a 12SIZ one

Furthermore since the lowest value for SIZ is 9 it doesn't seem possible to conjure one with a level 1 or 2 spell (SIZ 3 or 6).

Additionally of the most important values (Attack%, Power%, HP) only HP changes with SIZ.
HP/2 Attack% and Power% are only dependent on random characteristics.

 

Hello! Have a look at the summoning rules in Stormbringer 1st edition, if you can. They have a marvelous system for summoning elementals and demons.

On 2017-11-09 at 12:59 AM, Questbird said:

In normal BRP, if you roll ⅕ of your attack roll you get a Special success. This causes extra effects, depending on your weapon. The Big Gold Book list these on pp.194-7. The only one I've changed for the hitpointless system is the Bleeding one (for edged weapons). Instead of causing extra hit points of damage -- not measurable in a hitpointless system -- it requires an extra Resilience roll each round to stay conscious, until the bleeding is staunched.

Example

Two street brawlers face each other in Knifer's Alley in the city of Beelzebahn. Let's say they each have Resilience 11, and otherwise normal abilities. They are wearing heavy clothes (armour factor 1).

The first rolls a special success against the other, who fails to parry. The Special effect will depend on the weapon the first thug is using

• a bleeding effect for a slashing weapon. Resilience roll for the second thug is normal: 50% + ((Resilience – (damage - armour)) x 5%). If it was a scimitar (base damage 8), this formula would be: 50 + ((11-(8-1)) x5 ) = 70% chance of the second thug staying up. However the 2nd thug must repeat this 70% roll at the end of subsequent rounds (even if he doesn't get hit that round) to see if he can resist collapsing from blood-loss.
• +4 damage for a club (base damage 6). That is, the damage bonus is increased to the next level. In this case, damage bonus is raised from 0 to 4. Resilience roll would be 50 + ((11-((6+4)-1))x5 = 60% chance of staying conscious after this blow. The effect of this special is to make it harder for the target to make the Resilience roll; there is more chance of being knocked unconscious by a crushing blow.
• An impaling weapon doubles the damage, but doesn't ignore armour (need a critical for that). Say the first thug wasn't a thug at all but a militiaman with a spear (damage 8). The Resilience roll would be: 50 + ((11-(16-1) x5) =  30%. There's obviously quite a difference between weapon types. In this case a spear is very effective in expert hands vs. a lightly armoured foe. By contrast a normal hit with the spear would result in the same Resilience check as the Scimitar above -- 70% for the target to stay fighting, but without the bleeding effect.

 

 

Thank you for your extensive and very explanatory reply. But for me, this is all too much rules for just a few different damage types and what could IMHO be streamlined into something much simpler and yet more playable. This is also symptomatic for the new BRP version (BGB) and such that has made this old system into a brick stone, too heavy to even lift and much less to use in everyday RPGing. It's number crunching invasion into the world of BRP that atleast for me, stood for simplicity and fast playability. Sad, really.

On ‎2017‎-‎11‎-‎05 at 8:49 AM, Questbird said:

The system doesn't do instant death. It does 'knocked out of the fight'. If you are bleeding out, you might not be very active at the time. I also incorporated bleeding into the system by using the BGB specials:

a special attack (1/5)

has the normal effect for the weapon, ie. Bleeding, Crushing, Entangling, Impaling or Knockback as per BGB pp.194-7, with the following changes:

Bleeding

Instead of inflicting extra hit points, it requires a Resilience check each subsequent round at the same level as the original, until staunched (see BGB p.195)

Crushing

Base damage increased to the maximum for the next damage bonus level, as per BGB p.195.

Impaling

Doubles max weapon damage, as per BGB p.196. Armour still counts.

That sounds good. "Knocked out of the fight" seems like a general term that covers more I understand, but the question is if it's only seen as results of that kind of "special attack" you mention? Sorry if I sound like a noob here, but I have not read that part of the Gold Book.

Thanks for your replies. But even with the existing rules, I'm not certain the gist of what I proposed is used in them. For instance, the possibility of slowly bleeding out, instead of instant death is IMHO more possible - and in my experience more preferable - with having "minus HP".

I have followed this thread a little, not minutely, but of what I have seen or read this idea of levels of health as opposed HP to is intriguing. It perhaps takes away the "game mechanical feel" of keeping track of HP and the problem of HP not really illustrating characters general feel and function when wounded.

I just wanted to add that I have been house ruling the basic amount of HP a character can have, almost from the beginning of my BRP usage. In my BRP games a player character always can take as much minus HP as he or she has plus HP. So if a PC has 15 HP, he or she can go down to -15 HP and at 0 HP the PC is unconscious instead of dead, but beyond 15 the PC in this instance would be killed. Maybe something similar could be used in the HP-less model? Just an idea. //Erik.

I admit, it was a good thing this GBG thing was put forth and finally done for the future, in case anyone who likes this sort of thing must have all the data in one place. But, I am not a particular fan of "rules bibles". For me, a modular system is much more usable, atleast when it comes to BRP, my favourite RPG system of all time. It breaks down into how you use the rules. Are they just a base for your own interpretation of BRP, which needs so much less details? Or are they something you need like a rules map describing ALL possibilities. The latter indicates that the user don't have much experience or interest (or both) in house ruling the system, which in my RPG life has always been something that happens sooner or later. So, this book, IMHO seems suited to the players that wants EVERY question answered but don't have the inner drive of tinkering with the rules to the extent that they truly evolve beyond their starting ideas.

I love it when Chaosium and its products is so hot that the stock runs out! Happy days! (and suck on that D&Ders).

Hello all (and especially greetings to the author of this thread)! This is definately a very interesting thread and a subject. I myself could spend days debating its pros and cons.

I just wanted to point out that something close to this kind of skill system (if I am correct in assuming it's in tune what I am implying) is already used in the old Ringworld RPG from the eighties. If this has been already pointed out, I am sorry as I haven't read through all the replies here. Thanks for an interesting subject. //Erik. 

Sorry for the VERY late reply to this but many, many thanks to you Colin Brett for all your hard work put into this! I appreciate it immensely. 

The reason for the lateness of my reply is a new employment and moving to a new flat. Phew! //Erik.

On 2016-03-20 at 10:44 AM, ColinBrett said:

Thanks for the kind words, dracopticon and Baron. The rules are due a clean-up (definitely) and a rewrite (maybe) when BRP Essentials comes out. I'm thinking of using Clarence Redd's BRP Starships/BRP Space as the ship-to-ship combat system (I'll ask Clarence's permission before doing so). 

I have Dark Heresy 1.0 and Deathwatch and but not Only War or Black Crusade. Is there anything "missing" from my adaptation that you'd like to see in a future edition?

Regards,

Colin

Sorry for my late reply. All praise is due to your great work Colin. When the 40K-setting is possible to see through the BRP mesh, it's for the first time really enjoyable I think. I also have 1st edition Dark Heresy, and also Deathwatch, Only War and Rogue Trader, but not Black Crusade. I have been playing table top wargaming on and off since the eighties. The goal for me is to have a rather long campaign either in Only War (as having the players playing the platoon of a regiment) or Dark Heresy. I just don't know what the changes are in the 2nd ed, and if there really are useful stuff there. My great inspiration is Dan Abnett's books.

I downloaded Mr. Bretts fabulous pdf and was really amazed by the amount of work he had done on this. It IS Rogue Trader and I would've hoped it was some work done of Dark Heresy or Only War, but heck it's just a formality to change the focus. The rules are basically the same and with this BRP injection it's much more playable in my eyes.

Wonderful! And thanks Baron for your tip.

1 hour ago, Baron said:

Colin Brett has written up a guide. It may be hosted here.

What? That sounds awesome. I have to find it.