Wolverine

Rules for "Alignment" are really outdated. Who needs guidelines to role-play their character? Not everyone falls neatly into a category, so why should are characters? So how does Allegiance differ from Alignment?

I will be writing up the basics for BRP Star Wars, if anyone is interested. It seems a lot of people are. Of course, I still have my BRP Sharpe scenarios sitting on my hard drive. They need working on too! I'll post up the files on PDF, once I've worked on them.

I'm using the equipment straight out of the BRP book. One thing I must point out is, because Star Wars is very heroic, hit points are worked out using CON+SIZ as a total. BRP is a very gritty system, and can very horrific when it comes to personal combat. A critical and that's scratch one player character. That's why I doubled hit points for heroic characters. That includes major antagonists, such as Darth Vader, to represent the threat they pose. Non-heroic characters, such as Stormtroopers and the like, then keep hit points as normal. A blaster bolt should fell them easily. For converting characteristics, here is an idea: 1D = 8 2D = 10 3D = 12 4D = 15 5D = 18 New = Original WEG STR = Strength DEX = Dexterity CON = Strength SIZ = Roll for using normal rules INT = Knowledge + Technical divided by 2 POW = Perception + Technical divided by 2 APP = Perception + Knowledge divided by 2

I've been running BRP Star Wars for sometime. It's only my old, existing Star Wars gaming group that needs to be converted. To make it simple, I've decided that if you have 5D in a skill, a player simply adds +50% to the relevant skill base in BRP. Working out characteristics is a little harder to do. I need to work that part out. The easiest option is re-stat the characters from scratch. Since I started working on BRP Star Wars long before the current BRP book went into production, the Force works differently. It augments existing skills. It is clear that Jason's Galactic Knight is an example of Jedi, and uses Psychic Powers. You can easily use that instead. Plus weapons, armour, and vehicles are covered in the BRP book.

I don't want to sound negative, but to be honest, this setting doesn't interest me what-so-ever. Why, you may be asking? You have failed to sell it to me. It's all great telling us that you have 60 playable races, that you have this and that in your world. That's just glitter. You've not told us nothing about how the world works, how you plan to apply the BRP mechanics, what makes your game better than all the others on sale. All you've done is taken buzz words from other similar games and applied them to your own. Your game sounds rather like a Cyberpunk meets Sword and Sorcery; another take on the Shadowrun or RIFTS. And can I ask you, do we need another game like that on the market? What is going to make people like myself buy your game instead? What makes it different and unique?

Almost a decade ago, I started running The Fallen; a game set in my own Cyberpunk world. I created my own mechanics and everything. Considering that the world has demons, angels, and the supernatural, as well as the usual Cyberpunk trappings, I realised what better system to use for it other than BRP. BRP is off the shelf, spilling with these things, ready to go. All I need to do is have one rulebook and I'm away. I plan to continue my Star Wars campaign, moving from D6 to BRP; rather than D20 Saga Edition. With D20, even though the new Saga Edition rules are flexible to a certain degree, I've found that BRP is better suited. BRP is open ended, and allows the players to develop the skills and abilities they want. In D20, you have to wait to go up a level before you improve, no matter what skills you use or actions you undertake. Plus it's heavily geared towards combat. In BRP, you improve the skills you use, and the system allows for a role-play element to the story to become more central. I know Star Wars is action based, and BRP is rather gritty. But play-testing has gone to show how BRP is rather suited to the setting.

Thanks. I applaud you. People should not "tarnish" Gwenthia with the same brush, just because it uses the MRQ SRD. I happen to like MRQ. I'm also using it for Athennia, my own fantasy setting. I would use BRP, but I feel the license is just too costly. If it was OGL, however, I would use it in an instant. There is only a handful of non-Mongoose products being written for MRQ, and vast majority of it is of an excellent standard. I feel that there is a lot of anger aimed at MRQ for no good reason. People should take a step back for a moment, and see the potential of the system, rather than seeing it as the arch-rival to BRP.

I'm lucky enough to own original copies of the RQ3 books that Games Workshop released. Same text as in the monographs. I use the books for reference now, rather than to role-play with. Still have some useful things in them.

Pete's Rome book is a good start. I'm thinking on carrying on with my Star Wars BRP game I started a few years back. A nice idea for a Convention scenario, I think.

This was the reply I got a while back from Dustin about the BRP license:

A friend, who has a proof copy, let me glance through it. I must say, I'm rather looking forward to it. Looks rather smashing! Pity that we wont get it until after Christmas. But I did notice my name under the "Special Thanks" section. Thanks Jason!

Some of you will be more familiar with the Television series of the same name, starring Sean Bean in the title role. The trilogy of scenarios is something I run just for friends or at conventions, and are not designed for publication. I am aware of, but cannot say anything more at the present, that a certain publisher has acquired the Cornwell license, and may in the future publish an official Sharpe RPG. If that comes to pass, I may write them up for that publisher. Currently, I'm using Chaosium's BRP system for Sharpe. I was on the play-test for the new rules, as written and compiled by Jason. So, Sharpe was the setting I primarily used when I partook in the play-testing.

I should really introduce myself. I'm Nathan Baron, and I'm one of the members of the Design Mechanism behind Gwenthia. I also run the Eternal Champion Yahoo group, which supports not only the brand new Mongoose's Eternal Champion line, but also the old Chaosium one. I have been a supporter of BRP for over a decade now, playing the various incarnations of Stormbringer/Elric, as well as Call of Cthulhu and RuneQuest. At the moment, I'm enjoying Mongoose RuneQuest, which, of course, is hybrid of BRP. I'm pretty famous for my Sharpe BRP games, based on the Bernard Cornwell books, which always go down a storm at conventions. (The games were part of my play-test for Jason's new incarnation of the BRP rules). At the moment, I'm busily prepping the second scenario for my Sharpe trilogy, ready for next year. I'm also planning a second BRP Star Wars scenario. The first I ran as a solo adventurer for Loz Whitaker, who thoroughly enjoyed it. The adventure was set during the Clone Wars, but the sequel will be set during the Rebellion era, and will use the same locations and most of the original NPCs. Thanks!

Looking good, Pete! Can't wait to play this.

Having caught a sneak peak, I would like to know more myself!