The Venomous Pao

I'm rather new to BRP myself (I played Runequest about two times back in the 80s) but the system seems dead simple to me. It has lots of room for complication and confusion, sure, but these are all things (as noted by others above) you don't need to play the game. The one thing I'd suggest - and this is based on introducing casual gamers to other games I've played - is to run your first game with pre-generated characters. Hand them a well put together character with a hint of developed personality and let them get into the game without having to start from scratch. This way they get to play rather than build, which seems to help. Basically, treat it like a more codified version of the "dinner murder mystery" games and watch the casual folk ham it up. Then, once they're hooked, you can throw them the chance for them to develop their own characters.

it works for me, at least when it comes to hairstyles...

drohem does not have the buddha nature. I got the pm spam, too. last night, actually. but I was too busy being zen to report it... ohm.

Rockin'. You rock, rocker. And yes, the cedar has been quite unpleasant 'round these parts lately. :eek:

Here's a minor one: In the "customizing professions" example featuring the medieval mystery solver, the suggested change from "Missile Weapons" to "Melee Weapons" lists "1H Sword" as the specialty. It looks like the rest of the rules don't separate 1h and 2h swords out as separate specialties but instead just call it "sword" without any further splitting of type. Very, very minor. But it caught my eye last night.

Oh don't worry, amigo. That was the old days. In these new times, I'll be serving up steaming hot plates of BRP whether the lads & lasses want it or not

Cool. That was more-or-less my guess. But it's nice to know for sure. I think that all the references to "1 SIZ" got things turned around and somehow that got dropped. At least, that would be my guess Thanks again. That makes good sense.

Two more that I spotted last night (but failed to post)... 1) The Force Field power never seems to clearly state what armor value each level of the power confers. 2) The Defense power has conflicting info. In the power summary table it is listed as a 5% benefit per level but in the actual description of the power it is listed as a 1% benefit per level. I don't have the book with me right now, so I can point to specific page numbers, sorry.

In recent years it's really just been some Castles & Crusades and a little bit of 3rd edition D&D before that. Going back a little further we've got some Hero system and (separately) FUZION supers. Back in the 90s I wound up playing more GURPS stuff than anything else. Except for the early 90s when there was some hybrid 1e/2e AD&D and a wonderful Justice, Inc. pulp campaign. That's pre-unified Hero rules for those who don't recognize the name. Headed back into the 80s it was TFT (ah, sweet TFT), LBB Traveller, 1e AD&D, Moldvay Basic/Expert D&D, and much Champions. Throw in some brief flirtations with Villains & Vigilantes, Daredevils and Top Secret and I think that's really it for actual playing. There's a whole bunch of stuff I've owned but never really got to do anything with - running the gamut from Bunnies & Burrows to Big Eyes, Small Mouth with countless weird stops in between. Hey! There's something missing in there. Actually, no. As odd as it is (given that I'm here now) I never really played any Runequest or CoC or other BRP games. I always thought the system was neat, but no one else around me was really playing it. So I'd look over my Superworld, WoW and BRP books, sigh, and then put them away for the mythical rainy day. Which never came around. Until now

My original plan was to hit the ground running with a swords and sorcery fantasy game using a world that I came up with a while back. And that may still happen, but when I put together the two Crouching Tiger knock off characters (in the Rogues' Gallery thread) I found myself wanting to head straight into a wuxia wonderland. I was surprised to see just how well I could realize that kind of character with BRP.* They manage to catch the flavor without a bunch of complicated rules or absurdly-named powers dragging them down. Heck, I think if I were careful about it I could run a wuxia-esque asian fantasy game for my players who have long insisted that they didn't want to play in a wuxia game and they might not even realize it was happening at first. Just start them off as "unpowered" soldiers and such, do an adventure or two where things are "normal" asian fantasy (look! hopping vampire! kill it!) and slowly amp up the wuxia until they're into it. Or not. Anyway, I voted fantasy/historical since I'm sure that's where I'll wind up. Unless my itch for something wild west-y flares up again. Or maybe a mad desire to run a short, street-level heroes Superworld thing will overtake me. Damn, the possibilities really are endless * I know, I know. I shouldn't have been. BRP is wonderful and great and can do anything. But I was still surprised

Holy mother of! How did I miss that post the first time 'round? Your forecast puts even the best meteorologist to shame! One thing I realized I should add, in relation to my last post (about BRP not being a toolkit and being easy to use)... The same can, of course, be said about certain nice implementations of D&D, specifically Castles & Crusades. Their limitation, of course, is that they're nice, simple "get on with the show" versions of D&D and not much else. So if you really want to do the D&D experience, they're great. But if you want to play a genre that doesn't fit that mold, then you're back to spending a bunch of time tweaking the system beyond its limits. BRP doesn't actually have those limits (classes, specifically, but other things as well). Of course BRP can do a pretty good approximation of the D&D experience, but to me there's a difference between any other approach to High Fantasy and the *actual* D&D experience. So if I really want to be Gygaxian, I might as well just be Gygaxian. But for all those other times when I don't want Gary on my back, BRP lets me explore other flavors of the genre without, well, Gary on my back.* So there. I said something nice about another game but still kept loyal to the game we're focused on at this message board. Isn't that some kind of internet first? Don't I get a medal or something? * I apologize for this image. No one really needed it embedded in their brain. But once it occurred to me I had to get it out lest I begin failing sanity checks.

Hear, hear! Put me in the "keep it simple" camp. I love Hero and used to like GURPS. They're both great toolkits. But what I like about BRP-0 so far is that it's exactly not a toolkit. It's a game. Yes, there are options but if I want to sit down with my players and say "ok, make fantasy characters. now!" we can do it without needing either to go through multiple steps to specify how magic powers should be built nor do we need to decide which countless supplements (wonderful as they may be) to choose from. We can just go and play.* Then again, this is just my take on things. * I used to be able to do that with Hero, but that was a long time ago and before the excellent Mr. Long truly revealed the toolkit hiding in the rules. I respect that stuff like nothing else, but I don't have time for it at this point in my gaming life.

Right, of course they do. I don't see any damage values in the BRP-0 tables that seem wildly (or even moderately, to my sensibilities) out of whack. I don't own MRQ, nor am I interested in it, so I'm not sure where that applies. In any case, all I'm saying is that to me the tables seem fine enough as-is for a generic (or perhaps multi-genre) and relatively low-crunch game. They're certainly ok enough for them not to be a focus going into the home stretch of public release. But that, of course, is just my opinion.

I was originally going to reply to this last night in a snippy and therefore entirely unhelpful way. But I went to sleep instead. Fair warning: I come from the not-gun-oriented side of the argument. I do not intend to dismiss the needs of my gun-oriented brethren and sistren nor to I profess to speak for all role-players. I'm just talkin' 'bout me, here, people To me guns in RPGs are just tools to make sounds and cause the bad guys to fall down. Within the core rulebook of a generic game, worrying over the differences between the styles, makes and models to me is as pointless as worrying over the fundamental differences between different varieties of "longsword" or different styles of maces (knobbed vs. flanged?!?!). Therefore, I find the tables are fine as-is. As someone upthread mentioned, if BRP-0 were a book dedicated to modern tactical warfare then the tables would be woefully weak. But for what it is, to me, they're fine. A bit dull, perhaps, but fine. Perhaps a little more info than just the three grades of pistol and the three grades of revolver would be nice (for example), but I'd rather see the typos, unclear passages, mixed up descriptions (POW or other characteristic as base budget for super powers, for example) and such things cleaned up before release than having that time be spent on developing "perfect" tables for guns. One set of things will affect my ability to play the game. The other won't. All that said, I would definitely expect to see more involved (and accurate) information on different gun models in any supplement that was intended to address genres that focused on modern weapons, though, and would be sorely disappointed if such tables did not actually appear in said volume(s). But for now, we're not talking about those volumes.

Yep. There sure is. I believe it's referred to as "Total Hit Points."

Coolness. Y'all will just want to hit that first paragraph then. Thanks for the responses, Jason.

Perhaps I should have clarified... (a) The little chart for Step Six appears on the call-out character sheet thing. Excellent. ( There is text discussing Step Six on page 21 - very nice © On page 31, though, there is no mention of Step Six at all. It seems like a paragraph here might help. Then again, I might be a moron That's what I meant. Do with it as you will.

Step Six comes just before you get into "real" skill selection. the gist of it is that you choose a (my words here) personality type for your character that addresses the way he/she approaches problems and get 13 skills at 20% for "free." In the book there are four types listed: physical/combat, craft/technique, outsmart others, and persuade others. One could easily come up with additional setting-specific options, of course, but those are the canned options. So, if you're building a straightforward martial sort, you might opt for #1 and get a couple of weapons, dodge, climb, jump, ride and so on. Or if you're thinking con man, #4 is the way to go. And so on. This frees up some of your skill points (260 points, actually!) to allow you to focus on broadening your character. Or to allow you to excel at some stuff that you might not otherwise due to limited points and skill caps at the lower power levels. The book clearly lists this as an optional item and suggests it be applied to (paraphrased) those stalwart heroes of pulp action, space opera and high fantasy. So if you feel Step Six is overpowering you're not stuck with it being "on."

Thanks, Tweaker. It's been a long time since I've had this much fun playing with a new (to me) system. BRP is a joy to work with. And I know what you mean about the stat blocks. I've played too many games that were, shall we say, overgrown of late. It's too bad that Step 6 is so easy to miss. It's a great concept and it really gives characters a nice little nudge in the right direction without forcing them into some straight jacket of a path. So far I've found that using it in conjunction with the "normal" level of skill points/caps allows characters to be competent in their core concepts but still have that nice little stretching out that non-class-based games allow. I'm certain my eventual players will appreciate that. Now I just have to decide what kind of character I want to make next. I think it's time to move on to a more modern era. We'll see what falls onto the page next.

Next up, two conflicting wuxia heroines. Built with the heroic stats option (2d6+6), but with normal skill point levels. I used the "complex" Skill Category Bonuses, too. I also used Step Six. For these two, the highest level of Super Powers was used as well, with the highest stat (modified) serving as the budget. Super Movement and Unarmed Combat are expensive. Name Zhang Jen, The Thief of Destiny Race Human Gender Female Age 16 Handedness Right Height 5'5" Weight 109 lbs. Distinctive Features Graceful bearing, High Cheekbones, Lithe Pulp Personality Type #2 (Crafty!) Profession Noble STR 10 Effort Roll 50% Hit Points 12 CON 14 Stamina Roll 70% Major Wound 6 SIZ 10 Damage Bonus none Power Points 59 INT 14 Idea Roll 70% Exp Bonus 7 POW 17 Luck Roll 85% Move 10 DEX 19 Agility Roll 90% APP 16 Charisma Roll 80% Skills Appraise 42% Bargain 25% Brawling 65% Craft: 32% Disguise 31% Dodge 75% Drive: Wagon 11% Etiquette 45% Fine Manipulation 50% First Aid 57% Grapple 50% Hide 30% Jump 50% Knowledge: Martial Arts History 52% Language: Mandarin 50% Language: Cantonese 20% Listen 34% Literacy 41% Martial Arts 51% Navigate 39% Pilot: Boat 31% Ride: Horse 25% Sleight of Hand 41% Status 75% Stealth 60% Sword 65% Throw 35% Powers Unarmed Combat 1 (20) Super Movement: Lightfoot 1 (10) Leaping 2 (2) Extra Energy 4 (4) Items Longsword (65%/65%) 1d8 Cloth Armor (1d2-1)[/HTML] [HTML]Name Yeoh Shu, Friend of Wudang Race Human Gender Female Age 30 Handedness Ambidextrous Height 5'4" Weight 104 lbs. Distinctive Features Bright Eyes Pulp Personality Type #3 (Outsmarter!) STR 13 Effort Roll 65% Hit Points 13 CON 15 Stamina Roll 75% Major Wound 7 SIZ 10 Damage Bonus none Power Points 24 INT 16 Idea Roll 80% Exp Bonus 8 POW 14 Luck Roll 70% Move 10 DEX 16 Agility Roll 80% APP 14 Charisma Roll 70% Skills Appraise 43% Bargain 35% Brawling 75% Climb 59% Club/Mace 45% Disguise 31% Dodge 75% Grapple 67% Insight 35% Jump 54% Knowledge: Accounting 53% Knowledge: Business 53% Listen 75% Martial Arts 45% Research 55% Sense 50% Spear 55% Spot 75% Stealth 59% Technical: Traps 33% Status 45% Sword 75% Throw 64% Powers Super Movement: Lightfoot 1 (10) Leaping 1 (1) Extra Energy 1 (1) Unarmed Combat 1 (20) Items 2 X Shortsword (75%/75%) 1d6+1 Cloth Armor (1d2-1) [/HTML]

Aha. Got it. Makes perfect sense and I figured one could be created if needed. Thanks. I haven't. But I've certainly had more than my fair share of characters who juggled. I especially like the rules systems where juggling buys you a chance to catch thrown knives and throw them back at your attacker

No acrobatics skill? Juggle is listed twice as a specialty under Perform. And that's on top of it being used as the "acting w/o skill" example. Which one of you really likes to juggle?

Another spot that seems confusing/contradictory- Starting Super Powers: Power Budget (p.141) This section states that the POW characteristic becomes the power budget and may be modified through power modifiers. Then it says that the GM can further modify the budget based on campaign power level. Cool so far. But the examples of how the budget gets modified all reference "highest initial unmodified characteristic" instead of POW as the base value for the power budget. That move away from POW continues in the rest of the section. So... is it POW or is it whichever characteristic is highest? I have no problem with making a call on my own, of course. But I'm curious what the intent is. And I suppose it would be nice if that were clarified for others who might get hung up more than I'm willing to be

Well thank goodness for that! Splitting up the various skill points was mildly nerve-wracking. Most likely, yes. It seems that's the best (only?) way to get to multiple attacks in a round. And if the folks I hope to get playing with eventually don't get a chance to make multiple attacks per round they'll start crying. And I can't have that! Thanks for the feedback, badcat.

Here's my hillman barbarian. He was built with the "heroic" stat option (2d6+6), but with normal skill point levels. I used the "complex" Skill Category Bonuses, too. I also used Step Six. This is the first character I've made in any form of BRP since about 1983, so any input on how he looks mechanics-wise would be appreciated. I'll be posting other characters to this thread as I make them, and would love to see others do the same. And now, without further ado, I give you Kinan the Barbarian! Name Kinan Race Human Gender Male Age 18 Handedness Right Height 6' Weight 200 lbs. Profession Tribesman "Pulp" Personality Type Physical STR 17 Effort Roll 85% Hit Points 15 CON 17 Stamina Roll 85% Major Wound 8 SIZ 13 Damage Bonus 1d6 Power Points 12 INT 11 Idea Roll 55% Exp Bonus 6 POW 12 Luck Roll 60% Move 10 DEX 15 Agility Roll 75% APP 10 Charisma Roll 50% Skills Appraise 27% Brawling 75% Climb 71% Club/Mace 75% Craft: Blacksmith 33% Dagger 43% Dodge 75% Fine Manipulation 23% Grapple 75% Hide 51% Insight 30% Jump 66% Knowledge: Natural History 23% Listen 40% Persuade 22% Ride 46% Sense 35% Shield 75% Spot 75% Stealth 46% Swim 56% Throw 75% Track 51% Items Light Mace (75%/75%) 1d6+2 Heater Shield (75%) Hide Armor (1d3-1) [/HTML]