ORtrail

Make no mistake, it was a softball over the plate. The Criminal Mimes were throwing around 2D6 attacks, the thugs had just pistols. No where near Avengers level characters, well, certainly not Thor, Hulk, or Iron Man. Captain America, Hawkeye, and Black Widow would have been right at home. I think the World of Warcraft experience gave her a sense of tactics though, she was reluctant to just attack right away (which was good and I wanted to split up the mimes anyway to give her the most advantage). We talked a bit afterwards comparing the experience to her sitting around with friends on laptops playing WoW. Far less structure with pen-and-paper, but the freedom to act and improvise was exciting. Note to self: Must have cops lead out the Criminal Mimes in handcuffs, while a detective says, "Don't do the mime, if you can't do the time."

Yes, even as I did it, I knew it was too much of a good thing. I just had to give examples of a hero who could create duplicates of themselves, a spiderwoman clone, a Hawkwoman clone, and so on. Her main worry after all that was picking the "wrong" hero. Thanks, I'll take a look, though the family dinner got bumped up to this coming Wednesday, so I will stay with Superworld for now. Now, how did things go this evening? Fairly well, though by the time we sat down to work on her character she had decided she wanted to play Countess instead of Future Shock. Ten minutes into that, she pondered Magna Lupus, and then settled on Jitterbug. I had prepared myself for a stop-and-start kind of gaming session, so no worries. Remember when all those odd dice were confusing and difficult to tell apart? Yeah, me neither, but there is a learning curve. Even after a quick explanation of the dice. Me: "Okay I need a percentage roll, those two ten-sided dice." Her: *Picking up the D20 and D12* "These two?" Me: *Grin* "Uh, no." She rolled an excellent set of attributes (high of 16, lowest was 12) and bought Size Change (spendy getting down to SIZ 1 but nice bonus versus missle/projection attacks), Wings (flight) and Energy Projection ("Electro-sting" blast). Add in some Armor, Absorbtion, Energy, and Skill increases and we were ready to go. I copied a random Wealth chart from somewhere and she got an "Independently Wealthy" roll. Okay, Victoria Van Cleef is an heiress of a honey producer fortune, and an entolmologist. Her great uncle was the hero "Stinger" back in the day, and is retired but her mentor after her mutant powers manifested. She intends to avenge the murder of her parents -I'll figure those details out for her a bit later, unless she does it first. Oh, she changed her name to Queen Bee. My wife started on a Inuit Mountie before wandering of to play with our great niece. Solo adventure it is. I had Virginia Van Cleef meeting the with a Trust Executive at a branch of the First Century Bank. They had discovered yet another trust fund set up by her parents and she was in to sign some papers. As this goes on a scruffy young man walks in with a hooded vest and sunglasses. Sensing trouble, the executive excuses himself and heads out to the lobby. I had fun with the dialogue of course. "The executive approaches the hooded man, 'Welcome to First Century Bank. We are too big to fail. Can I help you?' The thug pulls out a pistol and smiles. As this happens two mimes, male and female, enter the bank. The male mime draws a "U" shape in the air, grabs it, and waves it around. The bank is plunged into darkness as lightbulbs burst, computer screens go dark, and phones stop working." She was freaked out by the mimes, declaring them "creepy". She also stayed hidden in the office and asked me, "Am I SUPPOSED to do something about this?" I just smiled and shrugged. "The female mime makes a whipping motion, knocking the smart phone from the hand of a customer who looked like he was going to shoot video. The man yells out, 'No, they killed my Siri... Siri!!!' The female mime puts a finger to her lips and motions toward the floor." I had her roll versus the mime telepathic suggestion which she easily made. Resistance Table introduced. Niece laughed at the death of the smart phones and stated she was outnumbered and staying in the office. "Okay, the thug heads over to the tellers with a bag and demands it be filled. The male mime is keeping an eye on the customers and bank employees. The female mime heads back to the vault, mimes a door outline, opens it, and steps through the vault door." I knew the niece has a gaming future when she then said, "Oh, they need to mime to use their powers, I just need to tie them up." She thought for a moment, then decided then since she didn't have any rope, she would activate her Size Change, fly out and attack the male mime while the odds were more in her favor (one versus two, instead of one versus three). She had cranked up her Hide and Move Quietly skills and easily got in a shot to the mimes back. She did worry that his "magnet trick" might mean he was immune to electromagnetic attacks, but blasted him anyway. There followed six rounds of combat, with her focusing on taking down the male mime, chasing after the thug as he fled out the doors to the waiting van and driver (but missing her two attacks on him as he fled). She went back inside to battle the female mime who was doing a chest compression mime on her partner. She had healed him back to consciousness but he was quickly blasted back down by Queen Bee. The female mime took two hits and she was done also. Queen Bee headed back out to the van and blasted the two thugs who had waited to see what would happen (and I need her to have a look in the van). At this point she asked, "Should I kill them?" I replied, "Well, you are a super HERO, and you can hear sirens approaching as the police rush to the scene." At this point she was recognized by some of the bank customers and they praised her for the rescue. The bank executive asked "Who is going to pay for all this damage? Wait, I guess we can add some fee, or get another bailout." The niece looked at me and asked if her character was responsible for paying? "If you want," I replied, "but usually no." I mimed as much as I could think of during the battle, and the niece would call out what they were doing ("Oh, that's a grenade!" or "Arrow!" etc.) but with her combination of size and speed she was never in much danger -even if she thought she was. I think she took 6 points of damage the whole battle. All in all she seemed to enjoy herself and was excited when I noted that there were some clues in the van as she looked through it. "There's more to this?" she asked. I was going to have the little girl give her the missing cat poster at this point, but I had left it at home (along with all the paper miniatures I printed out). Oh well, it was a good stopping point and next time she will have another player or two to help her out. For not gaming before she picked up on things quickly, even rolling the right dice by the end of the evening. She did start out with wanting to "blast the mime, then I'll fly over and blast the thug, then I'll..." but my wife advised her, "One thing at a time." We ended up spending five hours on character creation and a quick bank robbery, but she now knows she can play this type of RPG if she wants to. She even has a nice set of red speckled dice.

We've exchanged numerous texts, emails, and a phone call. I ended up sending her a list of TEN potential characters with brief notes -and she seemed a bit overwhelmed. I wanted to demonstrate the very wide range of character concepts you can have with supers, but on the plus side she clearly likes Future Shock the best. She was worried that the character might not be poweful enough, but I explained in general terms that you can easily scale attacks so that a punch can be as good as a laser pistol, or a claw, or a legendary sword, and so on. We have firmed up plans to get together tomorrow afternoon to dice shop and roll up her character (and the wife's too). I told her I'll have Future Shock partially completed and she can roll up her attributes (4D6, best three) and spend the left over Hero points (I usually have Hero points equal all attributes totaled, plus 25, plus any disadvantage points). I'll spend 70-80 points and let her tweak things with the rest. Mental note: explain to her that supers start out rather powerful and progress slowly, though that is somewhat true of most BRP genres. In comparison to games where you level up at least. I found a large set of paper minatures, supers and modern, that I bought from RPGNow way back in 2003. They don't seem to sell this set anymore, and not much in the way of supers either. I've got 16 pages of miniatures though, with 20 characters on most pages, so one should be close enough to work. Most in B&W, but colored pencils can resolve that. I am inclined to use more props for this, perhaps to keep things less abstract so she can relate to what is going on. Again, basing this on her experience with World of Warcraft. We should have from about 2 PM till 8 PM or so on Saturday. Minus dinner and shopping tiime, no reason we can't squeeze in at least 3 hours of actual play. I'll prepare a very simple mugging to start with, so she can grok the basics of attack, defense, rolling damage, etc., and then perhaps progress on to the two-part bank robbery adventure I've titled; "Save the Calico, Save the World".

Okay, a lot to respond to here. My choice of Superworld is for a number of reasons. I know the game system very well, it will be easy for her to pick up (percentages, the rest is details) and if you stick with 'street level' type supers BRP works just fine (nothing above Spiderman, and excellent for Hawkman, Captain America, and Batman types). I did take a look at the Heroquest: Core Rules PDF preview over on RPGNow -it's even on sale. Interesting enough that I will check to see if I can find a physical copy this weekend. Failing that, I might just get the PDF version. That said, I would rather she learn BRP right now, and then it would be an easy transition to some other BRP genres. Agenda? Me? Have you worked out how your heroine is going to be able to slip out of her street clothes and get into costume so she can fight the mimes without being spotted? If she can't change clothes she might be hampered in dealing with the criminals. It had crossed my mind, she might opt for a Public ID and it wont matter, but even if she does I will have the Criminal Mimes knock out the electrical systems in the bank. How? My first thought was, "The first mime strides confidently through the bank doors, then shuffles his feet as he turns to the nearest wall. As he touches the wall, there is a spark -lightbulbs burst and the building is plunged into shadow. The second mime does a whipping motion, knocking a smartphone from the hand of a customer who was trying to take photos or video. She then puts her finger to her mouth in a shushing motion and points to the floor. You feel a curious urge to quietly drop to the floor -the other customers and bank employees seem to feel the same." A good time to introduce the Resistance table, and she can dive behind a desk to change if need be. My second thought was to have the male mime draw a 'U' shape in the air, grab it, and wave it around the room, knocking out the electrical systems and all phones, etc. The female mime will head over to the vault, draw an door outline upon it, open it, and phase through the vault door. Naturally, I'll act out as much of the mime actions as I can. The limit to what these Criminal Mimes could do will be based on the damage levels I give them. Need to fly? Flap your arms or mime putting on a jetpack. Sonic attack? Mime drawing a bell and hit it with a mime hammer. Entangle attack? Mime a rope and lasso them. Need to throw in a bow and arrow mime attack for good measure. Oh, the family dinner is probably moved to the 10th of November, but I will try to get together with her and the wife to roll up characters (and buy dice, maybe HeroQuest too) this weekend. Speaking of characters, I have some ideas outlined on paper for her character: Jitterbug: Very similar to the Marvel Wasp character. She shrinks, shoots an electroblast, flys with little wings, OR this could be a speedster type. Future Shock A cyberpunk type of hero. Nantech enhanced, with a Taser Bullet pistol, retractable metal claws, and a cyberpath (telepathy but only with computer networks, smart devices). Countess A low level Supergirl type. Super strength, flight, energy blast, invulnerability. Magna Lupus A Hulk type in that she changes from human to a humanoid wolf, with a sidekick large wolf, animal control of canines, some heightened senses, natural weapons with bite and claws. The great thing is, I'll use the ones she doesn't want as villains or rival heroes. I did find that folder with a bunch of old characters, but we'll start fresh anyway, maybe bring the older ones in as mentors and such. BTW, the smiley face in my earlier post was to show I was not in the least actually upset with soltakiss for his suggestion about HeroQuest. I will readily admit the older I get the less inclined I am to learn new game systems though, unless something really grabs me. Universal systems still do that for me.

First, thanks to everyone for their input, except you soltakiss -why you got me BUYING more RPGs??? Seriously though, after talking with her she is fine with me creating 2-3 character concepts for her. Zomben, I like the way you think, and will follow along those lines. Oh, she wants her own dice, so I'll let her pick them out and then ("surprise") pay for them as her "welcome to pen and paper RPGs" gift. I'm going to use the WoW version of Superworld, with the designer notes from Different Worlds #23, some select bits from the boxed version of Superworld, and some house rules. I thought seriously about using the old Marvel Super Heroes game, an even simpler introduction to RPGs. Or the shiny new DC Adventures based on the new Mutants & Masterminds, but I don't know the system that well and it would not be cool to have the GM stopping and looking up things every 10 minutes or so. It has been about 15 years since I gamed with a complete newbie to RPGs, I am surprised at how geeked I am to help someone learn to play. Especially when it is someone I didn't think would EVER want to try something so nerdy. Not having kids, I guess this is how you parents feel when you sit down for the first time with your children. Okay, I'm going to very flexible when it comes to the first adventure. I might end up with just the niece playing, but if my wife's health issues don't flare up she will be there, and that leaves her brother as the most iffy. His wife had surgery a few weeks back and is doing fine, but she might have him on a short leash. I sat down earlier today and roughed out an outline for an adventure. It starts with her character dropping by a bank, and yes, moments after she enters robbers burst through the front doors. If she is solo I will have 3-4 gang members with guns. If there are two characters (I'll have the second hero be on patrol nearby or having followed the robber's van after noticing they looked suspicious) I'll add in two minor super villians. You know that show Criminal Minds? I've always joked, "Criminal Mimes!" when I see it on. Yes, a husband and wife team of evil mimes who can mime things into reality. Mime shooting a gun? The target gets shot (well, roll to attack anyway) and they suffer damage. Try and hit that mime? They mimic being behind a brick wall, etc. Should be fun, I'm used to running talkative villians and this will be quite the change of pace. I can have the gang members talk if needed I suppose. I'll bump up the Criminal Mimes power levels if I end up with three players/heroes. If there is time left, I'll have a 9 yr old girl give a handmade poster (thank you Google images) to the nieces character. Miss Kitty, the lovable calico cat has gone missing, can she help? By incredible coincidence of comic proportions, the gang van has a number of pet carriers in the back. Seems one of the thugs was nabbing calico cats and selling them for extra drug money. Selling to a rogue scientist of course, with a secret lab across town in the old warehouse district. The scientist was hired by very weathy old widow to recreate her beloved calico who died of old age last year. He needs various bits of DNA from an assortment of calico cats to make this work. Working in a bad neighborhood means the scientist has hired a super powered mercenary named Watchdog and a few of his men to guard the lab. If she is solo, she can take out the two guards while Watchdog needs a few moments to ready himself. If there are two or more heroes I'll have the scientist himself be a minor villain with genetic enhancements (speed, claws, etc.) and maybe throw in a mutated pet of his for good measure (human-dog hybrid, loyal and mean). "Save the cat, save the world." Time permitting, I would like to have her do a bit more investigative work, maybe working with some police contacts for example who can trace the owner of the van who loaned it out for the robbery and is actually the one rounding up the cats for $200 each? The combat should be fun in a supers game, but some more role playing opportunities and NPC interaction should help her see the advantage of pen and paper RPGs over the computer versions (namely freedom to try what you want). As always, thoughts and suggestion are welcomed.

We are supposed to go shopping earlier in the day on Saturday, so she can pick up a set of dice. There are two comic/game stores in town with excellent selections of dice, so it will just be a matter of her finding the right color, etc. Which leads me to believe she wants to understand/experience the "process" of rolling up a character. I will chat with her again later today and see if she has an idea of what she wants. I might take the middleground and have most of the powers, equipment and such done in advance, but let her roll for stats and then modify with Hero points. Part of me thinks she should experience the entire process though, even if it takes and hour or so. Which is why the Gamma World character seems more attractive (roll stats, roll for some mutations, write down a bit of equipment) as it would be a quicker process and yet give much of the flavor of super gaming. Post Apocalypse super heroes? So tempting... Anyway, I want her to have a fun and positive experience. Our hobby could use more youthful gamers after all.

No, not me. My 25 yr old niece called yesterday to ask if I could teach her how to play an RPG. She has played WoW (World of Warcraft not Worlds of Wonder) a few times, but somehow got the idea she would like to try a pen and paper game. Actually, she wants to play a super hero. She has never been into comics or RPGs, but maybe the Avengers movie (or all the rest of the flood of super hero movies) got her interested. The plan is to get together for a family dinner this coming Saturday, and find some time that evening to roll her up a character and play a quick game. My wife (who used to game back when we were dating and newly married -eons ago) is willing to play also. I might also get a brother-in-law to join us, he has played RPGs in the past. Both have some old super heros buried in a folder somewhere I could pull out. The super hero genre is familiar, yet I think coming up with a character can be a difficult and complex process -even for veteran gamers. Should I go with a simpler genre? Since she seems to want the power levels of a supers game, I am thinking of just doing an improvised BRP version of Gamma World. Mutations = super powers, and easier character creation. A simple "fetch the artifact from those ruins" scenario? Of course she could surprise me and roll up a super hero with minimal fuss, so a "you're in the local bank when..." scenario would be a great introduction too. Honestly, my first thought was she met some gamer guy and wanted to know more about RPGs. She says no, but I joked about those scenes from Big Bang Theory where a cute girl walks into the comic/gaming store. The niece lives just over an hour away, so I don't see this as a regular gaming thing with us, though if the wife gets interested again I guess it could be. Actually, part of this might be that she moved up from California this year and is looking to make new friends, so she might be thinking a gaming group would be a good start? I'll know more after this weekend, but in the meantime any thoughts/suggestions on what (or how) to run are welcome.

No stats to suggest, but depending on the players to act in a certain way, or take a certain path, is problematic. They could decide to make a 'last stand' in the woods for example, so make sure they have a reason to view the house as a possible safe haven. Or is there something in the house the Meenlocks need the characters to retrieve for them? Perhaps they capture an NPC or two and hold them in exchange for some item from the house? Can they be trusted to make the exchange without betrayal?

Congrats. I've been trying to get my local gaming/comic store to get me a copy, with the hope of getting more Chaosium products on their shelves. He (the store owner) has two copies of the BGB (softcover) and a couple other BRP things (Cthulu Invictus Companion and The Chronicles of Future Earth maybe one or two other items). His distributor seems to be the issue with getting more Chaosium stuff. I may just opt for the PDF version, but agreed to give him another couple weeks to get more BRP books. It probably didn't help I got him confused by mentiong Muse and the "Knights of Cydonia" video.

If by "helped turn Chaosium from a frontrunner to a has been" you meant, "the license that carried the company for more than two decades" then yeah, I TOTALLY agree.

Shut your whore mouth! Interesting. CoC was one of the first non fantasy RPGs I played, and quite a different animal. Gone were the days of being the big bad hero, you were a rather fragile human and more often than not things would end badly. Insanity instead of death? A near modern setting? The easiest version of the Chaosium BRP system to learn and use? CoC really stood out back in the day. I can see why some would not enjoy it though.

Not a lot to add to this thread, but I will say that I've ignored the starting percentages for shields for years now. I figure any of us could crouch behind Captain America's shield and survive a lot of attacks, right? Okay, extreme example, but I bumped up the base chance with most shields to 25%-35%, (with a cap for starting characters of 75% or so). So yes, even a complete newbie can strap a shield to their arm and have a chance of deflecting an attack or two. Agreeing with what has been said above: I think once you understand that the BGB (big gold book) is more of a menu of options, that you build the system YOU want to play out of, it makes more sense.

Ah, yes, closing. This does scream for an adjustment to combat in regards to who strikes first. I would not want to be the guy with a dagger trying to get close enough to an alert foe armed with a spear. At the very least, the spear wielder should get first attack. An Inititive Roll bonus for reach advantage (+5?) would be the simplest approach. For DEX Strike Rank, uh, go up (down actually) one level? More or less, but NOT consistently -which is what I wanted. A highly skilled character knows he will be rolling better damage than the typical city guard, not just hoping the rolls show that. This is also a good time to confess I have house-ruled Critical Hits for years as 10% of skill. Either you have a normal success or a critical. This started when I had a new RPG group of three newbies, and since it was all new to them the "10%" rule was very quick and easy for them to grasp and calculate at a glance of the (wierd) dice roll. Through a Superworld, a Multiverse, and a Pulp campaign over the next couple years I just never bothered to go back to the RAW (rules as written). Appreciate the input Atgxtg. I would prefer to leave as much of the BRP sytem "intact" and just tweak some things versus a radical change. That said, I am learning toward a way to make most weapons "all the same". In other words, you can pick most any weapon and not get penalized in damage capability or other ways that make it clear that there are only a couple weapons characters should be using. If a player wants his character to walk around wearing a lion skin and using a wooden club like Heracles of old (and despite the arguments we could make that "prove" a longsword is a better weapon) I'd rather they could play that character and not get dinged (or just a slight ding) by the game system.

I used this idea with a variant of BRP years ago. For a time travel/dimension jumping game I called "Multiverse". Remember that the WoW version of Superworld divided damage types into "Kinectic, Radiation, and E-magnetic" so I split up the kinetic attacks into "Primitive" (fist, sword, club, bow, etc.) and "Projectile" (which covered gunpowder or slug thrower weapons). Lasers would fall under "Radiation" and electrical attacks under "E-magnectic". Chainmail was good for 5 pts versus Primitive and 2 pts against the other types, while a Kevlar vest was good for 4 pts versus Projectile and 2 pts versus the rest. Sci-fi armor like Mesh Armorplast were good for 4 pts all around. It worked okay, but once you start down that road? What about cold or fire attacks? A fireman jacket should be good against fire damage, but it won't slow a bullet very well. A kevlar vest is poor versus an edged weapon, but would absorb a club hit better, and so on. So split "Primitive" into "Edged" and "Blunt"? Where does it end? Finding that balance between game system "crunch" and ease of play can be tough. Now the game setting would make a difference, as a game set during the Crusader period could just deal with dividing up primitive weapon types into edged and blunt. Add one more type for a Muskateer era game, "gunpowder", and that is still not bad. A modern or high tech setting gets messy quickly though. In the end I just learned to live with four types of damage/armor and the players never seemed to mind. Well, with what I proposed earlier (10% of skill rating over 50), even highly skilled characters won't be getting much more than a 1D2/1D4 damage bonus due to weapon skill. Clearly an advantage, but not overwhelming. Emad the Persian Assassin travels about as a merchant and is deadly with his dagger (STR 13 SIZ 11 DEX 14 Dagger 95%). Emad will use his STR/DEX of course, for a Damage Bonus of 1D2, but add in his 5 pts (rounded) for his skill rating and he jumps up to a 1D6 bonus. Thus Emad does 1D12 (2d6) with his dagger (base 1D6 plus 1D6 bonus). More than a match for the typical guard he might encounter even though Emad is hardly a physical specimen. On the other hand, he can grab a scimtar (70% skill rating) and do the same 1D12 damge (STR/DEX of 27 plus 2 pts for skill rating). His chance to hit/parry would clearly be effected though. A second example would be Deiphobus the Arcadian, an Olympic pankration competitor. Same stats/skill level as Emad. Deiphobus does a base 1D6 unarmed combat damage plus 1D2 (1D2 for stats, 1D2 for skill bonus of 5pts minus one level for unarmed combat). Call it 1D8 then. Four years later Deiphobus has a STR of 16 and is doing 1D10 in damage. Still better to have a weapon in hand, but Deiphobus can take down the average unarmed man very quickly. Another interesting idea, Chaot. I agree tying damage to skill level could get really wacky if skill is the primary factor. I do want skill to count as a bonus though. If the lesson we come away with here is that you don't trifle with highly skilled and physically fit foes? I think the game system is doing its job. After looking at this, I realized Emad and Deiphobus could also use SIZ instead of DEX for a damage bonus, but if we assume both are an average SIZ of 10 the DEX is the only way to go. It would also matter if the GM decided that only SIZ can be used for heavy weapons like a two-handed war hammer. I would probably let it slide myself, as speed is ALWAYS an advantage, whatever the weapon. One more edit: I had a note here about being able to parry down just one weapon level (a longsword can parry a greatsword, but a dagger won't work, and you can parry a longsword with a dagger, but not with a small knife). Common sense should be the guide here, but as a general rule the "one weapon level down" should work?

I should clarify that I wasn't thinking of adding multiple 1D2 rolls per bonus level. You get the equivalent to it. So a 1D4 for two levels, a 1D6 for three levels, etc. I'd probably have players use just one dice whenever possible (rolling 1D12 instead of 2D6 for example) but no more than two dice would be needed for most characters. Let me add a bit more: My thinking was to add more bonus levels compared to the old BRP Damage Bonus chart, but at a smaller progression (1D2 in effect).

A simple change and I like it. Giving the players more freedom to create characters and not having them feel like they are penalized by the system for not following a certain creation path. This actually reminds me that I've wanted to experiment with the Damage Bonus chart for BRP. I would like to try a more gradual, progressive bonus along with a simplified weapon damage range. I'll share what I was thinking -then you can tell me why it won't work. [table=width: 500, class: outer_border, align: left] [tr] [td](STR + SIZ or DEX)[/td] [td]Damage Bonus[/td] [td][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]2-12[/td] [td] -2 levels[/td] [td][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]13-16 [/td] [td]-1 level[/td] [td][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]17-23[/td] [td] None[/td] [td][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]24-27[/td] [td] +1 level[/td] [td][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]28-31[/td] [td]+2 levels[/td] [td][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]32-35[/td] [td]+3 levels[/td] [td][/td] [/tr] [/table] And so on.... There being a 1D2 added (or subtracted) to damage per level. Weapons would range in damage from 1D4 for very small ones/improvised weapons (small knife, rock, chain), to 1D6 for small weapons (large knife/dagger, slingstone, low quality bow), while standard weapons would be 1D8 (swords, maces, spears, bows) and large weapons do 1D10 (great sword, poleaxe, two handed spear, heavy crossbow). For unarmed combat damage, my first thought is a base 1D4, with a 1D6 base for any kind of training (boxing or Kung Fu for example) if your skill level is above 60%. Which brings me to my idea about adding another bonus for those with very high skill levels. Add 10% of skill level above 50% to the Damage Bonus chart. For example, a Spartan with STR 14 and SIZ 11 does 1D10 with his spear (instead of just 1D8) with his one level bonus, but if he had an 80% skill rating he would do 1D12 (or 2D6 if you want). That 80% would be 30 over the 50% skill level, so 3 points added his STR/SIZ for a +2 level damage bonus. That Spartan would do 1D10 unarmed combat damage with an 80% skill rating and his STR/SIZ bonus. Which seems a bit much, and he gets a skill bonus TWICE (from 1D4 to 1D6 and then his 3 pts added for skill level). Well, minus one bonus level for missle weapons and unarmed combat then? So back to a 1D8 damage unarmed for our Spartan First time I put this "down on paper" as it were, so forgive any bad math and silly errors. I do like the idea of highly skilled combatants getting a possible damage bonus though, not just hitting more often, but in more critical areas.

Hey Chad, after a quick read through, I sent some feedback. I think it bears repeating that I was impressed with the work you've done, the level of historical detail for the setting.

I'd be happy to take a look and offer some feedback.

Looking forward to getting this. Very cool that you did most or all of the art yourself (if I recall an early thread correctly)? Best way to realize your "vision" for the setting.

I'm holding out for Outpost 21: Prohibition Gates I always liked the FutureWorld setting from Worlds of Wonder, and what Nick did with it was interesting. A full supplement would be nice, or maybe Nick could add some articles to a future issue of Uncounted Worlds?

Your heart was in the right place, but there is a thread below about this.

Good question(s). I just discovered this site for PBP gaming (all non-DND stuff) a couple days ago. Real Roleplaying I don't know if any Chaosium games are being run at the moment, but I'd love to hear feedback about this site.

I was fairly certain that two smileys would convey the idea that I was just having fun with the idea of Chaosium blowing money on products I'd like to see produced for my own gratification. Then a lecture broke out.... You should just go the extra half-step though nclarke and point out that producing RPG products is a losing game, that only a handful of companies have any realistic shot at making money. You might want to chat with all those artists and musicians who are wasting valuable time trying to "make it" and help them understand they should only be involved in gainful employment.

Add another vote. BTW, we need to talk about what license they should get with the money, or other things they could do. I'd like to see a return of the boxed set RPGs. A revamped Worlds of Wonder with 64 page world books and folded maps/counters. In fact, a series of WoW boxes. Volume one is Magic World/Superworld/Futureworld. Volume two is Hellenic Greece (aka 'Warlords of Alexander')/Post Apocalypse/Western. Finally, volume three is where serious coin is spent to license Jorune/Flashing Blades/Doctor Who. Okay, so the last three would work better as stand alone boxed sets. Might as well bring back Ringworld too, right?

We had a pretty cool 'Introduce Yourself' thread back in the day. Anyone know where it might be located now? Oh, and welcome Mr. Rage.