ORtrail

Hmm, my only experience with the boxed Superworld was with another friend as GM. He was pretty new to GMing and Superworld, and all the stuff about Full actions, Semi-actions, Quartermoves, etc. really soured us. We got through part of the sample adventure and never finished. I picked up a NEW Superworld boxed set around 1995, but never bothered to really read it. The simplicity of the WoW version, and vague memories of the box set version being too complicated have always stayed with me. Sounds like they did some practical adjustments between WoW and the boxed set, although, I've house ruled so much, and gotten so comfortable with it, that I'm resistant to learning new/other rules. Actually, despite STILL collecting a number of RPGs over the years, I don't have the time or desire to learn new gaming systems. Hence the return of BRP is so very welcome. I could sit down and run something in 15 minutes, and even newbies "get" the percentage system very quickly. I'll need to wait and see how much I want to change with the new BRP book, before deciding what to run with it. At least that way I'll know what BRP rules most people will know, and how to explain the changes I'll probably make. Supergirl clones are ALWAYS welcome. In ANY game.

Yeah, I'm a fan of the old pulp heroes. BRP/Superworld handles it very well. I actually watched part of the old Flash Gordon 1980 movie, a couple weeks ago. We need a BRP conversion. I think Superworld/BRP can handle a lot of super hero types, not as powerful as some would prefer, but still within the "super hero range". If I had a player that wanted a Superman clone, I'd just laugh. Seriously. I've always set out the power level and those that play understand they need to think more along the lines of Hawkman or the Black Panther, maybe a bit more. BTW, were you saying that boxed Superworld CAN handle the heavy hitter supers, while the original couldn't?

Having really high stats and/or skills does a lot of the work, along with a liberal GM. I'm always in favor of ignoring movement rates or whatnot, in favor of dramatic action. BRP can be nasty and deadly if you like, or much more heroic depending on the options you choose. I'd give old Captain Sparrow a high CON, even a bonus for "toughness" to let him survive quite a bit of combat. I don't have the new book, but isn't there an option for adding both CON and SIZ for your hit points, for more heroic gaming? Anyone?

Spiderman, I have no issues with. He really isn't that powerful, in a relative sense. He could lift a car with some effort, absorb a pretty good beatdown, and entangle with his webbing. Oh, and stick to walls, some high DEX and that Danger Sense. I think BRP handles him pretty well. In fact, most of the X-Men stat up fairly well (I might scale Colossus back a bit). Iron Man? Well, he is a bit beyond the level I'd like. He has 1001 gadgets built into that suit, can toss tanks around, and those repulsors pack quite a punch. I love the character concept of having a high-tech suit of armor, but I'd keep him around 12 AP, maybe 6d6 with those repulsors and his punches. That's my comfort level though, and I know BRP can handle more than that. He could easily have 20 AP, 10d6 attacks, etc. Where is the practical limit where BRP breaks down though? Would having 40 AP and 20d6 energy blasts be more fun? Anything over 6d6 seems like more of a chore to deal with to me. I always thought West End Games D6 system broke down when you started tossing double handfuls of dice and adding it all up. Maybe it's my love of henchmen, as many of the adventures started with the heroes taking on the normal human goons, and then getting to the actual super villains as the plot progressed. Well trained henchmen, with some skills and better weapons, in groups of 4-6 per hero, can be more than a little bothersome. Never hurts to have an actual villain leading them either, then the main battle with the other 3-4 villians in the finale. If the goons have to be minor villians themselves to have any chance at hurting the good guys, that takes away from the game, IMHO. Having said that, I'd jump at the chance to play in a high powered game if someone wanted to run it. What are those stats on Cthulhu/Godzilla again? I totally agree that natural disasters and a ton of misdirection belong in every supers campaign. Is Natural Disaster a group of super powered ecco-terrorists? Or desperate heroes trying to prevent a future of limited biological diversity and global warming? Well great, now I'm pumped for some Superworld gaming!

Other than playing the Marvel Super Heroes RPG (back in the mid-80s) I've never had to deal with high powered super types. V&V had more range than my Superworld campaigns, depending on the powers you had, but most heroes were fairly close in power levels with both systems. The MSH RPG had to deal with Daredevil at one end and Thor/Hulk at the other. About the same story with the DC Heroes RPGs too. As I said though, I tend toward "street level" supers, which BRP does very well. Note this preference is because I find Green Arrow/Batman/Wolverine level heroes more interesting, and frankly, adventure ideas more plentiful than having to deal with The Authority/Avengers/Justice League. How do you challenge heroes that powerful? Well, you can of course, but the simple task of stopping a group of bank robbers, or a street gang, can be just as interesting, if done right. Depends on what your players want though. A Wolverine type can't just start slashing away against 10 guys armed with guns in my adventures. He might get away with it versus 5-6, and 1-2 is no big deal, but I'd prefer a player have to think a bit versus knowing he is bullet proof. You could have those same 10 guys armed with lasers rifles made by Doctor BluRay, strong enough to cause some damage to Bronze Man through his battlesuit, and have just as much fun I suppose. Right or wrong, my thought is to use BRP for lower level heroes, and break out Mutants & Masterminds for the high level stuff. I'd guess my experiences are hardly the norm though...

I think the important thing here is that Nightshade and Atgxtg APPEAR to agree on something. I don't feel any great need to debate this matter with you guys, as fun as that might be, as it comes down to individual preference, right? If anything, let's all agree that BRP allows for a very flexible range and style of gaming. With a tendency toward more "realistic" results than most other systems. BTW, I never ran a Superworld campaign where the heroes could lift a tank, let alone a jumbo jet. Having them be at least a bit vulnerable to a normal Joe with a baseball bat or gun was always my preference. Of course, I think BRP Superworld tends to break down at the high power levels you'd find in the DC or Marvel universe, as most of us have probably seen. Keeping AP levels at 10 or less, and attack damages at about 3d6-4d6 was the norm for me. Others would prefer to throw a city bus around, or shrug off machinegun fire, but I never cared for having to scoop up 14d6 and roll them...

A very cool setting Mithras. WARLORDS, along with a series of books by alternate history author Harry Turtledove (under the name Turtletaub) about two Greek seafaring traders from Rhodes (circa 310 B.C.) have sparked my interest in using this setting for a BRP campaign. I'd base the campaign in Alexandria (Egypt) and focus on them helping build the famous Library (not the actual building of course, but they'd be off to various places across the world to collect scrolls and such). I don't know if I'd play it as "historical" or add some of the classic Greek mythos and various monsters (even if only in rare and distant locales). Quality settings, like what you wrote, will go a long way toward getting more gamers interested in BRP. Thanks for sharing.

If I'd actually PLAYED some version of Jorune, along with owning all the supplements/modules and felt like an expert on Jorune history, races, etc. It's just a setting I find very interesting and would LOVE to see a BRP version all ready to go. Having a group of players eager to play in the world of Jorune would certainly be enough motivation to work on it, but I don't. At best, I think I can get a couple guys together, maybe after watching some of the X-men movies, and create some low-level supers. I've always prefered the Captain America/Batman up to about Spiderman power levels for Superworld campaigns. Hopefully BRP will be popular enough, you'll find various adventures being run at most cons in the next couple years. Nothing beats a regular group though, but that's the subject for another thread.

Yeah, but if you love to add house rules, and have the designers notes from WoW Superworld (Different Worlds #23)? I'd rather add to taste, as it were, then have to cut away at a game system to be comfortable with it. Simplicity is a big plus to me. Although much of that depends on the game world, as a Supers game should feel quite a bit different than a gritty game of Spartans battling Persian invasions (where the focus is on man-to-man combat and specific wounds verus the flash and "comic physics" of a supers game). Not having seen the new book yet, I think of it as a starting point for BRP games, though each GM will alter as he/she sees fit. At least with a common starting point, any BRP player should be comfortable playing whatever campaign fairly quickly. Right?

In no particluar order: Jorune (though I believe some work has been done with this?) Convert that GURPS, Jack Vance Planet of Adventure, book over. Flashing Blades (the old FGU box set and modules). Of course, you really only need maps and background info and you can do the conversion work over to BRP from anything. If we have the time and ambition. Maybe.

Started with the old Basic D&D box, I think it was 1981, then onto AD&D for a couple years. A friend introduced our group to Gamma World (first and second edtions) some Top Secret, some Twilight 2000, Psi-World, and V&V (our brief FGU period). DragonQuest was a favorite too. By 1984 we finally tried CoC, Runequest second edition, and Stormbringer. Loved the BRP system, and even played a bit of Ringworld. Stalking the Night Fantastic I think came next, as muddled as the system was, the wound charts were endlessly horrific/amusing. There were a number of other games/sytems over the years too, like Ysgarth and Paranoia, and I think we gave most games a chance if someone could be bothered to run them. By 1990 I had moved onto a new group of players (as people scattered after High School) and I had gotten my hands on WoW, so I ran a Superworld campaign for a couple years. BTW, never liked the full boxed version of Superworld as I felt they complicated the very simple and flexible supers game in WoW. The WoW Superworld, along with the designers notes from Different Worlds magazine #23 and some house rules made for much better gaming for us. Finally got burned out on that, so... We went from that to a Multiverse campaign (inspired by an article in Different Worlds #29 about time travel/dimensional adventuring) using customized BRP rules and a created character sheet. The basic premise was each character had "died" on their home timeline/dimension and were now put to work altering events in other times/places. We started with a 13th century German Knight, a Post Holocaust survivalist (circa the mid 90s), a French muskateer type (female, no less) and a psionic powered freedom fighter from an alien virus ravaged earth circa 2005. My idea was to be able to use about ANY sci-fi/western/horror published scenario I wanted, besides my own creations, and BRP rules made it a breeze to create NPCs on the spot when needed. Eventually they landed in a "Supers" world and teamed up with their old Superworld characters to defeat a pack of Dimensional Hound types who had allied with a villian group called Lunatic Fringe. Good times. By 1994 the group changed a bit more, and we moved onto Prime Directive, the "alternate Star Trek universe" RPG by Task Force Games. I used a ton of the old FASA Star Trek game modules and some of the events of Deep Space Nine. The basic premise of Prime Directive is being part of a team of "trouble shooters" used by the Federation as needed. Players are immediately familiar with the setting, Star Trek, yet it's an alternate universe, so you have more freedom and some different elements. Other than a bit of Mutants & Masterminds a couple years back (and I've never got into the D20 stuff anyway), life and family have kept me from having anything like real gaming group. I have played a lot of videogames though, starting with the Playstation, then Dreamcast, Xbox and Xbox 360. Online football is a favorite, along with a few other games. I guess those have filled the "RPG void". Anyway, good to see Chaosium wake up a bit and present the BRP rules as the multi-genre gaming system I know it can be. I'm sure Mr. Durall has done an inspired job putting this together -or he'll hear about it from all of us!