Enpeze

I like the way SB5 handled the creature section. There is a list with special creatures and supernatural entities. Another one very useful passage with typical NPCs and a short single page list with natural beasts (the latter without graphical display which is very good because everbody knows how a elephant looks like)

Great thanks for this interesting list. I will try out some of them as soon as my time allows it. (in Parallels - which works directly on the OSX surface and is quite fast btw)

There is alot you can do against the "sudden death syndrome" like arrows in head or chest. One (and maybe the best) of the things you can do is to evaluate if conflict can be solved in another way than getting in a fight. Another one is to put better armor on vital locations. Third you can do is to kill your enemy first. In other more cinematic and forgiving systems a warrior has to pretend to live with one foot in his own grave. In RQ he really does. This I call authenticity and realism and it is one of the things I love in BRP. Its direct. A warrior kills fast and dies fast. If you want cinematic and unrealistic games, there are alot of other out there. No need to infest BRP with this game style. With some tweaking I am sure you can make even BRP somewhat more cinematic. (not that I would do that but its possible)

I agree that there is probably no math formula behind the weapon damage. But this is not important, because the whole BRP damage system with hitpoints, major would level and locations is probably not modeled after a mathematical formula. But who cares? I dont. I think that the important thing is that it works. And not counting some already adressed odd weapon damage values it works in very simple and satisfying way. It produces most of the time gritty and realistic effects, so why should I care about math formulas? This is not Gurps where formulas seem to be standard. Yes and no. Yes for the (proven) fact that weapons in different BRP games had regularly different damage values the last 20 years. And yes for the lack of continuity in these older games. No for your idea that there will not be a continuity between future settings. IMO the release of the new DBRP will be displaying the new standards (in damage values too) and I dont think many setting books in the future will deviate from them without a good reason if they want to carry the label DBRP. Well the integration i mentioned derives from the above described play feeling and the very good balance between amount of hitpoints, damage effects and damage values. It feels correct and realistic most of the time. I am sure you have the same experience with BRP combat so I must not explain it further.

I am a MacUser too, but I never stumbled upon BRP chargen I fear. But it would be great if there is such a thing available anywhere on the net. With parallels or bootcamp you could even use a PC version of such a software.

Yippie...lets see if I have some old duck drawings in my cellar.

I would love to contribute something, but my english is much too bad.

A vehicle designer ala Gurps would be too much for BRP I think. I am trying to convert the little Gurps vehicle designer in Gurps Traveller Interstellar Wars to BRP as soon as the new book is released and I have some spare time. Its just for traveller space ships but very simple to use and allows for a lot of different spaceship designs. With some tweaking maybe it can be used for other vehicles too, I`ll see.

Well many people are often wrong. It depends rather on style of the GM and his group, no? So I can accept a philosophy where heropoints are optional in order to give more choices and I dont like systems at all where they are a integrated part of the core system.

i hope not. The damage values of the BRP weapons are good as they are and perfectly integrated into the rest of the hit points system. No changes should be made in this. Changes are simply not necessary. I mean a gladius has 1d6+1 and a modern assault rifle 2d8 and thats it. Ok, change this little elephant gun or whatever but let the rest be like it is. Ah before I forget. Even I think that one old damage value is pure nonsense. Thats the kick damage of 1d6. But I know this has already been adressed in DBRP.

The same with me. But maybe some time I can be "persuaded" to play a more heroic BRP game, who knows? Important to know is that those points are an optional rule and not a core rule (like in Warhammer)

Yes. But Fortune and Fate points are linked together. So if you use a Fate point as life safer you loose a Fortune point too. And if you gain one point through gaming you can use it for both things. Thats why I used the same name.

Well I dont think that it is necessary to revise or even rethink a system just because one or two guns have probably odd damage values. All you have to do is assign the damage value to the weapon you think is correct.

yeah. Heropoints are similar. But at least they describe a better system than the idiotic fate points of warhammer. You can use one HP and it is away either by modifying a dice roll or by buying a ability. In Warhammer they regenerate at midnight to full value 2-4. (or even more) You can expend them every day. Additionally each of them save you life once. Even if this lifesaving consumes your FP you get new ones without much difficulty. So there is some difference in HP and FP.

Well CoC has hitlocations indeed, if you use those in the "Cthulhu Now" sourcebook. Everything is here, one have only to seek a little bit. We can hope that the new sourcebook will solve this problem. Thanks to the Now rules the elephant problem is not anymore existent. According to the CoC 5ed. rules it has 45 HP. This is about 12 HP on its head. Average damage of an elephant gun is: 14,5, not counting special hits. Killing an elephant? No problem, but only if you use all CoC rules.

No prob. I take two dozen elephants and consult the resistance table .... I dont, and I am not sure if I really want to know. Well I think that the problem of this BTRC. I read the blog you posted and I have to say that this Bruce Baugh seems to overestimate his own abilities as game designer. How can he dare to criticize BRP and CoC if his only questionable contributions to the hobby are some vampire (yuck) books, a D20 gamma world conversion (yuck) and Feng Shui (yuckyuck). Alone this unimpressive list of "rpg"-books he wrote is showing that the opinion about BRP of this guy should be not more interesting to a BRP player than that of Mary Poppins.

Good to hear. Let me add just one thing: A 16p BRP booklet would be ABSOLUTELY great! Maybe just a pdf for download, a cheap teaser to get roleplayers from other systems interested to the BRP book. (call it a demo or so )

Well in my games a 01 is normally even with 00% a sucess, if I allow it to be. A 10% surgeon is not really good, he may know some basics but he has probably (hopefully) never made a real surgical operation. the interpretation of %values in my games are: 01-40 green, no real experience 40-60 standard, experienced 60-80 veteran, very experienced 80+ expert During a game I give alot of +-skill modifiers according to situation, player ideas etc. I have for this a little list of modifiers. The modifiers are mostly +-20/40/60/80% etc. and stackable. This means that I apply sometimes more than one modifier. Eg. if a fast moving target crosses in far range the field of vision of a person, but this person can aim 2 turns then it gets -40% (fast moving and crossing) and -40% (far range) and +20% (for aiming) then this person has -60% to hit. This little skill system is very comfortable to use on the fly the most time and produces usually good results.

I am more for the SIZ table in RQ3. Its a detailed good table and I have already used it on the fly several times. I mean who can calculate in the middle of a game wt(kilos)=2^(SIZ/8)*25? (a very "gurpsy" formula IMO)

This is my hope too. I mean they can describe all these super duper powers and xy magic system and what not and these things will take a lot of space - this is ok for me, but the core system should be minimalistic like BRP should be. Eg. I am still impressed if I am browsing through this: http://www.basicrps.com/core/index.html And the character sheet in this BRP light version comes in a very attractive half page format.

Yes. I think so too. Most of these guys are playing their games in a totally different way than BRP offers. Maybe some switchers could be in this crowd, but not many I fear. Interestingly I think that D&D4ed. will not be a bad game as such. But its just a certain kind of "game". Its not a roleplaying game as I understand it. But it does not matter. I would even try it out (without the acting and character portraying of normal roleplaying of course - just as a new kind of tactical, computer assisted board game) if it comes out. I am modern guy and I like the modern approach of 4e. No chance I would say. But no reason to do it either.

Maybe trendy is the "minigame-in-game" approach of so many new rule systems. The most people dont like to die or even "loose" as character and game-in-game tweaks and little dice thingies (fate points and other crap) help them to be super duper. Now with the new dice switch they are able to master every situation. (at least two last chances after fumbling and thereafter then they pull out their optional last ditch lifer saver dice trick from page 442 of the clan splatbook #7) Eg. I was forced (yes forced!!!) to play Warhammer FRPG 2nd and in this game you have 3 times per day a reroll (in case you cannot dogde or dont hit this elephant etc.) Additionally you have 3 times per character a life safer "fate point" which you can use if you are getting a deadly hit. What a crap system. Totally idiotic. Well this is basically a good idea. The question is just if BRP is BRP anymore after such a treatment. If it is possible just by presentation then I am for it. (at first down with this ugly cover ) But if they do any minigame madness, rule and dice tweaking then I am against it. Its more than enough that DBRP has over 350p. I dont want to read more pages, just to have some trendy rules. BTW: Am I the only one who thinks that the page count of the new DBRP is high? I dont hope too high. I mean is it a minimalistic rule system or not? What the hell do they describe on 350+p?

You are right. I feel the same. I reduced my presence on this forum too (and the SJG forum too) because it doesnt pay off. So many annoying people. :eek:

Well, before I forget, a point against the power of divine magic is its range of mostly just 100m (if I remember correctly) This cannot compete to the variable range of a sorcerer spell, especially if this spell is backupped by alot of free INT. So I guess sorcery is more mighty than divine. (whatever - I really dont care )

I think BRP is perfectly usable for all these settings you mentioned. Personally I used it for a 2300AD and Traveller some years ago. I just modified the CoC rules a little bit with alternative autofire rules, futuristic armor and weaponry and added some modern skills and cyberware, thats all.