PoppySeed45

Interesting! As I said, I'm really looking hard at BRP for my next campaign. Still trying to decide between it, Fate, and GURPS. I know, all over the place, but each has their issues. BRP might be the best "compromise", especially for the almost total newbie in our group.

Situation: I'm running a D&D 5e campaign now, which will wind down in three or so more sessions (we play monthly, so, three months and it's done). After that, for a change of pace, I'd like to finally realize my ambition to run a BRP game. Mostly, this is motivated by one of my players, who is very new to RPGs (she's played exactly three sessions) and I figure, if I want to switch games (which I do; I don't like doing more than one good, solid, story arc) then I want it to be something "easy" for a person relatively new to RPGs to get. Don't want to change gears to something like, say, GURPS or Burning Wheel (yet...). So, my question is, how friendly is BRP for the relatively new person? Whatever genre/setting I decide (and it's a toss up between something Delta Green-ish or something with a flavor of spy movies like the Bourne Series) I'd be using the BGB mostly (unless I find some monographs that magically fit), and without a lot of the options. Though I'm re-reading the book now to figure that out (definitely no Strike Ranks, for example, or Hit Locations). Thoughts? How good for the newbie, and why? In a lot of ways, D&D 5e was perfect as a first game, with it's easy character generation and touching on the genre it created for itself (it helped that this new player knew games like Planescape and Dragon Age).

Cool! It's official! (Also cool that BRP is so loose anyway, that rules from other editions are just peachy).

Aye, that's the way to go, and I think I shall simply extend the shield rule to all weapons, as discussed (shields are sort of weapons, after all, since they have a separate skill).

I think this is what I'll do, and call it done. Nice and simple and straightforward, which is what I want anyway (or why else chose BRP?).

Thanks very, very much. You've confirmed a lot of what I've already been thinking, so that's nice. As I said, I played this so long ago (and never, naturally, as the BGB since it didn't exist then), so I'm a little unsure. It's also good to hear that the system is quite forgiving of, well, little rules hiccups, let's say (I recently came off a Burning Wheel campaign, which is NOT forgiving at all; the rules mesh so tightly together, you can't really, say, adjust points in Character Generation without upsetting something else, and sometimes it's hard to see WHAT you've upset).

Yeah, those are out; I've no wish to start reading anything new at this date past what I'm already reading. Also, thanks for the advice! Things to think on.

Interesting. That's a good rule too (though I have one player I'm sure will quip "But what if I only miss the minimum by 1 point?" Might go with the 105 option, actually, but I like the stronger penalty like that under the shield rule. Wish it said the same for weapons.

This was my plan (the 10% reduction) but I don't know WHY that was my plan? Did I read it somewhere? Or 10% is a nice penalty number for the system so it jumped in our heads? I was just sort of hoping to find the actual rule, if there was one.

As it says above, I'll be doing an game based on the "Warlords of Alexander" setting written by the esteemed Paul Elliott. Of course, he wrote back on 2004, long before we had the BGB, and so, I'd like to ignore his rule thingies, and using the BGB, pick stuff that will probably fit the game. For the record, I'm doing this game as Historical Fantasy, so, mostly, we use the historical setting as outlined in the PDF, but I'm saying that wizards are a thing (using the standard Magic rules) and that priests can get blessings and such from the gods (using the Allegiance system - I don't really want the priests to have "magic" though). That said, there are a plethora of decisions to make in a BRP game, and I'd like some help/advice to make them. I played BRP games a LONG time ago (like, 20+ years ago) and I'm approaching this now again as a gamemaster, and so, I don't have a lot of experience with the "interactions" between different rules. So keep that in mind as I ask things here. 1. For example, as the game outlined above, what should the starting level be? Normal? Heroic? Or what? My initial thought is Heroic, so that, if a player wants to be a mage, I can "nerf" them to start at normal, while the other players get the boost of being Heroic. Or is that not necessary and everyone can comfortably be at the same starting point? Thing is, I'd like to be able to give those players who don't choose magic something if there is a player who does. 2. Is it too unbalancing to do Step 6 of character generation (the Personality Type Skills), or not? I like the idea, but I don't know if it throws skill totals off too much. 3. As mentioned above, there will be magic users in the setting. Is it better to use Magic or Sorcery? Or rather, what's the difference? As far as I can see, the major difference is that ,magic forces the character to spend skill points on spells. Sorcery doesn't. Am I missing any other implications? That's it so far, and all help, commentary, and ideas are appreciated. I should note, I'm only using the BGB, and don't have, and have no intention, of getting any other books. In essence, this game is a "test". If that campaign goes well, I'll probably end up buying other books like Rome and Magic World.

Like, looking in the book at the weapons lists, I see there are minimum Str and Dex scores for using weapons. Awesome - I loved those rules back in Traveller, I love them here. However, I can't for the life of me see what happens if you don't have the minimums. Is there a penalty? How much? Or something else? I've searched through the book and now I turn to the community to see the magical page where it's explained.

I game once every 3-5 weeks, sadly, but at least it's regular - never miss a month! We game face to face, and since I normally GM, I use a tablet for just about everything except impromptu maps and the like. Everything else that's prepared I use the tablet for. In terms of games, recently we're playing a cyberpunk Burning Empires hack, but I'm now planning a BRP one shot for next session because two of the players are going on vacation at that time (couple they are). I figure, this is as good a time as any to introduce the glory of BRP. I'm thinking it might be an easier compromise between "verisimilitude" (which Burning games gives in spades) and "ease of use" which, frankly, while I personally love it, BW doesn't do as well for my players. Also, I hate giving XP of any kind, and BRP sidesteps that nicely (same for BW really, which is why I prefer those games in the first place...).

Thanks for that! I may give it a shot. The PDF is so cheap. And yeah, trying NOT to buy bunches of core rules.

Recently, I've got my eye on the RQ6 supplement Ships and Shield Walls. However, I have no intention of buying the RQ6 Core Rules, since I've already got BRP Gold. The supplement really seems to fill a whole in my gaming armory. How compatible is it then?,are there any big things I'll have to convert to use the product with an existing BRP campaign?

For me, I'd like both. Hard copy because I find that easier to flip through during the session (and the font is usually guaranteed to be the right size for easy reading). PDFs are good for having an "extra" at the table (especially important during character generation - for example, showing spell lists or equipment). I also would like an EPUB or MOBI version. I bought Fate Core some time ago, and it came with PDF and MOBI versions, and I and my players ended up referencing the physical book, and the other two electroic formats. Also, I'm now running a Nobilis short campaign, and I was deciding between 2nd and 3rd edition, and one of the reasons I went with 3rd was that I had a PDF for it, so, easier to do characters and show players during the game.

I will check that out, thanks! And that's very good to know. I should have mentioned, I've got powers/supers on the brain, and I've got several supers systems, but they just seem to complicated to get the story end result. Thus my looking at BRP.

Oh, aye, I'm always bold. BRP is new for most of the group, after all (except one die-hard CoCer). But never with superpowers.

That's good to know, thank you.

Like the title says, I'd like to hear folks that have used the powers rules in the BGB, and how they went. The magic and sorcery rules I don't think need too much discussion, since many other BRP products use them (or variants), like CoC, Magic World, Elric, and so on. I'm very interested in hearing about mutations, psionics, and superhero powers, however. Used them for a game? How'd players react to them? How easy/hard to adjudicate as a GM? What do you wish went better? What worked like a charm?

Very true, and now that you've mentioned it, it's one of the draws. While Burning Wheel isn't so bad in this regard, other games I've thought about using are (including FATE, which has people arguing about which Aspects apply to any given roll, which drove me crazy last time I ran it). Really, I'm liking the idea of no "extras" like Feats/Edges/Traits and all that.

An interesting way to answer, and I like it. I'm leaning towards it too, frankly, and for the reasons you're mentioning here. Though I haven't tried to teach it yet. One of my motivations is this. I mean, I'm running Burning Wheel Gold now, and we're having a blast, but the system pushes towards certain outcomes, and the players are playing their characters based on things they like and don't like in the system (and certain parts are really awesome for them, and others a bit against their taste). If that makes sense.

Well, I disagree obviously (and thus my OP). Certain systems lend themselves to certain things. Burning Wheel gives players a tool to guide social conflicts (the Duel of Wits). Strands of Fate gives tools to pit organizations abstractly against each other (the Organization Fate fractal). Savage Worlds is a whole lot about heroic characters and a lot less about the farmer in his hovel. D&D Re/Blue box seems to be an exploration game with a tactical game tacked on. D&D 4th seems to be a tactical game with exploration tacked on. All these games lend themselves to doing certain genres and what not well, with little or no extra work on the part of the GM. Can you do any sort of genre/setting with any of those? Of course. But that doesn't mean the game is built for it to be easy, whereas they ARE built (by design or accident) to handle certain genres and playstyles and settings well. Or not. Take Savage Worlds. You certainly CAN do gritty games in Savage Worlds (there are even variant rules for it in the Deluxe book), but at default, SW isn't built for that sort of game. You have to make some extra effort (those rules changes, teaching and remembering them) to implement that. BRP, in my estimation, lends itself better to gritty games; the default damage and weapon mechanics generally create an atmosphere where one or two solid hits can kill, and you've no metagame resource, at default, to manipulate to save you (like SW bennies). So, my question. What is BRP BGB good at? What does it lend itself to?

Historical is one of the main areas I'm interested in, since I'm quite the history buff. And yes, BRP Rome is on my buying list; just waiting for the next paycheck (it helps I'm re-reading the Masters of Rome series now, naturally).

Gritty fantasy? Right up my alley. As is the occult (indeed, I'm thinking my next game will be an urban occult game). So that's good to hear.

I asked a similar question some days ago on RPGnet, but I realized, I'd get better, and more informed, responses here. As the title says, what is BRP really good at? Like, what sorts of genres or settings lend themselves well to BRP, with no houseruling, following the BGB? For example, fantasy (high and low)? Various sorts of sci-fi (space opera, cyberpunk, hard, etc)? Intrigue/Influence based games? Historical settings (like, using actual history, or history with a twist)? Games with lots of combat? Games with almost none? Social-monster games (like, you're a bunch of courtiers in a king's court trying to stop a war)? Or what? Very curious here. Bonus points if you've actually used the BGB to run said game that you mention.