PoppySeed45

They'd be members of a House (actually, there's a neat House creation system in ASoIF RPG). After that though, my question is, which rule system to use? And my eye has alighted on BRP, since I'd want a base system for stuff, but don't necessarily want to use the actual ASoIF game's system (which apparently went through little beta-testing; it shows).

A thought occurred to me today as I was looking at systems to run ASoIF. I've got the Green Ronin RPG, and I've got Burning Wheel too, but I now have BRP. Would you use it to run ASoIF? If so, why? What do you gain by doing so? Bonus if you can say what it does differently/better than the Green Ronin game or BW. I'm really torn on this!

Thanks all again for the kind and hearty welcomes! On my second read through now, and I'm pretty sure BRP will be my next game after the current one (starting a new group actually, and they've expressed a strong interested in A Song of Ice and Fire, so, we'll probably play that with the ACTUAL system; as I said, it's what led to my little recent epiphany). For a bunch of other stuff, yeah, I think BRP's gonna do the job I want. I think. I've got an old setting a ran long ago in BW, and I wouldn't mind to transfer it to BRP, actually...

Checking it out now...looks pretty cool. Thanks for that.

Quite true, quite true. At least, that's what I'm hoping for. One of my other reasons for going for BRP is to get a system I can go to when I don't have a specific system to run it. I was going to be FATE but that just doesn't do it for me, as I said in the OP. Once I get some cash in hand, I plan on getting supplements and other implementations of BRP. The ones you mentioned sound nifty (though the first will be Rome, as I'm something of an amateur historian, and I REALLY like historical RPGs). Actually, that's another thing I'm hoping - BRP looks like it would handle all my Historical RPG ideas just fine, and I really, really want that. P.S. - By the way your text comes formatted, can I guess you're the same Rust on Citizens? If so, I'm Mencelus there (though I ought to change my name as I don't use the handle anywhere else). Interesting to find other known posters here as well!

I will at that. Naturally, it's one of the reasons I wanted to introduce myself. I figure some folks might be able to better pinpoint what I've been feeling the last few months games-wise.

That I will, and thank you for the comments. Thing is, now that I've read a little (only first chapter) I feel even more that BRP is what I've been looking for. And I think you're right; a lot of games want to replace the narrative with these tools (many of which are quite interesting) but I'm finding that it's better if the story emerges, at least mostly, rather than something that comes out because you can "push" the story that way. If that makes any sense.

Just wanted to say hello to everyone here and give a little introduction, though I should note I'm under the same handle over on RPG.net and I've seen a few familiar monikers here on these boards. Still, just for getting to know. I'm a long time gamer, primarily GMing, for more than 25 years. As I've gotten older I've noticed there have been some changes in my gaming. For example, for the last five years I thought that I was all about "story" and I went for games that gave narrative tools to the players to advance the story (mostly FATE and Burning Wheel). Now, in general, I like both games very well, but especially wit FATE, a lot of things are feeling very hand-wavy and wishy-washy. I wasn't feeling satisfied after gaming sessions. I did one shots of other games but they had various issues and the like. Then, a month ago, I did a one shot of A Song of Ice and Fire. The system is very "concrete" and simulationsist; my players had a blast, dealt easier with conflicts, and as a GM, it was just so easy to run. In fact, I'd go as far to say that they engaged more with the system in that one session, than all the sessions of FATE we'd done over the past four months. Of course, you may think that it's the system, and that's partly true (it's rather good in my opinion), but I think it's more that it was "concrete", that is, the numbers were more about things in the "world", than about abstract concepts that had to be fit and argued about for each situation (this isn't to say that all systems don't cause arguments, it's that the arguments in FATE are about how far to stretch Aspects, which really tires me out). This made me realize that I don't actually like "abstract" games better than more concrete ones (and thus, I'll probably will never pick up HeroQuest 2, for example). Now, where does BRP fit into all this? Well, the current Diaspora FATE campaign I'm running winds down in one or two more sessions. After that, I'm sure I'll be running ASOIF RPG. But after that? I can't go back to FATE or other looser systems. Burning Wheel (and its derivatives), as much as I love them, are too complex for my current crop of casual gamers. I had GURPS but sold it long ago since I dislike, very much, the one-second combat round. I have Savage Worlds but something about it rubs me the wrong way - I THINK it's the heavy reliance on bennies, and the wonky and wild die results. I like ORE and have both Reign and Wild Talents, but again, the die system doesn't send me through spasms of joy. And then I remembered the old days, when I played CoC and Stormbringer. Those were good systems, concrete, easy to adjudicate, and the like. So I ordered the gold BRP book, which just arrived yesterday. I haven't had a chance to really read it yet; just flipped through it to see the art (and let me comment, as a person of color, I liked that there were actually pictures of people other than "whites,"; that one of an "African" adventuring party is awesome). So, the question is, am I right? Is BRP the "concrete" game I'm looking for? Where, if hand waving is necessary, it's at least made easy but interesting (one of the major issues with FATE was that handwaving usually came down to "it's an Aspect", and not much more mechanically).