tedopon

My "Monster Manual" even when I was using AD&D was a combo of the old Runequest monster book and Malleus Monstrorum. My campaign world is slowly moving away from fantasy altogether and moving more in the direction of weird tales using the gonzo feel of old D&D. Since adopting CF (and subsequently basing my own houserule set patterened after what Rodney did with CF), I've been more aggressive about moving away from fantasy and it's moving more in the direction of Doctor Who meets Gamma World with Runequest grittiness thrown in. Lovecraft monsters (without all the silly overarching EVIL and sanity loss mechanics) are a great fit for a non standard fantasy game. Hell, even a standard fantasy game, IMO. Remember the first printing of Dieties and Demigods (ie SuperMonster Manual) had all the Lovecraft, Moorcock and Leiber stuff in it. Go for it, but I'd advise dropping the Sanity mechanic. It doesn't fit in a game that is supposed to be "heroic" all that well.

I tried that a couple weeks ago and got no reply.

How far along are you in FG? I'd love to get a copy. I run a Pathfinder game on FG, and have been wanting to start a BRP game. I tried screwing with the CoC one but didn't get very far. Thanks for taking up the slack for my lazy ass.

In my experience thus far, the system itself has made PCs less of a static archetype and more dynamic. This is usually a function of BRP, it being a skill based game, but the difference is more pronounced when the original source material is taken into account. My group already was pretty much 1/3 or less combat, 2/3 or more talk. Since adopting this ruleset, they've stayed within those general ratios, but where the roleplaying was dominated by a couple individuals, each player has taken a larger interest in the story aspect of the game. They were always interested in the story, but I'm pretty sure that the two players who have started emerging more distinctly than before have done so because now they see their characters as more well rounded people instead of a bunch of poorly visualized caricatures expressed in numbers on a sheet. I think that the rules walk a fine line of infusing just enough of the rigid archetypes endemic to the early non-RQ fantasy games with just enough of the individual customization that makes BRP so awesome. It's an acquired taste, but you wouldn't be reading this post if you weren't at least curious in the first place. This could normally be attributed to poor GMing, but I haven't done anything different. Our campaign moved right in the middle of a story from 1e AD&D to CFBRP using the same characters. Besides the system, I have not changed anything, except for scaling back the lethality of combats the first couple sessions to gradually learn what they could handle. Combats are a tricky one. My group tends to be a bit more masochistic than the average group, and they like their combats to pose real concrete threats, rather than consist of a bunch of theatrics and hammy high fives. (Well, I think we all enjoy the hammy high fives, but everything else I said was accurate). Overall, I think BRP characters are more powerful at mid range power levels (which is where we started) than AD&D characters. We'll see if I'm proven wrong in the next few sessions, as I'm increasing the murder factor by almost double. This was the one area of the game I was skeptical about before playing, and I'm very glad we made the change. Less paperwork for me, and the fact it's skill based has made my group utilize even weirder tactics than they already did. All in all, I'd say that the game is slightly more inclined towards roleplaying than rollplaying, but it really comes down to your GM style. If that's the type of game you want, then that's the type of game you'll get. I'd say that's true of any system to a degree, but this is BRP, so it's the best. HA

Is it only going to be a pdf?

Go to the Chaosium site, it appears to be about what you would expect. There are three example pages. One is text heavy, one is image heavy and one is somewhere in the middle. It's over 200 pages total.

Are you submitting this for publication? If not, I hope you're enjoying this project (well, I hope you're enjoying it either way, but the point remains that this is a hell of a lot of detail for something recreational imo). I've found in my own experience that at least half of minutiae that I detail never even gets used. It has definitely made me much more efficient over the years with regards to game structure, since I've learned that I don't need to get too heady with the details. On the other hand, there is a definite line that should not be crossed when budgeting resource allocation if you're wanting to share with others. I don't think anyone would be able to use my campaign notes as anything more than set pieces, since I leave a lot of the details vague unless they are absolutely necessary. With regards to calendars, I just tell them it's the first week of March.

Looks like one I'll be putting on the free shipping wagon if the print run was big enough to hold out a few months. Does anyone else here have a "mild" tendency to hoard game books that you _may_ get some use out of?

Why does the UK version of the listing have Charlie listed as the author instead of Jason and Sam?

Call of Cthulhu 4th edition (why they even call them editions is a question for the ages) in 1991. About six months after we started playing D&D. I searched for RQ3 for a while before actually tracking it down in early '92. People under 25 do not understand how the secondary market worked prior to ebay. While on the one hand, when you found a score, it was always a big one, but there were long, protracted droughts where (unless you had the capability of traveling long distances or the luxury of living in a major population center) you couldn't find anything. Sometimes I wonder if that's why these days I collect a lot of stuff from that era that I may never actually use...

:eek: The only thing that bugs me about that statement is that it exists.

In my campaign when it was still 1e AD&D we were using Order, Balance, Apathy and Disorder. The transition to this system made that easier on me since I didn't have to houserule the effects of a lot of spells anymore.

I've got about half the Content Table done (I've been doing it on my phone in my scant free time, so it's taking longer than expected), should have it up early next week after I get back from an impending roadtrip. First two play sessions went great, and players seem to be pretty happy with the system. We've converted a few spells over from 1e, 2e and HM and made race conversions for my campaign world. I'll probably post that stuff as well. The first session they weren't too keen on hit locations. The second session, one of the Fighters lopped off a thug's arm with one stroke, causing his four friends to drop their weapons immediately. Now I'm pretty sure they'll love hit locations until I score a crit on one of their limbs, then we'll see what happens.

No, but I did run a time travel campaign once where the PCs lost some of their abilities each time they altered reality. They each became _really_ good at just a few things after they kept jumping back and forth. Conversely, they became _really_ bad at most things.

He already plays that way anyway. He only uses a handful of spells daily, but they always bring the pain. Part of what makes him so deadly is he's one of a handful of characters I've seen over the years that qualified for 1e psionics. He can Dimension Door, Detect Magic and Heal with psionics on top of his spell alottment. I already have a solution for that one, he'll just have two POW pools to draw from, one that replenishes _slowly_. I think it comes down to his spell selection at the beginning. The problem is he usually picks off the wall choices (he's not a fireball/magic missile guy) and exploits them well. Last big combat we got in he Hasted everyone then dropped a Hallucinatory Terrain on top of them. It was BRUTAL the carnage that ensued. Keep in mind, he never uses either of those spells. And that's where the rub is: he does something different every combat, and that's exactly why he's so dangerous. Whatever, not a big deal, I'm sure he'll just pick a ton of different spells at low skill level and be happy. I should have been clearer in my first post about his play style and why it will take a hit.

HA! The funny thing is that I've spent the last fifteen years converting Runequest, Stormbringer and CoC monsters over to D&D to fill my campaign world, so that part is going to be so much easier on me. I'll try to remember to alter the Ftr/Ill appropriately when we officially make the conversion, I hadn't looked at the errata prior to jumping into character conversion. The main problem we had was the other guy's character is an Ass/Cl and we had to play with the Thief a little to make him fit the Assassin class better. It basically came down to giving him one weapon starting at 25% bonus, and the Poison skill starting at 25% as well. After that we jimmied some of his points around to make him more distinct from the Thief (deemphasized environmental Thief skills and upped infiltration/subterfuge ones). Speaking of, I have a _really_ huge poison chart that uses real world and D&D biotoxins and elemental poisons I made for the Assassin that I'm going to convert to BRP and upload once school is over in about a month. One other thing. I have two multi classed and two single classed characters. This wouldn't really be an issue if there wasn't such a level discrepancy between characters. I wanted to keep them as close as possible to their current relative powers. Luckily, both guys last night were the multiclassers, and they're both exactly the same level so it wasn't a problem. The other two characters are problematic. I guess a breakdown of power level would help here: Fighter/Illusionist 6/6 Assassin/Cleric 6/6 Wizard 9 Fighter 4 almost 5 I gave the first two 320 where they would RAW get 240. The Wizard I'm planning on giving around 350, maybe a little more. The other Fighter maybe I'll keep around 250. Thing is, I'm not sure if these numbers are going to work until I see the Wizard on paper. I probably won't have time to do it until the player does it himself, so I'm curious what you think of these numbers. It was put to a vote and 3 of the 4 players wanted to "convert" as close as possible rather than start fresh. (Guess who the dissenting opinion was?) In the D&D game, the Wizard is horrifyingly powerful compared to the other two casters spellwise and the two last night expressed their concern that he's going to get shafted playing with skill points rather than charted progression. I think they're wrong, but we'll see. The only reason I'm bringing up such a mechanics heavy question this early in the game is I'm sure you've probably seen characters at this power level and I want to pick your brain on what I should be doing to get a semi accurate transition from one system to the other. And before you express any concern over high power levels in a "new" game, these guys thrive on near death experiences, crazy ass masochists.

Except for the massive formatting errors that are typical of all monographs, I love this book. The missle weapon omission I can live with. The fact it took fifteen minutes to see the Illusionist spell list even though it was right there on the page I kept turning to is my fault. The only gripe I have is that once they were done "formatting" it, they didn't bother to put in a table of contents or index. If no one beats me to it, I'll be uploading a table of contents next week. Two of my players "converted" their 1e characters last night, and were both very excited about the fact we were using "Runequest dumbed down to D&D" (actual quote). This is the system I've waited years for because I was too lazy to do it myself, and I can't wait to start playing. Thanks Rodney.

Rodney, this book is awesome. I've tried three times to add something useful to that first sentence, and it's not happening. I'll definitely be posting a review after a few play sessions that should begin next week. You've done a hell of a job, man. I can't wait to see more from this project.

That's the exact order I just placed.

William S Burroughs _The Ticket That Exploded_. One of the grimmest, nastiest books I've ever read. Me and another guy ran a short lived campaign that owed a lot to Burroughs style of terrorcore science fiction. Anything by Jim Thompson A lot of my games, no matter what genre, have characters heavily inspired by Jim Thompson characters. His characters are heavily detailed, and have real, believable motivations (no matter how crazy). His stories are quick and entertaining reads as well. People lie and cheat, there is a decent amount of sex and there's usually a high body count. HP Lovecraft _The Dreams in the Witch House_. I love HP Lovecraft. People have their opinions, and I personally think he was a pretty horrible writer, but I love his stories, they're unforgiving and weird as all hell. In this one a guy kidnaps and murders children while he blacks out from time dilation overload, and counts among his friends a man with no face, a 500 year old hag and a vampire mouse with a little man's face. He dies at the end because the little mouse eats his heart. I love games that take it far out like this. I'm not so much a fan of Lovecraft pastiche Call of Cthulhu scenarios, just more the spirit of how weird a lot of his stuff is. I have ran entire campaigns of CoC/Lovecraft inspired xyz that have no branded Mythos connection whatsoever. Fyodor Dostoyevsky _The Brothers Karamozov_ Robert Musil _The Man Without Qualities_ James Joyce _Ulysses_ Louis Celine _Death on the Installment Plan_ These four books influenced me tremendously in storytelling. Each of these has a dozen or more very important characters who all intertwine in the world of the story in some way, no matter how minute. I read these all during a long campaign of Call of Cthulhu, and they influenced my gaming style so much that I'd say they had a big part in my ditching DnD and going full on BRP until a few years ago. Cormac McCarthy _The Road_ This book is an extreme of every emotion you can feel. You will laugh, cry, fear and dread for the characters for real _sometimes all in the span of a paragraph_. McCarthy's voice is his own, and no amount of discussion will do it justice. Read this book and walk away both utterly crushed and sublimely happy. BTW I hate the word sublime, but this is one of the few times it really fits.

Inspector Zero is absolutely right. I bought Magic and Creatures, and they are both written not only with straight RQ3 stats (not a big deal), they are copied and pasted directly from those works (a big, annoying deal, c'mon guys, put just a little effort into editing or be more forthcoming in your product descriptions). I got them before anyone had posted any comments on them, or I would have saved my money. I like having the Magic book, because I can write in it (I won't write in my RQ3 books, they are old and expensive to replace), but the Creatures book was a complete waste of money, since it's the RQ3 monster book, and I already have that book and the Malleus Monstrorum. Buyer beware for sure. But, like I said, it's nice to be able to write in the book and not feel guilty.

This is very close to what I've been doing in my game. The only differences are I allow it at 75% Parry and the skill is actually named Parry/Riposte (more generous), it costs DEX rank 3 for each use (more harsh) and each riposte scales down the attack value 50% (more harsh). I think I like the "official" version better, but it's too late for this current campaign.

HA! Thank you for your use of the term Fatbeard. I recently was on the receiving end of a flame war on another site for using the term when I was using it to describe someone I knew personally and have called Fatbeard _as a term of endearment_ many times. That part was glossed over as the mob shoved their pitchforks and torches in the air.

This is absolutely brilliant soltakss.

I play both and have fun with both. I think Runequest was too "out there" for a lot of mainstream success. Funny thing is, that was my group's favorite thing about it (that and we could easily port over Call of Cthulhu monsters). I will say this however: There is NO BETTER system for one shot games than BRP.