p_clapham

I've played quite a bit of Exalted at this point, as well as it's Pulp Predecessor Adventure! I terms of adapting their cinematic rules, it's a bit problematic. At the core are the stunting rules, giving a character additional dice to roll (1-3), depending on how entertaining and descriptive their action is. Adventure! contained the rules for Dramatic Editing, which would work quite nicely in BRP. You would spend a certain number of fortune dice to alter the story, the more drastic the change, the more fortune points spent. Stunting could be represented by a reduction of difficulty to the task, but that doesn't sit well with me.

Two things. 1) A Class last Semester where I compared a couple of the battles in the Peloponnesian War, to the Battle at Helms Deep. 2) There isn't a spellchecker on my laptop browser, did I spell Penelopesian right? :confused:

BRP God of War for the Win. In all seriousness, Mythic and Classical Greece are two of my favorite historical settings to mess around in. The mythological struggles that shaped the land (war vrs the Titans, Giants and Centaurs) and the historical wars, such as the Pelopenisian War.

Does anyone else enjoy using either homebrewed or "borrowed" Cinimatic rules for Basic Roleplaying. I tend to run mostly Pulp inspired games, usualy an adaptation of the Call of Cthulhu Rules. These are the tweaks I've used in the past, and the originaly scources for them. The mechanic of "named" and "un-named" characters is a bit I swiped from Atlas Games Feng Shui. In esscence the cinimatic rules only apply to characters with names, with the idea that the un-named npcs are largly window dressing or mooks for the story. 1) Multiple Actions from Nephilim: When I first played this game, I wondered why Call of Cthulhu didn't use these rules. While CoC is a simplified version of Runquest, the Multiple Actions of Nephillium didn't seem as complicated as the RQ strike ranks. I ended up using these rules for the Player characters, and named NPCs. 2) Action Points/ Fate Points / Hero Points: I got the system for these from the Conan rpg put out by Mongoose, although I was initialy inspired by the rules found in White Wolf's Adventure! RPG. They seemed to fit nicely in a high action / adventure setting. Allowing the player characters to escape certain death, and deal a telling blow when needed. 3) Total Hit points: Prior to the release of the Zero edition BRP book I was allready using this rule. Again applying it only to important characters, I.E. named ones. Recently I've been re-reading worlds of Cthulhu, and in issue #2 they have rules for Westerns. In it there is an interesting variant on the total hitpoint rules. Characters calculated hit points using Con+Size divided by two. However they have a three strikes and you're out sytem. When you fist hit zero hit points an injury is rolled for your character, and then the hitpoints reset to full. This happens a second time, you get another wound. A third time and there's a chance the character will die. Not unlike the named / un-named character rules, Npcs fall under three tiers in the rules. First are the important NPCs, the primary villians and antagonists. Like a Player character they have fully fleshed out characteristics, traits and the three wound system. Underneath them are the head flunkies and mid boss types, they perish on their second wound. Finally there are the henchmen and mooks who perish on their very first wound. It's an interesting variant I intend to try out. Anyone else care to share their own rules for making BRP a more cinimatic and pulpy game?

Technically I've only been playing Roleplaying games since the early 90's. Starting with the D&D red box and later in HS AD&D second edition. However... in the late 70's when I was still in the crib, my folks would play a recording of J.R.R. Tolkien's the Hobbit to lull me to sleep. So while I didn't play a tabletop rpg untill the 4th grade, the Tolkein inspired fantasy rpgs have been in my blood since birth.

Sounds great! I'm just starting to explore Edgar Rice Burroughs sci-fi, and would be keenly interested in a BRP supplement for interplanetary adventure / romance.

Star Trek and Call of Cthulhu? That could work. I'm pretty sure one of my buddies from Boston used the CoC rules for a Trek game a decade ago. Quite a few of the old non-humanoid trek baddies would work well in a CoC game. The Salt Vampire from Classic Trek stands out in my mind.

Just realized my spelling error in the title. ::Facepalm:: Any chance a mod can correct it?

That would be lovely if Chaosium did that. At this point I'm strongly considering purchasing some of the Core Books as PDFs just so I don't have to lug them around.

So what was your first game you ran or played in using the RQ / BRP system? Mine was eight years ago when I was working the Fish Ladder with another Ecology student. There was lots of down time so using the blue box Runequest set, I ran a Nine Princes in Amber game.

He's in the Mallus Monstorium too isn't he?

You hit it right there with the Virility, Outlook and Determination. All things a mentally fragile Lovecraftian Protagonist lacks. In regards to R.E.H. it's a good comparision. Lovecraft seemed to be preocupied with his characters flaws and weaknesses, where as Howard was more interested in their strengths.

Much like one's taste in H.P.L. It does also depend on your take on his tales. One of the things I do keep in mind are the main characters in each story. Not all of Lovecraft's main characters are gibbering "unreliable narrators", some like Randolph Carter are made of Sterner stuff, and are able to triumph after a fashion. Mechanically you can do this in Call of Cthulhu, BRP and other RPGs. In the former a character with a low Pow and high Int would work nicely as a doomed intelectual. The Higher the Pow, the more likely survial in most cases. A few of the other games I play make use of a Power or Willpower type attribute. In those cases I once again go with a high intelligence character, but with weak resolve. Resolve does seem to be the name of the game genre wise. It's what seperates the sterotypical mad Lovecraftian protagonist, from the other horror Pulps. Granted a good amount of this will also be up to GM fiat. Someone who wants to create the Misery of Delapore from "The Rats in the Walls", will likely dislike a Doc Savage style PC; and make an example of him. Another way I think of it: If the universe is so chaotic, insane and random. Doesn't that mean the human race wins a certain amount of the time? :thumb:

Any Luck on the email? I'm curious to know whether my guess was spot on or not.

Depends on your individual taste really. I did enjoy "Herbert West: Reanimator". Then again I also liked "The Nameless City", which Lovecraft was aparently fond of.

I've been thinking about what I'd want mechanics wise for a ritual magic system. Depending on what my free time looks like this winter break I may end up detailing it a bit. I pretty much it down like this. Ritual magic consists of spells / enchantments / hexes / what have you, that take an extended amount of time to cast. They often require certain ingredients, a link to the target, and sometimes multiple casters. Mechanics wise I divide the creation and casting of ritual magic into three catagories. 1) Ritual Effect What the spell does exactly. Ultimatly this is what I would use to define the cost and difficulty of the spell. Right now I'm calling them levels of Intensity. For each one a 1mp cost and -10% difficulty is applied to the relevant ritual magic roll. 2) Ritual Requirments What is needed to cast the ritual. This would include the time needed to cast the spell, ingredients, participants and unfortunate side effects. For each Level of Requirment, a -10% penalty is taken off from the Effect Penalty. 3) Ritual Modifiers While Effect and Requirments are fixed aspects of the Ritual. Modifiers are variable in either direction. These can range from the caster being impaired in some way, to the rite being cast at a ausicious or inaspicious time. If folks are interested. The books that I drew the ideas for this were: Gurps Spirits / Voodoo, Buffy The Magic Box, and MRQ Lankhmar rpg.

Interestingly enough:D, it was the pact rules from the recent Elric rules that I got the idea from. Quite looking forward to the new rules set. I've been a long time fan of the runequest and brp system. The changes outlined in S&P 75, sound dead on. And while Mongoose isn't able to to produce the new Conan book with the upcoming rules, that doesn't stop me from running Hyperborian Fantasy with MRQ II. :thumb:

Regarding the Combat reactions. Prior to MRQ1 I used the Nephilium rules for combat actions. So when MRQ1 came out, I thought the characters were underpowered combat action wise, untill I realized they had an equal number of defense actions as offensive actions. As far as Cha based attribute, I don't know the details on it, and will reserve any critique untill I get the book in hand. By a simpler fix I was refering to the issue of Charisma being a dump stat in MRQ1. I felt in making Pow+Cha equalling a starting characters Divine and Spirit magic, it would create more of a demand for Cha in game. Further it's thematically apropriate, as petioning gods and spirits depend just as much on strength of will as they do strength of personality. Come to think of it, in past games I've considered having Magic points equal Pow+Cha divided by two, just like hit points.

I'm impressed. I don't know what else to say. It sounds like they've fixed all of the issues I have with MRQ I, and threw in some other good changes. I am sad to see the combat reactions go, and I don't know what I think about the new rules for Cha. A simpler fix would be to use Pow+Cha for Divine and Spirit magic rules.

Ghost of Albion, and Buffy's The Magic Box, both from Eden studios. The magic/ spell creation rules are one of better I've seen. A balance between ease of use and complexity.

Heh, I prefered the Box set method over the books. My blue box set is in much better shape than my RQ3 core book.

I picked up the mongraph during a sale, so I don't feel too upset about the reused content. This just means I've got Five....maybe Six versions of the same rules floating around... :cool:

Good to know. Still going with the Dedicated Pow rules then? I rather liked Gods using their worshipers as spiritual batteries under those rules. >:->

Sounds like a Plan! :thumb:

Hardcover, Leatherbound, made in the U.SA.? I'm tempted to call shenanigans. If they have indeed fixed their binding issue this time around, and have done a bit of cleaning rules wise, I'll likely come around. Overall as a long time player/gm of the runequest / brp system I liked most of the changes they made. Mostly it was that messy bit with combat, opposed skills and the binding issues that turned me off.