p_clapham

I'd like to keep it to fewer tables idealy.  I am pretty much trying to mimic the combat maneuvers table for non-combat skills.  There are thirty possible results on the combat maneuvers table, including the defensive maneuvers.  I don't think we'll need that many.  How about one table with three sections, one for offensive maneuvers, one for defensive, and one for unopposed maneuvers?  Or are offensive maneuvers close enough to unopposed to make the distinction irrelevant.  With a "offensive" or "unopposed" skill roll you are trying to do something, as opposed to a "defensive" skill roll in which you are trying to prevent something from happening.  Or am I oversimplifying things?    

One of the things that Legend seems to be lacking, is success table for non-combat skills.  This is the breakdown I have so far.

First off is the skill opposed or not?  A opposed skill should have a more specific table.  I'd then divide the skills into three basic categories: Physical, Social, and Mental.  So combined with the opposed or unopposed skill roll, we'd have six tables total?  Is that too much, or should we have more skill categories?  I could see a decent argument for a craft skill table.

If you create it I'll download it.

I'll start a new thread for it.

Simpler is better for me, I prefer the Legend method. Threedeesix mentioned the other reason I like Legend/RQ6, the special effects table. That got me thinking about the non combat skills, why not have special effects for those too.

I've peeked through the PDF a bit, it looks interesting.  Wizards end up with more spells than clerics at first level.  Still not a fan of the Vancian magic system.  One of the reasons I prefer Runequest or D&D 4E.

Can someone confirm that the rules for bloodlines are in the book? The author says not (as quoted in the first post).

Here is the table of contents in the PDF.

Introduction

Blood and Sacrifice

Blood Miracles

Blood Sorcery

New Magical Skills

Bloody Campaigns

Bloodlines are not mentioned, nor is Inheritance, or Assimilation.

Is this going to be one of the last Elric! Books through Mongoose? I heard they lost the licence.

I could have sworn in the blurb about Blood Magic on the Mongoose website bloodlines are stated to be in the boom.

Hmm... I may end up sticking with 4e or Pathfinder then.

Interesting. Does 5th Edition still use feats?

5E has Advantages and Disadvantages?

I think that would work great for an automated system or even a group that are a bit more mathematically mentally quick than I am.  Applying various bonuses and then multiplying them is out of my league.

 

An easy dice trick, if you want to get rid of the damage roll, is to add up the tens and ones for the attack roll to determine damage.

 

If I hit with a roll of 73 that's ten points of damage.  If I hit with a 23 that's 5 points of damage.

That's an interesting system, it does make critical hits rather weak though.

The various Doctors would be built using the superhero rules I think.  I'm thinking the following would apply.

Adaptation: Radiation or Protection: Radiation - some but not a whole lot, two Doctors have had to regenerate because of radiation poisoning

Extra Hit points - With his two hearts the Doctor possess amazing vitality 

"Regeneration" - This would obviously have to be a special version of the power

Super Characteristic - INT obviously, one could make the argument for POW, CHA, and CON as well

Super Sense - I'd say a few of these would be necessary.  First he's slightly psychic, then there is the "Feel the Turn of the Universe" trait from the Doctor Who rpg.  The Doctor is able to sense when something isn't right with the laws of time and space.  I guess that is someone being keyed into the Tardis/ Vortex.  The 10th Doctor was able to tell the age of something by the way it tasted.  That might have had something to do with the "Feel the Turn of the Universe" trait.

Super Skill - a whole bunch of his skills are likely super skills in addition to already being quite high.

Transfer Hit points - The 11th Doctor was able to transfer "regeneration energy" into River Song healing her wrist.

That's about it for the Super Rules.  Of course we still have gadgets like the Tardis, Sonic Screwdriver, and Psychic Paper to take into account.

Is 5E OGL?

Though when I tried to sell the concept to my gaming gang, they just looked quizzically at me.

It's definitely unusual.  I could see gamers who are anthropology majors/ enthusiasts having fun with this game.

Hmm. I'll give you that. 4e definitely handles inter-character power balance well. I have objections to it for my own games, but character balance issues are not among them.

I just found I've run my best D&D games using that edition.  Not my best games necessarily, but definitely some of my best fantasy games.  Balance among the classes was always a concern for me starting with AD&D.  I hated Thac0, the way skills were managed, and how the various classes advanced at different rates.  3E fixed a lot of my pet peeves but there were still a huge power discrepancy between the classes.  By making everything a "power" they balanced the fighting classes with the spellcasters.

I think the premise of 5e was a good one.

 

Going back to supporting 2e style settings rather than 3e/4e style settings means they don't have to compete with Pathfinder as much. Streamlining things also made some sense, some things in Pathfinder and 3.X take too long.

 

However, I'm not a fan of the way they baked a lot of the progressions into class features or the very sparse selection opportunities for feats. The former is a slap in the face if your concept doesn't fit into one of the the existing classes without multiclassing, and the latter means you're only going to get a couple of feats for your character spread over 20 levels.

 

D&D 5e Basic Rules

 

Yep. There they are. There are many character options from the PHB not included, but its enough to get the idea.

Part I appears to be missing, all they have is II & III.

This sounds a bit like Pendragon Runequest 6 style.  The passion rules from the core book sound like they'd work really well with this setting.

^{I agree.  A creative GM and enthusiastic players trump game system every time.  You can have a lot of fun despite a clunky rules set, and award-winning rules don't guarantee a good game.}

Very true.  I've had a hard time with the Champions and Rolemaster rules, but I've had some really great GMs that more than made up for it.  They walked me through character creation, and ran some really fun games.  In contrast I've had some pretty awful GMs for fairly simple and intuitive systems.  To this day I refuse to have anything to do with Legend of the Five Rings.

Not all new games are massive. I've seen some that weigh in under 60 pages.

 

But yeah, the norm for RPG books these days is around 400 pages, with not all of that being rules - prebuilt NPCs, selectable options, etc - and the actual "rules" are typically 100-150 pages of the 400 page book. I can't see myself paying $40-$60 for an RPG book with less than 100 pages of content - but I'm not one of those gamers looking for really really slim rules.

 

I like to see the rules for the core mechanic, skills, character creation, and combat weighing in at a low page count, and then lots of prebuilt content and character options.

I've got the old Avalon Hill "quick start" box sets for Runequest, they've got a fairly low page count.

No, it is a full professional product from Alephtar Games.

 

http://www.chaosium.com/brp-mecha/

 

http://www.alephtargames.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=76%3Abrp-mecha&lang=en

Thank you very much!  As soon as I have some spare cash I will pick up the PDF.  Is anyone familiar with the rules at all?

Ya, Vortex looks like a good system, but not a particularly unusual one - attributes, skills, advantages, disadvantages, etc.  I would think you could run the setting with any number of systems, though I can see how so-called "narrativist" systems such as Fate would be an especially nice fit.  

The traits listed in the book seem very useful to port over as aspects.  The only beef I have with Fate core is the lack of stunts.  I know they provide guidelines for creating your own, and give some sample stunts, but I'd really like a beefier entry on stunts both for ease of character creation and inspiration.

With the mental stress track I think the system would be great for running Call of Cthulhu style games.

I got the special edition of the Doctor Who rules for my girlfriend's birthday. It seems like a simple enough system, but if I end up running a Doctor Who game it'll probably be with Fate.

Amen, brother. That's the story of my life. I don't get to game much as it is; when I do, I'm usually GM; when I actually get to play, it's pretty much classic fantasy or modern horror. Don't get me wrong - I like those genres, but there are so many other cool things out there. I can barely get anyone interested in playing anything else, much less GMing for me. But that's enough whining ...

I'd love to play in the ballpark of modern noir / con / heist. I love shows like LEVERAGE, BURN NOTICE, and HUSTLE. The obvious candidate would be the LEVERAGE RPG, but I also like the WELLSTONE CITY setting - currently written for Savage Worlds and Aether, but easy enough to run with almost anything - especially BRP!

Something pulp scifi would be cool. Though I'm not a huge fan of Savage Worlds these days, I'd still jump at the chance to play SLIPSTREAM. The new ROCKET AGE RPG looks cool too (and the Vortex system looks decent enough). DOCTOR WHO: ADVENTURES IN TIME AND SPACE would also be fun.

I'd love to play some seriously low-magic, human only fantasy, something Conanesque perhaps, or maybe something with a mythical Asia vibe. I'm so sick of magic - it just makes everything way too easy ...

I'll check out the free rules. I may end up sticking with 4th edition though. Of all the editions I've played/ ran it has been the easiest, and felt the most balanced.

I'd like to try playing in a Fate game. Preferably pulp or Lovecraftian horror.