el_octogono

I use Discord for video online gaming and the mRPG app for text-based. The mRPG app is awesome, allowing you to create character sheets, speak as NPCs, roll dice with modifiers, and many more things. I'm still waiting for the audio message feature to make it the perfect app.

My group is moving to online gaming at least for the next two or three weeks.

I'm the author, in case someone wants some info. You can also reach the game through the link in my signature.

You're right. But I'd also use the 2d6+6 for "normal" SIZ. And SIZ is another thing that needs to be removed in favor of a build or siz category as in Revolution d100.

My personal tastes would be: - Stat bases for skills - A more important CHA stat... IRL being charismatic has many, many advantages and RPGs in general don't translate this well. A reaction roll with later bonuses or penalties is needed. - Higher hit points like in SB4 where HP are equal to CON + any points above 12 or - any points below 9 in STR. It also allows for normal build and resistant characters. - Combat Styles - No hit locations. I feel they are in the middle between being detailed and too structured. I prefer no locations and being able to translate the hit point loss into something more vivid. Maybe a way to translate amount of damage into damage descriptions and locations? - Tick experiences... It's one of the best things of BRP IMHO and I miss them in almost every new version. - Better uses for shields... this is a huge drawback in BRP that hasn't been addressed properly. - Clearer and less complicated number of attack and parry rules... I don't like Strike Ranks, Impulses and the like. Dex ranks is the way. It always stuck me as strange that only one attack may be made but you can do multiple parries. I'd like a unified criteria like... -20% for every additional attack to all attacks AND defenses, thus you can make more attacks but risking your defensive capabilities. - I like Skill for magic... It seems unmagical that only by spending MPs I can cast a spell... maybe tying MPs to fatigue or make a general Stamina Points that non-magic users may use for special attacks, maneouvers, etc. - Lower skill values... I don't like BRP iterations where skills usually go higher than 100%... it seems counter intuitive and usually adds complicated work arounds.

Wow! Your description hits all the buttons I liked in BRP! Thanks!

Is it any good? What is it about?

I thought that supplement never got published...

I think HQ should encourage the use of lower abilities. Perhaps changing the level of the opposition depending on the skill used? or better: using a lower or underused ability may grant a Hero Point if used succesfully...

Smoke from Australia reached Argentina... I can't imagine what it is there...

I now realize I misunderstood the question. I never ran SB using personalities as PCs. I think it would be fun but a totally different experience from the novels.

Zork? Something by Zelazny?

I ran SB with some of the characters. If I remember correctly I introduced Rackhir, Smiorgan, Avan Astran and Elric. It really depends on your group of players. Some players, or characters, may react badly, specially with melnibonéan characters like Elric. The thing is even Elric is quite killable so, as a GM, you might have to fudge some rolls or add "Cosmic Balance Points" (like fate points) or something like that to protect the main characters.

Dune would be awesome...

Am I the first one to post this?

I find the CoC7 rules faster... and the success levels are clearer for everyone and a better replacement for the Resistance Table. Opposed rolls are based on the opponent's skill level, and then assigning a normal, hard or extreme roll. I also love the Fight Back rules. I agree that bonus or penalty dice may seem akward but they replace bonus percentiles... I find it easier to add one or two dice than adding +25 or -15 or whatever. I use this rules as my go to generic BRP rules.

This. Shields are almost always useless and firearms, specially burst weapons, have tedious and unrealistic damage results.

If I were given the task to make a new BGB I would add CoC7 innovations, like success levels, oposed rolls based on opponent's skill, maybe ad/disad rolls. Percentage stats don't work for me as visually they get mixed with skills, and they get really large once you cross the human levels. But most importantly, I'd give a complete functioning version of BRP as base (I think Magic World level is the ideal), and add all the optional tweaks and rules as add-ons. That way you can give a complete playable game for a newbe, and all the other BRP goodness to explore if they want. I think only hardcore BRP gamers have the patience to use the BGB toolkit as it is now. Also a clear explanation of the advantages, disadvantages and impacts of adding one rule subset or another has on the core rules would be ideal.

I imagine low level tech, but that doesn't mean they should be uncivilized...

In my YKs Myyrhns live high in mountain caves, in small communities. It seems logical that a winged race lives in the heights for better protection and defence strategies.

Yes, having a higher skill and failing more often is really awkward. You can rephrase the concept and tell your players they already have a success but are rolling to see if they can shift the success level. But the system's wording doesn't help. You can fail a roll and still win the contest... I believe the Crit, success, Fail, Fumble terms should be replaced with more friendly and intuitive words. The probability curve is something I also felt playing. You can make the extreme results more often by changing the dice type. Make the scale 1-10... roll 1d10, 1 is a crit, 0 is a fumble... and you are aproximately doubling the chances of these other outcomes. Make starting levels a 7 and thats it...

I always understood that Nephilim's past lives memories are a bit nebulous. The Nephilim remembers the experience as one can remember a dream, but retaining part of the skills and knowledge. That is why not all the % of the past lives professions remain with the Nephilim. That prevents both GM and players needing a full knowledge and understanding of each era. However, once you have a defined set of PCs, you may use parts of their past lives as story hooks and some research doesn't hurt!

Yes. It is an amazing setting. I hope I can play again with the same or other group.

Hi Everyone! I've been GMing River of Heaven (Refreshed Edition) for a couple of sessions. I've been playing BRP games since 1994, so I'm quite familiar with the ruleset and its strengths and weaknesses. I find River of Heaven to be one of the best sci fi settings out there. I think it is the plausibility of the tech and socio-political aspects of it. Thankfuly I was able to convince my players to give it a try. We enjoyed it but I found a couple of missing things that need to be in a future edition of the rules. 1- A better layout: The book has nice big letters that are easy to read but titles levels are difficult to differentiate, making a search for something a little bit hard to find. There is something else that makes hard to find a specific place in the book but don't know exactly what. 2- Some tables are spread over the entire book and it is very helpful to fave them unified in one place. For example the different weapon tables, all the equipment, spaceship weapons, etc.. 3- A interstellar map of the gameworld. This is very helpful since it is hard to grasp the whole setting otherwise. 4- A complete chart of distance and travel times between all the main stars and between the planets of each system. It is really annoying having to stop, find the different locations in the book, calculate distances, calculate speed, etc... In the end I just eyeballed everything. 5- More detail on spaceship equipment. The Stepships are the only ones detailed, but every other ship is empty of information. What kind of communication systems, sensors, or other specs they have. It seems the focus in the book is only on the weapons department, but not everything is about that. Again I had to eyeball many things in play, having stopped the flow of the game trying to find something that is not there. For example, the players arrived an asteroid where a scientific station was located. The pilot asked if he could scan the place for life forms, or heat signals, or whatever... the book has no clue about this... 6- As I said in another post, the really unbalanced species in character creation. I know there are some disadvantages to compensate those overpowered species, but it is not clear in the manual. 7- A better Character Sheet... the actual one is quite ugly and, even without that in consideration, it has a lot of missing info: * Bioenergy points could go near the Augments. * The weapons section is incomplete and small. * Armor should go near the weapons section. * Augmentations section is also awkward... it would be helpful having a column for Active or Passive augments, current level, and some space for a breef description. * There is no place to write down character Goals * Somewhere to write down the XP would be nice. 8- Augments: they are a nice concept but the actual list of augments is rather limited and uninspiring. I think it needs a little more creativity. Overall: I love the setting but the book feels like it had virtually no playtesting. My group and I was excited with the game, but every step we took left us more and more annoyed, confused, and ultimately destroyed our enthusiasm. I'm sorry if I sound blunt, but I think it is all positive criticism.

Yes, I have the spanish translation of that book and it is really nice... a mix of Dark City and traditional vampires, nothing like the cheesy (IMHO) clans of WoD.