Michael Hopcroft

One of the reasons I'm writing this from a backup machine is that my main computer is in the shop getting a new graphics card. You see, I got a PC download of Titanfall as a present (perfectly legitimate -- it had been an convention prize no-one had claimed and they had to give the code t somebody before it expired, and I won the draw). Waiting for the computer to get back, I'm thinking of the settings RPG potential. Titans are mecha that are principal ground combat weapons in the setting. They're like mecha, but unlike most mecha they aren't invulnerable to infantry. One infantryman standing against a Titan is pretty much toast, but a properly-equipped fireteam can take one out if it doesn't take them out first. Titan pilots frequently fight out of their cockpits -- they wear special armor and are capable of serious feats of free-running. Does anyone who's played more Titanfall than I have have any thoughts about roleplaying in the setting?

Look at it this way -- the modern supercarrier USS Gerald Ford will have a crew of 4,660 when it enters active service in 2016. A large part of them are occupied with the continual maintenance the ship and its systems will require, from cleaning and painting to inspection and repairs. Another large part of it will attend to the 75+ naval aircraft kept on board. These sailors will be supported by innumerable other functions, from cooks and kitchen help to keep them all fed and medical staff to keep them healthy to barbers, laundry people, and other such. By contrast, a destroyer has a much more spartan crew compliment -- typically 300, many of whom pull multiple functions.

Do certain weapons have special properties, like being especially effective against certain types of defense or even having useful properties outside space combat? I'm reminded of the TNG pilot when the Enterprise's phaser array was used to deliver energy to an entity that needed to feed on it, so that it would have enough power to free itself from captivity. Apparently the weapon was used at a power setting low enough that it would not hurt the "target" but high enough that the job was done relatively quickly. Then there are specific weapons having specific weaknesses, such as circumstances where their utility is reduced or eliminated. This would give you a reason to carry projectile-throwing weapons (such as torpedoes) and energy weapons on the same ship.

I dealt with similar issues in the Fudge-based game I helped design by having the GM keep the target the player needed to beat secret. He would describe the effect of the action, but the PC would never know if he'd really made the roll (so that if, say, he rolled a total of 5 and needed a total of 6, he'd be lulled into a false sense of security by the knowledge that he'd rolled pretty well). Of course, the GM would still make some rolls (especially for the NPCs) in secret.

Which you have now inspired me to track down. But do I really want to know so much about Bugs Bunny's love life?

By the way, Crunchyroll (the anime streaming service) has an online store that is currently offering on special the complete first season of Mobile Suit Gundam 00. I always thought this series should have been extraordinarily controversial because the "heroes" belong to essentially a very well-funded terrorist group, but nobody batted an eye about it. But that isn't new ground entirely for the franchise, as anyone who remembers Gundam Wing can attest. When that came out in the 1990s, at about the same time as Dragonball Z, it was like a wildfire. Among other things, it was one of the first "cartoons" in the US to embraced by writers and fans of "slash" fiction, starting an entire subculture in anime fandom in the US (gay doujinshi was nothing new in Japan, of course -- that's how CLAMP got their start, after all....). And it became so popular among teenage and adult fans that Cartoon Network did special showings of every episode at midnight -- only this time the episode was uncut (the regular showings were edited for a younger audience with the violence toned down).

Do you want to include out-of-print material, or stuff theoretically compatible with BRP but not officially licensed for it? Or do you want only current, official BRP books?

Still, I wonder if the player makes his roll and the thing he's trying to disbelieve is still there... Does the GM have to tell the player what he has to roll? After all, if he knows he failed the roll, he might still think it's an illusion that his character failed to disbelieve. So he'll still be surprised, probably, when the non-illusory "illusion" does something untoward to him....

If that isn't a curse, I don't know what is. Thank goodness they have no polyester in Glorantha.

Is there a mechanic in BRP for disbelieving an illusion? Or a natural system consequence for attempting to disbelieve something you think is an illusion but is actually real? What happens if you make your Disbelieve roll and find that whatever you were trying to disbelieve is still there?

That's how it started. Then KOTD creator Jolly Blackburn decided to turn it into a real game. At about the same time WOTC had just acquired TSR and was going to remake D&D almost from the ground up. So Kenzer & Company, Blackburn's publisher, acquired the rights to rebrand and redistribute the rules WOTC was abandoning. The Hackmaster Player's Handbook appeared at the same GenCon as the third edition of D&D. In 2007 the system license expired. By that time they had the resources to do a ground-up redesign using a system of their own. That revised system is the current version of Hackmaster. It is supposedly much more playable than the "original", although the presentation is still comedic (and features the Knights themselves). I imagine that a Hackmaster +10 greatsword is still out there somewhere.... Yes, it is still being published.

Which might be a good idea for your next book, or for a D100 book by someone else devoted to a political campaign. Which might well be a pretty good book. Some BRP settings would work well for that (any of the Roman campaign settings will by their very nature have heavy doses of political infighting). It's a chance for non-combat skills to really shine and characterization and roleplaying to take center stage. Just surviving an assassination attempt (as victim or, even more challenging, as perpetrator) can be quite a challenge. Dare you risk open implication in a plot that might fail? Dare you trust an NPC to do your dirty work for you?

I wonder about adapting some of the CF rules to other styles of play as well. Or about providing variation in tone as PCs get more powerful. In the original AD&D it was expected that when your character reached a certain level you would start carving out your own domain/fief/etc. as opposed to simply continuing to adventure. The exact nature of this domain depended on your class -- it could be high ecclesiastic office, a dominant position in a Council of Wizards, becoming a crime boss in your own right (if you were a thief), or -- if you were a fighter -- literally carving out a kingdom with your sword. I wonder if the game can accommodate what is required to do that, including learning the new skills required (to seize control of a kingdom by force of arms is one thing -- to keep control and rule competently is another thing entirely!). Or is it simply assumed that when you get to that point the proper form is to retire your character and start over again with another?

another character who would have trouble with such a monster is Daffy Duck. yes, Daffy Duck. Daffy really, really believes in himself. Usually with very little cause. And the Universe takes a great deal of sadistic pleasure in batting him down.

One of the things I seem to remember most about Spidey is that his powers seemed to exist mainly to get him into trouble that he would have to use his wits to get out of. He wasn't going to defeat the Green Goblin or Doc Ock simply by using superior strength to beat him up. He had to use his limited powers creatively, when they came into play at all. He also spend most of his time in combat trying not to get hit by the superior firepower of his foes. His "tactic" is to get out of the way while still staying in the fight.

Someone's been watching anime lately (or rather they were in 2011 when the clip was released). I'm curious about when this clip was released originally and what it accompanied. I originally thought it might have been the Hobbit but it's a year earlier....

Not as bad as tattooing a treasure map on the head of your newborn baby son.....

Are there any D100 products recently that have originated in other languages and needed to be translated into English?

I've always wondered what it would be like to be a child growing up in a place like Freeport. Not necessarily the children of the streets forced into crime and worse, but children with parents and siblings trying to grow up in a city like that......

depends. Sometimes you want your mecha to go at least a couple of rounds with Godzilla (although that's a completely different style of mecha, which is also referred to in the BRP Mecha book). Which reminds me I still need to get around to watching Pacific Rim.

I believe there actually is a dragon lair in the vicinity of Freeport which most people seem to agree is best left alone. But I'm not really sure.

That would be Robotech/Macross. Starblazers (the dubbed version of Space Battleship Yamato) didn't really involve mecha in the sense we generally use the term -- the action mainly centered on an enormous space battleship on a quixotic quest to make Earth inhabitable again -- with an implacable enemy dogging every step.

I haven't read or watched much Game of Thrones (no HBO and they try very hard to keep it away from everyone else -- the only way Netflix was able to distribute it at all was to buy a whole bunch of DVDs at retail price). I don't even really know whether I'd even enjoy the experience. But there's no denying it's immensely popular. So somehow I can see some people running similar campaigns in BRP. The system certainly reflects PC fragility. From what I've heard there's a definite "fiddling while Westeros freezes" vibe it would appear. The world is approaching an inevitable catastrophe, and everyone is too wrapped up in silly power struggles to do anything about it. If they keep fighting each other, there may be nothing left to defend the world when the crisis fully manifests.

I have only played Battletech once and ended up exploding, very early, when all my ammunition exploded at once before I could use it. One of the tropes of the setting was that mecha were very, very expensive and rare. Unfortunately they were also alarmingly fragile. And evidently an accident like the one I suffered would be an instant, no-escape kill for the pilot.

Taking magic out of Freeport would also mean removing the horror elements from the setting. These are important! Freeport is built over the ruins of a serpent-man cult city, and there are still some of them in the sewers -- worshiping the Darkness and plotting their return and the demise of those upstart primates. You might think that between the human crimelords, rapacious "nobles" playing twisted power games (as those with pretense of nobility tend to do in dark fantasy -- George RR Martin has a lot to answer for!), random footpads as likely to be after your life as your purse, constant duels-to-the-death in the streets which everyone would rather wager on than try to stop, and the odd invasion of undead pirates, there are plenty of devils on the surface. So most people don't really want to know about the threat looming under their very feet. Living in Freeport does have some advantages, of course, especially if you're a buyer (or stealer) and seller of dubious goods. There's a market for everything in Freeport, and an enterprising person who can keep the knives away from his back can make his fortune (and, if he's really lucky, live long enough to enjoy it for a while). The people who think they have power aren't necessarily right about it. The night life is to die for (and, in fact, many do). Freeport is wild, unruly and uncivilized, and for the most part the inhabitants seem to like it that way. Many of the more "law-abiding" nations on the Continent would love to burn the place to the ground, but nobody's done it yet. Just remember the immortal words of Bob Dylan -- "To live outside the law, you must be honest."