FunGuyFromYuggoth

As noted, RQ3 certainly had the ability to use locational armor; in fact, I saw it all the time when you got to heavier armors. The fact it didn't try to specify exactly which armors were possible was a necessary trait in a game that wasn't designed for a specific time period and world.

In fact, I remember that the Coliseum supplement for RQ3 had a number of mixed armor combinations that were typical for gladiators at the time.

ENC being what it was for RQ3, and if the GMs enforced fatigue, monetary cost and availability limits (scarcity depending on region), players often mixed and matched armor.

Thanks Jason. I never even heard of TSWoSK!

Sorry about the typo. I was on a PDA and its harder to catch errors when I'm on it.

In any case, I'd love to see a set of science-fiction rules that covered:

* Gritty science-fiction with interesting archetypes

* Trade betwen worlds in a frontier of an empire

* Spaceship combat

* Use of "old tech" like projectile weapons, etc.

If it happened to resemble "Traveller" or "Firefly" I'd be happy.

Questions for Jason: are you running any campaigns currently in BRP and what would you recommend as a first genre for BRP newbies to get a feel for the system?

I'd be interested in seeing some rules in the parkour/free running vein of things. Lots of running, jumping, etc. in the vein of "Casino Royale," "Distric B13," and "The Bourne Ultimatum."

But since the guy who blocks surely has a 1d6 damage modifier, and should have a high enough martial art skill to do 2d6 damage with his kick, a successfull parry or better vs. a failed attack should do at least 3d6 damage to the attacker's leg, and even for those big guys you would only need about 12 points of damage to maim a leg. The guy have no armor, and maybe he even forgot to cast his protection! He probably have some natural AP though...

SGL.

Translating RL confrontations in game terms is a lot harder than taking game mechanics and describing it back to the players. But in this case, I don't think I'd give the defender the damage bonus since his defense was effectively static. Think of it as a "trap" to kick something you shouldn't be kicking. If anything, the attacker's Damage Bonus came right back at himself. Think of yourself walking into the corner of the table. Most of the harm came from you blundering into it. The faster, harder you come at the edge of the table, the more damage you take. Mr. Table wasn't really adding to the impact. Ouch.

Always a good idea to wait for the review...

My doctor gives me pills to handle my illusions...

Some rock band in the 90s told me to use my illusions.

A fumble, definitely. Like the old "Hit self, do maximum damage". In this case it's "hit someone else, snap own leg in two".

Although it could have been a failure and a critical parry.

That was an epic fail. Since BRP has two sets of dice rolling here, it could possibly also be a fumble by the attacker and a critical by the defender (all kicking arts use "the shield" to defend against a kick...some actually use it offensively and aim to point the leg or knee to inflict some damage back at the attacker). Ultimately it depends on how the GM describes the exchange.

Any Browncoats here?

There's potential at the college level, sure, but those are adults (or near enough) and with rising college costs, they are probably working even more than the high school kids. Plus, I don't know about you, but I don't think pen & paper can compete with discovering the joys of coupling and partying and, oh yes, studying. The gaming group at my university were not good and hopefully they're not representative of what college organized gaming is like and my impression is that they didn't do any better job of keeping gaming alive in the U.S. than the rest of us.

One idea, though, is to get these games to college books stores and to have the product placed prominently alongside other books. With the death of the FLGS, the college bookstore may be one of the few bricks and mortar outlets for gamers that hasn't been fully exploited by gaming companies.

Anybody else remember the game based on the comic books by Wendy and Richard Pini?

Elves gather at Warners

Rawson Thurber to write, direct, produce comic adaptation

By Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter

July 9, 2008, 01:00 AM ET

"Elfquest"

"Elfquest," the cult comic by Wendy and Richard Pini, is heading to the big screen courtesy of Warners Bros. and Rawson Thurber.

Thurber will write, direct and produce the feature, whose format is undetermined.

The original comic, which the Pinis initially self-published starting in 1978, followed a tribe of elves known as the Wolfriders in their attempts to survive and link with other dispersed elves on an Earth-like planet with two moons while on the lookout for tribes of humans and trolls, both of which acted as allies and enemies.

The series -- which at certain points in its history was published by both Marvel and DC Comics -- attracted a more mature audience as it went along, with scenes of battles and sexuality that were intense for that time.

Hollywood has long tried to adapt the series, and several attempts at an animated series or feature have been made over the years.

Courtenay Valenti is overseeing for Warners.

CAA-repped Thurber, a commercials director, broke through into features with the 2004 Ben Stiller hit "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story." He also wrote and directed "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," an adaptation of the Michael Chabon novel.

The Pinis are repped by RWSH and Hansen Literary.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i2a7c68761043a405623185ae5f0c885e

At the Royal Armories in Leeds, they had a really good video showing a dual between two knights using halberds. It gave a feel for how these weapons were used. Unfortunately, I can't find that video online.

Thanks for the tip! I think it's in this dogpile of videos they collected here, but there are alot of them. Can you tell us which one it is?

Its probably not possible to factor all this in tidily, but I can't help but think you can manage a closer approximation without excessive system overhead or essentially arbitrary GM input.

I think if it were possible, somebody who makes a living off writing games like Stormbringer, RuneQuest (all the flavors), or even the more recent Cthulhu Dark Ages would've presented this ages ago. If I were to guess--ok you can't stop it now --I'd say that generally a homebrew/GM judgement call is what's we've been doing for the past 30 years (before it was even called BRP) on all the gray areas. Compare the way referees differ in different sports b/c every game is a different kind of beast.

I think that's what makes BRP special. Its design engenders a little more trust between the GM and the players when it comes to situations that aren't covered on page XXX.

The halberd-wielder is a legionnaire who's using it as her regimental weapon - it's what she generally carries around with her and is trained with. Carrying it into a confined space underground was not something planned - the party came across the tunnel whilst doing something completely different and outdoorsy and she ended up having to drag the weapon along as it's her best combat skill.

This gets to me thinking that weapons that were designed to be used in the open with tight formations (others) under the control of a good sergeant (see "300") would probably enjoy a boost to their attack/defense with those weapons until fatigue set in or they took an appreciable number of losses. Yes, this is drifting into small unit rules, I know. :ohwell:

(Basically everything written before this last sentence.) Definitely not dead, but the feeling of loss and drama was definitely there!

Well put. Call of Cthulhu gives a sense of the combat system, but doesn't show how the system performs under a fantasy roleplaying system. I would add that with a RuneQuest-like magic system you add defense spells and armor points on top of the Parry and Dodge skills. The tension of managing your remaining Magic/POW Points and HP is (to my way of thinking) preferable to having to the way D&D wears your HP down.

:party: Very cool! Thanks.

Oh well... maybe someday I'll dust it off.

Is there enough you can put into a short article before putting the whole shebang together or did you want to finish the book first?

There would be interest of course. Perhaps more from the WotC gamers, but I see applications in games like Call of Cthulhu too.

I am a longtime fan of the fantastically out of hyper-kinetic/completely unrealistic world envisioned by John Woo from the 1980s and early 1990s. It's newest incarnation is in a summer blockbusterfilm called "Wanted, "but of course was most famously copied in films worldwide for the last decade or so.

How would you do it? What skills/abilities/powers would you use from the BRP book to make it happen? How would you handle HP? How would firearms have to be adapted (rate of fire, dual handgun wielding, impossible shots, etc.) to make it in BRP?

My house rule to manage the situation with common sense is simple.

1. Statement of intent to say a closing attempt will be made.

2. Use opposed Dodge rolls to resolve the closing attempt at the DEX rank of the combatant attempting to close.

I like what you wrote about your house rule. I've been using a similar rule for years. Overall, I am fairly happy with the rules as written and every GM should feel free to use common sense in addressing the grey areas. The GM should feel free to tell a player that a Dodge, Block, Shield, or Attack is appropriate at that moment once their turn comes up (SR or not) and to alert them ahead of time with a brief tactical assessment of the opposition. The player can't see their face, read their fighting style, feel the ground under their feet, or see the tall grass moving in the wind. That's the GM's job to bring all of those elements to life.

Therefore in a typical contest, the more experienced and fluid combatant will be able to control the distances than the less skilled or club footed combatant.

In an academy/dojo setting, conditions are fairly controlled and the style/rules of the game fairly well agreed upon ahead of time. I have studied and trained in kali (knife, baton, sword, and staff principally) for over ten years, so I look at combat in a similar way to you. While I don't fully disagree with the statement you provided, I would wish to add that situations change dramatically when you factor in ferocity and surprise by an apparently less skilled opponent when the mask of decorum is lifted. Some can batter and wear down a more skilled and nimble opponent in short order in single combat just by doing unorthodox things.

I have trained and trained with people coming from a variety of other martial arts backgrounds in edged and other melee weapons and have seen "double kills" happen frequently. So that even if the superior combatant scores a kill, he or she is also often dealt a mortal blow at about the same time. Who won, she did. Who died? Probably both of them.

It must be remembered that the most effective fighters in history were not the individual heroes or their teachers, but the generals and the armies who worked as a unit with better technology to overcome the opposition, even though their individual soldiers perhaps were not the best in single combat.

It's going to be an uphill fight to get pen & paper games back into the spotlight. Teens are typically distracted and pulled in different directions by overscheduling, console and PC games, part-time jobs, iPods, a new blockbuster every weekend of the summer, and the Internet to name a few. Pen & paper games depend on a level of focus that demands planning and preparation. See the rise of collective card games. Easy to sell, package, and play. No prep time needed and addictive (never liked them myself, but alot of others sure did). Also, faddish and ultimately people put them down as quickly as they picked them up.

Perhaps something in the mass media? Comic books have clawed their way back to the spotlight with movies based, but few pen & paper games translate well to cinema (see the D&D movie) and even a moderate level of collateral interest (see LOTR) the effect on the demographic may instead spark an interest in selling toys or video games, not pen & paper books.

I agree with Jason. If the big box stores had more GAMES in the shelves besides WotC products, people might actually flip through the pages and buy them. The problem is the price, but with video games hovering at around the $60 price point, perhaps getting them to buy a $40 book isn't as much of an issue as getting them to read it, convince their friends its worth spending a few hours with, and fitting it into their schedules.

Or not.

To be truthful, I think the future are the online MMORPG who have effectively moved into the heroic fantasy genre, science fiction, superheroes, etc.

What you and Chaosium have done is remarkable--it captures the evolution of BRP and reintroduces it to a gaming public without coming across as a radical departure and alienating the graying, but still committed fan base, and giving them a chance to review and take a stake in a Zero Edition, leveraging their input online.

There will be time enough for a 1.5 or various other editions, but I think as "Starts" go, this was a very good one. Thank you Jason!

As stated before, I am definitely against advising to get out-of-print materials. RQ2 is almost 30 year old, and even though its "atmosphere" was great, it contains game concepts that are terribly outdated. If you start with RQ2, you will have conversion problems with everything if you later want to move your game to BRP.

A good alternative for the Third Age if you do not want to read all the HeroWars / HeroQuest stuff would be picking River of Cradles instead, for instance, which is also set in Pavis but after the setting had been explored for 20 years or so. It is still an out of print book, but it contains all of the starting religious info to play an Orlanthi,too, (and you do not want to play any stinking Lunar, do you?) and all the stats given are 100% compatible with BRP 1. You will need some spell descriptions, but if you are a bit patient I am finishing my list of basic RQ spells adapted to BRP, so you will be able to play all the old Gloranthan supplements with the BRP rules and just the MRQ SRD, which is free, for magic.

Good advice! I hate sending new gamers out to search for OOP editions, particularly given that there are other choices (including BRP and forum volunteers willing to share their lore). :thumb:

Parrying has nothing to do with the closing rules in this case. It is weapon momentum, not length, that makes a parry difficult. A thrust with a long spear is not stronger than a thrust with a katana, both are two-handed weapons (except that a katana is rarely used to thrust). And you can parry a Katana with a sai.

I think you're inadvertently mixing parrying and attacking here. Parrying in game terms is usually defined by deflecting or redirecting the attack. The Shield skill or Block are different but related defensive abilities. Speaking as someone with edged weapons experience, I think combat simulation in BRP is necessarily abstracted, but also appreciate the fact that the GM can adjust the system on the fly. Depending on the situation, there is no reason why the 40% modifier you suggested could not find its place.

But that depends on a lot and I think we're over-thinking this. Look at the attacker and the defender, the weapons and armor they have, and whether or not it makes sense for an attack or defense to happen. There are no specific rules on using largish weapons in a dungeon crawl, but GMs generally know that some weapons are just not usable depending on the situation and in this case, perhaps parrying isn't always practical.

Sometimes (in the case of the sai) it means momentarily trapping a sword while the other sai (wielded in each hand) went in for the kill. I agree that momentum is a consideration, but evasion and deflection are equally important in the decision on whether to parry or just get out of the way. Some weapons in some circumstances should just not be allowed to parry by an alert GM because the opportunity just isn't there or it just doesn't make sense--use Dodge or Shield instead.

That's a nice looking cover!

SGL.

Reminds of me of the art that used to grace The White Dwarf back in the day.

Good times! :thumb: