Urizen

Well, it's just a modification of the Apparent Size chart in the RQ6 book - I just made it scale more plausibly, so that the long shots are basically impossible and the close-shots against motionless targets are quite easy. I think I might want to modify how much a moving character affects difficulty, but it tends to make shots very 'impossible' quickly because of a limited scale in difficulties.

I went ahead and wrote up a blog post on some issues with ranged combat in real life, and another providing a chart to make shooting at range far more difficult. Bows, Crossbows and Melee Combat [with Slings!] RQ6 Adjusted Ranged Combat Apparent Size modifiers

Totally, but I meant as a desktop executable.

Legend has similar (identical?) supplements - Vikings of Legend and Samurai of Legend. I own them both, they're good. Not sure if they're just updates of the MRQ ones or not.

Good to hear!

I've had that book since 1997, heh. It is a good bit, though.

Awesome, the only thing better than random generators are computerised random generators. I wish I could program, I'd like to steal your code and make one for RuneQuest 6.

I think RuneQuest 6 is the best option of them all. The BRP BGB isn't really an 'rpg' so much as a collection of variant rules from the different RuneQuest-based systems, out of which you may build an RPG. My reason for preferring RQ6 is that the book is very tightly put together and the rules are crunchy without excessive fiddling. It's also very easy to use Legend and Mongoose Runequest/MRQ2 resources (which are very cheap) with very little in the way of conversion. BRP or Pendragon would require some conversion (mainly in the realm of derived statistics and weapons/armor) but is possible to do on-the-fly for most 'd100' products. Magic World is a great game, and simpler than RQ6. It's Stormbringer minus the Moorcock.

Ships and set battles... Dang it, I have to buy this. I need these kind of rules for the medieval campaign. Four bucks isn't bad.

I'm moving more towards a reasonably accurate game set in the Middle Ages. I think I will keep 'magic', in terms of mechanics, out of the game. That's not to say that there wouldn't be miracles, just that the PCs are in no position to dispute or verify them or command one up.

I have this for MRQ, but I will consider buying it again.

In the RuneQuest 6 section on ranged combat there is a sidebar about how real-life ranged combat is quite a bit more difficult than is presented in the game, especially against man-sized opponents; the game 'errs on the side of the heroic'. However, the way RPG-Fantasy characters use bows like they're a gun has been a pet peeve of mine since I was 14; at close range it's basically asking to get killed by anyone with a melee weapon, and at long range it's just not practical as an individual combat technique. So, I would like to err on the side of real-world ranged combat. A couple of simple ideas are: changing the Apparent Size tables and upping the difficulty modifiers for moving targets and cover. But I am very new to RQ6 and I don't want to start tinkering and find out what I'm doing doesn't quite work.

I'm glad to hear of this. RQ6 is a pretty pricey book, and it's hard to get someone to drop cash on it without experience.

He even runs OQ2 games for people!

I own some history books on the subject, but there is a difference: RPGs focus on stuff that tends to be encountered while playing an RPG, whereas history books aren't constrained by such practical motives. It would be as simple as a google search and some copy-paste to get accurate maps, personalities and military affairs in a defined period and place (say, Brabant) but there are always little bits of characterization and focus that make the RPG books useful in this respect. A specific example would be the background tables in HarnWorld and Chivalry & Sorcery, which can be easily adapted to BRP. I definitely agree that there are bits and pieces that really affect the tone. I will probably not be using magic (or, like Pendragon and some Chivalry & Sorcery campaigns, making it a GM-only affair) and that's something I need to look out for, I don't want to get into LeFey or Nyralathotep on accident. I will be using RuneQuest 6, and I actually already own most of the books I listed. I tend to buy RuneQuest-based systems on general principle, because it's not too much monkey-work to make them fit together (Hell, BRP BGB basically is someone doing this with the Chaosium branches). And that's exactly what started this sort-of scattershot pile of books/pdfs I've assembled before me, I want to progressively refine the elements I'm interested in and then choose the time period that best suits/fits/contains them.