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RuneQuest, sadly, doesn't count as a BRP setting - it's a Mongoose setting.

I have seen people "migrate" from Runequest to BRP, so I would not count

it out, especially since we are looking for ways to make BRP more popular,

not necessarily Chaosium.

what settings/genre niches do we still need to fill for BRP to have the product spread such a venerable and well-tested generic RPG system should have to appeal to a broader spectrum of the gaming public?

In my view, Fantasy is covered by Runequest, Horror by Call of Cthulhu, and

History by the Alephtar Games material, the one published as well as the one

planned.

This leaves mostly Science Fiction, including its little sister cyberpunk / trans-

humanism, Supers and Modern, I think - with science fiction a very wide and

open field, from space fantasy to hard science fiction.

Looking at the various monographs, I have the impression that in fact all the

genres are already covered, or will soon be covered, although not in the most

attractive way - the content is there, its quality is very good, but it is not

published in a form that could reach a wide audience.

Something more like the GURPS genre supplements (e.g. GURPS Space) could

help to bring BRP onto more FLGS shelves.

This discussion begins to look like a debate about which pair of legs of a

horse is the more important one, those on the right side or those on the

left side ... :ohwell:

...but is replaced by a worse problem! And, since I usually host, let's not go there. Mind you - that could help concentrate people's minds and speed-up combat considerably!

I think it will become much easier to identify Frogspawner's players, they are

the ones who have catheters ... :eek:

Thank you for the info.

I rarely use Runequest, except to mine it for ideas for my own BRP-based

system and settings.

The Runequest material I use most often is RQ Empires and RQ Guilds, Fac-

tions & Cults, because their systems can easily be adapted to all kinds of

fantasy and historical settings, and they cover subjects that are treated

not at all or not as good by other games.

After my experience with those two books I was thinking about buying mo-

re of the Mongoose Runequest material, but now I am a bit confused:

Will Runequest II be fully compatible with Empires and Guilds, Factions &

Cults (in which case I will probably buy the core book), or will there be new

and less or not compatible versions of Empires and Guilds, Factions & Cults

(in which case I would hesitate to buy a new version of the same books

plus the new core book) ?

Old Chivalry & Sorcery had a system where spells got condensed over time, allowing them to be cast faster (and I think more cheaply). If that sort of capability were included, would that change their appeal for anyone?

Not for me - as I use magic with Call of Cthulhu only, faster and cheaper ma-

gic would not fit my view of the setting's "feel", where magic should instead

be complicated and dangerous.

I do.

Thank you for the information, I will try to find someone who has it.

Simple and brilliant: Mythic Russia, Ritual Magic (p96-98).

Just to make sure - you mean this one here ?

Mythic Russia Homepage (Firebird)

Yes, I agree. In my view ritual magic would be a good subject for an article

or a series of articles, perhaps in Uncounted Worlds, but less so for an entire

monograph.

What comes to my mind as an example is a series of articles about demonolo-

gy in Runequest that was published in White Dwarf, ages ago. In my view it

contained all that really was necessary and useful to introduce this kind of

magic into any Runequest campaign.

Pray tell, what was so bad about Daughters of Darkness, then? I never saw it.

Nor did I, I was not really into Runequest at the time, and Eldarad and Vikings

were the only supplements I bought.

Vikings was brilliant!

Indeed, and I have to confess that I also like Eldarad ...

Signs & Portents 75 with the Runequest II preview by Lawrence Whitaker

can now be downloaded from the Mongoose website:

Mongoose Publishing : For All Your Gaming Needs ...

In the second case, details about what details are involved in the ritual are needless, as the PCs presence is usually enough to disrupt any evil rituals.

Pardon me, but this would be a rather lame approach to the subject.

Imagine instead a scenario where the characters know what someone wants

to achieve with a ritual, but have no idea what this ritual is like, when and

where it will be cast, and how many of the required ingredients have already

been collected and prepared for the ritual.

To prevent the success of the ritual, they first have to research the ritual

themselves, with all of the potential information sources in "enemy hands".

Once they have determined what exactly is needed for this ritual, they can

attempt to find some of the required ingredients and protect them from their

"enemy", or they can try to follow his route in collecting the ingredients to

learn more about the intended location and date of the ritual, and so on.

They could even try to research and "organize" a "counter-ritual", perhaps

disguised as some kind of avantgardistic "art event" ...

Their final aim would be to prevent the ritual from happening without having

to be present (e.g. as human sacrifices ...).

With such a scenario the ritual and its details could become the focus of an

entire short campaign.

I don't think that changes Charles point that once it gets more than a little complex, you have to have pretty dramatic benefits to it before people will bother.

I think it would depend on the "magic level" of the setting. If there are other

ways to cast magic, even with less powerful results, the players are likely

to ignore the more powerful, but more complicated ritual magic much of the

time. However, if ritual magic is the only way to cast magic, it can become

a lot more interesting for the players.

Is anyone looking for a ritual magic system? If so, what are you looking for?

My only settings where magic does exist are the Call of Cthulhu settings, so

I am not that much interested in magic systems.

On the other hand, the magic as it is currently used in the official material

for Call of Cthulhu does not fit my ideas of what cthulhoid magic should be

like: A kind of rather complicated ritual magic that requires a lot of research

to aquire the necessary knowledge, a lot of usually strange substances and

"props", a lot of people to take part at least in all powerful rituals, and a lot

of time - at least hours, if not days or weeks.

What I would therefore be interested in would be a system to develop such

rituals of different power levels within a common system, plus some ideas to

handle such rituals in the design of a plot and at the table.

So, not descriptions of specific rituals (except as examples), but a toolbox

to design the rituals needed for my setting, campaign and adventures.

Unfortunately such a system would probably make a good subject for an ar-

ticle or a series of articles, but it would hardly be enough to fill an entire mo-

nograph.

To my mind, what sells generic systems is the volume of support they get - be it setting supplements, rules supplements or whatever.

This is how I see it, too. I bought GURPS because of a specific setting, GURPS

Traveller, but my decision was heavily influenced by the fact that the GURPS

core rules would also give me access to a number of other GURPS settings -

like Alpha Centauri, Blue Planet, Terradyne or Transhuman Space - as well as

to a number of rules supplements - like Robot, Space, Vehicles. So, to buy

the generic core rules was a bit like an option for a "buy ten for the cost of

one" offer.

Would there be any problem if those of us with spare webspace put up copies of the BRP Quick Start pdf ?

I think the best approach would be to convince Chaosium to offer BRP Light

for free on Drive Thru RPG. Since they already sell PDFs of many of their Call

of Cthulhu publications there, I do not quite see why they are not doing it

already.

Besides, I doubt that it really would make much sense to modify OpenQuest

in such a way. In my view it is fine as it is, and any attempt to change or

"improve" it by making it more similar to other systems would have a high risk

of damaging it by introducing contradictions or unnecessary complexities.

I bet you had to fight off wolves on the way to school as well didn't you ?

Tiny fearful wolves ... when I was young, we had to deal with those really big

dinosaurs ... :cool:

How long does it take to train a 0% base skill?

We solve this problem with a little "time warp": First the teacher makes his

Teach skill roll to determine the amount of the skill increase, then the stu-

dent has to study one hour per skill point gained.

Oh yes, still alive!

Yep, "alive and kicking" ... :cool:

Unfortunately, historical roleplaying is a niche market. We now have sort of a name in it with three products available (they'll be five or six in 2010) but most gamers prefer other genres.

On the other hand, most of the fantasy settings published over the last years

seem to be very similar, while there are still many, many unexplored historical

settings that could offer something completely different and fresh.

So, while historical settings will doubtless remain a niche market, the genre at

least offers a realistic chance for a surprising success (think "Qin - The War-

ring States") now and then, while I find it hard to imagine that there will be

any new fantasy setting that will truly stand out.

Rust - I remember a film called "The Mission" ...

Thank you, I will take a look at it ... ah, listen to it.

In the "State of the Mongoose 2009", published on the Mongoose website

today, Mongoose has announced that they will publish a new, revised ver-

sion of Runequest in 2010 - details here, under "State of the Mongoose":

Mongoose Publishing : For All Your Gaming Needs ...