rust

People don't play games because they love the rules; they play games because they love the setting or genre and learn to appreciate the rules afterward.

This is not necessarily the case, I know quite a lot of people who buy all

of the available material for their favourite rules system because they like

the rules and what they enable their player characters to do.

In particular, the hate-on some BRP people have for D20 based games or, say, MRQ doesn't do the game any good.

I think these are problems of the past. At least over here the d20 wave and

the debates caused by it have ended a long time ago, and Mongoose will pub-

lish a revised edition of Runequest in 2010.

* Should we (collectively) be publishing more scenarios, specific settings, or focused/deeper rules (e.g. shamans & spirit combat, or witches) or some other type of sourcebook?

I have the impression that the best (= most interesting and useful) material

is the material that was written by someone who really wanted and loved to

research a certain subject and to write about it, for himself as well as for us

others.

The problem with this is that it cannot be planned as something to fill a cer-

tain market niche at a certain time. One cannot tell authors to write some-

thing of that kind about some subject, one has to wait and see what authors

are fascinated by and able and willing to offer.

This makes me a bit sceptical when it comes to determining what should be

published for BRP.

In most cases it is pure nonsense.

Yes, this was my impression, too, and the main reason why I usually avoided

that kind of debate.

If one tries really hard, one can construct a "breaking point" for every system

under the sun and then claim that the system is "broken", but this is almost

always meaningless for the normal, common sense use of the system.

Hmmm ... over here the most often repeated complaint about BRP has

something to do with the mathematics of percentile "roll under" systems,

but I have to admit that I was never interested enough in this debate to

try to understand what all this was about ...

I think roleplaying games are "a bit like food". Some people, perhaps the ma-

jority, like their meals "ready to eat", others prefer to do the cooking them-

selves.

I usually play roleplaying games because I have an idea of a specific setting

and would like to know what would happen to this setting under the influen-

ce of a certain kind of player characters.

To make this experiment, I have to work out the setting as well as the cha-

racters' options (abilities, skills, equipment, etc.) within the setting, and for

this I need a toolbox like BRP.

As for "out of the box" games, well, they are other people's fantasies, not

mine, and I usually find them not very fascinating.

Positive criticism of BRP ... I have no idea, all I would want to criticize [this

word looks strange, I hope it does exist] is the lack of material for some of

the genres I am interested in, but this material will most probably be produ-

ced in the not so far future (or I will have to produce it).

Otherwise, there are so many options, and it is so easy to design additional

ones, that I am missing nothing, and can easily replace what I do not like.

It could be the first draft, which has now been replaced by the versions

linked in the last post ?

You may want to try the soundtrack for the movie " The Mission", or "1492 Conquest of Paradise".

Thank you, a very good idea.

The two pieces mentioned above are just the "general themes" of the setting,

and I am still looking for other pieces for specific campaign situations. "The

Mission" and "1492" are indeed good soundtracks to start with, with a variety

of pieces with different "feelings".

I find music too distracting to listen to while I'm GMing - I could probably do it with that Sting song (nice one btw), but the others are too bombastic for me to have in the background while playing.

Yes, I know what you mean, and "background music" probably was the wrong

description.

I use music as the introduction to a setting, when we sit down at the table

and get ready for the evening's session, and I use specific themes to begin

or - less often - to highlight specific situations during the game, but the mu-

sic does not play all the time.

Almost the only exception are situations where there is a background music

in the setting itself, for example when the player characters visit a bar where

jazz musicians are playing, or some native religious ceremony with the beat

of drums in the background.

When I design a setting, I usually also look for a piece of music that could

help to create the right feeling for the campaign.

For example, for the Mesoamerican setting for Call of Cthulhu I am currently

working on, I was searching both for a "Native" and a "Spanish" theme to

start the sessions with and / or to use as a background music.

Right now I think I will use these two:

"Native":

"Spanish":

YouTube - Sting - Saint Agnes and the Burning Train

There are many interesting pieces to be found on the Internet, and more than

a few traditional songs would make a fine addition to a fantasy adventure.

This one, for example, seems perfect for a Viking-type setting:

YouTube - KrummavÃ*sur - Iceland Folk Song

And here is something with a bit more "power" for other types of fantasy:

YouTube - Kiri Te Kanawa - Tarakihi

I doubt that Status and Influence are identical.

For example, take a look at a typical fantasy town. The local ruler, usually

a noble, and the local high priests of the various religions will probably have

the highest Status of all the inhabitants of the town, who will usually defer

to them.

However, under normal circumstances the noble ruler will not have much In-

fluence with the local Thieves' Guild, and the high priest of a pacifist deity

will hardly have much influence with the band of mercenaries who use the

town as their base.

Of course, the thieves as well as the mercenaries will acknowledge the high

Status of the noble and the priest (e.g. bow to them when they encounter

them, not speak to them unless being spoken to first, etc.) - but they will

not let them have much - if any - Influence where it comes to their "busi-

ness matters", I think.

An additional twist would be the relations between various groups of a set-

ting.

For example, Influence with Group A could give a character 1/2 that Influ-

ence with Group B, which is friendly with Group A, but at the same time re-

duce his Influence with Group C by 1/2 of that Influence, because Group

C is hostile to Groups A and B.

If I remember it right, some Star Wars RPG version had a rather elaborate

system of that kind.

It's a Rock Lizard, dammit!

No way ...

California rock lizard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Well, how is Brave New World going, hopefully still on track ?

While I am more interested in the Colonial Period of Central and South Ame-

rica than North America, and mostly as a Call of Cthulhu setting, I think that

much of your material could be most interesting and useful for me, too.

While working on a Call of Cthulhu setting, I "discovered" this website:

Cthulhu Files

The Cthulhu Universalis part with its alphabetical index / encyclopedia of

creatures, names, places and thelike from the Cthulhu Mythos made it

a lot easier for me to connect my setting to Lovecraft's fictional world -

and it also was rather interesting to browse ...

Perhaps this could be something for the Links ?

Ah, Eleanor, one of my favourite medieval characters - as soon as my role-

playing games budget has recovered ...

By the way, should it not be "Aquitaine" (not nitpicking, just asking - most

historical books seem to use Aquitaine) ?

By the way, rapiers do have a tendency to break when a powerful straight

thrust hits armour but does not penetrate - perhaps one reason why rapiers

were common civilian weapons (e.g. for duels), but rarely used in battle,

where many people did still have some armour (e.g. breast plates).

Interesting, I will take a look at that. Can you give me some hints about what they suggest?

"Empires" treats nations / states and "Guilds, Factions & Cults" treats orga-

nizations like characters, with characteristics and skills and rules for develop-

ment and important events.

One could use the books to "roleplay" a nation or an economic / political / re-

ligious organization, but the more interesting parts are those that connect

this "metagame level" with the lives of the player characters.

For example, "Empires" contains rules to play the life of a noble, and "Guilds,

Factions & Cults" has rules about what the organizations can provide to the

player characters - and what they expect their members to do for them.

I do not use the Mongoose Runequest rules (it is "BRP-enriched Call of Cthul-

hu" for me), but the rules from these two books are very easy to modify for

BRP or any BRP "clone".

Both books can be had as PDFs:

RuneQuest Empires - Mongoose | DriveThruRPG.com

Guilds, Factions & Cults - Mongoose | DriveThruRPG.com

Just remember that in a high level campaign things will turn into a matter of social relationship, sooner or later. As BRP still lacks an established mechanics for these (you can find somehing in RuneQuest, but that's all), you have to plan in advance how you will handle this in play.

Yes, I think Mongoose Runequest's "Guilds, Factions & Cults" and - for the

very high social levels - "Empires" have some interesting and useful ideas

when it comes to player characters and the social framework of a setting.

Anyone run a long-term generational campaign with BRP, ala Great Pendragon Campaign?

Yes, we did, several times, with a modified Call of Cthulhu system.

It worked quite well, although I learned from experience that it is prudent to

make as many non-combat skills as possible important for the player charac-

ters to distribute their experience over a wide array of skills and to award ex-

perience rolls only for success with difficult actions under especially stressful

circumstances (the "axis events" of the campaign's plot).

It also helps to offer a good "exit strategy" for the older / very experienced

player characters, for example by providing ways to turn them into some of

the setting's influential non-player characters in time to open up the "cam-

paign slots" for the younger and less experienced generation of player cha-

racters.

Remember, when confronted by the loathsome aberrations of the Mythos, a prim New England mama's boy will curl up in a ball and whimper a lot while his hair turns white; but a barrel-chested he-man from Texas will grab the nearest yataghan or six-shooter and charge straight in!

Well, at least the New England guy has a slim chance to survive, while the

... ah, let's call it "heroic" ... Texan doubtless becomes a "statistic" ... :cool:

As for the publication date of Pulp Cthulhu, I think it will be soon after the

day of the Pope's marriage ...

If I remember it right (long time ago ...) GURPS Magic had some interesting

ideas on magic rituals, perhaps you could find some inspiration there.

I think this specific Cover Trollkin has already entered the Trollkin Hall of

Fame and become immortalized by now ...

The picture does not show the 2.472 other trollkin only a few meters away

from the scene ...

Well, f.ex. SIZ is gone, which I know is a stat that many people like.

Instead there will be height and weight tables, where the roll will be modified by STR and race. HP = 1/2 STR + 1/2 CON.

It's a way to avoid the freakish SIZ 5 dwarf at 35 kg, but with a STR of 20. :cool:

This looks like a very good idea to me. :thumb:

I hope you did not delete EDU (or at least made it possible to re-introduce

it without problems), many of my players' characters are of the "cerebral"

kind ...