Cowboy Duck

I'd love if some of the CoC 7e innovations are at least tucked in the back as optional rules, making it easier for me when I go ahead and play that way anyway.

At my next biweekly game gathering, I was planning on pitching A Time to Harvest. However, I've been wanting to run a campaign in the seventies.

"Why the seventies?" you ask. "Aren't you usually all about the dinosaurs and rockin' the Hughes-style eighties?" Sure, but there are elements of the seventies that make for great campaign fodder. Now, don't go thinking of the terrible elements of the seventies like disco in popular culture. This was a time when the youth of the sixties came of age, disillusioned and their ideals shattered by Watergate and the protracted horrors of the Vietnam War. The solution when joining the world of your parents led to this world and the idealism of the sixties failed was to hit the road, exploring the country to discover yourself. No cell phones, no GPS, no Internet, no credit cards - just you, your car, an old gas station map, and a willingness to try to find the good in an unrelentingly oppressive time.

We have reasons to roam, isolation, metaphorical societal rot, and a willingness to shine a little light wherever you can - all the makings for a campaign. Through in some hero's with androgynous names (all the rage in seventies action entertainment). The tough characters are in cowboy shirts, sporting muscle cars and tire irons (cold iron of course). The brains are in leisure suits, donning wild hair, moustaches (if applicable) and mass market produced shreds of occultist hinting at The Truth. The soulful are glammed out, with trust funds, all-access passes, and charm enough for everyone.

What do I need system-wise to make this happen? I don't have my PDF copies of 7e yet, so I'm hoping everything I need is in there. I still need a campaign arc, but I can develop it as we see what resonates during the episodic adventures,

What about inspirational material? So far, I have really any early seventies horror movie (even Touch of Satan), Kolchak, and the flashback episodes of Supernatural. Anything crucial I'm missing?

Thanks!

Matt

On ‎5‎/‎7‎/‎2016 at 6:10 PM, Mankcam said:

I would also like to see some consistency with CoC 7E skill mechanics as well - Hard rolls (half value), Extreme Rolls (fifth value) etc and Special Effects will be just the effects different damage types do upon Extreme Rolls.  Combing these things just makes great sense.

I should add that the notion of Hard and Extreme Rolls doesn't necessarily mean that those values need to be recorded on the character sheet - they are easy enough to calculate during game play and there are quick reference tables that can be available for such as well. I prefer my character sheets not to look overly cluttered.

As far as other CoC 7E innovations, I actually don't mind the Bonus/Penalty Dice from a GM perspective; its nice and clean, a quick and easy way to replace fiddly +/- modifiers. Of course we have the D&D 5E Advantage/Disadvantage rules to thank for it, but we also have the original D&D to thank for the Characteristics block so that's not a big issue. It may lend itself to a more 'loose' sense of gameplay that may not suit the RQ setting, although I personally think its an improvement (and I have been playing BRP rpgs since the mid 1980s).

I hope these are included at least as optional rules.

Heck - not only is mine from the old site, I bought it over the phone with their old Chaos Bucks so I don't have a receipt! I'm in the same boat with my BRP PDF...

Apart from the Chronicler's Companion, I'd like to see a relatively high-level and high-magic mini-campaign set in the Southern Reaches. Something like 'War of the Fey'.

 

Heroes passing into the Fey Lands where the wall between the worlds is weak to save the Southern Lands from the encroaching chaos. Something like Lord Dunsany writes about Corum teaming up with Slaine in the Feywild of D&D 4e (which strange as it may seem is a great setting). Weird islands with beaches full of bleached bones. Strange Driad groves where tree branches bleed. Standing stones. Misshapen Fomorians and talking ravens. Mad bards and singing harps that kill the loved ones of heroes. Ah, and cauldrons that regurgitate undead warriors.

At the risk of derailing the thread, let me chime in with a resounding "Yes, please."

Awesome people like Magic World.

Congratulations, Ben. The fact that you're there is what gives me hope that things are finally looking up for Chaosium.

I am curious if anything can be done to help the people who got their PDFs from the old site get access to their files again.

My PDF of BRP was purchased so long ago, PayPal no longer has the order details. I bought Magic World using Chaos Bucks entirely, so no order or email was created. To have my purchases taken away with no warning and no hope of recovery is about the worst service possible.

Thanks, I get the role of INT with high-level skills, but the optional rule on page 51 implies that Magic World uses the 1/2 INT Experience Bonus for all experience rolls - that's what I am not finding any other reference to. Again, I could be simply reading too much into it.

The Optional Rule box on page 51 seems to imply that Magic World uses an INT-based experience bonus like the BGB but I can find no other reference to it in the book. Am I just missing it somewhere or am I misreading the box?

The box also should direct readers to page 15 for skill category modifiers instead of page 51.

Thanks,

Matt

As many have pointed out, it can do gritty. However, most of my convention games are cinematic high adventure - BRP handles these with no issues.

Whoa - somehow I managed to miss that reference! That's the answer.

Thanks!

Yeah, that's the logical assumption. It's just not spelled out in the book.

Thanks!

Matt

Sorry for all the questions, but I've been trying to approach Magic World as if I've never played BRP before...

Anyway, the book has several reference that Adventurers with the right professions and a POW of 16 or higher start with a certain number of spell levels. However, spell levels are not defined that I could find.

Thanks,

Matt

The advice given for using creatures as adventurers on page 153 suggests not playing any creature with INT less than 3d6. Doesn't that disqualify humans as adventurers as they only roll 2d6+6? It certainly eliminates fantasy staples like dwarfs, halflings, and centaurs, not to mention beast-men, centaurs, satyrs. Orcs and elves qualify with 3d6 INT.

I had to read the OP's description twice (or more?) before I understood what was happening. Arguably one can restate the rule as "a skill in a specific weapon also applies without penalty to similar weapons." But just because a solution is venerable doesn't mean it's optimal.

Most people think one sword is much like another, but I can imagine arguments about whether a khopesh, gladius, or scimitar is sufficiently like a falchion to use without penalty. (Maybe, no, and yes.) Also I wonder why weapon skills get singled out for this "simplification". Why not have Fast Talk, Harangue, Blather, Browbeat, and Glibness all functionally equivalent? Isn't that simple?

One of the prime virtues of BRP and family is that a character's chance of success for every action requiring a dice roll is right there on the (single) character sheet. It seems counterintuitive to me that one narrow skill implies an identical value in a dozen other skills that aren't recorded. Yes, it's flavorful if a character carries a falchion instead of a sword. But if the Falchion skill is functionally a Sword skill, if the distinction has no meaning, then it's an unnecessary mental step, however small, to remap "Falchion" to "any one-handed sword I'm carrying". Players need all their head space for tracking the game; translating what things on their character sheet mean is a distraction.

Bingo.

Clearly, I've played and enjoyed both ways. The games I've run using the BGB style of weapon skills have featured everything but boring characters. It's a matter of preference and I can plug in whichever system I choose. I do wish weapon skills were covered a little better in Magic World, which is what led to my question.

Isn't this just a complicated way of having one skill for all weapons in a class? Am I missing something?

Yeah, that seems to be the end result - you essentially are skilled in the entire class, but your stated skill is for a specific weapon. I may end up just converting to the BGB weapon skills.

I got that from the top of the weapon chart on page 78 and the first bullet point at the bottom of page 72.

Thanks,

Matt

I've been playing with the BGB BRP weapon classes for so long that I need some help re-wrapping my head around the weapon skills as presented in Magic World. Am I right with the following?

Each weapon is a separate skill. Any weapon skills chosen at character creation are for a specific weapon but all weapons of the same class are at that new level. If I receive an experience boost in a weapon skill, all weapon skills of the same weapon class receive the same point boost.

Thanks,

Matt

Sadly Hostess is no more, and Dreyer's is only available to us left-coasters.

Like any true comic book superhero, Twinkie the Kid can't be killed:

Snack Spotting | Hostess Cakes

Charles, you are helping stoke my desire fire for this game!

Like many others here, I'd love to but simply can't commit to a regular schedule.

It's weird - while no big releases or announcements dominated the con, it still felt like one of the better Gen Cons in a few years. The dealer room had more companies than last year and business seemed good depsite most companies having smaller booths. Gamers generally were in good spirits. I chatted a few times with Charlie and Meghan and they seemd pleased, mirroring what I heard form other dealers. It's hard to explain - the con was overall really nice, but nothing sticks out as the ONE aspect that it made it go so swimmingly. Perhaps that's why finding some coverage is hard - so many little things adding up to such a pleasant con experience doesn't make for exciting blog writing.

My son and I had a fun time playing in your game, Matt. Thanks for running it!

It was a blast having you two there. Kids played in every one of the Dino Day sessions. While all contributed to the fun, I was surprised to see it. One of the fathers finally explained it to me - turns out kids like dinosaurs.

...he did mention they had a hardback screen in the works, similar to the CoC screen.

That is fantastic news! The Coc screen is nice and I am glad to see Chaosium supporting BRP.

Any thoughts on the content of Mythic Iceland?

First off, thank you to any forum attendees who played in my Gen Con events - every one who played absolutely rocked and proved that BRP can easily handle high adventure. You all made this my best Gen Con experience yet!

As for Chaosium, they had a nicely-sized booth in a highly visible location. Business seemed brisk, especially with the CoC 30th Anniversary Edition and the proofs on Mythic Iceland on hand. Charlie commented on Sunday that it was worth it to come, so I hope to see them again next year.

I played in a Laundry event - and the Laundry RPG won a Silver Ennie (these facts are not related). Several players in my games had either never heard of BRP or never tried it, so I hope we have some new fans in our ranks.

Anyone else have any Chaosium fun at the show?

-Matt

My copy arrived last week, and overall it looks nice.

I was curious if anybody else had a copy with the same issue as mine. Pages 378-379, 382-383, 386-387, and 390-391 are all mis-printed. It looks as though the paper slipped in the press while they were doing the four-ups or something, which would explain why it's pairs of pages separated by a normal pair of pages.

It's not a big deal. I was just curious.

Mine does not have that issue.