sladethesniper

Well, I sort of get around this by having 14 skill lists. The first is "Universal" that are skills that every character has access to which are things like swimming, Balance, Beg, etc. (I am a big fan of "make up skills as you go" instead of a fixed "skill list". After all, Call of Cthulhu has NPC's with "flail about wildly 22% 1d2 damage", "Kick your a$$ 88% effect = death" and "eat 1d4 Investigators per round 00% effect = death" :happy: ) The Universal skills are purchased at a 1/1 cost. Then characters can pick ONE other skill list and buy those skills at a 1/1 cost. If they want skills/spells/powers from another list, they cost 2/1, and the third list they choose from is 3/1, etc. That keeps characters focused on one, maybe two types. Plus, depending on the campaign, I can allow/disallow certain lists. Currently there are: Universal, Technological, Magical, Psionic, Empathic, Druidic, Celestial, Infernal, Abyssal, BioMagical, Elemental, Alchemical, Spiritual and Shamanic skill/spell/effect/power lists. It works well for superhero games as well. -STS

I have been using a point buy system with BRP for a few years. This works for my NPC's and for my players, but then they have been gaming with me for 10 years, so they don't make munchkins...but for new players it might be an issue...I have no system for "weighting" the values, other than the cost of the stats and skills, so it is fairly easy to make some ridiculous characters. I would posit that the huge amount of skills, powers and abilities in BRP (like GURPS) would serve to keep super powerful characters in check, since in order to be exceptional in a few things, you would have to seriously be lacking in a many, many other aspects. -STS

I would say that Superworld + City of Heroes would work quite well. For me, though, I would say POW x 10 = Hero points, instead of all stats added together. I prefer to have Powers be bought with Power, I suppose. They seem very compatible with each other and mixed with the normal BRP ease of play, should be quite capable of handling any sort of super hero campaign. At the risk of being branded a heretic...some of Palladium titles (Heroes Unlimited, Ninjas and Superspies) can be easily converted to BRP...especially for villains... :happy: -STS

If somebody told me that they would rather play GURPS or HERO instead of BRP for either realism or less complexity...I'd laugh. GURPS has really good supplements, that are quickly turned into BRP stuff for me. HERO, um...well Fuzion was alright...but seriously, HERO and Phoenix Command (or anything by Leading Edge...) takes the cake for sheer, mind numbing, unnecessary complexity... -STS

Um, I guess that I am going to have to agree with AikiGhost... -STS

Old Man Sweeny, thank you for more stuff for my campaign :happy: Very nice, and will work easily along with Delta Green... Thank you, -STS

Why did I not think of this?? Fantastic write up for so few words. Please work on this :happy: I really liked the ghost classes. I think this will work nicely in Deep Black, yes, very nice indeed! -STS

Huh, there were other versions of Thieves World? Wow, I need to spend more time in gaming stores :happy: -STS

Very nice, but it does me little good, I can't read French! ;-( -STS

Dude, you like some very esoteric stuff there :thumb: Justifiers is an outstanding and fun game that seemed to just be stillborn. I would love to see it as a BRP supplement. It would fit very well into a noir SciFi campaign like Cthulhu Rising, Aliens or Mutant Chronicles. Villains and Vigilantes and Top Secret/SI were both good games that really deserve a second shot. Top Secret could be modd'ed off of Pagan Publishings excellent Delta Green Series (minus the 'thulies)! Thieves World...wow, old school. As for Conan, I think there are 50 versions of Conan running around in D20 and BRP systems, and IIRC there is one on this site in the downloads section. -STS

Marcus, Thanks for taking the time to support this great game! SB was my intro BRP and I have fond memories of the wonderful world. I wish that I had a group together, I miss playing Stormbringer. When I get back to the States, I am going to start a SB campaign...and now I can use your site for the basics of campaign building. Thanks -STS

'S ok, you can always MAKE it a supplement -STS

Congratulations on a great idea and your success on getting a monograph. As far as artists go...well, they aren't easy to come by, especially free ones. My solution was to take some pictures, beg and borrow and plead...took a while, but I think I did all right. If you are on other gaming forums, it helps to spread the word around as far as possible. I have seen very little success from places like deviantart or elfwood, but conceptart was pretty handy (though not for free ;-( ) I would say that if Chaosium is picking up the tab for the art, then, getting some is just icing on the cake, but the text should be your main effort. Also, as far as playtesting goes...get 2 to 3 groups going independently, they have a tendency to...slow down as time progresses. :thumb: Ride on, brother! -STS

Dude, it's dangerous in the Peoples Democratic Republic of Maryland! Enjoy your training "What kind of training? Army Training, Sir!!" -STS

OK, so I have a project, and it's done, all except adding in the art. I have a few more pieces than I thought I did...but should I use them as "chapter art" a la White Wolf...or just intersperse them where they "seem to fit" with the text or use them as filler for "white space". Also, are there any feelings about whether or not to "explain" the artwork. I have seen this used in some products which then allows the player to go, "ah, so that's so and so, the E-ville dread necromancer" OR is it better to put artwork in there and let the player figure out what to do with it? Just questions. Thanks. -STS

I agree...hence the reason I haven't purchased either of those games (although the movie-esque theme of Starship Troopers makes me wretch thinking about it...shudder). Has anyone else had the following idea: Take the following settings and offset them by time/world... Stormbringer AKA the First World Hyborean AKA the Second World Middle Earth AKA the Third World Warhammer AKA the Fourth World our own history...the Fifth World near future...add a catastrophe = the Sixth World Granted, each of the first four is a self contained "setting" all on it's own with approximately 10,000 years of history...and each ends with a catastrophe (Ice Ages, Super Volcanoes, Asteroids....Great Old Ones >:-> ) thus you could import/export/explore different settings and conventions a bit easier... :focus: Anyway, the more Hyborean goodness I can get, the happier I am...it all goes into the Cthulhu Mythos Smelting Pot O'Evil.

CruelDespot, thanks for the input. I like the idea of having the characters start with a 30% but I have found that apparently Munchkin is a genetic disease...it skipped my wife (not quite to the "proud to play a gimp" camp...but can see it over the rise :happy: ), but somehow "others" ended up with it...thus, in an attempt to stop the "Make a Character in One System that is More Powerful when Converted" game...we have installed a "gimp" system...which states that if a PC from system X doesn't have Y skill in Z system...well it doesn't magically appear... Also, since I am dealing with a little math genius (my son), I really don't want to have to do advanced math to keep the play balance mathematically perfect...so a 0-20 range just converts to D100 in 5% increments...the last thing I want to do is get him started in finding all the flaws in all of my conversions... Son is 11 and a math genius...daughter is 9. They want characters with cool powers...background be damned... I can't blame them...I was...about 23 and full time GM'ing when I finally got out of the "my character is more powerful than yours" stage. As for Harshax, I put the Power cost in there to blend in with other magic systems in use in my BRP Hackjob...the justification for "Martial" powers using Power is twofold...1) some of those powers do damage x 4 and other effects...which is far and away more powerful than a simple skill (Martial Arts, etc.) and 2) It allows the Fighter/Ranger/etc. class :confused: to be partnered alongside a CoC Dark Ages inquisitor without being either overpowering or useless...at least in my games :innocent: -STS

Well, um, seeing as how there are plenty of conversions here.... I was travelling around the country and I saw a copy of the PHB at the PX, and like a moron, I picked it up...and spent the last seven days converting it while chilling with zee Germans. Sorry... Forth edition is not a bad game, but it isn't old fashioned D&D either. You can tell that it is heavily influenced by online RPGs and miniatures. Ranges are given in squares and items take up "slots". They kept the same stats and D20 mechanic from D20, so not much change there. They did cut down on a lot of races and classes, but added some new stuff, so the end result is still 8 races and 8 classes, just not the ones we are used to. Net result so far is nil. What they did do was reduce skills to only 17, very similar to AD&D and it's Non Weapon Proficiencies, actually, so that is a -1 point for me personally, since I like skill based systems (Obviously...BRP...duh). Each class has a buttload of powers, which take the place of spells. This has two effects. It makes spellcasters very easy to play, but at the same time makes non spell casters more difficult to play. The breakdown of powers is fairly intuitive and isn't too difficult but the entire powers concept is basically just class specific feats out of 3rd ed. I think they got tired of 50,000 Prestige classes and basically just rolled up all the feats right into the PHB. Feats are still around but they are able to be taken by more than class, so I guess that is the difference between Feats and Powers. Also, they built in Prestige Classes into each of the classes, although now they are called Paragons and are automatically gained at 11th level. They game is also very well into Dungeons and RIFTS territory since the characters have a progression to 30th level. They gain Epic Destinies at 21st level, though only three are listed...I expect the Big Book of Destinies will be out for Christmas. Also, they included a whole ton of magical weapons up to +6 and 30th level. This is a power gamers delight. All in all, it is not a bad game, but it really reads to me as an alternate rules set for D20 munchkins rather than something brand new. The good news is that it lends itself to just adding it to 3rd edition, though just as a way to make really, really powerful PCs/NPCs. The most surprising thing is that the created characters very easily convert to BRP. All the powers and feats just turn into BRP skills that burn POWer and voila, silly powerful BRP characters. So, this is how I turned 4th Edition into BRP: Stats..4th to BRP STR = STR CON = CON DEX = DEX INT = INT WIS = PWR CHA = CHA 1 square = 1 meter or 3 feet/1 yard Skills...well there only 17 of them so, if they are trained, they get a 25% in it, if not, they have a 0% in it. Depending on the key ability for each skill, they get a bonus of 5% for every +1 they get for their stats. Every 2 levels, the character goes up a whopping....5% in all 17 skills...thus at 10th level, the character will have 25% untrained/50% trained at 20th level, the character will have 50% untrained/75% trained at 30th level, the character will have 75% untrained/100% trained on his 17 skills... weapons and armor, just pull them from BRP combat is pulled from BRP feats...every +1 to something is a either a +1 for damage or AV, or is a +5% for an effect. Feats are treated just like skills...because they are...quick draw is a skill. I determine the skill level the same way as the skills...above. Powers are also treated like skills BUT they use Power. 1/2 the Level of the Power is the cost in Power and it comes built in with limitations, thus a certain 7th level power can only be used once a day...well in BRP it is a skill than can be used once a day AND it cost 3 Power (I round down...) to use it. Simple. Granted, since BRP doesn't hand out Hit Points like D20, a LOT of these powers are simply over kill, but you know, if I have a character that is a Ranger type and shoots the Hydra in the mouth from a foot away, and spent 4 Power to do it, AND makes the skill roll (same as for the 17 skills), I will let that arrow do 4x the normal damage. Of course, I DO NOT allow critical successes on these Power rolls. I also don't add healing surges or HP bonuses. The way it works is...I determine the power level for a game, convert that to the D&D level limit and when the character is made...I convert straight over from that point to BRP and they are from that point on a BRP character... Now, the final question...why would I even ALLOW a D20 4th Edition creation into any BRP game? Well, my son and daughter LOVE the slot building rules for it...and DO NOT like the completely open ended BRP character design process. So, I let them build characters in D20, then I convert them to BRP. :thumb: -STS

OK, after about three days of trying, I finally got it to download...stupid internet. WOW, fantastic job. If I could give one critique...a printer friendly version...I don't think I have that much blue ink Other than that, I want to say "thank you"! I appreciate it very much. Now if I could only find some NATO guy to play BRP with....that speaks english...I'd be set! -STS

Wow, I thought I was the only person to think of it like that. I ran a Necromunda campaign using Paranoia...without the humor and without the clones...and it was a big hit...till the group PCS'ed to the four winds. I have thought of rebuilding the campaign, but I am the only person who likes WH40K...I am hoping that my son gets out of the abominable D&D rut and starts liking GOOD games soon (WH40K would definitely qualify) and then wedge in the others into a Necromunda game. -STS

:happy: Very nice, it is appreciated. :thumb: I have to agree, percentages are far more game friendly than bell curves. This form is just kickin with BRP conversions and rules. Vive la BRP! -STS

Although I have a few players characterize me as a killer GM, I have only whacked 7 characters in...OMG... 20 years of gaming! One of those was my GMPC and my first character ever created, and the other 6 were a TPK (total party kill) when a singular spaceship attacked a planet...that knew they were coming...and sent a squadron out to meet them...and instead of talking, they just flew in and started shooting... Granted, I do not reward dumb thinking, but I rarely kill characters as the 7 KIA in 20 years should attest to. I am a story driven GM and all of my games have HUGE amounts of background developed before play ever starts. In order to do that, I have to have the type/setting/style of game the players want...from that come binders of background data...that way if the PC's shoot the contact, I know who will be angry, what the bounty will be, and who else can serve to fill in the PC's. All my rolls are made in the open, as are all my players rolls, but I do allow 1 reroll per session, per character. I despise cheaters and have booted a few of them from the table for up to a month at a time. I reward characterization far more than "goals" that may or may not be acheived, and since I use BRP, just playing in character builds the character, stat wise so that makes the few stat monsters I've played with happy. I am big on NPC's, plans and maps. The best is when my wife and I both GM...I do the plans, the plots, the maps and she does the voices, the seat of the pants stuff. It is actually really awesome to have 2 GM's and 6 players. That is our preferred way to play. My wife is all about NPC characterization and spur of the moment GM'ing, but just as my weakness is forgiving dumb players and NPC voices and mannerisms, hers is plot continuity and setting differentiation. Sorry for the long post :deadhorse: -STS