Simlasa

That's the kind of stuff Ben Monroe was pretty good about. He kept up an affable online presence as the face of Magic World across various forums and social media...

I hope all is well with the family! I'll give this a read.

Yeah, good luck with finding the 'perfect' anything. Lots of options for BRP though... in the BGB and elsewhere. RQ6 and CoC7 both went for opposed rolls rather than the Resistance Formula (Table).

What are 'modernization bits'?

So that's the 'new hotness' version with improved art? Or is it the 'old and busted' one that was briefly for sale before they took it down? I wanna make sure I buy the right one.

Yes, please say a bit more about the setting.

Isn't Wick the guy who declared that D&D isn't an RPG?

I finally got a hardcover by calling around to larger gaming stores until I found one that still had a it on their shelves... Games of Berkley in my case. Wasn't for sale on the website but luckily I had a friend in the area go over and pick it up for me. That was only a couple months ago so might still be a viable plan of action.

That's always been much more my taste in supers stuff, much more interesting to me than the 'speed of plot' variety. There are plenty of comics that go that path as well, or look at the plausible repercussions of having someone like Marvelman/Miracleman around. That's also why I thought City of Heroes was a good fit for BRP, since that game's powers were much more limited than the average supers comic.

So it's sounding more like I could do something like Nightwatch/Daywatch with this. Cool. It's also brought to mind a movie I once saw at some late hour called 'Perfect Creature'... about vampires living openly among humans and running a church where humans went to donate blood... but there are still secrets.

So nobody ever didn't do anything for Runequest that wasn't Star Trek, didn't they?

So... looking at descriptions of those referenced authors... somewhere between Twilight and Buffy... with more sex? Dresden Files is the only one I'm even partially familiar with... but I'm more of a fan of Constantine... so still not sure if this is my sort of thing or not... but Mr. Snead's name on it is holding my interest for the moment.

So. for those in the know, what sort of feel is ATVW going for? What might be its 'Appendix N'? I'd bite if it's leaning towards China Mieville or the Watch series... where does it sit on the spectrum between light and dark? 'Cinematic' and 'gritty'? GURPS Cabal and Ghostbusters?

Cadwallon... and its wider setting of Aarklash. Nothing I ever would or could try to sell of course. I just think it's a fun setting but, like Warhammer's 'Old World', handicapped by the commercial concerns of its creators (sell more miniatures!). The original rules are a bit unusual... and It's also taking some virtual legwork to gather all the scattered setting content... it's spread hither and yon across books, cards, magazines. But I'm working on it... a compiled sourcebook on the setting and a BRP/Magic World approach to its baroque flavor. For those who never heard of it... Cadwallon's setting is, IMO, a bit like Warhammer's... but filtered through a demented Disney-esque lens. It's less historical and much prettier than Warhammer but just as dark and brutal.

I much prefer non-canon games anyway... a not-Star Trek that retains the motivating elements (positive outlook, high tech, organized hierarchy) but none of the strictures of adhering to particular characters or places (having to stop every five minutes so the resident Trekkie can lecture me about the serial numbers on Spock's jammies).

I've been working on a MW conversion of an old dead game with odd rules but a great setting... and thinking I could go the extra 10 miles and put it up someplace to share... kinda like was done here with the City of Heroes stuff for BRP. I might be thinking with too much of an OSR mindset (wild amounts of fan-made content in that sphere)... maybe I should just point it at GORE instead.

What if it's just free, fan-made content aimed at Magic World? Not kosher? Is Chaosium the new Palladium? Seeking out any reference to its system and squashing it?

I keep looking for RQ games on Roll20 but haven't seen any lately. I was in one RQ6 group there that only went a few sessions before it mysteriously stopped... so yeah, if you started one I'd be very interested. My preference is non-Glorantha but it doesn't matter that much.

Yeah, I was speaking in generalities... and not just about BRP... probably more about how the optional Luck rules in CoC 7e work... and remembering a frustrating (non BRP) Deadlands campaign... but the Luck Roll generally suffices for me.

My preference for the Luck Roll is that, with Luck Points you pretty much KNOW if you've got enough to make things turn out your way or not... I don't feel 'brave' when I know I'm going to succeed. The Luck Roll can be fickle though... and so that sense of not knowing how things will go is preserved a bit more.

That can happen without luck points sometimes as well... and there's still the luck check for various situations. My experience of luck points hasn't left me too fond of them except for very cinematic representations.

No... Call of Cthulhu didn't have them till 7e... Stormbringer and Magic World don't either. I'd rather forego them in anything like Sword & Sorcery or Horror games... I don't think they suit the mood. If I did use them I'd rather them be like the Luck points in Dungeon Crawl Classics... which you can spend to help on rolls... but you don't automatically retrieve them... and being low on luck can get you in trouble, such as becoming the target when an archer randomly chooses who to shoot at.

I often find myself doing the same. When I stop to think about it, my long-standing fantasy homebrew setting is really freaking uptight... happily it doesn't really play that way, but I'm still a bit embarrassed by how seriously I've taken it at times when writing stuff up. I've been trying to break out of that mold with more recent stuff... going for a zanier Warhammer feel while trying to worry a bit less about the details and absolute plausibility of the setting. Looser rules like Openquest and Magic World help with that, I think. Maybe I should read more Discworld books...

One of the aspects of 'OSR' games that I enjoy and often find missing in the various D100 games is the wild and crazy attitude some OSR stuff has. DCC is a good example of that, as is Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Their adventures are kitchen sinks of strange monsters, weird magic and bizarre situations. It's not like the potential isn't there with D100 games... with Stormbringer, Call of Cthulhu, RQ6's Monster Island... but for whatever reason all of those somehow still feel 'straight' and self-serious compared to the average DCC or LotFP offering. Maybe it all comes down to the presentation... what would my impression be of RQ6 if it was full of Erol Otus artwork instead. Not that I don't enjoy historical games and plausible settings... but sometimes I want something a bit more 'gonzo' and when I look at various BRP games on my shelf I'm not seeing it. I've been pushing my Magic World game in that direction but mostly by borrowing from adventures for various OSR systems and stuff I've found on OSR blogs like Goblin Punch and Last Gasp.

As a fan of Dungeon Crawl Classics I'd certainly jump at some tables for various fumbles and magical disasters.