Dredj

Ok, this is a little off-topic, but seems like it could be an interesting discussion concerning the INT scores in BRP.

My mom and I had a talk about how I couldn't possibly have an I.Q. of 150, despite what my aptitude and intelligence tests say. She says that that would put me in the genius zone. However I understand that I.Q.s of 130 to 159 are considered gifted, but not genius. 160 to 179 are considered minor genius. Whereas genius I.Q.s start at 180.

Anyways, I'm smart, but not a genius. I know that for a fact.

I thought I'd find out what other people think, since I've noticed that there is great variance as to what people assume the numbers of an I.Q. test means. And BRP seems to use the same progression for determining a PC's I.Q. (multiply the INT score by 10).

I think that aspects could work in BRP, if it were used without and of the "power systems" to compete with it. Either don't use magic, powers, psionics with aspects, or make such powers limited to a few characters.

BRP also "suffers" in this manner by having attributes. Adding aspects is like double dipping. A guy withan 18 STR is supposedly strong in BRP, but if a PC with a 10 STR takes a "strong as an ox" aspect, we have a problem.

And BRps resolution system is very differernt from SotC. In SotC, most rolls are opposed, and tagging aspects is important for winning the conflict. In fact, Aspects can be more important than ability, since taking two or three aspects can throw a conflict in favor of a poorly skilled character. That is completly opposite to how BRP is designed to work. IN BRP if a character with 20% skill beats one with 100% skill, he got very, very lucky. Thus aspects are going to cause a radical change in the importance and operation of skills. In BRP skills are king. Aspects will "deposte" skills in BRP.

Now I think that "it can be done", but to get things to work out well requires some radical adjustments to the BRP rules, and getting the players to accept those changes. A player who has spent months building his character7s sword skill to 117% isn't going to take kindly to a new rul that lets someone with 26% skill beat him by tagging "quick reactions, strong grip, steady hand, and light on hs feet".

I think that to really get aspects to work, you wou have to rebuild a BRP varinat from the ground up. Ditch attributes, and make aspects a core mechanic.

Nicely said. I was running into those issues when I was seriously contemplating trimming BRP down to something that was what I was really looking for. The best I could come up with was using very loosely based attributes as percentages with percentile additions for loosely based skills. Like a percentile version of Big Eyes Small Mouth (any version including 3rd)/Tri Stat DX (though I haven't looked at that system for awhile, so I could be wrong). But that would've amounted to a good deal of reworking that I didn't have the patience to go through with. And with the systems I mentioned above, I don't have to.

Zombie Cataclysm, which replaces the d100 with a d20, in the same way that Flashing Blades does, comes the closest to paring down BRP for fast and gritty feel. And the two systems can be switched out for each other.

http://www.zombiecataclysm.com/

I think it would be easy to turn ZC into a d100 game, as well.

But for more crunch I go with BRP, as it doe the gritty stuff better. You can strip down the BRP skill system to a bare minimum and still have a solid rule system, that can feel like BoL or DoW. Adding the PowerPoints-as-Fate-Chips adds a bit of pulp to it and with some Minion rules it really is as much fun as BoL could. But then, why do the hassle when BoL is that simple and already a finished product.

To make a system that is both gritty and rules lite. Or attempt it, at least.

I've been wanting to play a d100 system with aspects for years. I thought that the two together would make an elegant system but coudn't figure out how to do it. Right now I'm looking at Outbreak: Undead http://outbreakundead.com/ http://outbreakundead.com/OU_QuickstartGuide.pdf which seems to be a cross between BRP and Fate 3.0. And you even get to play as yourself, if you wish!

Another game that seems to combine the two is Maschine Zeit--but in a much more cinematic way. Perhaps looking at those games (Outbreak: Undead should be getting the pdf treatment within a few weeks).

I was also thinking of just making the skills loose. Such as Riding: Horse becomes Riding: Animal (any big animal that can be ridden). The Handgun skill also includes pistol whipping, etc. I was inspired by Dogs of War some time ago. That game only has three or four combat skills that everything you can do in combat falls under. Then you just determine what the character can do by the profession(s) he or she is in.

I was thinking about going the Barbarians of Lemuria/Dogs of War route with skills: If the character is a assassin (or whatever), he can do whatever (reasonably) an assassin can do at one specific skill rating. There would be a list of skills clumped together in the career description.

Then there were, I believe, four separate skills for weapon use: Brawl, Melee, Ranged and Defense. Each with there own skill ratings. I don't think there was much else beyond that.

I never carried through with this, but it seems that it might be workable. Especially when introducing new players to the game, and you want them to whip up some characters fast.

Gladiatorial battles using mind-driven robots instead of real people. It will be ultimate fighting, but safe for the contestants.

Plus, you can fill the robots with more fake blood than a person has blood--or confetti or anything else--and will make for some very interesting and surreal fights. It might look like something out of one of those Japanese movies where the blood is spraying like a geyser.

Battlebots taken to mecha proportions would be an interesting thing to see, as well.

Anyway, I'm thinking about converting Eclipse Phase over to BRP. Lots of awesome ideas in that game, I think. You might want to check that out.

And I'm thinking of using Cthulhu Rising for all out-of-the-solar-system adventures.

I'm not sure if this is what you call a Classic SciFi setting or not, but it would be worthing taking a look at. Originally planned as a Campaign world for WEG d6 system, cancelled and planned to move to FATE?, but then published by WEG as a pdf. WEG is being sold off and the rights to this went back to the book's author, Bill Coffin. Bill has released it as a FREE pdf on drivethrurpg.com. Head over there and download it for free ( 364 pages ). I wonder if anyone will approach Bill about doing a conversion to a different game system. I haven't looked at it and I'm not offering an endorsement of it. But maybe ....

Bill Coffin's Septimus

Thank you for the heads up! It's funny, I'm thinking of creating my own space setting, and I was just looking at D6 Space for some ideas, last night. And I've been thinking about buying Septimus for some time to see if there was any ideas worth taking.

Sometime this coming week, I'm going to have to sit down and type up all the ideas I have for a setting. Hopefully, it won't be a cliched as I fear it will be.

Ringworld is/was Great game system. Have it high on my shelf. The problem is getting a system that clicks.So many people want to copy,Imean mimic popular movies and such. Creating a system that chimes with the people is what is important. Let alone the basic parts of the setting. Another big problem is creating something that satisfies alot of people. I have been slowly trabslating stuff from either my old BRP style settings or other systems to BRP. I have posted some.

I was thinking of a toolkit approach. Basically what works in movies and popular novels, throw into the system.

I actually tried to turn on some people new to role playing onto BRP. But they found Savage Worlds soon after. Now they are Savage Worlds fanatics.

Weren't people working on a SF setting for BRP over a year ago? I say we start that up again.

It seems like everyone is in agreement that BRP is a gritty system that would make for good, hard SF. I'm looking into Eclipse Phase, right now, and it seems like the perfect match for everything I ever wanted to play in a SF setting. However, it's really just a compilation of cyber punk and other transhumanist material with political intrigue and mysterious aliens thrown in. The system is a percentile system that shouldn't be too hard to convert to BRP.

I also like retro SF. But Spaceship Zero fits that perfectly as well. The sad thing is it looks like a product that should've come from Chaosium, but was made for Green Ronin.

The thing about SF is it seems like somebody already "did that idea." And even if you have a setting, who says anyone wants to play in it? It really does seem to boil down to rules for ships and plausible ways for PCs to get around the universe. I think a toolbox approach might be best. But other companies have done that as well.

I like the idea of licensing to Heavy Metal magazine and doing what Starblazer did for Starblazer magazine. But you'd have to alter BRPs rules for more over-the-top action. However, I'm generally more interested in games and anything else that have a more adult edge to them, anyway.

Maybe looking at pulp and SF writers from other cultures?

Maybe instead of going hard SF; a supplement could look at ultra cheesy SF?

Therefore, I think the reason why Chaosium doesn't have an established SF setting is because all the best ideas seem to be taken, already.

I'd really like to see something based on this: http://www.wetanz.com/holics/index.php?catid=4 http://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Grordbort-Presents-Scientific-Adventure/dp/1595824634/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275009969&sr=1-2 But there would be some political correctness issues involved.

Metacreator for CoC can create a lot of zombies on the fly, but it's a bit costly. And, as far as I'm concerned, zombies never get old...they just rot away.

I used to buy the Star Wars comics, sporadically, back in the day. I completely missed out on the whole space bunny thing. However, I would've rather seen that in the films than a certain Gungan.

I remember they had a female illustrator that considered herself an "Artist Extraordinaire". Personally, I thought her art sucked and it majorly turned me off from the Star Wars comics.

I'm not sexist. Her art just sucked.

Thanks guys.

Ok, how do you delete a post on this forum? The above post was in reply to Gianni Vacca's post about Budweiser. But I couldn't edit it to quote from him in it. Made this post to clarify it, as I couldn't delete the above post.

Oh, come on. What's wrong with the US version other than the watered-down non-taste:?

I usually drink Guinness, but any dark, thick stout will do...

Coffee beer. Or beer coffee.

I like it to, by the way.

Island Wheat http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/368/25717

I used to love Dortmunder. But I guess they don't export to the states any more:(

But the beer I drink more than anything else due to price/taste is Miller High Life.

I almost forget, I love Samuel Adams Boston Lager as well.

I haven't even seen the movie yet, since only the 2D version is showing where I'm at. I'll just wait till it's on DVD. However, I do know that the reason things in media become so popular (or simply have audiences of varying sizes) is because they tie into some form of wish fulfillment on the part of the audience. And all the stuff I've read or heard about Avatar suggests that the wish fulfillment of the audience is to get more in touch with nature and say "to hell" with large corporations.

I have to disagree somewhat; given context, the Nav'i make perfectly good sense given they have a planet with a collective mind that they can converse with. Its just a mistke to read that as any kind of useful comment on our own planetary habits, since neither of those statements are true there.

It may make sense in the film, but it's still a typical "spiritual" housewives idea of indigenous cultures and how they "commune" with the earth.

Or companies must find new ways of promoting them.

I was using BRP as an example for all the other rpgs out there. And I wasn't comparing BRP to any other rpg. Board games usually don't take so long or so much thought to set up as any rpg out there. Nor do video games for that matter. And you can often walk away from any board game or video game in a short order of time without messing with any one else's fun. Please read my above post again.

Simply put: new play options must be introduced to rpgs if they wish to gain more players.

I went to a local gaming group here in Wisconsin. Everybody was only interested in board games, with only a few that expressed interest in White Wolf products. I wanted to start a Savage Worlds game (sorry), and might still do that. But it will be a hard sell. My initial impression is that people really don't want to invest the time in developing a character that they may only play once. And, if they get bored with one game, they want to move onto another game after one session. Rpgs are notoriously time-consuming, and nobody wants to derail a plot line by coming and going out of a game. This is why I'm such a fan of Mythic Role Playing because it solves those problems. But the reputations of rpgs are pretty fixed. And, lets face it, making a character in BRP is time-consuming and thought-consuming. Especially if you are new to it. There needs to be some more stream-lining, for starters.

I also agree with someone above about how the game designers need to hire people with actual business sense. Not just people who are fans of the games. And, furthermore, they should contact their local colleges and universities with marketing programs and get free marketing assessments from students in those programs. I think there actually is a much larger pool of people the table-top rpg industry could tap. But it does mean they have to change the way they do certain things--or at least market their products.

Hey Rust,

Since you've mentioned Traveler, have you seen this: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=78452