rsanford

Late, late, last night, it dawned on me that SuperWorld would be a great solution for rules on crafting custom weapons and devices. Today, I rushed to post here but wouldn’t you know @Atgxtg had already scooped me 🙂! In any case,I think that’s the way to move forward. Like Atgxtg said the Big Gold Book has much of the SuperWorld material summarized in the powers chapter, so maybe it’s not necessary to purchase the SuperWorld pdf.

Wow Nozbat, your setting sounds like a blast!

Hey @conajofa let me stew on both how the best way to implement an effect table might be, and what might be appropriate for a table equating experience / skill points to a level system. I will try to answer by tomorrow evening, but it might be Tuesday, depending on how many honey-dos my wife has for me tomorrow. For the moment though, it strikes me there are a couple of things that need to be considered. (I am going to reference Magic World, because that's the BRP variant I prefer and know best...) 1. I have zero experience with PbtA or any narrative game but if PbtA shares any similarities with D&D, character level really equates to combat ability rather than general skill ability. That implies that a 540 point Veteran Magic World character might or might not necessarily be as good in combat as a less experienced 510 point Magic World character. So creating a table so that you can make judgements about what NPCs or adversaries are appropriate is probably problematic. Perhaps, instead, a table might be created ranking a character's combat capability based on some combination of a character's brawl, dodge, wrestle and weapon skills; though that's not perfect either because a character that had 60 in both dagger and broadsword (120 points total) might easily fall to an opponent that had 85 points in broadsword, but only the base points in dagger. 2. My initial thought is the system for adding special (combat) effects could pretty much work just as you described it above, if instead of multi-benefit effect table entries, each table entry provided a single effect per it's power level but those benefits would stack. So perhaps a table that listed ten or fifteen effects down the left side of the table and four power levels aross the top... So perhaps, the Heat effect at level 1 would be hot enough to sear flesh causing +1 damage on impact; while level 2 would be fiery, causing and additional +1 damage, the ability to cauterize wounds, and the ability to shed dim light in 5 foot radius; and level 3 would add the yet another +1 to damage and the ability to project flames out to 20 foot distance... Something like that...

Okay, just so I understand.. When you say “rank” are you thinking of something like “levels” in Dungeons & Dragons? What are the implications of a weapon having a rank in your mind? Is rank more a way of establishing a weapons general power level and cost or do you see it being tied to a player character’s “level” in games like D&D? I ask because if it’s not tied to a character’s level then I don’t see what’s to keep you from arbitrarily just adding a level system to BRP that applies solely to weapons. So maybe a rank 1 chainsaw has two points for effects and costs $200 gold / credits, etc, while a rank 2 chainsaw with 4 point is more expensive. If what you mean, is that player characters are only allowed to buy magic chainsaws that match their own experience rank or level, then you would need to create a simple table that equates character experience (how many experience points a character has accumulated) with an arbitrary rank / level set by you the GM. So perhaps, 1500 experience points equates to level one and 4000 equate to level 2. If you wanted to go all the way with that idea you could make it that the number of experience points equated to the various levels / ranks are directly correlated with the number of character creation points initially used to build the character, so perhaps a base character, rank 0, starts with 1500 character creation points, at rank 1, the character has 1600 character points meaning that the player has 100 more points to spend on skills or perhaps magic chainsaws. And note I’m using made up numbers here, as I don’t remember what it cost to raise skills in BRP off the top of my head. And by the way, I seem to remember Magic World having a table like that with three or four categories (something like novice, experienced, veteran, expert) for use in character creation. You also mentioned above that your system only really worked for combat and that it was awful for non-combat. Why is that? Was it because the table of effects only listed effects that were useful in combat? If so then “generalizing” the effects listed on that table might be the key. For example, maybe one effect is searing heat, a second effect causes combustion with flammable materials touched, a third effect could be melts metal, etc. Of course you would also want to include in the table how the effect modifies weapon damage as well as well as how it modifies the environment. Perhaps a sword with searing heat might keep characters in 10 feet from the sword warm in artic conditions.. Hope I’m not way off course here. You know, we should ask Chris Tooley as he drips brilliance and creativity everywhere he goes! @tooley1chris can you put in your ten cents?

Hey @conajofa! First welcome to the madness of BRP! This site is a treasure-trove for all things related to BRP, and for sure you will want to check out the download section when you get time. Having said that, I can't think of a single public resource for what you describe above; which I might add is seriously cool. That's not to say it hasn't been done a thousand times, I just haven't seen anything uploaded related to that. But I wonder if the Stormbringer folks on this site have some ideas, since the concept of demons bound into weapons was a trope explored in those books? Can anyone comment?

I like the spinning black hole!

@Peter Fitz are you using Chris’ Quasar rules? If not what are you using?

I strongly suspect the rules you mention are in all versions of Stormbringer, but of course, Stormbringer is no longer available from Chaosium. However, the rules are included on page 69 and pages 73-77 in Chaosium's Magic World book, which is basically the same rules that were in Stormbringer 5th edition, minus the Stormbringer setting information which Chaosium no longer has the license for... The rules for variable armor are also included in the original Big Gold Book on the lower right under the title "Random Armor Values" on page 195. I haven't purchased the new version of the Big Gold Book yet (though I will) so I don't know if those rules are still included.

Wow! I had know idea these were available for Fate. Deeper down the rabbit hole I go....

I remember Shubel and Son. I played a few competing PBM games at the time but always wanted to try their Global Supremacy game (I think that was the name).

A slight tangent but... after I started reading this thread, i wondered if civilians could own a tank and I found this... Note, given the driver is driving on the left side of the road, this is probably in th UK somewhere. I haven't ever seen a vehicle like this, but some Googling makes me think it might be a varient of the UK Scorpion? I bet that thing uses a lot of diesel! I also found a place in Uvalde, TX that advertises that customers may drive and shoot tanks including WWII, and cold war tanks (notably both Russian and German). See here -> https://www.drivetanks.com/tanks-tracks/

I'm sorry, somehow I got my wires crossed.. In that case, I highly, HIGHLY recommend SIxtystone Press in general and specifically Investigator Weapons 2: Modern!

I haven't vetted any of these, but if you go to the download section of this site, then on the right click science fiction and then other you should get a page like this -> https://basicroleplaying.org/files/category/55-other/. I see partial conversions for 40K, Gamma World, Traveller and other science fiction games that might include futuristic weapons (I verified Colin's 40K conversion and "By Skull"'s Gamma World conversion have some). There used to be a conversion for GDW's 2300 AD by Udo Sabath on this site that was particularly well done and had ~40 future weapons, but I can't seem to find it now. I have also seen a fan document titled "Runequest 3 - Expansion Rules I High Tech" by Gordon Hardy that you might find interesting though I don't remember where I got it. PM me your email address if you want me to send it to you. * I forgot something... Though not a guide of futuristic weapons, Sixtystone Press' Investgator Weapons Volume 2 is 244 pages of modern weapon goodness for Call of Cthulhu / BRP. Unfortunately I don't think its still being offered but you might find it on Amazon or Ebay. ** Look what I found here on BRP Central->

Scenarios for one system can sometimes be run in the other system though it’s usually a little easier to run a CoC scenario in DG than visa-versa.

Frankly, I am not that creative, which is a terrible attribute to have if you are trying to write the occasional new world setting like me, however I have read a good bit of science fiction. You might have read Niven's book titled "The Mote in God's Eye". What if you took a page from Niven, and had the party stumble across a truly benovolent and friendly civilization with greatly superior technology that is, for some reason unknown to them, unable to leave their solar system... The aliens are friendly and willing to share technology with humanity that would reduce suffering and elliminate many of Humanities greatest challenges. All they want in return, is to understand why they have been unsucessful as leaving their solar system. Of course, at some point the party would discover some troublng aspect about the aliens that, should they gain the ability to expand outside their solar system, would greatly challenge humanity in the far future...

I guess it depends on what country we are in! But in the US, where I am, its more likely the pat on the back!

Wow! Nice!

There you go again, making me spend all my money. But I’m glad to do it!

Man, I do too. I have no clue if it would sell, but I, and most of my friends, would buy it.

@Pao, is this https://endlessspace.fandom.com/wiki/Dust#:~:text=Overview-,Origin,computers%2C thus gaining virtual immortality the setting you are referring to? Looks interesting?

Y’all got me thinking. There have been several recommendations for BRP implementations of specific genres but what if we have that backwards? A different way to think about it is to consider that base-BRP is a “simulationist” RPG and we might try to identify genres or specific implementations of genres that BRP is particularly suited for. And I’m not suggesting BRP only be used for super crunchy games, but clearly simulation-style mechanics is one area where it shines. I know Quasar just came out which seems to target space opera type games, but what about hard science games, maybe akin to Orbital 2100, or 2300AD (Mongoose version)? I could see games like those benefiting from simulation-style mechanics? Also are there genres that would benefit from BRP’s graduated success / failure mechanics or it’s ability to model conflicting forces minutely via the resistance table? … One other thought… I know it’s been done, but a lot of people consider D&D to be an “exception-based” game, and because of that prefer competing games, particularly those that don’t use “classes”. Is there a play for a BRP. fantasy game aimed at people that don’t care for “exception-bases” games?

There is also Myrmidon / Before Iron / Age of Bronze for mythic Greece under development. It’s my understanding the manuscript was turned in before Chaosium took in the Nocturnal stuff. See http://igwilliams.blogspot.com/2012/08/age-of-bronze-more-like-before-iron.html?m=1

I like the Alien vibe too, but if you really want to make a statement, take a page from GDW’s 2300 AD setting and narrate an encounter with truly alien, aliens. I mean aliens who not only have different goals but whose way of thinking is conceptually different than humans or aliens whose sense of “self” is entirely different than ours. I’m not going to give spoilers but if you aren’t already familiar with them look at GDW’s treatment of the Kafer and Pentapod. I’m not a Twilight 2000 fan, but the 2300’s take on aliens sold me on the game!

Okay, I admit I had to look that up:-). Is your point that adding rich histories to characters destined to quickly die or go insane is likely to cause frustration? If so that’s probably true!

I bought my copy about an hour ago, but since I have been on the road I haven't been able to download it yet. But having seen Chris' work in the past, I know its going to be great! By the way, initially when I searched DriveThruRPG for Quasar it didn't came up. I then searched for "Tooley"and there it was! Instant sell!