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.

On 3/26/2024 at 5:00 AM, Nozbat said:

I think the Sorcery rules are being re-written and due for publishing soon in RQG and I suspect new rules for BRP will follow closely.

I'm probably in the minority in saying I actually liked the Sorcery rules in RQ3 and the current iterations so I'm probably not the best person to comment on them and others will have a view.

In my view, Sorcery is not the fast, snappy instantaneous type of magic unless you want the crowd pleasing cantrip type stuff of making eggs appear out of nostrils or lighting a pipe with a flame from a finger. Sorcery is contemplative, requiring careful preparation, the exact quantities and quality of ingredients, long periods of study and meditation to be in the right frame of mind and then oodles of MPs to make it last longer than a still-born mayfly.

The way I see it is that Sorcery is summoning and binding, enchanting, divining (knowledge and power), necromancy, alchemy and blood magic.. all of which take a significant cost in time, energy and often components. Therefore, its not really that attractive to PCs who might want to go adventuring as there is nothing very helpful when faced by the Troll guardian of the bridge you want to cross other than to split the cost with the rest of the party for the toll. 

I guess it depends on what your world is like. I usually run  low magic, more alternative historical type campaigns but sorcery, witches, alchemists, theists, mysticism, Kabbalists etc are all part of it and generally terrify the PCs. Most of the spell casting happens off screen and has been days, weeks or even years in the making when the PCs have to interact with it, so mechanics for me are not that important but rather a focus on the outcome and possibly how to stop the outcome.

I sometimes, for effect and because I generally like cinematography, have a Sorcerer cast a flashy, devastating spell that kills an NPC in a horrible and gruesome manner to ground the PCs and make them cautious when dealing with Sorcerers. For instance, when running a Saxon campaign, the Læches usually had their own, very different agendas. Sometimes they coincided with the PCs, sometimes they worked very much against them. The PCs hated the Læches and would happily have killed them but had been on a quest to free their father's spirit and happened upon Nastrond's Hall, where the people who killed Læches (amongst other demeanours) where tortured endlessly. This had a rather sobering effect on the PCs plans to kill the Læche that sacrificed their friends to the spirits. 

I think it's possible to pick and choose from existing published material for what you want for Sorcery, if it's important to have PCs as Sorcerers. However, whatever you choose, balance is important. Sorcery can be powerful and easy access to high levels of spells leads to the D&D fireball syndrome of rolling too many 1d6 dice. 

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...

On 4/7/2024 at 2:16 PM, conajofa said:

Hi!

I'm somewhat new and old to the BRP, playing CoC since 2017, Mythras in pandemic, some Delta Green one-shoots.

I finally motivate myself (mostly out of spite against other system, Red Markets) to give my shot to costumize the BRP to my taste using what I learned from the others game. I'm very glad with the results, borrowing from multiple games to have an interesting and fun D100.

While GMing this game, something sparked on me that was off from some time. I want to do a game in the Project Moon City (a somewhat cyberpunk, somewhat weird science, somewhat magic setting). But there is one problem I always have.

The big problem is one: I want a system that allows players to buy costumized weapons. In the sense that, for example, one player can buy a flaming sword while other buys a battery-fueled chainsaw and both feel their weapons distinct. But for now BRP and derivates seems to move more in the lines of "big table of pre-made weapons" instead of "list of effects that, together, form a weapon"

I will explain how it was on my first attempt without a foundational system, I can go more in deep if needed:

1. Select Rank of the Weapon, this define its price.
2. Select if the Weapon is Ranged or Melee
   • If Melee, select a Damage Type (Pierce, Blunt, Slash)
3. Select a Property (Defensive, Reach, Heavy, Small)
4. Select effect based on its Rank (Rank 1 weapons have 2 Points for effects, Rank 2 have 4 Points, etc.)
5. Take flaws for extra Points (Rank 1 could take up to 2 Points on Flaws, etc)
6. Your weapon is ready

Some effects were things like "Inflict Burn 4", "Increase Block +1", "+1 to Reach", "Gain extra damage if the Target is Burn" "Gain extra damage if the User is Burn", etc, etc.

While I liked that approach, the problem with that system is that it only worked on combat, and non-combat mechanics were awful. And because of how that combat worked (weapon define hit chance and damage, Rank was limited by Level, etc.) I can't translate it directly to BRP.

I'm mostly looking for any advice or guide of were I could find something similar for BRP in weapon costumization.

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?

1 hour ago, Stan Shinn said:

I believe in the 1st edition Stormbringer rules armor had a die rating (e.g. d4), and when attacked, you'd roll the die to see the amount of hit points the armor soaked for that attack.

I can't seem to find those as optional rules in the new BRUGE SRD; is that in there? Or are those rules published elsewhere besides 1st edition Stormbringer?

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.

20 minutes ago, TrippyHippy said:

Yes. Fate has lots of mini settings - a lot of them are pay-what-you-want and a number of them have been collected into anthologies. A lot of these settings are really creative and original and about 50 pages or less in many cases. If you are wanting to switch between a variety of settings frequently, this is all you need - the longer the supplements, the harder they are to switch to. Have a look for yourselves.

BRP actually had this too - they had an anthology of different adventures with different settings in some supplements when the big gold book originally came out as well as with the quick-play. The original Worlds of Wonder - with Magic World, Super World and Future World - was this concept too, of course. Imagine they had just kept going with Crime World, Wild West World, erm....Apocalypse World and so on?

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

On 12/29/2023 at 5:16 PM, Ethereal said:

After reading all the comments, I remembered a game I acquired back in 1975 when I had not heard of RPG's but I did like Avalon hill games. I was in Korea and most G.I.'s spent their free time (at least on the post I was stationed) doing other things. The magazine 'ARES' advertised two play by mail games, by Shubel and Son. 'Tribes of Crane' and 'Starmaster'. So I subscribed to ‘Starmaster’ and played it by mail. Back then computers were expensive and little known or played with. Now a majority of people can play very similar games on computers. So the game mechanics were done by hand and so grew very expensive very fast and as my pay grade wasn’t that high I quit after a few months.

 

The comments on this subject reminded me of that game. In the rule book I received there was a chart for creating aliens. There was no anthromorph, but there was a chart and you chose the characteristics for your alien race. The chart listed those characteristics on a 100 point basis mental/physical/communication/senses. I created a race called the ‘Gar’ra’vachi’. I don’t remember a lot about most of the characteristics, but to get something you wanted in your aliens you pick those characteristics to a maximum of your hundred points. If you wanted something additional you had to give up something. In my case I remember wanting the aliens to have a poison tail, retractable poison claws and a poison bite. But to get that I had to give up some agility. They had no ankles or wrists. So their feet and hands were basically an extension of their lower legs and lower arms. It was an interesting creative process.

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). 

On 12/19/2023 at 1:20 PM, Atgxtg said:

Maybe not, but they usually care where they get their money from, or at least their governments do.  Basically if a trader gets caught selling arms to someone they shouldn't, the government swoops down n penalized the company and the people involved. Just how badly varies on the item, circumstances and quantities.

Keep in mind that one thing that all government officials want to do is to remain in power, and the best threat to them doing so is if somebody who doesn't like them can get their hands on military grade weapons and vehicles. Or if someone who doesn't like someone who does like them get their hands on military grade weapons and vehicles, and threaten said ally, causing the ally to hold it against the official.

For instance, imagine if some US company sold some tanks, under the table to some people from France who then used the tanks to storm Paris. THe French would not be happy about it, and would let the US Government know that in no uncertain terms. THe US Government, in turn would be very unhappy with said US company, and take action.

 

Now yes, there all all sorts of ways around this, but they are less about money are more about ways to smuggle and cheat. Basically in BRP terms you could probably up the price of the item at least one level (maybe more depending on how hot the item is. Smuggling walnuts or even arms ammo is one thing, smuggling backpack nukes, that's something else. You would probbly need to add in some skill rolls to see how the traders get pass the authorities and such. 

 

Yeah, but for modern military hardware you usually have to have friend$ in the local government who are willing to look the other way, for a cut. That assumes, that there will be no blowback on said Friend$ later on. 

I know Europeans think every American has a machegun, and two stinger missiles in the trunk of their Abrams tank, but in truth it's not that simple to get most weapons. Anymore more that a handgun, hunting rile or shotgun is typically unavailable to civilians, and in states where it is available it is restricted to licensed collectors, who can have all of their licenses revoked for any sort of violation. 

Or do a "tank' like James Gardner?

To be honest most military vehicles in civilian hands are obsolete vehicles that don't have working guns or ammo. Yeah someone who rank amok in a Sherman Tank could pose a problem to law enforcement, but not for long, as the military would be called in to handle the situation if necessary. Oh, and in real life governments run background checks on the people who buy this sort of stuff before they are issued the paperwork that allows them to do so, specially to avoid someone doing donuts with thier tank in front of city hall.

 

Well, most people can work out most of this stuff, but why reinvent the wheel?

Yup. That's similar to what the One Ring Does with treasure and stand of living. 

Yeah, but I think the main reason why it works so well is that it has an established setting and some sort of economic system tailored to how the players will want to spend money. The problem with prices in the BGB is that the game is generic with no specific setting. So you don't really know what gear would be available,  how the economy would work. It's easy to know what a Glock 17 should cost in the modern world, but not so easy to guess what it would cost a couple of centuries from now, in a world with laser pistols, or a couple of centuries ago before magazines with metallic cartridges were a thing. 

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/

3 hours ago, Gundamentalist said:

Hi RSanford, Investigator Weapons 2: Modern never went away, it's still available on DTRPG.

As is Investigator Weapons 3: Gaslight.

We had to withdraw Investigator Weapons 1: Jazz Age to make it 7e compatible. It will be back very soon in the New Year. Maybe that's what you meant?

Anyways to celebrate IW2 still being available, here's a link to get the IW2 PDF for US $10 at DTRPG (that's half-price), valid until Boxing Day (26 Dec 2023).

Adding to the conversation - weapon conversion is a fraught subject and I wish you the best of luck. I've learnt you have to eyeball the results and tweak the results that don't feel right. Luckily I have Hans on my team as well.

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.

On 11/18/2023 at 10:04 PM, tooley1chris said:

So I've been thinking about what happens AFTER all the QUASAR book releases. (2 more to go!)

 I'm thinking a couple "adventure" modules to help Chroniclers introduce players to a new version of BRP Space Opera.

The idea that is sticking out first and foremost in my mind is a space horror.

 I'm a sucker for Event Horizon.  Xenos are fun, all out war between two races is a possibility, but something more... tentacly...seems like a better possibility for gaining some traction in this genre.

 Something...other worldy in the far future, instead of the norm men wearing fedors and beanie hats, without stepping on toes.

What do the masterminds of this group think?

Should I stay in my lane?

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!

On 12/1/2023 at 9:10 AM, RosenMcStern said:

I can now confirm that Crusaders of the Amber Coast is in production for the ORC edition of BRP, and that I have a new manuscript for Tian Xia - the Celastial Empire 99% ready, which will enter production soon. Wind on the Steppes will probably follow.

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

53 minutes ago, smiorgan said:

I'd love Chaosium to publish something like that for BRP but with more sword and sorcery vibes (Howard/ Leiber/ Moorcock). Call it not-Stormbringer / not-Magic World. 

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!
 

1 hour ago, Atgxtg said:

Probably because a more in depth and detailed chargen for CoC is like adding a more colorful and  detailed paint scheme for a MXY-7 Ohka. 

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!