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Fergo113

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Posts posted by Fergo113

  1. Halion,

    I did tamper around a bit with Decipher's LotR Traits with a view to making them more like the Legendary Abilities you see in Mongoose RuneQuest. I didn't get very far in doing this however, mostly because my rpg group had never played any BRP based games before (HEATHENS!!! :mad: ) and when I first started running ME-BRP (using the RQ2 ruleset) I was having to teach them the rules whilst deprogramming them from the D20 brainwashing they had recieved over the years, and adapt the MERP campaigns I was using. I am still planning on returning to this at a later stage.

    SDLeary,

    I have never played Pendragon sadly, though I do have pdf's of both the 1st and 4th editions of the rules, so I am unfamiliar with the pairings from Pendragon. I'll have to have a look at the pdf's and see what you mean. So how do the Pendragon pairings work?

    Cheers,

    Fergo113

  2. Making the magic chapter workable is going to be the biggest challenge of this project, so I will be looking for some good advice when I start writing up the final notes for the magic chapter.

    My RPG group haven't played with magic too much (other than healing spells) so this will need a thorough workout before its finished. I will probably post the magic chapter "in-progress" to see what people have to say about what will work or does not work.

    So stay tuned! :thumb:

  3. I haven't seen Decipher, although the reviews I read led me to think it wasn't a good match as far as the magic system went. And although I own boxes of ICE products, the system was just too clunky for me.

    What I am leaning towards Baron, is the name and description of the spells as found in Deciphers LotR RPG, but using that name and description to produce a BRP spell list. The methods for casting spells will be three fold:

    i) your standard BRP way of casting a spell, ie need to speak and gesticulate with hands to cast the spell;

    ii) Runes that are the equivalent of the old RQ2 spell matrixes that are engraved onto items. The user does not need to know the spell, merely touch the runes and provide the power points to activate it. The knowledge of the spell is inherent within the runes and if the weapon or item is broken, the runes are rendered inoperable. This is the standard "magical" method that Dwarves use magic (tending to shun any other form of magical use); and

    iii) Songs of Power where the caster takes twice or three times as long to cast a spell, having to sing the spell (obviously requires that the caster can sing, but they do not necessarily have to gesticulate with their hands), but the effects are far more powerful and longer lasting. This is more of a "ritual" kind of spell and is used more by Elves than anyone else and would be seen in spells that heal and protect.

    As for the spells themselves, they fit into 'groups' or 'lists' that the PC can learn as a skill (like the new BRP magic requires that the magical spell has a skill % associated with it). The caster only needs to have a skill % in the spells 'group' or 'list' as spells with similar capabilities and origins are grouped together. This is more a game mechanic that gets away from having to have a skill % for every spell the caster knows. There are currently 12 of these 'groups' or 'lists' that are called "Magical Specialities." The 12 Magical Specialities are:

    Air & Storm, Alteration, Beasts and Birds, Ceremony, Fire Smoke & Light, Illusion, Mysticism, Restoration, Ritual, Secret Fire, Sorcery, and Water.

    Sorcery is used the same as per the BRP rulebook and is a channelling from the Dark Lord (or other fallen Maiar such as the Balrogs). Secret Fire are spells that are channelled directly from the Valar (all other spells are manipulations of the Song of Creation that was sung, and still underlines, the creation of Arda). A caster cannot have Sorcery and Secret Fire spells in their book as they are mutually exclusive and opposed to one another’s nature.

    The magic, on the whole, will be like that found in BRP and RQ2 where its subtle and supports the characters, aiding them. It will not be overt as in D&D or MERP where you can level a city with a fireball. You see major restraint being used by those who could wield magic in Tolkiens books and I very much want to respect that. Magic should be very limited in its use and would primarily be found in the form of Elven and Dwarven runes forged into items such as weapons. Of the six PC's playing in my ME-BRP campaign right now, only two of them know any magic (one knows two spells and the other knows three). The only magic they consistently use is the Healing spell and they have a bracelet with Level 2 Heal runes cared into it.

    So the magical system as I am using right now is far more subtle and hidden than in other fantasy RPG's and leans more towards how BRP, RQ2 and Decipher's LotR make it than MERP or D&D.

    Hope that gives some better idea of where I am heading with it. My notes for that chapter are currently all over the shop, but when I have finished the Free Peoples chapter, Magic will be the next one I tackle. :thumb:

  4. Your welcome :thumb:

    I'm working on the Sindar, Silven and Half-elves right now. Then I have the Mannish and Hobbit races to do. I'll post and example of the Mannish races and Hobbit race before this chapter is finished. But I am currently not getting as much time as I would like to transcribe my notes up, so it will be at least another month before this chapter nears completion.

  5. Thank you very much, Dredj and Solardog ! :D

    By the way, here is a picture created with a planetarium program. It shows

    the view from Enki II, about 300 light years rimwards from Earth, towards

    the Sol system (invisible in the centre of the picture) on January 1st of the

    year 2840.

    What is the planetarium program you used Rust?

  6. I have been more than a little slack in keeping up the transcription of my ME-BRP project. Christmas Holidays and New Year celebrations will do that I guess. :o

    So I have just uploaded the latest preview for the Free Peoples chapter of ME-BRP. This one gives an insight into the Elves of Middle-earth focusing on the Noldor Elves.

    Cheers,

    Fergo113

  7. Merry Christmas from Down Under everyone :thumb:

    Its actually Boxing Day today. Eat waaaaayyyyy too much yesterday but that's Christmas for you :) Mercifully it's been a wet summer for us over here so at least I wasn't called away to fires and could actually spend Christmas Day with my wife and daughter.

    Hope you all have a great day and a Happy New Beer ;)

    Thanks for all the hard work everyone has done into making this a fantastic web site and great community of BRP die-hards. I really appreciate all the input you guy's have given into the ME-BRP and City of Heroes stuff I have been doing. The players in my rpg group have certainly reaped the benefits of all your advice.

    Here's to a great BRP 2009 (rolls a critical success :thumb: )

    Merry Christmas, :innocent:

    Fergo113

  8. Please change the body text to a serif font!!! Please please please!!! :D

    Sorry about that.

    Its in Arial font for the main text and Celtic font for the headings. I could do a version in serif if people want it, but its a BIG file and I have to get Trifletraxor to load it up for me. So its not an easy process to load a second version in another font.

    Alternatively I might be able to send you a serif font version via FilePlanet if you can private message me an appropriate email to send it to you.

    :confused:

    Fergo113

  9. Well, I'm back from a weeks leave and thought I should post an update on Chpater 9 of my Middle-earth BRP project.

    Chapter 9 focuses on the Free Peoples of Middle-earth. As such this is where the majority of player characters will hale from. It gives the background for the player character races and guidelines for GM's and players about creating characters for that race. It complements the player character development process in the BRP rulebook.

    The first race to be previewed is that of the Dwarves. You can find it in:

    Downloads > Systems & Settings > Middle-Earth

    Hope you enjoy :thumb:

    Cheers,

    Fergo113

  10. Well, I tried to be smart and reduce the file size with adobe acrobat professional. Turns out it only prints half of the the background image then, so the original file of about 47 Mb has now been uploaded. For those of you who have downloaded it and plans to print it, please download it again. Sorry for the trouble. :o

    :beetle:

    I was wondering why it was about 17 meg smaller than my version :D

    Thanks for fixing that :)

  11. BRP Central - Downloads - Middle-Earth

    The Middle Earth Creatures Chapter is now available from the download section.

    Great work Fergo113! :thumb:

    :beetle:

    Thanks Trifletraxor for taking care of loading it. Thanks heaps for the positive feedback also guy's.

    I'm getting into transcribing the races/cultures of the Free Peoples (Dwarves, Elves, Hobbits and the Mannish cultures). I'll start posting some previews of the races when they get close to being finished. But you can get an idea of what this new chapter will look like by having a look at the Orcs section of the Creatures chapter. There are notes there for running Orc PC's in the game.

    Keep you posted about how this new chapter is going. :thumb:

    Cheers,

    Fergo113

  12. Cool, stats for aurochs, which it so happens I've put into an adventure I've been working on. I hadn't gotten around to figuring out exact stats, but I was going to base them on the cattle stats from the Hawkmoon Gamemaster book.

    I can't remember what I used as inspiration for them. I think I had a look at a bunch of stats for cattle floating around invarious BRP based games and then threw together what seemed most fitting.

    Anyway, when the chapter gets posted it has stats for Lynx, sabertooth cats, mammoths and a few other critters that would be transportable to different game worlds (eg spiders for any fantasy setting). Hopefully Trifletraxor will get around to posting it this weekend.

  13. I'm working on a new campaign, and I'd like a race of "elves" that look more like Tolkien's (but act more like Melniboneans).

    2. Has anyone done any work on Tolkien-style "High Elves" in BRP? (Warhammer-style, Pratchett-style, or bloody-nearly-any-fantasy-novel-style would also work.)

    Thanks,

    Frank

    Hi Frank,

    I am working on the player races for my ME-BRP project right now. Am an still transcribing and working with the stat's for Elves, but currently in my notes I have them as follows:

    STR 2D6+6 13-14 MOVE: 14

    CON 1D6+12 16-17 HP: 16-17

    SIZ 3D6+@ 12-15

    INT 3D6+3 16-17

    POW* 3D6+6 14

    DEX 2D6+12 19

    APP 3D6+6 16-17

    @SIZ of an adult Silvan elf male is 3D6+1, and adult Sindar elf male is 3D6+2, and an adult Noldor elf male is 3D6+3. SIZ of an adult Silvan elf female is 3D6+4, and adult Sindar elf female is 2D6+5, and an adult Noldor elf female is 2D6+6.

    *Noldor and those Sindar that have been to Aman (The Undying Lands of the West across the bended sea) receive a +9 bonus to their POW due to their interaction with the Valar, ie the POW is 3D6+9.

    Hope that helps. :thumb:

    Cheers,

    Fergo113

  14. Fergio, since the creatures download is not yet in the downloads section,

    may I ask for your stats for the Losrandir and the Aurochs, since these

    could be similar to the stats I am trying to define for my setting for the

    Vikunja and the Yak, and therefore could give me something to compare

    my stat ideas with ?

    Thank you ! :)

    No prob Rust, here you go: :thumb:

    Aurochs:

    STR 3D6+24 34-35 MOVE: 12

    CON 3D6 10-11 HIT PTS: 16-17

    SIZ 3D6+24 34-35 Damage Bonus

    INT 4 4 +3D6

    POW 3D6 10-11 Tres Fact: N/A

    DEX 2D6 7

    Hit Location Armour/HP

    Right Hind Leg 01-02 3/5

    Left Hind Leg 03-04 3/5

    Hindquarters 05-07 3/7

    Forequarters 08-10 3/7

    Right Fore Leg 11-13 3/5

    Leg Fore Leg 14-16 3/5

    Head 17-20 3/6

    NOTE: Aurochs have natural 3pt hides.

    Weapon Strike Rank Percentage Damage

    Butt@ 8 50% 2D10+db crsh

    Trample@ 8 50% 6D6 crushing

    @ An Auroch cannot butt and trample in the same

    combat round.

    Skills: Listen 50%, Sense 50%, Spot 60%

    Losrandir:

    STR 2D6+6 13-14 MOVE: 12

    CON 3D6 10-11 HIT PTS: 13-14

    SIZ 3D6+6 17 Damage Bonus

    INT 4 4 +1D4

    POW 3D6 10-11 Tres Fact: N/A

    DEX 3D6+6 7

    Right Hind Leg 01-02 1/4

    Left Hind Leg 03-04 1/4

    Hindquarters 05-07 1/6

    Forequarters 08-10 1/6

    Right Fore Leg 11-13 1/4

    Leg Fore Leg 14-16 1/4

    Head 17-20 1/5

    NOTE: deer have natural 1pt hides.

    Weapon Strike Rank Percentage Damage

    Butt 7 35% 2D6+db crush

    Skills: Hide (in Woods and Forest) 80%, Listen

    75%, Sense 80%, Spot 85%, Stealth 55%.

    Cheers,

    Fergo113

  15. Well after many months of hardship and toil, the Creatures chapter of the ME-BRP project is finally finished :party:

    I finished the errata on the weekend and put the final touches on it. As we speak it is winding its way through the either to Trifletraxor to be placed into the Downloads/Middle-earth section of this site (I can't upload a file of this size onto the site).

    It’s in pdf format and stands at over 150 pages and around 47meg. :eek:

    It does have a lot of pictures in it, but you can see from the previews I have posted already what the format looks like. I apologise if you don't like photos but keep in mind that this is really a private project for my rpg group, but I am happy to share it with any who are interested in having a copy.

    The next chapter on the program for me is to do the Free Peoples Chapter. This is basically the background for the player character races. I've done some of it already, based on my rpg groups characters being played right now. You can get an idea of what this will look like by checking out the Orcs section in the Creatures Chapter. I don't have a time line on this chapter as yet, but given that the creatures chapter has blown out by months more than I expected it to be, it will be anyone’s guess as to when I can finish this next chapter (but I hope no more than three months should see it completed).

    If you’re wondering why the Creatures chapter is Chapter 10, it all relates back to the original order in which I started to compile my notes for this project.

    Hopefully the chapter will be in the Downloads section soon for those of you who want a copy.

    Enjoy! :thumb:

    Fergo113

  16. Hey K,

    I like it. :thumb:

    I was thinking that I would love to do a 1920's & 1930's version of exactly the same thing. :eek: It would allow a cross over with the Mythos as well as some Dr Who badies and puts it at an interesting time in the worlds history going into WW2.

    Only problem is that right now my ME-BRP project is taking up all my spare time.

    I'd be interested in this when you get it going :thumb:

    Cheers,

    Fergo113

  17. Sounds great. I'll start picking away at a Foes volume this weekend. I tend to work quickly on these things once I get a bee in my bonnet, so perhaps I'll have something to circulate in a couple of weeks.

    All the versions of the character generator that I could find are written for some version of a windows OS. Do you know if a Mac compatible one exists?

    Thanks Lars, that would be excellent. :thumb:

    As for a Mac version of the BRP generator, sadly I don't know of any other version sorry. There is a thread in this forum for BRP generators that I started some time back regarding letting people know about the BRP generator mention above. There may be a Mac answer burried in there somewhere.

    Cheers,

    Fergo113

  18. The materials you've posted look really nice. Do you have any idea of how long you'll need to finish a post-able first draft of the whole thing?

    One thing I was wondering is whether you have any intention of making a middle-earth specific version of the old 'Foes' book (or something like it).

    I only have a couple of creatures left to transcribe and I am also proof reading the text right now as well. Some of the creatures I have already posted will have some minor variations made to them (mostly their powers or armour and cleaning up typo's), but shouldn't change too much.

    So I hope to have the final version ready to be posted within the next week or two.

    As for a Foe's like set of pre rolled creatures, I have been using an excellent little tool called:

    Chaosium BRP Character Generator 4.10 :thumb:

    Just do a Google search for it. It is freeware and there are a bunch of sites that carry it. Its easy to use and can have creature stats, weapons, powers etc added easily enough (usually through adding stuff into the text files it uses). It will only produce humanoid creatures however.

    I want to go back through my MERP stuff and to an adventure setting for the Bree-land area after I have the Creatures and Free Peoples chapters finished. I was planning to put a bunch of pre-generated creatures into that, so that GM's had an adventure setting that would accommodate elves, dwarves, hobbits and men (orcs and goblins even) with lots of pre-rolled critters and beasties. Eriador is also where I am running my poor hapless saps... oop’s I mean player’s, through right now and they will be heading towards Bree in their adventures soon, so it will be timely.

    But I would definitely be happy if you wanted to do a Foes-like equivalent as I don't have that much time to do that right now. :thumb:

    Cheers,

    Fergo113

  19. Where's our next creature preview? :D

    SGL.

    Ah, yes I have been a little remiss about keeping that up to date. :o

    I guess its been three weeks since I added the last creature sooooooo how about three new ones:

    Animated Watch-stones

    Olog-hai Trolls (I know you wanted to see them!), and

    Lesser Spiders (I hate spiders....:shocked:, creepy little buggers!)

    Hope that makes up for my slackness over the last few weeks. ;)

    Cheers,

    Fergo113 :thumb:

  20. Out of interest, Fergo, what approach are you taking to the magic system?

    At this time, the work I have done on the magic chapter has been very much influence by Deciphers LoTR rpg, modified to the new BRP Magic and Sorcery magical systems with Runequest II thrown in as well. I like the magic background given in Decipher's LoTR chapter and the Magic suppliment that came out a few years back and have been using that as the background to how magic exists in Middle-earth. I feel that Tolkien pictured the way magic work in Middle-earth after the fall of Beleriand to be very subtle and also imbibed in the very landscape. Gandalf for eg was very reluctant to use magic overtly and there are a number of possible reasons for all that (drawing unwanted attention to himself being one of those reasons). The LoTR movies showed the overt use of magic a bit more than I believe the books did, no doubt for dramatic effect on the big screen (eg Gandalf and Saruman's dustup in Orthanc during the first movie).

    I have gotten around the problem of most FRP games having an abundance of Wizards who can throw fireballs all over the place by very much limiting the players to how much magic they can get access to.

    Currently I have three players running around in the campaign I have been running for the last year or so. Two of them are of the Loremaster profession (kind of a proto-mage that has skills more in Lore than in magic, modelled on Deciphers LoTR and the LoTR Shadows of Angmar MMO game), one is an elf and the other a human. The elf knows only three spells and the human only one. Both of them know the standard BRP Heal(ing) spell to Level 2. Where the players have been most able to access magic has been through runes matrix's on items (in the way that it was used in RQII rather than the current Mongoose RQ system).

    The whole magic system is currently in a flux right now but basically you will have a set of magical specialities that are a characters magic skills, like in the new BRP magic system. Spells belong to a speciality and must be learnt or taught but because they belong to a speciality (and thus have similarities in how they are cast) only the relevant magical speciality skill is used to cast them. Some spells also require a resistance roll on the Resistance Table (usually for POW vs POW). I am still working on whether POW sacrifice is required to learn some spells, as in the old RQII Rune Spells process.

    As for the spells themselves, I really like Deciphers LoTR spell lists and have been toying with manipulating them over to BRP. I don't want the spells to be too powerful however, but more along the lines of the power of the spells in the old RQII system.

    There is still a lot of work to be done on it all and right now I am about twelve creatures off finishing the Creatures Chapter for ME-BRP. That has been taking most of my spare rpg time (that and running my ME campaign).

    What you were working on for Song of Arda sounds interesting. Anyway, hope that gives you a better idea with what I have been using so far. As I said, it’s still very much in a state of flux and I haven't really settled on anything as yet. I just keep the players guessing and limit just how much magic that can get their hands on. Enough to heal them and keep them alive long enough so I can try my nasty critters and rule variations out on them :D bawahahahahahahahaha

    Anyway, it’s all up for refinement as far as I am concerned right now, so let me know what you think.

    Cheers,

    Fergo113

  21. Got to echo Shaira's comments there Ray!

    Thanks so much for your hand in RQ I & II. I thought I would be lost forever in the D&D fantasy rpg system, but then I found Runequest and that changed everything.:)

    RQ I and II have been my mainstay in fantasy rpg ever since (for many years now). :thumb::thumb::thumb:

    Cheers

    Fergo113

  22. Hmmmm... this looks interesting. :thumb:

    Are you going to post any of the material you have here at BRP.com or is this just going to be played with your rpg group?

    I posted a while ago some stuff inspired by City of Heroes and have always been meaning to gm a game with my rpg group. But we are still running through my ME-BRP stuff right now, so that's going to have to wait.

    I would love to see what other BRP Supers games people have been working on because I do want to get around to running one myself and would love as much material as I can get my hands on. :)

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