vagabond

The BGB has the following: 05% or less: Novice. A characters with a skill rating this low is a complete amateur, and has little hope of succeeding even at Easy tasks. At this low level of competency, your should roll each time you wish for your character to attempt this skill, regardless of whether in a stress-filled situation or routine under ideal circumstances. 05–25%: Neophyte: A character with ratings in this range is either a beginner or has a small amount of knowledge of the subject at hand. The phrase ‘knows enough to be dangerous’ applies well here, your character will get lucky enough to succeed once in a while, and may become overconfident as a result. You should have to roll whenever your character attempts this skill, even if the task is Easy. 25–50%: Amateur. Ratings in this range indicate a little talent, some rudimentary training, or hobby–level dabbling in a skill. Your character is barely qualified, and is usually entrusted with Easy or unimportant tasks. A high school education could impart ratings at the low end of this range. At this level of competency, in non-stressful situations your character can perform routine activities relating to the skill without needing to roll. 50–75%: Professional. A 50% rating in a skill allows your character to make a living using that skill. At the professional skill rating, your character does not need not worry about failing at Easy tasks, and is experienced or proficient enough to serve as a leader or manager of others. A 50% rating is roughly equal to a bachelor’s degree in a specific discipline. Most skills cannot be raised above 75% through education or training alone: your character must advance further through practical use. At this skill rating, most of the time your character can perform routine or even complex activities relating to the skill, and you are only required to roll when there is an element of risk, or when the chance of failure is dramatic. 75–90%: Expert. Skills in this range indicate advanced expertise in a given field: your character has a reasonable chance to succeed even at Difficult tasks. Few people ever attain such mastery of a given skill, and those that do are respected and relied upon for their expertise. Skills in this rage correspond to an advanced degree (Masters or PhD), or many years of experience. Most average characters cannot begin play with any skill higher than 75%. With this skill rating, your character should be able to perform complex and difficult actions relating to this skill under routine circumstances. 90% or higher: Master. Only a handful of true geniuses attain this level of mastery. Only the most difficult tasks are beyond their abilities, and their expertise has likely made these masters famous or legendary, either within their field or in the world at large. When your character has this rating in the skill, in routine situations he or she is able to perform ‘miracles’, and you will rarely need to roll the dice except at most difficult of tasks or in dire situations. If the optional Sanity rules are being used in a campaign, attaining a 90% rating in a skill restores 2D6 SAN points, representing the self–confidence and discipline associated mastering a skill. If your character begins with this skill rating or higher, there is no corresponding SAN gain.

Ah - I still want to thank Ben for including this simplification (and clarification) of multiple defensive actions per round being decremented each time regardless of which action is used. The original rule was so confusing and led to interesting (and obviously) incorrect results. Ian

I believe the preference is based on the order - first try "post them here", then try "email to magic-world@chaosium.com". Ben is pretty active here, which is why the preference is to post it here. Ben also has things set up in Google which is where the Official Errata exists. But, you would already know all of this Ian

It's doing the standard HP = (SIZ + CON) / 2, where CON is getting an 18, but SIZ is only 7 or 8 (due to the dwarf's shortness). HP being the sum of SIZ and CON is a heroic option. For a Dwarf as set in this generator, SIZ is 1d4+4. Not a typical fantasy dwarf ... Ian

Well, you know the PCs - you can use their stats, powers and skills as your base point. Then adjust up or down. Remember, the way combat, armor, and active defense work in BRP, even weaker NPCs can present quite a challenge. And a mob of NPCs can be outright deadly. So, it isn't as difficult as you would think to present a challenge to your PCs. Ian

The rights are still owned by the original crew. Andrew does not seem to interested in blocking fan stuff as long as it is not for profit. My partner in crime and I have had some contact with him on and off. And, while I do have permission from Miles to use his originals (again, as long as not for profit) as long as proper credit is given, my partner in crime is going to provide new, original artwork. However, I need to work out putting some playtest material up, with or without art, and update the playtest material as things settle. And I just noticed you are in Lemon Grove - excellent ... I live in La Mesa. Ian

I actually liked most of the announcements. The updates to iOS7 and OSX 10.9 (even the name) look good. I also like the attention to gaming (even though I am not much of a computer game type). I also am very interested in the Mac Pro update - very interested to see what the final product is and how things test out. I think the concerns over internal expansion are overblown - as long as 3rd party companies get on board with Thunderbolt, PCIe expansion boxes, including video card expansion (though, being able to handle three 4K resolution displays is more than sufficient for just about anyone), even upgrading the internal video is not much of an issue. CPU upgrades/options might be the one area I would be concerned with, especially knowing what Intel has in the works - dual hexacore CPUs may be outmoded by the time the final product arrives, and newer chipsets loom. Currently using an iPad Mini 32GB, an iPad Retina Display 16GB, and an oooooollld MacBook at home (running 10.6 - I was part of the beta test). I also have a newish Mini running Lion here at work. By Christmas, I expect to be purhcasing a new MacBook Pro Retina Display, probably the lower end 2.4GHz, but bump up RAM to 16GB (maybe more if available), and go with the 512GB SSD. May also look into a new Mini at home as well. Ian

I should have an update on things some time next week. I have been fiddling with dyshas and Isho, and so far, I like the way things are working out ... Ian

I would lean on the range modifiers for missile weapons - a scope/binoculars divides the missile weapon range modifiers in half (or, if easier, double the ranges). Just pick a range that suits - say the longest bow range. Ian

Correct - the rules state you are "dead" at any point your HP hits zero or less. However, in that round, if you receive First Aid or other healing, magical or not, that raises you to 1HP, you are no longer "dead", but have been stabilized. Ian

There is a Traveller to BRP conversion here that includes rules for Traveller style Life Path chargen. It just uses the Traveller "classes" as converted over. If you want to adapt it to a different setting , you will have to tweak it to fit. http://www.soltakss.com/rq_scifi.doc The thread is here: Sci-Fi Ian

I would give Magic World a try - it is BRP based, using the old Elric!/Stormbringer 5th as a basis, but stripping out the Moorcock stuff. It has a setting, but you can easily ignore it. Magic World: Fantasy Roleplaying in Worlds of Epic Adventure (Basic Roleplaying system): Lynn Willis, Ben Monroe, and Friends, Andy P. Timm, Kenneth Solis: 9781568823652: Amazon.com: Books It has a dedicated forum here as well. Another possibility is Classic Fantasy, which is specifically for dungeon crawls. Classic Fantasy Chaosium Inc. Ian

I would check out the Corum supplement to Stormbringer if you want a risk factor associated with sorcery as the spells/summonings create/contact more powerful spells/entities. Ian

Just want to chime in on a few things. 90% was chosen as the point at which one becomes a master at a skill - in this case, master at a weapon. In Stormbringer 1 - 4, to riposte, one had to be a master in both the separate attack and parry skills (specifically, over 90% in each) AND score a critical parry. While this cut down on the frequency at which ripostes occurred, you had no limit to the number of ripostes possible (though, your parry and riposte dropped 30% and 20% respectively each time per round, you always had at least a 1% chance). Now, as to why one had/has to be a master (from a design perspective) - as mentioned elsewhere, combat rounds are more than just swing and wait affairs, they represent constant maneuvering, posturing, thrusts, parries, advances, retreats, etc. The actual roll represents an opportunity to strike based on all of the maneuvering - a "here is your opening, let's see what you can do with it". So, in essence, it represents the ability of a combatant, regardless of skill level, to be able to create an opening, sometimes by use of parrying away an opponent, and getting a riposte type opportunity. The actual riposte maneuver, however, is more than that - it is the ability of a master to parry such an attack, and turn the opponent's weapon in such a way as to create a new opportunity, one that is beyond the normal opportunity that occurs during a combat round. And, again, a master can do this multiple times per round, and when facing multiple opponents. I do like Jason's change of adding a single DEX rank penalty in addition to the uniform 30% drop per attempt, to reflect that even a master can be brought down by a mob of attackers. Ian

I would still consider Magic World. I think the rules as implemented there are pretty solid (based firmly on Elric!). Random armor protection, general HP, skills over 100%, ripostes for HTH combat, etc. Ben and I also reworded/simplified the multiple Dodge/Parry per round some. Depending on how much HTH you use, I still like separate attack and parry skills as it lets you define characters as defensively minded, balanced, or aggressive attackers. Ian

Yeah, the BRP book has some things that were left out, either for space constraints, or we the proof-readers didn't catch (that's what happens when you have been playing with the system for so long - some things are "a given", or house rules/alt rules have become so prevalent, you forget where the core/original rules stop and the house/alt rules begin). There used to be a discussion of rules and text that were left out, but I have no idea where it is. If you like BRP, and play mostly fantasy based games, I would consider getting Magic World and/or OpenQuest. If you like more tactical options and such, OpenQuest has some, and RQ6 has very detailed combat. I personally play a mish-mash of Stornbringer 1, Stormbringer 4, Elric!, Magic World, and RQ6 these days. I like separate attack/parry, ripostes, skills going over 100, and the Combat Actions/Combat Effects from RQ6. I also like variable armor values and total HP over fixed armor values and hit locations. I like demon summoning from SB1 and 4, as well as Mongoose Elric's sorcery, and the magic found in the Elric! supplement Unknown East and SB5 supplement Corum. Magic World's Advanced Sorcery has some good stuff too. Ian

For starters, a single combat action in a round does not mean what you think it means. Basically, as in almost every other RPG, a combat round involves a lot of jockeying for position, probing for openings, defensive posturing, etc. The actual roll represents an opportunity/opening has been made, now let's see what you can do with it. It is not "swings his sword and then just stands there and stares at the enemy for a few moments before doing something else." Having attack skills rise above 100% represents becoming masterful at the weapon, which allows the splitting of attacks. In Stormbringer 1st through 4th, skills were capped at 100% (unless sorcery was involved), and mastery was achieved when attack and parry were above 90% (this is where the separate attack/parry option comes from, older editions of Stormbringer and RuneQuest). In the old Stormbringer, you gave your left hand separate attack and parry skills, so you could have Broadsword (RH) attack 95% parry 95% and Broadsword (LH) attack 90% defense 90%. This allowed you to make two separate attacks in addition to the free ripostes (which you could only get as a master). In Elric! and Stormbringer 5th, where skills over 100% became the norm, I believe if you had two weapons, you could attack twice as long as you had a high enough DEX. I'll have to check to be sure. Ian

Base rules with no options - you can perform one action for every 5 whole DEX ranks, so with a DEX 16, you get an action at DEX 16, DEX 11, DEX 6 and DEX 1. Again, with base rules, you can only attack once per combat round, or you may take your full MOV without any other actions. You may take a partial move and attack in the same round, as well as take any other non attack/non move action such as skill use. With various optional rules, you may attack more than once. Ian

Sorry - perhaps I should have been more clear. It doesn't contradict what is written on page 190. You may only perform one action on your DEX rank. However, you may have multiple DEX ranks. Ian

No, it doesn't. You may do only one thing on your DEX rank. However, if you have a high enough DEX, you may have "multiple" DEX ranks (DEX -5, DEX -10, etc.) However, multiple actions in a round are penalized. Ian

No, you may move your full MOV in lieu of any other action such as attack, skill or spell use. This occurs on your DEX rank. You may choose to move a portion of your MOV and perform another action if you have a high enough DEX that allows you to act multiple times in a round, but the action suffers a penalty to the skill used as well as occuring DEX-5 ranks later. The number of actions are based on DEX. You can choose to make multiple actions at DEX -5, DEX -10, and so on. Each action gets the DEX rank penalty, and subsequent penalty to the roll. For combat, either you can have two weapons and attack twice (missile weapons and firearms have their own rates of fire/shots per round), or you can use the optional skills over 100 to attack multiple times with the same weapon. Note, parrying and dodging are free actions. The Statement phase is used for tactical decisions. You announce your "action" for the round in reverse DEX rank order, to reflect the characters with better reaction times (higher DEX) ability to read the slower characters and adjust. One can dispense with it and just announce as you go, but this penalizes the quicker characters somewhat, and hands an advantage to slower ones. Ian

I've always liked either having attributes set the starting/default skill level, representing raw innate ability, and then as the skills improve, this raw innate ability is superseded by training. So, with attributes typically in the 3 - 18 range, or a base modifier up to +15, the same can be accomplished. Another option would be to base skill improvement on current skill level, modified by the primary ability and INT to represent both capacity for learning as well as raw talent. Ian

I have the same arrangement with Miles Teves and Andrew Leker of Jorune fame - I can "release" free stuff with Miles' art and official Jorune IP, as long as I credit appropriately. Operative words being "free" and "credit". Ian

Of course, all of this (mental arithmetic, formula derivation, modifiers to 50%) is avoided simply by using the table Ian

Slowly chipping away at it ... Ian