vagabond

Not really, partially because those systems are not compatible (the Ringworld tech-

nology is significantly different from the Cthulhu Rising technology, etc.) and partial-

ly because there would still be no design systems for starships, vehicles and all the

other stuff. Unfortunately technology is a key element of science fiction, and in or-

der to attract science fiction gamers a game therefore needs a much better treat-

ment of technology than the various versions of BRP can currently offer. Right now

an attempt to sell BRP as the system for science fiction campaigns is similar to try-

ing to sell a fantasy roleplaying game without a magic system.

While I agree that the lack of vehicle design is an issue, the differing technology isn't since technology should vary. After all, we cannot expect uniform technological breakthroughs throughout the universe.

However, a nice Sci-Fi supplement would be nice.

Ian

I think between Ringworld/Ringworld Companion, Cthulhu Rising, Operation Ulysees, and End Time, you can pull out enough info to get a good generic Sci-Fi supplement. Might also be worth looking at the 2300AD conversion.

Ian

Sorry if this question has already been answered, but I haven't found any thread about this: the BGB says p. 191 : "If your character is armed with a weapon or shield that could parry an attack, he or she may roll against the relevant weapon skill to parry the blow." And p. 69 about the "melee weapon skill" : "Your character can use his or her weapon skill to parry attacks, making a skill roll to block an incoming attack." And there is the "shield" skill as well.

So what is the purpose of the "parry" skill ??? Is it made for those who want to separate the attack skill from the parry skill ? In this case, does this mean that during the character creation, skill points have to be spent for both, or only once for "melee weapon" and count for both attack and parry?

The default rule is you have a weapon skill which may be used to attack and parry with. That is what p.191 and p.69 are referring to. A single skill covers both.

There is an optional rule that allows you to have separate attack and parry skills with each weapon, so that you can have balanced combatants, more capable attackers, or better defenders.

Ian

No it didn't.

It pretty much bypassed most of the elements of SciFi, and set everything up on the RingWorld which wasn't much more than a blank slate. And it was RingWorld in a vaccuum, since we didn't get enough info to do anything off of the ring,or even give us a way to do so.

It is just a wilderness setting with laser guns.

Cthulhu Rising does a better job of providing a setting and SciFi trappings, inclduing spacecraft, but it chucks in a bunch of Cthulhu Mythos stuff that most gamers don't want with their SciFi. I don't bllame the peoplebehind CR for doing so. It's a nice extension to CoC, but how many people who want a SciFi game are buying CR and removing the mythos stuff?

As has been pointed out many times, BRP is lacking in the SciFi genre. Compare it to any other "generic" RPG system. Yes it is something that can be fixed with a good supplement, but it hasn't happened yet.

That isn't what you complained about. You specifically brought up the following as problems with BRP doing Sci-Fi:

It's not just the laser guns and spaceships, it's all the other fiddly bits of technojunk that are ubiquitous in a SciFi setting. Comm gear, emergency medical packs, handheld scanners, handheld computers. All the piddling stuff that makes the setting feel futuristic (and would probably be left behind or thrown out when people moved).

which it did pretty well.

Ian

Glad you like it. I had decided that if I were to run a CODA Trek campaign, I7d have run a CODA LOTR campaign in the holodeck. a "live" FRPG in the holodeck worked really well in Trek games. In fact, the players seemed to enjoy theholodeck adventures more than the regular ones. Perhaps due to the safety net/do over quality.

BRP has a few hurdles as far as adapting it to SciFi. Primaily the fact that being designed for a lower tech setting, it lacks rules to handle the usually ScI Fi trappings. Not that adding such would be all that hard, just that it would be a lot of work. It's not just the laser guns and spaceships, it's all the other fiddly bits of technojunk that are ubiquitous in a SciFi setting. Comm gear, emergency medical packs, handheld scanners, handheld computers. All the piddling stuff that makes the setting feel futuristic (and would probably be left behind or thrown out when people moved).

It's tedious to write up, but important in setting the right mood and feel for the campaign. It makes it feel SCiFi ish and not RQ, or COC ish.

Ringworld? IIRC, it did BRP Sci-Fi fairly well.

A Sandbox has nothing to do with cats. Around here, anyway, the box intended for cats is a Litterbox.

A sandbox is a toy for children (and the young-at-heart) which is basically an area filled with sand for play, often bordered by a wooden frame (hence the 'box').

A sandbox game in RPG terms is a game where, like in the toy sandbox, the players can participate in and perform any thing they want. The adventure is a blank slate and the players drive its direction. There is no set adventure path. A sandbox world feels like a living, breathing world. The player characters can interact with it and change it, but it doesn't rely on the PCs initiating those changes. This way, the players 'build' the adventure themselves through their own decisions. It is the opposite of 'railroading'.

Sandbox purists will have a very detailed world. The idea is that the world runs rather independantly of the players, and that there are many things going on. The players will eventually find out about some of these and will decided to interact with them (or not). Since the GM must be equally prepared if the players decided to go to Obraxas-by-the-Sea to the east or the village of Saint-Plestinians to the west, they are often highly prepared environments. Whatever events that were going to happen in one place will still happen in the PCs go there or not. Of course, many GMs will work ad-lib, as well, but prepared sandboxes are usually considered to be more impartial.

Some examples of very detailed "sandbox" worlds:

Jorune

Tekumel

Talislanta

Ian

Not unless someone has already written one for their own purposes or there is one in a book somewhere that people can point me to.

I'm just saying that a list of examples is something I think you'd need to have next to you when running the game if you want to be consistent, and kindof arguing against the people who say no such list is needed.

I understand that I will likely have to start looking stuff up and come up with my own lists of examples.

I think what people are telling you is that in their experience, such a list is not necessary. Either enough info is found in the BGB, or they make a judgement call when the need arises.

Ian

Thats an interesting chart for skill levels, but it doesnt necessarily help mark individual tasks for each skill at each difficulty all that much, does it?

The other side of the issue isnt filled in so much.

The other side is intentionally left generic.

In the BGB, you are given Difficulty Modifiers - Easy multiplies the chance 2x, Average uses the chance unmodified, Difficult halves the chance, and Impossible tasks succeed only on a roll of 01.

Also, the individual skill descriptions may mention situations in which Difficulty modifiers might be applied.

But, in general, it is a GM and setting specific thing, and having some sort of chart to provide a generic set of situations and their difficulties would be near impossible. I suppose one could cull the skill descriptions for examples, but then again, the examples would be very vague, incomplete, and may not fit the GM's preferences or setting.

Ian

Both of the characters can get their skill above 100, though, which means either one has the same *potential* to get any level of skill, its just easier for one of them than the other to get there.

You'd certainly have different upper limits for starting characters based on their racial package though. And you can always get a critical.

I'm very new to this system; but I have lots of Experience with D&D 2 & 3, and Both versions of World of Darkness, and some experience with Unisystem, so I can wrap my head around RPG Mechanics.

I guess what I'm confused about is "Am I missing something crucial that's in the way of setting standardized difficulty numbers according to tasks?" "What complications would arise from setting standardized difficulties? What complications do you get by *NOT* Having standardized difficulties?", and since you seem to be saying that the difficulties should not be the same for characters with different fluff backgrounds, I'd like to better understand why you say that.

Because, using tracking as an example, while the Inuit hunter would be much better at tracking caribou through the tundra, he would find tracking a person in the busy streets of Florence difficult. Conversely, a "PI" type in Florence could track a suspect in the busy streets, but struggle to track caribou in the tundra. However, both might be expert trackers with the same skill level.

Ian

I don't see it that way. The task is still either Easy, or Normal, or Hard or whatever.

You're thinking in terms of +/- percentage modifiers, which I don't use because I don't like 'em (makes maths harder for calculating specials/crits/fumbles). But if you think in terms like "This cliff is twice as hard as usual" or "twice as easy", it feels fine.

I don't have a problem with people of different skill levels being affected differently. A non-climber, like me, wouldn't have a 20% greater chance of climbing that "+20%" cliff - I'd still have virtually Zero chance. A moderately skilled potter (say) could turn out decent easy-to-make pots routinely (50% skill, x2 for easy), but fancy ones (normal chance) would require a master (90%) and the jobber would fail half the time. But giving a +50% modifier for an easy pot isn't the same: me, the useless potter, should still have virtually NO chance - not 55%.

I can see that. And with multipliers, it's easy to see what IS heroic - you immediately know the number you're rolling for, and your chance to make it (because it's the same number). 'Roll and add' (to get a target number) is less clear and loses that immediacy.

I'll just add that the Jams Bond RPG did quite well with multiplicative modifiers. Yes, it impacts higher skilled characters more, but it all works out, especially when you deal with degrees of success and if you use skills over 100.

Ian

Sometimes, obvious answers elude us because we just don't even consider them. And, sometimes, when trying to work on some sort of mechanics to handle something, we ignore rules that already exist and fit quite nicely.

I think dyhsa casting will be handled using the complimentary skill rules - roll against the dysha's primary color, using the caster's worst moon skill as a complimentary skill. Dyshas will also have difficulties associated based upon the number of colors required and possibly the minimum skill levels required. Specialization in one or two moons is possible, which will affect difficulty.

This also works out for Shantha and other native Jorune life - they may get to shift difficulties down one level to represent their native ability.

Need to hash out the details, but I think I am on the right track.

More thoughts occurred to me last night - to expound on this and thinking of Nephilim some:

Sudden inspiration last night while doing dishes ... I think I know how I want to handle Isho. Rough idea right now, but I think it will fly. Isho stat not only determines how much Isho a body can store (modified by race and Isho weather), but also how much Isho a body can channel per round (again, modified by race and weather). In other words, Isho stat will determine how much Isho per round someone can pull into a weave or store in their body. That way, small quick dyshas can be cast in a single round, but more complex weaves might take more than one round to form. No roll is necessary unless something interferes during the weave. Also, while Shantha and native Jorune life will have good modifiers for both, other races may be able to draw slowly but store more or vice versa. For Muadra, they will be able to draw quickly (not as quick a sShantha), but store less proportionate amounts, thus they are highly susceptible to Isho storms and must kern (they draw more in than they can contain).

I know this is somewhat of a repeat of earlier musings, but I think I have it really down in my mind and notes. Just need to play with the racial and weather modifiers some.

Ian

Howdy Folks,

So I am 100% new to BRP. I am looking to use the system to run a "Gamma World" style of game (damn wotc to hell). Amazingly enough that stats between the two systems meld perfectly. I also got Ruble and Ruin to help me out as well. I'll definately be using Powers/Mutations/Etc to make the mutants and mutated animals from GW in BRP. My concern is those characters that choose to play Pure Humans. What suggestions might you have to help keep these non "powered" characters on an equal power level.

Thanks!!

I don't recall how TSR's GW handled pure strain humans? What advantages did they get? IIRC, not a whole lot. You could take some inspiration from other games/systems and make most energy weapons only usable by pure humans (a DNA/tuned biometrics safety switch). This doesn't mean that mutants cannot use such weapons, but that mutants weapons must be modified (and thus, potentially, become less reliable/stable, less powerful, more expensive) for use. Maybe additional skills and/or skill levels to represent living in some sort of "society" for a longer period of time and thus exposed to more formal training?

Ian

4.5 + 2.5 = 7... And 12 points of damage - 3 (for a light modern helmet, for instance) = 9 points of damage, which is a major wound for a 12 hit point character. With the optional Hit Points by Hit Location rules, it is enough to crush completely his skull, despite of his helmet (and it occurs about 3% of the time)...

7 points of damage (the average) - 3 (for the helmet) = 4 points of damage. It represents one in third of the total hit points of an average character...

So, the blackjack as described in the rules is not really likely to "damage a bit"... It is likely to severely wound an average man despite of his helmet. Which is not realistic for a "small sewn leather sack, full with heavy substance like lead shot".

Having said that, this thread is full of solutions to correct this damage which is, in my humble opinion, an erratum. And your solution to reduce it to 1D6 rather than 1D8 (which lowers it from "like an heavy club" to "like a light club") is a very good one too for those who don't want to use fatigue points, wound locations or knockout rules.

Many thanks to you and to everybody for yours very quick and interesting answers.

I think the most simple answer is that for those weapons that are primarily used for subduing should have a note saying so, and keep the damage as is, but note that the actual physical damage is 1/2 or 1/4. Then add a rule for subduing based upon subdual damage as rolled when compared to total HP or hit location (so a Major Wound in subdual damage or subdual damage exceeding the HP for a specific body part might require a CON roll to avoid knock out or temporary disabling of the affected part). Then optional rules to use fatigue points or knockout rules.

Ian

Did anybody manage to snag a copy of this file, as its no longer there, and archive.org can't access the location?

If they did, I'd appreciate a copy if possible.

I'll see if I have it, and if not, I can ask Shannon if he has it somewhere.

Ian

Dredging this up from the ashes - but I found Neville's stuff:

http://web.archive.org/web/20050208015434/http://bookshelf.mcmail.com/runequest/index.htm

Ian

The big questions are - what do you gain? And for how much work? And what do you lose?

For me, if you put humans (and equivalent species) in a 30 - 70 range, how do you account for beings that go well beyond? Using a 1 - 20 range, super strong creatures (giants or giant sized, which can exist in a Sci-Fi campaign) can have STR of 50 or greater. Bumping up to a range of 100 representing extremely strong humans, those creatures now have a STR in the 200 - 300 range to represent something 5x as strong. I can see stat values getting out of hand very quickly. Especially if you tried to use such a scale in the fantasy genre where things already may have stats in the 100+ range, and to maintain the proper ratios, using the new scale, would be in the 500 range.

People seem to make a big deal over "Opposed rolls", but the reality is they already pretty much exist by virtue of levels of success. Sure, the possibility of ties is greater since the ranges for each success level is generally greater than one point, but those ties can be resolved in various ways if desired (highest skill/stat wins for example). I hardly use the Resistance Table anyway as it only a crutch in my opinion - I can do the math in my head. But, I also find that using levels of success gives me a more consistent method of resolving things since I apply it to skill rolls as well - providing me with a "unified mechanic" anyway.

For the record, I am planning on implementing something using the Allegiance rules in this way to handle Drennship in Ardoth as well as other political and cultural ideologies (Thantier and their stance on non pure humans, Bronth and Woffen views of Iscin and Crugar, etc.) These Allegiances will have an impact on Etiquette/Interaction skills as well.

I have also been digging into James Bond 007 for some thoughts on such interpersonal skills - again, Bond has some good rules for handling Reaction, Persuasion, Seduction, Interrogation, Torture and Brainwashing.

Ian

Actually, you could simplify and combine Allegiance and polarizing viewpoints/ideologies if you have multiple ideologies. Instead of a polarizing sliding scale, you could just have individual Allegiances (similar to Law/Chaos/Balance in Elric!/SB5), but for those ideologies that are strictly diametrically opposed, in their description, create some sort of limiting factor such as Conservative + Liberal are never greater than 100, or once a character embraces Conservative, Liberal can never be greater than 1/2 of Conservative without losing certain ties to the Conservative ideology. Then, like Allegiance, you can set certain privileges or bonuses when a character's Allegiance towards a certain ideology hits various levels and/or when a certain ideology is embraced. This would allow a character to have multiple ties to various cultures/governments/ideologies that may not be diametrically opposed, but enforce limits when ideologies must be mutually exclusive.

Ian

I gave this reply in another thread about UA Sanity mechanics :

"I think you could do something with Allegiance, merging it with the Traits/Passions from Pendragon.

Again. like Mankcam says, you only really need a binary "Morality"/"Immorality", set at 50/50 like Pendragon's T&P. As you perform actions that go against your "preferred" morality, you need to roll against the appropriate level, and gain/lose "points" as you teeter back and forth. You could then tie certain break points to SAN, to reflect something like the Joker's slip into deeper levels of psychosis and depravity as the weight towards "Immorality" grows stronger."

I think it can apply to a political system as well. And, can allow for multiple factions, as long as you can define them in opposing pairs (though, I suppose with 3 factions, you could define 3 pairs so that all 3 can have some relative opposition scale to each other to represent varying degrees of opposition). Basically define "Conservative/Liberal", and set it according to the character's starting political slate. The opposing scale slides back and forth as you make decisions one way or the other. When trying to urge/convince people to work harder or go along with your plan/views, you can either roll directly against the current values, or use it as a modifier or cooperative skill, or perhaps even as an opposed skill (for example you could make a roll of orate vs. community trait, like a character with 80% conservative giving a talk to liberals would roll orate vs. conservative to represent the already existing slant against conservatism).

Ian

While I like the Root/Branch skill concept (and agree - it mostly fits with modern/future settings, actually almost a necessity), another approach, and one that also works well across all settings, is to split skills into Root/Branch trees, but have the Root skill determined by the Branch skills - i.e. the Root skill is equal to the sum of 1/10 or 1/20 of all the Branch skills under it, so that as the individual expertise in the Branch skills increase, so does the level of general knowledge in the Root skill.

Ian

Actually, since the books were also copyrighted separately in the UK, they are still under UK copyright, and therefore protected pretty much world wide by the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. Also, I believe in the US only the first five novels have fallen into the public domain.

Ian

Oh, and I just found this: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?cPath=3908_4688&products_id=51403&affiliate_id=29353

Interesting - the preview shows art used by Chaosium to represent Oone the Dreamthief ...

Ian

With Conan, I think you absolutely need Hit Locations, precisely for the chopping off of limbs. I like the idea of "I hit the left arm and chop it off" rather than "I've done well, what do I do, I chop something off, where have I hit".

If you are so weedy that a sword can chop your limbs off then you are cannon fodder for Conan and the other proper barbarians.

Having said that, the real heroes need a way of supercharging Hit Points, getting more armour or being very good at Dodging and Parrying. You could do it in RuneQuest as you could get spells such as Shield and Protection, but I can't see that working for Conan. Perhaps some magic items could be used to make the Heroes tougher.

HP = STR + CON is a must, as that gives a meaty fellow 36 HPs, or 12 in an important location, so it would take 24 points to incapacitate him and that's not going to happen unles you get a good impale.

Tough Skin is also a good idea, as all those years wandering around the steppes in just a loincloth must have toughened you up a bit.

Allowing attack and parry with the same weapon might help as well. After all, that's what Conan does in the films.

I can see warriors rubbing salves onto their bare skin before a battle to give them more armour - after all, why else would they fight all oiled up, muscles glistening?

Healing potions are a must, as well, just to stop the attrition of total hit point death.

I'd not have Death at 0 HPs, either. Have 0 HPs being "About to Die" and only die once you have reached your Total HPs negatively. So, someone with 36 HPs should only die once they have reached -36 HPs.

Elric! and Stormbringer did quote well with Major Wounds. Lopping off limbs and/or incapacitating them works just fine. However, the speed up and flow of just tracking overall HP instead of hit locations and individual location HP makes more sense to me for a fast paced Conan game (in my experience, hit locations and the additional bookkeeping slowed things down as opposed to only rolling on the MW table when enough damage is done - plus the additional excitement of "Cool, I scored a crit and a Major Wound - what did I do?!")

With HP calculated as (CON+SIZ)/2, an average NPC will have 10 - 13 HP. A critical hit can easily do more than that, and with the right roll on the Major Wound table (i.e. any MW that affects the head), it is easy enough to state that a decapitation has occurred.

IMHO, Elric (either Chaosium or Mongoose) + Cthulhu will get you what you need for good REH Conan styled gaming. The Chaosium version handles S&S very well, with skills above 100% to allow for more critical hits, and instead of hit locations, you have Major Wounds. Allegiance and Sanity can be tied, or even just yank the Corruption stuff from Mongoose's Conan. MRQII's Elric stuff works well too, as sorcery is a bit more risky, and pacts with demons and such play a larger role.

Ian