Mugen

One thing you should IMHO avoid repeating from the first editions of StormBringer are the ridiculously low base skill chances. Having most skills defaulting to skill bonus or 10+skill bonus just doesn't work. I'd go with either 20+ bonus, or formulas such as STR+DEX for Agility, INTx2 for Knowledge, INT+CHA for Communication, and so on. Of course, this would not apply to skills that need previous training to be used. You won't have a ~20% chance to forge a functional sword out of an iron bar or make a potion out of randomly chosen herbs or suddenly speak High Melnibonéan if you've never trained in those fields.

This is confusing. The way I read it, you can parry missiles with any shield at your skill%, but you also have a fixed chance to block missiles using a full or large shield, and that chance is increased if you kneel behind it. My understanding is also that a block is not a parry, and therefore not affected by the cumulative modifier, but parries can be affected. If I'm correct, if your Shield skill is > block chance, you can parry until the modifier makes it drop below block chance. Then, you'll have to use the fixed block chance. But I may be wrong.

I'm biased, as this reminds me of the different covers of the French game Mega, which was about agents able to travel though Time, Space and different Dimensions. Heavuily influenced by the Time Patrol, or Valérian.

It's good, but it's likely a fighter will still use his weapon for his first parry unless his Shield skill is superior. 🙂 In fact, the problem is not with the shield itself, but with the Shield skill, and the fact fighters that use it need one more skill to raise After all, we all agree shields are useful against missiles, even without any skill. My own preference would be for skills that reflect one's training, and not individual weapon skills. For instance, one might have a Sword plus Shield skill. If he parries with his Shield or attack with his Sword, he'll use his full skill value. If he parries with his Sword, then his skill will suffer a malus. Another one with a "Sword" skill will be able to attack and parry with his sword at full skill, but will have a malus if he uses a shield, as he's not trained with it. Or it could be done the other way around, with a base "Melee" skill (or maybe a few Melee skills : 1 handed weapon, 2 handed weapon, ambidextry), and weapon trainings as bonuses to that skill. 🙂

As for myself, I see Fatigue as one of the few rules where the designers decided to change the balance between STR, CON and SIZ. SIZ influences Damage Bonus and Hit Points, whereas STR and CON only affect one of those stats each. Sure, SIZ is never actively used in a roll, and it reduces some bonuses (only in games where this optional rule is used), but I wouldn't give it more weight (;)) nonetheless.

I roll 1d6+X for all stats in order, then divide Y points, with a max of 5. X depends on species and stat.

Yes. But you can also carry a second sword in case the first one breaks. Even if shields are cheaper, being killed because you rolled 60 when your skills were 65 and 55 is a pity. In older BRP games such as RQ1 to RQ3, weapons (and shields) had different attack and parry skills, and the main weapon usually had very low parry skill compared to the shield. If you have Attack/parry 75/25 with your sword and 15/50 with your shield, it's a good reason to not use your weapon to parry. But, on the other hand, I wouldn't go back to attack/parry skills.

That book is perhaps too close to RQG to be covered by ORC.

In RuneQuest, where that rule comes from, you chose the healed location. You can't heal more hit points than the amount needed to restore the location to full. For instance, if an arm with 4 HP maximum was reduced to -2 HP, you can't heal more than 6HP. Anyway, I think that rule was made for spells cast at "touch" range and cast on a still target. On other situations, you could requiere a location roll.

About non-standard initiative systems, I quite like the following ideas, and it's possible to use those in BRP. -"Popcorn initiative" from Margaret Weis' Marvel Super Heroes game. Initiative is only rolled to determine who acts first. Afterwards, next character is chosen by the acting character. Of course, you can't chose a character that has already acted before everyone acts. -7th Sea first edition : you roll a number of d10 equal to your maximum number of actions. Each die is a "Initiative Rank" where you'll be able to perform an action. For instance, if you rolled 8, 6 and 3, you'll be able to act at IR 8, 6 and 3. In order to react to an action, you need to discard dice whose sum is equal or superior to the die of the acting character. So, if I attack the character above at IR 9, he'll have to discard his 6 and 3 in order to actively parry my attack. He will still has a passive defense nonetheless. -White Wolf Street Fighter. Each move a character can perform has a Speed value, which depends on the nature of the move (hard punch are slower but deal more damage, parries and dodges are very quick) and Dexterity. At the start of a turn, a character plays one move card face down. Then, actions are resolved in ascending Speed order, from slowest to quickest. The interesting part is that anyone with a quicker move can interrupt the acting character at any time, provided he is targetted by the move or targets the acting character. The interrupting character then performs his full action round. After that, the original acting character resules his action round. Of course, "cascade" interruptions can occur, where each character is interrupted by a quicker opponent.

1) In combat, when a parry's Success Level matches the attack's, damage is reduced by an amoubt depending on the weapon. If the défender rolled higher, that amount is doubled. Dodge uses skill opposition rules. 2) in a blackjack opposed skill resolution, if both protagonists failed their roll, the highest roll wins. 3) tens of a succesful roll are its success level. Crits count as 10. In case of an opposition where both protagonists have the same SL, the difference is the Success Level.

To be honest, matching tuces is not an option I like, because it does not scale with skills above 100%. I like when experts get something even when a task is super easy for them. I prefer crits under the tens of the skill, and specials under half the skill. Like in SPQR and french Rêve de Dragon.

Isn't your rule for damage the same as Unknown Armies ? Concerning the blackjack method, the reluctancy of Chaosium to have it as an option is very strange to me. I know it confuses some players, but once you've gone past this confusion, it's both simple and effective. Far better than the "highest skill wins" option from the BRP SRD, at least. Plus, the game that introduced it is Pendragon, a Chaosium game.

Disclaimer : I have not read the new edition, but nothing in the reviews I read made me think there was any change on this specific topic. BRP has a long tradition of considering shields as just another type of weapon, only better suited for parrying and defense in general. A notable exception is Pendragon, but it differs in many ways from BRP. Using a shield to protect yourself in melee is a parry, yes. And you should have a Shield skill to use it, just like any other weapon. You roll under your Shield skill.

I don't think you need 3 different skills for Energy Weapons, Firearms and Missile Weapons, just like you have only one Melee Weapons skill. In my view, the difference is purely technological. For instance, would you put a lightsaber under a different skill ? I also see no Shields, and no difference between 1 handed and 2 handed weapons. Do you intend to keep a separate Shield skill in your list, and let a character with a Sword specialty to be equally efficient with a short sword and a claymore ? I know those are tricky questions...

Ok, I misunderstood your post. I thought you dropped the units before doubling.

Is Fatigue the rule from RQ3, where your maximum is STR+CON-Enc and you lose 1 point per turn ? Fatigue is a boring rule, IMHO. I tried to use it when I first played RQ3, but quickly abandoned it. I'd be tempted to use another ressource to fuel combat techniques, as it favors STR and CON, which are already very useful for a fighter in BRP. Perhaps something based on INT and DEX, to help the agile and clever swashbuckler. The closest equivalent to your rule I remember are the Ki powers from RQ3 Land of Ninja. They can be acquired after reaching 90% in a skill, and used magic points. French HawkMoon 1st edition also had a rule for "bottes", skills that you could learn once you reached 90+ in a weapon skill, and allowed you to deal an automatic Major Wound on a success. MRQ1 also had rules to get "heroic abilities", but they were in fact D&D feats in disguise.

I always did it after modifiers.

It's quick and simple, but not really satisfying for skills with their units number around 5. At 65%, You should have 13% Special chance, not 12%.

Err... Does that mean that, if you apply the rules strictly, a character with DEX 15 casting a 5 points Bladesharp will cast it at DEX rank 20 ?

From my point of view, that's a terrible thing to say. As for myself, I was not impressed by Dragonbane. The way skill opposition is handled (roll under, lowest roll wins), and the fact you have to forfeit your attack to defend (which means that if you miss that roll, you've just lost your turn) were two major design flaws in my opinion. Everything new in DB seemed to be taken from Forbidden Land.

Maybe someone with a copy of the new BRP book could tell if the wording has been changed ?

That's a really minor nitpick, but I don't understand why the highest skill is in the middle.

That's been my opinion too since I read RuneQuest 3. More precisely, I never felt like using a class/level system could work. But it's possible I've been influenced by the example character from the french edition...

The annotations on the map say it was drawn in Paris, which explains why it is in French. Judging by the way people are dressed in the Besançon map, I guess it is from 16th century, at least 100 years older than the other one. Which could explain why it uses Latin and not French. Another big difference is the older map uses roman numerals and the other arabic numerals.