Lord Twig

For me BRP would have to be...

Roll under on d100.

No class and levels.

No assigned experience points of checks, you improve what you use.

Quick and deadly combat with fixed HPs.

Armor that absorbs damage.

Size stat.

Personally I never liked Sandy's new sorcery rules. They added to much complexity for very little return, IMHO.

I also liked the spirit magic rules form RQ3 and hope they are include in the Core book (doesn't look like it) or an expansion. Coupled with the spirit rules it made playing a shaman worthwhile.

Finally found my book.

Here is are a couple quote that might be useful:

"After Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest became the most influential fantasy role-playing game in the entire hobby." -p. 130

"...the RuneQuest system introduced many new ideas in the realms of character creation, task resolution, and combat resolution. Perrin's design went on to become both the first house system - it has been used in almost every game that Chaosium has done - and the first universal system. Eventually called Basic Role-Playing, it was used in the Worlds of Wonder multi-genre game set, published in 1982." -p. 130-131

Title: The Fantasy Role-Playing Gamer's Bible

Author: Sean Patrick Fannon

Publisher: Prima Publishing

Copyright 1996 by Sean Patrick Fannon.

ISBN: 0-7615-0264-7

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 95-70655

I have a couple of books at home that talk generally about role-playing games and both mention Chaosium. How could they not?

I think a couple of published sources would be valuable. I will post the relevant information here when I get back to the books.

Pick the right optional subsystems (Skill category modifiers, Hit locations, strike ranks) and you will have something virtually indistinguishable from RQIII in how it plays (albeit there are a lot of nice refinements in defining skills, levels of success, and other details e.g. opposed skills). Pick a different set of options and you will have something very like Call of Cthulhu, or Stormbringer.

The big difference is in the "powers" - the playtest had two magic systems (modelled from Magic World and Stormbringer), a mutations system (Hawkmoon), a super powers sytem (Superworld) and a Psychic Powers system (ElfQuest). The RQIII Magic Book is currently available from Chaosium as the BRP Magic Book, and is pretty compatible with the new BRP imo, although whether it will remain available after BRP sees print I don't know - I hope so.

Cheers,

Nick Middleton

This is exactly what I am looking for. A game that is playable as is, but that can be changed to fit your play style. I am also glad to hear about the refinements. The game is good already, but it could use a little polish after 30 years.

You mean, like Mongoose stuff?

You said it, not me.

Hi everybody! My name is Eric Bailey and I have been playing RPGs for 27 years. I am the role-playing gamer in my circle of friends. If someone can't make a game we play without them. If I can't make the game the game stops, even if I am just a player and not the GM. Don't know why that is, I don't ask them to not play, they just don't.

I started with Basic D&D, the red box. Rapidly moved to AD&D and played that for a short while. We didn't really follow the rules all that well, but who did?

Finally was introduced to RuneQuest a few years later and that was it for the next 20 years or so. We played other games as well, notably Champions (we were all comic book fans) and ShadowRun. Many other games that I won't bother to list, it is a substantial number. Finally the group went their separate ways and the game fell apart.

When D&D 3.0 came out it was an excuse to get the guys back together and give it a try. I know many here don't care for it but it is a far cry better than D&D used to be. It took so much from RuneQuest and other BRP games that it's not funny. Anyway we have had fun playing that and the 3.5 edition up till now.

I have been wanting to get back to my RQ playing roots, but with no published material it is difficult to do. I don't have the time I used to. I was suckered in by MRQ like many others. I bought just the main book and companion and that was enough for me (two books too many actually). I have high hopes for BRP, but try not to get my expectations too high so I don't get too disappointed.

Do any of the posters here have access to the playtest copy? Not that I want you to give away anything you shouldn't, just wondering how much is new and how much is just the same thing reprinted?

Breaking down the explanation from the teaser (not really a preview):

Chapter Four: Powers - 5 powers systems, which are more-or-less compatible.

Sounds good so far!

These include magic (from WoW's Magic World)

Hmmm... Anything new? Or just a reprint? I hope that added at least a little something.

mutations (from Hawkmoon)

Not familiar with this, so hopefully good. Also, hopefully at least something new.

psychic powers (about half-new, half Elfquest)

Well right there it says that half of it is new stuff, so that is something to look forward to!

sorcery (a non-Moorcock version of the system in Stormbringer)

So they obviously did something to this system to make it a little more generic. Hopefully they also balanced it a bit so that it is not over-powered. I have not played Stormbringer since the 1st Edition, so I am not that familiar with the changes made through 5th Edition.

and super powers (somewhere between Super-World from WoW and the boxed game in complexity)

Here it sounds like they have re-written the system to merge the two. That sounds good.

Many optional rules.

Some people might be turned off by too many optional rules, but I don't think it will be too many. Personally I think that as long as they crafted them to work well with the "default" rules it will only be a positive.

I agree with GWD here, and have said something similar in the Yahoo list.

Basic RolePlaying doesn't grip me at all. Honestly it reminds me of Basic Dungeons and Dragons which is not a good association to have. Chaosium Role-Playing gives you that, "What is 'Chaosium'?" curiosity that might make you pick up the book to find out.

Use of "The Chaosium D100 Roleplaying System" is a good idea IMHO. It might reach out to the D20 System fans. I'm not sure if it makes up for the "Basic RolePlaying" name, but it helps. I am very glad they did not go with Deluxe Basic RolePlaying. That would be a real dud.

I think the introduction is great. To me it is reassuring that they are willing to take the time and space to describe something properly instead of cutting it short to save money.

Also the quality of writing and editing is obviously top-notch. No previews with glaring errors that then show up in the printed copy even after it is pointed out to the publisher. Not that that has ever happened to me.