Harvey Walters

I'm tempted to use max * 7/6. It gives a max of 21 for human level scores, either 3D6 or 2D6+6, and doesn't give scores

too high for elves, serpentmen, whatever.

Michael

Okay, I need some play testers to test out ONE formula for me. It is for aircraft. What I need is for someone to put the weight and wing area of several aircraft into a spreadsheet to see if the calculated values are reasonably close to the actual values.

I'd be glad to help. Most (o.k. all) of the data I could provide would be from military aircraft, though.

Michael

How about "Qualities"?

So, although some moves seem very good, superior SIZ/STR will always have an impact. It doesn't matter how well you've grabbed someone, if they stick a thumb into your backside and move it around, you will probably let go. Unfortunately, neither BRP nor RQ has a rule or Combat Manouver for this.

FATAL does...

The BRP book lists the Defense super power differntly in the main text and in the summary.

Now I know there has been occasional consideration about this (link), but I though it worthy of a little more discussion.

The errata answer appears to suggest that the 1% value per level is correct, but on further consideration I wonder if it should be the other version.

I voted for the 5% per level option. Superworld started with 1% per level,

but was errated to 5% per level. It was probably done to counter attack

skills over 100%. Attacks from behind are easy attacks now, with double

attack skill value. Also, some GMs declare a minimum chance to hit of 5%

even if modifiers reduce the attack chance to below 5%. Area attacks and

Sweep attacks will also be useful against high levels of Defense...

Michael Hoxie

At least on paper I still like using power for character points. For characteristics I often give a spread to be assigned based on the setting.

In the designer's notes for Superworld 1st edition, Steve Perrin wrote that he

originally intended to have three types of hero/villain, acrobat, inventor, and

superhuman. Each would get points to purchase powers based on a stat and

a multiplier: acrobats would get DEX x 5 points, inventors INT x 5 points, and

true superhumans get POW x 5 points. He discarded the idea after

considering characters like Batman, who is both an acrobat and an inventor,

and went with build points equal to the total of the character's seven

characteristics (STR, CON, etc.).

I think you could do a variation of his original idea that has some merits:

1. Players roll stats as normal (2D6+6 for Superworld).

2. Characters have a total multiplier of 7, which can be apportioned out

to their characteristics as the player desires. So a player wishing to

make a mentalist might use all 7 multipliers on his character's INT score

(INT x 7 points). An inventor/acrobat might use DEX x 4 + INT x 3 (4 +

3 = 7), etc.

There would be different types of characters based on different stats:

STR: strongmen, warriors

CON: bricks, mutants

SIZ: giants/bricks

INT: inventors, mentalists

POW: magicians, those with innate powers

DEX: acrobats, speedsters

APP: illusionists, controllers

Players could be given the option to choose any power they can describe as

appropriate to their character concepts (effects based powers), or the GM

may wish to come up with lists of powers that are available to the different

character types (with or without some overlap of availability among types).

Michael (and his two cents)

Chapter 9

The Animal Kingdom - animal descriptions and statistics from Alligator to Wolverine. Approximately 30 types of animal, nothing particularly unexpected, all mundane.

Don't forget to include jaguars. The California jaguar subspecies didn't become extinct until c. 1905. I think they were featured in an Ambrose Bierce short story.

Does any BRP game have stats for them already?

Michael

The only references I can find are in the playtest notes for magic items. They mention

that items can be overcharged with up to double the normal power points, and that

these points fade as do those of overcharged characters. I can't find any rules for

such overcharging anywhere else. I think it was dropped from the playtest early on.

Michael

I am using Basic Rolepaying to power a supers game I will be starting in a week. The setting is a modern, gritty, kind of post-modern approach to super heroes. One of my players wants to have a power similar to Sylaire from Heroes (yeah, don't we all...), or Rogue from X-Men -- Power Absorption (Leech / Steal Power) . He wants to be able to absorb and mimic powers from other supers he meets.

If you get the Superworld and Superworld Companion PDFs from Chaosium's website, you can get rules for several new powers, advantages, and limitations.

There is a power in the Companion called "Siphon" that does what you want.

Michael

Hmmm... my Portuguese is rusty...

Any idea what that game is about?

My first (and only) guess is that it's kind of like the old Kolchak/Night Stalker show... journalist tracking down monsters/demons...

The basic game is just a generic universal system. Some of the supplements are for anime, supers, demons vs. angels, aliens-among-us type conspiracy, and more.

Does anyone know if they are licensed by Chaosium to use BRP? The Resistance table they use looks identical.

Michael

Here is a Brazilian RPG based heavily on BRP. I'd never heard of it before, and thought some people might be interested.

RPG - Editora Daemon - Role Playing Game

Look for the link "Módulo Básico Sistema Daemon" to download the 32 page core rules (in Portugese).

There are several supplements available online, and Babelfish does a fair job at translation. There's also an online store if you want to buy some of their commercial products.

Michael

Dalmuti wrote:

> I see what your doing here, it's in a way similar to RQ as I remember it, but how then

> do you factor in a deflecting parry? It's true that when you block a blow you are

> basically absorbing the force of it, which will cause damage the shield or weapon.

> When you deflect a blow you are really re-directing the blows force away. You

> often don't hit the edge of the weapon at all, or at least not at an angle that it

> will bite. This is why maces were so effective against plate armor, it was harder to

> deflect the force of the blow because it wasn't so concentrated at a cutting edge*.

How about making parrying (as opposed to blocking) a sort of difficult skill roll -- if the

defender's parry roll is 01 to 1/2 of skill, it is a true parry: attack deflected/fended, no

damage to parrying weapon/shield; on rolls over 1/2 of skill but still successes, the blow

is blocked, with damage to shield/weapon. Give weapons/shields an AP value which acts

like armor and is based on the weapons "toughness", and an HP value based on size. Use

separate attack and parry skills for weapons and shields, and give shields a higher base

chance for parrying -- e.g. large shield 5%/30% attack/parry.

Just my 2 cents,

Michael Hoxie

Oh, I forgot something. Maybe change the crushing/smashing special to allow it to bypass

half of the targets armor, to handle the mace vs. plate thingee.

I have been in discussion with our generous host on this board and he has agreed that I can have a playtest subforum as long as I get sufficient people signed up to do so. So what I need is a few willing volunteers to go over and hopefully make use of the work I produce, offering feedback along the way.

If you can help, either in playtesting as material appears or simply to critically appraise, then let me know by signing up in this thread.

Leon.

Please sign me up for the playtest.

Michael Hoxie

My real issue is with the extent of the shift in the BRP rules. I don't like the doubling rule. It completely breaks my suspension of disbelief. If you want to tie skill to damage in BRP, I can completely see using the martial arts skill, but instead of extra damage, have a roll on the martial arts skill set the (minimum damage) or perhaps add a point or two.

How about having martial arts skill raise the damage bonus one step if the

attack roll is also a success of the martial arts skill? I.e. 0 becomes 1D4,

1D4 becomes 1D6, etc.

Michael Hoxie

Hmm that's weird - his Sorcery rules are all over the shop, but the Shaman stuff mostly 404's...

Found these at the Stabbing Cat - https://www.msu.edu/user/moulinfr/spirit.html

https://www.msu.edu/user/moulinfr/Votanki.html

Ah Ha Found 'em:

Philip Hibbs' Link Page

All safe and sound on Phil Hibb's site...

Cheers,

Nick

Speaking of Sandy's rules, has anyone got a copy of his heroquesting rules? I've heard mention of them a few times, but never found them online.

Michael

I've found a BRP influenced fantasy game called Rune Master written by Tim Doty, available here:

Morfar - Rune Master

It has some interesting ideas that could be of use to some.

Michael

OK, there's a part of Density Control I'm not understanding.

The text states:

No increment is listed, though. 2 meters per level? 2 meters flat?

Then the example shows a character who increases his SIZ by 20 using level 20 density control.

So, is it 2 meters every 4 levels? Or is movement halved? Or is it something else?

The original BRP rules from Worlds of Wonder gave humans a base movement rate of 24 meters per round. Superworld 1E does define Density as decreasing movement rate by 2 meters per level. At Density 12+ you really are a brick.

Michael Hoxie

I always thought that blast type spells would damage total hit points even if

using hit locations, armor protection is that of the lowest body area. Is this

from some BRP game's ruleset or is it an old house rule?

Michael Hoxie

My old RQ group used to play very high-level D&D and they had great fun with it, including spending 5 game-years researching the "Turn Stone into Blamanche" and turning an opponent's castle into a wobbling block of blamanche.

Sure, but I bet it still couldn't play tennis.

Michael Hoxie

You should not gain any experience check for succeeding in a routine task.

How about modifying experience rolls by the difficulty of the task that earned

the check? For an easy task to get a check, you must roll over 4 x skill. This

is also useful for allowing skills over 100% to gain experience -- they can only

get experience checks for difficult+ tasks (eg roll over .5 x skill) instead of the

roll 96-00 method used currently (I think) which flattens the experience curve

at the high end.

Mike

Herewith my inaugral post in 'things what are far too late to influence playtesting but nonetheless seem like a good idea'

Rules are:

No timetravel

Nitpicky and pointless are to be preferred over elegant and useful

My idea: add two more difficulty levels to skill rolls, thus:

Easy Skill % x 4

Routine Skill % x 2

Challenging Skill % x 1

Difficult Skill % x 0.5

Formidable Skill % x 0.25

This explains why CoC characters get a driver's license with 25% skill --

most driving tasks on paved roads are easy, and a character with 50%

skill will be able to handle any routine (or easy) task. I was also thinking

of adding Impossible tasks that need a critical roll to succeed.

Also, limit skill gains from experience from easy and routine tasks to 1%

per check.

Michael Hoxie (oh, well)

As an option: if you like it, use it flat. If you do not, use the dice.

ALL systems (including D&D) use the same system: damage is weapon + personal. The difference is just:

SYSTEM--|D&D/RQ4|GURPS/Pend|BRP/MRQ

Weapon--|-Random|--Fixed---|Random

Personal|-Fixed-|--Random--|Random

All combinations were attempted except the Fixed/Fixed that would be incredibly boring. Frankly, I think fixed damage for weapons is not realistic (there are many ways you can deal an effective blow with a weapon, and a die roll is a good way to represent them), so it all boils down to whether your STR provides a fixed amount of damage or a rolled amount.

Tri-Stat used Fixed/Fixed. There was an optional rule for rolling on a table

to multiply the fixed damage by a percentage modifier to give more varied results.

You could to the same to BRP with Fixed/Fixed damage multiplied by a D10 roll for 10% to 100%.

Ok, before I go and reinvent the wheel, has anyone converted Legendary Abilities from MRQ to BRP/RQ2-3?

I know a lot of people don't like them, and I don't like all of them, but some I do and I was thinking of trying to bring their mechanics inline with BRP for my own game. But, if someone's already done that, I'd love to see what they came up with.

Cheers!

You could always use the superpowers rules of the new BRP book to

build some legendary abilities.

There is a sorcery version that predates Avalon Hill's? Where is that one?

Link is here: RQ4 Playtest Discussion: Knights, Priests, and Sorcerers in Glorantha

It's just the beginning of a sorcery system, but it does predate RQ3.

Michael

One of my concerns with certain BRP settings is that there is little 'flash' for the non-casters. Elric! certainly feels this way, as did the old Stormbringer (I never got the latest version of Stormbringer).

Since skills are improved via use, there is no reason a person who casts spells can't also be good in melee combat. What, if any, thing does the new BRP do to address this? I'm not saying that casters shouldn't be able to learn to wield swords, but from a 'fun' standpoint, what do the non-casters get to help them remain relevant in a party of casters?

You could always add something to penalize the casters, like the

SAN loss for Cthulhu spells, or the corruption from the BRP/MERP rules

someone posted a link to recently. Also, make magic spells expensive

in skill points, perhaps casters have to sacrifice POW to learn spells,

spells can drain hit points/fatigue points/POW per so many MP expended,

spells can age a character so many days/weeks/months per MP, you

can add nasty spell failure charts ala weapon fumbles but mystical in

nature. Spell use could attract attention from the gods or magic eating

creatures like thought eaters or cerebral parasites from D&D, or magic

could be illegal or heavily restricted like Traveller's psionics -- there may

be instead or in addition to this a public prejudice against magic.

Just some suggestions,

Michael Hoxie