cjbowser

However, I am not a real fan of them selling PDFs at all. And here is why.

When I submitted Berlin '61 to them it was with the understanding that I would get $250 for the work and another $250 after 500 copies were sold and another batch of books printed up. Now Im not saying B61 will ever sell a copy, let alone over 500 and to the point that they need to do a second printing of the book. But what I am saying, is nothing in my agreement has to do with PDFs.

They could sell 10,000 PDF copies of B61 and I would never see another red cent.

It just rings of a loop hole to me, one that I dont really care for.

But that is just me I suppose.

I receive periodic updates on how my monographs are selling. Print and PDF are calculated separately, but those two figures are added together to achieve the value for total copies sold. When my monograph came out in PDF (after three years as a print version) it sold enough to bump me over the threshold again and soon thereafter I received another check.

My friend runs a bindery and prints my pdfs bound in buckram for $10. Admittedly, that is something of a special case.

Any idea if they plan on doing a print version?

Dustin said to look for a print copy in April. Hopefully since they've used all this art before they won't run into the same problem with their printer that delayed Ashes to Ashes.

Harsh - but fair!

I'm not sure even Chaosium know the difference. Is BRP Adventures really a monograph? It's by multiple authors (so not 'mono'), Chaosium arranged the layout (I assume) and Chaosium commissioned it in the first place. I reckon they've just got into the habit of calling everything they actually publish "a monograph"...

The big difference between a monograph and a full distribution book is that a monograph doesn't enter the full distribution chain. Monographs are only available from Chaosium's webiste, and even though Chaosium may grab stock art (art that they have on hand, not necessarily clip art) and do a small amount of layout, it usually doesn't get original art or a thorough proof reading and trip through the content editing cycle.

One thing I am worried about is that many 3rd party companies can product stuff with greater speed and in greater quantity that Chaosium, and this could have a detrimental effect on the game. For instance, what if Mongoose started making BRP or MRQ/BRP products and produced a bunch of poor quality supplements?

3rd party support will still be dependent upon the Licensee contract that Chaosium enforces.

The number of products that can be released is limited.

Licensee shall release at least one new Basic Roleplaying supplement but not more than four new supplements during any one calendar year.

While that is in no way a guarantee of quality, it at least puts the kibosh on a single 3rd party flooding the market with tons of derivative material like happened during the d20 boom.

Chaosium is also enforcing a certain level of quality control.

Licensee shall use its best efforts and endeavors to produce said games and supplements in a first class manner and generally comparable or better than the Works. Licensee’s topics for supplements to the Works, the packaging for such supplements, and the content for such supplements shall be submitted to Chaosium for approval, in a timely enough manner that changes could be made without special harm to Licensee’s publication

schedule. Chaosium’s approval shall not be unreasonably withheld.

Chaosium will make its best efforts to inform licensees of duplicative or convergent creations in an advisory capacity, but bears no liability in the event that one or more licensee shall create or publish similar subject matter.

Again, that's no guarantee on exactly how things will play out, but if enforced as written will give Chaosium the opportunity to stop really dreadful works from hitting the market.

I just picked this one up, too. If I can find it, I may send you a Cthulhu Rising con scenario I wrote a while back.

Giving players ideas to spark the imagination also encourages use of diverse settings and creative implementations, in addition to showing how you intended the framework to be used. The new BRP book has plenty of examples where creativity is encourage and ideas are continually hinted at.

The fluff should not be considered fluff, as it provides BODY, direction and ideas for the crunch FRAMEWORK to manifest. This doesn't have to tell the reader how to use the rules; it just provides a hint of possible directions and some examples of what extremes are possible.

What dragonnewt said.

I learned BRP through CoC, so I stick with the die based modifers.

Would contributors get a copy of the book, even if they were not able to attend (and lived in a completely different country)?

Just had a quick read through this monograph and came across something I hope is a typo in The Sign of the Black Goat.

>FEMALE CHARACTERS

>If trying to remain close the restricted role of women in

>Medieval times, laying a female character may prove to be

>challenging.

Charlie Krank really needs to have at least a quick read through these things.

Actually, that could be legit... Go ahead... find a time.

As Nick and Al. both point out that *is* the way it should be implemented. One roll which tests both skills.

That's what I intended when I wrote up the skill and submitted it to Pagan anyway. I based it on Martial Arts which works in the same way.

Thanks, Adam. I must have misread that section of Countdown back when I read it.

Oh... and I should probably apologize now for the somewhat pedestrian nature of my scenario...

I was just getting ready to post that...

For the record, over the last couple of years I have been leaning a lot more towards closed skill games.

I will write this as a closed skill setting, but what individual GMs do with it is up to them.

With Sword & Spell I added a few new skills but more than that I renamed some skills to be more befitting of the genre. For example Fine Manipulation became Pick Locks, Slight of Hand became Pick Pockets, and Technical became Traps. In any other fantasy game I would have just left them as they were, but I was looking for a more "classic" feel to the terminology.

I changed most if not all of the Knowledge specialties to Academic Lore, Animal Training, Blasphemous Lore, Earth Lore, Folklore, Poison Lore, Politics, Religious Lore, Streetwise, and Wilderness Lore because they sounded more fantasy to me.

Rod

Is that is is a bad idea to come up with new skills whole hog to cover specific tasks, but that it is fair game (and indeed, necessary) to come up with "genre skills" that address tasks that either 1) come up again and again in a setting and that it would not be logical to assume that everyone walking around in the setting has; or 2) that are necessary to tell the story.

In, say, oh, a spy setting (was "Top Secret" a clue?) I would consider new skills appropriate to genre roles: Commando might reflect combat raids (raid tactics, demolition); Infiltration might cover sneaking into secure places (including defeating security systems, rapelling down a building); Twist Allegiance might cover a Bondian ability to seduce or otherwise befriend enemy operatives, sense who might be conflicted, or intuit double agents; Technobabble might include hacking systems, understanding fringe science, and the like.

I plan on creating genre skills, ones that are high level umbrella skills along the line of Craft and Knowledge. Other skills will be renamed to be apropos to the genre that came in from cold...

There will, of course, be extensive playtesting required. Hopefully some of you will be willing to lend a hand.

As a further consideration, I'd be wary of adding skills that could conceivable be covered by others, or subsumed by broad skills. For example, I'd prefer to write up Tradecraft as a specific Craft skill (in the sense that it's a body of practical skills and procedures one can teach), rather than add it as a new stand alone skill.

Cheers,

Nick

Excellent point Nick. My tradecraft example was used because it was the only printed case I could think of. As mentioned in my other post, I'd prefer not to add skills. Although new specializations in Craft, Research, Knowledge, and Science type skills are ok in my mind.

As a general guideline I prefer rolling once against both skills to be tested

Example

Martial Arts. Roll once against <Weapon used> and Martial Arts

Under both - hit do more damage

Under <Weapon> but over Martial Arts- hit do normal damage

Under Martial Arts but over <Weapon> - never happened to me, weak pont in my argument would need to fudge it

Over both - miss

Al

Good point. I thought of this option about an hour ago and figured somebody would already have brought it up.

That might be the way to go.

Thanks for all the replies everyone. Rappelling was just an example of several such skills that I plan on rolling into other skills, most likely using a combination of the tiered method Nick mentioned and the in-game training method Soltakss mentioned.

Personally I prefer less skills. Its often difficult enough to create competent characters, without adding whole new skills which eat up skill points.

Also, unless the new speciality skill is 'vital' to the campaign, it will languish at a patheticly low percentage and never improve to a competent level.

That was my thought as well, but I'm writing this for you guys first and myself second, so I wanted to get a general feel of your feelings.

Rappelling is a very specific descent skill. I would say for something along these lines you do want a separate skill. It could be rolled into another skill, like climb, but you would have to figure out modifiers for speed of the rappel, type/quality of equipment, etc.

If you do introduce it as a skill, then I would suggest Rappelling... applying the skill to rappelling, climbing ropes with ascenders, and horizontal crossings with similar equipment. Only a fumble would cause something catastrophic. And because of safety being built into the equipment, base chance would be fairly high.

This skill however, I would NOT apply to actual rock climbing.

SDLeary

Thanks for the feedback, SD. Adding it to an existing skill but stating modifiers in text wasn't something I had considered. Now I have something else to consider.

I do not know what Rappeling is. However, judging from your post it is something to do with mountaineering. I certainly wouldn't get more specific than mountaineering as a skill.

As for the idea of a new mountaineering skill as opposed to climb, it would depend on the setting. If you are regularly clambering up mountains then the mountaineering skill makes sense. If you are not then I think it should be handled as a full scene of the game - climb rolls, CON rolls to resist cold and others depending on how well prepared the party was.

Byron, sorry about that. Here's a definition from dictionary.com

–noun

1. (in mountaineering) the act or method of moving down a steep incline or past an overhang by means of a double rope secured above and placed around the body, usually under the left thigh and over the right shoulder, and paid out gradually in the descent.

I wanted to get the group's opinion on something else skill related as well.

How do you feel about making multiple skill rolls to achieve a single result? The best example I can think of can be found in Delta Green Countdown. It adds the Tradecraft Skill. In and of itself, Tradecraft does little. However, if you want to plant a bug, you must first succeed at a Tradecraft roll and then a Surveillance roll.

If the character makes the Tradecraft roll, but fail the Surveillance, the bug isn't planted.

If the character fails the Tradecraft roll, but makes the Surveillance, the bug is planted. However, it might be easily spotted or in a sub-optimal position to capture conversations in the room.

If both fail, the bug's not planted.

If both succeed, the bug's planted and works as expected.

Does this complicate matters unduly or does it add to the experience? In the above example, would a single Surveillance roll be enough to succeed, in your opinion?

I'm looking for opinions on whether you, as GMs and players, prefer a new skill to fit a concept or have that concept melded with an existing skill.

For example, rappelling. It is a somewhat specialized skill and requires some specific knowledge to do it safely and quickly. If I were to produce a supplement that had characters rappel would you like to see a Rappel skill (or a generic mountaineering skill) or have rappel be handled by a Climb or Jump check?

Seems an odd attitude to take, surely it's done when it's done ? ( as it were ) After all they've got the hardback Beyond the Mountains of Madness up at $75 on their website which shows they're not adverse to large campaigns or supplements. Ah well, just means you'll have to do a Fractured Hopes companion won't you

At least in my experience, Chaosium contracts state the author is to produce a work between X and Y word count for Z dollars, not a per word count. If it were a flat, you get .02 a word, then going of the limit would probably be easier for them to handle.

In the end, though, it does mean that Charles has enough material to get started on the next supplement.

Nope. Not related in anyway.

Thanks for letting me know. I'll pick this one up in a few days.