AikiGhost

Is SB5 a 'must have' for BRP games and fans? Why?

Since you have other editions and I presume are going to buy the BRP core when it arrives Id say you dont really need it. SB5 is basically Elric with a different layout.

A Hero Point option is one way around that. Otherwise the setting really isn't playable. You will simply end up loosing too many PCs.

Exactly, if you want a "Heroic" with a capital H game then Hero points are a good option to use. The clue is in the mechanic name

Not everybody likes to play heroic fantasy games. At least I dont.

Em, well its not like you have to use fate points. I just think they are a nice option for more heroic genres (High fantasy, Pulp adventure, etc)

BRP/RQ was a genius rule system without using fate points the last 20 years and I have no reason to believe that this has changed recently.

I agree that BRP is an awsome game system (probably my favourite of all time though I prefer SB5 to RQ) but that doesnt mean that it should never have new options or ideas added to it IMHO.

BTW: Hero Points in WFRP2 are maybe fun for some players, but they are working against the original intention of the grim and unforgiving setting. I hate their use in our WFRP2 games. They steal much flair because they give life in situations where Khorne wants blood. I fear the 2nd edition of the game favors the carebear fraction now.

Whereas I think WFRP second edition is vastly superior mechanically to first edition. I just runs more smoothely and "gets out of the way" in much the same way as BRP does in game.

Some examples of the genre went beyond 'sexist'. The Gor series, by John Norman for instance.

Isn't Gor just a type of BDSM setup nowadays?

For me its mostly WEG d6 stuff, and WFRP 2nd edition.

That's one reason I don't care for fate points generally... I feel that combat, generally, should be a last resort... a desperate move...

Even in heroic fantasy? I mean I can see your point in CoC but how about a LoTR inspired game for example?

Completely stat based (Elfquest did this I believe ?, the Dodge skill in Call of Cthulhu is a good example too) - Example: Mechanic is INT x3 or INT+DEX or whatnot.

Definitely this one.

I REALLY dislike the idea of re-rolling or any other sort of revisionist actions though... so even if I were to try using them I'd never use them to allow roll-overs. To me it disrupts the flow of the story...

'You swing at the goblin and miss'

'No I don't, I use a fate point'

'Ok... you hit the goblin'

etc.

ok so how this works in reality is.

Player one: Rolls to hit and misses.

Player One: "I spend a fate point"

Player one: Re-rolls and either hits or misses.

Gm: narrates result.

Berlin '61 has a Fate Point system, but its more based on the lines of Hero Points from DC Heroes.

So what is "berlin 61" and how does it implement FPs exactly?

Page 176 of the BRP book is devoted to an option called "Fate Points".

Ooh, cool. Can you say any more?

In WFRP for example You have FATE points which are single use and basically allow you to survive a lethal encounter or accident (You get knocked unconscious and wake up in the bushes hours later or whatever is appropriate). Usually you have about 2 or 3 of these at character generation and it is very rare to get any more of them. But you also have fortune points which allow you to re roll failed tests etc, fortune points are equal to the number of current FATE points your PC has remaining and they recharge once per adventure.

Just wondering if anyone is using WFRP (2nd edition) style fate points in BRP? It being such a deadly system I feel that fate points can add some much needed survivability to high fantasy and pulp/Space Opera games.

Thoughts, additions, abuse?

Although I dislike random armour. If the idea was to represent a blow landing in a non protected area...isn't that what critical hits and specials are for?

I guess if hit locations are optional than armour is indicated for the whole body rather than each loction?

I consider criticals and specials to be exceptionally lucky and/or powerful blows.

With random armour you get a dice code to represent your whole coverage, but often you will get the following two things coming into it.

1. Wearing a helm often gives you a +1 or so to overall armour. EG: Chainmail d6+1, Chainmail with helm d6+2 (not correct figures but you get the idea)

2. Sometimes the severe wounds chart says things like. "If you are wearing a helm X happens, if you are not severe version of X happens"

Luck,

I had hoped the new BRP would have found a similarly refined method.

One man's "Refined" is another man's "Overly Complicated"

Personally Ill be continuing to use the Stormbringer style variable armour and serious wounds system as I have been for years.

The settings or styles of setting I would like to see done for BRP are as follows.

1. Fading Suns style dark ages in space, Space Opera.

2. Mad Max style pulp post apocalypse

3. A/State (Buy this if you dont have it) or something similarly urban and dark.

4. A truly "Gibsonesque" cyberpunk game.

EDIT: One more for the pile and I can belive I dint think of it earlier.

5. A game set in China Miévilles Bas Lag setting (Perdido Street Station, The Scar, Iron Council)

Sort of like a Pulp "Space 1999" meets Flash Gordon where you have evil robots instead of ming the merciless?

Sounds like a lot of fun to me

I didn't take it as a slam... more as a "It would be awesome if someone could write a starship creation/modification/combat system for BRP."

I would happily use it, though I've got no interest in writing it.

Sorry if the answer came back as argumentative.

Personally Id like to see a big book of spacecraft with deck plans and stats, but I have no actual interest in a starship/vehicle construction rules expansion for BRP or any other system. My experience of such systems in the past is that they are without a doubt the most boring dryest reading section in any RPG.

Saying that the BRP system does not need technolgy/vehicle design rules is, I believe, a serious oversight and very limiting to the game as a whole because it makes several genres more difficult to put together.

Vehicle design rules should not be in a core book IMHO, they should be in any future Mecha supplement instead.

In fact the inclusion of mecha design rules in Silcore but the lack of inclusion of magic was one of the most annoying design decisions ever made for a game system IMHO.

I find variable armor points to be terribly unrealistic and they are one of the reasons that I never did get into Stormbringer.

Depends on what you actually mean by "realistic". I for example think they are quite realistic in their outcomes, but they are less "detailed" than say RQ2 or 3 in terms of specific results.

All in all variable armour with severe wound thresholds works well and is far quicker to run than hit locations with set armour is, as always YMMV.

Variable armor points, like in Stormbringer, seems to be a realistic system, but I have not used it so far because of the allready long time combat takes. With hit locations gone (one roll less), I'm considering adding variable AP.

Those of you who have played with this system allready, what are the weaknesses and strengths? How does it affect gameplay?

SGL.

The system as used in SB 5th ed runs really smoothly and works very well, also the interaction of the Variable AP rules and the severe wounds rules makes for rather unpredictable outcomes to the ends of fights. All of which is welcome IMHO.

Spaceships, warriors, firearms and a temple - what more could you ask for?

Something evocative and decently realised?

Seriously though that cover screams "bargain bin 80s product" and its plain fugly IMHO.

Fading Suns, as I have already been doing for several years.

I wonder if any energy shield rules are included? Or if I'll just keep using my homebrewed ones.