DreadDomain

Maybe it was brought up somewhere but we now know more about Rivers of London https://www.chaosium.com/blogrivers-of-london-rpg-update-playtesting-the-rules/. It's based on the CoC 7e flavour of BRP. There are common and expert skills. It doesn't use SIZ nor CHA (I am perplexed why no CHA). Character Creation is very quick. The ruleset is a simplification on CoC 7e.

And the dream lives on! 😉

Thank you for the answer and apologies to have bothered you.

A while back, there were some speculations around here regarding if Les Départements were holding the license in French only or worldwide. I guess it answers that question. And it squashes the dreams of seeing a new edition of Stormbringer from Chaosium.

Congrats @MOB! It begs the question, what was the previous record (backers and dollars) and for which kickstarter was it?

There are quite a few examples across the BRP line. BRP BGB described cultures, including demeanors and clothing, lists cultural weapons and adds two more skills characters can add skill points to during character creation. Stormbringer 5 does it that way. You can get BRP for $22 on drivethrurpg. Basic Roleplaying - Chaosium | Basic Roleplaying | DriveThruRPG.com Magic World and RuneQuest 3 have 4 broad cultures, Primitive, Nomad, Barbarian and Civilised, for RQ and, Band, Tribes, Chiefdom and States for MW. Each are assigned cultural weapons and several cultural skills into which skill points can be distributed during character creation. The RQ3 Genertela Box Set went further by then describing cultures like Loskalmi, Orlanthi, Kingdom of War, etc... Note that the Magic World PDF sells for $3 on Drivethru Magic World - Chaosium | Basic Roleplaying | DriveThruRPG.com RuneQuest: Roleplaying into Glorantha describes half a dozen cultures (Sartarites, Esrolians, Lunar Tash, Praxian Nomads, etc...) in the core book. They are a lot more focused and specific than what I described above and cover similar grounds (demeanors, cultural weapons, cultural skills, etc...) only move evocatively. A notable difference is that you get specific bonus in your cultural skills (Farm +10%, Broadsword +15%) instead of distributing skill points to them. You can get RQG for $28. RuneQuest - Roleplaying in Glorantha - PDF - Chaosium Inc. The Mythras core book uses a high level, more generic approach, similar to MW and RQ3. Each cultures will have cultural skills, cultural combat styles and cultural passions into which skill points can be distributed. Settings books like Mythic Britain, Mythic Constantinople, Fioracitta and Lyonesse have specific cultures to replace the generic Primitive, Nomadic, Barbarian and Civilized cultures. You can get Mythras for $7. Mythras - Design Mechanism | Mythras | DriveThruRPG.com All of them would work but of course, if your interest is only is worked examples, it might be steep to pay $20-30 for it. In that case, Magic World or Mythras would be better options. The DIY approach would be to describe each of your cultures like this: Typical description, appearance and clothing: Players could take inspiration for the Personal Description of their characters Typical religion, ideology and beliefs: Players could take inspiration for the Ideology/Beliefs of their characters Typical personality and demeanor: Players could take inspiration for the Traits of their characters Typical occupations: List occupations for characters of that culture to choose from Languages: List primary and secondary languages Cultural Weapons: List weapons for characters of that culture to choose from Cultural Armors: List armors for characters of that culture to choose from Cultural Skills: A list of 8 skills where players could distribute a number of points equal to their INT characteristic. Alternatively, list skills with a fixed bonus (Climb +10%, Swim +5%, etc) Cultural Characteristics: Some cultures might be taller (SIZ +10), more educated (EDU +10), more sociable (APP +10) or more.. well you get the idea.

I feel Magic World is your easiest and cheapest option ($3): Magic World - Chaosium | Basic Roleplaying | DriveThruRPG.com Alternatively, you can go for the Big Gold Book and have the whole BRP toolkit ($22) Basic Roleplaying - Chaosium | Basic Roleplaying | DriveThruRPG.com Less focused to your needs but a lot of options in there (including fantasy races). Good choice of system by the way. If you buy Magic World you will recognize the ruleset quite easily as it is a direct (small) evolution from Elric!/Stormbringer.

Thanks for the heads-up. It made me pull the trigger on 1 JC title (Legion), another RQ related POD (The Last Barrow) and two Cthulhu related titles (The Dare and Raiders of R'Lyeh).

I admit having misunderstood your intent. This part of your first post lead me to believe you were leaning towards a pulp feel. For my defense, you mentionned "pulp", "pulpier" and "cliffhangers" 🙂 Allow me to modify my answer slightly. Pulp Cthulhu could still be useful for the weird technology but the section is not big so it's not required at all. The artefacts decribed in the Keeper Book give enough flavour and guidance to wing other stuff. You would not need the Pulp rules mod but for this type of campaign, I would still recommend toning down Sanity to Stress or simply removing it. Having said that, using it to represent Stress could be a nice way to mechanically represents the non-physical perils you describe. Aquiring too much stress (even failing the equivalent of a bout of madness) could result in a penalty die in all activities for 1d10 rounds instead of rolling on the Bout of madness table and subsenquently only the activities related to the source of the stress. Removing stress would be done by adding or rewriting a background element of the character.

Like others have said, Pulp Cthulhu will most likely scratch that itch for you. Characters are generally more competent (better characteristics and skills), tougher (more hit points) and more heroic (enhanced uses of Luck and Talents). There is also a section to make Sanity/Insanity pulpier, including insanity induced talents. If you do not want Sanity/Insanity to be a thing in your pulp game, rename Sanity for Stress or Doom and tone down the insanity aspect of it. Heroes or not becoming insane or losing their minds but the pressure or ominous aspect of a situation makes them more vulnerable. Or don't use the Sanity mechanics at all (but keep Luck which you could rename Fate or Heroics to make it feel more, well, heroic). Pulp Cthulhu describes the 30s as a default but you can easily set it in the 20s. The Investigator Handbook as a good section describing the 20s. Many published adventures and campaigns can be played by downplaying or removing the mythos. Many pulp stories involve dark and occult cults after all. Children of Fear, A Cold Fire Within, The Two-Headed Serpent and even Masks of Nyarlathotep and Horror on the Orient Express come to mind. Some other adventures like The Code in Mansions of Madness or The Necropolis in Gateways to Terror, would also fit the bill. Of course the amount of work required to adapt them will depend on how little occult elements you want. Removing reference to the Mythos and using the Pulp rules (specifically downplaying Sanity) should provide a very different experience than out of the book CoC.

I concur. I have created a quite capable character using RQG and raided the Scorpion Hall thinking that surely this character, who was a lot more powerful than a RQ2 character, would clean the place in one go. He did but he barely made it out alive. I pretty much used the stats from the book as is, only ignoring the defense stat.

Ah, thanks! I wasn't aware (or did not remember) there was a superhero package available. I have not successfully forayed into RD100. Is a new edition still in the work?

Cool! What system did you use? Can you share character sheets?

Actually it was in the latest RQ3 core book in the appendix "Official Errata". BGB has effects for bleeding, crushing, impaling, etc on page 194 and it does include damage increases of various sorts along with other effects (like potential stun on a crushing special). The lack on these in RQ3 was rather annoying but we have used the BGB effects in RQ3 with good results.

I tend not to either but the ones done by James at edited to 5 to 10 minutes so they are easy to listened to... The summary: First round of playtesting finished. Tried a few ideas. Some worked, some didn't (no detail given) Second round of playtesting to start soon. Lynne pitched the Rivers of London RPG to Ben at a book signing. He was already keen about making it a RPG and was thinking BRP/CoC would be a good fit.