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True. But the sampling size had doubled since I posted, and the percentages haven't changed much. I expect that we'll see a sort of sideways pyramid, with fewer and fewer people as time goes by. Not surprising. For most of the last 30+ years the system has been represented only by CoC, and, occasionally Stormbringer/Elric!.

So don't force him. Just say the year is shorter. For all we know if could be so Nyarlathotep's take out dinner can get to Earth faster.

You mean like pre-crisis Superman silly? He move the Earth several times, (apparently for everybody except Lois) ? One thing you might want to try is just come up with an in game reason for the shift. I think if I look at my math a bit, I can probably find a way to give you a shorter year without moving the planet. According to Kepler's third law: d[AU]3 = P[years]2 * M[solarMasses] So if we keep the distance as 1 AU, and plug in a 354.37 day year, we get an M of 1.06, for a sun about 6% more massive than out own. I think that works out to Earth receiving about 3% more energy. Something that your could easily ignore, or if you wanted to explain away by having something screening off some of the energy. Although, if you aren't running a modern of futuristic campaign no one would really know that the Earth wasn't in the "right place". I can dig out my sourcebooks, Most of the math for this sort of thing is fairly basic. One neat bit is that there are a few variables that can be used to justify some differences. For example, altering the planet's magnetic field or axial tilt can cause some neat effects.

It would just seem to me that people could make stuff for MRQ1. I suppose the reality of it is that a new edition of an RPG kills off the old one, with most of the players switching over to the new edition. But if I were running a game company, I would never touch OGL RPGs again. To great a chance of getting caught "with your pants down". I suppose Mongoose would have been put in a tough spot with D&D 4 if they weren't getting most of their income from miniatures. Maybe I'll dust off that game system I started on a few years back.

You mean more 3rd party MRQ companies switching over to BRP? Maybe. Considering that it is all to easy to have the rug yanked out from underneath, I would think that this would probably spell the end of OGL. Back when D&D 3.0 came out, everyone kept saying that companies couldn't pull the plug on OGL lines, but it seems pretty easy to kill it off by coming out with a newer, non-OGL edition. BTW, THeroectically could a company still produce stuff for MRQ1 under the OGL? It might not be MRQ2 approved, but I think it would still be perfectly legal according to the OGL.

Well, so far the poll seems to be illustrating what is probably the main reason why BRP isn't very popular. Over 75% of the people who've voted so far, have been playing it for over 25 years!

Uh, why can't you just alter the length of year? Since you are altering nations and such, if you shorten the year it won't hurt much. For example if just "moved" the Earth about 4.5 million km closer to the sun (about 3% closer for a distance of around 144.5 million km (0.97 AU) and lowered the sun"s intensity by about 1.5% you'd have an Earth with a year of 354.37 days.

rust, If your world setting isn't Earth, then you don't need to worry about matching up with the Gregorian calendar. Just use your pseudo-Arabic calendar, with a 354-355 day year and let it go at that. If you are doing a sci-fi setting, I can help you work out what you would need to change to make that happen. All you really need to do is move the planet a little closer to it sun and drop the sun's temperature a bit.

That was one thing about Mongoose's marketing strategy that struck e as interesting (and a bit "wrong"). According to them (well, according to Matt Sprange, I believe), 80% of the RPGs sold just sit of a shelf and aren't used. The bit that irked me was that it was used as a sort of excuse for the haphazard rule system. The idea being, why worry about the small, but vocal minority who are using the system, since the overwhelming majority who bought the book don't even use the book. Personally, I try to use most of the RPG books I've bought in some fashion. For example, I own the Bermuda Triangle supplement for Call of Cthulhu. I've never used it for CoC, but have used it for the James Bond RPG. The Triangle book is probably the best RPG sourcebook on the modern Caribbean, the site of most of literary Bond's adventures. In truth I bought the sourcebook specifically for use in the Bond RPG! In a similar fashion, I try to find useful bits and peices in all my books. Setting books are quite useful. Stuff in GURPS Rome can be quite useful for a BRP Rome campaign, and d20/SAGA Star Wars stuff can be useful for a d6 Star Wars campaign. Sp there is very little that I never use.

You can avoid some of the mathematic problems in a fictional setting. It possible to have a fixed calendar without the worry of it falling behind. For example, you could set up a world with a year exactly 364 days long. Then you could use a calender with exactly 52 weeks of 7 days each.

Generally, I prefer whatever details I can get. When working on my own campaigns I usually worry about getting the basic plot, stats for NPCs and equipment, and other "must have" stuff first. Then I add whatever details I have the time and inclination for. I can and do add lits bits of detail in if it comes to me while working on something, but I'm just as likely to not have the "must have" stuff finished and be forced to wing it. Typically, I work from an "outline" with a page or two of story and another page or two of stats. When I type something out nicely, it ends up being about ten times the size of the original outline. Professional products usually have much more detail, but the authors of such products don't have to come up with a new adventure each week, and have access to professional artists, proofreaders and other support.

I don't think so. I don't believe that the adventures reverted to Chaosium. The system and wording were partially protected before the AH deal. Plus, as I've mentioned elsewhere, anyone can use a system. Systems cannot be protected under copyright. I think that this specific example of play would still belong to AH. Since it, in effect, not be much different that a story.

Back on topic... So Rosen, considering that MRQ will no longer be OGL, what will your future products use for a license? Will you switch your entire line over to BRP? Get a MRQ2 license? Go with a differernt sytem? Make a homegrown variant? Or what?

Probably Avalon Hill's (now owned by Wizards of the Coast, which is itself owned by Hasbro). Doing something like it wouldn't be difficult. But since the RQ3 example is obviously based on a RQ Vikings scenario, it's probably a no no.

I remember that when RQ Vikings came out, and I was reading through the scenarios I suddenly got a feeling of deja vu. It took me awhile to think of looking at my "What's in this box" pamphlet. I think the best "example of play" I ever read was from Victory Games' James Bond RPG. The example used is taken right out of the movie Goldfinger, and is done in two columns. One tells the story, while the second "role-plays" the same scene, with the player making decisions, and attempting skill rolls and such. Not only was it a good example of game play, but it was also a good example of the style of play that the game was trying for.

Exposure is certainly important, if for no other reason than it is vital to attract new players. People who don't know about something can't play it. One thing about BRP is that it really has been a dead system. Most gamers today were not gaming back in the 80s or 90s. Not everybody has played nor does everyone like Call of Cthulhu. I for one, played and didn't care much for Call of Cthulhu, and if that were my only exposure to the system, than I would not be enticed by people telling me how BRP is a lot like Call of Cthulhu. In many ways, I think CoC is successful despite the game system. Since the mythos creatures are so overpowering, stats and game rules are pretty much moot. My own experience has shown that quite a few gamers are not aware of the older systems. I've surprised most of my gaming group atone time or another by pulling out some long forgotten RPG that covered something that the had expressed an interest in. So yeah, I think there is a fairly large percentage of the gamer population who are not aware of BRP, RQ or any of the variants. That said, I think Nighshade has a point. The vast majority of D&Ders are quite happy with the system and probably are not going to be awed by BRP. They are quite happen with character classes, increasing hit points, armor class for defense instead of active defenses, and the rest. I've got a few players in my group who have expressed a desire to play in a Old West or WWII campaign, but don't like the idea of characters getting killed by only one or two bullets. I don't think that there will even be a big jump in BRP's popularity so that it would match RQ2 (the real one, from Chaosium, boy I hope Mongoose renumbers MRQ2), let along D&D. I doubt even RQ could make a comeback now, the game has been split off into too many directions-splintering the fan base. So I don't see this as a new golden age. At least not yet. Some of RQ's major pluses have not been revised with BRP. A big plus for RQ was the excellent staff that Chaosium had. With all due respect to the current crew as Chaosium, they are not, in my eyes, anywhere near as good. The original Chaosium crew were innovators. The early products were different from everything else on the market. The current company is anything but innovative. Most of the creative minds behind the old Chaosium are long gone. The company split off into different parts, with each part taking some of the products with it. So I think claims of a new golden age are overly optimistic. On the positive side, I've discovered that if you can get the D&D crowd to try other RPGs long enough to get some understanding of how things work and what they can do, some of them will get used to the change and even prefer the other system. So it's certainly worth a shot to expose other to the game and try and recruit them, and besides it is really our only option. If we don't try to recruit new players the fan base will grow even slower.

I already changed my avatar.

It might be interesting to make a poll of this with people noting just when they got into BRP (maybe by decade or in 5 year increments)? It might be worth another poll to see which particular incarnation of the game people started with and/or preferred. I suspect that there are probably patterns here.

That sort of depends on just what we consider "minor". Personally I consider options like the Hero Point system from Bond (or allowing BRP's Fate Points to work that way) as a minor rule change (a option) that would allow for a more cinematic style of play. I think more radical changes might be needed to handle something like a 4-color superhero campaign, and have in fact been applied to the system in the past (Superworld boxed set). But rule tweaks are,IMO, of secondary importance. I bwlieve the most important things required to improve BRP's popularity are improved presence/exposure and more supplements. People can't like it if they are not aware of it, and no game flourishes without support. As far as what sort of supplements are most desperately needed (settings, adventures, or sourcebooks) I think all of them. Ultimately, I think the bulk of the responsibility for this lies with Chaosium. They are the ones who are going to have to be the game out where the people can see it, and they are the ones who determine what supplements get published. As fans, we can help somewhat, but are effect is limited. Making the Quick Star more accessible is good, as would be making a more streamlined into book (the oginal BRP booklet is not too bad). We can also talk to other gamers about the game, but that is only useful if the other people can find the game in the stores. In my opinion showing new people how to play BRP probably has negligible effect. Any GM can only handle so many gamers, so a best we can only reach a handful of people this way. Don't get me wrong, it worth doing, but it is probably going to help the individual GMs more than it will help BRP. One thing that might help BRP, or any RPG is if there were more supplements geared towards players rather than towards GMs. Most groups tend to have one or two GMs with the rest of the group being players. This usually translates into the GMs buying most of the products, and the bulk of the group buying very little. That is one reason why CCGs have done so well-they can get everybody in the group to buy cards. A few player oriented supplements, for example a character creation book for players, or maybe a player's guide to a setting could help to give each player something to spend money on.

On the contrary. It implies that BRP could be more popular if it were more cinematic, and or more like "mainstream" RPGs. That is certainly on topic. As for "picking at the scraps", I think the most successful companies did better than that. Back when RQ3 was first released, it was thought that Avalon Hill would be able to get RQ into a lot more stores, making RQ a serious contender for D&D's title. It's not entirely a coincidence that the few fantasy RPGs in the 70s and 80s that had the capability to rival D&D eventually ended up being owned (and buried) by TSR/WotC.

I bet you say that to all the trollkin.

Did you catch: "Rome wasn't built in a day, just ask Pete Nash" ?

That would go go with a image of D&D style adventures in a line walking into the lair of some D&D nasty (and getting killed). "90% of all role-playing fatalities happen in D&D. Can you afford to take that risk? Play Smart; Play Safe; Play Basic Role-Playing." The preceding announcement was an unpaid advertisement for the Basic Role-Playing game system. All people, places, and role-playing systems are fictitious and similarity to any real people, places or game system is purely coincidence, or at least comical. Your mileage may vary. Neither the publishers, Game Masters, fellow gamers, family members, friends or total strangers guarantee the survival rate for any character, not even a Rune Lord of Yelmalio confronting a pathetic bikini-clad trollkin armed with a stick. Even the players are on their own. Warning: prolonged exposure the gamers and gaming might make you a kook, although stories of gamers taking it all for real and living in the sewers are entirely false. Really. They don't live there, the alligators eat them. Void where prohibited by law, a sense of decency, or a couple of working brain cells. The offer doesn't extend to lemmings, either. If you think I'm crazy, why did you bother to read this? Yea! Go team! Rome wasn't built in a day, just ask Pete Nash. Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do. I really need to get more sleep. Why do the have test patterns during the daytime when we're awake, alert, and possible have the TV on? Don't roll high, just rock slowly. Maybe I'm sneak a typo in here for frogspammer. © 2009 (wow! I have copyright to a whole year!)

Being promoted by bikini models and/or strippers would help. Hey, it sells cars and heavy machinery that sell for thousands, it can certainly help sell copies of the much lower priced BRP. We could have a "Babes of BRP" supplement (maybe a calendar?). :innocent: Maybe Triff can put that trollkin on the cover of d100 into a bikini?

Lemming Curry?!?:confused: