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Hey Jason, You posted earlier that the Characteristic rolls (Ideal, Luck, Charisma) would play a bigger part in BRP, with roll for all stats included. Can you give some examples ? In the past, the rolls were there, but tended to get dropped or replaced by skills. For instance the DEX roll got replaced by things like Balance, Idea roll was usually replaced by various Lore skills, etc. The Luck roll was a good idea, but almost never got used in RQ. Are there some specific things that the Characteristic rolls are used for, or are they a default roll for when there is nothing else that applies, as in the past?

Oh, sure. But with team comics, things are presented so that each of the heroes contributes. The reason are pretty simple. Each fan has his or her own favorites, and expects to see them strut their stuff in a team. If Superman were to take out all the villains in a couple pages at superspeed, it might be very logical, but not very satisfying to the Batman and Wonder Woman fans. Nor would it be very dramatic. I think to play in a particular setting or genre, the GM needs to use rules that mirror the game reality rather than adjust the reality to fit the rules. The comics can do a lot of things to keep the group of heroes working as a group, and many of those ides would would well for gamers. The trick is getting a more powerful PC to go along. But heroes in the comics do thing other that combat too, and that is something that is often lacking with RPG groups.

Because it was built from Magic World rather than the BRP booklet, the way Drakar och Demoner was. That's the thing. Like I have said, and Nick helped to prove, nothing was designed up from BRP. Generally, they were either designed down from RQ or COC, or designed up from WoW's Magic World, or Superworld.

Oh, that one's new to me. But... For a review try RPGnet RPG Game Index: The Adventurer's Handbook From what it says, the book looks to be of limited value. More of a what the RPG scene was like 20 year ago. If you search on the net, you can find it for around $9 rather than the $13, too.

I'm not sure, can you jog my memory with a link, image or some such. We are talking about thing's I haven't looked at in over a decade, let alone read or used.

I'll bite. What is the optional skill group bonus system. It is a revision of the RQ2/RQ3/SB1 category modifiers? Or something simplier- such as all Agility skills add DEX%, Knowledge skills add add INT%, or some such?

I got them. It comes with a copy of the BRP booklet, some RQ monster chits, and a mini adventure, with monsters (the same ones as on the crits, what are the odds?), some RQ battlemagic spells, and a map layout.

THe problem is that it is trannsfering too much energy. The major advantage of ballasitc armor is that it spread out the enrgy over a wider area, resulting in much less serious injury. If the armor doesn"t get penetrated, the victim isn't going to die. Sure, there will be some brusing, and in exterme cases a cracked rib or two, but as long as the armor isn't penetrated, not much is getting through, perhaps a D4. True. I was thinking in terms of firearms. The reverse could hold true for other types of attack. Yup. Addtionally, "damage value" has two other problems. First, it reflect both penetrating power and disruption of tissue. So something that can punch through armor also does a lot of structural damage (something that isn't always true). Secondly, is that with the way hit point work, damage is handle by attrition, where more realistically it is more a factor of just what part/organ was fdamaged rather than a running total. For instance, you can shoot right through most cars with a 30-06 and the only effect the damage will have is against the vehicles resale value, waterproofing, and wind resistance. Start shooting through the engine block and one or two hits will cause any vehicle to eventually stop working. That's hard to reflect with BRP. Maybe a Luck roll could be one option. If the driver makes the Luck roll, then damage is only cosmetic? TO reflect the effect of overkill, we could alter the LUCK roll by how much damage the attack inflicts. So something that does more damage that the vehicles HP in one attack might roll against POWx3% or just half the LUCK roll.

Probably because some group never mature. I know one group that has played D&D for 30 years. The current GM has been removing all the 3.0 and 3.5 rule changes and is running it more and more like the way he ran AD&D 20 years ago. 95-99% of any XP awards are for combat, and character interaction and role-playing is viewed as slowing the game down. Sadly, most other D&D player's I've seen aren't any better. All pay lip service to role-playing, and acting in character, but most adventures are little more than the old "Room/Monster/Treasure". Most "role-players" simply add a reason why the group is going through lotting the dungeon but the rest is the same. I see this with most non-D&Ders too. Many claim they are roleplaying, but most are fighting. I can think of several that do, but most have chose to simply the advancement. I don't think it was a move towards roleplaying as much as a move away from calculators. For example, even D&D derived games like Palladium don't calaculate XP per monster, but simply by encounter. But most groups I see focus on the combat. Not so much by choice, but becuase that's the only thing that is presented as exciting.

([sorry to spoil your fun] Which one? Chasoium released 3 or 4 of those things.

It was missing too much to be considered a system. In fact the BRP booklet does not call itself an RPG, but an introductory guide. All the stats, creatures and other info are incomplete and culled from RQ2. It isn't a system. No one actually played the thing.

What sort of characters/setting does the rulebook cover? Are the backgrounds for a medieval setting, modern day, futurstic, a max, or generic (scholar, soldier, etc.). What can we write up for characters with just the core book?

I think we are reaching a common ground. I for one will say that I think the stress on combat has less to do with it being more sutiable as a group activity then the fact that RPGs grew out of wargames. Many RPGs tend to treat combat as interesting and exciting, and everything else as a distraction. In fact, other activities are often penalized by the way such games award experience. For example, negotiating a peace treaty, or saving someone's life on the operating table aren't rewarded as well as knocking off a half dozen goblins. It is all about challenges, an consequnces for failure. Often combat is exciting because the stakes are high (in many games, if you loose, you loose your character). Tension can build, the situation can escalate, and so on. If we add other forms of conflict, and give them rewards and consequences then they can be exciting, too. I thing the major obstacle is that such an approach is relatively new, and many GMs just don't consider it. That one reason why STR and DEX are so important in RPGs, while INT and APP aren't. In the real world a high INT and APP can do a lot for you (or get other to do a lot for you). In most RPGs an 18 APP/CHA isn't nearly as good an an 18 STR.

It has to do with ballistics. Certain Class rated vests will stop certain slugs. With BRP, since the impale effect is double damage, then it results in a shot being able to penetrate twice the AP protection. This means than a 45 bullet that impales (2d10+4) penetrates better than a 30.06 (2d6+4). That's messed up. Likewise a .32 caliber bullet that implales has the penetrating power of a M16! Since the spread is so large, the problem gets more pronounced with vehicles. If the benefit is to represent the attacks ability to damage a person, then ballistic armor should come off first. As a side note, this would be one way to distinguish between archaic armors and modern ones. That way a 5 point ballistic vest could stop a bullet better than might stop a bullet better than a 7 point shirt of maille.

From what I've read, apparently the RQ name had lapsed for some time, and Greg was the first one who thought to check. It does sort of annoy me that the only reason why he picked up the trademark was so that he could peddle it for a fast buck. It would have been nice if he had wanted to do something with the system.

Not yet it isn't. You can't buy or play it. THe 16 page booklet wasn't a system. The monograph IS RQ3 renamed. In a few weeks BRP might be a system, but it isn't one yet. No. Post CoC, what few RPGs Chasoium released were essentially based on CoC. Take CoC remove the SAN rules and Mothos stuff, add in a reworked spirit magic and summoning rules, elements of the Eternal Champion series, and you got Elric! BRP is an abstract concept, not an RPG. But how is GORE illegitimate use of OGL? Legally, it a MRQ variant, and that is fine by OGL. IMO that is also one of the problems with OGL. Anyone CAN use it for anything. For instance, someone could write up a pedophile RPG, using an OGL system, and run a system into the mud. Personally, I find GORE more acceptable than, say MRQ. I get the feeling that the people behind GORE have actually played the systems that GORE was based on, and that they now play GORE. I don't get that impression from MRQ.

Thanks for the feedback, Jason. I agree that the SIZ differences between BRP gasmes is very annoying. Wish they would just revise to to somethlike like a cross betwen RQ3 and CoC and apply to all BRP games. I amlso glad about the character point pool. Your right about the way hero points worked. Great stats made for better characters.

One reason why I liked a bleeding rules, major wounds, critical's hits & impales. The thing I don't like about the CoC chart is that there is too much spread between the handguns, and not that much between the high powered pistols, rifles and heavy weapons. For instance the difference between a .30-06 and a +45 ACP is actually much more significant that the difference between the .45ACP and a .32ACP, but in the game the difference is about the same. Go back to 1st edtion CoC damages with the .45 down to the D8 level and it solves most of the problems. Another idea would be to say the firearms can't impale vehicles and other objects. That would make AP much more useful. Or maybe change the impale effect to double damage that gets past the target's AP. That would make a lot of sense. If a round can't penetrate a certain level of ballistic vest it shouldn't do so 20% of the time due to an impale.

Thanks for the answer. I'd be interesed in writing something for BRP one day. I'm just waiting to see the game and what's been tweaked. Some more "Supers" related BRP questions: WoW Superworld used a different Damage bonus forumula (+1d6 for each 10 points of STR OR SIZ over 14, not both). Just wondering, but how will that worl in BRP? If you use the normal Damage bonus, then Superstrong character won't be doing anywhere near the damage they did in Superworld capping off at +3 or 4D6 (yeah, hardly "wimpy") if they put all their Hero Points into STR. Has the cost for stats been tweaked (like sat 2-1 for STR), has the Hero Point formula been changed (from sum of stats), or do we just live with the lower damage? On a related note, based on WoW it was impossible for any character to be able to lift a Tank (SIZ 150). Will BRP use the same SIZ chart as Superworld (WoW) or a different scale (like the stand alone Superworld RPG) so that we can get comicbook level heroes? Is there a note for dialing up/down the power level for heroes. Something like 2x Hero Points for more powerful characters, and so forth?

I'm not surprised at your stance. Basically it is the same argument as the one over Mages potentially overshadowing warriors. I'll still say that the problem is more stylistic than system. The reason why there is a problem is because many systems and GMs run a combat oriented style of play, so any combat advantage will "unbalance" the campaign. The classic expample would be D&D, where everything is set up around the level of the characters. Toss in a 10th level PC with a 5th level D&D group and there goes the campaign. But, if you use a differernt apporach, and make the non-combat skills as useful, fun and interesting as combat, the problem disappears. One thing that is nice about SotC is that each skill is useful and has stunts that make them as powerful as a high weapon skill. In SotC, Batman COULD intimadate the man of Steel, trick him, or come up with a gadget that could level the playing field (Kyrptonite gas greandes?). Using my example, Batman has skills and abilities that allow him to do things that Superman can't. So a good GM would write an adventure that has things that require Batman to use those abilities. One example would be if some sort of virus was released. Superman might be immune, but that won't help Lois, Jimmy, or anyone else. So in that situation Batman could work on finding a cure to the virus, making his chemistry skills important. One thing that most RPGs do is that they put tons and tons of detail into combat, while glossing over most other actions with a single "success/fail" skill roll. A fight with a thug could take a few minutes, have lots of give & take as the characters punch, kick, dodge, duck, and grapple. On the other hand, scaling a 30 story building usually means-make a climb roll. The trick to making non-combat actions interesting is to give them the same sort of staged success and detail that combat gets. This can be handled in a few ways, for instance breaking down a task into multiple rolls. Then add in benefits from accomplishing various parts of the task. I used to love RQ becuase you could run mixed groups. You could have a girzzled old veteran fighting alongside a novice. Becuase the game wasn't all about the fighting, there were a lot of things you could do that you can't in D&D. The inherient lethality of the game meant that a GM didn't have to pump up the monsters just to keep the veteran challenged. SO it really is a lot about playing style.

I just got the free Sprit of the Season supplment that works for both SotC/and T&J. From what I've read, the two games have the same approach. So, I'll accept bullet #4 as an option.

Well, in the fumble rules. I suspect that real warriors probably don't drop their swords or have pieces of armor come flying off, or hit their allies quite as much as people playing in the SCA do. Likewise, block and parry are lumped into the same category, something that makes sense for inexperienced fighters, who would be happy to block, and wouldn't try for a true parry. Not to bash Steve or anything. It's not like we have a lot of master swordsmen walking around these days to learn from. Sword & Shield hasn't been a front line fighting skill for quite some time.

The problem with "basting" is that every game that has done so has released a lot of crap. That hurts the game. If someone looks at or worse buys two ro three products for a game and they are all crap then it just promotes the image that the game is crap. Personally, I think about 6-20 products a year for BRP would be about right. Fewer products if they are big source books, like campaign packs or settings. More if they are small things like adventures, NPC stats and the like. One product a month seems good enough for any RPG. Yes Chasoium needs to relase a certain amount of product to make the game viable. I'm sure that they are aware of that, since it is impossible for them to make any money if they don't have anything to sell. Too much product also hurts in other ways. Years ago, I could keep up with entire products lines. I own all the material for RQ2, Strombringer, James Bond, and a bunch of other RPGs. If I like the new BRP, I'll probably try and get all the offical products in the line. But if there is a flood of stuff, I'd probably give up on completeness and end up buying less than if there were fewer products out there.

Jason, Just wondering, since BRP is based on WoW and older stuff, does it use a full percentile range, or does it break skills up in 5% increments like original BRP and RQ2?

I'd like to see your rules. THey might be just the thing we've been looking for. BTW, What did you use for AP/Hull Quality for your vehicles? Rasing that migth solve the problem, although BRP does have .45s doing way to much damage in reation to 30-06s and other big guns.