Solinor

About four months ago I stopped using figs and now I can't imagine going back to them. The players grumble a little that they like figs but none have pushed to use them.

Funny, after all these years I never thought about other creatures not having a missile chart.

B

I am not an expert on Glorantha by any stretch.

But when we started playing RQ we started with this stuff:

Wayne's World of Books - Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Foreign Language, Role Playing Games, History, Maps

River of Cradles

Sun County

Strangers in Prax

Are good resources for just playing. Lots of characters, maps, and scenarios.

These are all based on RQ3.

I don't know what MRQ has out.

Here are a couple of other websites.

Etyries.com - Nick Brooke's Home Page

Simon Phipp - RuneQuest/D100/Glorantha Home Page

Which is a fair and reasonable point. And this being the internet, far from unecessary.

However I have a question rather than strong opinion.

What is the advantage you see in 'rolling high' with a d100? That's a genuine query that is, not a loaded question.

Al

Perhaps I made a typo somewhere? Where do I use rolling high?

I will correct it.

I will help.

I am a little curious about what you

mean by D&D spells from your other thread.

Can you elaborate?

I will try to dig up my long lived half-drow 8th level pure thief to see what

Solinor can do. He's a 2+E AD&D character, but I could probably whip up a

3E version if desired.

2e is fine. But its up to you. I will manage with either way.

Even though much of what I did was based on 3e SRD you will see things I sneak in there that are from earlier editions. The "exceptional strength " Additional for example, the term thief instead of rogue, great swords do 1d10 damage. Just to list a few.

I hope to see your character.

I am a little curious about what you

mean by D&D spells from your other thread.

Can you elaborate?

I will try to dig up my long lived half-drow 8th level pure thief to see what

Solinor can do. He's a 2+E AD&D character, but I could probably whip up a

3E version if desired.

2e is fine. But its up to you. I will manage with either way.

Even though much of what I did was based on 3e SRD you will see things I sneak in there that are from earlier editions. The "exceptional strength " Additional for example, the term thief instead of rogue, great swords do 1d10 to list a few.

Greetings,

Also, call me crazy, but if you had a setting that was "in tune" with the rules-set that might make a bit of difference since a rules set is just that, a set of rules...a bit lifeless.

Just my opinion...

-STS

As for a setting I do have a map of our current campaign with a brief description of the lands in the Gallery section of the website. The map is called "The South".

Thank you for looking at it and giving feedback.

I realize that anyone who looks at this is probably an established DM and have spent years if not decades working on their own game. So I can't imagine anyone actually replacing whatever they are doing with what I put out there. But I wanted to share it with people and if nothing else create some discussion.

Aaah, but isn't this:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Solinor

If anyone has a D&D character that they could post and I will convert the character? My intent is to show that the character will remain in tack.

in direct conflict with this?

Quote:

Of course his or her fool hardy days are tempered by the new laws of physics they must abide by.

How can the character and all of its skills and abilities remain intact if

the system's new laws of physics overrule things?

-V

You Vagabond!

If you take a 3.5 character and convert it there doesn’t need to be any loss of feats or spells that the player is familiar with.

If you were to take that same character and move them over to straight BRP you will more than likely lose a lot of your abilities because there is no equivalent in BRP.

In some cases making the character not even seem the same.

Dextrous fighters and high level casters being the greatest victims.

Have you ever done conversions like this Vagabond?

I can appreciate all these sentiments myself. But why muddy; if I may call it that; BRP waters with D&D's exception based mechanics? (feats)

Before you say it muddies the BRP waters I suggest give it a try.

Although some things look great on paper but are terrible in practice, these rules may seem bad on paper but work very well in practice.

If anything I have tried to stay true to the modular nature of BRP and the level and Additionals(feats) fit that nature.

Although I changed SIZ and Weapon Damage for my own reasons there is no reason why those modules couldn’t overlay unchanged BRP.

Level being merely an arbitrary mechanic that dictates to a player when he/she becomes more powerful. Same as Glory. Players love rewards of any kind.

The new BRP offers rules for more heroic characters (HP = SIZ+CON, Splitting Attacks, Fate Mechanics, Dodge vs. High Velocity Missiles). Sure, Powers need a little love, and there are a couple of things in the works to fulfill that need. Class roles are easily handled with Step 6 and professions. Plus, it's very easy to write more professions.

You seem to be a tinkerer of rules yourself, so I am sure you understand the myriad of paths that tinkering can take you.

The paths are infinite. But we don’t have infinite time. So I had to decide on something and this is what I came up with.

Don't get me wrong. When my RQ stuff was in storage, and the latest edition of BRP wasn't even being playtested, I very much did the same as you. Nevertheless, I know of one other member on this forum that uses D&D Magic almost right out of the box. You both have some interesting ideas, if you're willing to collaborate.

I am certainly willing to collaborate and I am already taking ideas from Frogspawners website.

It is more about style perhaps.

I will say it is mostly the game world that drove this.

That world being intiailly built using AD&D.

A few things about D&D became just not that interesting to the group.

So we picked up RQ.

The mechanics for RQ/BRP are really well done. A mathematical masterpiece.

But perhaps was to "Real" for us.

I am a big fan of both systems and love parts of both.

I like BRP/RQ combat but love D&D magic.

I prefer BRP/RQ skills but love class roles.

So for me this has been my solution.

I appreciate the question and will be glad to discuss this further if my answer is incomplete.

If anyone has a D&D character that they could post and I will convert the character? My intent is to show that the character will remain in tack.

In addition to stats please give a description of the character as well.

Of course his or her fool hardy days are tempered by the new laws of physics they must abide by.

I had posted about this once before and I know others have been putting something like this together.

In the download section is now my imcomplete version of what our group has called DQ or Death(Dungeon) Quest.

A hybrid of D&D and BRP(RQ). Another name is D&C or Decision & Consequence.

The rules are far from complete and downright bad in some places and will cause confusion.

But the lay out should give a solid idea of what I am thinking(I hope).

I think a DM familiar with both systems could run it reasonably well.

We have had a continuous campaign for about 11 months with it.

So far it has done a good job of walking the line between the two game systems.

My hope is people will give it a try and post feed back on it. Perhaps even taking some interest in helping complete the rules.

Please don't give strong opinions unless you have actually tried it.

Cheers.

Nice write-up.

I would run so fast!

So a vampiric undead guy who creates zombies by touch instead of vampires by bite?

Have you made what the character was in life up yet?

I would say do that first then increase STR and CON by 1.5 or x2 and then add the abilities you described. Bring him to life through description after that.

You stated a one shot adventure, how tough are the players going to be?

Does this skill replace the magic system? Meaning do you use this skill instead of the magic system that already exists?

Is this a skill that determines how many spells you can cast and how powerful they are? Could you liken it to a DnD leveled spell caster but instead of a level system the skill just reflects the level?

Why do you feel you need to create this skill? What gap in the game is it supposed to fill for you?

Just curious.

The d20 mechanics in Pendragon are a bit different than what you encounter with a d100.

For example, in combat both opponents roll a d20. You need to roll below your skill but above your opponent to win the contest. But even if you succeed and lose the contest you gain no benefit for winning unless you have a shield.

So you don't parry with a sword like you would in BRP. You pretty much almost never have drawn out duels. I think the mechanics work well for the type of game it is. It is a bigger picture game so the rules aren't as detailed when it comes to combat. Pendragon is an awesome game and I would recommend it to anyone. But, if you want to you use it in your homebrew game you might find its genre specific mechanics don't work as well as BRP.

I agree with lars dangly that the d100 can just be broken down more easily than the d20.

When making ability score rolls, the d100 is superior because sometimes you do ability x1, x2, x3, x4, x5, or x6 depending on the situation. I don't think the math here should slow down the game much.

Using bleeding as an example, In one roll; CON x5 or less to not bleed that round. CON x1 to stop bleeding all together. It doesn't get any more elegant.

IMO the d100 is superior in everyway.

I would be happy to hear why someone would think the d20 would be better.

Ack, run!

Seriously, experience points and character classes were the two main reasons that I turned to RQ (now BRP) in the first place.

Classes: I want these to arise from the game world, not from the rule book. So, for instance, the worshippers of the God of the Undead gain abilities to speak to undead, control undead, and ultimately cheat Death as they sacrifice POW and take higher oaths. Similarly, those who have studied with the monks at Mountains Meet have learned certain bare handed attack techniques, and the ability to pass without trace. All without formal character classes. This may be a little bit of semantics, but to me it's important that there is an in-game source or authority for character abilities.

Experience: As a GM I hate tracking and awarding experience. And I just hate the inevitable "what counts to get you experience" discussions. The "Use it and advance" approach of BRP is very simple and elegant.

This is all purely my preference. No reason not to graft a class or experience system on BRP, but surely there is an easier way to get where you want for your game? :confused:

Steve

I use the word Class because that is what most people understand. I don't use class to define what a character cannot do but what they will probably do better than most. I try to think of it as more of a keyword like those used in Herowars.

Since I have complete control of my game world and of the rule book I make no distinction between where special talents come from. They are one in the same. I hope that makes sense. As you define in your example of the God of the Undead, there is a progression of abilities that come before ultimately being able to cheat death. I just have a mechanic that would define those abilities through a magic skill that would be derived from a keyword that defines a characters focus of attention or calling in life.

I personally like to have a mechanic in place that will define when that actually occurs. I agree, any ability a character has should come from a logical source.

You are right indeed that rules are somantics. I guess this is where my somantics(antics) have led me!

As for Experience I don't award it. Characters roll their normal skill check gains or the use of training/research and that determines the characters experience level. So I generally don't have to worry about assigning experience. Although I do use the Glory system from Pendragon and that does require adjudication. But that is another discussion.

So although you may disagree with the use of class/level concepts, I guess for the sake of discussion, what I am hoping for is what would be mechanically wrong with this setup. How could it be broken or misused? Or if you have any additions that might make it better.

I know this is asking alot but hey if you are bored or just interested in discussing such things.

I have never heard of this book but it sounds interesting. I shall have to get a copy.

Elemental tattoos? Can you explain what this is exactly? Tattoos that are binding enchantments for elementals?

We have used that kind of stuff in Runequest. Very cool.

Thank you for the response.

I will work on uploading them to the downloads section when I get home.

In the mean time perhaps we can get a discussion going with a class and level concept for BRP.

Class

I try to use this more as a guide than anything else. There is still plenty of flexibility with skill choices.

When you create your character you will pick a class. Your class determines, for the mort part, the direction your skills will take during your adventuring career.

Your class also determines the "Additionals"* your character begins with. "Additionals" are special abilities, feats, talents, social station, racial ability, or anything else that can be imagined.

Class for PC's would be be anything found in any D+D book that the DM allows. For NPC's Class may simply be their profession.

* I know "Additionals" isn't even a word. But after much thought it is the only thing I could come up with that was all inclusive to my meaning.

You can pick multiple classes if you like but for each class you pick above the first class you incur a -10 on all skill improvment rolls you make.

So for example if you were a Fighter/ Arcane magic user you would apply a -10 to all skill improvement rolls.

A character is limited to a number of skills that they can increase equal to their intelligence.

If any non-magical skill (including category modifier) goes above 100 it no longer counts towards this total.

Any magical skill known consumes half of the intelligence skill slots that the character possesses..

Experience and Level

I make a distinction between Overall skill and experience skill.

Overall skill is your skill level with your category modifier.

Experience skill is your skill without your category modifier.

for each point of experience skill above 50 in all skills except magical skills determines the experience of the character.

here is the experience table

level experience

0 0-9

1 10-29

2 30-59

3 60-99

4 100-149

5 150-209

6 210-279

7 280-369

8 370-469

9 470-579

10 580-699

11 700-829

12 830-909

13 910-1059

14 1060-1219

15 1220-1389

16 1390-1569

17 1570-1759

18 1760-1959

19 1960-2169

20 2170-etc.

For example, if I only have one skill with an experience skill (not counting category modifier) of 65 this gives me an experience of 15.

Making me 1st level.

For each level the character receives +1 total hit points, +1 characteristic, and 1 Additional.

Now for why did I do this. Is it necessary to play the game? no. It just fits a style of play that some of you may share.

1. I played D+D for 11 years before I played RQ. It was something I could never let go of.

2. So far it has created very distinct characters.

3. I like the idea of defined character roles.

4. I need a guide for how to grant additional abilities to characters.

5. I like a sense of progression more than just increasing a skill.

6. I needed an arbitrary way to give players more hit points for survival

7. when I make up an npc I can use level and class as a guide to work out his abilities.

I could go on

We have play tested this for a few months and it seems to work pretty good.

I appreciate any feedback to these ideas you guys might have.

Greetings All,

I have always been a big fan of BRP/RUNEQUEST and D&D. Neither ultimately reflected how I saw my game world.

So I have taken some time(about 15 years) and put together a hybrid that I would like to share with people.

For my own purposes this system fits my game world pretty. Well enough that I basically have no complaints.

I am wondering if I could share it with you guys at this forum and perhaps get feed back on what I have tried to create.

Is this acceptable?

If this is not the forum for this kind of stuff could anyone give me an idea of where one would be.

Thanks in advance.