MrJealousy

Uh oh, good question! I think I would start by assuming that STR and SIZ are (approximately) the same dice roll. Having a quick look back at old RQ stats Dinosaurs seems to agree (give or take a bit in some circumstances), giants fit exactly. CON seems to be mostly unrelated to SIZ and STR, other than the fact that it is lower... What does BRP suggest? That SIZ and STR is (mildly) related (in the Brontosaur) but CON not so much. Looking at the Giant Squid on p.339 doesn't help, his CON is tiny compared to STR and SIZ. Looking at the BRP Giant on p.344 I would say that CON is approximately 20%-30% lower than STR or SIZ. That 20%-30% seems to work for the Bronto as well (give or take a bit). So, no help at all then :-) Still a good question though. I usually make it up!

I'm no expert but I have done a bit of Kendo and Fencing. Both of those styles teach you how to attack and parry with the weapon. If you learnt the skills short sword and tower shield, you could attack and parry with either but the emphasis is going to be attacking with the sword and parrying with the shield. However if you dropped you sword (fumble!) you could still attack and parry with the shield or go all out defense if your shield attack is particularly low (which it probably will be because its your defense weapon not the attacking one). Simplification be damned! It just don't make no sense

I find a lot of the sword/shield problems go away if you have seperate sword atack/ parry and shield attack/parry skills.

I would consider using it from both directions. The GM makes the res roll if the effects of the poison wont be immediately noticed, eg. somebody slipped a halucinogen into the players drink. The Player makes the roll if the effects are obvious, eg. just been bitten by a snake. In some circumstances it can be important to know which is passive or active, but a lot of the time it doesn't really matter. So long as the right person rolls against the right number to resist.

Ok, how about... Join with me in (retrospectively) celebrating July 5th when all of Britishdom joined in a collective sigh, having finally gotten rid of those pesky Americans. What was it Oscar Wilde said... something like 'the only country to go from barbarism to decadence without going through civilisation'...

Join with me in celebrating 4th of July, American Independence day, when in 1776 we threw off the shackles of British oppression and rode off into the sunset of a new dawn.

I'm going to ignore the non-linear SIZ issue for the moment... and suggest that the problem seems to be that SIZ is linked to height and weight. So how about using SIZ to define height and CON to define weight. Makes more sense when thinking about locomotives and dirigibles. Its the way I've always tended to think of it in the past (whatever the rulebook says). A character with SIZ 18 and CON 6 is tall and skinny, reverse those stats and he is short and fat.

It all sounds jolly exciting! Have you done it yet?

Couldn't this idea be taken up with vehicle modifications? So you could have car, car with turbo charger, car with super charger, car with superturbo charger Just like you would have space ship, space ship with FTL drive, space ship with wormhole portal generator, or space ship with antigravity. You don't need different rules you need different gadgets. A standard space space ship (modern day, shuttle like) is the default template with all of its pitfalls and limitations, but you add to it an AntiGravity Conbobulator so you can do outrageous high G turns. The description of the AGC supplies the extra physics bending rules as a modular addon to the vehicle. Just like a turbo charger would say something like '...increases overall top speed by 10%...'

Actually thats spot on. I only worried about the maximum possible ranges based on any reference I could find. Don't think anyone has said anything about that before. Any further updates might include updated ranges... or I will at the very least check the stats. Thanks! Yeah, I agree. But I wanted to keep the space down for equipment. I decided not to include ENC for clothes and mundane items to help keep the book keeping down. I didn't think that people would be carting around several sets of clothing, a weeks worth of horse feed, trail rations for a month, a microscope, telescope, embossed bible etc etc and decided that I would have to trust gms to look after this detail, if they wanted too. Once again though, I might include ENC in future possibilities... Sounds and looks good to me. Wow, thats brave! But also kind of what was intended. Thats excellent! Thank you very much for some interesting insights into AH. I'm glad you like it and I promise to do better in the future.

I've got to admit to not seeing these 'flaws' at all. The whole system is flexible enough to skip round the knurly bits. Vehicle creation rules seems like it would fit perfectly into a specialised mono, but if i did it i'd probably just translate Car Wars. Likewise planet creation would be Traveller. Never had a problem with shields, but then I have always assumed seperate attack and parry skills for all weapons and shields, works for me. I like the different base skills for weapons. I think it makes sense, some weapons are easier to use than others. I don't dislike the damage either. but then when I wrote Aces High I was very guilty of thinking 'i like this weapon it will do this damage' without any logic in some places. I'm working on an updated weapons list but in that I break weapon damages down into 1d4,1d4+1,1d4+2,1d6,1d6+1,1d6+2,1d8... etc based on caliber, barrel length and... stuff. Gives me excellent granularity and allows me to differentiate between very similar weapons. I've not looked too deeply into the SIZ issue, and I have to say it doesn't bother me greatly. ENC - Only ever really used it to limit the amount of stuff that players carry but with Fatigue I made it quite important for Aces High. I like the system, no I LOVE the system. I know it quite well and feel confident in ignoring bits or making other bits up on the fly but then I have been playing one or other iteration of this system for 26 years! BRP has less flaws than many other systems that I have played and I really like the flow of the game play. I find combat quick and deadly in whatever period you decide to play in, whether you use Dex Ranks or Strike Ranks. I like the resistance tables - they make opposed rolls simple to visualise. I like the skill stat modifiers. ... I like it alright! Stop dissing my favourite system

Drat, looks like i've made errors on both those pages! On p. 56 I'd be inclined to drop the 'cannot be hurt by mundane weapons'. That ability should have been reserved for powerful spirits and dieties. Probably me being a bit too power mad... didn't use that when I play tested the scenario... On p.105 I'd ditch the Bite and Buffet in the same round, they don't have the Dex Srs to get away with it anyway. Leaving two claw attacks or a bite or a buffet. All in all, I think thats pretty poor. Especially considering that is supposed to be the example scenario and I can't even get the abilities of the primary weird critter right! Oh well, something else to go in the edit... Apart from that, how has your game played? Was it fun? Did it work? What did you get up to?

I prefer serious, brooding art to the jokey variety. But I guess it's more about who wants to draw for Chaosium and what they pay (no idea), and, is the artist reliable and quick. So long as the art doesn't interfere with my enjoyment of the reading, I'm not greatly worried by it. Still its not like the bad old days of Dobyski!

Just got my hard cover BRP today. Feels nice and solid! But does still contain errors, Flame Spell is still called Fire in the description, Ride is still a Communication skill rather than Physical and Defense is still 5% rather than the recommended 1%. Always room for improvement I guess Still, I'm happy with it.

Good question, and as far as I can figure, almost impossible to work out exactly! Mostly because Speed Rate is an 'abstract value' which doesn't seem to translate across vehicles in a simple formula. It might be some kind of bell curve... Taking examples from the book... Horses have a Move of 12 but a Speed Rate of 2 My guestimate says Horses walk at just over 2mph with a gallop (x5 Move) being about 11mph. Which seems a little slow. Unless my maths is terrible, which is possible... But that would make a Modern Sedan with a Speed Rate of 12, Move 72, at 67mph (with the x5 Move for running!) which also seems a little slow, but possible... Which twisted confusions makes a Speed Rate approximately equal to Move 6, or 5.6(ish) mph (at x5 Move for running) 1.12 mph(walking). So much for clarity Just did a search on the forum and found this http://basicroleplaying.com/showthread.php/1962-Vehicles-and-Chases?highlight=speed

As far as I understand it, Wakboth is the child of Malia (disease), Thed (rape) and Ragnaglar(one of Orlanths brothers). They became known as the Unholy Trio and after Humakt killed them 'they went to the outermost reaches of the lands of the dead'. Where they did some naughty things, one of which was to create Wakboth the Lord of Chaos.Then there was a lot of fighting, Wakboth destroyed the center of the world! and 'Wakbth and his army dispersed, each pursuing whatever destruction or corruption it wished. In this way the whole world was polluted, and slowly became dead and lifeless.' I think there's also an encounter with Wakboth and the Lightbringers, of which Yelm is one. So I'd guess that Yelm doesn't like Wakboth very much... There's also a bit in there about 'the facade of the Red Goddess' and Wakboth being revealed as the God of the Ultimate End, which is quite interesting... That comes from King of Sartar by Greg Stafford. I don't see anything in there about Kajabor though, is that a new RQ thing, which is surely a work of Wakboth

No problems! And i would love to do a revision, but I don't know how that works for the monographs. The thought is there, and the original AH doc has had a couple of edits since Chaosium started printing it. I guess it shouldn't be too difficult... I might bring it up with Dustin, if he isn't too busy. Oh, you are REALLY gonna hate my next one then.... Maybe I'll send a copy to you for proof reading...

A typo, my apologies... Yup I've been reamed for that a few times as well. My single biggest regret and mistake. Well there are hundreds of tribes and thousands of gods, spirits and other monsters. I just wanted to get the flavour across. Sorry but that one is on purpose for this book. Actually you're only the second person to mention that. In Aces High they are there as an option, use them or ignore them. I notice you didn't mention the Satanists or the description of Mormons or Priests or religion in general, all of which I take massive liberties with. I don't really know much about old witchcraft in America and didn't really consider it 'core' enough to spend months researching. If you're after witches read Byrons book, its much more detailed than my single page. All I was trying to do was make the possibility available. All things considered, I think you've spotted the things I would have done differently if I'd known what the hell I was doing It was written with more enthusiasm than considered thought and I am working on a second mono to support it, which should also address exactly some of the criticisms you have brought up here. Thanks for the frank words. I do honestly appreciate them.

I like the giants in Glorantha, and have used them in my Gloranthan campaign where they simply do not stop growing! I think gloranthan giants grow (something like) 1 metre every 5 years, that makes your 50ft tall giant about 16 and a half metres tall and about 80 years old! While I appreciate that giants are naturally contrary I think you have to agree that a 50ft pensioner is not going to cause a bunch of determined adventurers too much trouble...

Was American Civil War era, 1860's, don't know about this other new fangled stuff though!

Wow, in 30 + years of roleplaying I don't think I've ever come across anyone that has taken a vendetta outside of a game. Seems to me that Vincent is deliberately trying to cause trouble, or he is just acting very immature. Approximately how old is he? We've had people play evil guys in a group of good guys, and on occasion they have been found out with the inevitable consequences. But I think my group is quite mature in outlook, so there wouldn't be any obvious evilness on the part of their character, and if they were caught I believe it would be more of a 'fair cop guv' rather than 'I will get you with my next character'. There has to be a certain amount of flexibility, or compromise in players characters or you'd never get a decent mix of alignments and characters. So evil characters do turn up in our good parties from time to time, but the player knows the risks. I've done it, its fun literally getting away with murder. Would I have allowed Vincent to take his vendetta into my game? No. I probably wouldn't invite him into any of my games. But then I frequently run harsh games and punish the players on a regular basis, before giving them a carrot and moving on. I wouldn't expect any of my players to hold a grudge because of that.

Thank the gods! That is sooo last millenium... and I have it, even ran a session... oh... about 20 years ago... maybe more... But this, for me at least, highlights the problem Chaosium faces. Elfquest, Thieves World, Ringworld, Stormbringer, Glorantha, this is all old stuff. I mean it was written when the original inspiration for them was available as current material. And the problem with Glorantha, and I really love this as a place to role play, is that it can require a huge amount of research to pluck some of the gems from the background. I still run RQ for my players, partly because I like the cohesion that the mythology has, partly because I love the game mechanics, partly because all together its ridiculous, outrageous and genius. Partly because I have spent sooo much time learning some of its secrets. Now Dune! Thats a nice choice, I'd go there, but you cant exclude his sons material. While I agree that Brian's not as good (or even, no-where near as good) as his old man, he has added to the mythology and it would at least have to be included. No matter how much it makes your teeth ache. I like conan too, but its been done done done, there are movies, books computer games and rpgs about this already. I want something new and equally genius. Ok, so going out on a limb, and I don't know if I've offered this before (this is a very long thread now)... but my suggestion for a possible contender for a world I'd like to visit would be David Brins Uplift books... I like sci fi, intrigue, animals and weird aliens, so these books tick all my boxes

How rude! One of my favourite characters in RQ was a Duck

Maybe its more of a text stutter or speech impediment 'pur popular'... they are just too excited!