soltakss

There's more to BRP than one rule. If you don't like opposed rolls then don't use them. I'm sure there will be many rules in BRP that I don't like, but that won't stop me buying it when it comes out. The thread on Typos etc has supported my decision not to buy BRP.0, though, I'd have hated to buy a book and then had to apply a large errata.

As long as you disclaim responsibility for any of the ads or transactions you should be OK. I can't see deals going sour - we're all honest upstanding citizens aren't we? It might be useful to have a browse around and see what goodies we might have missed.

Why do people choose one gun over another? I honestly don't know (they all go bang and kill people so why not just buy the cheapest) - perhaps someone could enlighten me?

I've got no experience with guns at all, living in the UK and not being in the army, a gun club or a gang, so to me all I need in a set of firearm rules is a chance to hit, how much damage it does and, maybe, jamming and multishot rules. But, many people do use firearms and know how they work, so a more realistic, but playable, firearms table would be useful. So, how would you do it? Given that you have both firearms and RPG experience, you must have some ideas of what the tables should look like?

Last time it filled up in about April but there were cancellations so people could get in later. Payment is due by the end of February, after that there's a late booking charge then another after that. One of the gamers in my group signed up in April and got in with a cancellation. I signed up in March and had to pay a late fee. So you should be OK. So, is your new job in the Darkest Arctic (or Lightest Arctic soon to be) or are you moving to more temperate climes?

That's what I'm doing with RQM and that's what I'll probably do with BRP.

What were the individual scenarios like? A module can be quite open and yet have very closed scenarios.

I was at Warwick from 1982-1985 (Maths) but played in the roleplaying group from 1985 onwards. I caught a bus to Wellingborough, came up on the coach from Wellingborough to Coventry then a bus from Coventry to Gibbet Hill and walked down from Gibbet Hill. Then after the coach got cancelled, I caught a bus to Northampton, walked to the train station, got a train to Coventry and the bus to Gibbet Hill where I walked down to the main campus. We played in the Airport Lounge in the main Rootes building and normally took up two or three of the big multi-seater couches around a coffee table. I can't remember if we played on a Tuesday or Wednesday but I stayed the night on campus or at friends' in Coventry in an area called Paradise which is possibly the most unsuitable name for a region I've ever known. Then I moved to Coventry and the long commute ended but the games didn't, until everyone left Uni and went their own way of course.

The trouble is that if you do that and then move on to a normal game, the players will expect such high skills. Personally, that isn't the way I'd go. Give them normal skills but give each of them some special "Cinematic" abilities. Not all pirates are swashbuckling sowrdsmen or acrobatic gymnasts. Allow each pirate to choose 1D3 abilities, or choose a number if you don't want a random number of abilities. Sample abilities might be: Incredible Acrobatics Mighty Swordsman Gift of the Gab Infamous Lover Luck of the Devil or whatever - make your own up or use Legendary Abilities from RQM. Don't give them skills to go with the abilities, but if they use a normal skill and can reasonably use the cinematic ability then don't apply a penalty rating. So, Bart the Black is trying to flee Rogering Roderick and decides to desperately jump across a roof, catch a rope hanging neatby and swing over a large gap. Bart has Jump 80% and DEX 18, so his "Catch Rope" would be DEXx5% or 90%. Roderick has Jump 50% and DEX 13, so his Catch Rope would be 65%. The GM determines that the jump is quite tricky and is at -40% and that catching the rope is at -30% because it is dark. Rogering Roger has Incredible Acrobatics as a cinematic ability so Bart is at Jump 40% and Catch Rope 60% but Roderick is at Jump 50% and Catch Rope 65%. Bart jumps but fails to catch the rope, Roderick jumps and catches him. Bart now uses his Fast Talk to talk Roderick out of what he plans to do and has Luck of the Devil, Gift of the Gab and Fast Talk 70%, but the GM determines that Roderick is set on his action and gives a -50% Fast Talk penalty. Bart has a 70% chance of making the Fast talk because of his Gift of the Gab but rolls an 80, so he tries a Luck Roll (60%) to see if the City Watch are nearby and succeeds, so a watchman wanders by and Roderick runs off. It might give you the style you are after without having extremely high skills.

I've read scenarios where it says something like "at this point the party have defeated the bandits and ...." so it assumes a particular course of action. If that course of action is not carried out then the scenario is completely derailed. It takes a lot of work to pick up some scenarios after that point. Most GMs should be able to do it, but it isn't always easy.

Continuum 1st - 4th August 2008 in Leicester, UK. Tentacles Convention - Welcome! 9th - 12th May 2008 at castle Stahleck, Bacharach, Germany (yes, it is held in a castle) Both are heavily Chaosium based, Tentacles is more CoC oriented than Continuum, both have RQ and Glorantha and HeroQuest. There are board games, RPGs, Freeforms and all sorts of goodies. I went to Tentacles for the first time last year and had an absolute blast. I used to go to Convulsions, the forerunner to Tentacles, but had a spouse-enforced break for a few years, but I've been to the last 2 Continuums and they were pretty good. If you like BRP-based games, have a free weekend and can stand being around like-minded people (i.e. geeks and nerds, myself being an obvious exception which is why I am on this forum at 12.40am ) then they are well worth going to. If you do sign up to Tentacles because of reading this and haven't been before, then put my name "Simon Phipp" as the person who introduced you and I'll buy you a drink or two .......

I remember lugging a kit bag full of all the RQ2 supplements from Northamptonshire to Warwick University every week to play RQ and that was on public transport with a half an hour walk at the end. Everything on a DVD? It isn't natural I tell you!

Is anyone going to Tentacles or Continuum this year? I've signed up for Tentacles and will hopefully sign up for Continuum later this year.

Clicking the link works for me - it's: http://mrqwiki.com/wiki/images/c/c0/Opposed_Roll_Combat_Rules_v2.4.pdf The full text of the link being mrqwiki.com/wiki/images/c/c0/Opposed_Roll_Combat_Rules_v2.4.pdf

It's the difference between a Short Story and a Series of Novels or a Film and a TV Series. In a short story or film you have characters that are introduced, do something and then are thrown away. This is the equivalent to rolling up PCs for a one-off scenario. It's enjoyable and nobody much cares if the PC dies. In a series of novels or a TV series you have characters that survive for several books/episodes, they develop and change and generally do not die. This is classic campaign play where PCs tend to survive for more than one scenario and players like to see them develop and add to the story. Personally, I don't much care for the one-shot scenario and much prefer campaigns. That's one reason why I don't go to gaming clubs as they usually go for the "roll up a PC and do a scenario" approach with RQ this week, D20 the next, CoC the next and so on. That and they're full of geeks

RuneQuest Pirates is excellent with all the flavour of a Pirates game. It's pretty much compatible with BRP, even if RQM is not completely compatible. I'd recommend it - it's the best RQ supplement that Mongoose have brought out.

So, you're no longer Hacker Central, then? Shame. Still, at least you've experience of Cybernetic Warfare for when you play in a Cyberpunk game.

I don't know much about gaming in general - I rarely buy games except RQ/BRP/HQ and I don't go to gaming clubs. So, I can only really speak about my own experiences in gaming. One thing that has changed is that games are a lot more commercial nowadays. When you look at the lithographic prints of games such as White Bear and Red Moon they look so amateurish compared with the glossy games of today. Also, with the advent of PDF publishing and print on demand companies such as Lulu there are a lot of small publications coming out. Back to the original points, people bring a lot of baggage to roleplaying games. None of the groups I have played with have been particularly influenced by Manga, although some players did buy the comics and watch the films. Maybe some games have been but, as I said, I don't buy a lot of games these days. Are scenarios more railroaded nowadays? I haven't noticed. Looking at some scenarios in the past, the ones in classic RQ supplements were normally very linear. Sure, the settings had a lot of plot hooks and were open but the individual scenarios were never more than do this then do that. There was a time in the 90s when scenarios were made into cameos with very little structure and were very open. However, such scenarios are difficult to write, GM and play, to say they are challenging is an understatement. Where games have a high scenario-churn it is easier to write the scenarios as simple linear ones. It's hard to kill PCs now? Well, that depends on your style of play. If you sit down to a session, roll up a PC, play one session and then throw it away then it is not important if your PC lives or dies. If you play in a campaign over a long period of time then you invest a great deal of time and effort in your PC and you want him/her to survive. In our RQ2 campaign back in the 80s, we had a huge amount of PC death, sometimes we lost 5 or 6 PCs per session, but we always had healers available with copious Resurrects and Divine Interventions, so they generally came back again. So, those games were dangerous but not completely deadly. mOne of the many reasons I don't like Call of Cthulhu is that all my PCs have died or gone insane in the first session so I have never played in a proper campaign and I like campaigns. You could say that Hero Points make it harder to kill PCs, but GMs have always fudged rolls to keep PCs alive, so it's not really a new thing. One thing that has changed is that I am now 26 years older than when I started roleplaying. My attitudes have changed, the way I thinnk has changed, the way I live has changed and the way I roleplay has changed. If I behaved, acted and thought the same way at 44 than I did at 18 then something would be very wrong with me. So, my gaming has become more mature. Also, I've played for a long time and have played in many similar scenarios, so I have experienced a lot of gaming, so it takes a lot to surprise me. All this makes me look at scenarios in a different light. So, I don't think that roleplaying has changed a lot, although the quality of games certainly has. We still gather every week, month, holiday or year and sit around a table talking, having a laugh and playing games. Some of us might have laptops with scenarios on, others may be heavier and greyer but we still enjoy gaming.

Some more concrete examples. This shows the successes when just looking at Levels of Success. Here, a critical beats a special beats a normal success beats a failure beats a fumble. If the same level of success is rolled by both parties, it is treated as a tie. As always, the first result is the chance of Skill1 winning, the second is the chance of Skill2 winning. So, a 90% vs 30% contest will result in the 90% skill winning 68% of the time, the 30% skill winning 8% of the time and a tie the remaining time. As a matter of interest, these are calculated by calculating the successes of every dice combination from (1,1) to (100,100) and then totalling the numbers of victories. It is better than using Probabilities as these are actual results. Looking at these, you would have to reroll a lot of times or just accept that there would be a lot of ties. 10% vs 10% gives 13%/13% 10% vs 20% gives 12%/22% 10% vs 30% gives 11%/31% 10% vs 40% gives 9%/40% 10% vs 50% gives 8%/48% 10% vs 60% gives 7%/57% 10% vs 70% gives 6%/66% 10% vs 80% gives 4%/74% 10% vs 90% gives 3%/83% 20% vs 10% gives 22%/12% 20% vs 20% gives 20%/20% 20% vs 30% gives 18%/28% 20% vs 40% gives 16%/36% 20% vs 50% gives 14%/44% 20% vs 60% gives 12%/52% 20% vs 70% gives 10%/59% 20% vs 80% gives 7%/67% 20% vs 90% gives 6%/75% 30% vs 10% gives 31%/11% 30% vs 20% gives 28%/18% 30% vs 30% gives 25%/25% 30% vs 40% gives 22%/32% 30% vs 50% gives 20%/39% 30% vs 60% gives 16%/47% 30% vs 70% gives 14%/54% 30% vs 80% gives 11%/61% 30% vs 90% gives 8%/68% 40% vs 10% gives 40%/9% 40% vs 20% gives 36%/16% 40% vs 30% gives 32%/22% 40% vs 40% gives 28%/28% 40% vs 50% gives 25%/35% 40% vs 60% gives 21%/41% 40% vs 70% gives 18%/48% 40% vs 80% gives 14%/54% 40% vs 90% gives 11%/60% 50% vs 10% gives 48%/8% 50% vs 20% gives 44%/14% 50% vs 30% gives 39%/20% 50% vs 40% gives 35%/25% 50% vs 50% gives 31%/31% 50% vs 60% gives 26%/36% 50% vs 70% gives 22%/42% 50% vs 80% gives 17%/47% 50% vs 90% gives 13%/53% 60% vs 10% gives 57%/7% 60% vs 20% gives 52%/12% 60% vs 30% gives 47%/16% 60% vs 40% gives 41%/21% 60% vs 50% gives 36%/26% 60% vs 60% gives 31%/31% 60% vs 70% gives 26%/36% 60% vs 80% gives 20%/40% 60% vs 90% gives 15%/45% 70% vs 10% gives 66%/6% 70% vs 20% gives 59%/10% 70% vs 30% gives 54%/14% 70% vs 40% gives 48%/18% 70% vs 50% gives 42%/22% 70% vs 60% gives 36%/26% 70% vs 70% gives 30%/30% 70% vs 80% gives 24%/34% 70% vs 90% gives 18%/38% 80% vs 10% gives 74%/4% 80% vs 20% gives 67%/7% 80% vs 30% gives 61%/11% 80% vs 40% gives 54%/14% 80% vs 50% gives 47%/17% 80% vs 60% gives 40%/20% 80% vs 70% gives 34%/24% 80% vs 80% gives 27%/27% 80% vs 90% gives 20%/30% 90% vs 10% gives 83%/3% 90% vs 20% gives 75%/6% 90% vs 30% gives 68%/8% 90% vs 40% gives 60%/11% 90% vs 50% gives 53%/13% 90% vs 60% gives 45%/15% 90% vs 70% gives 38%/18% 90% vs 80% gives 30%/20% 90% vs 90% gives 23%/23%

Sure. If you don't mind ties then just say that the same level of success has a tie. What that means in practice, however, is open to interpretation. The classic "Hide vs Spot Hidden/Scan" means the Hider has successfully hidden and the Spotter has successfully made a Scan. Does this mean he is seen or not? With Opposed Rolls, you work out how well he has hidden and how well he has been seen and compare the result. Depends on the game. Sometimes a few seconds working out if someone has succeeds increases the dramatic tension. Very easily. First of all, Opposed Rolls are not the same as Attack/Parry rolls, so don't get the two confused. A 90% skill has a better chance of scoring a critical or special than a 30% chance. So, it has a higher chance of winning an Opposed Contest using Levels of Success. Also, in the case of a tie, a 90% skill has more chance of making the roll by a higher margin than a 30% skill. The highest margin a 30% skill has of making a roll is 23% (a roll of 7) but a 90% skill has a highest margin of 71 (a roll of 19). In fact, any roll between 19 and 66 will beat the 30% skill on a normal success. The trouble is you can't always draw. Sometimes a draw makes no sense whatsoever. I suppose you could reroll on a draw but that might spoil the dramatic moment again.

90% vs 30% gives 83%/17%. I.e. the 90% will win an opposed roll 83% of the time. 10% vs 10% gives 50%/50% 10% vs 20% gives 41%/59% 10% vs 30% gives 33%/66% 10% vs 40% gives 26%/74% 10% vs 50% gives 20%/80% 10% vs 60% gives 14%/85% 10% vs 70% gives 10%/90% 10% vs 80% gives 6%/93% 10% vs 90% gives 4%/96% 20% vs 10% gives 59%/41% 20% vs 20% gives 50%/50% 20% vs 30% gives 41%/58% 20% vs 40% gives 33%/66% 20% vs 50% gives 26%/73% 20% vs 60% gives 20%/80% 20% vs 70% gives 15%/85% 20% vs 80% gives 10%/89% 20% vs 90% gives 7%/92% 30% vs 10% gives 66%/33% 30% vs 20% gives 58%/41% 30% vs 30% gives 50%/50% 30% vs 40% gives 41%/58% 30% vs 50% gives 33%/66% 30% vs 60% gives 26%/73% 30% vs 70% gives 21%/79% 30% vs 80% gives 15%/84% 30% vs 90% gives 11%/88% 40% vs 10% gives 74%/26% 40% vs 20% gives 66%/33% 40% vs 30% gives 58%/41% 40% vs 40% gives 50%/50% 40% vs 50% gives 41%/58% 40% vs 60% gives 33%/66% 40% vs 70% gives 27%/73% 40% vs 80% gives 21%/79% 40% vs 90% gives 16%/83% 50% vs 10% gives 80%/20% 50% vs 20% gives 73%/26% 50% vs 30% gives 66%/33% 50% vs 40% gives 58%/41% 50% vs 50% gives 50%/50% 50% vs 60% gives 41%/58% 50% vs 70% gives 34%/66% 50% vs 80% gives 27%/72% 50% vs 90% gives 21%/78% 60% vs 10% gives 85%/14% 60% vs 20% gives 80%/20% 60% vs 30% gives 73%/26% 60% vs 40% gives 66%/33% 60% vs 50% gives 58%/41% 60% vs 60% gives 50%/50% 60% vs 70% gives 41%/58% 60% vs 80% gives 34%/65% 60% vs 90% gives 27%/72% 70% vs 10% gives 90%/10% 70% vs 20% gives 85%/15% 70% vs 30% gives 79%/21% 70% vs 40% gives 73%/27% 70% vs 50% gives 66%/34% 70% vs 60% gives 58%/41% 70% vs 70% gives 50%/50% 70% vs 80% gives 41%/58% 70% vs 90% gives 34%/65% 80% vs 10% gives 93%/6% 80% vs 20% gives 89%/10% 80% vs 30% gives 84%/15% 80% vs 40% gives 79%/21% 80% vs 50% gives 72%/27% 80% vs 60% gives 65%/34% 80% vs 70% gives 58%/41% 80% vs 80% gives 50%/50% 80% vs 90% gives 41%/58% 90% vs 10% gives 96%/4% 90% vs 20% gives 92%/7% 90% vs 30% gives 88%/11% 90% vs 40% gives 83%/16% 90% vs 50% gives 78%/21% 90% vs 60% gives 72%/27% 90% vs 70% gives 65%/34% 90% vs 80% gives 58%/41% 90% vs 90% gives 50%/50%

By the way, is BRP still using 1/5th Special, 1/20th Critical? What about Fumbles? Are they still 1/20th of the failure chance? I feel it's time for some concrete examples of skill vs skill rather than wishy-washy probabilities.

There's no Hard Maths involved. Believe me, I've done some hard maths (although not too hard) and this isn't it. A critical success beats a special, normal, failure or fumble. A special success beats a normal, failure or fumble. A normal success beats a failure of fumble. A failure beats a fumble. Simple, assuming you can work out whether you've succeeded/failed/fumbled/specialed/criticaled. If you get the same result (i.e. both Fumble, both Fail, both succeed normally, both special or both critical) then you have to work out who has done better. I prefer "succeeded by most", other people prefer "highest roll", they are the same. Normally it doesn't take much calculation to work out "succeeded by most" and no calculation to work out "highest roll". So, where's the problem? I'm not sure about the loser's level of success having an effect on the victor's levelm of success as I don't have BRP yet. presumably that is to differentiate a critical vs special from a critical vs failure, for example. It's pretty irrelevant if that's the case as BRP doesn't have any meaningful rules for effects based on differences between levels of success.

Somebody described Hero Wars as "Roleplaying the Combat and Powergaming the Roleplaying" which is about right. HeroQuest (the game) does a much better job.

Let's try again ..... Absolutely. That's why I said that HeroQuesting and Powerful Gaming are not the same thing. In fact, High Level Gaming and Powerful Gaming aren't really the same thing either. A character can have skills of 50% and act heroically and another can have skills of 300% and still act in a boring, uninspired way. I know, I've seen both. Heroism is in what you do and how you do it, not in how skilled you are. I always try and persuade my players to be more heroic. Sometimes it takes longer than others. My current gaming group will probably never act Heroically, no matter what their skill levels as they don't have the mindset for it. My previous gaming group probably couldn't act Unheroically, even if they tried. Well, yes and no. HeroQuesting in essence should be the same regardless of skill/ability/power level. An initiate on a HeroQuest is as much a HeroQuestor as the Red Goddess slotting herself into the world. But, there are areas where skill/power has its advantages. Somebody HeroQuesting into other realms where immortals live will need high skills/powers to keep up and compete. It's all very well sneaking into the next village and persuading the chief to let you sleep with his daughter and lend you his prize bull, all it takes is a couple of Fast Talks, a Seduce and a Run Away roll. But, try the same Quest in the Land of Faerie where the chief of the village shows you a row of heads on spikes of all the other young men who came to sleep with his daughter and borrow his prize bull and it's a different matter entirely. It's easy to fool normal people, but difficult to fool someone with Sense vagabond 200%. If you HeroQuest at Heroically high levels, you need the skills and abilities to back it up. Period. Full stop. There's no getting away from it. You can have your whole village supporting you, but if you go against Ares and try to kick seven bells out of him, you need to be able to. But, you have a good point about personality, obligations and politics. Politics is normally a background thing where HeroQuesting is concerned. You may be HeroQuesting in support of, against or to circumvent various political powers. How you succeed in the politics can define how much you are supported/opposed and may even determine the quality of your opponents. Obligations are important on many levels. Your relationships to your clan/village/city/nation/cult will determine how much support you get on the Quest. Your personal relationships with comrades determine whether you get Companions on the Quest. Your obligations to others may influence what you do on the Quest. A Yelmalian with "Never let an elf suffer needlessly" must make a value-judgement as to whether the elf being slowly roasted alive on a spit is needlessly suffering or whether the need is there, then you must decide whether to help him or leave him to be eaten. Sometimes obligations can make a Quest veer off into unexpected areas or can even force somebody to fail the Quest. Personality is also something that affects a HeroQuest, or can affect a HeroQuest. It isn't the overriding thing on a Quest but it can have an effect. If you are doing one of the many "Storm God steals a maiden from her home" Quests and you have a nice, warm, friendly side and wouldn't hurt a fly then you are likely to have a different outcome to the big, brash, heartless brute. In all likelihood, the short-term outcome will be the same but the deflowered maiden may stay with the first and curse the second. HeroQuest (the Game) covers this very well with Relationships and Personality Traits having the same weight as Skills and Abilities. BRP doesn't quite have that depth in mapping personality and relationships, but there's no reason why it can't. I had looked in all the RQ3 supplements and pulled out stat summaries of all the nasty greeblies. That's the bit that took an hour and died. Fortunately, I've brought by DVDs to work to check the PDFs. Unfortunately, my PC only reads CD-ROMs, so it will have to wait until another day.