colinabrett

5 hours ago, tooley1chris said:

What do you good people think transport from Tindale to Shillingshead (about 45 miles) might cost?

That depends on if you want to avoid any "Imperial entanglements". 😁

On a more serious note, you might find the attached file useful. It's big. Sorry. About 17.5 Mb and 540 pages.  I found it here:

https://usir.salford.ac.uk/14831/1/D083029.pdf

It contains little snippets like:

The and charge for passing under the bridge at Marlow was
"one penny for each vessel passing under the
bridge laden with goods for sale exceeding in
value 40s." (37);
at Windsor:-
"Every ship passing under the bridge, laden with
wares for sale exceeding the value of 100s., is
to pay two pence." (38)
Charges were also made at the bridge of Maidenhead:-
"id. on every ship or boat laden with merchandise
passing under it." (39)
 

Where "s" represents shillings and "d" represents pence. So there may be charges for passing under bridges. There's this, as well:

The river was used for the conveyance of passengers in the twelfth
century; in 1198 the Sheriff of Shropshire paid 6s. 3d. for the hire of
a barge to carry the wife of one Griffin ap Rese from Bridgnorth to
Gloucester. (3)
 

Bridgnorth to Gloucester is about 60 miles, not much different from your Tindale to Shillingsford journey.

There are 12 pence in one shilling, so the journey from Bridgnorth to Gloucester would have cost (6x12)+3 or 63 pence

According to MW p.35, a loaf of fresh bread costs 1 Bronze. For this to be "affordable" in the middle ages, it would seem that 1 Bronze = 1 penny.  Therefore, Bridgnorth to Gloucester would be 63 Bronze, plus the costs of any bridges passed under. Roughly, this is 1 Bronze per mile.

Your journey from Tindale to Shillingshead is about 3/4 the distance of Bridgnorth to Gloucester, so the cost would be about 63 x .75 = 47 Bronze. Let's round that up to 50, say, to account for bridges and other taxes.

Now, I freely admit I've had a few pints tonight and the research was carried out very quickly. So I'm not terribly confident of the 1 Bronze = 1 pence conversion. However, you may be able to get some comparisons from the following links:

http://www.guildofstmichael.org/money/prices.html

http://medieval.ucdavis.edu/120D/Money.html

http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/society/city life/cost.html

http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/medprice.htm

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/default0.asp#mid

Price comparisons from these sites are mostly Renaissance-based. It depends on how "developed" you consider the society of the Southern Reaches to be.

Booze aside, I hope you find this useful.

Regards,

Colin

PS: If you need some more input with your Tindale project, please let me know.

D083029.pdf

Sean_RDP,

As a wise man once said:

Hi,

Hi @rsandford . Thanks for the feedback. 

I have run a couple of scenarios with it over the past few months. I might pretty them up and post them here. 

I think the 2046 rules need a clean up, so I might start on a "2050" iteration with simplified hacking rules, an expanded timeline, more corporations and a more detailed look at Techno Allegiance.

2019 has just begun, so I'll add it to my project list for the year.

Colin

35 minutes ago, Nick J. said:

This thread has me thinking about how the game would look if the only spells available were summon elemental, summon demon, and summon spirit? I'm kind of thinking it would function the same way as the sandestins in Jack Vance's Dying Earth or Lyonesse novels.

I think I've got one player who might balk - he loves his Deep Magic users, but I can envision some interesting dynamics in play.

Isn't this how magic worked in Stormbringer 3rd edition (and perhaps earlier). I seem to remember the rules saying, to the effect, that Man was incapable of performing magic in and of himself; he must summon demons and elementals and higher powers to do the magic for him.

Magic had its variety by allowing the player to choose the demon's form and some special powers.

Colin

Hi Seldak,

Welcome aboard.

I think the failings and character points apply to characters with Super Powers, as described on page 141 onwards.

Hope this helps

Colin

Designed for the Golden Grimoire campaign, with a mixture of Stormbringer 3 and BRP

PERIHELION - DEMON OF KNOWLEDGE
STR [0] CON [30] SIZ [5] INT [88] POW [17] DEX [0] CHA [15]
Hit Points = 30 Major Wound Level = 15 
Skills 
Language (Summoner's) 95% 

Language (Demon-tongue) 109% 
Language 1 (GM's choice) 145% 
Language 2 (GM's choice) 114% 
Language 3 (GM's choice) 116%
Knowledge (Region: Hell) 125% 
Knowledge (Demonology) 107% 
Knowledge 1 (GM's choice) 153%

Knowledge 2 (GM's choice) 121%, 
Knowledge 3 (GM's choice) 125%
Powers
Perihelion has 3 chaos powers.
1. Retrocognition - Seeing the Past (left hand mirror)
2. Scrying - Seeing the Present (centre mirror)
3. Clairvoyance - Seeing the Future (right hand mirror)

3 minutes ago, Atgxtg said:

I think Pinnacle owns it now and have adapted Savage Worlds to it.

Thanks for the information.

Colin

May I suggest, not knowing the who-owns-what-IP question, Fritz Lieber's Lankhmar (and by extension all of Nehwon)? It's a setting rich with most of the standard fantasy tropes (except elves and dwarfs) but filled with magic that has consequences, plane-hopping (e.g. Bazaar of the Bizarre and a few others), interfering gods,  meddlesome mages and even the possibility of ghouls as PCs. 

Aside from TSR's products, who might own the license to one of fantasy's leading lights?

Colin

Hi,

I am running a Chronicles of Future Earth 'campaign'. (I use air-quotes here because it was suggested and started at very short notice and lacks a lot of my usual planning.)

One of the players has asked about the metal-substitute Alagin. His character (a psionic) is interested in learning how to craft it (or, knowing the player, exploit it to his own benefit).

There is little information in the rules about it. CoFE page 46 has descriptions of the substance as "dark brown or jet black substance ... created - some say grown - by the mysterious Spider Folk." It is "vaguely translucent, and warm to the touch, as though alive."

CoFE p.17 says "Gardeners, producing raw materials, growing vocali, luminacts or alagin colonies in specially prepared environments."

So, where does it come from? Here are my thoughts so far:

It is clearly grown from organic materials. What if the Hsun are like 40K Tyranids? They dissolve organic components in vats of their own digestive fluids to produce a gruel of protoplasm. This is then mixed with inorganic material from their own chitinous shell, which is perhaps from natural shedding or harvesting from dead Hsun. The alagin colony is then psychically manipulated into many different shapes, from bizzare and beautiful sculptures, to plain ingots, sheets, blocks, rods and even wires. The shaped items are then left to 'air dry' in a Helium-enriched atmosphere. 

What do you all think? Any suggestions or official "canon" would be massively useful.

Thanks in advance,

Colin

Here are my 5 suggestions

1. Fey influences building to a crescendo ... can the PCs stop it?
2. Shadow wars between the Houses ... I've always liked a bit of espionage and assassination
3. Orcs found their own kingdom and disrupt the power balance ... The orcs have been reduced to primitives and this isn't fair in the eyes of a 40K Greenskin player 🙂
4. A Rime Isle (Fafhrd and the Mouser) location just off the southern edge of the map ... where planes and planets intersect
5. Parties, balls, galas and feasts ... as an excuse to let the characters' hair down

Colin

2 minutes ago, Atgxtg said:

But I don't think either band were aware of the RPG

Missed that bit of your original post. Sorry. (Note to self: Learn to read the whole post before replying 🙂 )

Colin

1 hour ago, Atgxtg said:

Wan't really written for Stormbringer, but for Elric (the character). I don't even know of BOC or Hawkwind were even aware of the RPG.

IIRC Hawkwind definitely were aware of Stormbringer/Elric. One of their albums is Chronicle of the Black Sword (of which I have a Live version on CD). I believe Michael Moorcock even played with Hawkwind. He mentions the band as "members of the Hawkwind orchestra" (my italics) in one of the Cornelius short stories where the Teddy Bear steam boat sails up the Thames and plays such loud music that the Houses of Parliament collapse!

My memory might be a bit hazy on some of these points as it's been a while since I read the stories.

Colin

23 hours ago, Stoatbringer said:

So why not run your own Magic World style game where refugees come from a "world that was consumed by chaos"? You are the GM. 

Well put!

I had thought of using a previously unknown island off the cost of the Southern Reaches as a staging post for a Spelljammer inspired campaign, similar to the Rock of Bral (in the Spelljammer setting) or even Rime Isle in Nehwhon (Fafhrd and the Mouser).

Surely, so long as we don't publish or attempt to sell our campaigns, we wouldn't be infringing IP rights. IANAL so if anyone can clarify this, I'd be interested in knowing more.

Colin

7 minutes ago, Stoatbringer said:

After reading this thread I thought why not have Stormbringer characters escape the end of the world by taking the moonbeam roads to The Southern Reaches of Magic World? It would save time on any rules conversion as the rules are very similar.  

Couldn't escaping characters end up in any BRP-based world? Imagine a group of barely-sane Pan Tangians ending up in the Chronicles of Future Earth setting, for example. Perhaps they would be chased by a group of Lawful PCs intent on stopping the Pan Tangians spreading their own particular brand of Chaos in a new world.

Colin

I downloaded a couple of sets of rules many years ago. One was written by Frederic Moulin and was hosted at Michigan State University. I don't know the author of the other set.

You might be able to find them on the Internet Archive http://archive.org/web/web.php .

Colin

I have a suite of Perl scripts I've written over the years to generate PCs and monsters for various BRP games. The abbreviated output looks like this:

11 colin@rokk> ./mkbrppc.pl --genre=fantasy --profession=wizard --race=human | ./npcstatblock.pl 
Name: normal fantasy human wizard 
Characteristics: STR [13] CON [11] SIZ [11] INT [11] POW [14] DEX [10] APP [6] EDU [15] 
SCB: Combat 1% Communication 1% Manipulation 1% Mental 5% Perception 3% Physical 0%
Combat: Hit Points=11 Major Wound Level=6 
Stat Rolls: Effort 65% Stamina 55% Idea 55% Luck 70% Agility 50% Charisma 30% Know 75% 
Derived: PP=14 XP=6 FP=24 SAN=70% DB=NONE MOV [10]
Skills:  Knowledge Occult 56%, Perform Rituals 46%, Language Other 21%, Craft Skill 21%, Knowledge 1 40%, Knowledge 2 30%, Insight 28%, Persuade 36%, Research 50%, Literacy 64% 
Powers: 
 Cast 4 Magic spells of the player's choice.
 Each has a starting level of 11 %.
Or
 Cast 6 Levels of Sorcery spells of the player's choice. 
 These spells have no starting skill level. They just *work*.
Bonus Skills:    27      34     24     21  
Possessions:
Notes:
12 colin@rokk> 
 

The  'Bonus Skills' numbers can be used by the GM to increase existing skills or add new ones. Now, this wizard isn't exactly great but I can always re-run the script until I get a 'better' result. Most of the NPCs used in the Golden Grimoire (Stormbringer) and Magic World campaigns were generated using these scripts.

Colin

A Critical causes double damage; a Special causes the weapon's special effects; so what would be the effect of an "Under Half Success"? Roll damage twice and take the higher result might work but that just increases the number of dice rolls. Or, an Under Half Success could automatically allow a riposte.

When applied to other skills, I can see how this would be useful. Perhaps on an Under Half Success, a particular task gets completed more quickly (even a couple of combat rounds could make all the difference in some cases) or has some other minor advantage.

As for a different name, I quite like "Solid Hit" or "Solid Success".

Hope this helps a bit.

Colin

3 hours ago, dieselpunk said:

One practical application is the morale check for enemies. Sometimes I want to leave it to chance to see if an enemy carries on a fight and willpower seems to be the right check. 

Welcome to BRP Central, dieselpunk!

I agree with Questbird that your use of POWx5 as a willpower check is a good idea. For morale, however, you can be a bit more flexible. POWx5 will work nicely but I often use INTx5 to see if the enemies are smart enough to run away if they're taking a kicking from the PCs. 

Hope this helps.

Colin

1 hour ago, Jason Durall said:

Dustin also asked me if I'd be up for the equivalent of an Even More Basic Roleplaying book, but we never could get the stars to align for that. 

 

Does this mean that when the stars do align, there'll be no need for an Introduction to CoC ... because we'll all be living it 

Colin

4 hours ago, simonh said:

So what's left? Maybe an introductory book for CoC itself, in the mould of the RQ Quickstart. Is such a thing really needed though? CoC has managed for decades without it. Any such project should be measured on it's own merits, not for some sense of arbitrary symmetry in the product line. CRQ is a new upcoming product, so the Quickstart made sense from a marketing perspective and as a chance to market test some of the new mechanics but there's no such motivation for a CoC Quickstart.

So I'm not sure I really see the point.

Simon Hibbs

Surely "Introduction to CoC" or "Introduction to Roleplaying in Glorantha" are specific to the worlds or genres in which they are being played? It's great to have Intro to CoC if I want to play a modern-day horror game (with or without the Mythos) or a Glorantha introduction for fantasy worlds. 

But if I wanted to play in a science-fantasy world (like the 80's cartoon He Man and the Masters of the Universe) or a post-apocalyptic setting (like Mad Max or Gamma World) would either a CoC intro or RQG intro have all the material I need?

Hence the calls for an updated BRP/BGB, which I would support.

Colin

PS: I am probably getting "RuneQuest Glorantha" mixed up with CRQ (Chaosium RuneQuest?), which I confess is new to me, so apologies in advance.

@David Scott

That's the page that is missing from my copy. (Grumble, GW production quality, grumble).

Colin

Hi @Borejko

The title page of SB3 was painted by Peter Jones, as interviewed by John Blanche in White Dwarf 90 in June 1987 (thirty years ago! Arioch save me, I'm getting OLD ). Many of the other full-page colour and black-and-white illustrations are by Frank Brunner. Are you looking for something specific?

Regards,

Colin

Hello Borejko,

I have a copy of the Stormbringer 3rd ed rules (as I'm sure many others on this forum also possess). From my copy, which has admittedly fallen apart over the years but has all the pages, I can't see a list of "artist credits" which makes narrowing down the search a little tricky. Do you have a description of the illustration you're looking for? I can go through it page by page if need be.

Regards,

Colin

5 hours ago, Questbird said:

 

TL;DR

Roll d100

1 or 2 on the units die is a special. If the result is equal to or under your skill, special success; over and it's a special failure (optional)

If you roll an odd 'tens' result, eg 10, 30, 50 etc. which is equal to or under your skill, it's a critical success; an odd 'tens' result over your skill is a critical failure

That gives you three levels of success and failure. In this system critical failure replaces fumbles.

Outstanding! I had thought of something a bit simpler, however.

If the game's skills can't exceed 100, then a Fumble occurs on 00 (for skills => 50%) or 99-100 (for skills < 50%). A Mishap occurs on 99 (for skills => 50%) or 97-98 (for skills < 50%).

The same parameters can be used for skills over 100. This way, a super-skilled character (eg 150% in a skill) doesn't go from success to Fumble in a single step: there is a chance of something "slightly less disastrous" happening instead.

Note that these were just ideas: they have never really been tested in a game.

Colin

10 hours ago, Mankcam said:

I would really like to see the extra degree of success across the board in BRP games, rather than just CoC 7E. 

I've actually thought about having an extra level of failure. It seems quite drastic that a character can have a normal fail or a complete disaster. A "mishap" level, worse than a fail but not quite as bad as a fumble, to balance out the critical/special/success levels. 

Any thoughts?

Colin