colinabrett

The BRP Necronomicon, perhaps Colin

I'd be interested in helping out. Stormbringer is still my favourite RPG, even after all these years. Colin

There are a couple of threads around here dealing with Cyberpunk. One of those led to me creating Cyberpunk 2046 , which might help get you started. After the discussions in the earlier threads, I devised "Techno Allegiance": rather than losing Humanity or SAN, the cybered-up character gains Techno Allegiance points (similar to other allegiances) and eventually leads to apotheosis as a "full borg" conversion. Hope this helps. Colin

Glad to see I'm not alone in feeling a bit let down at the moment. I have written crossovers for 40K RPGs and Cyberpunk 2020. The latter contains Elves, Dwarfs and so on ready for Shadowrun-esque games. You might find them useful. Colin

@g33k and @atgxtg Good points and food for thought for my next campaign. Colin

Maybe it's the wargamer side of me that accepts "one hit, one kill", which is why I don't use hit locations. As a rough illustration, the average human in BRP (SIZ 10, CON 10) has 10 or 11 Hit Points. A broadsword does D8+1 or an average of 5.5 (before any damage bonus); a medium pistol does D8, for an average of 4.5. The broadsword hit is enough to half kill our average human, the pistol only needs a slightly above average roll for the same effect. So my point is that, given that the target is half dead, does it really matter where he was hit? Colin

I had the opposite experience with my son. We had played several scenarios and settings with BRP/BGB and Magic World, then he expressed an interest in learning about AD&D (I have a load of 2nd Ed books) and Pathfinder. He wanted something "simple" he could DM for his friends. So we went through the character generation and a basic dungeon bash, after which we abandoned the whole concept and went back to Magic World. So, for newbies, I'd say D&D/Pathfinder are more complex than BRP. Given that the entire character generation process is summarised into a two page flow chart in the BGB, it seems to me that getting into the game with minimal fuss, is a major selling point for BRP. Colin

Thanks to all responders. I'm basically looking for a substitute for the BGB and Magic World. My play group couldn't really handle Mythras's crunchy bits (and tbh, neither can I :), so it looks like OpenQuest may be the way to go. Thanks, Colin

Are any parts of Mythras optional? Hit locations and combat special effects spring to mind as something I can live without: they add a level of crunch I'm not comfortable with. Would dropping either of these have a wide-ranging impact on a campaign? At the moment, I don't have the full-blown Mythras, just the Mythras Imperative download. Does the full version handle selectively ignoring some sections of the rules? Regards, Colin

@Questbird and I made some progress but real life has gotten in the way. We're trying to get "back in the saddle" but other commitments keep getting in the way. Colin

I came up with some ideas for gaining POW (and other characteristics) based on Stormbringer 3rd edition. In the Chaosium/Games Workshop Stormbringer rules (third edition or SB3) there was a way of a Priest (of whatever cult) gaining ELAN points for acting as his/her religion specified. When Elan reached 50 points, it could be converted into ONE point of the character's POW (with all the bonuses the POW increase also allowed). I thought this was a great idea and wondered how it could be applied to normal (i.e. not SB3 Priest) characters. My idea is this: Whenever a character successfully rolls to increase a skill (D6 points or similar) the player then has the option of increasing the skill by the amount rolled or adding the amount rolled to a "experience pool" of spare points. When this experience pool reaches 50 points, the player may increase the character's POW. STR. DEX (or whatever) by one (1). Over the course of time the character's skills rarely increase but his/her stats do. The player then has a choice between increasing a normal skill or investing in the characters natural attributes. The character must balance natural ability against learned skills. High skills or high stats: the character can't have both. This idea hasn't been tested in game play but I thought I'd throw it out there as a suggestion. Colin

I experimented with something like this for the BRP Lord of the Rings rules. You can find the file here . It's not tested at all but might be a starting point for you. Colin

A great write-up! Thanks for posting the link here. The only thing I disagree with (and this is pointed out by one of the commenters at ENworld) is that Stormbringer wasn't a demon weapon. It was just "created" with a different set of rules . The GW version of Stormbringer is the first RPG I ever ran as GM. Unfortunately, my rulebook fell apart and is now clipped into a 4-ring binder. (As an aside, the same happened with my copy of Warhammer 40000 Rogue Trader, so perhaps GW's production quality wasn't that great at the time.) I still love the rank-based magic system. The effort it took to increase in rank and the risks associated with dealing with demons remains one of my favourite mechanics. Colin

I voted Variable. As others have said, it's a Stormbringer/Elric thing. Colin

I don't know if this has been mentioned upthread but it looks brilliant: Digital Map of the Roman Empire . You can zoom in/out and pan the map in all directions. Colin

A great review for a wonderful piece of work. Well done, Clarence. Colin

Reading this thread, the idea came to me that Critical and Special successes could allow higher experience rolls. The BGB says the a successful experience roll is normally adds 1D6 but could be D8 or D10. Therefore, a normal success grants 1D6, a Special grants 1D8 and a Critical grants 1D10. Perhaps this way even a Fumble could provide experience rolls. When the character has a chance to think "Oh! So that's where it went horribly wrong," could grant a 1D4 (or 1D6-2) experience roll (in the latter case, the potential loss of skill indicates a clash of training versus experience ... "But I was taught that. Why did it go wrong? I'm confused now"). Colin

And then the campaign could become focussed on the underground/resistance movement(s) against the invaders. Opportunities arise for espionage and "spycraft" scenarios, resistance cells, out-and-out raid/sabotage actions, perhaps even a final confrontation between the PCs and the Evil Emperor (which I'm sure I've seen in a movie somewhere :-) Colin

If there was a generic BRP, we, the players and GMs, could create our own BRP content with a centrally-supported ruleset to hang it on. (Admittedly this is what the BGB is for but that's a hefty tome.) This is without having to buy RQ4/CoC and tweaking those rules to our setting. We'd probably be unable to sell our own content but it could be made available through BRP Central for others to play and adapt. Colin

Stealth dragons Regarding modern firepower and werewolves, the silver bullet would work, but which modern armed forces routinely equip troops with silver bullets? The various tropes of vampires being immune to normal weapons, were-creatures being vulnerable to silver, head-shots being most effective on zombies, and so on, could all be used to great effect. I could see the modern armies being pushed back quite severely, trading space for time, while scientists work with occultists to design some effective weapons. The magic system, I feel, would be sorcerous in nature and may even involve dealing with the Forces of Evil's rivals on another plane of existence in order to counter the invaders powers. A lot of esoteric research into "tomes of forbidden lore" (like the BGB, the D&D Monster Manuals) would be needed to find these evil creatures' weaknesses and launch a counter attack. Colin

The free PDF is still available, just a bit tricky to find. If the OP is interested, it can be found here

Back on topic (sort of). I must confess to having had some reservations about a 32-64 BRP Essentials book. The BGB, while hefty, covers everything and I felt a slim Essentials volume wouldn't be as versatile. Now, in working with @Vile on the scanning and conversion of Worlds of Wonder, I am frankly gobsmacked over the amount of material that can be crammed into just 32 (ish) pages. So, I'm glad to have had my reservations firmly staked with garlic in its mouth. If Worlds of Wonder (or even Essentials) comes to pass, I'll be there, cash in hand! Colin

@Vile I've finished the SuperWorld draft and emailed it to Rick. Colin

I've finished my copy of Magic World. As @Nakana says above, the PDF is incomplete but it might make a good start point. It has very basic formatting (which I hope someone more capable than I can make better) and runs to 21 pages. @Rick Meints: Should I upload them to this thread or would that encourage further illegal downloads? Colin PS: What is the preferred format? DOC or DOCX?

I'm working on the Magic World PDF. Colin