colinabrett

I've just uploaded a PDF of my BRP/CP2020 rules to the Sci-Fi/Other downloads section. It's also hosted on my own website at CP 2020 . In the future, I will be converting my old CP2020 campaign to this ruleset - I needed a baseline to work from - and will upload any adventures to this site.

I hope this proves useful.

Regards,

Colin

I'm running out of ideas.

Attached is a timeline history of a cyberpunk future. It runs to 2046 "The Present" because, way back in 1997 I ran a CP2020 campaign set in 2027, thirty years into the future, so I thought I'd continue that tradition.

Colin

history.txt

Some fluff to go with the crunch I've posted up here recently. Attached is an overview of some of the corporations in the 21st Century and a description of how the world became the way it is ...

PLEASE NOTE: I have no pro- or anti-corporate or pro/anti government agenda in these notes (or, indeed, in real life). My only intent is to describe some interesting background for a campaign.

As ever, any feedback would be welcomed.

Colin

corporations.txt

15 hours ago, Questbird said:

As for dehumanizing influences in cyberpunk -- it's not just cyberware, it's also selling out to the megacorps, treating humans like insects, addiction to various online or offline substances etc.

And addiction to cybernetic augmentation. A character can have an arm fitted and think "that looks cool but I need something to balance it out on the other side". (I've known people do something similar with tattoos.) 

It's interesting to read the discussions of "what constitutes cyberpunk" and "metal versus meat". I don't think I'm well-enough read to contribute to those discussions, so I'll just add my draft notes on the subject. The cyberware.txt file includes: Techno Allegiance; thoughts on Cyberpsychosis (I like @SDLeary's idea of "living the life of a hermit" as a temporary insanity); a list of devices from various sources; skill chips; and an example character.

A lot of this is pure guesswork and has not been tested in a real game. I'd appreciate any feedback.

Regards,

Colin

cyberware.txt

I've just had a thought about "cyberware costs SAN". It could be done the opposite way.

Rather than taking SAN, cyberware adds to a "Techno" Allegiance score. The more cyberware is added, the higher Techno Allegiance becomes. The benefits of Allegiance, described on BGB p.316-317, might need some work, however, as Allegiance points can be expended: cyberware is a permanent implant, so the Allegiance points should also be permanent. When the score reaches 100, Apotheosis would equate to a CP2020 "full borg conversion".

The "balance point" for this approach would be to make (some, if not all) Cyberware cost Power Points e.g. a reflex booster might cost 2 PP per combat round it is activated to give +2 to the character's initiative rolls or strike ranks.

EDIT: Thinking about it, if a character with +50 Techno Allegiance draws on 10% of that total for increased Power Points, Allegiance decreases by 5 points, and this could be seen as the struggle between man and machine aspects. Cyberpsychosis could occur when Techno Allegiance exceeds the character's SAN.

Would this be workable, do you think?

Colin

Hi All,

I've put some more work into the Netrunning/Hacking rules. Attached is a plain text file, which is quite long. It covers cyberdecks, systems, programs, the basics of netrunning and cybercombat. It touches on AIs as NPCs.

As before, I'd appreciate any thoughts and suggestions. 

Next stage is cyberware/bionics/augmetics and I will use the "cyberware costs SAN" rules and try to work in something new.

Regards,

Colin

cybernet2.txt

Hi All,

Attached is a very rough draft of the computer hacking rules. It needs an awful lot of tidying up but I thought I'd post this version and ask for feedback if anyone can contribute.

In essence, computer systems and cyberdecks are treated as NPCs (with most standard characteristics) and cybercombat works like Magic: a skill roll to get a program running, then a Resistance Table roll to see if the program takes effect. I thought this was the simplest way of approaching the problem but I'm open to suggestions.

Regards,

Colin

cybernet1.txt

I've started work on this and have made some progress with roles and skills. Attached are two plain text files which may be useful. Also, I found these links:

1) Sandy Antunes' Cyberthulhu rules

https://www.rpg.net/realm/cyber

A PDF available at:

https://img.fireden.net/tg/image/1461/69/1461696561546.pdf
 

I have emailed Sandy regarding his Cyberthulhu rules for "Cyberware costs SAN" and hope to have permission to borrow those ideas. 

The next step is Netrunning. I've had the idea of the hacker's presence in cyberspace represented as an icon with a full set of characteristics and therefore being able to make Cybercombat the same as physical combat. Would this be viable?

Regards,

Colin

roles.txt

skills.txt

I'd love to see a "Moorcock's Multiverse" game, with source material for Elric, Corum and Hawkmoon, along with the other Champions (a Jerry Cornelius game would be amazing).

The only thing I'd like to see a return to is the Rank-based magic used in third edition. I admit this is entirely subjective (SB3 was the first game I ever ran and I still have a strong emotional attachment to the rules, the NPCs and the scenarios at the back). It may not be to everyone's taste, and I don't know if current rules would support such a system, but it was clear in the Elric saga that magic was incredibly risky: a sorcerer risked his Sanity and his very soul dealing with supernatural entities. It took a lot of hard work (and literal sacrifice) to rise up the sorcerous ranks.

It's great news that Chaosium are in talks with Moorcock about this. I hope they come to a satisfactory arrangement for all concerned.

Colin

18 minutes ago, g33k said:

Cyberpunk tends to center on tech/gear issues, which you'll need to take care to keep in mind and in the game-theme in-play...  Offhand, I don't recall any BRP systems that will inherently support this (where some of the dedicated cyberpunk games do, with "cyberpsychosis" & "humanity" & "essence"  and so forth).

 

You could use SAN as the humanity-loss factor. Years ago, Sandy Antunes wrote a home-brew "Cyberthulhu" ruleset. This had cyberware implants causing loss of SAN. I used the same idea in my BRP/40K crossover rules. (I remember asking for permission to borrow the idea but never got a reply.)

Regarding the difference between cyberware and bioware, IIRC, in Shadowrun, bioware cost lower essence loss than the equivalent cyberware device. 

Colin

24 minutes ago, smiorgan said:

Totally understandable decision. And not surprising. It is very interesting that Chaosium is open to "licensed" Magic World products. That's the real news in my view.

Agreed. The follow-up question, of course, would be: can we on this board collaborate to produce "licensed" Magic World products? This is not a idle question. I'd be keen on getting involved on such projects but have no idea where to start.

Colin

If CHA is taken as a measure of the character's personality, then it could be used as the basis of range and area of effect of certain spells, as these are often governed by POW. If there's one thing all practitioners of magic agree upon, it's that magic is an intensely personal business 

Colin

I seem to recall my games groups called them by the setting name. So Stormbringer was Stormbringer, CoC was Cthulhu and so on. We could see the close relationship between the systems but I don't recall ever calling them BRP.

Maybe that's as @Baulderstone says above, "Basic Roleplaying is a flat, unexciting name". However, the system itself "fades away" so you're free to immerse yourself in the game world, concentrate on the adventure and roleplay your character without having to wonder whether "STR in CoC is more important than in Stormbringer" or any of myriad other questions. And that's the best thing about BRP in general. When talking about names that have a "nice enough 'ring' to it to trip off the tongue" (my words, so my fault) we're getting into marketing-speak, buzz-words and "mindshare" in the RPG community. None of which I'm qualified to speak about.  . How do you market something that's "invisible" (by which I mean "fades into the background) to the people playing it?

Colin

8 minutes ago, Mankcam said:

A good enough reason to change it, especially if it has been referred to as BRP for almost three decades by the publishers, yet hardly anyone in gaming stores actually calls it that

(Excluding GMs who frequent online gaming forums )

The Chaosium System ( "Système Chaosium" ) or The D100 System ( "Système d100" ) both work reasonably well if Worlds of Wonder is off the table. I would go for WoW D100...

D100 Essentials? Chaosium Essentials? I'm looking forward to the release of BRP Essentials (no matter the name), I just wonder if either of these options has a nice enough "ring" to it to trip off the tongue and be instantly recognisable in conversation. 

Colin

I ran a long term CP2020 campaign, mixed with elements of Shadowrun, a sort of Shadowpunk, if you will. I dropped the magic but kept some of the corporations and the background from the Seattle Sourcebook.

For BRP, I'd go with CP2020, as all you really need is the core rulebook: there's enough background and scenario nuggets in there to get you started. All you need to do is advance the timeline twenty years or so (as 2020 is only 4 years away!).

TBH, I've been thinking of converting CP2020 for a while now. I have other irons in the fire at the moment but thoughts are bubbling away already! I'll happily collaborate if you're interested.

Colin

Hi @Chaot,

My son has just expressed an interest in GMing a Pokemon campaign. Do you mind if I borrow the rules you've posted already and pass them on for him to use?

Regards,

Colin

20 hours ago, Archivist said:

What, if anything, is on the horizon for a generic BRP-based system? Like the BRP Gold Book but actively supported?

• Chaosium is supposed to be coming up with an "Essentials", but I don't know how broadly generic that will be or when it will come out

I'm hoping BRP Essentials will be a generic-ified version of Magic World which, for me, scratches every BRP-related itch I've had since Stormbringer 3rd ed. Perhaps with a few modern and sci-fi skills added. Then, setting guides (akin to the Southern Reaches chapter in Magic World) for the various genres.  

Colin

49 minutes ago, Questbird said:

Thank goodness! A linux developer. However, I didn't see anything in your google drive folder..

I wouldn't call myself a Linux developer. I'm actually a systems administrator but I'm unemployed at the moment, so I'm keeping occupied with programming and other projects.

Anyway, the link in my post should take you to a folder called RPG, and the brp_chargen.zip file should be there. If that doesn't work, you could also try

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B20DonclZ79dajA3ZFNXMlJIalE/view?usp=sharing

If that fails, I can email you the zip file. You can drop me a line at colinabrett AT gmail.com and I'll reply with the attachment.

Regards,

Colin

For anyone who's interested, here is a link to my Python scripts on Google Drive.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B20DonclZ79dZ0JaSHc0YThTZkU

You'll find a file called brp_chargen.zip (about 4Kb). Download this file and unzip it. It uses Python 3, as the 2.7 version is now considered to be legacy. On Unix/Linux systems, you should be able to use

./brp_chargen.py -r human

On Windows, use something like

python3 brp_chargen -r human

There's also a caller.py file which allows you to roll combinations of dice and modifiers (like 4d6 and drop the lowest roll, to get a 3-18 range suitable for most BRP stats).

To @dragonewt and @Questbird - thanks for the information. I was aware of Kivy but it was a nightmare to get running on my Linux box. Godot might be a better alternative.

Colin

On 14/06/2016 at 5:40 PM, clarence said:

Are there any coders here on the forum?

Slight necro on this thread (sorry). I've been working with Python over the last few weeks and, so far, I have a script that will do something like this:

223 colin@rokk> ./brp_chargen.py -r human
Characteristics
    STR [7] CON [9] SIZ [16] INT [14] POW [9] DEX [13] APP [12] EDU [10] 
Characteristic Rolls
    Effort 35% Stamina 45% Idea 70% Luck 45% Agility 65% Charisma 60% Know 50% 
MW Skill Category Modifiers
    Physical 4% Communication 6% Knowledge 7% Manipulation 7% Perception 5% 
BRP Skill Category Bonuses
    Combat 4% Communication 5% Manipulation 4% Mental 4% Perception 4% Physical -1% 
224 colin@rokk> 
It generates basic stats for humans, Elves and Dwarfs, calculates their Idea, Luck (etc) rolls and the bonuses or penalties of skill categories for BRP and Magic World-style skill groups.

The next step is to "appify" it to run on Android - iPhone is beyond me I'm afraid. Once I have that accomplished, I can add skill generators and dice rollers as needed. But I really need to see BRP Space in its final form (whether BRP-based, BRP Essentials-based or whatever) before I can get into the details.

I can make the scripts available if anyone (maybe Questbird?) is interested.

Regards,

Colin

19 hours ago, Mankcam said:

I think this is all there is Colin. The word docs don't have any art, and whole chapters can be inserted into your own work, it is very versatile : http://openquest.d101games.com/openquest-srd/

That's what I was looking for. Thanks, Mankcam.

Colin

2 hours ago, clarence said:

My own goal is to write a few scenarios as BRP Space has been published, but hopefully I can get additional material from others as well (yes, that's an invitation to write!). 

Hi Clarence,

I'll happily convert my own short Star Wars campaign to BRP Space, when you've decided which framework you'll be using. It was written for the BGB but - aside from removing any legally actionable Star Wars references - should be pretty easy to convert.

Colin

Can someone point out the Open Quest SRD, please? I have an OQ pdf (showing a warrior with battleaxe, a barbarian with a sword, and a female warrior with spear on the front cover). Is that the SRD or is there another, more genre-neutral or BGB-like version out on the interwebs?

Colin

22 hours ago, clarence said:

Are there any coders here on the forum?

Clarence,

I know enough Perl scripting to write random number and character generators to use on a command line (available on my website) but nothing about app development. Perl can be made to run on Android tablets but I'm sure a better alternative could be found (Python, maybe, which is on my list of "things to make and do").

Colin