RosenMcStern

In fact, physical runes can be a good idea in some settings. Next episode of Stupor Mundi will contain a Futhark rune adaptation of Mongoose Rune Magic. Nevertheless, the new HeroQuest rules will have a rune-based approach. I hope they really fixed what is wrong in the original approach.

Yes. There is nothing that scares players more than picking up D6s from all around the game table while saying "It is for the damage modifier." It improves PC stealth and diplomatic skills big time.

I am currently pondering about finding distribution channels for physical books in Europe. The problem is that I am afraid that shops are experiences the hardship of the financial crisis and are shutting down. One of the points of sale where Stupor Mundi is available on the shelves recently turned into an "Internet only" shop. So, even if I agree about having more BRP on the shelves is a good thing, we must first determine whether this strategy is viable.

Ahem, in fact that section is a bit too anatomically detailed. I'll have to censor it. :innocent: Just kidding. I do not think this is a problem for a good roleplaying group. I have given some ideas about how to mix social groups that despise each other in Stupor Mundi and will certainly provide more hints in Stupor Mundi 2 (the problem has already arisen during playtesting). I do not know how the terminology problem is handled in Aces High, but one way it can be handled is to use a "politically correct" term for ethnic minorities in the text, and let the NPCs use the offensive words, i.e. say "Native americans" in the text and "Red skins" when a characters is speaking. As for finding a good reason why your character would get along with an "Amerind", well, I recall the US Army used lots of native scouts during the Indian wars.

Looks like Charlie is becoming serious about supporting BRP. What wonderful news!

If you are familiar with RQ3, you can also opt to use the MRQ SRD (the Luxury edition downloadable from this site is a good compendium, and it is free to use under the OGL). All three magic systems are usable although they require some tweak (see the MRQ Wiki for suggested corrections), and the enchanting system is one of the easiest and more playable I have ever found in a D100 system. Unfortunately, the rules for Shamanism are in the Cults of Glorantha vol. 2 book, which is NOT free. A shame because they are good and not too Gloranthan.

Chaosium license requires third parties to publish one supplement per year, it is not limited to a one-shot supplement. So we are talking about both Rome and something new that will appear next year. True to a limited extent. The first books were a bit generic-flavoured although full of nice game ideas, but when Jeff K, Loz and Shannon Appel dropped in the Old Way was restored.

Hmmm, I would go for another explanation, instead. Most superobots created in the 80's used a "Final" weapon, i.e. finished off their enemies always with the same weapon, unlike Mazinger did. Notable examples: Daitarn, Zambot, Darutaniasu, God Sigma, Golion (Voltron), Goshogun, Trider. Some of these weapons were energy blasts, some were swords, some were a mix of this. And all shared the same characteristic: the opponent had no opportunity to fight back, it just stood there and was vaporized/bisected/quadrisected. Voltron is possibly a bit different in that it put up a bit of a fight with its sword, but that's all. I think the point here is not that using such weapons require a powerup time, it is rather that the weapon is "one shot", i.e. once the superobot activates it, it burns out most of its energy in a short time, so it must be sure to kill the enemy mecha with just a single blow or it will not be able to use the weapon again until the next combat. This actually means that the opponent must have been disabled or stunned somehow with inferior weapons before the final one is drawn. So you could try the following trick: assuming Golion/Voltron has 200 PP, it costs it, say 100 PP to activate the sword and 10 PP per blow to strike with it (just 5 PP per round to keep it active) while the other weapons are just 1-2 PP per round to use. This way if it does draw the sword too early and cannot kill the robobeast with the first two or three blows, it might be easily forced to retreat in order to recharge. More extreme example: Darutaniasu has 150 PP, and it costs it 5 PP per turn to use its steel blade (1d10+db) and 80 PP to use its flaming sword (10d10+db) per single attack. It is easy to guess which weapon is best used to kill, but better wait until the blow cannot miss!

Well, a bit costly (if compared to Mongoose's, which is essentially a zero-cost license), but agreeable. I myself have renegotiated something.

Another good reason why third party support would (no, will) provide better support to BRP. There's no incentive to the writer to promote his stuff, and if Chaosium does not do it by itself (and due to time constraints they do not do it fast, in any case) it is less likely that the author does promote that much.

This is showcasing a problem that no one has ever raised (well, except frogspawner once). Chaosium is not "pushing" BRP products through some channels. It does not sell BRP related products on DriveThru/RpGNow. It does not sell BRP Monographs on Amazon or other e-shops. As a result, I am afraid that Ashes, to Ashes has received less enthusiasm than it deserved. This on the other hand leaves more room for third party publishers, as we do not compete with Chaosium itself on the e-shops. Please note that with the OGL we are forced to compete with WotC or Mongoose themselves on their terrain, as they sell via OneBookShelf, too. I think this was an intentional move by Chaosium, suggesting that they rely more heavily on third parties for BRP than they do on CoC. But the final effect is that monographs are somehow underrated in their appeal to the public, which in some cases is a real shame. It also means that the average product is a bit more costly than it should, as independent publishers have higher printing costs than companies. Luckily we have PDFs too.

Yeah, that's just covered by the rules: using a skill in a way that puts you at a stake is worth an XP check, casual use is not. The rules are clear about this, whether you let your players abuse them is a matter of your style as a GM. Typical abuse in my campaign was casting Disruption at a fleeing enemy to raise POW On the other hand, the point about increasing one's Stealth skills by killing 17.5 ocs still stands - and it isn't covered by the rules.

But, since you are not a newbie, what's your need for encouraging advice? Many members here do not have 20 years' experience with BRP-related systems. Shuldn't you be giving advice to them? Now this is good advice. It looks like you were more useful to us than we were to you.

There is a simple rule for this (p. 224): firing while engaged in melee is Difficult, but the point blank bonus offsets the penalty. So your character is at exactly the same chance to hit as before, not counting the -20% for shooting into melee. Of course you must describe the situation to make your judging look fair: describe the fact that he is approaching the monster (an Agility roll or Dodge could be an idea, as suggested), emphasize the fact that the monster is not a static target, and that there is a weak spot between the scales/crests/whatever that protect the monster, but keeping the gun barrel aimed at it while the creature is flaying his friend is hard. Then have him roll against his Combat Reflexes (Firearms skill) to shoot exactly at the moment the gun is touching the moving weak spot. Then give a bonus to damage (autmatic impale or ignore armor) if the roll succeeds. In any case, the penalty should be bigger than the bonus, or else your players could turn it into an established tactics: "Ok, who is grappling with the Bogeyman this time, while the others go point blank against it?"

IANAL, but isn't this a good justification to ask for a divorce in most courts?

:shocked: OMG, Frogspawner actually supporting me? Repent, O sinners! The End of the World is near! Dalmuti, I think that all of your points are simply disqualified by your calling me words (albeit under the cover of dashes). I have argumented against your views, but you are just attacking my person. This does not make me angry, it simply makes your words less appealing to most listeners, I suppose. Which is a pity because I appreciated many of the ideas you expressed in your first post in this thread. I am not defending Chaosium for the sake of it. I have been their customer for 20+ years (and will be their licensee as soon as the contract I sent this morning comes back from California), and I know they do publish errata. We had the RQ3 errata after some time, didn't we? And six editions of CoC, and five of SB. So there is no reason to think they will not publish an errata once they have a good idea about what is to be fixed. Of course, not all that Charlie, Greg (when he was still in charge) & co. did during the years was right. Steve Jackson understood the market value of a generalist system sooner than them, and now the gap between BRP and GURPS is almost impossible to fill, despite the system being easier and more flexible. But this happened 20 years ago, and now people at Chaosium have understood their mistake. Too little too late? Time, and not our rants on this forum, will tell.

This happened for MRQ, and some of the corrections were worse than the mistakes they were trying to fix. We have some errata on the wiki, and an official errata will come, but that is not mission critical. More settings, yes. More hi-tech-specific rules, yes. But the rules are fine as they are. Believe me, if my group likes them, they are good as they are.

Yes, this is a good point. You have plenty of GURPS/Traveller materials but only scattered bits for BRP, Outpost19 being the notable exception. Well, what about a book for mechas, for instance? This subject has resurfaced many times on this forum.

Newt said it all. Someone may have been impressed by how many books Mongoose published for MRQ (and WotC for D&D 4e), but this does not mean that BRP requires that amount of stuff to survive. There is a fair amount of D100 stuff on the shelves, so the system is not "unsupported". Remember that besides Cqll of Cthulhui, you can use anything written by Mongoose with BRP (and in fact most of us old-schoolers do it!). Another fantasy setting could help, but as we already have Glorantha, the Moorcock Multiverse and Lankhmar for MRQ, I think any Fantasy-thirsty D100 gamer has enough products to read and use. What? Ah, you say that in this way Chaosium did the work on the system and Mongoose gets all the money? Well this is Charlie's problem, not ours

Ah, I rolled 65, I hit! Now 1d8+1+1d4 for damage, 11 points. Whaddayamean with "a scratch"!? He is wearing chainmail, so? It is - uh - 7 points, and do you mean his skin is armor, too? Now what, parry his Big Scary Club with my sword? And what happens if miss? Will he scratch me too? No? Whaddayamean when I attack? I am DEX Rank 15, I am fast. Pixie is faster? Well never mind, I'll parry. Ah, parried, always this boring 70%. Whaddayamean with "The whip entangled your sword"? I parried. He wanted me to parry? Oh, well, I'll just kill the little bugger. I hit, I rolled 60. Whaddayamean with "Using what weapon?" With my sword of course! It's entangled? Rolling on what table to free it? Damn little - how did you say it's called? Runner? - damn little ****ing runner! I'll just hack him in half with my Great Axe. My Strike Rank? It's six. He hits at SR six, too? Well, what's the problem? I cannot parry on the same SR I attack? Well, so does he. Weapon and shield? What a coward! Well, I am a real man and I attack without parrying. I hit, rolled 45. He parried? Coward! Well, his turn now. Whaddayamean with "severed arm"? Use the techniques above and nothing will look unrewarding

The point is that it is not easier to hit a big and slow target in melee. Maybe you have some bonuses with a ranged weapon, but you don't just miss a punch "because target is small". The point is that the target reacted and was out of the way when your punch hit, and being small and fast helped him. D&D abstracts all this into the target number (AC) which includes both armor and dodging capabilities, while BRP uses a two-roll mechanics like GURPS (whereas GURPS keeps the armor in the equation by adding it to the defense roll instead of subtracting it to the attack roll). I think the solution is just to provide a challenge to your players by using good dodgers (trollkin, pixies, goblins) as opponents and showing them that small fast opponents actually are difficult to hit because they dodge. (PC: "I squash the goblin with my maul!" GM: [Rolls a successful Dodge at 70%] "He's too fast to hit easily, you need a special success to strike him.")The moment they learn the trick of ganging up on one of those pesky critters to lower his Dodge they shall start to "grok" BRP.

Ahem, the complementary skill rule is already present in Basic Roleplaying. A good idea borrowed from HeroQuest augmentations. I think it should be used often.

I have statted the most classical Go Nagai Mechas in the thread below. Obviously everything is my personal view. http://basicroleplaying.com/forum/basic-roleplaying/873-anime-superobots.html Macross or Universal Century Mechas could be even more interesting, but remember there is a big copyright problem with this stuff.

Bump.

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