RosenMcStern

If you like precision, the best idea is to find one copy of the old RQ3 Creature Book, which has melee and missile hit location tables for all sort of creatures. Having a double location table at least for the basic four-legged animals, which are encountered quite often even in realistic settings, could be a good idea for everybody. Perhaps a good article for the next issue of Uncounted Worlds? However, since this involves usage of previously published materials that is technically still copyrighted by Chaosium (ok, you cannot copyright game mechanics, but reprinting the old tables with minimal changes would not be that fair), this is exactly the sort of thing that requires an explicit permission from Chaosium.

not easily compatible with modern MS Word 2008. I had to redo the whole thing as a Word 2003 document and then buy Acrobat Pro to get the document just right.

This is why we use only OpenOffice and Adobe products. No Micro$oft Incompatibleware

Monographs start making money after about 20 copies.

Maybe some more if some of the artwor is commissioned, but your point is correct.

In my experience, for licensees to put out quality books and not take a bath, layout and art cannot be outsourced for money up front. Money up front to outside people for these services jacks up the necessary sales of books to turn a profit into the thousands, because of how expensive it is.

In any case, third parties can produce books that are more ambitious than a monograph without incredible expenses. Quality is lower but still acceptable (do not forget that we old RQers have a Mystic Word of Power to make our artwork look nicer: DOBISKY)

Second Age or Third Age?

A mace is swung, not thrust, against an opponent, so it adds considerable momentum to the attack. A heavy gauntlet can have the same effect of a cestus, but it is not specifically designed for it. I would go for +1 to punch damage for plate gauntlets, +2 for special armor like powered armor (which also increases damage bonus). But I would also assign the Physical skill penalty to the Brawl skill of anyone who did not specifically train to brawl in heavy armor.

banks are still loaning out money to business at the same volume as they always have, they are just not being as helpful to individuals. :ohwell:

What is your source of info about this? Did you ever take loans as a company manager? In my regular job I have hard everyday evidence that banks are less inclined to give loans to companies, too.

a personal loan opens you up to too much liability, but would likely give one to Chaosium.

Dunno how it works in California, but here banks loan money to companies (at least small ones) only if a) the company's finance is healthy (they don't even know that something like "name in the industry" exists) the CEO or some stockholder signs a liability agreement in case the loan is not repaid.

It would be poor business to negotiate with Chaosium after the fact as I would again have no leverage.

Chaosium does not negotiate licenses. The conditions are already fixed, are rather favorable and are there for anyone to read.

Nor would it be good for them as they would not own the license. I also am not suggesting a "side" project I'm suggesting adding a real revenue stream aka. CoC

Did you check whether CoC started as a side project back in the days?

it was released without a a plan for the future and it's sinking like a stone.

Too early to say.

take out a big fat business loan and go for it.

Man, this is the WORST moment in the last 80 years to ask for a loan. Don't you read your newspapers? :confused:

If I owned the BRP I'd mortgage my mother to get the money to make this work.

No one prevents you from mortgaging your mother (except your mother, I hope) to buy the franchise and then negotiate with Chaosium for a BRP license for BRP. It costs 100 copies for each 500 copies you plan to sell, so less than 10% of the total revenue you expect from your game.

They expect third parties to publish stuff, not just to give advice. Your ideas are sensible, but if you think it's so easy to go out there and make business, just do it. I bet Dustin will love your products and grant you a license any moment. Ask him if you don't trust me.

A Troll chiming in.

Well said!!!

You get an experience check in Persuasion/Oratory/Whatever you use to phrase it right!

I only have a few points where I disagree, and here they are.

It is also true that CoC was likely the only one to make a real profit, but the other games were what companies call loss leaders,

RQ and Elric sold and sell well, it is just that they are now owned by another company. Interesting enough, that other company, which is one of the most successful non-WotC publishers of D20 stuff, is still publishing these two settings with its own D100 variant. There's a meaning in this.

They gave up RQ as well so they don't have an original world either.

Not exactly the truth. We all know what happened and it could have gone better, but that's how it went.

They should be looking at every popular/viable literary SF/Fantasy line right now and contact those writers to get them to sign off on a BRP RPG franchise. I could name a half dozen right now that would make excellent game worlds.

This is a perfect strategy, and I subscribe your opinion. But there is a non-trivial point: licenses for successful franchises cost money. Does Chaosium have enough bucks to buy a fresh franchise? Maybe yes, maybe no. Most, if not all, authors do not give away their intellectual property out of love. They usually like to get paid for it.

Check with Chaosium if they would be pleased with this first. This is not a supplement but a rules extension. BRP is not OGL.

In a medieval Guild-setting you might get a similar efect where anyone in a particular profession must belong to a particular Guild. It is probably more restrictive than the Glorantha-style model.

I might add that in the Real World each medieval guild had its patron saint, possibly a different one in each city. A saint is not a god in the Christian tradition, but a Christian character is usually portrayed as being a "Devotee of ST. xxxx" rules-wise, either in the HeroQuest game system (Mythic Russia) or in D100-based games. This means that even in a realistic setting, most members of a profession are devotees of a certain entity, be it god or saint.

This is an excellent point. If there were a handful of excellent websites like Val-du-Loup I believe that not only would a lot more people take notice (including Chaosium) but this would encourage more people to look into the game. I believe that Val-du-Loup really sets the bar for campaign websites and is snazzier than most rpg sites out there (including some official company websites). What is keeping people from doing this? We need to find out and correct this, which is a start.

Val-du-loup is a true mine of good ideas, and a valuable resource for medieval games. But not everyone is at ease with hypertexts, so having all the info compiled into a PDF (at affordable prices if sold) provides a more generally exploitable support.

How to write I cannot teach you (it's an art, not a science). And I could add that you don't need any lessons from me or anyone, as hundreds of people have been using your RPG materials for years. Layout and artwork I can provide for you, that's certain. And I bet that I'm not the only one. So just knock and the doors will open, Simon.

Aaahhh, self-publishing facilities are a refreshing breeeze for RPGs, aren't they?

What BRP needs is some third party support - which is why loosing Seraphim Guard and Dead World was such a shame.

Absolutely true. Seraphim Guard is an active indie publisher and was the first to throw third party materials into the arena when RQ went OGL. Losing its support was really bad news for BRP. Let's hope someone else takes its place.

To prevent the question: Alephtar Games has other plans at the moment.

These are the rules we use for our Dark Wind Knight campaign. The elements are clearly Gloranthan but the system can be adapted.

By expending one Power Point a Knight can materialize his preferred weapon from the raw element. It can be take the shape of an ethereal weapon made of the appropriate element, or it can merge with a physical weapon of the same type the knight is using, adding its bonuses. The weapon is unbreakable, can vanish at will and does damage depending on the element

Lightining blade: 1d(Darkvalour) damage, ignores armor but not magical protection, extra damage affects parrying weapon if parried

Stone shield: add another darkvalour to the AP of the weapon

Dark bludgeon: 1 point cold damage (like a shade) per 6 points darkvalour or fractions

Fire blade: 1d(Darkvalour) damage, armour protects until overheated

Water wave: 2d(Darkvalour), damage counts for knockback only

Moon blade: 1d(Darkvalour) Power Point damage, effects which protect from spells block this damage

Substitute Allegiance (Element) / 5 to Darkvalour and you have a template. Balance is not perfect, though.

Wow, such a fanzine was really needed! If and when I have a good BRP adventure that I don't want to self-publish I'll submit it to you, Nick. Just one suggestion: readability is not perfect because you made little use of boldface for chapters, paragraphs, etc. You could also use less spacing in stats blocks. I know it is a pain in hit location 09 to make a good layout with limited resources, but I bet your next issues will be even better than this one. :thumb:

This is the reason it's a shame BRP isn't OGL. We'd have seen a ton of published stuff form 3rd parties by now if it was.

Please note that this is not the case. The OGL makes things easier for third party publishers because it's a no-royalty license, but chaosium's licensing policy does not hinder third party publishers in any way. I have published with MRQ OGL and plan to publish with it again, but the only reason why I am not publishing for BRP is that I do not have anything in the pipeline that goes along better with BRP rather than with MRQ. Had I anything sci-fi or the like ready for publishing you would see it available in a matter of weeks.

And I think the same is true for other independent writers.

If I was the GM, I would never kill a character that provided such a good and fun story

Anyway, Simon suggested that you could try and kill one dinosaur anyway. Dinos are stupid, try outsmarting them and then pretend you were tired of brute force and tried something different this time. Could work.

But above all, since you are playing MRQ, remember to use Hero Points at the right moment. This is your best advantage.

As stated above, if Sorcery (admittedly not intended for friars and nuns) does not fit your needs, use RQ2, RQ3 or MRQ divine magic. At Alephtar Games you can find some free conversion notes devised to use the MRQ SRD with BRP. It says "Glorantha" but you can use them in any setting.

Sounds nasty. Other suggestions might be letting the ZK cast sorcery spells through its zombies under certain conditions (I would say dark moon rather than full moon) at double power point cost, or allowing it to regain power points under certain conditions.

Yes, Gnostics certainly were rather scarce at the time, but there were certain heresies which have much in common with gnosticism, I am told. Mainly Albigensians/Cathars in the Europe

Hmmm, their theology had very little to do with gnosticism. They were more like Lutherans. This could not be true in your game, of course.

And there would the Gnostics of Ethiopia, and the Zarahustrans of the Middle East, if I recall correctly? And not to forget, there would have been forbidden/hidden knowledge from the ancients in the form of books etc. Think along the lines of Simon Magus and Hermes Trismegistus.

Ethiopian gnostics are a much more realistic source of fun. Zarathustra has nothing to do with Christianity, and I cannot recall whether there were any more of his followers at that time. Of course some knowledge can have survived, and this is MGF (Maximum Game Fun).

Anyways, my intention is to include various other heresies under the banner of gnosticism. In my game it should have an appeal to the individuals anyways, not large masses as such. So Gnosticism wouldn't require/varrant a church. I hope the mysticism and individualism would appeal to the sorcerously inclined PCs. I feel Gnostics (and some other heretics) deserve a real divine power, as to make it a true threat to the (Catholic) Church.

Then use Sorcery for this (either BRP or MRQ Sorcery).

And something to toy with is the possiblity that Templars might have adapted such heretical thinking into their version of Christianity (unless you decide they were unjustly accused, as they most likely were.) It would be an opportunity to make the Templars the 'bad guys' from the catholic point of view, if you're so inclined.

Doing something similar for the next episode.

Hmmmm, I think it is up to you to decide how many Allegiances you introduce in a realistic medieval world. You can devise one for each Religion, one for each Church (splitting up Muslims and Christians into factions) or just the basic God/Satan dualism. Personally, I think that allegiance works better when your deities are personifications of natural forces rather than with monotheistic religion, but it is a matter of taste.

Gnosticism would be a very interesting addition to a game, but be aware that it is extinct in the age of the Crusades (it was common during the first centuries AD), so you are stretching history a bit. If you want to introduce realistic alternate churches and sects you can try the French reformers, who are described (alas briefly) in Stupor Mundi and were common in the twelfth and thirteenth century. They are easier to roleplay than gnostics, too, because their beliefs are more or less equivalent to modern Lutherans. Plus Jews were rather common in Europe at that time, even more than now.

Then, IYRC, the old RQ3 rule of soft armor halved vs. maces can still be applied to BRP as an optional rule. Makes sense.

How about making parrying (as opposed to blocking) a sort of difficult skill roll

....

Just my 2 cents,

Well, this concept is correct. But this exists in the RAW, too: if you achieve one less level of success than the attack then you did not parry but block, and your weapon/shield takes damage. The various suggestions made so far just tend to add more details than the flat "2 point damage" or "4 point damage" in the rules (and to allow shield blocks to stop some damage).

Oh, I forgot something. Maybe change the crushing/smashing special to allow it to bypass

half of the targets armor, to handle the mace vs. plate thingee.

An optional rule in RQ3 stated that soft armor counted as half vs. maces. But plate is hard armor. Are we sure that maces were so effective vs. plate? Plate is designed to spread the impact, much much better than chainmail. I would say that maces are more effective vs. chainmail, not plate, if you wish to introduce this spot rule.

If you use just the standard divine magic from the MRQ Companion, it does not feel out of place in a realistic campaign. In the last combat during the playtesting Rurik's Teutonic Knight lopped off several pagan limbs with the Blessing of St.George (Truesword) he had cast on his sword, and everything felt ok. You will notice that in Stupor Mundi I have described two famous astrologers of the thirteenth century, Michael Scot and Guido Bonatti. Both are historical, and were believed to be able to make miracles. It is up to you to decide whether they actually have these powers in your game.

For Stupor Mundi, I have been thinking about professions and knights. Knight doesn't really exist in RQ or BRP, but there is the noble, soldier and warrior. How would you advice me handle knights, are they nobles or soldiers/warriors?

And Rosen, SM doesn't include professions for Teutonic knights or Hospitalers?

You will find the Knight profession in the Mongoose RQ Companion or Mongoose RQ Deluxe. Or you can make it yourself by mixing the noble and warrior professions of BRP or RQ3.

There is no difference in skills or magic between Knight Templars and Knight Hospitalers, so I refer to all of them as Knight Templars for simplicity. There are a couple details that differ in Teutonic Knights and they are explained in the text, but there is no need for a separate profession. The next book in the Stupor Mundi series (currently in playtesting) will be all about Teutonic Knights.

RQ3 rules are 90% compatible with BRP, except for the magic system. Mongoose RQ is a different thing. I think you will find a not so difficult way to convert the materials in RQ Pirates to BRP, the systems are similar.

Stupor Mundi was originally written for RQ3, which means that the original campaign was 80-90% compatible with BRP. However, the published version was adapted to MRQ, which involved some changes. You can play it with BRP with simple adaptations, mainly for the magic. The Stupor Mundi site (Alephtar Games) contains a list of minor changes you can apply to MRQ spells to make them compatible with BRP, but it does not include sorcery (yet) which is used in Stupor Mundi. The only new professions described are monk and knight templar, the others must be taken from RQ (or BRP). If you want a better idea of what to expect, just download the free supplement "The Hounds of Adranos" from the download section of this site.

In general, you can adapt MRQ stuff to RQ3/BRP rather easily, and this is what most old school players usually do.