RosenMcStern

High and low shots are in fact easier to do with d20 than with 3d6. Just roll 1d10 (low) or 1d10+10 (high). The point is that an unlinear progression of numbers does not guarantee that contiguous hit locations will be contiguous on the table. And please do not repeat "it's all done there". I know it is there. The point is that d20 allows you to easily design more monsters, the ones not yet invented. 3d6 does not. As for the likeliness of head shots, with the missile hit loc table, it is one head shot in 20 versus one body shot in three. Seems fair enough to me.

Alas, using the same dice for hitlocs has some advantages, but it does not suit BRP well. You must live with it. 3d6 is nonlinear (it is a bell curve). It is perfect for determining chances of success, as it naturally models casuality and statistics. It is less perfect when you have to design your own critters from scratch. After designing hit location tables for weird monsters for years for RQ3, I can definitely state that 3d6 is a no-no unless you know that nothink non-humanoid is coming into play, and d100 is definitely more realistic, but a tidbit complicate. D20 is simple enough to design new creatures in a few minutes, and flexible enough to provide for a minimum of realism. That said, MRQ location table is d20 but sucks. Too linear. (This I say to become a little more popular, as I usually advocate MRQ here ).

The "swap the dice for hitloc" method has been tried out during the MRQ playtest, and it simply does not work with BRP. With your hit location table, you would simply have ALL criticals hit the rigth leg. The system is fine as it is - either general hit points only, or a d20 roll for hit location.

Trif, I think that in this thread you are doing exactly the same thing that Mongoose did with the removal of general hit points. You are fixing what is not broken.

A known problem. DEX is an uberstat in all BRP incarnations, even worse in MRQ. Make it count less and you will see more balanced characters. In fact this houserule has survived for erm, something like 15 years, and with GMs other than me. A tad complex but effective Sad but true. Get over it and get rid of the parts you don't like (99% in D&D).

Let characters distribute stats from a pre-determined point pool. Let them roll one more die and drop the lowest die. Let them swap rolls. Do as you like. Character creation is just a guideline in BRP - adjust it to your taste. This is a RQ2 limitation. All other BRP variations do not suffer from it. Ever wondered why there have been three new editions of RQ (ok, one was never published, let's say two) after RQ2? Maybe some problems were solved in them. Add one additional tick per extra successful use if character does something really heroic (frex criticals). When improvement is rolled, add 5 to the die roll per each extra tick. Simple and not too disruptive. All in all, one of the beauties of BRP is that you do not have to adhere strictly to the rules, especially WRT character creation and development, and there are dozens of already-tested variations you can use.

Believe me, as a MRQ advocate: you will not regret not owning it when it comes to poison and disease. This is definitely a district where they botched it: BRP handles it way, way, WAY better.

Oh, yeah! This was one of the reasons RQ lost ground in the eighties. David ultimately had some chances against Goliath, let's be honest. But Dobyski versus Larry Elmore..... tsk!

MRQ magic is based on the Combat Action mechanics, and on Resist (skill). Sorcery, which used to rely heavily on the Resistance Table in RQ3, is very different. Retrofitting could turn out to be more work than paraphrasing the old rules. Apart from the fact that Sorcery is the part of MRQ that was really improved, so I would keep it "as is", if it was not for the incompatibilities.

Dr'ssa! Dr'ssa! Dr'ssa! You forgot the Wankh race. Go read the saga again from the beginning Seriously, Dario Corallo and I have been thinking of an adaptation for this setting for decades (literallly). The only problem is that Vance's works are still copyrighted, and I prefer settings that can be published without having to pay royalties in advance. Even publishing it as a free product could cause trouble. I think Burrough's Barsoom is public domain now, and I am sure Dario has some GURPS adaptation for it ready (easily BRPable). But Planet Tschai is much more fascinating. Just shout "Onmale!" and go berserk :thumb:

Nice to hear this. I am still very fond of RQ3, so having a freshened version of it back would be great. And I am amazed that the sysem is lacking a Fantasy setting. Now the "forbidden" question: Is there still any hope of having something BRP set in Glorantha Third Age? I mean, I am currently playing three games, two MRQ ones (one Glorantha and one Stupor Mundi, with a second Glorantha about to begin) and a year-old campaign set in Dragon Pass Third Age that uses RQ3 with some RQ4 contamination. The latter one could be moved to BRP rather than MRQ, which lacks Third Age support (no Lunars!), but BRP has no Gloranthan content per se. Must we convert everything by hand or compatibility between BRP and the old Glorantha stuff (still available on eBay or in Moon Design reprints) will be encouraged?

Really cool, I dare say. I have done one a similar one today for my next MRQ book and I must confess I "borrowed" a lot of ideas. A couple of suggestions: a) place a slim, blank column between the characteristic block and the attribute block, and between the attribute block and the location block. It improves readability a lot. scores that can decrease during action could use some space to the right for a fast markup of points lost, including location HPs and weapon AP/HPs; many people track wounds in pencil on stat blocks c) marking unarmored locations with a dash instead of a zero is more elegant But above all, I like it a lot. :thumb:

Tamriel is copyrighted by Bethesda (or whomever owns Bethesda Softworks at present, I cannot recall the name), so an official conversion is unlikely to appear. I heard they are planning to publish the system and the setting as a P&P RPG, and in this case it will be rather similar to BRP, as the game is skill based and has hit points, fatigue points and magic points. Unfortunately it also has a HP increase when leveling. Incidentally, the Morrowind setting was written by Ken Rolston, and you can find "suspiciously sounding" names among those found on the isle, like "The Grazelands" and "Puzzle Canal".

This was written for another forum about computer Strategy Games, but I think Tim Kask will not mind me posting the link here. My world has been lessened; my friend and one-time mentor has passed away (Note: I am NOT the author)

I am currently playing one (which means three, as I have three characters in it) campaigns with a mix of RQ3/4 rules, and have generated characters with RQ4 rules more than once. The system is better than RQ3, and also overall better than MRQ if you accept some complexity (but, heck, once you have learned to play without skill category modifiers, they seem rather clumsy when you return to a system that has them). It is probably the best incarnation of BRP ever written. We alll know the real reasons why it never saw the light, and the false accusations against Oliver Jovanovic were just one part of it. Things happen. So if you are not worried about using a system that cannot be referenced on any "official" forum, go for it, you will not regret your choice.

Well, time for a lurker like me to add my two bolgs to this discussion. It is sadly true that Chaosium does not have the marketing resources to make BRP the #1 in RPGs as it deserves. I could add that SJG had even less resources when it launched GURPS many years ago, and it was a mistake on Chaosium's part not to merchandise BRP as the best "generic" RPG, like Jackson did, but GURPS did by no means become the "standard" RPG in the years like SJG hoped, so this is not a point. The point here is that this time, with the new edition, Chaousium could exploit the OGL mechanism to reach a larger audience without the need to commit big financial resources to marketing. But will they do so? As for the "killer application", we already have one: Call of Cthulhu!

What is the time setting? A Viking supplement was needed, indeed! The last one is very, very out of print!