Arch0n

I only have ELRIC!, BRP, and MRQ. What is the RQIII method that's been referred to?

Thanks, all... I'm rapidly seeing that while the major mechanics are similar there are massive differences in the details between Elric!, RQ, and BRP... It's hard to know which is the "right" rule to go with for the campaign.

Does anyone ever handle combat using opposed rolls in BRP rather than using the attack/parry matrix? What I mean specifically is this following case: Where I have sword 85 and roll a 50, and you have shield 60 and parry with a 42, and we've both had successes. Under the attack matrix normally this would mean I missed, but if we treat it as an opposed roll this would mean I hit. This would make hits substantially more common I imagine... *** Just did a quick search and I saw this is apparently only debated on That Other Forum. I don't know what that forum is, so my apologies! :-|

Sure. Here's my step 6 - each player picks one of the following six. 1) The character was born into the warrior class and raised to the profession of arms. Add 20 points to Brawl, Craft (war-craft), Climb, Dodge, Insight, Jump, Ride, Swim, Search, Throw, Weapon, Weapon, Wrestle 2) The character was brought up in an order militant or warrior-monastery. Add 20 points to Art, Auran Empire, Craft, Distant Lands, Dodge Insight, Language (Classical), Natural World, Physik, Potions, Scribe, Weapon, Weapon 3) The character grew up on the frontier as a hunter, herder, or outlander. Add 20 points to Climb, Distant Lands, Dodge, Insight, Listen, Natural World, Navigate, Ride, Sailing, Swim, Track, Trap, Weapon 4) The character grew up in the criminal underworld or on the streets of a major city. Add 20 points to Craft (Sleight of Hand), Conceal, Disguise, Dodge, Hide, Insight, Listen, Pick Lock, Sneak, Trap, Streetwise, Track, Weapon 5) The character was apprenticed to a scholar or sage at a young age and grew up around books and learning. Add 20 points to Auran Empire, Bargain, Craft, Distant Lands, Evaluate, Insight, Language (Classical), Natural World, Physik, Potions, Scribe, Search, Weapon 6) The character was born into the high nobility and raised at court. Add 20 points to Art, Auran Empire, Bargain, Carouse, Craft (war-craft), Evaluate, Fast Talk, Insight, Oratory, Language (Classical), Listen, Ride, Weapon 7) The character is one of the elven-folk. Add 20 points to Art, Distant Lands, Craft, Dodge, Insight, Hide, Higher Mysteries, Language (Elven), Natural World, Ride, Sneak, Weapon (bow), Weapon (sword) Note that this can play it in one of two ways, depending what profession the character takes. You can end up with a "dual class" character (if, say, their profession is warrior while they take wilderness from above) or you can end up with a really elite, focused 100%+ character... p.s. Auran Empire is our setting's equivalent to Young Kingdoms, Higher Mysteries = Million Spheres, and Distant Lands = Unknown Kingdoms. Sneak is Move Quietly.

Thanks for the pointers. I'm following your advice regarding powers and limiting it to just sorcery to start with....

Hey! Getting ready to run my first BRP session this Thursday. What do I need to be careful of? What are the "Gotchas" for the first-time GM? (Experienced generally, so just looking for those nightmare rules to know/watch).

In comparing Elric! to BRP Sorcery, it seems like a demon bound into an object is vastly more powerful than a sorcerous artifact. For instance, I could spend 1POW to bind a demon with some sort of gruesome damage bonus into a sword, or with 100+ skill. A similar sorcerous artifact would cost ... well, you couldn't even do it. If you could do it, it would be at least 2POW, for always-on powers, times whatever level of spell it's considered. In general, binding demons seems like a much, much better bargain than making magic items. Anyone have any house rules on how to bring the cost of binding a demon in line with the cost of making a magic item? I'm considering a rule that says its 1 permanent POW for each (full POW) of magic points you spent on the demon and/or for each (full POW) worth of powers you invest in the item...

We're using it with slight modification as "background skills," divided into noble, warrior, scholarly, underworld, and wilderness upbringings.

I like that as an approach. It is clean and fits with the "theory" of magic in the setting... Another good notion. Well, this confirms that BRP/RQ/Elric is the right set of core rules for what I'm trying to achieve. It looks like I need to either go the BRP Sorcery or the Rune Magic route and either one will work...

I sent you my email address via PM. I'd definitely like to check out the file!

Man, yeah, I think you've nailed it precisely. Would the runes end up being so powerful / advantageous that they'd be better than sorcery, or does the tradeoff of flexibility available to the sorcerer make up for the slower casting time? One thought I had was that to try to find game balance I could... - Speed up the casting time for sorcery spells, or - Add in some of the spells from GORE's magic system (which is similar to BRP Sorcery but has a broader array of spells), or - Create a few simple, direct-damage sorcery spells - Have wizards use BRP Magic. But I don't really know how BRP Magic stacks up in power to BRP Sorcery, let alone to BRP Runes. I'm not so concerned about game balance v. other BRP/RQ games as the setting is high powered but I want it to be internally relatively balanced between wizard-types and runewarrior types...

Puck, that was exactly my original intent, yes - a permanent sacrifice of POW in exchange for a permanent power. (I was inspired by a spell in the ELRIC! rules that let you get a demon power in exchange for 1 POW). But then it occurred to me that if you wanted characters to have a lot of powers, they'd have to give up a lot of POW, and that might have disastrous effects on the game. So I started to think that saying you "dedicated" POW so it wasn't available for magic points, might be a better way to go. Others here have suggested I just say the "flesh runes" essentially let you cast BRP sorcery spells, serving as a grimoire of sorts; being a rune-warrior is just alternative cosmetics on being a sorcerer. That has a lot of appeal, but is very different than what I had planned to do. It also leaves me not sure what magic system to use for the actual magicians, as I was thinking I'd use BRP Sorcery at first.... It's hard to know what the best way to go is!

That sounds very promising. Is that available in PDF anywhere, or within any SRD? I am trying to work on the campaign this week while I have time.

Am I wrong to think that "rune magic" from MRQ, "battle magic" from Simple Quest, and "sorcery" from BRP are all quite similar? The power level and type of the spells is similar, with the big difference being casting requirement (spell skill v. invest in Rune v. minimum POW). But both of you suggest that the tattooed warriors / rune warriors should be using something along the lines of self-buff battle magic / sorcery, rather than permanent POW investiture. Makes sense...

Interesting... So each rune becomes the equivalent of a BRP sorcery spell, with the grimoire as the body. The rune-warriors "activate" their runes, which are powered by their magic points. So rather than being on all the time (a permanent +3 DEX), the rune-warrior would temporarily get +3 DEX for POW turns. (Maybe the runes glow while that's happening...) Getting a new rune requires a ritual similar in length to learning a new spell. Rather than, say, 16POW to use sorcery, I might say you cannot have active more than POW in levels of runes/spells at once. The only roadblock I see is the notion of taking 1 combat round to activate each rune. That has interesting ramifications for being taken by surprise, and for what order to trigger "buffs", and so on. Hmmm.

Thanks for the conversion link. Why do you suggest that? It seems similar in flavor, but Runic Magic seems sort of weak compared to other options available. How does it compare in actual play to the strength of BRP Magic or BRP Sorcery? I would like for magic-users to be fairly powerful. Well, the notion is that it draws from the same source as magic. It's meant to be play balancing so you could be a powerful magic-user, or powerful "runic warrior", or a hybrid blending the two. So really I'm just trying to figure out if permanent POW expenditure is the way to go, or "dedicated POW". Are there weird side effects to the game play if a bunch of people are running around with POW scores close to 0?

I'm an old veteran of RPGs but new to Basic Roleplaying. I'm attempting to adapt a fantasy setting to BRP and have a few questions for the masters (100% BRP skill and above).... My setting's magic system is based on runes and words of power, which is what drew me to BRP (RuneQuest) as a possible system to use. The magic in the setting is the use of words of power manifesting the caster's will to restructure reality. If runes, rather than words, are used, the magic can have a long-lasting impact. Rune-weapons are common, and warriors frequently have runes carved into their flesh (tattoos) to gain permanent magical benefits, such as improved strength, innate armor, etc. The point of the system is (1) warriors have a way to manifest magic that keeps them on par with wizards, and (2) it justifies half-naked warrior women with tattoos, which is a staple of every good fantasy setting. My questions: 1) What are the pros / cons of the different magic systems that might represent the magic? Right now I'm vacillating between BRP Magic, BRP Sorcery, SimpleQuest Battle Magic, and SimpleQuest Sorcery. How do these systems play out in practice, which is the most powerful, which the weakest, etc.? Any advice is welcome here. 2) With regard to the "flesh runes" concept, how could they be represented? One thought I had was to do something like RQ Runic Magic where you sacrifice 1 POW and gain the rune. Or like ELRIC! where you can get demon powers at 1 POW each. But I want warriors to have lots of runes, so you'd end up with a lot of really low POW folks. So then I thought perhaps you just "dedicated" POW to the rune to power it (like Divine Magic), so you had fewer magic points, but your POW stat wasn't ruined. Any advice here? 3) What's a good rule mechanic to enable players to attack lots of mooks at once? Splitting skill over 100 won't do. -30 per extra attack? Aiming for very cinematic combat. Thank you for any advice!