Thalaba

Since I opened the poll yesterday it's been viewed 56 times, but only had 11 responses. Even factoring in that some people would have viewed the poll twice, I think the lack of response probably says even more about how the community feels about actual plays than the responses do. Myself, I'm somewhere between 'would only read one if the genre was interesting' and 'would never read one' and I always wondered if I was an exception or the norm. Now I think I have the answer to that! Thanks to everyone who responded.

It depends entirely on the type of game being run, as Gianni said. I think that blog poster's advice is valid enough where all the players already know the setting well (such as Glorantha or The Old World, or historical games), or where there is no real setting, just an implied setting (as in most D&D games I've played). In those cases, I think it's fine for the Players to create some background for their characters, though I agree talking about meals is excessive. But for my part I usually spend a lot of time world-building prior to the game, and exploring that world is a big part of the game. It's pointless for characters to come up background on their own, since they don't usually know the world well enough to do a decent job. So we spend a lot of time discussing back and forth to create character backgrounds that work both for the players and the setting. By the time this is over, the players already feel like a part of the world, and I know enough about the characters to toss in plot hook I know they'll be interested in.

Fatigue points that ticked down every round were a bit of a nuissance, I agree. But dropping them and encumbrance outright brings other consequences that I don't like. I'm currently toying with the idea of modding them up myself by turning them into Fate-like tracks. For encumbrance, you would get a certain number of slots for Heavy Items (like armour, big shield, very heavy weapons, or adventurer backpack), Medium items (weapons, small shields, rolls of rope, bags of coin, etc) and a space for Small objects. The number of slots allowed would be based on STR+SIZ. Encumbrance would only be in effect if a character exceeded his allowed slots. Any items could be moved to a larger slot. Small items can be bagged or containerised and the container put in a larger slot. For example, trying to carry loose arrows would occupy several small slots, but a quiver occupies one medium slot. Fatigue would also be monitored on a track labelled something like Fresh, Winded, Out-of-breath, Spent, Handicapped. As a GM, I'll call for rolls every once in a while to test fatigue. The fatigue will be tested by CONx5 rolls. If the test is failed, fatigue drops a level. If fumbled, it drops two levels. If a critical is rolled, it may rise a level, representing second wind. Being fatigued will incur penalties to other actions, like a fixed penalty to action skill rolls, a reduction in speed or dex rank etc. Being over-encumbered will reduce the CON roll to CONx4 or less, depending on the level of over encumbrance. That's pretty much it - and that's all the thought I've put into it for now, too, but typing this has helped me flesh it out a little more than before.

With a new campaign coming up in the new year, I've been thinking about actual play threads and their utility. Out of curiosity, I'd like to know if a) people are interested in reading actual RPG session reports, and what kinds of things are necessary to make them useful or interesting to people. The poll asks: What would you like to see in an Actual Play thread? 1. Note-form descriptions of the action that happened in the session, kept very brief. 2. Prose descriptions of what happened in the session, told as a story with dialogue. 3. Descriptions of mechanics and how they were used only when the GM thinks they are worthy of note. 4. Desciptions of mechanics that are very thorough, describing every event. 5. I would probably never read an actual play, regardless of genre. 6. I would only read an actual play if the genre/setting interested me. 7. I would read an actual play regardless of the genre. 8. Something other than the choices above. The poll is multiple choice, so select anything that applies.

Did you look in the BRP Quickstart? There's a bank heist in there.

It evolved from MRQ1 in that it used the MRQ1 SRD as a means to build a publishable game more reminiscent of RQ3 (or RQ2 - I can't remember). I think it's more like RQ3 and MRQ, but then I haven't read it in a long time. Somewhere around here is a thread which describes what it offers in detail. It was an attempt to readjust MRQ1 to make it more like what older RQ players wanted. And a successful one, I think. It will give you a game similar to older RQ editions, but probably with a slightly less gritty feel.

Wow - so you only run one session every two months?! How do you find that affects the flow of the campaign? We used to play on alternating weeks and switched to weekly because we found inserting another campaign in between sessions was disruptive. To get to Runelords, your campaign must be pretty long-standing! Also noted in this thread: Glorantha remains a very popular setting for BRP players. My players don't want to roleplay sex, either, which is why I asked. Like you, I'd have to gloss over that part. My two questions would be: Which version of the Thousand Nights and One Night are you using as a reference, and what other references are you using besides that. I ask because I'm looking for reading inspiration for my upcoming campaign. At the moment I'm reading Sheba by Nicholas Clapp - a modern travelogue that seeks the Queen of Sheba in Palmyra, Yemen, and Aksum. Him too, but only in later times: http://symboldictionary.net/?p=3006 Outpost 19 is great. I'd also recommend you check out the Jovian Nightmares monograph for CoC (which goes with the Cthulhu Rising monograph). Cthulhu Rising also has a great website with more downloadable adventures on it. Maybe you could skip a step and get your sci-fi and CoC hit all in one campaign. Sounds like you've got a nice organic campaign happening. I don't have much advice, except to 'roll with the flow' pretty much as you've been doing. Campaigns that go places GMs don't expect them to are usually the most memorable, and a party of PCs in conflict with themselves can be a lot of fun. My understanding of the region you're playing in is based on things I read a long time ago, but I suppose you might have Raus sit down with them and ask them to think about how they can best fight the forces of Chaos. Bringing the Lunars into conflict with the Newtlings and even Raus would destabilize the region, leading to more chaos, not less. Can you tell us more about this fanzine?

You can definitely cobble - but it depends on what you expect in terms of magic. As you know, BRP has Magic and BRP Sorcery. If those magic systems suit your taste, then you needn't look further. Classic Fantasy is a tool for emulating AD&D using the BRP ruleset. It has spells that re-create classic Magic User and Cleric spells from D&D. It's good for D&D-like fantasy. If you want something more like RuneQuest you could pick up the Basic Magic monograph for BRP, which is a recreation of the RQ3 magic chapter (with Spirit, Divine, and RQ Sorcery (different from BRP Sorcery) magic systems) and more or less run RQ3 with just those two books. Also, OpenQuest does a good job of emulating a simplified RQ3 (with no hit locations, for instance) and I think the SRD is available for free. It's a complete game on its own. MRQ2 would probably also suit (much different from MRQ1, especially in terms of magic and combat, and more polished a game). It offers a complete game system and also has Divine Magic and RQ Sorcery. Spirit magic is there, too, but has been divided into Common Magic (for the spells) and Spirit Magic (for the shamanistic elements) - so in effect you get 4 magic systems with this game. Lastly, there's Cthulhu Dark Ages, which takes Call of Cthulhu back to about 1000AD. Its a stand alone game that can be used to run an Iron Age fantasy, and the magic system offered therein is the more ritual type magic from CoC. So there you have it - six options for running an Iron Age fantasy, depending on what you think your Iron Age fantasy should look like.

I'd love to hear a little more about the Arabian nights game. What kind of scenarios and episodes did you come up with? The tales have inspired some of my own campaign scenarios, but only a little. Did you manage to work in some of the sex runs through so much of the tales? And if so, how did that work in practice? Like the new avatar, BTW - it's a Kulullu, if I'm not mistaken. I know how this feels! Cool projects, though. Tell me more about the gadgets - I've heard people talk about gadget systems before, but what are they - obviously something more than just a list of items. What is it about 'gadgets' that need a system? Very ambitious. I can see the Jorune project being especially interesting - it's a beloved setting that hasn't seen any new material in a long time. Is this something you hope to release to the public, or for personal use only? Another Jorune fan. I hope you do find the time to post them - I think a lot of people would like to see them, myself included.

Dude, I finally tracked down your awesome smileys! Did you make all those yourself? Out of curiosity, how many of these projects will see completion? There's an amazing variety there - you must be a good multitasker! I like the sound of the pirate setting in particular. BTW, shouldn't the RQ2 clone be called 'GlyphSeeker'? Good to know. I think I saw someone else say the same thing somewhere about the Savage North. Funny - I always thought it was your personal setting. I didn't realise it was a collaboration. Personally, I have a hard time with the concept of collaborative settings. I prefer the purity of a single vision in settings, rather than input from a lot of people. I find committees have a way of watering things down, but maybe that's just me. Things brings up something I wonder about. How many people roll stats for creatures? I tend to just assign characteristics I think are appropriate. I have a little spreadsheet for creatures and NPC - I fill in the stats and it calculates the HP, FP, MP, and locational HP. Then I fill in the weapons and percentages, armour, and finally any magic or special abilities. I don't usually roll anything. That second idea sounds pretty interesting but... could it test foes against a group of PCs? I imagine one-on-one is already a complicated enough program when factoring powers and hit locations. Would one-on-six be possible? How about 6 bandits on 6 PCs? Anyway, I hope you'll keep us updated - that's a really interesting project! Sounds Awesome. How did you handle the PCs being 'half demons'? Did you come up with this on your own, or is it from an MRQ book like Deus Vult? I had no idea you've only been RPing for one year. Definitely BRP is a daunting product for a new-comer. Most of us here have used it in more than one form from previously published games, so we can use BRP like putty to build what we want. But for newbies that's pretty tough. MRQ2 or Call of Cthulhu or OpenQuest would be easier for the new person to get into - I'm glad you've found your path with MRQ2. It's a solid system. BRP is an amazing system for tinkering. When you have more experience, I'm confident you'll be glad you got turned on to the Gold Book, too.

You've been busy in the kitchen! I'm lucky if I can serve up one dish at a time. The rest are little more that bookmarks in my recipe book. For the Fallout Campaign, did you know that one of the BRP Central members played in a campaign run by his brother and left some material in the downloads section (sci-fi section). I think it was Threedeesix. The older I get the less I'm able to keep up with technology, it seems. What kinds of things can the Google App Engine do? My on-line tools currently consist of 'Google Images' for looking up inspirational images and various foreign language translators for developing lists of NPC and place names with cultural resonance. Off-line, I use Open Office calc for my NPC stat blocks and for character sheets. I use Open Office Write for my GM notes. I use AutoCAD for maps, and Sketchup when I want to make a 3D model to illustrate a building or city. Otherwise, I have no idea what I'd use Google Apps for. Can you make a dice roller? Or even better, do you know how I can make one in Calc/Excel? I've never done a one-shot myself, but I've always wanted to. I imagine they have to be much more tightly scripted than a long-reaching campaign to ensure they finish within the time limit. I'm not entirely sure how to do that since I'm used to running looser than what I think a one-shot requires. I think Tedopon also runs Con games, and probably Darran? Anyone else? Roanoke? Wild West - maybe Gold Rush California? Could one of these be the mystery historical project you're working on? Are you still working on it?

Are you actually running OpenQuest rules, or does "Heroic BRP" mean BRP rules (maybe along the line of Stormbringer)? What options have you selected and how do you find they work for your group? I like the diversity of genres your table will play. I assume in the past you've also played Outpost 19 with them and Gwenthia, too? This is true for us, too. Since the last big campaign ended in June, we've had a lot of cancelled sessions. I'm hoping this is starting to turn around now.

I haven't seen much discussion lately about what people are doing with their time, but I'm really curious to know what kind of creative RPG projects people are working on. This could be anything from publications you're working on, blogs, system-tinkering, campaigns (running or playing or planning), One-shots recently played, playtesting something...anything you're willing to share, basically. So if you're doing something RPG-wise, let's hear about it! For my part, the campaign I was running for the past two years ended last spring. This was a sword-and-sorcery style campaign set in a world inspired by the late bronze-age near east. System-wise, it was a blend of RQ3/BRP rules, and all players were new to the system except me. The campaign started with 2 players whose primary experience was D&D, then ballooned to 6 players by the end. I think it's safe to say everyone enjoyed themselves. Certainly for me it was one of my best roleplaying experiences ever. The summer gaming break recently ended. We put it to a vote to select the next campaign we would play. Four GMs put forth a total of 8 suggestions. The choices (arranged by the number of points scored in the voting) were: (0pts) Dungeon Crawl using Dungeon Crawl Classics by Goodman Games. System Tunnels and Trolls. (1pt) Sc-fi - game takes place on a colony ship that never reached its destination but has been travelling in space for generations. System TBD. (1pt) The Morrow Project (which I think involves people emerging from an underground bunker after a doomsday scenario). System: d6. (2pts) Star Gate/Sliders type campaign. System: Gurps. (3pts) Campaign set in the world of Harn. System: Harnmaster. (4pts) Sci-fi - The PCs wake up on a ship but cant remember who they are or why they are there. Something is terribly wrong. Figure out what's wrong, how to fix it, and how to survive. System TBD. (10pts) Dungeon Crawl in a post appocalyptic world. System: D&D4. (13pts) Return to the Tribelands campaign setting with new characters. Location and general aim of campaign to be discussed. System: RQ3 With 13 points, a return to RuneQuest and the previous campaign setting was the top vote-getter. I didn't vote for it myself as I wanted to do sci-fi, but as you can see Fantasy is the preferred genre in the group. I'm now in the beginning stages of preparing for this campaign. As a group, we're hammering out the general thrust of the campaign - starting cultures and general direction of travel, and roughly what kind of characters people want to play. A quest for meteoric iron might be one motive in the game. I have a feeling naval battles, city sieges, and desert spirits will also play a big role. I'm also looking at the rules options. I'm really interested in MRQ2's combat manoeuvres, but I don't want to run MRQ2 wholesale because I like strike ranks too much. So I'm thinking about how to meld them. Chances are I'll be taking a few things from MRQ2, BRP, and RQ3 and squashing them together. This campaign should be up and running come January. Until then, we're playing the D&D4 dungeon crawl that was voted second. It's my first experience with 4th Ed. D&D, and we've only had one session so far, so I'm still learning the ropes of it. What have you got going on?

I don't know. I've never had it happen. I wracking my brain now trying to think of something that's not covered by a knowledge or other skill and can't. Can you? That's too bad. I haven't had this problem so far. We use IDEA rolls very infrequently, so it probably doesn't occur to them to ask. I would deny any use that didn't seem appropriate, though. One thing that does happen is when I ask if they succeeded in a roll, they'll often say "Yes, I made an 'easy'" which sounds like a 'yes' but really means 'no'. Right, but then you're just replacing a list of knowledge skills with a single knowledge skill and a list of modifiers, which boils down to the same thing, in my mind. This doesn't get away from skills, but here's how we handle languages: We have a single skill called 'Languages'. Each PC automatically knows their own language, plus they can know one other for each full 10% they have in languages . Thus someone with a 35% skill in languages will know their own + 3 others. Knowing a language is something you either do or don't. Once you know it, communication is not an issue. If you meet someone whose language you can't speak, then you must roll on 'Languages' to communicate. If you succeed, you're knowledge of languages in general is enough to allow you to communicate in general terms using signs, gestures, expressions, etc. We did this because, although it's fun to roleplay communication problems, we didn't want to do it all the time, and our campaign is a travelling type campaign with the PCs always going to different lands. In theory you could do the same with 'knowledges'. For each 10% in the broad skill of knowledge, you could add another discipline you no longer have to roll for. If you want you could divide it into more than one category, too. You could have a single skill called 'Science and Nature' and another called 'Humanities', each with its own set of disciplines that could be listed beneath it.

In Runequest, Lores were not checkable and thus could only be increased by training or research. This simulates that fact that Lores test only how much you know about a subject, whereas other skills test what you know but also how well you do it. Also, the theory was that Lores cannot be improved through experiential learning. If I ask you to shoot an arrow fifty times, chances are you'll get better at shooting an arrow. But if I ask you 'what's this plant' fifty times, you won't know what the plant is any better after the 50th time than you did after the first time. My answer to questions like this about what skills to include/exclude is always the same: What do you imagine characters will do during the game? If they'll never use Mineral Lore, or even if they'll only use it once, why bother including it at all? In our game, we reduced the Lores to Animal Lore (which includes animal handling), Herb Lore, Nature lore (for everything that isn't a plant or animal) and Area Lore (specific region, usually a kingdom) to cover all history, geography, politics, legends, etc. associated with that area. Lores aren't checkable, but when it comes time to roll skill checks, the GM will award checks to lores that would naturally have stood a chance of increase. Area Lores, for instance, would be granted a check if the PCs had spent a lot of time in that area. Animal Lore might increase if the PCs just completed a journey in the company of drovers. We only use Idea rolls (intx5%) to simulate the power of Reason. An Idea roll might be called for if a player doesn't realize something that might be obvious to the character. It might be used for putting 2 and 2 together. It might be used if the Player has forgotten something that he learned in the game, but that the character has a reasonable chance of remembering (like the name of that priest in the last town). I suppose if I wanted to use a characteristic to simulate lore rolls, I'd introduce EDU as a stat separate from INT and use that. That way someone could be foolish but well educated, or very smart but not necessarily know much about the world.

Can either of you describe the magic in more detail - how is it related or different from MRQ2? Two years ago I never would have touched an MRQ book for a number of reasons, but I'm reading the MRQ2 core book now and I'm pretty impressed. Furthermore, I was flipping through the new Elric book in the FLGS last week and liked what I saw. Gone are the irritating watermarks - the layout, editing, graphics, and physical quality are much improved, the ideas are interesting, and the overall execution better than what I saw in the first edition MRQ stuff. I don't know how much of this is down to the influences of Lawrence and Pete, but my impression is that somebody who 'gets' RQ is finally in charge - and that's the long-winded way of saying I think I might pick up the Mongoose Vikings book sight unseen - something I never would have had the confidence to do before.

I like that - though I prefer the picture on the web site Either way, it'll be nice to see this out - look very promising.

I thought that Post Apoc thread at RPG.net was a bit unfortunate. Only three people who posted had seen Rubble and Ruin. One of them didn't understand the concept of the monograph, and a second criticized the lack of mutation rules, not knowing they're in the core book. Both seemed to be excited by something more gonzo than what R&R was aiming for. The third person who had seen it said something positive: that it 'shined' in areas - but never posted again in more detail. I don't think that thread was a proper reflection on the product at all, based on my skim through it. Sadly, I haven't had time to properly read R&R yet, or I would have posted a rebuttal. FWIW, Rubble and Ruin looks to be the kind of gritty Post Apoc that I prefer, and I thought it was pretty well laid out and illustrated, too - so your efforts are definitely appreciated. Mind you, I knew what to expect from it before I ordered it, having read your blog etc.

Boiling children in beer is a waste of beer, IMO. For one thing, no matter how much you scrub them they never quite come clean. Blech!

What?! No mention of D100 Rules?! Sheesh!

No rituals - nor have I used much in the way of rules. It's all in the setting and NPCs. 1. Bring your NPCs alive with personalities - give even the bad guys good qualities. If find players are more reluctant to kill indiscriminately when the NPCs seem alive. 2. Don't give the NPC much in the way of good items or money. If the NPCs never have any loot, the PCs will stop looking at them as loot bags. 3. Keep your PCs poor! Don't place big treasure troves in the game, and keep horses, armour, etc expensive. 4. Don't reveal things to the players that the characters wouldn't know. If they find a magic necklace on the sorcerer they just killed - don't say "you find a magic necklace." - just tell them they found a necklace and describe what it looks like. Let them experiment with it or pay someone to figure out whether it's magical or not. Also, magic items should not be found for sale in the corner store. 5. Keep the monsters and enemies dangerous. Don't pull blows in a fight. If they feel that every fight is dangerous they will stop picking them indiscriminately. If the dice declare that a PC dies - then he dies. If found in our games that the players quickly learned that the route to wealth did not lie through wealth (they lost it as fast as they gained it). It did not lie through combat (too risky). It could only be found by earning the respect of the locals and getting them behind the PCs. In a world such as this the roleplaying should just emerge from play. If this advice doesn't help, could you maybe provide some examples illustrating specifically where things went wrong and what you'd like to change? There are a lot of players out there who simply don't want to roleplay much and would rather treat and RPG like a tactical wargame. If that's the case for your players, you may never be able to change them. All I can suggest is to try a mini campaign or two that focuses almost entirely on roleplaying and features little or no combat, no skill improvement roles, and where money can't really buy anything.

What happens when a character takes damage that exceeds both the AP and the HP, but doesn't exceed AP+HP?

It is for people who want to use the BRP rule-set with settings that don't currently have BRP rules tied to them. It's for people who want to run BRP Starwars, or BRP Jorune. It is also for people that want to run their own settings using BRP. It doesn't matter whether those settings are shallow and designed as one-shots or detailed and designed as long campaigns. It's also for people who want to run existing BRP games but like to tinker with the rules - it presents a lot (not all) of the various rules from over the years into a single resource and allows you do try new things. Basically, it's for the do-it-yourselfers of the world who happen to like the kind of rules that BRP offers. Lot's of systems are eclipsed by the games they run. Spirit of the Century eclipses Fate. D&D3 eclipses D20. Swashbuckers of the Seven Skies eclispes PDQ#, and so on. I don't really see this as a criticism of those rules. In the past games like RQ, CoC, Stormbringer, etc. were not advertised as being run by BRP. Once you start seeing the BRP logo on more new books (like The Laundry), recognition for the system will increase. As for the monograms - they have other uses than providing settings to play in: they also provide inspiration. I've bought several that I have no intention of running. I bought them because they have things I want to adopt into my own campaigns. I agree they don't replace books on the shelves, but I welcome the diversity they offer.

It doesn't usually matter which is the active. Some people rule that the player is always active vs. the non-player. Others have different ways of defining 'active' and 'passive'. What is important is that the dice are rolled from the perspective of the active stat, whichever you decide that is. If you rule that the radiation is actively trying to overcome the players con, then you would put in the numbers 5 (active) and 8 (passive) to get 35%. Interpretation: The radiation has a 35% chance of overcoming the player. If you rule that the player is actively trying to resist the radiation, you put the numbers 8 (active) and 5 (passive) into the table to get 65%. Interpretation: the player has a 65% chance of resisting the attack. It doesn't matter which of the two ways you interpret it - the chance of the player surviving the attack is the same. The player with a lower con has a lower chance of resisting the effect, or a higher chance of being overcome by it. It's all how you look at the numbers, and as always common sense prevails.

I like games where the players look at each other and that look says "Holy Shit!" because a fact of the game world just dawned on them that was cool, shocking, or scary (or even better: all three!). I like player immersion in games, and I feel that certain reactions (like fear) are a better indicator of immersion that others.