Dyvim Matt

I don't know why, but the thread linked to in the OP reminds me of when I was about 13 or 14. At the time, I was playing DnD (that's when it was still "Advanced") and while I knew there were other RPGs out there, I couldn't find a reason why I would try them out. They're all the same, right? Plus, who wants to play in a game where you can die from just one sword hit, right? Then I played Top Secret: SI, HârnMaster, Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, Elric!, Shadowrun, Pendragon, various World of Darkness games, Heavy Gear, and Arioch knows what else. From that point on, I could not go back to DnD even if it was a matter of life or death! After all, who wants to play a silly game where you don't even feel the effect of ten sword hits on the head, right? So, to answer the OP's question: What if Runequest had eclipsed D&D? Well, I would not have wasted 2 years on DnD, that's what! (Of course I realize it's a matter of taste and DnD fans all have the right to play what they want and like, but I have the same right, and I will not play DnD ever again, unless one specific friend of mine is DM. And I will accept nobody else as DM!)

Wow! I leave for a few days and when I come back, there's even more suggestions. Thanks! In due time, I should come up with a setting idea that I will bounce off you just for second opinions. Oh, and thanks to Rurik for enforcing proper respect towards GWAR's extremely deep and complex mythology. Simsala, you oversimplify too much!!!

Wow, lots of stuff to work with here. Thank you all! I'm not sure yet what I'll do with all of this but the suggestions are pretty good! Again, thanks!

@ Frogspawner: That is so cool! You've managed the (almost) impossible: giving me a reason to read LOTR again... just to take notes on what gets turned on its head! I'll need your complete contact information so I can ship you the internet you just won. Thanks!

A very, very, VERY good point, of course. This is the main purpose for this thread. I don't mind doing medieval-Europe-style campaigns, since I really like medieval European history. I'm really just looking for ways to accomodate my friends' wishes for a Fantasy campaign while still enjoying myself in the process. You can all keep sending suggestions by the way. I'm shamelessly stealing everything on this thread so far. Good stuff all around!

Hi all, I used to really like medieval fantasy, but I guess I'm burnt-out now. (I still really like sword-and-sorcery, though*.) I would love to run a fantasy campaign for a few of my friends who have not roleplayed in a long while, but I just can't get myself to do it. I'm just tired of the same old elves, wizards, dragons, etc. My options so far include: a) Running a (Mongoose) RQ Elric game because I find it really cool, but most of my players don't really care about the setting; or Running a (BRP or MRQ) historical campaign with some magic blended in; or c) Not doing it and playing something else with them. (Probably Shadowrun.) Does anyone have any suggestions on how I could maybe "reinvent" the Fantasy genre, or give it some new twist to revitalise it? Have you ever been a "Tolkien burn-out" ? If so, how did you "cope with it" ? If not, what do you like most about this specific genre? Just so you know, the games I ran in the past years are mostly Mage: the Ascension as well as a short MRQ Elric campaign last year and a fun Shadowrun one-shot a few months ago. Also, I'm not up to date at all when it comes to new authors, new styles, etc. *I may be wrong, but I see Fantasy as what Tolkien and C.S. Lewis did, and Sword and Sorcery as more along the lines of Elric, Conan, etc. I much prefer Sword and Sorcery, but there's always at least one player who insists on playing yet another cute, ethical, emotional "High Elf"... Why not some hot Melnibonéan love?!?

As both a Mage gamemaster and a BRP fan, I have a few thoughts to share. First, for those who need a primer on Mage magic, here goes: [Mage 101] Magic is using some sort of magical tradition (beliefs/paradigm) to change reality according to your will. Reality is divided into 9 "Spheres" (spatial dimensions is one, time another, lifeforms another one, spirits and the spirit world yet another Sphere, etc.) A mage's influence on reality is limited to his Sphere knowledge. Each one is rated from 1 (rudimentary) to 5 (almost godlike) but the range of effects at each Sphere level is quite broad. Another trait, called Arete (pronounced air-ee-TAY I think) represents the character's "magic skill" rating, and this one ranges from 1 to 10. Arete also limits your Sphere rating maximum: Arete 3 means no Spheres above 3. In BRP terms, Sphere ratings would represent an open-ended "spell list" while Arete would be what you roll to see if you succeed. A "fumble" opens the door to all sorts of of magical backlash (called Paradox) up to and including the Gates of Hell swallowing you or something... Mage works with dice pools by the way, so Arete 4 would mean you roll 4 dice, and compare each one to a difficulty rating (let's say 6): each die over 6 is a success. For obvious reasons, you always want as many successes as possible. Also, no magic point system exists in Mage. Fire at will, and just hope nothing goes wrong! [/Mage 101] What I would do is create an Arete skill that rates your % of success, but also limits your Sphere "skills" until reaching 50%, with every 10 Arete points giving you access to 20 Sphere points. Sphere skill ratings would not be rolled, ever, just used to gauge what you can actually do with your Arete. However, the dice pool system allows for graded success levels (you could need to accumulate, say, 5 successes) which might be a little hard to translate into BRP rules. You could make a system where 1-5 "Mage" successes become an Easy Arete roll, 6-10 successes is Average, 11-15 is Hard, etc., but it would lack the tremendous flexibilty of Mage. You could keep counting the needed "successes" for a spell, but they would now be called "complexity points" and be used in the manner above for gauging difficulty. There is still the effects of Paradox to figure out though. You could decide to go with broad categories based on the "complexity" system presented above: Easy spells get a small Paradox when you fumble, Average ones bite harder, Hard spells even more, etc. Does this make sense?

Why not use the Mummy's stats? Granted, I don't have the book with me, so I'm not sure how the mummy compares to zombies, but I figure most of the job would already be cut out for you, and a bit of fine-tuning can certainly take care of the rest. Just rename it a Zombie King and voilà! What do you think?

You're welcome. However, on closer inspection, it's a little more complicated, so I think you should look at the beginning of the Combat chapter for more details, because explaining them all is going to be pretty lengthy. For starters, the pointers I gave you should do. :ohwell:

Well, first off, keep in mind that my book is at home, so maybe I'll forget something, but if I remember correctly, initiative can work a number of different ways, like this: "Basic" Initiative: There is first a "powers" phase when every character using a power (ex.: Sorcery, Super Power, etc.) starts casting or doing what is needed to use their power. These powers normally have a "casting time" of one complete round. This is done in order of INTelligence, so if my mage has an INT score of 13 and yours has an INT of 15, you start casting first. Then, there is a "normal action phase" where every other action is resolved in order of DEXterity, so again, if your assassin has DEX 16 and my knight has a DEX of 12, you act first. Obviously, a character can only cast a spell/use a power or make a normal action, not both. Permutations: -You can give more actions to a character by subtracting 10 (I think) to his DEX rank every action in the round until you hit 0. For instance, your DEX-16 assassin can strike at DEX rank 16 and 6 and my DEX-12 knight at DEX rank 12 and 2. This does not apply to powers: a mage can only cast one spell per round. -You can randomize initiative by rolling 1d10+DEX (or 1d10+INT for spellcasters) at the beginning of each round, so that if your assassin rolls a d10 and gets 7, his initiative for the round is (16+7=) 23. You could combine this with the previous permuation so that your assassin would act at DEX ranks 23, 13 and 3. All of this occurs during the 12-second-long round. All the GM has to do is call the DEX ranks from the highest to the lowest until the round is over. If your assassin acts at DEX ranks 16 and 6, you act when the GM calls DEX rank 16, and then wait until he gets to DEX rank 6 for your other action. Hope it helps!

Wow. Just wow. "A Tale-telling game of bitching and self-delusion." It looks like my teenage years, only in RPG format. You know what? My girlfriend won't like you for showing me this*, but I HAVE TO HAVE IT!!!

To all, Honestly, I'm not completely decided on the specific subgenre, and since that campaign will only take place after my Mage: the Ascension campaign (in a couple of months from now) I want to take the time to think about it. Right now I'm thinking about a hodgepodge of splatterpunk, goth (splattergoth? ) and "campfire"/Blair-Witch-style, but the overall concept could change from now until the beiginning.The story features I gave above are the only things I have decided for now. My problem is mainly that 1) I don't want to invest in yet another game (my girlfriend already thinks I have too many books) and 2) my experience with BRP is not very broad. (I only played Call of Cthulhu, Elric! and MRQ Elric a few times.) What I really would like is a little bit of help in sorting out the optional rules, figuring out their implications, which ones are best suited to a "generic" horror genre: which ones would increase tension on players/characters (which is "good" for my purposes) and which ones would too muich increase character survival or durability (which is "bad".) Then again, maybe I should make up my mind on the subgenre before getting back to you guys. :confused::ohwell: Thanks for the help, it's been greatly appreciated! You have all been of great help in giving me food for thought for my campaign design. :thumb:

Hey Dredj, The stuff you linked to looks great! I think it's really similar to what I had in mind (except maybe the zombie stuff, but who knows, zombie infestation is always cool!) Thanks! To all, I would also like to know what optional rules you would suggest. Here is a summary of what I have in mind: -not specifically focused on academia (aka no "Miskatonic University field trip") -not really focused on Cosmic Horrors (i.e. Outer Gods et al) but mostly on classic horror (undead, devil-worshipping cults, psychotic killers, etc.) -Not a rip-off of the World of Darkness (vampires will not be part of the International Emo Fan Club, werewolves will not be "ecoterrorists", etc.) -Charcter survival is not entirely unlikely, as long as the players think with their heads instead of their guns -Knowing my players, combat should be gritty and realistic. -Elements of horror will be hidden, but brutal when confronted. So far, I know I will include the SAN rules, point-based character creation rules taken from Cthulhu Dark Ages (100 points among all eight characteristics, minimum of 8 in INT and SIZ, 3 for the rest) and Fatigue points, and I plan on using a non-Mythos-related version of the Cthulhu Mythos skill, renamed something like "Forbidden Knowledge". However I am wondering about the relevance of Hit Locations (would it increase character durability when I want them to feel threatened?), skills over 100% (would it create super-heroes when I want the characters to be desperate?) and Allegiance points (should there be a Higher Power to turn to or not?) What do you think? Anything missing from the above? Anything superfluous? Give me your 2 cents!

Well, I'm also trying to find inspiration for that as well. I want to avoid the university research team because I find it's too close to a Call of Cthulhu party, and I don't want the players involved in some secret and/or occult organization because it would be too close to a "Mage: the Ascension"-style cabal (I'm running Mage right now.) I'm thinking of either: A) Having the player characters related to some sort of "weird crime" which they have to resolve for some as yet undefined reason (for instance, their grand-uncle, a secret vampire-hunter, was killed, the players inherited his diary, and now vampires are out to get them); or More or less trapping them in some "haunted" (for lack of a better term) location, getting out of which involves having to confront the "critter" (for instance, trapped in the "hotel of doom" with a hungry demon out for a snack.) Keep in mind the examples provided are just that: examples (and cheesy ones on top of that;) ) In both cases, I would probably let the players define their bonds with each other, as long as they form a group. This could allow for anything from military units to rock bands. All I really need is ideas on avoiding the White Wolf or Call of Cthulhu types of horror. WoD is getting too old and too emo for me, and like I said, my brother does CoC/cosmic horror better than me. So, there won't be world-wide vampire sects and Unpronounceable Things From Beyond The Stars (although I am not barring loose variations on those themes entirely.) Hope it helps.

Oh yeah, print is the only way! I'll have none of that "keyboard-and-pixel" stuff, no thanks! I'd rather boast of a cringing bookshelf than a full desktop. I'll even buy books just for the sake of having them just in case, although I won't necessarily play all of them (I'm looking at you, Ron Edward's Sorcerer!) Cheers!

Hi, I am planning on starting a BRP campaign in the next few months. I got the pdf for the BRP book but will wait till I get a physical copy to start it (I just can't play using my computer.) I want to run a modern horror campaign, but I want to avoid making it too similar to Call of Cthulhu or the World of Darkness. I really like those two settings but I'm getting tired of WoD (played in it for over 12 years...) and frankly, my brother runs CoC way better than I do, so I won't touch his "turf", so to speak. My game would definitely include the Sanity rules, limited access to Sorcery and Psychic Abilities (to simulate the supernatural aspects of the setting), undead creatures (of course) and other creatures relevant to the horror genre. Everything supernatural would be concealed from the majority of people. Any ideas you would like to share with me? Setting ideas, optional rules and powers I should include, etc. will all be welcome. Share your thoughts!

Hi everyone, I found out about this web site through the Mongoose forums. I am very pleased to join especially since I plan on getting the new big BRP book from Chaosium. I am an avid pen-and-paper gamer (it's the only way to do it! :thumb:) and I am always eager to try out new games. It should also be obvious that I am a big Elric fan! (Although I find the other Moorcock series very good, I always go back to the Young Kingdoms.) Feel free to write to me!