Mechashef

In RQ3, each point of ENC also subtracts 1% from Dodge, Jump and Spell Casting, and each point of ENC subtracts 5% from Swim. This can lead to the rather horrid idea of characters who rely on dodge fighting naked (if you include ENC for clothes). My group actually had a character who only wore a robe and would slip that off is she got into combat. The player tried to argue that male opponents should recieve a penalty when in melee with his attractive naked female character! I introduced a RQ3 houserule whereby the first (STR+CON)/4 Enc was free and did not imact on skills or spellcasting (except for swimming).

I agree. However like you, my main concern was that I would create a creature (in my case one based on a real Australian creature such as: Demon Duck of Doom, Carnifex, Megalania or Diprotodon) and end up with SIZ results that didn't reflect the real creature's actual size. It just seems wrong to have the stats generate something wildly wrong. Even if no-one else notices, I would! Of course there was also the problem of guessing the size variation of those creatures when they are only poorly known from the fossil record. And of course in some cases there is the problem that the creature with the most impressive name (Demon Duck of Doom) doesn't appear to be the biggest and most impressive member of its family. Though having seen the skull of one of these at the Museum here in Canberra, I would't want to mess with one!

Ask and ye shall receive. I have attached a document I wrote for RQ3 - it will probably be more detail than you will want. The SIZ tables for RQ3 and BRP are very similar so while the exact figures in my document are not correct for BRP, they should be close, and hopefully my points are still valid. A few complicating issues are: The SIZ table in BRP on P296 is vague, which could be either good or bad, but makes it more difficult for me to analyze. I also have access to far fewer BRP creatures than I do to RQ3 ones which also makes analysis difficult. Of course there are some creatures which are in both RQ3 and BRP, but have different values for SIZ. Enjoy Mechashef A Sizable Problem.pdf

I totally understand. I grew up in metric Australia and there are still some things I use Imperial for. Miles just sounds better for some things than kilometres, and babies still make more sense being born in pounds than in kgs. Please no! I agree there are issues with SIZ, but find it really useful.

Good resource. Thanks. However, even though that is just a wiki entry, it still seems a bit ... official. Perhaps a sticky thread to stage any corrections, in case anyone disagrees or has a different interpretation. Also, somethings arguably aren't errors, just things that could be rephrased or adjusted if/when a new edition is produced. A couple of examples to do with SIZ. There are SIZ tables on P26 and P296. They appear to contradict each other. On P26, SIZ 12 ranges from 46kg to 109kg, while on P296 SIZ 12 ranges from 71kg to 76kg. I pondered this dilema for a while. Nick, Jason or others could, I'm sure, give a correct answer but I came up with three theories: 1) It is simply a mistake 2) It table was derived from a different BRP game 3) P26 is really a height table, while P296 is a mass table. Regardless of the real reason, it is still confusing. btw, in my opinion, considering that BRP is supposed to be metric based, I find it odd that both tables list Imperial (or US or whatever) measurements before the metric ones. P296 even mentions Short Tons. I think I even saw feet or yards instead of metres somewhere - but could be wrong because I can't find it again!

On the topic of Location Hit Points: On P29, the chest has 4/10 of total Hit Points. On P368-369 the chest has 2/5 of total Hit points. Same value, just expressed differently. If Chaosium (imho the best name for a Gaming company I've ever seen) ever releases another edition of BRP they probably should be made consistent (2/5?). Is there anywhere we can send the little "oddities" that we find?

Hence why BRP has fumble tables!

I added my own take on the table. BRP Central - Downloads - Hit Points by Location Table Mine differs in that I've also included it with Total HP divided into groups (like on P369 of the book) and I've always followed the round up rule (as detailed on P29). Of course I may have introduced other errors :mad:

On Page 369 there is a table showing the hit points for hit locations. I think the values for the 1/5 column are wrong. They are actually the values for the RQ 0.16 multiplier. The last value for that column is especially wrong, and I presume that is a typo. Are they wrong or have I just misunderstood how the values should be calculated. Thanks

I would be surprised if there isn't already one for D&D. Of course it would probably be overly verbose, expensive and perhaps dumbed down, but still might be the place to start looking.

Never join a militia with a uniform that includes a red shirt:)

Kishis are city inhabiting chaos monsters which appear as human females and have an unusual attack method. I have quite a large collection of creatures that I created for RQ3 some of which have been posted in a RQ3 Yahoo group. This is the first one that I have converted to BRP to the point where I'm happy to post it. I chose it because it is seems different from other creatures in the BRP book and from those which have already been posted here. I also wanted to post a low/mid powered monster. Comments are very welcome, and if people want, I have many more that I'm happy to gradually post. Enjoy! Mechashef Kishi.pdf

I used the Hydra over the weekend. The campaign is low powered, and the Hydra had been attacking farms and villages around the swamp. The characters managed to find the hydra but realised it was too powerful for them so retreated. They came back with the militia from the local village and together they defeated the beast, though it did kill about half the militia. Thanks

For a long time I've condered why a short spear (2 handed mode), long spear and pike do different damage . I just can't see how that makes sense. Sure there should be a SR difference, but why a damage difference?

I have it. I'm an old RQ player, but new to BRP. I was converting some of my RQ3 creatures to BRP and as part of that process found the lack of missile hit locations charts. I was interested in what other people (who use hit locations) have done.

On page 190 there are two tables for Hit Locations for humanoids. One is for hand-to-hand attacks, while the other is for missile attacks. The Creature Hit Location Table on P368-369 only has one table per body shape. What have people been doing? A) Just use one table for humanoids Use both tables for humanoids and just one table for other creatures C) Create their own missile (?) table for the other body types Thanks

That would be interesting to see. I did an anlaysis of SIZ for RQIII (I posted it on the RQIII Yahoo group rq3 : RuneQuest 3rd Edition). I found the weights assigned to the various SIZ values to be ... um ... strange. Like you, I created an extrapolated table which I used when creating large creatures.

Perhaps we are looking at this from the wrong end. Is there anyone here who aspires to be an author of fantasy novels? A successful book with notes at the start that it developed from a BRP campaign, and a link to a website with campaign notes by the author may do wonders. Of course that just leaves the little peopblems of getting some one to write a book and get it published. And then the big problem of getting the book stocked in shops!

Don't get me wrong, I think your write up is much better than the one in the Gloranthan Bestiary and am already making plans for using it -I have the perfect place to put one (next time the characters venture into the immense swamp that forms one border of the campaign area to hunt for the prized black pearls they will find something capable of taking on the bunyips and the frog people who live on the behemoths!) The reason I wrote "lucky shot" is that it seems to me that while the Primary Head is tougher than the others, it is the only one which can be used to defeat the Hydra. A Hydra with a dozen heads could be taken out quickly if a sufficiently powerful strike causes lots of damage to the Primary Head. Instead of being an immortal head (I agree, not a good idea) it seems to have become an Achilles Heel! A couple more questions. What happens if a head is incapacitated but not severed? Does that stop the head from acting but not allow two more to grow? In this case, would smacking it around with a mace, or shooting it with arrows be a better option that slicing it with a sword or axe? Perhaps Hydras (or just their heads should have a Hit Point regeneration ability?) If the Primary Head is severed, does the Hydra die, or do two heads grow back (obviously only one would be the new Primary Head)? Is there a limit (12?) to the maximum number of heads a Hydra can have if the characters just keep lopping them off? Does a "virgin" (for want of a better word) Hydra start with 2D6 heads, or just one and then obtain more as that one and subsequent ones are severed? I know that you probably wrote up the Hydra to fit into your campaign and thus what I'm about to suggest may not work for you, but I'd like to offer these suggested changes: Hydras have 2D6-1 (1-11) heads. A young Hydra starts with one head. If that one is severed then two grow back in its place (to a maximum of 11 heads). Hydras regenerate (how much per round I'll leave up to you). The regeneration (and duplication) of a severed head can be prevented by cauterising the stump. I’m not sure about the Primary head concept. I wrote a bit of stuff about it, but won’t post it yet because I still need to think some more. This also ties in to how you actually kill this beast, and I’m still pondering over the nuances of that too. I hope I’m not coming across as being too critical. If I didn’t like your write-up, I wouldn’t have put so much thought into it. I just think it can do with a bit of tweaking.

Nice. A much tougher beastie than the Lesser Hydra from the Gloranthan Bestiary. I especially like the hypnotic ability. I'm curious about why you decided to have a primary head. Was this to allow characters to defeat a Hydra which totally outclasses them with a lucky shot to the primary head? Like the published one, yours seems to be serpent based, not lizard based, and thus I presume doesn't have legs. Is that correct? I actually prefer the serpent style over the lizard style. When will it make it into the wiki?