Jason D

No... it doesn't have mapping, but then, I'm one of those gamers who's never, ever cared for a tabletop battlemap.

I don't know about the other systems HeroLab covers, but the Cortex system version has a tactical console that's pretty beefy... it can basically handle combat entirely itself. It's listed as a regular feature of the software, so I doubt it's exclusive to Cortex. For ease, here's the list of features it promises: In-Play Support for Players and GMs * In-Play tabs keeps track of limited use items, such as arrows, potions and charges, as well as in-game modifiers, such as spell effects and feats that modifier your hero's abilities. * The Tactical Console allows GMs to manage encounters between players and NPCs. Out of combat, it allows you to see important skills, saving throws, and other aspects of each hero. GMs can also add NPCs and enemies to keep track of the party and their adversaries all at once. * In combat, the Tactical Console shows you who has and hasn't acted, initiative scores, delayed and readied actions, and all the information you need at a glance - saving throws, armor class, weapon details, and more. * GMs can use hundreds of stock heroes as "quick and dirty" NPCs within their games. Need a 7th level Gnoll Rogue teamed up with a Bugbear Barbarian? No problem! * Fully customizable dice roller is included. Specify how many and what size dice, add/subtract from each die or total roll, roll dice and drop the lowest/highest, count successes against a set target number, and even adjust the threshold at which die results explode! http://www.wolflair.com/index.php?context=hero_lab&page=features

The press release says July 2010.

First off, we wanted it to be a standalone game, an all-in-one core rulebook. Making it a Call of Cthulhu Modern expansion wouldn't do it justice, when a big part of the setting is the spy/tech stuff, which Call of Cthulhu does not address. Ultimately, the tone is very, very different, and though there are plenty of Lovecraft references, the cosmology is quite different. Magic won't work the same way, the creatures are different, backstory and NPCs differ, etc. Remember that HPL actually exists in the world of the Laundry, and Dunwich is in the UK. We could have kluged it into being an expansion of a book that technically isn't in print (to the best of my knowledge, there is no current Call of Cthulhu modern game out now), but it wouldn't have been a very satisfying publication. Also, releasing it as a support book for another book that may or may not be in print doesn't seem like a solid business plan. I've streamlined a lot of the BRP rules, and eliminated almost all "optional" rules. APP is back to CHA. EDU is a core stat. Success levels are just "specials" (no crits), and the results are handled more consistently. Rules that weren't applicable were removed. Systems were stripped down where possible and made more consistent. No magic points, endurance, strike ranks, etc. Circumstance modifiers and difficulty modifiers are clarified far better than they were in the core rulebook. Spot rules are clarified and less crunchy, and those that don't apply aren't there. In short, this is my idealized BRP 2nd edition, a faster and leaner iteration specifically aimed at the occult/spy genre. However, the rules are clear enough that you could easily use the book as source material for Call of Cthulhu, or CoC for The Laundry.

I've got HeroLab for the Cortex work I did, so it will be cool to have it for BRP and Call of Cthulhu.

I'm going to see if I can submit something, so the poll results are interesting to me...

The Laundry series are more-or-less straightforward Lovecraftian spy thrillers filtered through a sarcastic narrator's POV and a focus on the dull, technical aspect of espionage. The main character is essentially tech support for a British version of Delta Green, and he is inevitably drawn into trouble. Here are a few free Charlie Stross Laundry stories: The Concrete Jungle (short story taking place after the first Laundry novel) Overtime (a short story that appeared a few months ago) Down on the Farm (I believe that this will appear in The Fuller Memorandum, forthcoming this summer)

Still working away, though I got sidetracked with some shorter gigs and some tremendous chaos in life and at work.

I hope that doesn't mean that you're going to get a bad reputation for barely paying attention to historical settings!

As soon as a MMO studio opens in NH, I'll put it on the list of possibilities.

I will be the first in line for that film.

Despite how awful this looks, I am morbidly curious:

Very nice!

Given a 2nd edition of BRP with more leeway to change things, I'd probably do the following: Skill groups are well-defined and come with a base skill. All weapons in that skill group have the same base skill. GMs wishing for more detail will apply per-weapon modifiers to the skill base.

I use soundtrack almost exclusively for gaming. I've got a collection of roughly a hundred or so, including about another hundred tracks in mp3 format from various computer games or other sources. For Mesoamerican, I'd heartily suggest the Apocalypto soundtrack. Some tracks from the Farscape soundtrack would also be appropriate (if the players aren't familiar with it... if they are, don't use it). Brian Eno's Ambient: On Land is a good all-purpose creepy ambient soundtrack good for almost anything swamp/jungle/forest related. I use it for all sorts of games. For Norse games, I've got an eclectic collection of The 13th Warrior, Rune (the computer game), a soundtrack of Icelandic Eddas and some other sources of Norse traditional music. My "writing" soundtrack for Interplanetary currently consists of Holst's The Planets, the soundtracks for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, King Kong, The Rocketeer, and a few others.

Ride should be a Physical skill. I think Sam's reasoning for making it a Communication skill was that it involved empathy with the mount, but it ultimately should have fallen under the Physical category. Ride should have a note exempting it from Physical (armor) penalties from armor. The mount is assumed to be doing the footwork, so armor penalties shouldn't apply. GMs may wish instead to halve armor penalties or lessen them by some degree, if desired. I would humbly suggest a -5% penalty for Light burden armors, -10% penalty for Moderate, and -15% penalty for Cumbersome. Perception modifies for armor are unaffected. Use of any Physical or Combat skills while mounted should be limited to the modified Ride skill. For example, if the Ride skill is 50% and the PC is making an Easy roll, then the max of any appropriate skill is 100%. If the Ride roll is Difficult (1/2 chance), then the max is 25%. This re-enforces the concept that mounted combat is a highly specialized set of skills. There is a reason that historic cavalry drilled extensively on horseback, and the Ride skill-enforced maximum on skills is to support that. As with all rules, however, the GM should use common sense when applying skill penalties and modifiers.

You can always call: Chaosium.com: News - Home They've provided their phone # on their contact page. It might get you some results.

Guilty! That was in reference to an attempt a friend and I made more than a decade ago to license the rights to Superworld from Chaosium and revise it radically. One of our first goals was to put everything on the Resistance Table... powers, skills, combat... everything! The contract was in hand and Chaosium liked the proposal. The terms were reasonable. Our playtesting was going along quite interestingly. Then the deal was more or less made (unintentionally) unpalatable by someone no longer at Chaosium, and we backed away. Then the Wizards Attic debacle happened, and we counted ourselves lucky it hadn't proceeded. In retrospect, I'm glad it didn't work out... it wasn't the right time, and we would have been stomped utterly by M&M. Now if I had been able to get off the ground the firefighter computer game I was trying to make in 1999-2000 with a programmer friend... that would have been (unfortunately) good timing!

The variant Superworld action/initiative rules didn't get put in the BRP core book for the following reasons: The book was (and is) very bloated with optional rules, and this would have been a major additional chunk to minimal positive gain. I tried where I could to include optional rules that could be bolted onto the core rules without needing substantial support. My (admittedly brief) read-through of the Superworld rules gave me the distinct impression that they were significant enough to need coverage throughout the core rules. My gut feeling as a designer was that those rules would not Play Well With Others, in terms of the other optional rules. Superworld was possibly the least successful full iteration of the BRP rules, so I didn't see a huge need to incorporate them into the core rulebook. Dustin's always eager for sourcebook or monograph proposals. He's right now in the process of moving from Denver back to Texas, so I suspect any communication may be delayed somewhat.

I don't know at all... it's almost entirely a function of page layout. My guess is somewhere in the 128-156 page range.

I suspect so.

Having POW for the requirement allows for shamanic characters who might not necessarily be the smartest tools in the shed, but can still cast magic spells. However, it was one of those rules I evaluated to determine if it needed to be changed. My conclusion, as you can see, was "if it ain't broke", and none of my play experience with BRP indicated to me that it was a rule desperately in need of changing.

I've sent a link to this thread to a friend who's in the East Bay and is a huge SB buff.

It should be d6 in the spell. Good catch!

Normal experience rules (skill checks, training, etc.) go into effect once the campaign has started, and should dramatically outstrip any small gains from age.