Jason D

I've actually done some writing for the Battlestar Galactica RPG, which uses the same Cortex system Serenity uses and I've run about a dozen or so sessions between the two games. My gut feeling is that while it would be an immense amount of work to try to "translate" the Serenity RPG to BRP, it would be rock-bottom simple to just play a Serenity/Firefly game using BRP, if you get the distinction I'm making. For example, if you were to pick the professions for the crew of Serenity, here's how they might match up: Mal - Mal's a seasoned Soldier, skilled with weapons and command, extremely tough (like an 18 or 19 CON) Zoe - another Soldier with some stealth type skills Wash - a Pilot extraordinaire Jayne - a Warrior with a lot of gun skills, high STR, SIZ, and CON Kaylee - an Engineer with mad Repair and Technical skills Inara - an Entertainer with a few other skills, high APP and Status Book - a Priest with extensive experience of some unknown type, perhaps (as theorists will spin) as an Assassin or a Spy Simon - a Doctor with high Status for his privileged upbringing River - a "create your own profession" character most likely ("Test Subject"), with a wide variety of military and physical combat skills, and some Psychic Powers. I'd give her the following: Danger Sense, Eidetic Memory, Intuition, and maybe Precognition. Her DEX and POW would be extremely high. If I were using Sanity as an optional system, hers would be fairly low from her past experiences. I'd probably use the Total Hit Points option to separate the heroes from the mooks, and would everyone's weapons would likely just be standard firearms with a few extras and the occasional laser pistol or energy weapon showing up for variety. Serenity herself would be a Space Vehicle, Transport as described on pages 270 and 271, though without FTL or energy shields. Depending on how you want to play them, Reavers would be the equivalent of Orcs (p346), Maniacs (p363), or I'd make up a set of stats for them. Note that while I'm not saying you'd need to copy the show's characters, this is just an example of how you'd translate it to BRP.

Chaosium.com: News - July Happenings This one is seem highly relevant to BRP, so I'm cross-posting it here:

It's a lot of fun. If I had more free time, I'd be running it using BRP, but the combination of work, a toddler, freelance, and family stuff has kept me from being able to devote much more than an hour of prep time to games... and I regard researching other systems as an essential part of the work of a game designer. I'm quite looking forward to seeing what Chaosium does with their Robert E. Howard horror license, as well.

Currently, I'm not running any long-term campaigns with my group, as we're all to unreliable to depend on a regular campaign. For the past four sessions (spread out over around two months), I've been running Savage World of Solomon Kane for fun, as we're all REH fans and I'm using the canned scenarios. As more than half of us are also in the game industry, we're always interested in trying new systems, so there's a lot of mini-campaigns with new game systems. Now that copies of BRP are actually available, once we settle down and get more reliable with meeting, the GM duties will either switch to someone else, or I'll run BRP. One of the players has mentioned using it for a supernatural horror WW2 campaign, with him GMing. When it comes to a "first genre" to get familiar with the system, I'm of the "start small/shallow/simple, then get bigger/deeper/complicated" as required sort of mindset. I'd pick a genre that doesn't necessarily use powers, or ask that starting characters don't utilize them. I'd keep optional rules to a minimum. If the group likes fantasy, then go for a setting where they're mostly human mercenaries or non-spellcasters. If they're into historical settings, emphasize how it can be used for anything from prehistoric cavemen survival scenarios to modern tactical military games. A good old-fashioned Western might be a neat intro to the setting, as well.

The gist of the advice I provided was for the GM in coming up with new powers, not letting players decide how those powers worked on a case-by-case basis.

I'll look at it this weekend, but it might be a simple glitch - it should do the special result.

I wish I could tell you that there was a universal rule that applied, but there wasn't. I did little playtest scenarios where I pitted two characters against one another using either method, and determined which made more sense to me. The general rule of thumb for what resistance rolls were POW vs. POW or power points vs. power points was as follows: - If the offensive or defensive value seemed to be intrinsic to the character, rather than situational and based on current state, previous power use, etc., I went with POW vs. POW. For example, no matter how much spellcasting he's done earlier that day, Merlin will never be hypnotized by Dracula. - If the offensive or defensive seemed to make more sense being based off a situational condition, such as previous power use, etc. then I went with power points vs. power points. For example, Elric may be overcome by one of Theleb K'aarna's spells that opposes power points if the albino sorcerer has just spent most of them on a big summoning. In every case my preferred choice was to make things more playable.

dustin@chaosium.com is the guy to talk to. I know from him that Chaosium has the rights to reprint WB, but I don't know what other rights they may have or be interested in procuring.

My apologies for not catching that error in the levels of success. According to the system notes (p59): Treated = an attempt made

I suspect that this was the problem. I was actually sort of surprised when Sam turned in the skills chapter with detailed success levels described for each and every skill.

What a difference cultural background makes. I thought you meant "Colonial" as in American settlers fighting Native Americans.

Dustin recently told me it's probably the next major Chaosium product (as opposed to monographs) out the door after Secrets of Morocco. As noted above, I think the sole delay now is just getting final artwork.

The second of Sarah's explanations is the correct one. My apologies... in the back-and-forth of sending edited text, it was sometimes difficult (if not impossible) to make sure that the revised text in a table matched the surrounding text (which sometimes had also been edited by someone other than myself). BRP had three outstanding volunteer editor/proofers in the form of Sarah, Rodney, and Ben Monroe. I edited the pre-EZ draft, and Charlie did an editorial pass of his own. So Charlie had the task of trying to assemble four separate (sometimes redundant, sometimes contradictory) sets of edits into a single book, in addition to my own last-minute additions and "Ooh, if you can, add this..." inserts. I worry that the book probably needed one last "every change made under one set of covers" editing pass, but the timing was such that I think we would have been dragged from our computers, out of our homes, and stomped to death in the streets by anxious BRP fans if we had delayed the release any longer.

This is indeed the correct interpretation. My apologies if it was vague... though I didn't write the skills chapter, I did edit and rewrite some of it, and should have made it plainer.

You might have mentioned it's in French. Sadly, my French stalled at the basic high-school intro course level.

Do you have the book yet? I ask, because you're actually describing one of the optional fate point mechanics.

I'll give it to you for free. One option is Total Hit Points - having PCs' HP equal to the total of SIZ+CON, rather than their average. Minor NPCs have "normal" HPs, but heroes and major NPCs have the higher totals. There are also rules for a fate point style mechanic which can be used to alter dice rolls, serve as ersatz armor, and other nifty tweaks to help ensure PC survival. These are both optional systems.

I must confess I didn't get the chance. This weekend was a swamp of family-related duties, as well as being a holiday weekend with obligatory social engagements.

One product I worked on long long ago with a friend was a system-nonspecific resource book dealing with exactly what exploring and maneuvering in underground areas was like. We'd done a lot of cave crawling in the Pacific Northwest in caverns ranging from those you could almost take a wheelchair through, to those where you were shimmying on your stomach over rocks through passages where if you weighed more than 230 or so, you'd be unable to make it. Both of us had also been in several European cities and visited real catacombs (as well as taking a few unsanctioned explorations of Seattle's weird underground city). We wanted to create something that would really spell out how difficult and chaotic doing battle in an underground environment could be, and what sort of conditions were going to be encountered there. The notion would be it would address modifiers for a variety of systems on the market (not named) and present some sample "realistic" caverns, dungeons, catacombs, and other underground situations for game use. Oh well... maybe someday I'll dust it off.

For reasons of space, I decided to keep the firearms section short and genericized. Future setting-specific expansions will definitely incorporate expanded lists of weaponry where appropriate. Interplanetary covers a wide range of firearms available on Earth from the period of the 1880s to the late 1930s, as well as alien hand-to-hand and missile weapons from each planet.

Drat it... I often get the two confused.

The first derringers were sold in the latter half of the century, from around 1866+. Flintlocks were old-tech, and had been long since replaced by the matchlock. You may wish to devise your own stats for matchlocks if you feel that the differences are significant enough to warrant different stats. The Colt Revolver showed up around 1835 or so. It is a medium revolver. There were even flintlock revolvers a decade or so earlier. Other variant revolvers would either be light or medium. Bolt-action rifles showed up at the beginning of the century, and played a strong role in the Civil War. Muskets were on their way to being obsolete, but still saw plenty of use. Shotguns (single-barreled) were used throughout the period. I have very little doubt that other forum-members will be able to provide more in-depth information if that isn't sufficient.

Just got a small stack of them in the mail from Chaosium. Have unwrapped one and paged through it... am almost tempted to live-blog my experiences upon reading it once more, but have so little time... Very satisfying getting it in my hands, though.

Yeah... I'll admit my preference is for a more compact, tighter layout with smaller text than the book as it stands (for example, Elric! vs. Stormbringer 5th edition), but that's a minor quibble.