Jason D

That sounds more like a MRQ supplement. Just sayin'.

Because when I began writing BRP, the two commercially available editions of BRP were Call of Cthulhu and Stormbringer (5th edition). Chaosium had also received the rights to the non-Glorantha system for RQ3 back from Avalon Hill (or whoever held the rights at that time). The logical conclusion was to make a game compatible with the in-print Chaosium games (and their source material), and using the RQ3 material where appropriate. Other materials (Worlds of Wonder, Ringworld, Elfquest, Thieves World, etc.) were used where aspects could enhance the BRP book. Using an out-of-date version of Stormbringer didn't make any sense.

It's a bit of a muddle, actually. For Stormbringer 1st edition (my absolute favorite incarnation of the BRP system, bar none), it made sense that Elric was good in swordsmanship because of his incredible cunning and strength of will (his high INT and POW). Having a system that supports the licensed intellectual property is a good thing. However, Theleb K'aarna was absolutely no physical threat, but he had comparable bonuses due to the high INT and POW scores. The way the system worked, he should have been quite competent with any weapon he'd put his hand to. The same with Myshella, who was in no way a fighter. Also, since BRP allows for mutations and super powers that greatly increase characteristics, it should be the GM's choice whether to allow them. And on another topic, perhaps suitable for another thread, I'm uncertain about the perceived difference between an optional rule and a house rule. As I see it, most of the optional rules are simply houserules or houseruled systems that have been printed for ease of access and use.

Which is why it's an optional system in BRP.

I should point out that Chaosium is actively seeking licensees for BRP at this time and (in my opinion) an official "BRP-compatible" sort of logo might be preferable to one solely focusing on d100 (as many games use d%, and not all in the same way). I could imagine some confusion if someone bought a product saying "d100 compatible" with the intent of using it for a Rolemaster or Warhammer game.

Runequest, Elric! (and Stormbringer 5th edition), earlier versions of Stormbringer, and Ringworld allowed skills in excess of 100% without breaking or causing the system to break down. The reason that skills in excess of 100% are optional is that they're extremely uncommon for Call of Cthulhu, which was by design the default core of the rules.

It's on the Primitive Missile Weapons table. My tape-bound pre-EZ copy has it on page 248.

It's the Edition Zero proofreader copy of the "under repairs" image.

I noticed it yesterday. I'll alert Dustin that it's still down.

It's been clarified and slimmed down. The basic rule is the same, though - one quality of success reduces the quality of success for an opposed roll. Once you grasp that, the need to refer to the attack/defense matrix diminishes exponentially.

That entirely depends on your view of wuxia and martial arts. If you're talking about a Storm Riders style world, a lot. If you're more in the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon realm, not so many.

I've only got the tapebound pre-EZ copy on hand, but pages 240-247 were about creating equipment with characteristics, skills, and powers, with rudimentary guidelines for each of the power types (magic, mutation, psychic, sorcery, and super). So yes.

There are some suggestions on how to handle characters with multiple power types, but my advice is not to cross the streams, so to speak. The system is easy enough that it would be almost no work whatsoever to recreate a specific power from a different system (like turning a psychic power into a super power). New descriptions, and some more game mechanic stuff. The summons spells have been toned down to be less world-specific. The spells were never fire and forget. A player chooses which spells to load in memory, and can cast each indefinitely if power points and conditions allow (conditions equaling stuff like "must be near a body of water to summon water elemental").

Unarmed Combat is a bonus to martial arts. Claws would be handled through a mutation, or though the rules for gadgets (which are admittedly rudimentary). The same for power armor, solar gems, ant-controlling helmets, and a quiver of trick arrows. I don't have the book handy, but they're more-or-less identical to the ones in the Magic World supplement from Worlds of Wonder.

Somewhere between the two styles. Here's a list of the superpowers: Absorption Adaptation Alternate Form Armor Barrier Defense Density Control Diminish/Enhance Characteristic Drain Energy Control Energy Projection Extra Energy Extra Hit Points Flight Force Field Intangibility Invisibility Leap Protection Regeneration Sidekick Size Change Snare Projection Stretching Super Characteristic Super Movement Super Sense Super Skill Super Speed Teleport Transfer Unarmed Combat Weather Control Many of these are broken into sub-powers. Yes. There are four power levels, ranging from "normal", heroic, epic, and superhuman. My feeling is that the system works best at the the normal or heroic spectrum, though the other two are playable.

The damage values are from SB5/Elric!, Call of Cthulhu, and RQ3 where needed to fill in the gaps. Some damage values were made generic, rather than for specific weapons (such as with firearms). I didn't include any damage modification or "lethality" adjustment.

Absolutely. They're an optional part of the system, and the applications are provided as "possible" uses. Each GM should use them in a way that feels appropriate, and attach whatever conditions might be suitable. Ignoring the optional Fate Point system entirely is a valid choice (as with all of the optional rules).

Just some things to ponder: It's not a specific type of weapon thing, but Fate Points let you spend them to achieve a maximum damage result with a weapon damage roll. That can also be done with Fate Points, or as the Armor super power. A function of the Martial Arts super power. The Super Skill super power handles that.

By all means, stay excited! (I'm just a pessimist by nature, and the long and rocky road this book has walked already has left me cautious...)

Glad to let you know about them. Each power type has a different method, and is addressed with that power. In general, you study to learn more magic and/or sorcery, mutations are gained through exposure to radiation or other mutagens, psychic abilities are gained through training or involuntary means (stress, for example), and super powers are gained through the GM awarding more "character points" or through some story-based means. I don't even know exactly when it goes to press, or will be available in the U.S., much less the U.K.

An eminently reasonable position, given the delays. I'm holding this view as well. In the "managing expectations" vein, I hope everyone realizes that it will almost certainly have some share of glitches and rules inadequacies, as all games do. It definitely won't please everyone completely, and will likely spawn as many houserules as it does lay them to rest. Inevitably, several (not too few, but not too many) years down the line, BRP Revised (or BRP2) will address all of these issues and will be met with equal regard and disregard.

For what it's worth, there is a longish section called "Powered Characters versus Non-Powered Characters" in BRP that addresses this issue. Some of the options presented are: Allowing the non-powered characters more skill points to construct their characters with. This head-start should prove decisive throughout a campaign. Allowing non-powered characters to invest in non-flashy powers like Defense, etc. that are technically powers but could be characterized in gameplay as "catlike reflexes, exceptional luck, etc." Allowing non-powered characters to invest "character points" into stuff like exceptional gear, etc. to help them compete. Elsewhere in the book, I discuss the nature of balance and how it's the GM's job to make sure that a campaign is balanced. For example, if you're running a criminal investigation scenario and one of the PCs is a police detective, he/she has a distinct advantage over the player who picked "student" or "priest" as their profession. There are some guidelines as to how to achieve this, but it's very general as that sort of stuff is intrinsically setting-specific. Still elsewhere in the book are the Fate Point rules, allowing players to spend power points to affect dice results. This isn't a magic bullet to end the perceived problem, but given a finite number of power points, having non-powered characters using them to augment skill/combat rolls and having powered characters using them for powers seems to balance things considerably. (Incidentally, this very problem is why I introduced the Fate Point system - giving non-powered characters something to do in gameplay with power points.) Hope this helps.

If you're fighting two opponents, and both of them decide to flee, here's what needs to happen if they're fighting smartly: Each of them needs to wait for a new round and announce their intent to disengage. They can't attack this round, but instead are limited to dodges and/or parries. This can also be using the "fight defensively" action that allows forsaking an attack for an extra dodge or unmodified parry (remember that each attempt after the first is at -30%). On the appropriate DEX rank, they can make their full movement away from the attacker. If they successively make those dodges and/or parries and the movement, they're out of combat and are their full MOV away from the attacker. Once there, they can choose to re-engage or to continue moving away, at which point it becomes a chase or simply running away (depending on what the attacker does). According to the spot rules on disengaging, in an act of desperation, a combatant can simply just turn around and run, but this does provoke a free attack that cannot be parried or dodged. This is not modified to Easy (the "attacking a foe trying to get the hell out of there in a hurry" aspect evens it out to a normal chance). If multiple foes continue to take that desperate action, each should allow such a freebie attack. Since a combat round is by default 12 seconds long, and the actual part represented in die-rolling represents only a few actual seconds of that time, it shouldn't be too difficult to imagine squeezing an extra attack or few in there.

Well, I didn't make that one up... I just updated it. And it's not much of a hit location chart in the classic sense.

It works pretty well in practice. I've probably got about a dozen games with d% hit location tables. The most fearsome hit location table I've ever seen is the default system for Tri-Tac Systems (games like Stalking the Night Fantastic, Incursion, FTL 2448, etc.) which has you roll d% for hit location (around 25 or so locations are specified) and then has a 2d6 roll that's handled as two numbers (so the results are 1,1; 1,2; 1,3;...). Each location is roughly about an inch or so of flesh.