Jason D

From the BRP manuscript: "Due to its relative power, the gamemaster may rule that the initial skill rating in this skill be limited, that increases to this skill may be limited to training rather than normal experience, that training may be incredibly difficult to obtain, or all three of these conditions."

You're officially nominated to make the BRP Dune PDF!!

That's the hit location system. It's been in RQ, Ringworld, and ElfQuest, but wasn't used in Stormbringer/Elric!, Call of Cthulhu, Nephilim, or Worlds of Wonder. It's in BRP as an optional system.

It's the system from Stormbringer. If you take a single injury that's equal to or higher than your Major Wound threshold (1/2 of HP, rounded up), you roll d% on the chart. Results range from horrific scars, nerve damage, concussions, loss of extremities, internal injuries, broken bones, to mutilations. They're pretty nasty, actually.

I don't have EQ handy right now (I'm at work), so I can't answer that.

I'm not entirely sure what your SharedWorld stuff is (is it something on this site - or are you talking about Gwenthia?), but the sort of proposal I meant would: be submitted to Chaosium to be considered as a potential Chaosium product (a book or monograph) be clearly outlined and described (like "Chapter Three is the gazetteer, and Chapter Four is all about gods and religions") have an estimated word count and deadline (traditionally, both of these are radically exceeded) I am bummed that Gwenthia didn't make it as a BRP supplement, considering the talent involved and the caliber of what I saw.

There's a Major Wound table that provides a number of grievous wound effects, and is consulted when a character takes more than half his/her normal HP in one injury. It's the default system. The optional Hit Location system covers what happens to each location (head, chest, abdomen, limbs), when damage meets the HP per location, exceeds it, and when it's at a negative value equal to the normal HP/location.

I should once again reiterate that Dustin over at Chaosium would leap for joy should someone send in a proposal for a BRP fantasy setting. Such a project could incorporate a variety of the optional rules to arrive at a game experience almost identical to that of RQ3.

I think they're out of print, now.

You're welcome! I just wish the EZ version had been more "edited" before it went to print, but that was the first time the whole thing had been assembled together in one place. Prior to that, it had been separate files that had gone back and forth between the playtest, Chaosium, and I, with edits being lobbed in as emails for almost a half-year.

Couldn't you post it here in the "Downloads" section?

In order: Sardaukar Fish Speakers Tleilaxu Face Dancers Bene Tleilax (they make gholas) (Yeah, I'm a huge Dune geek. I admit it...)

Good thing it isn't even close to the truth. They've solicited new cover artwork, have been integrating changes based on the work of at least three proofreaders as well as my own edits, and have made plans for ancillary products in support of BRP. Monographs have been approved, at least one licensing deal's been struck, and there are at least three products on the front page of this website in development. I know of at least another half-dozen projects awaiting approvals, in development, or finished and just awaiting announcements. It takes time to make edits, repaginate, get a proper index done correctly, and get things print-ready. Then there's the time required to actually print the things. In the meantime, they have another game line to support - Call of Cthulhu - which ultimately is their bread and butter.

Shaira has described it correctly. The corrections/clarifications for the core rulebook should (I think) spell it out explicitly.

To the best of my knowledge, Chaosium just bought a box of old copies to sell through their store (just like they sell a variety of non-Chaosium games). They don't have the rights to the actual contents. I also have my doubts that a .pdf exists of the game, given its age. Turning it into image-only .pdf would entail hours of work, while turning it into a properly-OCRed .pdf would take a couple of weeks (if not longer) of dedicated and tedious work.

I'm not fond of the new look, as it looks fairly broken in Firefox.

That was fast. They had copies when I mentioned it upthread. (I checked before posting that recommendation.)

While I'm enjoying the (mostly) positive comments about the EZ version, I've very mixed feelings about it knowing how substantial the edits I submitted* were. When the edits are incorporated and the "official" version is available, I think people will notice a vast number of regrettable errors are gone, sections have been clarified, some unclear issues resolved or clarified, and some last-minute additions have made it just that much better. * Again, my sincerest thanks to Sarah Newton "Shaira", Ben "Zomben" Monroe, Rodney "Threedeesix" Leary, and many others from this forum for their contributions to the editorial process.

I'd definitely recommend picking up Worlds Beyond from Chaosium's store. The system is essentially BRP, and it does have a pretty solid (appearing) starship construction and combat system.

Well.... The first question is "Am I trying to run a game set in the Imperium, or is it an Arrakis game?" There's a fundamental difference in the amount of prep you'd need to do, and the focus there. I'd come up with some cultural modifiers to represent the different major Houses of the Landsraad. Languages, customs, appearance, skills, weapons of choice, etc. I'd narrow the existing list of professions to Artist, Assassin, Athlete, Doctor, Engineer, Entertainer, Explorer, Gambler, Hunter, Merchant, Noble, Pilot, Politician, Priest, Sailor, Scholar, Scientist, Servant, Shaman, Slave, Soldier, Spy, Student, Teacher, Technician, Thief, Tribesman, and Warrior. Some Houses might not have all of these available. I'd come up with some "organizations" like the Suk School, Swordmasters of Ginaz, Mentat training, etc. that would serve like professions, but would include boosts to skills and offer training. Like an old RQ cult. Characters would all be on the "highly trained" side of the spectrum. Rolling 2d6+6 for characteristics. I'd give players the option of how old they'd like to be, and have them figure out what House roles they'd like to fill before doing much more character generation. Lots of skill points available. I'd use psychic and super powers to represent stuff like Mentat and Bene Geserit training. Other training could be handled through super powers like Super Skills, Super Characteristics, Super Senses, etc. Clairvoyance is a Water of Life thing Danger Sense seems like a Mentat thing Dead Calm is Mentat training Eidetic Memory, the same Emotion Control is a Bene Geserit power Mind Control is a technique of the Voice Precognition is a power sought by the Bene Geserit etc. I'd throw together rules for body shields that properly represent the ones from Dune, and would cobble together some of the basic bits of tech/weaponry specific to the world. I'd stat out ornithopters and the like, as well. The Holtzman Effect would simply a huge explosion. Sandworms would be so large as to defy stats (or I could just steal the stats for Dholes from Call of Cthulhu, if for some reason I decided I wanted to have sandworms in my game). It doesn't seem that difficult, actually. I can imagine that it would take a chunk of time (maybe a week or so of prep, spending an hour or two a day), but otherwise I'd readily jump into it. At its heart, Dune isn't a science-fiction story about spaceships and explosions and weird experiments... it's about people dealing with enormous metaphysical issues colliding with their religion, and grappling with political issues, all taking place in a sprawling setting inspired by ecological and economic issues.

I suspect that there may be another RPG on the horizon, as Paramount Pictures has just announced a new adaptation of Dune, to be directed by Peter Berg (Very Bad Things, The Rundown, Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom, and the upcoming Hancock).

I'm somewhat familiar with Brackett's work, but don't currently have copies (and alas, the Fantasy Masterworks line isn't easily available in the States). I believe I've seen her works are online somewhere like Project Gutenberg, but can't remember where exactly. I am more familiar with CAS, though I agree he's not exactly applicable.

Still writing content. Maybe May is more reasonable to expect, but that'll mostly be due to the time playtesting scenarios. Not yet.

Very cool to see!

You guessed it!