Jason D

I don't have my book handy, but the rule is (supposed to be) that using a weapon you don't meet the minimum requirements for makes your attacks Difficult (1/2 chance).

From the Basic Roleplaying Advanced Readers' Copy Edition Zero solicitation: Emphasis on the "some errors and inconsistencies" part. Playtesting, proofing, and corrections are still underway, to some degree.

I think I see the confusion here, and I'll make sure it's clear(er) in the BRP book. For normal use, shields shouldn't have their armor values applied twice, which is essentially what you're doing here (once as a armor value, once as HP). Generally, it's only when you're dealing with specials and criticals that the shield's AP or HP are even an issue. These are ablative, as well, so a damaged shield has a lower AP for subsequent attacks. The HP for shields came from Stormbringer, or were extrapolated using those values as a benchmark. And for clarification, RQ was the third tier of reference for this book. In order, the first source was Elric!/Stormbringer, then Call of Cthulhu, then RQ was utilized where those works didn't suffice. Then came Elfquest, Ringworld, Superworld, etc. So things aren't supposed to work exactly the way they do in RQ. I must confess to a bit of frustration that, due to factors beyond my control (the release of the old RQ3 stuff as the BRP monographs, for example) it's been assumed that this work is somehow meant to fill the same role of RQ. If you'll note, many of the optional systems are those from RQ, while the default is a gameplay style more inspired by Stormbringer and Call of Cthulhu.

I think you're contradicting yourself, or I'm missing something in your statement. If a shield is (relatively) easy to damage, then wouldn't someone using one become easier to eventually kill? Since shields are designed to be able to soak up a lot of damage, they're pretty tough. However, since they can be damaged by specials and criticals, they're hypothetically vulnerable.

I'll fix that - it was a change in the table layout.

Noted. Thanks!

It was specifically balanced to be a mid-ground between the low damage, high rate-of-fire light pistol and the high-damage, slow rate-of-fire heavy pistol.

It's been noted upthread.

Dodge is based on DEX x 2% for characters. Unless there's a strong reason to choose otherwise, I'd suggest using that as a base for monsters as well, with higher scores attributed to experience. The Lion for some reason is missing his Dodge skill, but it will be 50%. The Wolf has a Dodge 35%.

The Education section says the GM should assign it based on age and background. The "base level" would be the GM's decision based on the setting and the campaign. For example, if the GM is setting a game in a college, he may decide "Everyone begins with an EDU of 12, representing high school education - any additional points spent indicate your year of college or some additional external schooling". Correct. It should have been in there, but since it's one optional system referring to another optional system, it may have gotten accidentally overlooked. I'll see that it goes into the corrections for the final book. Hope this helps.

Still examining it. I'm working my way front-to-back through the book combing for errors, typos, and other inconsistencies, and I haven't gotten that far yet. The holiday season was complicated by a severe cold, followed by a bout of intense allergies (it is cedar season in Texas) so I'm depressingly muddle-minded and edits are going a bit slower than I'd like.

I absolutely loved that article.

I'm someone who does change genres regularly, frequently tries out edgy new systems (alternating with old-school games I never played the first time around), and puts a lot of energy into my gaming, and I'll agree with you 100% here.

I'm revising the skill descriptions for Melee Weapons, Missile Weapons, etc. to default to Weapon Classes section in Chapter Eight (saving some space and ensuring consistency). So it'll be just "Swords" unless the GM wants to break it down into sub-skills.

That'll fall to Chaosium's hands, as they're the editors of any future supplements. Personally, I'd imagine that each supplement will deal with optional rules on a case-by-case basis, with only the default rules assumed. Each book might also introduce new optional rules. It's sort of loose right now, but I suspect Chaosium will be putting together a writers guidelines for the BRP line before too long. I'm including a section at the beginning saying "Here are the optional rules I'm assuming throughout this sourcebook" and the text will use the default rules as the default. If Charlie and Lynn don't like that approach, they'll let me know and I'll make changes as appropriate.

Excuse me for a moment while I go find Sam and kick him in hit location 9-11. (He wrote the system section, and that part specifically.) It's standard rounding. I'll include a note of it, and check the examples.

It is the highest initial unmodified characteristic that's correct. The move away from POW as the power budget was specifically to reduce the "one stat to rule them all" syndrome.

Hmmm... could you check again? It's right there in my copy. I've got with me a slightly earlier version than the Edition Zero version, but I'd be surprised if it got taken out.

Each spell level fills one point of free INT. For example, Cloak of Night can be cast at levels 1-4. Your character can memorize Cloak of Night (1), costing 1 point of free INT, or (assuming it's known), he can memorize Cloak of Night (4), filling up 4 points of free INT. He can choose to cast it at a lower level, but can only cast what he's got in memory. So your character must choose tactically - have a few spells at full levels, or many at 1 level. The third paragraph of the "Sorcery Spell Limitations" section explains it with the bookshelf metaphor.

Generally, yes. But remember that SIZ is also not a cut-and-dried measure, any more than the other characteristics are. For example, a SIZ 0 item could be the size of a pin, or a ballpoint pen, where one is an order of magnitude greater than the other but they're still functionally SIZ 0.

Yeah, Charlie was duplicating captions throughout the book as placeholders. I'll make sure that they're replaced with proper captions.

The second. I'll see that a section addressing it gets into the revision.

Another of those weird dropped weapons. I know I statted out out... I'll make sure it gets back into the manuscript.

For fans of the genre, this seems relevant: paizo.com - Store / Paizo Products / Planet Stories

That one was an oversight - it originally was on the ancient list, then got moved to the historic and somehow got cut between. It's on my list of fixes.