Jason D

Though you've got to be careful to know your players there; some react very badly to that sort of bait-and-switch.

Of course.

But it should seem obvious that there is a tremendous amount of trust assumed between the GM and the players.

I'm a little puzzled then; if experience is simply done by distributing skill points, how does one define a profession within the rules?

As with Call of Cthulhu and Stormbringer.

You have a short skill description, a list of skills that are appropriate for someone of that profession, and a suggested wealth level. You get a lump of skill points to distribute across those skills.

Later, you get another lump of skill points for personal interests (skills outside those designated as professional skills).

If you have powers defined by skill points, you can spend skill points from an appropriate pool. For example, a priest with magic spells might spend professional skill points on spells, but a psychic police officer would spend personal interest points for psychic powers.

While chatting with a coworker about games and BRP (he's a Call of Cthulhu player), we both lamented that it's impossible to "spring" the Mythos on a player as he (usually) knows what he's getting into.

It struck me that BRP allows a GM to do "the switch" (not in the Seinfeldian sense), starting with a generic system and players who may have no idea what's in store during the campaign.

So a normal world BRP game might suddenly veer into horror or science-fiction.

That was in terms of actual spell levels too? If so, that is a change, and weakens them noticeably for non-spellcasting specialists.

Though I'm curious given that Jason has said the previous experience is a simple point distribution, how you distinguish a mage from a non-mage, especially since you indicate the skill limits for non-mages have gone away. What defines someone as a "mage"?

During character creation, one stop says (essentially) "Stop here! Does your GM plan to use powers? If so, ask which ones are available." Some character professions state "this profession may have access to one of the power types". If the GM allows, then rules are presented in those power types for what level of power a starting character should have.

I'd not even remembered the quarter cap on levels of spell (I thought it was a quarter of your Int in _spells_); was that a change, Jason, or am I just misremembering Magic World?

For non-magicians who dabble, you're limited to 1/4 INT in the number of spells you can cast, and the levels of each. (If I recall correctly.)

If you're a trained magician, you can know more spells, and the limit of levels you can cast raises to 1/2 INT.

I should emphasize once again that Basic Roleplaying is not Generic RuneQuest. Many of the questions seem to be aimed at that nonexistent product rather than the one that's been created, playtested, and promoted.

Basic Roleplaying provides a rules framework for any setting, and calls for a lot of decision making by the GM to determine what should fit or not fit in each setting.

A BRP-based fantasy setting would present more guidelines on what the specific costs for learning spells, and might further limit spellcasting characters.

As it stands, BRP simply presents rules for creating characters, says "a starting-level character might have this level of power", and presents a list of powers. There's a bit more detail than that, but not a ton more.

But, sorcery was quite difficult to learn. I don't know how the MW magic works, but if you're a warrior, can you still learn the blast spell f.ex.? Just the blast spell?

The GM is the arbiter of whether a character is able to start with magic or sorcery.

Learning magic later is up to the GM again. He may say "nope" outright. If he allows it, it's not exactly a massive tactical advantage.

For magic, let's say your non-magician has an INT 13. It'll first take (30-INT) weeks to learn a spell (Blast). It may be expensive, if he can even find a tutor, and it's dedicated training time.

At the end of those 17 weeks, your warrior can now use Blast at 13% (starting skill % = INT) and is limited to 3 levels in it (INT/4, rounded down) for a whopping 3D6 damage. Each level of Blast costs 3 power points to cast, so he's likely to only be able to cast 5, maybe 6 levels of it, tops, before slumping into unconsciousness from being out of power points.

Now your warrior has a missile attack that is slower than a regular attack, costs power points, can be dodged, and begins at a lower percentile than picking up a random missile weapon.

More incentive to leave the spellcasting to specialists.

Well, if you had a mage with a 12 Power (not exactly world-shakingly hard to do or end up with) then you could easily toss 5 4d6 attacks out, that by strict reading of the rules auto-hit if you made the casting check. Two of those would take down most human targets pretty reliably, maybe one in many cases.

As I noted before, Blast (as well as the other Magic World damage spells) got nerfed. Still pretty deadly, but no longer guaranteed one-shot kills like before.

RQ Sorcery is also pretty similar to a more complex version of MagicWorld magic (which was also called "sorcery" in the actual book...)

I must confess to wanting to keep Magic World magic simple and basic, leaving the door open for someone else to come along later and make a more advanced version called "Wizardry".

Just rename it? After all, the Elric! derived system only gets called "Sorcery" to distinguish it from "Magic" (have I mentioned that should have been "Wizardry"? ), so the RQIII Sorcery could become "Thaumaturgy" perhaps...

Good ideas all...

I wonder if Chaosium still have the rights to John Snead's Liber ka magic system for Nephilim?

I believe they do. As it isn't translated from any of the French material, I would be surprised if they don't own it.

There's probably ample material for two or three different BRP magic system books.

As I've noted upthread, the temptation to write a BRP Magic book is strong, but after a year of playtest, writing and/or editing 276,000 words, and over three years of development on a generic system, I want to get back to content, which I enjoy most.

To much magic already? To similar to other system? Some other reason?

Adding more Elric/SB sorcery and then another system called "Sorcery" would be too confusing, at least in my opinion.

Sorry, Jason, I meant Magic, not Sorcery--the one derived from MagicWorld.

Was this rule in any errata?

I'm fairly certain it isn't in Magic World. If it is, I'd love a page reference on that.

Something I've been wondering about is why was the spirit & divine RQ3 magic system scrapped? It could do with some tweaks, but it was overall a very good system for BRP type of play. I am kinda afraid that some spells from magic world won't be even half as good.

There were a few reasons:

The addition of the SB/Elric! stuff was mostly a low-hanging fruit - easy to put in and not tremendously difficult to adapt to the new rules.

I'm quite eager to see those systems make it into a BRP sourcebook*. I just don't have the time or energy to write it.

* I've suggested before that the spirit, divine, and ritual magic from RQ; some de-Lovecraftized Call of Cthulhu magic; the Ki powers from Land of Ninja; more info on demon summoning from Stormbringer (4th edition); and some of the expanded magic from The Bronze Grimiore and The Unknown East would make a kick-ass BRP Magic.

Will the combat skills be Attack/Parry (like RQ) or same skill for both (like SB1)?

The default is that it's a combined skill (your skill in Melee Weapons (Daggers) would be 55% for both attacks and parries.

Optional rules allow for the GM to split attack and parry into two separate skills.

Is the skill the same for all weapons in same category (like RQ III, same skill for all 1H axes) or different skill for each weapons (like CoC)?

The default rules assume a broad specialization in weapon classes. For example, 1-Handed Swords, 2-Handed Axes, etc.

Optional rules allow for more detailed specialization, so you might have Broadsword, Shortsword, Rapier, Scimitar, Saber, etc.

There are suggestions as to handle someone with a narrow specialization handling a weapon of the similar broad type.

Thanks for the extended summary, Jason. Do I gather from you discussion of sorcery that the rank of effect is no longer connected with the skill level in any way? I know in MagicWorld you took a 10% penalty for every rank over the first.

There is no skill level associated with Sorcery.

(Are you confusing the older summoning-style magic from the earlier editions of Stormbringer?)

I'm quite a bit worried with the power here. 8d6 points of damage for 8 mp? What is a warrior supposed to do with that? It will fry everything...

SGL.

Bad example (I didn't refer to the powers section of the manuscript, which was nailed down sometime a year ago) - I now recall that the damage spells are more expensive, and can be dodged or parried with a shield.

Hello I am new the forums and have been a fan of the system mostly with CoC and Nephilim. My question about the power system. Are the powers, spellls, mutations and psychic abilities be its own system/stat or will it be spells/powers done as skills or advantages? Will it be like D&D spells or will it be GURPS magic system like each spell will be part of the standard skill list?

There are five separate power types presented in the core rulebook. Though they're somewhat compatible, the GM is advised to pick one power type that works for the setting and stick with it.

It isn't hard to make them play together, but they're not balanced against one another at all.

Magic Spells are from Magic World, from the Worlds of Wonder boxed set. They are handled like skills - you pick how many power points (levels) you're going to throw into a spell, roll % for success, and apply results based on the level of power points used. Levels are limited by 1/2 your character's INT. For example, if you have Blast 55% and INT 16, you can throw up to 8 levels of Blast. Roll under 55%, spend 8 power points, and you've got a 8d6 Blast attack. The more levels you throw into a spell, the slower it is, so you would go at a lower DEX rank. Magic spells increase like skills.

Mutations (based on those from Hawkmoon) are almost always either modifications to characteristics or skills, or sometimes allow other (or diminished) use of a skill. Some of them have a power, like Pheromones or Regeneration. Some are bodily modifications such as Natural Weapon or Wings, while others are cosmetic with some minor in-game effects, like Coloration or Luminescence.

Psychic Abilities are usually skill-based, or skill and POW vs. an opposing value based. They have a variable power point cost to use. They increase with experience when used successfully. It is loosely-based on the system from Elfquest.

Sorcery is the system from Elric!/Stormbringer, and doesn't require spell rolls. Spells usually have levels, equivalent to how many power points they cost to cast. Usually, they simply work. Characters can know a limited number of spell levels at any given time, but can cast the spells they know freely, assuming they have power points and some required element (like a summon elemental spell might require some element handy). Sorcery doesn't increase in experience so much as sorcery-using characters learn new spells, or more levels of already-known spells.

Super powers are based on the ones from the Super-World book from Worlds of Wonder, and the later Superworld game. They are rated in levels, and sometimes simply work, sometimes must beat an opposed characteristic on the resistance table, and sometimes use an existing or new skill to succeed. Some might increase the utility of a normal skill in a "super" way. Sometimes they augment a characteristic or other character attribute. Sometimes they grant a new ability that isn't covered by one of these factors. They can be increased through a variety of means, but not by the traditional skill/experience method.

1)What's your favorite new bit in BRP?

The little things, like some new much-needed skills (Strategy and Teach), some of the suggestions for higher-powered gaming (heroic HP, for example), and some of the "new" creatures. I also liked writing up the NPC digest, showing the range and variety of NPCs (and by default, PCs) the game is capable of.

2)What's the thing you are most proud of?

The GMing advice sections, and just completing it despite the incredible chao my life went through during the writing process.

Least proud would be taking so long on it. See my blog entry on the subject for more details on why.

3) Did the saling ship rules from Stormbinger/RQ3 make it into BRP< or is our galley stuck up the creek without an oar?

No, they didn't. Ironically, given my mention above about not wanting to include rules for spaceships, the ship sailing rules were not added specifically because it would have skewed the book too far towards fantasy/medieval, and I wanted to keep it agnostic in regards to setting.

4) How about rules for age and aging?

They're in there as an optional rule.

Is it possible to move the "complaining about the lack of a starship design system" discussion to a different thread?

I started this thread to provide answers for people curious about the book - not really for a lengthy back-and-forth about a question that's been asked, answered, asked why, answered why, etc.

Not meaning to sound cranky about it, but it's dominated the last few pages of the thread.

Intriguing :-)

Not overmuch.

Just something I'd had on a back-burner for a couple of years now, wanting a home. I sent Dustin a list of the top four things I'd like to write (prioritized by my interest level), and he said they'd like to see a full proposal for the first of them.

Once the contract is signed (assuming they do so), I'll let folks know what it is.

Excellent news! Would this be the Hyborianesque Swords and Sorcery setting I think you mentioned earlier?

Actually, no.

(snip) or pretty much the entire Decipher RPG line (not dead, but as good as).

The Decipher Star Trek and LotR lines are both stone cold dead. I believe they've lost the rights to publish anything for them.

As far as writing for an RPG goes, well, I sorta need a rulebook. If I offer to write something I wonder if Dustin would send me some rules?

You'd have to take that up with them.

I'm happy to report that I just got an email back from Dustin asking me to send on a full outline and schedule for my first sourcebook for BRP. From there we move to contract.

Since it's not a rulebook, and is mostly source material, it should be pretty quick from outline to completion.

More information when it's approved and work has begun.

And please note that my response was a disagreement, not an intended slam. On the whole, I've heard nothing but good things about the job you've done with this from playtesters, and I think your willingness to spend your time answering fan questions is admirable.

I didn't take it as a slam... more as a "It would be awesome if someone could write a starship creation/modification/combat system for BRP."

I would happily use it, though I've got no interest in writing it.

Sorry if the answer came back as argumentative.

I somewhat disagree with the conclusion you came to from it, but you're the author, not me.

This is a good time to note, once more, that Dustin Wright at Chaosium is eager to hear from people who'd like to be authors of BRP sourcebooks.

By that argument, I'd think things like the sorcery and psi systems don't belong in the core book either; either is as campaign-specific as a spaceship combat system.

The real truth is, I expect, that Jason tended to use the material he had at hand to refine and include, and there's been far more fantasy implimentations of BRP than SF; to the best of my knowledge, the only published ones were Ringworld, FutureWorld and Worlds Beyond; the first two had no spacecraft systems for reasons that would be self-evident from their focus, and the latter isn't something he could work from because it was third party.

Not really.

BRP, in all of its incarnations, has primarily been about characters rather than vehicles. These character might be investigators, sorcerers, adventurers, spacefarers, superheroes... but the BRP game has always treated vehicular combat (and vehicles in general) lightly, and I consciously chose to stick with that decision.

It wasn't just a case of "what was there", as by that token I'd have included the ship combat rules from Elric! and had much more major adapted material from Ringworld.