Jason D

It changes the default dice rolls. I'm not going to give away too much (and don't have the manuscript handy), but it goes something like this: Normal - every characteristic is 3d6 (except for maybe SIZ) Heroic - every characteristic is 2d6+6 For epic and superhuman level campaigns, the GM is advised to provide a pool of character points and let players modify the heroic-level rolls as desired.

All of what you discuss here has been addressed in the new manuscript, either directly or indirectly.

I'm pretty sure there's a SIZ chart, but nothing like a silhouette, as the value is a pretty nebulous one (which drove me a bit crazy).

They're not intended to replace the resistance table in any way. Instead, they're there for things that might not have an immediate or obvious opposing value. Some examples: - Idea (INTx5), Knowledge (EDUx5), and Luck (POWx5) rolls are already a known quantity - doing a hundred pushups might require an Effort (STRx5) roll - eating 50 hot dogs might be a Stamina (CONx5) roll - catching a drink you've dropped might be an Agility (DEXx5) roll - attracting the notice of a total stranger to come over and speak to you in a social situation might call for a Charisma (APPx5) roll and so on... I think a couple have been mentioned on the front page of this very site.

Character generation is normal BRP, but allows for point-based character generation. Skills are "get a dump of points and spend them as appropriate for profession and personal interest". The rules for different character power levels (normal, heroic, epic, and superhuman) allow for different starting characteristic bases and more skill points. The super powers system also includes skills like "super characteristic" and "super skill" which let you put character points into characteristics and skills.

Spread the word, though I'll likely be doing a bunch of evangelism for the book on various forums over the next two-to-forever months. Optional rules in the GM's chapter. Like from the Call of Cthulhu Keeper's Handbook. If a skill is being performed under ideal conditions and isn't essential to the plot, the GM can make the skill Easy (double the chance of success). If it's going to be hard, the GM can rule that it's Difficult (1/2 chance). It's a simple means of quickly resolving issues, or for making them tougher. There are also rules about when you'd add a modifier from -20% to +20% for various things, applied after a skill is either doubled or halved. I wonder if the sci-fi scenario was mine? It is admittedly late. I'll ask Dustin about it.

Thanks! This is nothing. Fun to do. I should probably ignore the question. See the answer to the previous post. She's awesome. Best thing I've ever done with my life, which I am astounded now to think. Every day is a joy. Maybe we'll have them meet up at a future Gen Con!

We kept APP, because it's the most current version of the characteristic, but the characteristic roll (characteristic x 5, used for simple tests) is the Charisma roll. Thanks! Now go get some sleep!

Consistency and completeness. The original title I submitted was The Complete BRP but it got changed to Deluxe, then to the current title. I was amused that they announced the newest title before letting me know. See above. No. If anything, making them more modular so GMs could do that. Not a huge consideration, to be frank. I'm much more in the "does it play well" than "is it realistic" camp. Turning it into a lingua franca for future BRP games. Basically, I wanted to write the core set of BRP rules I (and other writers) could use to create new BRP games with. Thanks!

It's out of my hands, but I suspect there are plans afoot to entice players and GMs ahead of time.

See above. Having BRP become a substitute for GURPS, HERO, Action!, Tri-Stat dX, d20, etc. was ever a consideration or a goal. It's a different kind of game. I was heartened during playtesting about the number of people who contacted me on the forum and outside about the ease they'd had changing existing systems over to BRP, and how much more fun they were having. I don't know if that would have happened if we'd gone down the "just another generic rules set" path.

No problem. This pales in comparison to the morning diaper routine with my 9-month old daughter, so it's a welcome change. And my experience working for MMOs have hardened me to the roughest of message boards. Any gamers, really, but especially those who like a system-light experience, and want to be able to slot mechanics and and out of their games with ease. I think those games have their audiences, and BRP has its audience. If anything, they're competing against one another and we're sort of on our own. There are rules for doing a wide variety of things to environments (remember that BRP is a misnomer... we're actually talking about games as diverse as Superworld, Ringworld, and so on. There are rules for making stuff using powers, but they're admittedly light. Again, it's generally not a big part of the BRP game, and we were very strongly opposed to trying to make it just another generic rules kit like HERO, GURPS, etc. SIZ is still abstracted. It wasn't planned, and they don't really balance against one another. The expectation is that a GM will only be using one of them in a given campaign. Mutations don't balance against magic, and psychic powers are woefully underpowered compared to sorcery. Super powers are probably the most flexible and powerful of all of the five. Perhaps. But again, BRP has never been about tactical options - it's a core game framework that can be made as complex or as simple as desired. In the past that's been by the designers at Chaosium, but now is in the hands of each GM. Hmm... I'd have liked to have made Sanity work in the same fashion as HP, power points (formerly magic points), fatigue, etc. But that's too big a change to do in non-CoC rulebook. I think that given the choice now, I'd have pulled critical successes out of the book entirely and just kept special successes as the default. I've never been a fan of even using fatigue or encumbrance rules. I tend towards making those things "GM discretion". I'd have scaled the whole thing back somewhat and gotten it done much earlier. Overlapping three moves, two job searches, a marriage, and the birth of a baby during the course of one manuscript wasn't really ideal.

They're from Elric!, also known as Stormbringer (5th edition) There are two sample demons (a little implike one and a somewhat Balrogian one), and the spells just provide you to summon "a demon". A complete demonic creation system was, again, outside the scope of the rules, which was a generic BRP framework. A magic book or a fantasy setting might have more detailed rules about demon summoning, creation, artifacts, etc.

Controversially, no. Though the rules aren't beloved, they do work, and I tried to minimize changing rules when they worked.

Not detailed. The classic "chase" system from CoC is there, genericized for ships and other vehicles, but a full-on vehicular combat system is outside the purview of what I and the Chaosium guys felt the BRP core rules should encompass. Fairly compatible. They were based off the WoW Super-World rules, so they're a little more, basic, than the ones from the standalone Superworld game.

It was easy to remove the idiosyncratic spells, and it is my opinion that the sorcery system from Elric! was utterly unsupported by the source material. I'm a 1st edition Stormbringer man. No. Just sorcery with a few spells relating to demon/elemental summoning, and two demons and four elementals in the bestiary. No. I think it would make a fine source of material for a BRP magic book, though, if anyone wanted to write it. Yes. Removed Moorcockian names and made them (a bit too) generic. Further renaming is encouraged. Melee from SB, firearms from CoC, both adjusted as need be. New values devised where appropriate.

No adventures. Sorry. Didn't seem like a valid use of space for a generic book. No. But if someone did a magic expansion, those would be great! Slash is now bleeding, impale is the same, crushing is the same, and we've added entangling and knockback. Yes, as well as Call of Cthulhu's. It's a hybrid. We'll play it by ear.

I believe that the interior art is a mix of new and old. I've seen the online sketchbook of one artist (http://skook.blogspot.com/), but haven't seen the completed works. Here's a list of the creatures in the manuscript I submitted: Natural Creatures: Alligator (or Crocodile), Bear, Brontosaur, Dog, Gorilla, Hawk, Horse, Insect Swarm, Lion, Rat Pack, Shark, Snake (Constrictor, Venomous), Squid (Giant), Tiger, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Wolf Fantasy Creatures: Centaur, Dragon, Dwarf, Elf, Ghost, Ghoul, Giant, Griffin, Halfling, Mummy, Minotaur, Orc, Skeleton, Troll, Unicorn, Vampire, Werewolf, Zombie Supernatural Creatures: Angel, Demon (Greater, Lesser), Elementals (Air, Earth, Fire, Water) Science Fiction Creatures: Alien (Grey, Xenomorph), Blob, Robot (Giant, Killer, Utility) There's no guarantee all of them will make it into the final book (some may get cut for space), but that's what went into the layout process. As for usability as PCs, there are guidelines at the beginning of the chapter for adapting any race for use as a PC race, but nothing so sophisticated as the RQIII system. It didn't make much sense for a generic core book to go into details about what races can be PCs. If you want to make a giant robot PC and the GM is cool with it, go to town. Yes and not really. The most unchanged are the sorcery rules. The rest have been extensively revised and expanded, though made more generic to suit the role of the book. I think a few have been announced, some on this very website. There was talk (a long while ago) of a monograph with multiple adventures in it to showcase the breadth of the rules... I'll have to ping Dustin and see if it's still on.

The book's already done being written. I'm just floating around hyping it, and already formulating the next few BRP things I'm working on.

The core system. Skill rolls. Sanity. Allegiance. Most skills are recognizable. Characteristic rolls for each characteristic. Adding the CoC skill modifiers to all skills. All weapons get special effects when you roll 1/5 the total. Support for multiple genre/settings. Tons of optional rules. Support for heroic, epic, and superhuman levels of characters. Seeing the magic system from Magic World, mutations from the old Hawkmoon, sorcery from Stormbringer/Elric!, super powers from Superworld, and psychic powers inspired by those from ElfQuest in one book. Either the end of this year or within a few weeks of it. They're doing everything they can to get it out ASAP. That'd be up to Chaosium.

Hey everyone - I'm the primary author of the new BRP core rulebook, and am perfectly happy to answer any questions you might have about the content and/or the process of writing it. So, fire away. I'll check this page every day or so to see if there's anything new, and will try to answer to the best of my ability. I look forward to providing information if you're interested. Thanks, Jason Durall

I agree with this. My wife cannot understand my "irrational" dislike of Copperplate Bold. She was going to use it on her website and business cards, and I kept saying "If you want to make people think you're prickly and old-fashioned, that's an awesome font for it." The cover is a new piece, actually. As the author of the book, I'm someone biased in any opinion about the cover, so I'm going to step out of any qualitative discussions about it. However, if people are unsatisfied with it, some constructive suggestions would be far more useful than just bashing it. I recall when GURPS displayed their initial cover, and then had the contest to produce a better cover, which resulted in the current look and feel. I wonder if anyone would be willing to post some alternatives in graphic format.