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Jason D

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Everything posted by Jason D

  1. Some guidelines in the "customizing creatures" section and in the GM sections.
  2. Even though the early playtesting showed that people wanted to keep the criticals, I was leaning towards just going "special/success/failure/fumble" to eliminate any of the confusion that came from whether a crit is actually better than a special, etc. I liked the balance of "one normal and one better" on each side. So they stayed in.
  3. This is the default for the new BRP.
  4. Maybe so. Two other options present themselves: 1. Urging folks to take extended discussions of any particular topic to another thread. 2. Starting new threads about a specific question. That might be the better way to go, as it would make searching later much easier.
  5. It's a slightly simpler version of the one in RQ3, and a much-simpler alternate version. Both are optional rules. As for what they are exactly... that's a "buy the book" sort of thing.
  6. You are correct in this. I'm not opposed to any vehicle/gear systems for BRP as a game line, but in my opinion based on the project's scope and goal, the BRP book I wrote was complete enough without such a system.
  7. Equipment is defined as it's been in the past. Rules and guidelines are provided for adding powers to equipment to improve them or increase functionality. Almost any super power can be invested in a piece of gear and paid for with character points. Vehicles are defined on a big table with the following entries: Type - a generic description, like "automobile, modern sports car" Skill - what skill you use Rated Speed - an abstract value for the chase system Maneuver - a modifier to your skill for doing maneuvers Handling - an abstract value for the chase system ACC - how many rated speed units it can accelerate or decelerate in a combat round MOV - how many MOV it can go in a combat round, in average Armor - how many armor points it has, split between hull and passenger protection (if different) SIZ - self-explanatory HP - self-explanatory Crew - how many people needed to pilot it at one time Passengers - how many people not involved in operating it can it hold, on average, in some comfort Cargo - as SIZ Value - self-explanatory Notes - self-explanatory I believe that having those values, and around three dozen examples, makes it pretty easy for anyone to come up with some values of their own. As much as BRP ever has. I think I've come closer than anyone yet has, though I'm certain that once it hits print, I'll start a list of changes for Basic Roleplaying (Revised and Expanded Edition). It always works like that.
  8. It wasn't really a case of "no one wanted to invest the time" - it was a question of: a) has any BRP book ever dealt with gear/vehicle construction in such a fashion? does BRP really have the need for those sorts of systems? The answer to both of these questions is a resounding no, so it was easy to prioritize whether to include such a system. Similarly, one could argue the need for a game system to include the equivalent of detailed miniatures rules, with hex- or grid-based movement, line of sight modifiers, facing, attacks of opportunity, etc., but the scope of the BRP book didn't call for it.
  9. I used many of the MM stats for the natural and some fantasy creatures. There are dozens and dozens of non-Mythos creatures in the book. Plenty of natural creatures, supernatural creatures, and others. From the creatures of myth and folkore section: Ghosts Golems Lake Monsters Man-Eating Plants Megalodon Mummies Sasquatch Scarecrows Skeletons Vampires Werewolves Wraiths Zombies Animals: Alligators & Crocodiles Barracudas Bats Bears Bobcats & Lynxes Bush Pigs Bison, Cape Buffalo & Water Buffalo Condors Dogs Elephants Gorillas Hippopotamus Horses Hyenas Indian Wild Dogs Jackals Killer Whales King Cobras Lions Moose Moray Eels Mountain Lions & Panthers Octopus, Giant Piranha Pythons Rats Rhinos Scorpions Sharks Snakes, North American Venomous Snapping Turtles Squid, Giant Stingrays Tigers Wasps & Bees Wolves And in the Mythos-related, here's a quarter of the creatures in the book: Deep One Hybrids Deep Ones Fire Vampires Flying Polyps Fungus, Vile Ghasts Ghouls Goatswood Gnomes Hell-Plants Horses of the Invisible Hyperboreans Leng, Men from Lloigor Martians Mind Parasites Nightgaunts Rat People Rat-Things Reptile People Sand-Dwellers Serpent People Shoggoths, Proto- Sphinx, Children of the Swine Folk Tcho-Tchos Terrors from Beyond Things Tomb-Herd Travelers Tree-Men of M’bwa Triffids Trolls Tunnelers Below Watchers Wendigo Worms of the Earth Yig, Children of It's an invaluable resource for any BRP related game. Run to stores now!
  10. I'd love to see someone do books on either subject. I think if I handle a 'core' book after the rulebook, it'll be an expanded powers book with some more magic, sorcery, spirit magic, rune magic, more superpowers, more mutations, more psychic powers, demon creation rules, etc. But on the other hand, I would happily watch someone else write it. It came up during the playtest, and I know that Doyle Tavener was working on a ritual magic book. An expanded bestiary would be a natural expansion. I'm sure I don't have the time to write it, though, and I firmly believe that a better resource would be world sourcebooks with appropriate creatures, rather than a big book of monsters (of which 90% aren't going to be used in your campaign).
  11. There are a variety of vehicles statted up, but no vehicle creation system. It's something I'd originally planned for, but was really outside the scope of what BRP is to most people (myself included). There is a sample mech in the equipment chapter, and a giant robot in the bestiary. There's some rough advice on customizing creatures, but no flat-out "here's how to create a new creature" system. I can't imagine anyone having any trouble using existing ones to stat up something original, though. A book I'm sure Chaosium would love to see written soon after this one is an expanded bestiary. Any volunteers?
  12. There are rules for knocking out foes, and I think an optional rule for non-lethal damage. But I'm not 100%, as I don't have the manuscript handy and it's been a long time since the core rule stuff was written.
  13. I'm not familiar with how MRQ handled it.* However, the BRP book uses the traditional system, but there are guidelines as to when a skill check is appropriate. If a skill is not being used to further the story and no dramatic purpose is achieves, or no reasonable threat is implied (climbing a tree or swimming in the lake), the skill use is Easy (double skill). Success at an Easy skill roll does not merit a skill improvement check. Similarly, the GM should be able to tell players when a skill improvement roll is called for, and when it's clearly just a part of the "golf bag of weapons" exploit. * I didn't want to deal with any cross-pollination from that vector, and my extremely unpleasant experiences as a onetime freelancer for Mongoose have soured me on giving them any of my money or reading a word they've published.
  14. I was just trying to clarify for the people who weren't familiar with the system. I ran a huge batch of WFRP (2nd edition) a couple of years ago when the game first came out - and am eagerly awaiting the new WFRP 40K rules to get released.
  15. New. Many people in the playtest remarked on the need for such a system, and I've been using them unofficially for a while. I chose not to make it a new value (like Fate Points, etc.) because I'm not fond of adding arbitrary new systems when an existing system will work, and liked them as an expansion of power points - now every character can use them, but a character with powers must manage them a bit more carefully and make difficult choices as to which way to spend them.
  16. Off the top of my head (and the rules were written early in 2006), they go as follows: Both parties roll. If one is successful and the other isn't, then the one who made it achieves their goal. If both succeeded, compare quality of successes (special or critical vs. normal). Best result wins. If quality of success is still tied, a few options are provided (actually, I think a side box has three separate options from "compare the highest successful value" to "who had the greater spread between their roll and the success"). The GM can pick the system she likes best. Fixed by default. Variable results provided as an optional rule. No different armor values by type of attack - though there is a note in the weapons section that states that the GM may (optionally) decide that non-ballistic armor is worth only 1/2 value against high-velocity weapons such as firearms. Playability over additional detail for the sake of "realism" was the guiding principle here. Off the top of my head: Skill success values (for each skill - optional stuff but nicely useful) Professions that haven't appeared before Different player character levels (normal, heroic, epic, superhuman) Some spot rules are new, others have been reworked for congruence with current system Mutations and psychic powers were extensively reworked and expanded Some new super powers and magic spells Many pieces of equipment The GMing and Settings chapters are almost entirely original Some monsters never seen in BRP
  17. You may be relieved to know that one of the new things in the BRP rulebook to come are... a hero point system. It's not revolutionary, and is an optional rule in the GM section, but it differs a bit from the extant hero/fate/drama point systems in that it uses an existing player resource - temporary power points (also known as magic points). With the ability to spend power points (not characteristic POW) to affect in-game results, now every character has a reason to pay attention to that value, no matter whether they're a magician/sorcerer/psychic/mutant/superhero, or just a normal human.
  18. WFRP 2 has two sorts of points - Fate and Fortune. Fortune points are used for minor dice bumps, rerolls, etc. They regenerate daily. Fate points are used for "get out of death free" sorts of major dramatic effects on the game. They do not regenerate.
  19. It was a dramatically reduced list of those, plus some classics from other sources.
  20. And while it seems strange to be quoting myself here, let me clarify that one can play the new BRP without getting into the whole point-based character generation thing at all if you don't want to. Point-based character creation is only a feature if you decide to use the super powers system or decide you want to use it. In games like Hero, GURPS, etc., point-based is the default system and cannot be easily removed from character generation.
  21. I think there's a fundamental difference of opinion about what the term means and we're talking past one another. "Multi-genre game" can mean either a setting that crosses genres, like Rifts or Torg, or it can be a system that can be used for multiple genres, like d20, FUDGE, HERO, GURPS, etc. You could just as easily play a kitchen-sink BRP game with sword-and-sorcery archers and Cherokee survivalists fighting UFOs in ancient Mesoamerica as you could run four different campaigns - a sword-and-sorcery game, a post-apocalyptic game, a UFO-fighting game, and a Mesoamerican myth game. For what it's worth, I have very little taste for multi-genre settings, but hope I made an excellent multi-genre set of rules.
  22. Let me (hopefully) be utterly clear: My goal when working on this was never to make just another set of generic game rules sake for the sake of having just another generic system out there. It was to take the much-beloved and easy-to-use BRP and make a version of it that wasn't tied to Stormbringer or Call of Cthulhu, and brought back some of the cool stuff that had appeared in games as diverse as Elfquest, Runequest, Ringworld, Superworld, and Worlds of Wonder. I have long been the type of GM who ends up adapting many settings to BRP, and I was getting frankly tired of having to drag my Stormbringer, RQ3, Call of Cthulhu, and other rulebooks out whenever I wanted to create a new setting. I was also a bit annoyed how the different strains of BRP never seemed to be exactly congruent - there was always something squidgy that wasn't the same between the different game lines, and I wanted something consistent. If anything, think of this as the super-complete version of the old BRP 16-page booklet that appeared in Worlds of Wonder and the original Call of Cthulhu boxed set. The goal is that GMs can use it to make their own settings in the style of Super-World, Magic World, Futureworld, etc. Sure, it will be viewed as competing in the same "generic RPG space" as GURPS and HERO, but those games have their audiences, and a strength of BRP is ease of use. I would venture to say that most people who play GURPS like crunchy rules for building vehicles, and most people who play HERO like the effects-based powers systems. I think of it BRP competing against them in the same way that fruit juice competes against soda and liqueurs in the drinks category - they're essentially the same sort of thing (something sweet to drink), but fulfill very different tastes.
  23. The reason the page count is so high is that it is chock-full of optional systems, content, GM advice, overviews of genres and settings, skills described, sanity, allegiance, five separate power systems, equipment ranging from thrown rocks to power armor, etc. I wanted to make the core book the one-stop-shop for BRP gaming, and I think I got pretty damned close. Future supplements will be spared the page count spent on rules, and will be mostly content. I've talked to Charlie and Dustin about doing a new and updated version of the 16-page BRP booklet with the new rules, and they're enthusiastic. With that, you could play the game, and hypothetically, you could run a simple campaign with non-powered characters and some basic equipment. Now to find the time...
  24. The super powers section includes some basic handicaps and power modifiers, but they're not as complex or robust as those that a dedicated superhero game would include.
  25. I'm not sure where you got that impression. Can you point at a specific post or comment that says that? And my apologies if I've sent out a conflicting message over the long and tortured development process on this game book. It's very much a core set of rules whose main goal was to be consistent between previous BRP games and generic enough to serve as a platform for most (if not all) settings or genres a GM wants, with optional rules to add complexity if desired, or to reduce it in some cases. What it isn't is revisionary.
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