pansophy

Sarah! Thanks, this is very helpful information for the campaign, especially as it gives some more info about the Temples of Babisiya and Entos Thanks a lot for this, what more can I say. As you ask for further questions, I have some unanswered from my players which I would like to share: - Trade routes. Are there trade routes (land) between the major cities, or is most of the trading done by boat? - what are the the bigger cities known for? Are there rumours about them, do they possess certain specialities? What do they trade? - Names of the surrounding cities. On the map there are some city names missing. What are their names? (two in the north-west, one in the far North, in the Amadorad Protectorate) - the ruins of ancient cities - what are they called? Do people know what happened to these cities? Any legends? - Heros. Are there tales and songs about former heros of the Autocracy? - Well known persons in the Autocracy, are there any (except of the avatar)? - What is the weather like? Is it still like todays Spain? (mostly warm, hot in summer) - Where do all the other races mentioned in the book live/origin? Can some of them be categorised into "good" & "evil"? This is just to keep you interested, in case you are running out of ideas ... Oh, BTW: I can see you have a colour map of the Autocracy - any chance you can make that available? It would help to identify the kanton borders much easier ... Thanks again for putting up the website and supporting the Chronicles! So far we have a lot of fun with it, as it differs a lot from the Fantasy campaigns we had played before. CoFE really is the first Fantasy setting in many years that interested us enough to start a campaign. Usually we play modern and SciFi settings, so I call this a winner!

Malleus Monstrorum for creatures CoFE for running the current campaign, Mythic Iceland to add some colder regions to The Future Earth, Operation Ulysses for the SciFi campaign My 2300AD books as background setting I must say, I am pleasently surprised by the sheer amount of books coming out or beeing available for the BRP system. It was very different 2008-2010, when only some Monographs were available and BRP felt a bit like an unloved child. Keep up the good work, guys!

Nice idea, but I would change the initial infection a bit. It would be more sinister to have the virus initially be spread by contact only. So, in the beginning only the curious few people who went to examin the meteor are infected. As the virus would take time to adapt to the body, I would have them 48 to 72 hours before the first symptoms are shown (lethargic looking, absent minded, uncoordinated, etc). During that time, the "curious few" have the option to spread the virus further as they get in contact with other people. And then the first mindless killings start. Maybe, in the beginning, people are still somewhat aware of theit surroundings, they still can interact with others - they only have blackouts (and this is when they kill). After some time, some days, they drop more and more into the mindless zombie state. Doing it this way has some more nice side effects: the players at first think this is a murder investigation. Then, when the killings get more and more frequent, they might think of a serial killer. This is when the other meteors fall on Earth. When the full blown Zombie epidemic comes through, the players may still think of this as a local problem, unless they make the connection with the meteors. If you play it right and do not mention the meteor strike as a main thing, the players will make the connection between the events only when it is too late - and you trapped them into a nice horror setting. It is a bit more sinister, more surprising and to me a more interesting plot.

The Hidden People (Elves) are statted and have a whole chapter in the book. Thing is, they are different from all Elves of a Fantasy setting I know and are in my opinion more believable if a GM would use them. The Mythic in the title of the book could also reference to the magic provided in the book, the creatures in the book and the sagas. All in all Mythic Iceland is a very realistic setting, it is very playable and very enjoyable. If you are looking for an other Fanttasy settin, this is not it. I think it is not fair of you speaking bad of a book you have not even read. I can see where Tolkin might got his ideas from (sagas of Iceland), but this does not mean you have Elves running over the place all time. Also, when read the book, you get an extremely well researched impression about Iceland, its history, its people, community, sagas and Islandic life. The sagas play a big part in the book as they are essential for the believes of the Icelandic people, but, again, this does not mean you have fantasy creatures running all over the land. You can bring them in, but they will be as they are described in the sagas of Iceland. And that is totally different from Tolkin species. Which is a fresh and appreciated new start for an Icelandic adventure.

No, you find references to them (hidden folk) but it is all optional. Even then, they are absolutely different from Tolkin creatures.

Hey Sarah, nice page hope CoFE will become a nice fat setting Any chance you can write something up about the Lion People from Aiforia? You mention them in the main rule book, but beyond them being shape shifters, there is not much info. How does shape-shifting work? Can they control it? Is it obvious, even in human form? It would help me to get the character running as my players ask a lot and I want to give them a better description ... Ah, and the Helemor ... I guess I could go on here for ever asking questions. Maybe you will be very kind and give us a small run-down of some of the major races of CoFE some time I mean, I am patient. I do not need this descriptions too soon. Next week would do Just kidding. Thanks for doing all the CoFE stuff for us, it's a much appreciated setting my group currently enjoys.

It is, and that is why I like BRP. Also, I like to be able to play a character by it's description, not by it's special Abilities, Pros, Cons or whatever they are called in other systems. Mythic Iceland is a very nice setting. Finally a bit of Fantasy without Dwarfs and Elves. I really hate people connect Fantasy with "Lord of the Rings" all the time.

you could .zip them, I guess ...

in BRP a human has a Move of 10, CoC has it at 8. So, a walk in BRP is about 3-5, where in CoC ist is about 2-3. But that's being picky and I would overrule these rates anyway as I may have a different imagination of Triffids (as I have with any creature in RPGs). I see stats more as a guideline and vary things a lot - if only to keep the players on their toes. After all, it gets boring if a certain creature always has the same old features and does not derivate from that. This is why I love the so much overlooked Chaotic Feature Table in the rule book :-D

Wow, Move:8 in CoC is as fast as a human. This is not anything like in the book. Triffids can walk as fas as a human, but they cannot go faster - so Move:8 is a bit over the top.

hm, the older German version of Malleus Monstrorum does not have them, but there are at least three plants in it that would be similar to a Triffid. Maybe Max can tell the exact stats

Wow! Now that sounds like a nice PA setting to me! Characters will start out as normal people, having to deal with the Triffids for a certain time - and survive. Soon they find out too many are out there, and they also reproduce by using some bodies as seed banks. Players have to go out there, find and kill the seed pods, to prevent immidiant overrun - and then the battle continuous ... Setting is good enough for a one shot, maybe more. But usually PA games only interest people a few sessions before "survival" becomes too boring. Spicing it up is not too hard with the right ingredients, and I think Triffids are SciFi enough to place some modern elements and it is Fantasy enough to use good old weapons to hack the things to pieces, as weapons are of limited help. Also, it gets around the problem how weapons suddenly spread all over the world in a PA setting, as most countries do not have USA weapon laws and they are heavily restricted. Cool! Thanks for a very good idea for a new PA setting

Well, being an Archer and (more relevant) a bow hunter, I can say Dexterity alone does not help at all. It is Skill you really need, if you want to hit anything other than static targets. Judging the distance right makes the difference between a total miss or a deadly hit. Dexterity is really not needed, I cannot see what for. If anything, it would be Intelligence, Knowledge or Education. On a Recurve bow it would be Strength. So, to me it is totally OK a Skill is the only relevance to hit something. I think this is the same with other 'Skills'. Maybe an Ability helps a rookie to get started, but in the long term Skill is what makes you a professionell. Skill includes your experience and training, where pure Ability will only help you getting better or giving you an edge. Back to topic: A game without Abilities is possible, one with percentile abilities is thinkable (I know at least one, The Mutant Epoche), but a game with Abilities set in a numeric range makes it easier to imagine a character and easier to compare it with non-human beings. For example the critters in Mutant Epoche have abilities up to 400%+. Yes, I can imagine that, but I cannot do anything with that number, not even making a strength test. Although I can say the thing with 400% Strength is likely to crush my warrior with a Strength of 40%. But then, is it better? Is is easier? I don not think so ...

actually, I often have to deal with non-lethal damage, as I do not want to have players roll new characters all time. So what I came up with is this: 1) let the players note damage somewhere else on a piece of paper 2) after combat (normal BRP rules apply) let them roll CON on the Resistance Table against the Damage Points taken. Let them roll for every hit received, but always use the total amount of damage. For Example: PC has taken 5,3 & 2 points of damage. PC rolls his CON three times against 10. 3) for each successful roll, half of the damage taken (round up) was non-lethal and is ignored This helps surviving, while it keeps combat still deadly. Major Wounds and rolling for unconsciousness are still a threat and stay in place, even if the damage is 'halved' after the battle. The non-lethal Damage Points simply represent bruises and shock that fades away, but is a threat while in combat. Together with my Mook rules, this adds to a more heroic/cinematic like RPG feeling. You could also use the above rule only for damage that is inflicted by weapons usually used to stun.

anyway, good to see the Player's Handbook is in the works and not abandoned. And I agree with Rosen, the Setting does provide everything I need to have fun in an world that is described good enough to use it as a campaign and has patches of white, where I can place stuff in. But then, I can make a setting from Slavelands and Operation Ulyssess. Maybe there's too many ideas in my head that just found some place to go ...

fudge it - don't cling to the words ...

I used something similar for a pulp game, capping the root skills at 35% after which the character needed to specialize to gain higher skills. Made it fast and easy without too many calculations.

I waited a long time for this book - excellent! Just grabbed it as a Pdf and ordered it as dead tree as well. cheers!

Bought it, like it and will give it a go. cheers!

well, that's all I wanted to say. 8-) During the last few years the BRP forum and online community was and still is one of the best, friendliest and helpful place I experienced in the RPG world. It is very nice to see authors of the Monographs and licensed products are active here, giving advice and answer to criticism. I appreciate all the work people put into this system and how BRP evolved during these last 3 years. A lot of supplementing settings, adventures, rules and ideas were created, helping others to get into the hobby or enhance their gaming experience. So thank you all for doing this - again. When the new BRP book was released in 2008, many looked at it as a dead rule system that purely still existed because of Call of Cthulhu. They were right. But in my opinion this community has reactivated the system and made it enjoyable again - despite all the other voices telling them more 'modern' and 'better' systems are out there. To me BRP is still attractive, even after 20 years of playing it now. It has its positive sides and its negative's, but overall it is pretty solid. Even more, after playing some of this so called 'better' and more 'modern' systems, I still come back to good old BRP and find it refreshing, intuitive and easy. And I always find some new content that is worth buying (even if I do not get to play most of the stuff I buy). So, yes, I always liked it and I still do. And I like it to be able to ask the people who created the parts for the BRP World some questions and get clarifications - that is just brilliant. I think it is not possible to say that one person or some persons were responsible for the success of this fresh BRP start. In my opinion it was -and still is- the work of this whole community. Everybody who took part by either adding content or simply by asking questions did his contribution to the new BRP life. And BRP is not an animated corpse, it is a living being that has its own place in the role playing hobby. Cheers!

In case they are still not working: here are the links to my Dropbox files: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/529658/2300AD%20to%20BRP%20V1.4.pdf http://dl.dropbox.com/u/529658/2300AD%20Mission%20Arcturus%20Reduced.pdf

Starsiege is a toolbox game that does contain a setting as well (but is optional). I like it very much, as it is very rules light and ticks the right boxes for me. The setting itself is very open, enough to get your imagination running, but not limiting you in any way. If you want a well defined setting, this is not it. I love that kind, though, as I can put in anything I want and am not restricted to keep it canon. For my group I added some 2300AD stuff, weapon names, combat armour, vehicles and spaceships, but I also added Aliens style xenomorphs, the cool tank and biogenetics. It was easy to fill some gaps with cyperparts to create cyborgs and yes, there was one adventure to stop an assassin robot (terminator). I plan to use old Star Frontier adventures as well as Firefly ideas - aand all will fit into that loose universe. The rule support my game style well (no fiddly weapon stuff, fixed damage, no increasing hitpoints, small skill list and attributes do affect die rolls) and blend nicely into the background. It does have a logical scale mechanism and size chart, vehicle rules and anything I would need in a Sci-Fi or Post-Apo game. As a longtime BRP gamer, that is the first other rule system, that really attracts me - in fact I like it more, as the skill list is much smaller and the rules are much lighter. It uses a d20 though, but it is not "d20"ish in any way. Anyway, enough of advertising I like the BRP 2300AD rules I made, I played them for a long time, but I am really missing a good vehicle design/rule system. I do not want a tabletop board game system, but something that involves more than a chase chart. A sci-Fi game needs some space action - and rules coming with it. And that is where BRP lacks. There's heaps of Fantasy stuff around for BRP, but nothing really for Sci-Fi Space Opera. The currently available Sci-Fi settings/adventures are very nice to play, but still there's no vehicle rules. To me, that's like a Fantasy game without Magic. I worked around these shortcomings many times, nobody felt missing something, but I as the GM did miss that kind of stuff. So, when will there be more BRP 2300AD stuff? When someone puts out a good vehicle construction system with some good rules.

well, at the time I was writing the two documents, I simply wanted to put my years old notes together in a presentable PDF. So I asked Mark Miller and the original artists if it would be OK and put the files together. There is nothing in work currently, as I was waiting for a vehicle construction set of one of the forum members. I must admit I left the BRP rules a while ago, as I started a StarSIEGE campaign. As far as the Mongoose version goes: it won't attract me. The Traveller system never appealed to me and Mongoose as a company ... well, I do not like them.