pansophy

I really like the little math that is involved in playing the game. Not a lot of '+' and '-' for one roll have to be considered, it's mostly an Easy, Average or Difficult task. I do not like games that give me a bonus for having this edge, then a malus for a situational thing and some other modifiers here and there, that I have to sum up and then add to a die roll only to see, I failed the task. Boring. BRP is nice and simple. Roll the dice, maybe it's special or critical, but mostly it's just a result that is either under or over the skill value. Simple. I can live with the SIZ Table and some other problems like 'shields' and a wrong table in the book here and there. These issues are fixed easily and the system overall does not have to many loose ends while not being too tight either.

I posted the tables in the Downloads section a while ago - so you can download them and use a woed editor to create your own GM screen.

Hey, Pete, there ARE actually tigers in Africa. Thing is they are bred there in resorts and deported back to China. But they are no natural inhabitant. And that's where you can experience them. http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/12/01/us-books-tigers-idUSTRE6B021O20101201

Wow, Vile, that one beats it all! You are a cultist, or how did you find that site? Did you use Google, that search engine from hell that lurkes in the Internet to prey on harmless web sites?

sorry, no. I meant a cheetah or leopard. Hard to tell the difference between the two.

BGB rules say 1d8+1d6(db) - so a 2 is possible. Still serious enough. And: nope, a tiger 'padding' you will not kill you outright. If it wants, it might not even leave scratches on your skin - although you will have bruises. It is purely depending on the mood of the animal and its character. Zoo animals might be a lot more aggressive depending on their treatment and confinement. Didn't want to pull this, but: Tigers in Africa tend to be more relaxed and you can even get close (10m) to them while feasting. If you have the nerves that is. Seen one tiger making an intimidation attack against a crew member coming too close. He got some bad beatings, without claws, and had to use straws for some days when eating, but overall it looked more vicious than the wounds actually were. He was lucky, no question, but survived it relatively unharmed. If the beast would have been after him, it surely would have killed the guy in an instant. I would not rely on this and I would not think this is true for lions as they are really unpredictable. But even here: you cannot say the animal will react by killing someone outright. You can also intimidate THEM, if you are really bold. Wave your arms, make noise like an animal and an elephant might stop its run towards you and retreat. Rely on it? No. But without any options, that's all you can do. And in game terms: you might have a generous game master.

I bet it was meant in an exaggerated way. Do not take it too serious.

Your Critical Hits tables are not to the rules in the BGB. You used the values of the Critical Hit table from the Reference Section in the BGB. As discussed a while ago this table is a simplified one and is not what the rules say in the System chapter.

It MIGHT not! You never know ... The tiger MIGHT just want to play with you, or scare you. They certainly do Pulling Attacks when fighting over food about the right who gets the first share. But anyway, these are options to make powerful animal attacks less lethal. Wether the GM is using them or not MIGHT be a situational thing. The topic was comparing animal characteristics and conclusion was the main concern is the Damage Bonus huge animals do in different settings/editions. The characteristics are not really the problem, but the DB is. So I mentioned some methods to make these animals less lethal in the beginning. Personally I seldom need the characteristics of animals or foes - their skills, DB and Damage is more often referenced, though. I do not see a hughe difference between a STR of 23 and 25. If that 'thing' is trampling on a human, the character is toast anyway. Depending on situation there won't even be the necessity of a characteristics roll. Even a 'harmless' horse will kill a human easily. No die roll needed when the situation is bad enough (the stars are right). OK, in a Supers game, all this would look different. But that is a different situation - again!

lol I bet you won't get any answer ...

Maybe I put the White Shark in the wrong topic. I wanted to say that even a white shark might not use all its Damage Bonus for the first attack.

Yep, I wrote him an email, telling him he is a bit off-course and did exaggerate some facts. In my opinion he is the one who mixes up fantasy and reality. This is DANGEROUS! He should seek some professional help. Someone with a Science (Psychology) skill greater than 60% ... oh, hey wait ... did I just think in game terms? Damn me! I am evil! God help me! Save my poor soul! Seriously. He should do better research. I sometimes wonder how many ill persons wander on this planet without being supervised. Sadly I find not too few of them hiding behind 'the cross'. Child abusers, rapists, fanatics and occultists. Not to mention the wars against the orient during the middle ages. And the holy wars during the last decades. I am still waiting for Chaosium putting out a CoC book "Divine Intervention", which includes all the occult doings, shady acts and wrongs done by the catholic church during its existence. But I bet such a book would raise too much concern, even if it might find lots of buyers. Somebody ever thought about asking the catholic church to give back all the stuff they plundered during its holy wars? To open its archives and show the world the treasures they took from others? Anyway, this is even more off-topic than the thread itself. PRGs are evil. Sure. And the church is living to the ten commandments. Yep.

Well, well. While looking for "Critical Hit Tables" on the Internet, I found this URL: http://www.espministries.com/Topic-Dungeons.html Somebody who is talking about D&D and how evil RPGs are. I know this is waaaaaay Off-Topic, but I thought it might be worth a look. While I do not want to place my religious believes on the plate here, I still find the topic interesting. The guy is talking about how players over-identificate with their characters. Well, HE is not saying that, but quoting it. What he says is: <<After extensive research, the Christian Life Ministries concludes: "DUNGEONS & DRAGONS™ instead of a game is a teaching on demonology, witchcraft, voodoo, murder, rape, blasphemy, suicide, assassination, insanity, sex perversion, homosexuality, prostitution, Satan worship, gambling, Jungian psychology, barbarism, cannibalism, sadism, desecration, demon summoning. Necromantics, divination and many more teachings, brought to you in living color direct from the pit of hell!!!">> Wow, never thought about that. In fact, it does not even bother me. Neither side, the "dark" nor the "light" one. To my THIS is over-reaction. >>". . . after years of study of the history of occultism, after having researched a book on the subject, and after having consulted with scholars in the field of historical research, I can say with confidence: these games are the most effective, most magnificently packaged, most profitably marketed, most thoroughly researched introduction to the occult in man's recorded history."<< So, it means that every author writing an RPG book or fantasy novels is an occult member trying to spread the occult word? This brings light into many Call of Cthulhu RPG books now ... I think I now fully understand the Other Gods, Nyarlathotep, Azatoth and ... oooooh (critical failure of my sanity check) He is right, though, these RPG books are well researched, well worded, effective and the best books covering the topic in known history. Do they bring me to the edge of madness? Is their way leading away from God? I do not think so. But the books do get me THINKING! And questioning given facts that others take for granted ... >>John Torell, with Christian Life Ministries in California, received a phone call from a medical doctor in Seattle, Washington. The doctor is treating a policeman for severe depression caused by the suicide of his sixteen-year-oId son. The son, who had been heavily involved in D&D™ for two years, shot himself with his father's service revolver.<< And D&D is involved in the death because ...? >>Some have argued that D&D™ is a healthy release of suppressed hostilities. But seeing the power that can be seized in games, psychiatrist Laurence Johnson cautions, "If I had a child who tended toward schizophrenia, I'd never let him near D&D™. There's a danger that it would reinforce feelings of grandiosity, of omnipotence. Reality and fantasy are hard enough for schizophrenics to differentiate."<< Jep, that is right. And you do not want to watch TV if you suffer from epileptic seizures. It is a fact that people with certain illnesses have to be careful what they do. >>"[...] Nearly everybody would rather play evil characters because they are much more powerful."< That is not true and lacks facts. It purely depends on the rule system. >>Does it {D&D} increase or decrease a player’s faith in God and His Word?<< Does it have to? Does a book have to do that? A movie? A radio station? >>Make sure that your children are not involved with or participating in D&D™. Distribute this information to young people, youth ministers, teachers, etc. Contact me for more information, especially if your child or children are involved.<< Wow, he reminds me on the discussion if Heavy Metal music is evil and satanic. Some people just do not get it. On the other hand, I do not get his so strong believes in god. Looks like he is on a mission and made some long shots here. I only do hope parents will do a better research on the topic than he did and they come to a conclusion that is best for their child.

Guard dogs for example won't do a Pulling Blow most of the time. A normal Dog would be very different. A Dingo won't do a Pulling Blow either - although I have seen one that was tamed and used to humans. It's difficult -if not impossible- to make a rule for that.

Elephants DO make a warning attack first. It's not even an attack, they just try to intimidate and run towards the foe. I tell you, that IS intimidating and you DO run. For others like a crocodile (a saltie in particular) you are right, they do not give warnings. But then they are stealthy hunters anyway and are at the top of the food chain so they do not fear anything. Sharks, even Great White ones, do warning attacks. Even when hunting, they bite their prey only a bit first, to get a taste of it. If they decide it is edible, they come back for the final kill. Depends on situation, sure. This is the domain of the GM's judgement. There is no rule how animals are behaving in their territory.

BTW: see p229 "Pulling Blows" and p226 "Knockout Attack" together with p232 "Stunning or Subduing" for interesting animal manoeuvres. Maybe some animals (Elephant) could also do "Sweep Attacks" (p233).

I would not make a rule out of this as it is more a gamemasters decision wether or not the animal uses its full strength for an attack. So yes, why not use a lower Damage Bonus until the animal gets hurt.

Thank god this is not a game where we have (Dis-)Advantages. Once again, thanks to the designers & playtesters who supported this and BRP is what it is. You all did an excellent job.

Uups, sorry. Mythic is a Game Master Emulater that allows you as a player to play an RPG alone. You need a good imagination of course. When playing prewritten adventures you use Mythic as a player emulator and take the role as the Game Master. It' pretty cool and really working. Some people even use it for writing books and novels. I do know one popular writer who is using Mythic at least sometimes for creating his stories.

It's all about the setting and how often this skill will turn up. In an espionage setting it might be useful more often than in a Conan or Rome one. Hack & Slash - I cannot see it there.

Hi Frank, I added some comments to the File but will repeat them here. I recently pulled out your document to create some Robots for my Darwins Earth campaign. So here's my 2 cents for Robots: One could introduce the POW characteristic to simulate the constructs programming and if it will do things that mean certain death for the robot (e.g. jumping over a cliff, jumping in harms way to protect a human being, etc.) or at least a potential serious damage. CON could simulate how well protected a robots internal systems are and how many redundant systems are available. Maybe you can add something like this as optional rules? Would be very cool. And I do like the .rtf file, it allows me to make it a shiny PDF Thanks!

Nice! Very useful - thanks for that. Now, I would not use "Full = does full damage" but "Full = does normal rolled weapon damage" as it has been clarified in the official errata. It's just not so misleading. For your GM Screen: In the Skill List by Category I would love to see the starting percentages for humans as shown on page 51 BGB. Its better to have it as a reference while using NPCs. I know there is not much space left, but the Damage Bonus Table and the Hit Location Table for Humans would be nice to have on the sheets as well

Art (Forgery) as a skill on its own seems a bit too tight to me, unless the character is doing that as a professional. It would be a skill that only very few people have and that won't find a lot of use during an adventure campaign. Then it is too broad on the other hand, as it would merge different methods of forgery into one skill - not very realistic. It is a difference if you forge an email, a PGP key, a document, an ID or passport and an invitation. All these things would make use of different other skills that a character would need to have - only to do a final Forgery test (or you allow 1/5 of one of these other skills as a bonus to the Forgery skill). To me Forgery is not a skill on its own and having it in my campaigns would waste some players Skill Percentages into a skill that is not used often. Art (Forgery) can work in a setting where skills are a bit broader than in the generic BGB rules, though.

I actually like exactly that. I want to see if I hit, if the enemy is evading the hit, and if my weapon does enough damage to penetrate armor. What you are suggesting is something that IMHO D&D is doing - which I do not like at all. Savage Worlds is a bit similar to that to a certain point.

I would love to have a consistant system, so changing the BGB stats should not be an issue. I think it's clear that these statistics are not to be used when characters and vehicles are involved in a scene, but the system should be able to handle a chase between a horse, a car and a helicopter. So: yes, please do it If you send me a rough edit, I will try to stat up some 2300AD Spacecraft, so it would be a good test for it - especially as one can compare them to the original GDW stats.