tgcb

Thanks for that web site! (Though it doesn't seem to do HP correctly...made 2 "Out of this world" Dwarves and they end up with at most 13 HP no matter what...but will experiment more). Also thanks to all for the comments so far- hopefully we'll get more.

Something I can't grasp at the moment (among many other things), is how a GM knows how strong/powerful to make an NPC or group of NPC's in order to challenge the players. Obviously D&D has the concept of levels to do this. In BRP, if you had a group of players and had to whip up a random NPC on the fly....how would you do it? What benchmarks on the players sheets would you go off of? Thanks for your time!

I'm NOT affiliated with either of these but thought others may be interested....and if it's not "appropriate" to post such things just let me know: Giant 2 Inch Soft Foam Polyhedral Dice by Minion Games — Kickstarter Dice Rings by Aaron — Kickstarter

Can anyone explain why the Design Mechanism Runequest has so few reviews (in fact only 3 listed on their own site: http://www.thedesignmechanism.com/runequest.php)...yet a D&D retroclone like Dungeon Crawl Classics has about 30 reviews on their page (http://www.goodmangames.com/5070preview.html)? Google shows about the same ratio of hits if you do searches there. So, I'm just curious what is or isn't going on? Maybe Runequest people are so busy playing that they don't have time to review? Or is really that few BRP/Runequest players? Or none of the above? (I have the Design Mechanism version and am also waiting for the updated Classic Fantasy and also Openquest 2....but I'm deep in Pathfinder country and haven't actually played in ages...so I'm not a good source for reviews either).

This is the first part of the email Chaosium sent me yesterday: We just received a new edition of pur popular core roleplaying game. BASIC ROLEPLAYING HARDCOVER EDITION We are quite happy with the hard boards and the production quality of the Call of Cthulhu Keeper's Screen. Being faced with the prospect of reprinting the core Basic Roleplaying rulebook, we decided to improve the book's quality and durability, and now offer the BASIC ROLEPLAYING hardcover edition. Nice to see that this publishing company knows how to run spell-check on emails they send out as a major announcement (love that first sentence). To be honest, this makes me more scared to purchase if this is in indication of their quality-control. PS- ha! caught I missed the "n" in "announcement" in my original post title....so I'm off to eat some crow for breakfast

I'm planning a fantasy campaign. I need your help with the following: I was going to have the players (4-6 people) make their own characters. I was then going to take the characters and make up variations on them - these being a parent of the player-rolled characters. At our first game session, I'd hand out the new characters, but not explain much on why the switch (avoiding last names with the characters). Hopefully there will not be a mutiny and they will play these characters for a number of sessions. At some point this "prologue" would end and I'd have them play the characters they created - but what happened in the "prologue" will have a profound effect on the "real game". This may sound bad, but I'm hoping one or more of the parents die during the "prologue" and this will have to be dealt with by the children. Basically I'd like the "prologue" to setup action in the real campaign (like avenging a death, or fulfilling a quest that your father failed). Can you suggest some things for me: 1) how many sessions should the "prologue" run? (I was thinking about 5). 2) should they know these are the parents up front or let them find out later? 3) I want to "wipe out" at least a few of the parents...how do I make this not so obvious? Note that a surviving parent may end up an NPC in the "real campaign". Any other thoughts would be appreciated.

What's funny is I know people who still "complain" that attributes are 3-18 but skills are 1-100....they wonder why attributes can't be on a 100 scale. I think this is how the metric system started - people not being able to handle different numerical ranges.

So, this is the most flexible RPG ever....unless you want to change it? (just kidding) I'm sure we'll learn to ignore this once we get into the game. If we get into the game that is, non-issue if we never get to play. Actually, now they are fascinated by the Exalted RPG so who knows?

But, in almost everything "100%" is better than "1%"...except in the game. Wilt Chamberlain is famous for, among other things, scoring 100 points in an NBA game. There probably is several people who only scored 1 point (made only 1 freethrow)....but no one is paying them for endorsements. Your boss wants you to give "110%". I'd rather make $80 and hour than $15 an hour. Etc., etc. I mean, other than golf where a low score is necessary, higher is normally better. "I got a 98!" seems more likely to pump someone up instead of "I rolled a 4!". But again, we haven't even played yet so we have no right to complain at this point. I guess we could invert the rule but we'd have to invert all the tables as well.

Probably a strange question... But, is anyone else thrown off by the fact that for your attributes you want to roll high, but for skill/combat you want to roll low? Just reading through the rules, for some reason it struck me as inconsistent in the sense that if a high-roll is good for this part of the game, why isn't it good for all parts of the game? Having not played in years, it's probably a non-issue that will go away once we play (if ever....kids/wives/jobs getting in the way).

I'm sure some of you have played both BRP and Warhammer. If so, could you give me a comparison of both, and why you prefer one over the other (I assume you prefer BRP???). Thanks!

Thanks to everyone for replying. My current idea for game/supplement: At some point there is a "Galactic Empire" spanning thousands of worlds/stars. The Emperor is considered "divine". You have to be a relative of his to have any real power - so each ruler of a planet/solar system is somehow related to him. The closer to him blood-wise, the closer you are system wise. So, the guy/gal running Earth for example is a distant cousin, 4 times removed, etc. Every 4 years the Emperor has a party and it is a great honor to be invited. Some planets always have representatives at the party, others (maybe like Earth) never get any invites. Even rarer at these parties does the Emperor personally honor/promote someone. There is one system that is "forbidden" - at some point a relative of the Emperor ticked him off and they wiped the planet out in retribution. Over time, rumors and myths about this planet emerge. Ships jump from system to system using "jump points". There is a rebellion on one system, the rebel leader somehow sabotages the jump point - knowing how the Imperial space navy would arrive (thousands of ships jumping at once to make a great impression) - his sabotage of the jump point destroys most of the Imperial navy and the empire begins to crumble. There was so much energy released that this basically became a "nova". Now the other part of the "story" is a fantasy world which is set in this "universe" - occasionally the adventures may come across a futuristic item (an item from the old empire). So there would be "elves" and "dwarves" and such (and maybe new things), and rarely some item that doesn't "fit" in this world. The GM could set his story at any point in the Empire (pre-empire, pre-tech, empire, post-empire). Maybe one of the players has "divine powers" (meaning they are somehow descended from the old Emperor). Or maybe the entire race of Elves is from this line. Maybe "runes" are the language of the old Empire. A space adventure could be investigating the planet the Emperor destroyed or maybe the ruins of the ships that the jump point destroyed. That's all I have so far. I'm hoping that my brother (who writes small-press comics on the side will help me flesh this out.) No surprise to anyone I'm sure, but being married and now having kids pretty much takes all your time (in a good way) and it's hard to work on this stuff anymore.

I'm "new" to Basic Roleplaying (though I played the original Runequest for years back in the early 80's)....and haven't been into roleplaying for awhile so I'm just getting back into it. The storyline I'm working on is a fantasy world with some sci-fi elements (think Elves/Dwarves/Humans in a fantasy setting that may occasionally stumble across a futuristic/alien type device). Can anyone speak to Basic Roleplayings ability to mix these genre's? A friend of my suggested Shadowrun for this type of game, but given all the positive reviews of Basic Roleplaying, I was hoping to use it. Also, if anyone could point me to a good comparison of Basic Roleplaying vs. Gurps (or Hero System) I would appreciate it. If my post is in the wrong area of the forum I apologize. Thanks!