Stan Shinn

When I first started playing QuestWorlds, I used a '.' delimiter -- so 3M1 would read 3.M1. This doesn't take a lot of space but get's the delineation across. After playing QuestWorlds for a while and getting used to the Masteries concept, I dropped it, and just do 3M1, rules as written.

Look for changes on this gender point in the next release packet. 🙂

I'm creating some rules for converting classic D&D monsters (AD&D, OD&D, B/X D&D) to BRP on the fly. Partly because I've got some old D&D modules (the Oriental Adventures series in particular) I'd like to run using BRP rules. Also, there are so many free, robust early edition D&D bestiaries out there, you'll never lack for adversaries! First off, here's my philosophy on creature stat blocks. I don't think they have to have the full BRP array of abilities and skills. Usually, all you need are just a few stats like 'Attack' and 'Defend'. If you need something more specific, you can generally make something up on the fly. Let's take a classic D&D stat block (the following examples are from Swords and Wizardry which uses a single Saving Throw stat). Fighter (Ftr5): HD 5(d8); AC 2[17]; Atk 1 longsword (1d8) or 2 longbow (1d6); Move 6; Save 11; AL Varies; CL/XP 5/240. Special: +1 on all saving throws except against spells. Equipment: Plate mail, shield, longsword, longbow. 25% chance that one of these items is +1. Here are my proposed conversion metrics: HP = # of Hit Dice * 4 (sentient humanoid creatures such as Orcs, Humans, or Bugbears max out at 15 hp). Armor = If the creature has some sort of thematic armor (scales, tough skin, a shell or carapace, etc.), then each point of ascending AC above 9 = 1 point of BRP armor, up to a max of 8. Otherwise, the creature has no armor. (If you're using an old Basic/Expert D&D or OD&D stat block that only has descending AC, then convert it to ascending AC by using descending 19 - Descending AC score.). DEX = Move + 3. Atk % = 30 + (HD * 5). Defense % = Subtract any armor you've given the creature armor from the AC, and multiply the remaining AC number by 5. Move = Use as is. Save % = (21 - Save Score) * 5. Morale = Use as is (non-monster creatures sometimes don't have Morale). AL = Use as is. CL/XP = Remove or ignore the Challenge Level and XP. Special = Usually you can use it as is; sometimes you'll need some manual adjustments to make those rules work. So using the above conversion method, our 5th Level fighter converts to having the below stats: Fighter (Veteran): HP 15; Armor 8; Dex 9; Atk 85% to hit, 1 longsword (1d8 dmg) or 2 longbow (1d6 dmg); Def 45%; Move 6; Save 50%; AL Varies. Special: +5% on all saving throws except against spells. Equipment: Plate mail, shield, longsword, longbow. 25% chance that one of these items is +5%. Here's how you use each of the stat: HP = Use as normal hp. Armor = Use as normal armor reduction. DEX = Use for initiative. Atk % = Roll for all attacks. Defense % = Use for any Parry or Dodge rolls. Move = Use as is. Save % = Use for any opposed rolls or to avoid the effects of a power. A successful Save roll means that the creature avoids the threat (such as a spell) or lessens its effect (perhaps taking only 1/2 damage). Morale = Monsters' morale is rated from 2–12, the higher, the more fearless. A score of 2 means the monster won't fight and no check is needed. A score of 12 means the creature will never flee. For all other scores, the GM rolls 2d6. If the number if greater than the creature's morale rating, the creature attempts to flee. Check for each creature's morale on two occasions: (1) the first time one of their number is killed, and (2) when half of their number is killed or incapacitated. AL = Use alignment to inform the narrative as to how that creature behaves. Special = Use as is based on your conversion above. Finally, here's a couple of additional examples: D&D Stat Blocks: Orc: HD 1; AC 6[13]; Atk spear (1d6) or scimitar (1d8); Move 9; Save 17; Morale 8; AL C; CL/XP 1/15; Special: none. Adult Red Dragon (11HD): HD 11; HP 44; AC 2[17]; Atk 2 claws (1d8), bite (3d10); Move 9 (fly 24); Save 4; Morale 10; AL C; CL/XP 13/3900; Special: breathes fire (3/day, 90ft cone, 44 damage, save for half). BRP Converted Stat Blocks: Orc: HP 5; Armor 4; Dex 12; Atk 35% to hit, spear (1d6 dmg) or scimitar (1d8 dmg); Def 45%; Move 9; Save 20%; Morale 8; AL C; Special: none. Adult Red Dragon (Ancient): HP 44; Armor 8; Dex 12 (27 if flying); Atk 85% to hit, 2 claws (1d8 dmg), bite (3d10 dmg); Def 45%; Move 9 (fly 24); Save 85%; Morale 10; AL C; Special: breathes fire (3/day, 90ft cone, 20 damage, save for half). Lastly, there are a couple of hit point adjustments I sometimes make. I will adjust hit points up or down as I see fit. Sometimes I'll do this on the fly at the table during the battle. For a mob of characters, I will consider the creatures as 'Minions' with only 5 hp per creature (or perhaps only 1 hp per creature). Groups of minions can be treated as a mob where excess damage needed to kill a creature rolls over to another adjacent creature in the same mob. So, what do you think? Any adjustments you'd recommend to the math above? Or is there any missing 'must have' BRP stat that I should always include in the conversion?

I appreciate all the amazing feedback! Here's what I'm thinking for my 'reducing division' house-rules. Let me know what you think! Dice Rules Remove the Special Success and only have Critical Successes Success: Rolling <= Skill Failure: Rolling > Skill Critical Success (Succeed and Roll Doubles or 1): If you succeed and also roll doubles (e.g., 11 or 22), or if you roll an 1, it is a critical success. [I know that this doesn't scale linearly with skills over 100%, but if you split a 150% skill into two 75% skill rolls for example, each of those 75% skill rolls independently can crit if they roll doubles. I think it would still feel fun. Alternatively, you could cap skills at 100%.]. Fumble (Fail and Roll Doubles or 100): If you fail and also roll doubles (e.g., 88 or 99), or if you roll an 100, it is a fumble. Difficulty Hard Difficulty (Requires Odd Number to Succeed): Instead of rolling 1/2 your skill, successes that are an odd number succeed (e.g. 13, 27); successes with an even number (e.g. 14, 28) are treated as a failure. Extreme Difficulty (Requires a Critical to Succeed): Instead of rolling 1/5th your skill, you need a critical success to succeed normally. If you do crit it is treated as a simple success with no special benefit. If you roll a success without a crit it is a failure. Normal failure and fumble mechanics remain unchanged. Impossible: No roll or 1% regardless of skill. Yes, I know some will still prefer to have solutions that require division, but I'm mainly interested in determining what sort of dice tricks could produce similar results without using division. I've also found that people still enjoy games even if they have non-linear progression (check out the math on the Savage Worlds wild die; totally weird and non-linear, but it's still a really popular game and fun to play). So easy math and fast gameplay is my goal here, even if the math isn't consistently linear. Thoughts on my approach?

On that note, here's a screenshot showing the math expectations in the Classic Traveler starter set

As a generality, I agree with this. The advent of the pocket calculator (and calculator on your smartphone) being something you could use routinely during math classes has also worsened the issue. That being said, I've got an older adult in my group who has dyslexia, and somehow related to that, division is very difficult for him. Which is one reason I'm customizing my 'Mystique' house rules to avoid division. Generally, it seems like addition and subtraction are easier than multiplication and division. We'll always have to deal with math, but I strive to simplify things when possible for my occasional struggles-with-math adult player, and also the 'math is hard' kids (I run a group with 10 to 14 year olds who can add and subtract just fine, but division take a glacially long time to resolve for them).

My plan is to add some commentary on "If you limit skills to 100%, a more efficient way is to check for doubles." So you'd have two modes of play: (1) Skills over 100% (with crits being 10% of the skill), and (2) Skills capped at 100% (checking doubles for crits). What I don't know is which one to make as the default! Hmmm....

The next Beta packet will have a 'Charts and tables' section in the back that summarizes all the key rules and lists the tables. An experience GM could run the entire game just from that section. It will call out how Fumbles and Crit works (in addition to those rules buried in blocks of text earlier in the book.

Page 16, bottom right: "Critical Success: Sometimes your character will perform an action so well they achieve extraordinary results. Rolls that are equal to or less than 1/10 of the skill rating are a critical success." So 10% of the skill. 🙂

I just made a post over on my Mystique dev site that I've created both a print and form-fillable version of my character sheets that have Hit Point Locations! https://roguecomet.itch.io/mystique-rpg I also have both standard and modern styles of the sheet depending on your setting. Enjoy!

Thanks! I just added that text to the project page description and uploaded replacement versions of the beta rules that have that text. Very much looking forward to building several BRP products in the future!

If Chaosium asks me to, I will happily pull the product until a later date. However, looking at the license page and the blog announcements (which is what I was going off of), it seems pretty present-tense to me, with no 'after this date' or 'after this future event' type clauses: "Basic Roleplaying: Universal Game Engine has been released under the Open RPG Creative license (“ORC License”) for others to use." -- https://www.chaosium.com/orclicense/ "BRP’s Universal Game Engine is available royalty-free for personal and commercial use under the ORC license. Use these rules, and focus on creating your worlds, scenarios and even books to sell!" -- https://www.chaosium.com/basic-roleplaying-universal-game-engine-pdf/ "BRP’s Universal Game Engine is available royalty-free for personal and commercial use under the Open RPG Creative license, aka ORC license." -- https://www.chaosium.com/blogcreate-explore-play-brps-universal-game-engine-is-available-royaltyfree-for-personal-and-commercial-use-under-the-orc-license/ Given I bought a product that promised me "Use these rules, and focus on creating your worlds, scenarios and even books to sell!", seems like there'd be major changes in multiple descriptions if you can't actually do that.

My latest game hack is up on Itch.io -- https://roguecomet.itch.io/mystique-rpg -- it's a trimmed-down, old-school incarnation of Chaosium's new Basic Roleplaying (BRP) game. This game is tuned to work more like the simpler mechanics of the 1981 Stormbringer (Elric) game, while being fully compatible with the current BRP statblocks. Eventually, after beta testing and adding a bit more content, I hope to have it in print format as an old-school module format with line-art, with an SRD style text version which you can use to easily create your own games. Also included is a form-fillable Character Sheet and a DEX / Initiative tracker. Hmmm, is this the first commercial 'Powered by BRP' product released under ORC I wonder?

It's crossed my mind! Definitely in consideration, but I've got a few non-fantasy settings in queue before 'Dungeonesque BRP'. My current thinking on products and formats: Phase I: Create a '1981 Style' BRP variant closer to the simplicity of Stormbringer 1e, but fully compatible with current BRP stat blocks. This product will probably be a 8.5x11" PDF initially, eventually formatted to look like an old-school Dungeon Module including black and white line art, then offered as print on demand once the rules are stable. Phase II: Create 'LBB' (Traveller Little-Black Book) style mini-games. These would be digest sized (6x9") and art-free, and have the look and feel of Classic Traveller. I've got a few settings to publish in this format, which would use the '1981 Style' rules as a basis. These setting books would be self-contained with all you need to play them in that one 50-60 page book. These would be perfect bound, but with enough margins that you could spiral bind them at a local print shot, which is my favorite format for home games. I've got a Star Trek (without their IP, sort of Starships and Spacemen style) book lined up and mostly done, a Gangbusters-style setting, a Firefly-style setting, and maybe a Weird World War II type setting among other ideas. Which of these comes first depends on what my various home campaigns choose to run. Phase III: Well, who knows. Hopefully there is a glut of BRP products that come out given the ORC licensing. A full scale 'Dungeonesque 2e' game is on my radar, but maybe someone else will do a nice BX/BRP mashup before I get to that point. I'd also need to review if my product would be different enough from The Design Mechanism's 'Classic Fantasy' to make it worth producing it. Anyway, that's my thoughts for now! Thanks for asking!

Aside from art, trademarks, and logos, the text will be 100% ORC! I'll have some sort of plain text version of it once it's finished. I hope people will use it as a basis for their own games, starting with a small set of core rules, and adding in anything else from the full BRP SRD that you want! Easier (in my opinion), than trimming down from the larger rules.

I have a draft of such a character sheet that I still need to make form-fillable. I'll include it with my 1981 Style' rules when I release that (see that thread below). My 1981 Style rules with have both normal and with-hit-locations versions of the character sheet. Probably 3-4 weeks away, but coming soon!

Let's say I have a skill of 50% in Drive. This means I'd get a Special Success on a roll of 10 or below (1/5th of skill) and a Critical Success on a roll of Special Success on a roll of 3 or below (1/20th of skill). If a roll is then Difficult (your effective skill is 1/2 of what it normally is), then I believe everything adjusts: Drive skill is now 25%, so I'd get a Special Success on a roll of 5 or below (1/5th of skill) and a Critical Success only on a roll of 1 (1/20th of skill). Is that correct? If so, this along with determining the normal 1/5th and 1/20th of your skill on the fly seems like a lot of division you have to do during the game. Does anyone have house rules you use to reduce the amount of division in the game? Wondering if I should import some CoC 7e style Bonus/Penalty dice as an alternative or if there is some other way to simplify things. Some house rules I'm mulling over (though I haven't run the math on the impact of these yet): Easy Special/Critical Success Calculation: Any roll of 1-20 is potentially a higher success level. On a roll of 1-5, roll again. If the second roll is a success, then it is a critical success. Likewise, on a roll of 6-20, roll again. If the second roll is a success, it is a special success. (sort of like rolling to confirm a crit in Pathfinder / D&D 3.5). Easy Fumble Calculation: If your skill is less than 100%, a roll of 99 or 00 is a fumble; if your skill is over 100%, only a 00 roll is a fumble. Easy Difficult/Easy Roll Calculation: Difficult rolls mean you’ll have to succeed twice (two rolls where both must succeed). Easy rolls mean you get two chances to do it (one of the two rolls must succeed). (I'm less certain about this rule). CoC Style Difficult/Easy Roll Calculation: Difficult rolls mean you’ll add an additional ten's digit die, and take the better of the two ten's digit rolls. Easy rolls mean you’ll add an additional ten's digit die, and take the worse of the two ten's digit rolls.

BTW, I've got a rough draft of the brief 16 page simple "modernised" BRP system (100% compatible with current BRP stat blocks) done. I want to let it sit for a few days, then I'll re-read it, add additional edits, make sure character creation is clear, and then sometime after that I'll share to the community for feedback. Among other uses for this '81 Style' BRP Variant is to serve as a basis for your own custom games. I think it will be easier to take a simple base, and add in rules options and setting specific rules, rather than try to pull out the rules from the full BRP SRD. Also, it will serve as a great QuickStart document!

The original BRP in the early 1980s was 16 pages and was pretty simple, relying on genre rules (like in Worlds of Wonder) to customize each setting. The basic rules back then were really basic. I am contemplating creating a smaller, simpler BRP system that is 100% compatible with the current BRP stat blocks but has a slimmed-down set of rules closer in spirit to those games of the 1980s such as Stormbringer 1e. The final product would be an ORC-licensed slimdown set of rules from which you could build and expand for different settings. I'm code-naming this product '81 Style' to reflect the 1981 era when the 16-page BRP was in circulation and Stormbringer 1e came out. The model would be sort of like Fate Core (a full traditional RPG, like BRP) vs. Fate Accelerated (a slim 50 page game), which both co-exist and are largely interchangeable. Here are my early thoughts; I'd love your feedback on what to change or not change to slim down and simplify the BRP rules. Design Goals: Small, minimalist ruleset Compatible with BRP character stat blocks Focus on 'essential' rules (essential being rules that come up on average at least once every four games) Simpler combat resolution Packaged as a base game, from which you can add onto to build your own genre-specific games Game would be targeted to historical and pulp settings (e.g. it would not include Superhero or Spellcasting rules), and would refer you to the main BRP book to add other features in Planned Changes: Generally boiling down the rules to their simplest form, relying on the BRP book as a sort of 'Dungeon Master's Guide' with optional subsystems you can add to the slimmed down, basic game. Add a few minor modernizations such as advantage / disadvantage or bonus/penalty dice. Removing Special Successes, and instead having only Critical Success (which would be either like in Stormbringer (critical hits happen if the character rolls under 1/10 of their skill) or when you succeed and roll doubles). Simplifying and/or reducing damage types (Bleeding, Crushing, Entangling, Impaling, etc.), possibly removing Bleeding and Crushing damage types. Again, looking to have a version similar to Stormbringer 1st Edition. Simplifying a myriad of edge case, overly complex, or spot rules. For example, replacing the current autofire/burst gun rule: Burst: Unlike most missile weapon combat, autofire or bursts occur on the attacker’s DEX rank, rather than at the beginning of the combat round before DEX ranks. Against a single target, a burst increases the chance of success by +20% and autofire by +40%. The attacker should announce how many shots are being fired (bursts are usually three shots, while autofire can empty the whole clip), keeping track of spent ammunition. The attack is rolled normally. If the shot is a failure, all shots in the burst miss. If it is successful and hits the target, roll an appropriate die based on the number of shots fired. To get an odd number, roll an appropriate dice type and divide by two (rounding up). For example, if 8 shots are fired, roll a D8; if 5 shots are fired, roll a D10 and divide it in half, rounding up, etc. Only the first attack is able to achieve a special or critical success—all of the rest are normal successes. With this simpler rule: Splitfire: You may split off damage between targets in range and line of sight within 5m of the original target. For example, if you deal 9 damage, you could assign 6 points of damage to the original target and 3 damage to an enemy within 5m from the original target. Those are the basic changes. If I get generally positive feedback, my idea would be to put this on Itch.io and have an active dev site where people can comment and we can iterate over several months until we get to a nice, slim-but-robust smaller BRP game.

This makes sense! Thank you. Here's my updated summary of how things work: To defend against weapon attacks, you can parry using either a weapon (if it has the 'parry' trait), a shield, or in some cases, your body (if you have a martial arts skill). In all cases when you parry, each parry beyond the first suffers a cumulative -30% penalty. Parry is sometimes called a block but these terms are used interchangeably. To parry melee attacks, you can use a parry weapon or a shield. If using a shield to parry in melee, you use your skill rating for that shield. If you use the shield to parry a missile attack, instead of using your shield skill rating, you use a static percentage based on the shield size. Full and large shields have the additional benefit that If your character kneels behind it, it has a 60% chance to block a missile, and a large shield has a 90% chance. Using a shield to defend against missile attacks still count as a parry and incurs the -30% cumulative penalty for each parry beyond the first. Is that correct?

I agree with you after looking over the text and all the comments here. So I'll add in something to replace the deleted #1 -- parrying with a weapon. So here's the parry/block rules summarized I think: 1) Use a Weapon to Parry. Use a weapon which has the 'parry' ability, using your weapon parry skill. Incurs a -30% penalty for each parry after the 1st. (I think there is a martial arts parry ability as well?). 2) Use a Shield to Block (p.153). Bigger shields cover a larger number of areas so have more chances to protect. If you use hit locations, you don't need to roll since the shield table (p.178) tells you which location is covered. It acts like armor and the parry penalty does not apply. Unlike a weapon parry, a shield can block missile weapons. 3) Hide Behind Your Shield (p.153). This is a subset of 2 above except that you actively hide/kneel behind your shield. If you use hit location, I'd say one extra location is covered. It acts like armor and the parry penalty do not apply.

I've been meaning to look at FASA and mine for ideas but at the moment I'm more focused on how Starship combat should work. I'll play test it hopefully at a game day in mid-June. Once I feel good about it I'll share for public feedback and probably have it on Ithch.io for download. You can download my "Federation" game with 24XX rules to get a sense of where I'm going with the d100 design: https://roguecomet.itch.io/federation-24xx But the BRP edition will be more crunchy 🙂

Well said!

This is a fantastic explanation! Thanks so much; I'll go with this interpretation unless someone finds something more authoritative that would have it work differently 🙂

In the new BRP, let's say a fighter with a full sword and shield is in combat, and this round the fighter has already attempted a parry (so future parries would be at -30%). Then an arrow flies from the sky toward the fighter. Normally a full shield has a 30% chance to block a missile, but do shields (when used to block missile fire) still incur the parry penalty? If so, the shield would have zero chance of blocking the missile, whereas if the subsequent parry penalty only applies to melee, you'd still have the normal 30% chance. Below are the relevant rules text, but neither explicitly calls out if the -30% parry penalty applies during missile fire. Both sections also refer to the shield's base chance, but I'm not sure what that means in this context -- is there a base chance versus a modified chance or something? Parrying Missiles Requires a Shield Shield Chance to Block Missile Weapons My guess is that the -30% parry penalty applies to all parries in melee, and does not apply to shields blocking missile fire, but I wanted to confirm if I am correct. Thanks in advance!