Alexandre

Hi all, in the current version of BRP there are 3 ways to augment skills: complementary skills (p. 38): add 1/5 of the complementary skill; augments (p. 38): roll complementary skill, if successful main task's difficulty decreases one step otherwise it increases one step; passions (p. 214): roll passion, if successful get a bonus, otherwise a malus. I appreciate the difference between the former and the other two: Either you get a small bonus with no risk or try to roll for a higher bonus (but with the risk of failure and getting a malus instead). But it seems to me 2 and 3 are redundant and all skill augment should use the same mechanic. I think that modifying the task difficulty is too much: It is definitely more dramatic than a meager +10% or +20%, but the price in case of failure is also maybe too dramatic. I don't know how many players would run that risk (unless you have a very high augmenting skill but in that case it becomes a moot issue). So far I am using the complementary skill rule for all instance of augmenting with a skill, while I let roll to augment with a passion. What do you think? You use all three depending on the situation, just one, none of them... Thanks, Alex

I don't know, it's hard to believe that cutting off a lizard's tail would lead to its death by blood loss. In general I love hit locations for humanoids, but the more the target is exotic the more I feel I have to wing it. It would be useful to have damage guidelines for non human hit locations. I have survived 30 years without so it's probably not the most important thing, but it would be a nice to have in the next edition of the bestiary, for example...

Hi all, Hits to arthropods legs and wings don't affect (too much) the total HPs or the functionalities of the creature. Shouldn't it be the same for the tail of reptiles? It can be rendered useless or even severed/maimed, but the creature shouldn't lose general HPs (maybe past the base hit points of the tail). What do you think? I thought this was the rule but actually I can't find it anywhere. Cheers, Alex

Thanks! It was more of a curiosity anyway. Wishing Rod a speedy recovery! Alex

Hi, crossposted from the BRPS FB group :)! I Have a question about Classic Fantasy (for BRPS). I noticed that one of my players' copy has a different text from mine. I guess his must be a later edition (although they're both (c) 2009) as it has better layout and a section on miniatures. However there is also a big substantive difference in the Spell Lore table. That is, to use Uncommon spells you need to have at least 100% in the skill, whereas in my copy you just need to have 80%. I think mine is more reasonable both with respect to the starting Classic Fantasy skill level (about 50%) and the mapping with D&D: Uncommon spells correspond to the 3rd level spells, so about 6th level characters -> 75-90% skill range. What do you think? And what is the history behind these two versions? (I might have known back then but 15 years have passed!) I am especially curious about the latter as I have more or less made my mind up about the former... Thanks in advance, Alex

Don't worry I am not thinking of refiguring the total HPs! 🙂 Sorry if I can't explain myself well. Let me try and rephrase. Keeping with my example: I have a 4 pts arm which is cut off by an 8 pts blow, reducing the location to -4 HPs. I also lose 8 HPs from my total. Now I get some healing. Since it's an 8 pts wound any healing will restore me up to 8 pts to the location and to the general HPs (*). What this player suggests is that since the arm is gone and the location has now effectively 0 HPs the healing cannot restore more than 4 HPs (and thus the remaining general 4 HPs will have to be healed naturally or through healing that restores general HPs). Anyway it's probably something not very important... (*) I am realizing that not all spells and versions of the BRPS enforce this rule that healing can only restore up to the wound magnitude. I am currently playing a RQ3/BRPS/Classic Fantasy heuristic hybrid where there is this limit (probably from RQ3). But in any case you cannot heal more HPs in a location than its maximum, and since the maximum is now 0...

No that's OK, my question was more specifically about the HPs remaining. This can be important for healing (since it's on a wound basis). Suppose your 4 HPs arm is severed after a 8 points hit. You also lose 8 general HPs. Would you rule you can heal up to the original 8 HPs or you can only heal less? I appreciate there is no rule in fact I am wondering about a (plausible) interpretation. Thanks, Alex

Hi all, are the HPs of a missing location reduced? For example, if you lose an arm do the HPs of that location drop to 0 (or another number but less than the previous maximum) on the account of the arm not being there anymore? And you only have to heal the location back to 0 HPs (or whatever the reduced number is) to "fully" heal the wound (i.e., just closing it, of course, not reattaching the arm or anything like that). I seem to recall that if you roll to hit a missing location then you actually miss, so the above would make sense. (One of my players came up with this idea during last session and it does make a certain amount of sense, to be honest, even though I never thought about it this way). Cheers, Alex PS: I am not talking about the e.g. RQ3 rule that a reattached limb lose 1 HP permanently. In this case the limb, or part of it, is really amputated.

I have always played the RQ2/3 character generation as basically a life path system. You would roll your parents' social class/profession, then at 15 you can choose: Do you follow in their footsteps or try your luck on your own? If the latter you can choose a different occupation if it makes sense: Crafter's apprentice, thief, soldier... I would only restrict those professions that are tied to social class (noble and in some culture warrior, unless there is a background reason that could explain it) and the magic professions that have explicit entry requirements (such as apprentice shaman or sorcerer, where you can enter only if you qualify). Essentially this way chargen becomes a (rather freeform kind of) pregame. Also the computer game Darklands (which borrows heavily from the BRPS) has a very nifty character creation system.

In the meantime, this is the result of the grandfather history generation: Roberto d'Altavilla arrived in search of fortune in southern Italy in 1047 with a retinue of only five knights. He hoped to receive a fief from his brothers, who were already successful, but they would not grant him. So he began selling his sword to the Lombard princes who were fighting among themselves and also began raiding their rich lands. Among the original five knights of Roberto's retinue was Ruggero, called the "Homeless". He fought with his lord in the service of the Prince of Capua against the Prince of Salerno, and like the other Normans, was defrauded of the promised reward by the treacherous Lombard. In the following years, Roberto distinguished himself for courage and inventiveness, such as when he pretended to be dead to enter a castle held by monks to conquer it (which earned him the dislike of the church). In 1051, Roberto married Alberada of Buonalbergo, a noblewoman of Norman lineage, who brought him two hundred knights as a dowry. There was a tournament to celebrate the marriage, and Ruggero was among the finalists. In 1053, Ruggero fought at Civitate, where Pope Leo IX was taken prisoner, and in 1057, he was present when, realizing that the Normans would become the dominant power in southern Italy, Pope Nicholas II officially invested Roberto with the Duchy of Apulia and Calabria. In 1058, Roberto repudiated his first wife Abelarda (officially to comply with the new church rules on consanguineous marriages, tightened following the Church reform) and married Sichelgaita of Salerno (a much more important match, also useful for pacifying the relations between the Norman overlords and the Lombard vassals). Ruggero did not participate in Roberto's campaigns to give substance to his title, but in 1061, he set off with his lord towards Sicily, where they helped Ruggero d'Altavilla, Roberto's brother, to conquer Messina. There he led the final assault on the city governed by the Moors. In 1064, they returned to Sicily to attack Palermo, but had to flee because their camp was invaded by tarantulas, surely evoked by the blasphemous arts of the Mohammedan pagans. In the following years, the conquest of Sicily could not resume due to the revolt of Abelardo, who was the son of Umfredo, Roberto's older brother and the rightful heir to the Duchy of Apulia and Calabria. When Umfredo died, Roberto became Abelardo's guardian and disowned him, taking the title for himself. As soon as Abelardo reached the age of majority, with the help of other dissatisfied barons, he began a revolt financed by the Byzantines. The revolt lasted four years, without ever having a decisive battle. In the end, it smothered down when the Byzantines tightened the purse strings. During one of the last battles, Ruggero received a serious wound that prevented him from continuing to fight, so Roberto, now called "the Guiscard," rewarded him for his services with the fief of Castro Minerva, snatched from the Byzantines in 1068. The "Homeless" now had a home for himself and his descendants...

I'll try and put the stuff on a blog... Speaking of which: What is the policy on quoting/referencing copyrighted material (both from Chaosium or other publishers)?

Hi all, is this forum OK to post session reports? I don't see many, and even less posts regarding Paladin. Last year I ran a Paladin campaign which used the real Paladin setting, i.e. the Crusades. The players knight were in the retinue of Boemondo of Taranto all the way from Apulia to Antioch (then the campaign took an unexpected turn). I was wondering if there is some interest in the session reports or even in the background material (which I would need to put in a form that could be read by someone else - I wonder if ChatGPT can help with the editing). Cheers, Alex

Actually this ties the two adventures even better: The PCs became Baroshi initiates because they were meant to use Baroshi’s magic during the windstop! Retcon? Nahhh it was what I had in mind all along!

If spirit magic is still available the impact in RQ terms will be very different from HW (where all magic becomes unavailable). What about hero cults of Ernalda, namely Baroshi from Snakepipe Hollow (whom the PCs are the first and only initiates!).

Hi all, what are the effect of the Windstop (from Orlanth is Dead) in RuneQuest terms? I can see several possibilities but I am not sure which one is the best. First of all I don't think it would apply to all Air magic (including Sorcery). So maybe just Rune Magic from Orlanth would not work? But this means that Rune Points could be used for associated deity's spells? Would it include spirit magic learned through Orlanth? Thanks, Alex