Foen

You're right - it has been a long time (over two decades) since I last played MERP/RM and I got confused when re-reading the rulebook. I take it all back!

Stuart

Just for clarity (as I think I failed my Speak Clearly skill last time), MERP has both a difficulty and a modifier. From the rulebook (1993 second edition, table MT-2), the difficulties for Static Maneuvers are:

Routine +30

Easy +20

Light +10

Medium 0

Hard -10

Very Hard -20

Extremely Hard -30

Sheer Folly -50

Absurd -70

So a Hard (-5) Static Maneuver has a -15 adjustment (-10 for Hard, -5 for the modifier) to the skill roll. Hard (-10) is actually the same as an unmodified Very Hard roll. I guess they don't just say Very Hard because the underlying Rolemaster system uses separate tables for each difficulty level, and MERP adventures are also written for use with RM. For Moving Maneuvers, the multi-column approach is retained in MERP.

All that said, I'd agree with Agentorange and apply situational common sense instead of looking fo a direct conversion, but that is just my 2c.

Stuart

Typically in RM-based games the description of a task has both a difficulty (such as Hard) and a modifier (in this case -10), and would be resolved by using the Static or Moving Maneuvers table. Theses tables have a d100 (potentially open ended) roll to resolve them and a column for each difficulty level. That means the modifier (-10) isn't sufficient in isolation.

For MERP, however, I think the difficulty level just translates to another modifier and the static maneuvers table (used for picking locks, but not jumping pits) only has one column. That makes static tasks a bit easier to convert.

Stuart

If you really want to play and need FG let me know.

I think you have the Ultimate licence, which means your players don't need to buy FG at all: they can install the unlicenced version of the client and connect to your games for free.

Foen

Thanks! While it isn't possible to accommodate every permutation of BRP, please let me know if the ruleset is missing anything obvious!

Cheers

Stuart

Forgot to answer your second question: there isn't a native version for the Mac, but folks run it under Windows emulators and there are posts on the FG site explaining the various levels of success. As a DirectX product, emulation isn't trivial, but I believe it is satisfactory.

Stuart

I'm not familiar enough with Stormbringer to give a definitive answer: if it has a different basic mechanic (such as d20 skills instead of d100) then modding will be quite difficult, but if it is like recent BRP then it should be straightforward. In the latter case, you'd need to input skills, spell/power types, possibly the characteristics (APP vs CHA, for example) and the default weapons. Modding the ruleset doesn't include adding new races/monsters, spell descriptions etc: that stuff is standing data which can be entered by the GM/player anyway, and is called 'module' material in FG-speak. Adding modules for standing data is useful (so players and the GM have easy access to it), but is separate from changing the underlying game mechanics.

The free user guide explains ruleset modding, and can be downloaded from the FG site, or from here.

Hope that helps

Stuart

The ruleset licence does not allow you to share it. The first time you connect, the ruleset downloads (which may take a few minutes) but thereafter the connection speed is very good. If you want GMs to share, each needs to have a legal copy of the ruleset.

Only you, as GM, needs a copy of the extension and the ruleset. The players only need a copy of Fantasy Grounds - their machine will download an encrypted version of the ruleset and extension when they connect to you, so they don't need their own copies.

The last sentence in the quote above is specifically aimed at folks who might buy the ruleset, change some graphics and edit the ruleset logic to create a RuneQuest ruleset (say), then try to resell/give away that RuneQuest ruleset to other folks. It would be viewed as a derivative of the original IP and would fall foul of copyright law. You are still allowed to modify the ruleset and use it with your group, because you aren't redistributing it.

Hope that helps

Stuart

Different products (virtual table tops, VTTs, or virtual gaming tables, VGTs) have their pros and cons. Some are free, some have immersive graphics (like MapTools' line-of-sight/fog-of-war), and some are more game-customisable. FG focuses on the latter, with rich character sheets tailored to the game system, combat utilities and (often) access to the full text content of the game system rulebooks.

There is a relatively unbiased site, www.fouruglymonsters.com, which caters for multiple VTTs, although it has recently been trimmed down a bit.

I built the BRP (and CoC) rulesets for Fantasy Grounds, and think it is a good conversion, but it depends what you are looking for. I'd be delighted to answer any questions.

Cheers

Stuart

The Hounds of Adranos has been converted to BRP and packaged as a Fantasy Grounds module. Enjoy.

Furthermore it seems to be free! Thanks!

Just to let folks know that I've posted a free extension (ruleset plug-in) on the FG Wiki called Eldritch Horror to allow Call of Cthulhu-compatible games to be played using the BRP ruleset. It *isn't* the same as a bespoke CoC ruleset (there is already an official one of those) and therefore doesn't include any CoC artwork or reference material. It just changes the character skills and characteristics to reflect the BRP elements typically used in Call of Cthulhu.

Did I mention it was free?

Foen

RosenMcStern is correct - only the GM needs to have the BRP ruleset, but everyone has to have Fantasy grounds installed.

As regards Fantasy Grounds licences, you either need the GM to have the Utlimate licence and then the players can install the free unlicensed FG software, or the GM needs to have the Full licence and then the players need to have at least the Lite licence.

Hopefully that makes sense!

When a player first connects to the GM, the player's software downloads an encrypted local copy of the ruleset and adventure material into a local cache. If players already have the ruleset installed, this is a much smaller download. as this is only done once, it isn't usually an issue. If you want to avoid the download, you can get the GM to email you a copy of the cache and save it where FG can find it. That means you can connect the first time very quickly.

Foen

The user guide can be downloaded from the link above without having to buy the product. That way you can get a feel for what is possible.

Hope that helps,

Foen

See the new thread: BRP for FGII has now been published.

The wait is over, Charlie at Chaosium has given the green light for the Fantasy Grounds conversion of Basic Roleplaying to hit the shelves!

This game system conversion includes the full text of the BRP core rulebook and all seven adventures from the quick-start PDF. The accompanying user guide gives step-by-step guidance on adapting this to your own flavor of BRP, using RuneQuest third edition as an example. Now you can play BRP-based games with your friends over the internet.

Available from the Fantasy Grounds store, requires the Fantasy Grounds software to run.

Foen

Play-testing is just about complete, and the ruleset has been sent to Charlie at Chaosium to review. Not long now...

Essentially Superworld has actors taking turns based on decreasing DEX order, but you can act again on DEX-10 and then DEX-20 and so on. With Super abilities, this means characters get multiple actions per round. IIRC, this is then modified for powers etc, but it has been a while since I last looked. Modern BRP uses a basis which tends towards a reciprocal of that approach. The impact is similar, but you cannot map easily between one and another.

DEX rank and options to act on DEX-5 etc are similar, but I don't recall there being a penalty for multiple actions in Superworld.

Just as an aside (and sorry if I cause any confusion) the Superworld rules included a strike-rank system (action ranks) which has some similar ideas but is implemented quite differently. I'm not sure whether it pre-dated the RQ version or not.

Foen

In the absence of healing magic, CoC is certainly deadly: Mythos creatures are often very resistant to physical damage, and investigators are not.

I would agree as a whole but the magic system is different.

True, but I see magic/power systems in BRP as plug-and-play (juicy post-rationalisation, I know).

Just my 2c: Call of thulhu is not different from BRP (to any noticeable degree), it just uses some of the BRP options and not some of the others. Sanity is in BRP as an option (CoC uses this) and so are hit locations (CoC doesn't use those), so Call of Cthulhu is more like a genre/playstyle/campaign setting for BRP. If you don't like the playstyle (death and insanity), or the setting (HP Lovecraft Mythos), or the genre (horror), they can be swapped. One of the advantages of BRP!

There, I got that off my chest

Foen

Just a quick note to say that the user guide section on adapting the ruleset is actually a walkthrough for modifying it to be compatible with RuneQuest 3rd edition.

Full User Guide

Foen

Thanks Sverre!

Stuart

Sent email: thanks SGL.