weasel fierce

well, runequest never concerned itself much with balance between races. In most games, you're mechanically better off playing a troll than a human. Or a griffon, as the RQ2 box advertises

So I think you should be fine

Burning Wheel takes inspiration from the BRP advancement rules.

Mutant Chronicles and the Warzone mini's game uses some parts (MC uses a D20 roll under instead, but both games use the resistance table)

Theres of course Pendragon as well, if that hasnt been mentioned yet

I like it all the ways If I could have God learners facing off against the lunars, I'd be peachy.

I really liked the 2nd age book from Mongoose. Very concise introduction to the setting.

As far as mechanics, RQ3, HQ or MRQ, Im happy either way (i've played RQ2 as well, but the skill acquisition is a bit awkward)

We also play a lot of wargames:

Rogue Trader (original, and best, 40k)

Confrontation 3 (no interest in 4th edition)

recently we've been playing a lot of Songs Of Blades And Heroes... a cool little fantasy skirmish game that lets you use whatever figs you want.

Rogue Trader was indeed the bomb.

yeah, good character sheets are hard to find. At best, most of the time we settle for "functional"

A friend of mine cooked up a really good MRQ sheet, Im sure I can talk him into a BRP one too

BRP Fading Suns would be sweet indeed

As someone mentioned it, I am a pretty avid mini's gamer. Mostly ww2 (Crossfire and Nuts), some scifi (old Warzone, Stargrunt II, 5150 and my own rules) as well as Russian civil war

THought this might be fun. Basically, other than BRP, what other games do you guys play ? Im interested in seeing what similar games turn up, as well as games that are completely different.

My list, in addition to various BRP mix-ups (principally RQ3 and SB5) has a bunch of stuf fon it, but main games would be GURPS 4, Reign and Warhammer fantasy roleplay. Throw in some Traveller as well.

Antitank would be a catch all for "the knowledge to attack a tank". Its as much recognizing the safe angles to approach from, as it is the ability to use shaped charges or whatever the future might give us.

Grenadier is basically the skill of using grenade launchers. A bit specialized but I wanted there to be the situation where the grenadier is killed and somebody else picks up.

As far as disparate skills, Im imagining most of the players will make characters who were former military personnel, and who have now joined the legion for various reasons. So they are all infantry NOW, but they could have held all sorts of interesting positions before.

I also deliberately want a bit of a dirty dozen feel to it.

As far as the character creation, Im tempted to ditch the racial skills and just make that easy. My players seem to want human characters in any event. I might simply the char-gen in general. Maybe take professions from CoC as inspiration and do itr that way as suggested

I think you can use the stat based base chances and still involve the stats later. Either by having them affect your improvement rolls, or just by calling for stat rolls fairly frequently (whcih I always did, so no issue there)

How are you going to handle the skills Leadership and Tactics? What mechanical benefits will a successful skill test provide for these skills? I am interested to see how you are going to handle these skills. Of course, they are vital skills for a campaign of this nature.

I like the French Foreign Legion feel because it allows you to have widely varying characters of all types and dispositions. :thumb::cool:

Im propably ditching EDU yeah. It runs fine without it.

Leadership will be used to motivate demoralized grunts. Morale will work similar to Sanity. When it deteriorates below 20, the trooper is demoralized and needs a leadership check from somebody to do anything but sit in a pit and shoot occasionally.

Tactics Im still thinking about.

I generally prefer just fighting less, than having fate points. You can change things quite a bit just by tweaking hit points though

Particulaly "techie" skills would be handled as a specialist skill

Throughout BRP and related games, there's a few ways to handle the skill base chance. What do you prefer for a BRP game or inspired homebrew ?

Flat chance (ala Stormbringer 5) - Example: Mechanic 30

Flat chance modified by stats (Runequest 3) - Example: Mechanic 30 and I get a +4 bonus from my Manipulation skill bonus.

Completely stat based (Elfquest did this I believe ?, the Dodge skill in Call of Cthulhu is a good example too) - Example: Mechanic is INT x3 or INT+DEX or whatnot.

Or something else altogether ?

Im aware that the EDU stat isnt actually factored into any of the skill basics. Im still on the fence if its gonna be used or not

So the game premise is a squad of the Solomani foreign legion in the Traveller universe, hoping to earn their redemption and/or nominal Solomani status.

In the end, its the foreign legion in space, fighting..well, we'll see.

THe goal is a military science fiction game (ala forever war, aliens, starship troopers etc). Hence the skill list is extremely militaristic in nature. Also, Im not terribly concerned with sticking to a specific BRP incarnation. This is "BRP homebrew" zone

Most of the group like a fair bit of randomness in character creation, so hereis my basic outline. The main worry is whether the characters will be reasonably competent and fitting.

Its in very simple draft form atm

Character creation:

Roll stats: 3D6 for STR, CON, DEX, CHA, POW. 2D6+6 for SIZ, INT and EDU

Vargr roll 3D6 for SIZ, +2 to DEX, 2D6+3 for STR

Aslan roll +2 for STR, +2 CON, 2D6+3 DEX

Humans receive +5 to Streetwise and Liaison skills

Vargr receive +5 to Brawl default

Aslan receive +5 to Close Combat and +3 to Guts.

Upbringing:

Pick 2 Background skills, which are received at a rating of 25+2D6%. These should be education or school based.

In addition, add +5 to 2 skills chosen from Tech, Wilderness, Streetwise, Leadership.

Former career:

Determine what your characters main career was. You may elect 4 background skills (received at 35+3D6%) related to your profession.

You receive 100 points to distribute between any Primary, Background or Specialist skills relevant to your career.

Life-Change:

Something happened to make you join the Legion. What was it ?

Determine your Lifegoal and your Regret. During gameplay, once per session, if you are pushing towards either, you may reroll one failed dice-roll.

The Legion:

You receive basic training, which provides the gains indicated on the skill chart below. In addition, pick a specialty and receive a +15 to the skills indicated.

Section leader

Leadership, Liaison, Tactics, Interrogation

Heavy weapons

Gunner (X2), Grenadier, Antitank

Marksman

Rifleman (X2). Recon. Fieldcraft

Scout

Wilderness. Recon (X2). Communications.

Demolitions

Grenadier. Engineer (X2). Antitank

Medic

Medic (X3). Sidearm

Comm's

Communications (X2). Tech (X2)

Rifleman

Rifleman. Fieldcraft. Close Combat. Wilderness

Primary skills:

Primary skills represent the main skills a character will utilize during the game. These are the things that are likely to be taught, trained, experienced or acquired in the Legion in some form or another.

Primary skills receive high base chances, and improve according to the following rules:

Experience roll: +1D6

Training: Per week (intensely) or 2 weeks (routine). 1D6-2

Skill Start Basic

Rifleman DEX+INT 4D6

Gunner INT 2D6

Sidearm DEX 2D6

Antitank INT+POW 2D6

Grenadier DEX+INT 3D6

Close Combat STR+DEX 4D6

Recon INT+POW 3D6

Crew INT -

Leadership CHA+POW -

Wilderness POW+INT 3D6

Streetwise INT+CHA -

Medic INT+10 1D6

Liaison CHA+INT -

Fieldcraft INT+DEX 3D6

Engineer INT+DEX -

Tactics INT+10 2D6

Communications INT -

Interrogation CHA+STR 1D6

Tech INT+10 -

Defaults:

Default skills are basic capabilities that rarely change much. In many cases they are “fall-back” rolls when nothing else seems to fit, or everything else is exhausted.

In the framework of the campaign, Defaults wont improve through training. If a Default roll scores a critical success, the Default will improve by +1% (once per session max)

Fix DEX+INT

Brawl STRx2+DEX

Endurance CONx3+POW

Athletics DEXx2+STR+CON

Dodge DEXx3

Charm CHAx3

Luck POWx3

Specialist skills:

These are skills that are particularly complex and/or outside the general realm of military characters. Starship navigation or Xenobiology are good examples. These skills, if possessed, will start at a base chance of 5%.

They improve normally.

Background skills:

A background skill is anything that helps to flesh out the character, but which isnt terribly likely to become a boon during gameplay. Cooking, interior decoration and photography are good examples. Many such skills will be primarily civilian in nature.

These skills receive large base chances, depending on what stage of character creation they are acquired in.

Other traits:

Guts

Guts is a mixture of grit, determination and sheer stubborness. It determines how inclined your character is to continue despite impossible odds, and how easily he can shrug off setbacks. Its calculated as POW+CHA+CON+2D6.

Legion characters add +5 (Corps spirit).

Seasoned military characters add +1 per year served. (this is rolled as a percentile to avoid morale loss)

Morale

Morale functions as “mental hit points”. Morale deteriorates while at the front, or if faced with particularly gruelling conditions, losses or threats. Initial Morale is POWx5

Hit Points

Total HP is calculated as (SIZ+CON+3)/2. HP per location is calculated as per Runequest 3.

Initiative (to be determined)

There's a difference though. On a PC level, runequest magic tends to be in the veins of bladesharp 3 and heal 2. Fairly minor and unintrusive stuff.