badcat

Cthulhu Mythos gods, without a doubt.

The real divisiveness over MRQ started well before the book came out, as I remember. About when they put out that first set of previews. So I started on the 'pro' team and wound up a couple of months later on the 'con' team (and you the reverse, more or less) after I got the book and all the arguing started about the 100%+ skill levels and the combat matrix. Hopefully there won't be that level of fodder for volleyball with this book.

Yes, it is. I particularly like what he did with the Magic World magic system. When I first heard about the new BRP book I was hoping for something like that to be in it but alas, Jason Durall said it is not expanded upon very much past the original... Witness the power of fandom. Finally working for BRP.

Very true. 'Warlords of Alexander' has a usable looking if basic mass combat system. I have never done it in one of my games because there never was enough call for it. In my last game there was one guy from a Warhammer FRP background who was asking if there was such a system for BRP, though, so I suppose it would be a good idea to develop one just in case. I wonder how much interest it would generate, to better attract people with more interest in that side of the hobby...ie Warhammer, Iron Kingdoms, et al.?

And volleyball, lotsa volleyball.

Whatever. I would like to have an area free of Glorantha AND Greg, if possible. However that is accomplished is fine with me. Because those things got to be overwhelming on the Mongoose RQ forum last year, just pre-release. So I guess I want to have this main forum be specifically for BRP system discussion and have a separate section for Glorantha (including MRQ, since it is 'not' BRP). As such. Keep this for BRP rules discussions and homebrew settings for BRP if possible. Those rules discussions to include any game...earlier RQ, Stormbringer, CoC, etc. that specifically use BRP rules, again.

I am up in the air about it. Although I know that Glorantha and BRP are indelibly mixed to many, I was always interested in the system and more or less discarded Gorantha from the beginning. I even resented it to start with because it didn't feel like the kind of fantasy I wanted to run, too much empasis on the cults and so forth.

I'd have to vote 'no' on that, gently.:cool:

Unfortunately that's the way I read the situation too. I am just hoping that now that other games are popping up again I can skim some cream off the surface, so to speak.

Yeah, that's exactly why I think Chaosium 'missed the boat' back in the eighties when they didn't expand Magic World and Future World. I guess the one they did expand, Superworld, just didn't do well enough to justify expanding the others, or something.

What Sorloc said about D&D. I cannot disagree. I do see quite a few gamers drifting away from D&D, though. Lately I have been searching for forums frequented by folks I feel comfortable with, and found a couple of sites with a fair number of individuals talking about how they are looking for something different. Troll Lords and White Silver Publishing are two good examples. These games are pretty different from BRP, yes, but what is important is that people on these sites and others (I hope) are talking about certain things in common: the longing for simpler more logical system, system/game that does not restrict what the PC can do, games that don't cost an arm and a leg to get into and keep playing, a game that gives control back to the gm, a game that can be easily modified without breaking, and so forth. In other words, a whole lot of gamers are looking for games that have an amazing similarity to BRP even with different rules. C&C is class and level, but it also has a great deal of flexibility and is playable without a lot of constant rules lawyering; even though it shares the same resolution system with 3.5 it apparently plays with a very similar 'feel' as many simpler games. I see that Sorloc says he spent a lot of time at the ICE forums, and HARP is yet another game that has a lot of the factors listed above. Hey, they are cropping up all over the place. So there may be more unity among gamers than first appears...we may have different tastes as far as minutiae, but a very large percentage of us have a preference for a certain feel, a certain playability without a lot of hassle. I feel a cameraderie with the guys over at Troll Lords because we share the same attitude even though we prefer different games and systems. So it might be best to not look at it as us against them; I think there might be a broad swell of discontent against a certain attitude; a discontent held in common by many of the people that share this great hobby of ours. Maybe there is hope, and anyway it ain't over till the fat lady sings, and she hasn't sung yet as far as I can tell.

Of course. Have you ever read the Bronze Grimoire? And Magic World+Arcanum makes the best magic system I have ever played, much more flavorful than RQ3 and with more possibilities. I agree about CoC, by the way, but I think it is largely because the authors didn't expect the players to be full fledged mages. At least as long as they were still sane and human and under the players' control. So I am not sure that is a fair comparison. One reason I would like to have seen Magic World (especially) expanded into a full magic system is that I have never been satisfied with any of the Chaosium setting ones. Or Mongooses' now. My own expansion of the Magic World system beefed up with the old Bard Games stuff has been my primary magic system for many years. Although I did use the SB5 summoning plus the Bronze Grimoire for a while too. It had some brilliant material detailing Runes and Necromancy, if you have not seen it, even though I have a feeling you know all about it already.

Soltakiss, ANYBODY who has played RQ as much as you is most assuredly a BRP fan-atic. As for 'rubbish magic system', watch your tongue, sirrah!

:DComplex, isn't it?

Ditto to that! The only sci-fi I ever saw involving time travel that worked for me was Terminator. Plane-hopping, though, I love. It's one thing that has me onto Dark Conspiracy right now. It does take some thought, however (ie tossing) to brew a coherent story line.

You know, last year I taught a group of 12 year olds the basics of BRP (Magic World, specifically) and got in a full one-shot in one evenings' play. These kids had been playing Blue Rose. I find BRP very easy to teach. Also to complete novices, as it was the 'entry drug' for my wife, the game I got her to try. Why? Because she picked up the concepts quickly, which she definitely did not when I tried teaching her 2e AD&D a year earlier. Nope, it may not be as simple mechanically as Prince Valiant and such, but it is still a breeze to teach others or learn. Really.

I mostly agree with you. About gamers wanting larger-than-life heroes who are safe from the woes of 'simulation', though...do you remember Dark Conspiracy? It was a game of 'horror' which sort of went out of its way to not kill the PCs, versus CoC which we all know about. It tanked, CoC still thrives. That's kind of an exception to the above, don't you think? Anyway, the whole thing is complex and multi-faceted. Most everything everyone has mentioned here no doubt had some impact on BRPs' relative obscurity. How much of each factor is very open to debate. Debate on, everyone. It's fun.

I agree as well. The main attraction of BRP for me is how you can play it and not even think about the rules, they just work and they don't intrude. As Sverre said, they help you tell the story in the process of using them. I don't know of many games that are even close to BRPs 'smoothness' of play, I guess you could say. I always wonder why anyone suggests 'fate pts.' at all for BRP, too, because it already has such a factor built in, the Luck roll. And it's a renewable resource, in a way fate points are not. And you can use the Luck stat as a backup for do-or-die skills. PC is climbing a cliff, 100 feet up (we all know what that means in BRP if he falls, right?) misses his mid-climb skill roll, you let him have a Luck roll to see if he catches that outcrop... So I very much agree that BRP is fine as is, and all the extras are better left in side-bars as options to be added or deleted to the rules as wanted or needed, rather than included as necessary parts of the main rules. That way everyone comes close to getting what they want. And excellent compromise, that may widen the system's appeal without ruining what makes it such an excellent rpg.

Maybe something that combines setting/genres, like the new GURPS default? Right now I am thinking about coverting the old Dark Conspiracy game setting, since as I remember you can squeeze just about any genre in there. It does seem to me that it should be something that capitalizes on the multi-genre angle since that seems to be the way the book is going to be presented. I wonder who has that license and if it would be possible (or even desirable) for Chaosium or someone to do it for BRP as an official game setting.

You were in the playtest for this? Can you answer any questions about it?

No flames here. We're friendly. No, Chaosium can't compete with Mongoose. No arguing that. Maybe they won't have to, though. I look at MRQ as being a sort of BRP homebrew, and I can see how some people would want to use the material for BRP, its that close...but I choose not to support Mongoose, as I don't like their attitude, marketing, or system changes. If their existance helps BRP that's fine, if they go under tomorrow that's fine too. I don't mind if BRP doesn't become the biggest game company, in fact I hope they stay about like they are, or maybe do just enough better to keep putting out good stuff that isn't 99% driven by profit motive. I certainly won't diss you for liking or using MRQ stuff, but I won't in any case. I don't see Heroquest being part of the BRP 'constellation' of games. Stafford has distanced himself from the kind of games I like, and I never had any use for Glorantha to start with. I believe Heroquest has nothing to do with Chaosium and BRP now. They have gone two separate ways. Again, if you want to use Issaries material, and I can see its value for a Glorantha-based game, more power to you. But I am not interested in Glorantha or Heroquest or what Stafford thinks is or is not a good or proper role playing game. I guess what I am trying to say here is that some of us just appreciate BRP for what it is. With no attachments and no need for pre-established support. All that off my chest, yes, we do need to work together. I really don't think anyone is going to jump on you if want to talk about your favorite game or have something published in the fanzine or whatever. Just relax and jump in. It seems that everyone who is posting here so far is very open, friendly, and accepting of different viewpoints. I really hope we can keep it that way. So welcome and lets not try to flush any of these games. We all have preferences, as above, and we sure don't want to start any System Wars.

I have been looking around for a setting in which I could use most if not all the material said to be in the upcoming BRP book, and I think I have decided. Anyone remember the GDW game/setting produced between 1991 and 1993, Dark Conspiracy? It seems to have a place for all the power systems, etc. that Jason listed in the quick preview and I should be able to include any genre. Call of Cthulu-ish without the depressing sanity rules. A monster-hunting, X-Files sort of game with the eventual outcome in doubt and the very likely possibility the PCs can win out in a long campaign. Thoughts? If I go for it I may start a thread detailing the conversion, later.

SECONDED.:mad:

I heard it was going to be a fusion of tabletop, computer, miniatures, and card game heavily supported by necessary on-line material (which is NOT going to be free, even the PREVIEWS starting at the beginning of the year). And there is going to be up to seven each PHBs, MMs, AND DMGs. No joke. Some wag over at Troll Lord Games dubbed it 'Dungeons and Dragonballz'. Yum.

Swordbearer. That was FGU, wasn't it?