badcat

Something I have done successfully, with SB1-4, is to allow multiple attacks at -20% per attack in lieu of the multiple parries. That is to say, players could choose an all out attack option, but only have one defense roll, parry or dodge, in the round. An exchange of multiple defense rolls for multiple attack rolls. They would take place at -5 DEX rank per attack. I don't think your responses were out of line in the least, Aycorn. Stick to your guns.

Thanks. I have run three campaigns to the bitter end, the players found Tanelorn and escaped the general doom in one. Mostly I was just wondering how much if any 'official' support there was for straying from canon. I am interested in EoM mostly because of the magic system, it sounds like a different enough approach to revive my interest in the setting now that the printing problems seem to be resolved. You make it sound as though the system is cleaned up some from the initial MRQ release, and that it would require little work to use my beloved old SB1 rules if I wished as well. Sounds good. Now to work on getting some credit at Noble Knight...

Questions for anyone who may know... I have avoided these (Mongoose Elric books) due to the binding problems, but I have noticed they are now perfect bound paperbacks? Are there suggestions in the setting material for allowing PCs to 'win' by escaping the Young Kingdoms or altering history? The books contain a modified MRQ, I understand. How is combat and opposed skill resolution changed if so? If I was still not comfortable with the modified MRQ ruleset, how much work on a scale of 1-10 would it take to convert it to a full BRP version? Any sincere replies welcome.

I see your point, vagabond, but don't you think a little 'survival instinct' was involved? Enough to justify a small chance on a character sheet, even if it is just the skill bonus?

Yep, vanity was almost certainly a major part of carrying BIG guns. But marksmanship and sheer guts were the most important 'possessions' for big game hunting, and those old guys (before the regulations) have my respect. Consider; big game hunting began in an era when those big guns did not exist...old black powder muskets for elephant, anyone? And one of the most successful elephant hunters...can't remember his name, dang it...shot hundreds of elepants with a 7mm Mauser in the early 1900's and lived to tell the tales. Not to metion the guys with nothing but spears, pits, bows and arrows and blowguns. And balls. FunGuy, the writer I referred to, Wilbur Smith, is very much in print and if you like adventure stories set in Africa you should check him out. His longest series of connected books follows a family from the 1500's to modern times and the last stories are about one Sean Courtenay, safari guide and ex Selous Scout from Rhodesia. Most of the books are excellent. You get birds eye 'I was there' sorts of stories about things like the Boer War, slavers, pirates, diamond hunters, lost cities, opening up and exploring the interior of Africa, the Zulu Wars, etc., etc. If you have any interest in African history at all these are not to be missed. If you want help on what to begin with I can help, just ask.

Yeah, if they had time. Even these days the guys that run safaris in South Africa insist on 'minimum' calibers. Like a minimum .300 Win. Mag. for pot animals such as antelope and like .416 Rigby if you are after a big ticket animal like buffalo or elephant. I don't think they let anybody hunt rhino anymore. You need monstrosities like the howdah gun when you hunt some of the game in Africa and Asia, all you can handle, I guess. You ever read any Wilber Smith? One of his characters, a safari guide, used a sawed off .600 Nitro Express as his carry gun. To save the tourists from becoming lion bait. That is probably fairly accurate, from much that I have read. What would the stats be on that caliber, you think?

Just an anecdote. When I was in Navy boot camp, I found that the method of 'teaching' us to swim was to walk us out on a diving board and push us in; if you swam you stayed if you had to be pulled out by the lifeguard you washed out. Period. I did not know how to swim, and was afraid to get into deep water. But when I jumped in I kept my cool and did what they had instructed us to do, and passed the test...so I think humans do know instinctively how to swim as long as they don't panic. It should have a base percentage of some sort, IMO. And you might ask what I was doing in the Navy? Avoiding Vietnam while doing my duty as I saw it. When I got drafted, I joined the Navy right there at the recruiting station as soon as I passed the physical.

Not sure about this, but I think I read somewhere that the 'howdah gun' was made for one purpose....to knock a disgruntled tiger off an elephants' back. Hence the name. If you were tiger hunting from elephant back in a howdah, trying to reload as the tiger turned on you and tried to drag you out of the howdah, that had cannon looks like just the thing... By the way, Michael Douglas in 'The Ghost and the Darkness' carries one.

How about, as elephant gun minus a few points for the shorter barrel? 3d6+2, maybe. Range as .45. Or thereabouts.

It's racist because the zombies are negroes, but it wouldn't be racist if the shooter was a negro too?

No tomatoes from me; I agree. Although I had positive first impressions of the new book, the more I look at it the more dissatisfied and unhappy I am. It is simply one person's set of homebrew rules pasted on to the BRP chassis, as far as I can tell. I would have to work as hard to modify this as I already worked to modify older versions of BRP to get what I wanted before the new book came out. The skills don't really feel right to me, either, and I am not sure whether it is the multi-genre approach or the 'houserule' feel or what. Not a good sign, though. I suppose it is now the 'official' ruleset, but I am not at all happy with it, and do not intend to use it as is. I will stay with what I was already using.

And you can download it here in the downloads section...

Mongoose Runequest. They use two skills, Persistance and Resilience, in place of POW and CON resistance rolls. Otherwise the system is similar, very similar, to BRP. I think other than those, most things are resolved with opposed skill rolls.

Thank you. That is just the sort of advice I was looking for. I had considered the Cthulhu quickstart but fantasy of some flavor is my favored genre and I tend to do better with it. And thanks for the 'good luck', because most of this group are 3.5 fanatics. It may be a tough sell, at best, and I figure I need all the help I can beg, borrow or steal...

Well, I might be getting a BRP group started here in WOTC land. I am thinking about doing a demo game at a local meetup group, meanwhile I have three people interested in a regular BRP game group. The two might mix, but not necessarily. I would much appreciate any advice about how to go about doing this demo game thing, as I have never done such a thing. It looks like a 3-4 hour time slot. What genres would work better at generating interest? I am considering my swords & sorcery or CoC. What options might work for giving a good impression of the BRP system as a whole? What all should I include in a handout packet, how many pregens, that sort of thing? Any advice from you guys would be much appreciated. I would like this to be roaring success and I have a hunch it is going to be a very critical group. Thanks.

I am noticing a little shaving at the bottom of the g and short tails on p and q and such. Not too bad, though. Not enough in my pdf hardcopy to bother me.

There is also some material written by other authors using the setting. A surprising amount of it in fact. mrk is absolutely correct in that there is enough material out there to support a rpg setting. Don't get attached to your character in Zothique, though. Not if a game set there is faithful to the material.

Find a woman who is a whiz with the computer. I just ask my wife when I want a new fangled character sheet. Works great.

Very true, mrk. And CoC has been around for a while at that. There wouldn't be as much wriggle room in Zothique, I feel. Well, Hedgehobbit, welcome to the grognard club, I guess. I ran 3.0 when it first came out, didn't enjoy it. Or 2e or even 1e for that matter, but I never tried to run 2e. I had latched on to BRP via RQ2 and Stormbringer, and then houserules mixing Magic World and Arcanum to the above two. I don't intend to try 4e but now that I have an incipient group for BRP again I have quit :deadhorse:

Oh, for a reference point, the Book of Eibon was about Hyperborea, Eibon being the most powerful sorcerer of that era.

No, I was referring to CAS' Hyperborea. I think he wrote as many or more stories set there as in Zothique. REH borrowed the name, the setting has only the rough geographical location in common. Not much at that. CAS' Hyperborea was a triangular shaped continent approx. where modern Greenland is. There were ghoul haunted woods, a mountain that germinated monsters and other such weird elements. CAS and REH and others (Lovecraft, etc.) did correspond, so there was a lot of cross pollination going on. I like Hyperborea better partly because it has a little more sword and sorcery 'feel' than Zothique. Too many Zothique stories are about some poor bastard who accepts a horrible fate to avoid a worse horrible fate. Not much whacking the bad guys to rescue the fair maiden in Zothique. Usually the maiden turned out to be the head bad guy, as it were. Some of that in Hyperborea too, it just didn't seem as prevalent.

Yes. Someone posted on rpg.net about having done that. One of the authors of Stormbringer 4, I think. He said the demon creation rules in SB4 were based on the Superworld abilities, I believe. Anyway it is apparently more than possible. I wish I could remember who it was. Maybe Jason knows.

Hyperborea is as exotic and colorful and scary as Zothique but is set at the beginning of history rather than the end...

I think I detect sarcasm. I do agree CAS based material would make a good setting for BRP though. I would love to see Hyperborea, myself. There is a lot of Averoigne material out already, in 'Worlds of Cthulhu'.

Welcome, mrk. I guess you like WOTC and 4e about as much as I do. Elric and Cthulhu are too dark for me, too. I always wanted the system without the setting and now I have it. Meanwhile, Eldritch Dark is an excellent resource for anyone who is interested in CAS and his work. Have a look if you are not already familiar with it.