badcat

ahem, Kloster, Aaron Burr IS ancient history, now. But... If you want to talk about pistol duels instead of phalanx vs. maniple, though, my favorite is Andy Jackson...that rascal took a ball in the chest and calmly stood there and blew away his opponent. Not many years after the Burr affair...and hey, you know about Wyatt Earp?.... :focus:

Jason, some guy in Missouri bought the rights to the Atlantean Trilogy a few years ago and reprinted them. There are copies for sale at Noble Knight, and they are 90%+ the same. He added a PC race (the Selkie) and some more classes, changed the art (including the cover), and made a few other little changes. The Arcanum, Lexicon, and Beastiary are still as useful as ever. Drohem, I'm looking for input if you (and anyone else) are interested in giving it. I've always thought the Atlantis Trilogy plus BRP would be about as good as fantasy game could get. Just remember that I am doing it for myself, so I won't necessarily use all the suggestions I might get. The project could be a two way street, though. Simlasa, looking at the links above you can see what the Trilogy is. The reasons I like it? You can run any kind of fantasy game in the setting; the world presented is ours (or a close parallel), there is info given for cultures and creatures covering the entire globe (and this makes it feel more vibrant and alive than most settings), the magic system is possibly the most detailed single one ever published (it includes demon summoning, runes, symbols, shamanism, mysticism, alchemy complete with formulae and ingredient lists with latent properties, etc.) It is, in other words a wonderful setting to showcase the new BRP rules. Swords and sorcery, wierd science, mutations, exploration of ruined cities, mysteries, tribal cults...It's all possible in this one setting. In fact, I think supers is about the only thing in the upcoming book I couldn't fit in. Overall technology level is about like the Roman Empire, with anything between cave men and Imperial China or Moghul India. There is also Atlantis the Second Age from Morrigan Press plus Bestiary and a couple of other interesting supplements. It uses a modified Talislanta 4 system but lacks a lot of the better parts of the original Trilogy, like the spell and alchemy lists. I have thought about three different conversions before deciding on this. The others are a space opera setting and Dark Conspiracy. This is my pick because it encompasses most of my favorite genres and because it will make fairly thorough use of the new rulebook. For the time being my major source for conversion (basic rules, chargen, skills) will be Elric!, since that seems to be the basic ruleset for the new BRP book. Then I will mix in whatever advantageous elements I am presented with from the new book. Most of this should be fairly straightforward, I expect the most work will be getting the right 'flavor' out of the magic in the setting, which is very complete and colorful. So here is my first bit...the races. There are elves and dwarves, although they are fairly minor races in the setting. I may use them, but I don't think they are a necessary part to capture the ambiance I am looking for. If I do use them they will be similar stat-wise to the elves and dwarves from Magic World. Humans will be similar to the ones in Elric!, with 2D6+6 for stats, and so on. Of the other races presented in the Arcanum, I am not going to use the Zephyr (winged humanoid), or Selkie. The other three, converted to BRP Elric! stats, as follows... Aesir, think Frost Giants from REHs 'Frost Giants Daughter' Str 2D6+12 Con 2D6+6 Siz 2D6+12 Int 2D4+6 Pow 2D6+6 Dex 2D4+6 App 2D6+6 Descended from the Jotun, friendly with the Dwarves, little talent for magic but do have tribal shamans. Fierce enemies of trolls. Andaman Str 2D6+9 Con 1D6+12 Siz 2D6+6 Int 2D6+3 Pow 2D6+3 Dex 2D6+9 App 2D6+4 The results of human/animal hybridization, Andaman are reclusive, shy creatures for the most part. They have a low reproductive rate, and many births are stillborn, so are gradually becoming extinct. They are excellent scouts, hunters, and warriors. They come in number of types...Lion, Hyena, Wolf, Jaguar, etc. Netherman Str 1D6+12 Con 2D6+6 Siz 2D6+4 Int 2D6+4 Pow 2D6+4 Dex 3D6+6 App 2D6+2 Another hybridization, of man and goblin. They seem to have inherited all the worst traits of man AND goblin, and make excellent if unruly shock troops.

Appropriate avatars, there. *snicker*:thumb:

I am thinking of converting the Arcanum to a BRP system to play, and I was wondering if this would be where to do it, and if anyone here is interested in reading about it, maybe making suggestions as I go? Sort of a 101 day project like they do sometimes over at rpg.net. Just because.

Hey, Kloster, sounds familiar. My ancient history professor in college AVOIDED military aspects like the plague. What I know I had to dig up on my own...I might as well have saved my money for the bookstore, instead of wasting it on tuition, to some extent.:ohwell:

Yes. Another big factor for me (I thought of it right after that last post, naturally) is that I like stories where the protagonist(s) are not helpless pawns. Such as, there being demons in the Conan stories, but they are killable. I would like the Elric stories much better if he had a chance to divert his fate...this is a VERY important factor in both games and fiction for me. At the same time, the story/game needs to put the protagonist in real peril. BRP fulfills both these items better than anything else I know of.

Actually darkheart, I think any of those will be possible using these rules...choose your poison.

That is a very interesting insight. I tend to be eclectic in what I read, but very finicky too. There are pieces from all four named writers that I like, and some that I don't. All four were capable of producing stories that I enjoyed, but none of the four are sure things for me. It has been frustrating for my wife at times, as she would point something out because I had talked about the writer, only to have me say 'meh'. I guess there are things I look for outside the setting or general ambience like dialog, coherence, character development, etc (I am not really sure what does it for me; this is just speculation). Although setting is important too...but internal consistency is an absolute must. So, I like the early Elric stories, but not the rest of the EC story arcs; I like the Dilvish the Damned stories, but not Amber; Empire of the East but not the Swords books; Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser but generally not Lieber's sci fi so much; etc. Wierd, huh? In any event, there is some commonality between Elric and Conan that attracts a lot of readers to both; perhaps it is the very fact that they are a yin/yang pairing of sorts. One big key for all of is that I think we like to emulate the fiction we like in the stories we read, I certainly do. I have always correlated a liking for games like Stormbringer (and BRP in general) with writers like Howard, Wagner, or Shea more than Moorcock or Saberhagen or even Lieber. It's the feel of the stories. A certain darkness, not necessarily sure doom...it is a very fine distinction. When all is said and done, though, probably most everyone on this particular forum have at least similar tastes, don't you think?

I think they might not have if the pilums had not begun the process of breaking up the phalanx pretty good. I wonder how the battle would have turned out if Alexander or his father had been in command, as I have read somewhere that Philip V did not have nearly as good a grasp of tactics and strategy, although his army was very similar in structure and organization to the army Alexander led into Persia...

back. Girls with wings? hmmmm... yum?

I think you two are RQ snobs.

Many of these are reasons that I went to a combo-SB1/Magic World/Arcanum homebrew. It still works great...

Interesting.

I was asking a specific question? There is no doubt that sorcery was overpowered; it was intentional game design, as Melniboneans were supposed to be that way. Human sorcerers were not overpowered. SB1 was not what you would call balanced in many ways. Intentionally. Now, back to my question, did you know about the rule I mentioned?

Just out of curiosity, did both you guys miss the part in Stormbringer where under the rules you can use the bound demon abilities as though the effect were being cast as a spell? As in throwing a flame bolt via a bound fire elemental, and so forth? You could use each bound entity with such useful powers up to three times an hour without breaking the binding, although some of them would be 'used up' in the process... I don't remember if SB4 and SB5 had that or not.:confused: The worst part of Stormbringer was trying to keep control of the damn sorcerers, I used to dread seeing Melniboneans and Pan Tangians rolled up.:eek:

Could be, but I seem to remember some really devastating cult spells. Wierd thing about spell power in general and power levels in particular was that almost everybody I knew said they enjoyed AD&D more at low level than when levels got to 10+, but I couldn't get most of them to try a BRP game. They would moon over those really nasty high level spells above spell level 5 but rarely were any of that power used in play; meanwhile my RQ2, later SB1 group was using the BRP equivalent sometimes right out of the gate...especially in the Stormbringer game. Talk about powerful spells. RQ2 was no slouch when it came to power levels and being a member of the correct cult for that sort of thing, though, for sure. What you said about the perception of power because of some area effect spells was one of the reasons I so desparately wanted to play a Magic World based game in those days. It is one of the key differences between it and RQ...Magic World could easily 'copy' the D&D feel, using BRP.

I've never understood the underpowered thing. My main problem with RQ magic was the Glorantha angle; it never felt like fantasy magic as in some favorite books. No, a full-fledged Rune Priest I wouldn't call 'underpowered' anywhere. Magic World shouldn't be compared to RQ2 directly, though; it has an entirely different feel, especially when logically expanded.

There is Runeslayers, a free on-line rpg that was once going to be RQ4, just before Avalon Hill pulled the plug and went belly up. The game has a large, interesting section on weapon and armor materials. Just do a Google search for 'Runeslayers'.

There is quite a bit of room for tactics with the spells from Magic World. You have Countermagic, Protection, Fire/Frost, Ward, Conjure/Dismiss Elemental... and you can expand on it with many of the older, similar, magic systems like Arcanum. An 'identify spell' skill and magic intiative system could even develop into a nice magic duelling system, I'd think.

Weeelll, I don't consider it to be a problem, I like it!>:-> And there are, I believe, going to be options for kinder, gentler hit point systems in BRP, the default system, only, seems to follow Elric!/SB5 mostly with all sorts of optional choices. Read up on the authors question/answers threads nearby.

Me either. The one that came closest was the Elric! sheet, but since I wanted skill categories and bonuses even it fell short. So the sheet in this new book would not get used by me, but is not a particularly negative factor in my decision whether or not to buy it.

Soltakss, you could probably use the MRQ sheet...>:->

You rate one half the average of CON and SIZ as a 'major wound'; when someone takes that much or more in one hit, they go to the major wound table and roll. Half the time you get an 'impressive scar' and heal normally, half the time something dire happens like losing a limb, part of your face, etc. In a game with average broadsword damage being 5-6 points, average armor roll being 4-5 points (sometimes 0), and average hit points being 11 or so (with a major wound average being 6, therefore) it gets pretty dire, pretty frequently.

I like the font too. But then, I am a sick cat.

By the way, welcome, darkheart. Your first post, I notice. Check out the threads wherein Jason Durall (the author) answers questions about the book. You can can get a pretty good idea of what is in it by reading through them, for starters.