Aelwyn

Is that anything like XP? Seriously, I thought all I had to do was kill enough kobolds and I would learn new spells. What kind of game is this?

Try switching browsers?

Woo hoo! [does happy dance]

Not unless it's labeled "Birthday" or "AIM." How exactly did you change it?

Others had used the term, and I was responding to that. I was referring to myself only, and I didn't mean to offend. Feel free to substitute "complain" or "express my opinion." As I said before, I don't bear anyone any ill will, but this has been devastating to me for reasons that are personal and have nothing to do with Chaosium or the relative merits of RQ6 v. the BGB. I've got a lot of sweat equity invested in the BGB as a ongoing system. I'm trying to be polite and mature about it, but the bottom line is, I got screwed. So did anyone else who's been working on a supplement based on the BGB in the hope of it being published. Please forgive any passive-aggressive (or aggressive-aggressive) behavior on my part as the rantings of someone who just stepped on a tiger trap and failed his Agility roll. Gonna go lick my wounds and rethink this whole author-of-RPG-scenarios thing. Then I'll probably reach out to a couple of publishers, including Chaosium. Also, I believe I now owe Paolo some more money.

Yeah, yeah, new leadership at Chaosium, future of Magic World and the Big Gold Book, Gloranthaphiles v. BRPartisans, how do we save d100, blah, blah, blah. Let's talk about something really important... why am I still a Junior Member? C'mon, trifletraxor, I've made 100+ posts, and I've killed every single kobold you threw at me. Whaddaya say? Can I level up?

Here's an interesting wrinkle. The inventor of bartitsu taught jujitsu to Edith Garrud, a suffragette who later founded an all-women suffragette protection unit called the Bodyguard. A former suffragette bodyguard would make a great character for pulp or 1920s Cthulhu adventures. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Margaret_Garrud The story is historically accurate, but it's been recently fictionalized in Suffrajitsu: Mrs. Pankhurst's Amazons. http://suffrajitsu.com/ In the UK, women over 30 got the right to vote in 1918. Women over 21 were enfranchised in 1928. Women's suffrage was ratified in the United States in 1920. Weapon: India bat, 1D6+DB Skills (BRP): Brawl, Grapple, Martial Arts (Jujitsu), Arson, Persuade, Dodge, Fine Manipulation, Stealth (RQ6): Athletics, Brawn, Evade, Influence, Stealth, Unarmed, Willpower, Lockpicking, Oratory

Not sure if you were referring to me, but I tried running a BRP game a few years ago with no support from Chaosium (nor would I expect any). All of the participants were new to BRP. It didn't go well. Also trying to introduce my current girlfriend to RPGs. That is also not going well. I blame my own inexperience as a GM for both. Since I'm equally inexperienced at retail and running gaming conventions, I think I'm going to wait a bit before diving headfirst into either of those. I haven't given up on running games, and I don't expect any support from anyone. I've already mentioned other things I've done to support Chaosium and Design Mechanism in this thread, in addition to buying their products. If that's not enough for you, feel free to switch me off as a bag of wind. I don't expect Chaosium to take any of my suggestions, and I certainly don't expect them to make business decisions based on my own personal preferences. But everyone on this site has the right to express those preferences... that's what this site is for. Loz, I'd be glad to post some online reviews. That was an excellent suggestion.

That is true in my area as well. I'm in an area with a huge population, and we've only got three that hang on by selling comic books and conventional board games, and renting space to gamers. Game stores can't be the only solution, but they are a great place to find new players, and they are likely the only brick-and-mortar stores where Chaosium product will move. My marketing advice for Chaosium, FWIW, which isn't much: the website could be easier to navigate. I'd suggest organizing products by genre rather than by whether the item is a rulebook, supplement, monograph, e-book, or pdf. New customers don't really know or care about the difference between a supplement and a monograph--they want something on pirates or cyborgs. And I get that the leadership team is trying to turn a lot of things around. Nothing is going to happen overnight.

I'd like to add to seneschal's list of things Chaosium should do, the following list of things that we, the fans of BRP and related systems, can do: 1. Post about the games on RPG websites. This is probably the best way to market them because it reaches the widest audience, and people are more likely to read and believe a heartfelt post by a genuine fan than a slick marketing campaign by someone who doesn't necessarily know anything about RPGs. 2. Talk up your favorite products among your friends. 3. Walk into game stores and ask the clerks if they have anything for Runequest, Call of Cthulhu, BRP, Glorantha, Legend, d100, OpenQuest, etc. Mention the names of companies. A good clerk will mention this to the manager. A good manager will ask the distributor about these names. 4. Write and submit work to Chaosium, Alephtar, Mongoose, Moon Design, Design Mechanism, and other game publishers. They can't publish stuff if no one's writing it. I'm well aware that many of us are already doing these things, and I'm also aware that many of us have other priorities and can't spend a lot of time on this. These are just ideas, not a suggestion that anyone has an obligation to do anything.

I don't bear Pete, Loz, the new management at Chaosium, or anyone else involved any ill will, and I certainly hope the company succeeds. I was in a game store last weekend, and I specifically asked about Call of Cthulhu, Basic Roleplaying, and Chaosium. All they had was a copy of In Search of the Trollslayer, which I put at the front of the stack so it was more prominently displayed. I'm an active fan and advocate for the company. There are many things I like about the RQ6 rules, and I think a 32-page generic version is an excellent idea and a good way to move the company into the future. I bought a copy of RQ6 this summer, and I'm about to join a long-running Runequest group that's using a hybrid of Mongoose and RQ6 rules with some house rules thrown in. However, I've got thousands of hours of work invested in two 80-page manuscripts based on the Big Gold Book. No one is now going to publish those manuscripts unless I do some extensive rewrites and additions. I've got skin in the game. I don't blame anyone but myself and the dice, but I reserve the right to whine.

Damn. I guess I was wrong. Nick Middleton, I owe you a beer, and we can both cry in it.

Okay, now I'm more confused than I was. Is the 32-page BRP Essentials going to be based on RuneQuest 6, or on the Big Gold Book?

An interesting list of psychic abilities. Some useful ideas for psychics or magicians. https://lucidastralthirdeye.wordpress.com/all-types-of-psychic-arts/ Hemokinesis in particular has a lot of disturbing implications.

Okay, but the line drawing of Burly Bob stays. Add the adventures from the current Quickstart, buff the weapons table to a full page with random stuff from the BGB (I like chainsaws, blowguns, and laser pistols), and we're done! 32 pages!

And yes, that's a scan of my copy, and no, you can't buy it from me for any price.

= a lot of work The announcement said the BGB is no longer necessary, not that BRP or the rules system is no longer necessary. The BGB and the BRP rules system are not synonymous--BRP goes back to 1980. The BGB is a recent compilation of the rules of many different BRP-based games--Runequest 2, Call of Cthulhu, Stormbringer, and World of Wonders. The announcement also said that the BGB would continue to be available via print on demand. Maybe, but why would they go through all that work and spend all that money just to preserve the trademark and their license agreements, when they could achieve the same thing by continuing to sell the BRP Quickstart, for zero cost to the company? Perhaps you are right, Nick, and if you are, I will graciously--and with a great deal of sadness--admit I was wrong. Certainly, the loss of Ben and the Alephtar license were huge blows. But I remain hopeful.

This. It was written for people who had never played a role-playing game before. It included an explanation of how to read a D4. There were numerous, vivid examples of how the rules worked. There was even a solo scenario. It was only 16 pages and had only two tables. The character sheets took up a third of a page, This is what I want it to be based on.

I really like the idea of dealing with fatigue as a simple Survival skill roll. (Or Endurance, or whatever is appropriate for the situation.)

On the other hand, for exactly the same value to their business, they could take the BRP Quickstart, remove 16 pages (the exact number of pages taken up by the adventures in the back, plus the superfluous character sheets), correct a few typos, perhaps replace some of the dated art (please do this, Chaosium), and rename it BRP Essentials. The cost to do so would be minimal but not zero. Doing anything other than that would be an extraordinarily stupid business move. If their intention is to do away with the BRP system, why on earth would they rename the Runequest system as BRP Essentials? Why not name it Runequest Essentials: Quickstart Edition or something similar? Why announce that they're going to be coming out with new BRP materials? Numerous people on this site have expressed skepticism that it's possible to trim the Runequest rules down to 320 pages or less. I have no doubt that it's possible to get them down to 320 pages and still include some Gloranthan material for Runequest: Adventures in Glorantha. But cutting RQ6 down to 32 pages and renaming it BRP Essentials, because why? They're crazy and evil and want to crush the dreams of BRP enthusiasts, and they're willing to spend enormous amounts of money to do so? No, I don't think so.

So in other words, Chaosium is going to pay someone to condense a 456-page rulebook (RQ6) down to 32 pages. You realize how much work that is, right? Here, let me help you out...

Personally, I like the special effects, but you're absolutely right... RQ6 has waaaay too many tables. Two fatigue tables? Just thinking about that makes me... fatigued.

"Bring me the youngest child of King Othelrod the Eviscerator, and we will sacrifice her to power your sword. And bring me a live basilisk as payment. And 50 silver pieces for shipping and handling."

It's not so much the resistance table itself I dislike, it's just the idea of having to look things up. The resistance table is actually so simple that most folks (I think) have the underlying formula memorized. I think the resistance table makes more sense than anything I can think of in any version of D&D I've played, but that's not saying a whole lot.

What if it was based on Runequest 2? Or Stormbringer? Or Rubble & Ruin?