Skyman

FYI, Blood and Badges, the results of the 2010 contest, is now available via paperback and PDF.

And the deadline for the 2011 contest is a week away.

one month away sounds more like it

While I agree this might be an issue of style and medium of the artist and the affordability to get most bang for your buck with the quickest response to assignment by the publisher.

link was a 502 bad gateway, for me that is...just letting you know

Yep, Mr. Hook's scenario persuaded me to avoid Colorado as a vacation spot.

lol

I had no idea that the monograph was going to be named after my adventure, or that they were going to use one of the pictures from my adventure as the cover art. I was caught flat-footed when I opened the package and saw the book. It literally took me a few seconds to realize what it was I was looking at. The book looks great, I can't wait to run some of these adventures.

yes the cover has got me excited to see your adventure and the rest. I'm waiting to get my copy still

My adventure is a western horror titled "Blood & Badges". The players are Pinkerton Detectives hired to do a job in the territory of Kansas.

Congrats...guess what the name of the monograph is?

I think this is nearly the same what the FATE system wants to archive: more storytelling, providing Aspects as 'handholds' for the players. But once you get your group to the point where they see how rewarding it can be to do some story telling, I bet they learn fast and pay more attention to the scene and its description.

The key is to reward story telling by waiving dice rolls. Sure, only in situations and settings where this will be an enhancement of the game. In a gritty setting waiving dice rolls might sooner or later end in frustration. And it strongly depends on the players as well.

The players were so committed to the scene, that they took small amounts of wounds voluntarily. Sure, the fight was nothing major in the adventure, and it happened only once, but it was an amazing experience.

Yes this was similar to my experience with using aspect to BRP. I think it might take some willingness of the GM to feel comfortable with its inclusion because BRP is pretty self contained as we all know. Feng Shui RPG had the idea of the players entertaining the GM with the aspects/FATE. The people I played with would call it 'no GM" because the players end up doing all the work unfolding the story to the GM.

the thing is, you can simulate this by a -let's say- characteristic skill: A character has the skill : Guardian Angel at 40%

The GM could ask for a skill check in that situation and the result shows how the scene evolves. And if the character makes the roll, although it adds trouble to the situation, he is rewarded because he can tick the box next to the skill.

I am a bit biased to introduce a new concept into the BRP rules, when the existing system could simulate it.

Yes I can see how that can work. The difference in feel would be in that version the player is not put to the decision but letting random chance dictate the outcome of the action while in the FATE system SoTC style inclusion it is still up to the player decision to determine action. I think either will float depending on what you're looking for. I think one of the great perspectives of the recent BRP book was the inclusion of different options into the game system to create different feels to the game mechanics. The base mechanic of BRP is gritty but you throw the option of Sanity and it produces great horror. Like wise the inclusion of FATE points and SoTC style options can create a more pulp feel IMHO. I think this is what makes the game options very robust unlike say GURPs or True D20.

My entry into the first BRP adventure contest used the FATE option because I wanted to see if I could do it to change from gritty to pulp...and I did with good results in the play test.

I like FATE points. I used them in BRP to make setting more pulp and to create more definition of PC's. While I believe folks can be FATE point hoarders I also feel that the GM compelling of FATE points is the twist that kinda makes it more compelling. Such as you could have 'guardian angel' as an aspect. Get in a situation where your team has cornered one of the bad guys. Your team wants to lay down some punishment but the GM compels your aspect saying. 'Its 5 against 1 and despite your goal you know this guy needs help despite whatever he has done. You must protect him to your best of ability....*hold out fate point*." If he does then it adds conflict to the scene. If he doesn't then he loses a FATE point he has been hoarding.

thats cool

Awesome, I don't know how I missed this. It is a great adventure and I can't wait to see it in print.

Rod

Did you playtest it?

I did The Time Share. My illustrations and map were not included.

glad you're in and your wait is over. Actually that is extended to others as well

I got an e-mail saying I got accepted for the upcoming BRP Invictus Monograph. So this rocks!

If I didn't make the cut, oh well, there's always next year.

welcome to next year...hope you make it

You are welcome

It seemed to be a gutsy under taking on your part and I hope it does well.

you do write very well

Review of Fractured Hopes

BRP setting by Charles Green

The monograph is a very bold work. I say bold because the setting promises a lot of accommodation for whatever players or GM’s desire to have in a game with minimal amount of exclusions to be considered. Such as if you want ninja’s with light sabers or nazi zombie pirates raiding the local tavern in a pimped out Winnebago…well…you can do that. The monograph makes reference to the concept as being able to throw everything in, including the kitchen sink. Much of the historical background in the setting comes across as a massive excuse to pretty much do what you want. I personally have no problem with the historical background and somewhat think that it might be pretty fun to play out certain parts of that history. For even more freedom you can even ‘tabla rasa’ the whole historical back plot and just say this is where you are and so much time has passed that you’re not even sure what happened.

I get the impression that this setting was developed to utilize the BRP core rules to the max as a universal setting. I think in so doing that the setting suffers in that it may appear to being doing too much without any sense of direction or actual feel for a particular genre or scope of play. This is not a setting where people will be saying hey lets play ‘Fractured Hopes.’ Instead this is a setting where you might have players that want to have various elements in whatever they play next like one person wanting to play high fantasy with angsty shape shifting gnomes, another wanting something like the TV show Firefly and another player that just wants to go against mutant Cannibalistic Clowns with high tech gadgetry. Your answer as a GM is ‘let’s play Fractured Hopes’ and do all that…because you can. Unlike other BRP settings where you have pre-existing themes like Call of Cthulhu, and Stormbringer, you actually have to form a theme for playing. With this freedom comes a lot of responsibility to create…you know...to be creative and use your imagination a bit more than usual which is always fun.

One fun way is to pass a 3x5 card, or a sheet of paper, around to players in a clockwise fashion and have them write a word or one sentence of what they would like to see in Fractured Hopes. Instead of writing something down a player can veto another person’s idea by crossing out the entry. This keeps going around till 5 to 10 ideas are down. The amount will depend upon the amount of players you have. Once you’re done the GM just builds around the player input.

So how does the setting create the opportunity for these things to happen? Well the author of this monograph created a situation where the Earth has ‘Fractured’ creating floating islands of rock in a self sustaining atmosphere that the games referred to as the ‘Void.’ These floating pieces of rocks are like self contained sandboxes where you can have whatever you want. There are examples in the book of notable fragments of interest such as one that has nothing but Ninjas (pg 75, Stronghold of the Pop-Culture Ninja).

This whole concept reminds me of the fragments of rocks that held various kingdoms of destroyed worlds in the 1970’s movie Flash Gordon…you know the one with the killer sound track from Queen. (I just dated myself didn’t I?)

To get around from one fragment to another fragment the players need to have a Voidship, which is a magic run vehicle. It can be a surfboard to something as big as a WWII battleship like the Japanese anime Yamato. I would have liked to have other means of crossing from one fragment to another like man made bridges or something.

I think the monograph really shines in using optional rules or spot rules to create a pulp feel. Some people might like the gritty aspects of BRP but I really don’t think Fractured Hopes is made for the grit. I think optional rules on minions and Fate points bring in elements of what I find in more contemporary independent RPGs. It really bridges the traditional system with more modern ways of looking at RPG’s. IMHO.

I did not have a hard time reading the monograph and the author writes in a casual voice. Sure there are some spelling mistakes but it does not take away from my flow of reading. Such as on page 53 the gray box heading says ‘Trnsport Vessels’ but I pretty much know it means Transport Vessels without blowing an extra brain cell. Heck I think his grammar is better than mine.

The introductory (character gen) scenario is alright but nothing I would probably rely on or consider a stand out. This monograph might draw comparisons to another RPG game called RIFTS by Palladium because of the multiple realms/fragments and the ‘kitchen sink’ aspect. While the ambitions of both are bold I think they are different enough from each other that you’re not getting a copy of a setting dressed to look differently for a different system and the game engine is nothing like each other. Plus I just need the monograph and the core book. Not a library of supplemental worlds.

The art by Alberto Bontempi and David Frampton is very good for what I expect in a monograph. Mr. Frampton really brings out the fun in the possibilities that can be found in monograph with his ink work (I think its ink over pencil). Mr. Bontempi’s art looks like color painting that had to be made into black and white gray scale. He captures the epic aspects of the monograph with dark undertones.

I think more scenarios and a table of contents would have made the monograph better for me. I hope this review helps with your decision making for purchasing or not making a purchase of this monograph. For those of you who do decide to take the plunge I hope my suggestions help you make the monograph more accessible for your players and you.

Peace

I put up a review of your work Fractured Hopes

Review of Fractured Hopes

BRP setting by Charles Green

The monograph is a very bold work. I say bold because the setting promises a lot of accommodation for whatever players or GM’s desire to have in a game with minimal amount of exclusions to be considered. Such as if you want ninja’s with light sabers or nazi zombie pirates raiding the local tavern in a pimped out Winnebago…well…you can do that. Not to sound like I am lampooning the setting I am just illustrating how much you can bring in. How serious you want to make this is up to you. The monograph makes reference to the concept as being able to throw everything in, including the kitchen sink. Much of the historical background in the setting comes across as a massive excuse to pretty much do what you want. I personally have no problem with the historical background and somewhat think that it might be pretty fun to play out certain parts of that history. For even more freedom you can even ‘tabla rasa’ the whole historical back plot and just say this is where you are and so much time has passed that you’re not even sure what happened.

I get the impression that this setting was developed to utilize the BRP core rules to the max as a universal setting. I think in so doing that the setting suffers in that it may appear to being doing too much without any sense of direction or actual feel for a particular genre or scope of play. This is not a setting where people will be saying hey lets play ‘Fractured Hopes.’ Instead this is a setting where you might have players that want to have various elements in whatever they play next like one person wanting to play high fantasy with angsty shape shifting gnomes, another wanting something like the TV show Firefly and another player that just wants to go against mutant Cannibalistic Clowns with high tech gadgetry. Your answer as a GM is ‘let’s play Fractured Hopes’ and do all that…because you can. Unlike other BRP settings where you have pre-existing themes like Call of Cthulhu, and Stormbringer, you actually have to form a theme for playing. With this freedom comes a lot of responsibility to create…you know...to be creative and use your imagination a bit more than usual which is always fun.

One fun way is to pass a 3x5 card, or a sheet of paper, around to players in a clockwise fashion and have them write a word or one sentence of what they would like to see in Fractured Hopes. Instead of writing something down a player can veto another person’s idea by crossing out the entry. This keeps going around till 5 to 10 ideas are down. The amount will depend upon the amount of players you have. Once you’re done the GM just builds around the player input.

So how does the setting create the opportunity for these things to happen? Well the author of this monograph created a situation where the Earth has ‘Fractured’ creating floating islands of rock in a self sustaining atmosphere that the games referred to as the ‘Void.’ These floating pieces of rocks are like self contained sandboxes where you can have whatever you want. There are examples in the book of notable fragments of interest such as one that has nothing but Ninjas (pg 75, Stronghold of the Pop-Culture Ninja).

This whole concept reminds me of the fragments of rocks that held various kingdoms of destroyed worlds in the 1970’s movie Flash Gordon…you know the one with the killer sound track from Queen. (I just dated myself didn’t I?)

To get around from one fragment to another fragment the players need to have a Voidship, which is a magic run vehicle. It can be a surfboard to something as big as a WWII battleship like the Japanese anime Yamato. I would have liked to have other means of crossing from one fragment to another like man made bridges or something.

I think the monograph really shines in using optional rules or spot rules to create a pulp feel. Some people might like the gritty aspects of BRP but I really don’t think Fractured Hopes is made for the grit. I think optional rules on minions and Fate points bring in elements of what I find in more contemporary independent RPGs. It really bridges the traditional system with more modern ways of looking at RPG’s. IMHO.

I did not have a hard time reading the monograph and the author writes in a casual voice. Sure there are some spelling mistakes but it does not take away from my flow of reading. Such as on page 53 the gray box heading says ‘Trnsport Vessels’ but I pretty much know it means Transport Vessels without blowing an extra brain cell. Heck I think his grammar is better than mine.

The introductory (character gen) scenario is alright but nothing I would probably rely on or consider a stand out. This monograph might draw comparisons to another RPG game called RIFTS by Palladium because of the multiple realms/fragments and the ‘kitchen sink’ aspect. While the ambitions of both are bold I think they are different enough from each other that you’re not getting a copy of a setting dressed to look differently for a different system and the game engine is nothing like each other. Plus I just need the monograph and the core book. Not a library of supplemental worlds.

The art by Alberto Bontempi and David Frampton is very good for what I expect in a monograph. Mr. Frampton really brings out the fun in the possibilities that can be found in monograph with his ink work (I think its ink over pencil). Mr. Bontempi’s art looks like color painting that had to be made into black and white gray scale. He captures the epic aspects of the monograph with dark undertones.

I think more scenarios and a table of contents would have made the monograph better for me. I hope this review helps with your decision making for purchasing or not making a purchase of this monograph. For those of you who do decide to take the plunge I hope my suggestions help you make the monograph more accessible for your players and you.

Peace

I haven't heard anything...good luck guys

Dustin tweeted that he gave the monograph to Meghan for layout this week

BTW light sabers are bad azz-tech

Elder signs, magic ball special and a tramp stamp...yeah she is gonna win

Ninjas and snowboards....most excellent

Ooops I just realized I have not done a monograph yet so I don't fit what you want. Sorry about that

And on that note, I have 4 spare copies of Fractured Hopes, and I would be very pleased to send them to people who could promise a thorough reading and an honest review.

I have a copy of my own. I haven't read the whole thing through and skipped around to the spots that caught my eye like the void ships. I'll read through and do a review of it when I'm done. I had a Flash Gordon type of idea with it that I was going to reconstruct for the BRP contest... but I didn't. When I talk about Flash Gordon... I mean the one with the Queen sound track