JarrethSynn

Hey guys, I've created a Blog. Oh no...not another one! But nonetheless I have. It is a look at my groups adventures and mishaps along with gaming reviews and other fun gaming news. It's new and I'm new to it....so be gentle. I've given a review on threedeesix's Classic Fantasy! It's called Door, Room, Monster, Treasure: Gaming Adventures and Mishaps. It can be found at doorroommonstertreasure.myblogsite.com. I do hope you enjoy.

Thanks for the input everyone. I think after chewing on what all have said and reading over the rules a few more times I may decide this. Knowing the style my players are used to, and the books and films they strive to emulate, I will allow multiple attacks on one target. If their skill is below 100, they will need two weapons to do so, and it has to be 5 ranks apart. If above 100% and they have enough dex ranks, I will allow a split of attacks. Such as the Longsword of 150%, 3 attacks at 50, 50, and 50. Now that you have all explained it how it is supposed to work and showed me some house rules on how you guys adapt it, I think this will suit my group well. Thoughts?

Good point. Let's see....games.... Well, there will always be a form of cards. Gambling is a staple. Be it Sabbac, Pazak, or some other form of space styled card game. I also plan to use deadlier games...pit fighting and racing where no rules are present. As for common games...yes, a form of chess will definitely be present. As stated, it seems to be another staple and represented in its classic form or some advance form. Also, I like the idea of droids or mechs battling with wagers placed on them. Also, there was an old game...I think cyberball. I liked that, it was a futuristic form of football played by bots. Or I may drop the bots and use that updated arena-styled football game in Heinlen's movie version of Starship Troopers.

Okay that makes a bit more sense. Now for my second question then. According to the fighting with two-weapons, I beleive on 198 or around there, I'm not sure. If both your weapons are over 100% you can split those attacks. But it later says if those skills are over 100% and the off hand weapon is an acceptable weapon for off hand fighting you can ignore the difficult rolls. So my question is if you had the two weapons both at 120%. Why would you split your attacks? Why wouldn't you attack the two people next to you at full 120%s? I don't know why, but it all seems very confusing to me.

This is another monograph I really love and am thankful for. I wish this would be continued to be created like a Basic Monster Manual if you will. I'd even pick it up it they came out with a line like Basic Sci-Fi Creatures, Basic Villains, etc etc. Anyway, it has been a welcome addition to the shelves.

This is perhaps one of my favorite supplements that is sitting right next to Classic Fantasy. I'm glad Rodney borrowed the alchemy rules from it. I think this potion creation system is top notch and the best I've seen. D&D and other systems had such a messy creation system or just did away with it on whole. The book is also a wealth of information on adding witchcraft to your game. I use it alot for that "old crone in the swamp" cliche alot in my games. The potion creation has also inspired my players to start taking other skills like cooking and work on little homebrewed recipes. So I really can't say enough good things.

I should also state that I know this could be easily solved by enacting a houserule of my own and normally I would. But I'm really trying to learn brp at the core and understand the mechanics at the heart first before I go adapting. I'd like to feel comfortable with a rule at the base and then have the chance to change it or not once I understand why it is or isn't a certain way like I did with hit locations. I understood that rule and made changes to help my players.

Thank you for answering. However, I guess it is still not clicking in my head. I guess because so many other systems allow you to attack one target multiple times it still seems odd to me. I understand the critical and special successes are that much higher but I don't see why if you have a shortsword and longsword in hand you can't cut that orc up, but yet you could attack multiple orcs around you. Perhaps the light just isn't popping in my head.

Sorry if this has been discussed before. I looked but couldn't find anything. Ok. As per the rules, if you have a weapon skill over 100% you can break it up and make multiple attacks every 5 dex ranks on different targets. (Why can't it be one target?). Now lets toss an offhand weapon that's acceptable and won't suffer the difficult roll penalty. I have longsword of 120% and dagger of 120%. According to the rules, I just split those and get two attacks. How come, if my dex was high enough, couldn't I split my longsword and then make my offhand all on the acceptable dex ranks? Example: Dex 15 Longsword 1st attack 60% at dex Longsword 2nd attack 60% at 5 ranks lower Dagger 3rd attack 120% at the last dex rank Anyone shed some light on this for me? As a side note, this is for our classic fantasy campaign. And several of the players are bummed they can't make multiple attacks on one target. Which I may allow because I don't see why you can't.

I personally like the shield rules within the basic system. Shields are hardier than most weapons because they are expected to take the brunt of the damage, hence why their hp are bulkier. They allow the parrying of attacks that would normally be tough to do with weapons. Plus a good 'ol shield bash is alot of fun. Most of my fantasy characters use a shield...it's like a staple item on my good aligned warriors!

Interesting thoughts. I never planned to ignore religion. I just wanted it to be explained with science. But allow the option of certain planets and species to treat it as a religion if they wanted. I guess I should have said I wanted to keep supernatural elements out of it so to speak, but allow an introduction of them of sorts. If that makes sense. But I see quite a bit of sci-fi using religion or being religious. Firefly having the preacher character, the Force in Starwars and the mention of Hell, and the classic man vs. God in so many sci-fi movies and literature.

Because I can be scatter brained and be derailed from tracking my posts, I just want to say thank you for all the helpful comments and feedback everyone has been giving me!

I understand you die at 0 if you are not healed by the next round. I understand all the hit location rules. But what is the area on the hit point box by dead with the Dead (- ) for? Can you go to negatives and if so how many?

I like the idea of hit locations. I think it really adds flavor to combat. But sometimes it seems to bog my players down mathematically. Keeping track of the actual location and total hp. Have any of you played or heard of an old game called Top Secret? They had a really great hp system with ten hit locations with little boxes. Basically I took info from BRP and Top Secret and we made our own little system. It has been working great. Especially for high fantasy / high pulp games. I've taken the hit locations from Top Secret. 0-Head 1,2 - Left/Right Chest 3 - Stomach 4,5 - Arms 6,7 - Hands 8,9 - Legs Each of those locations have 10 boxes within. Added to the sheet are two more categories with 10 boxes called wounds and bleed. Once you calculate your total hit points, you take .25 of the total number and allocate it to all your locations. Also .25 of the total hit point number goes on your character sheet where it asks for your dead number which will later be represented in the bleed box. So, stay with me, when a location is filled up, a player will make a check in his wounds box, if that wound is not treated he begins to bleed. He bleeds a number equal to how many wounds are checked off in the wounds box. Once you "bleed" out you're dead. So...if your 1,2, and 5 are filled up, you have 3 wounds, and you're bleeding 3 a round. Still capable of fighting, perhaps with penalties, but you're hurt awfully bad. So far it has worked really well and I just wanted to share. It makes for some really easy hp tracking and fast paced action filled combats.

Totally understandable. I cannot wait myself! And my group absolutely enjoys the first volume. BRP and Classic Fantasy have really made our fantasy games what we've always wanted. As for Fallout, I hope your brother posts some things....it sounds like he's put alot of effort into it.

So I go to thinking about what everyone has said. I've decided to do something like this. As I stated before there wil be planets of both high and low technology depending on where they are and how they were colonized. Starships will be the same way. People who have the credits can afford the best and newest equipment while others will have to scrape by on used models and jury rigging. Mechs, will be more on a security level. One man or self-automated units that can be used for patrolling, but not like the mecha of robotech or the like. Cyberware and genetic enhancements will run rampant and again, quality goes to whoever can pay. As for the mysticism part that interest some of my players, I don't intend to introduce something like the force that is this religious belief or thing. Instead, I'd explain as evolution. The more and more people geneticaly altered, the more likelk their offspring may have those abilities naturally or have their offspring be born with genetic defects or negative mutations. With that being said...some backworld colonies can see it as a religious or mystical thing, but in truth it is just science. Thoughts?

Thanks to everyone who responded. I have now alot of things to digest and prepare. I like the fact of building from bottom up and branching out. And I do plan, with alot of advice given, to have core worlds be more high tech and the "backwoods" worlds low tech. Alot of solid advice. Thanks everyone.

Currently, I've been working hard on a campaign that takes place in space and on alien planets. My players have a variety of tastes of what they like in a space game running the gambit from Star Wars, Star Trek, Mass Effect, Robotech, and Firefly. So with that being said, I am dilligently trying to add a bit from all without jamming it to death making it seem convoluted. I've given the thought to ship to ship combat common in Star Trek, the vast amount of alien races and mysticism of Star Wars, mecha from Robotech, cyberware and genetic enhancements of Mass Effect, and the gritier low-tech fringe worlds of Firefly. So far certain elements can be explained and fitted while others give me trouble. Any thoughts?

I love your work, Classic Fantasy has been an amazing addition to our gaming collection. Any thought as to when Vol. 2 will be ready? I know projects take time but my group is jsut so damn excited! Also, I checked out your Fallout character sheet. That was a good one. Wish I had that when I was running my post-apocalypse game. Did you by any chance have any material peaced together for the world? Thanks again, and really great work!

Advantages and Disadvantages seem to always be a problem. I remember when playing Cyberpunk and Top Secret, everyone would take the same ones all the time. However, many of them can be cool and interesting. The problem is, as stated by other posters is munchkins just stacking the best. I've learned to either limit the advantages or even have the group roll off to see who picks first and once one is taken it is "off the market". The other thing I've also learned is to just let them have it. We are all at the table for fun and the one thing I've mellowed on is the rules and being too realistic. Players come in many varieties so I say let 'em fly.

Throught my gaming years, cobbling a GM screen together became a must for most systems. A product I picked up and am currently using for a Basic GM screen is the Master Screen Quad by Citizen Games. I am not sure if this is still made but it is really great. It is durable and thick, with four panels on the front and back with see through inserts to add any paperwork and cutouts you need to make you own GM screen. This thing really is awesome. It beats stapling manilla folders, cardboard, and other various GM screen materials anyday.

Hello Everyone! I've just joined the forum and wanted to give a hello to all the folks. I just wanted to share a bit about myself so you know who the new poster is! I began gaming around 1990, thanks to my older brother. And like many, I began with D&D. Along the way we stuck with D&D and its many system changes and embraced it for the most part. We tried many other game systems throughout the years. When D&D Fourth Edition hit the scene we were excited. We tried the new rules and gave it a true and honest run. But we were sorely dissapointed. We stuck with it, even for the next few supplements, but were really let down by the amount and quality of the content. We've always been fans of Call of Cthulhu, and often used those rules to make modern, futuristic, and western games. When Basic came out as one big guidebook, we got it and were quite impressed. The openess, flexibility, and ability to create without being hindered but having a general rule system to keep things in check made us estatic. We have not looked back at the other systems. It's true those others brought us years of joy and happiness, but they often came along with alot of headaches rule wise and creativity wise. Basic has won us over hands down. On a personal level, I currently reside at home, working as a personal health aid, and persue an amateur interest in writing.