Evilschemer

Here are some of the illustrations I have drawn for the book.

The index for Swords of Cydoria is finished! Now to re-do all the "See Page XX", and maybe a character sheet, and I'll be done.

Round 3 layout is complete. I realized too late that my margins were set to 0.5 inches, not the 0.6 inches suggested in the submission guidelines, so I had to re-lay it all out again. I'm also trying to trim some fat. It's up to 210 pages. I took out "Appendix One: Inspirational Material" and some other bits here and there, such as the apothecary profession, which had become redundant. I might trim the equipment section down quite a bit, and maybe the Gods of Cydoria chapter, which is all flavor and serves no real purpose.

I'm also working on the index, going through and tagging key-words page by page. That part is pretty tedious, but necessary. After that, I fill in all the "See Page XX" entries.

What's the zeitgeist here? Should a BRP sourcebook/setting provide abstract values for equipment ala the BRP book? Or should a sourcebook use hard-and-fast currency costs like gold pieces or dollars?

In working on my Swords of Cydoria setting, I used abstract values, though I have modified the system so that wealth is tracked separately from Status and equipment values represent a skill difficulty to making a purchase. But if the overall opinion is that costs are better represented in units of currency, I will oblige.

Round 2 layout complete. My wife made me re-do it at 10-pt font. 9-pt was just too small. At 10-pt it comes to 198 pages.

Update: I completed round 1 of layout last night. I have a few additional illustrations to do, a table of contents, an index, round-2 re-layout and touch-up, and some final editing, and I’ll be done. As of round-1 layout, it’s 176 pages. It will be completed and submitted to Chaosium by the end of November.

Also, different skills represent different tactics but could result in consequences.

Persuasion is the long road, requiring logic and reasoning, but in the end your opponent agrees with you with no hard feelings. Also, it becomes harder for someone else to un-do your persuasion.

Intimidate, however, is the short path, doing the most "damage", but in the end your opponent will hate or fear you. Plus, it's easy for someone to un-do the coersion.

Fast Talk can be a short path, using confusion and misdirection to baffle your opponent into acquiescence, or the long path, using more subtle lies to "persuade" your opponent using fabricated facts or false logic. An opponent swayed by Fast Talk can be easily undone by someone else with Persuasion.

Let's call it Reputation (the name can change depending on the genre). Also, the chateristics used to figure it should vary by the genre. We'll use an outlaw gang as an example.

Reputation= APP + SIZ (the bigger outlaws have an advantage)

Social Conflict: occurs in rounds, each round approximately 30 sec., but can be altered to fight the engagement.

Initiative oder is based on max reputation+ 1d10

Each combatant stakes an amount of reputation at the start of the conflict. Instead of attacking, a combatant may up his ante. Each party in the conflict must state his goals should he win.

Attack with a social skill, defend with another, one 'free' defense per round, standard spiral of defense skill after the first defense. The results of Special damage for each social skill needs to be determined.

Matrix

Attacker Defender Result

Critical Critical No damage

Critical Special Defender loses 10% of stake

Critical Success Defender loses 10% of stake, plus Special, plus attacker +10% on next attack roll

Critical Failure Defender loses 50% of stake, plus Special, plus attacker +20% on next attack roll

Critical Fumble Defender loses 75% of stake, plus Special, plus attacker's next attack roll is Easy

Special Critical No Damage, attacker -10% on next attack roll

Special Special No Damage

Special Success Defender loses 10% stake, plus Special

Special Failure Defender loses 25% stake, plus special

Special Fumble Defender loses 50% stake, plus special

Success Critical No damage, attacker's next attack roll is Difficult

Success Special No Damage, attacker -10% on next attack roll

Success Success No Damage

Success Failure Defender loses 25% of stake

Success Fumble Defender loses 50% of stake

Failure - No Damage

Fumble - Attacker rolls ont he appropriate fumble table

I like it. It's the germ of a good idea.

The only thing I think it's missing is social "armor" in the form of stubborn-ness or clueless-ness or some other means of ignoring or missing or reducing the impact of the point.

The other day, I got into a debate about gun control with a friend of mine (I am pro, he is against).

After the debate, we both conceded that the other made some very good points and I think we both explained our positions eloquently using examples and analogies.

But ultimately, I was never going to change his mind and he was never going to change my mind. Neither one of us were doing enough social "damage" to get past the other's armor. We were plinking away at each other's defenses. A little was getting through and both of us ended the discussion a little more enlightened about each other's views, but either one of us would need much bigger "guns" to really affect the other.

I suppose using the above rules, we would both be countering each other's rolls. Successful attacks and successful defenses resulting in no damage. I think we were both achieves successes in our "attacks" because we both recognized that the other made good points, but we were successfully "parrying" the attacks with the strengths of our convictions.

Last night, we tried out the revised rule I came up with: "Roll for the regular attack, roll again for Martial Arts. If either hit, then you do damage. If both hit, you do double damage." Straightforward enough.

The players didn't like it. They thought it was too much dice rolling. The feedback I got was that they'd prefer the original rule for Martial Arts for Brawling and Melee, and just use somethig new for Grapple.

I suggested the following for Grapple: If the die roll is a success for both Grapple and Martial Arts, the success goes up a level. Success becomes Special. Special becomes Critical. Etc. We'll see how that goes next week. Of course, grapple probably won't fit into the game much, anyway.

Update: 99.99% done. 384 pages of manuscript written (11-pt Calibri font, no layout yet). All I have left to write is some designer's notes, maybe fill in some fiddly bits and some NPC stats, and some minor re-writes of some earlier sections. Then it's off to layout and illustration!

Actually, I decided to let the player make two skill rolls: one at the base skill percentage and the other at the martial arts percentage, and take either result.

My version of Martial Arts gives an extra attack, not extra damage. That works for Grapple as well as any other 'weapon' type.

This. This rule I like. A lot.

We were making characters last night and this question came up about Martial Arts: What benefit does Martial Arts provide to Grapple?

I mean, Martial Arts doubles damage for Brawl and Melee Weapons, but Grapple only does 1D3 + db damage if you put someone in a hold and decide to do damage. Martial Arts doesn't seem to have any other effect on any other Grapple maneuvers.

Any ideas?

I also found stats for the Boucher in Ye Booke of Monstres II.

Here's what I went with.

I wanted something about as big as Master Roshi from TMNT (these monsters are essentially an entire race of Master Roshis, thus their name's in-joke).

Roshu

Intelligent Rats of Norukar

The city of Norukar is built atop a massive artificial foundation constructed during the age of the Sdara Vatra. The foundation is riddled with passages, chambers, and catacombs. This subterranean realm is known as the Under-City. The deeper sections of the Under-City is inhabited by semi-aquatic rodents called roshu. Though they are generally still rat-shaped, they possess dexterous hands and, though technologically primitive, are very clever. They are scavengers who send raiding parties to steal food from the surface. They have been known to kidnap children and weak adults to take back to their secret warrens. Depending on the will and whim of the roshu tribe, these unfortunate captives may be raised as members of the tribes, treated as slaves, eaten as food, or sacrificed to their dark god Rash.

Characteristic Roll Average

STR 2D6 7

CON 2D6 7

SIZ 2D6 7

INT 2D6+6 13

POW 3D6 10-11

DEX 3D6 10-11

APP 1D6+2 5-6

Move: 10 Hit Points: 7 Damage Bonus: -1D4

Armor: None

Attacks: Bite 40%, 1D3 + db

Claw 25%, 1D3 + db

Skills: Dodge 40%, Hide 40%, Fine Manipulation 40%, Listen 65%, Sense 95%, Sleight of Hand 50%, Stealth 40%, Swim 100%

Diseased Bite: The bite of a Roshu harbors communicable diseases. Treat as the Disease Carrier minor mutation (BRP page 105) with a POT of 2D6 (rolled with each contact).

The illustrations are gorgeous!

It looks like a book of very nice illustrations with descriptions and non-system-specific "game" stats.

I need some stats for a "Rodent of Unusual Size". Can anyone help me out?

Keep in mind, the stats for the herder represents what Mongoose thinks should be the stats for the AVERAGE herder, not a specific herder.

Interesting exercise. Why do you think that the average of NPC stats is important?

Primarily, I was curious. I was looking at other equivalent NPC stats to give my NPCs appropriate stats, and I was noticing a tendency for published NPC stats to be higher than PCs, on average. So I decided to see if the data backed up my hypothesis, which it seems to have done.

I didn't want my NPCs, for example, to all have average 15-17. I wanted representative NPCs who were supposed to be roughly equivalent to PCs to actually be roughly equivalent to PCs. Named NPCs can vary wildly, of course, but representative NPCs should represent some sort of average.

I think what your statistics show is what stats are most important for that particular setting... that and I'm fairly certain that none of them were goat herders...

Runequest GM's Handbook

Herder

STR 10

CON 14

SIZ 11

INT 12

POW 16

DEX 15

CHA 17

AVG 13.6

My hypothesis is that designers tend to think "what's important to this NPC?" and assign high stats to what's important. Conversely, what ISN'T important tend to be left at the average of 10-11.

So an NPC fighter might have a STR, CON, SIZ, and DEX of 14-17, while his INT, POW, APP remain at 10-11. Or the NPC Wizard might have a INT, POW, DEX at 14-17 while his STR, CON, and SIZ are 10-11.

This is unconscious on the part of the designers, but it will bias NPCs towards higher stats while normal PCs will have more stats less than 10.

I'm writing up NPC stats for my Swords of Cydoria game and I wanted to be balanced as well as well integrated into the other BRP games.

So I was looking at other NPCs and thinking "Hey, none of these NPCs have stats less than 10. Everyone's such a bad-ass compared to PCs!"

I had some time yesterday afternoon, and was curious, so I did some statistical analysis (the kind of thing I do for my job) on the characteristics of various NPCs from several sourcebooks.

For the purposes of this analysis, I am looking at human NPCs from the following books:

• BRP - sample NPCs in the back of the book - I exempted the superhero because it's an outlier
  
• Rome - several good "representative" NPCs
  
• Devil's Gulch - a lot of named individuals and a few "representative"
  
• Fractured Hopes - two named individuals
  
• Dragon Lines - Martial Artist, Foreign Devil, Foreign Devil officer
  
• Chronicles of a Future Earth - a few named NPCs who could be considered "representative"
  
• Runequest GM's Guide - has a great chapter on representative NPCs
  

BRP books I own but I did not include in this analysis for various reasons:

• Call of Cthulhu - I just have way too many modules to capture all those NPCs, I didn't have the time. However, based on my analysis below I will go back and do them next.
  
• Stormbringer - the NPCs are just too idiosyncratic and powerful so I felt they were outliers
  
• Elfquest - the stats are for elves, not for humans
  
• Laundry - same reason as CoC
  
• Ringworld - doesn't have a lot of human NPC stats
  
• Superworld - too superpowered, not enough normal humans, so I considered them outliers
  
• original Worlds of Wonder - there's only a handful of human NPCs, but I might include them later.
  

So, here are my findings.

Standard Normal PC (baseline)

AVG STR 3D6 10.5

AVG CON 3D6 10.5

AVG SIZ 2D6+6 13

AVG INT 2D6+6 13

AVG POW 3D6 10.5

AVG DEX 3D6 10.5

AVG APP 3D6 10.5

AVG EDU 3D6 10.5

BRP

AVG STR 14

AVG CON 14

AVG SIZ 13

AVG INT 14

AVG POW 14

AVG DEX 15

AVG APP 13

AVG EDU 15

CoFE

AVG STR 15

AVG CON 15

AVG SIZ 12

AVG INT 12

AVG POW 11

AVG DEX 14

AVG APP 11

Devil's Gulch

AVG STR 14

AVG CON 13

AVG SIZ 13

AVG INT 12

AVG POW 12

AVG DEX 12

AVG APP 12

Dragon Lines

AVG STR 16

AVG CON 15

AVG SIZ 13

AVG INT 12

AVG POW 11

AVG DEX 15

AVG APP 11

Fractured Hopes

AVG STR 13

AVG CON 13

AVG SIZ 13

AVG INT 15

AVG POW 15

AVG DEX 15

AVG APP 14

Rome

AVG STR 12

AVG CON 12

AVG SIZ 12

AVG INT 14

AVG POW 12

AVG DEX 12

AVG APP 11

Rune Quest

AVG STR 13

AVG CON 12

AVG SIZ 13

AVG INT 13

AVG POW 13

AVG DEX 13

AVG CHA 12

Average of All NPCs

AVG STR 13.2

AVG CON 12.8

AVG SIZ 12.9

AVG INT 12.9

AVG POW 12.7

AVG DEX 13.1

AVG APP/CHA 12.2

AVG EDU 15.0

Clearly, those who create stats for NPCs for BRP games tend to score APP/CHA lower in favor of higher STR and DEX. Of course, as I said earlier, my sample does not include CoC, and my sample games tend towards more action-oriented and, thus, are biased towards STR and DEX and away from APP/CHA or POW. Were I to include CoC, I think it would average out more.

Another indication is that NPC stats are routinely higher than default normal PC stats. Rounding off to the nearest integer, the average stat is 13 (12 for APP and 15 for EDU). Based on this, I changed the default characteristic rolls for PCs to 2D6+6 for all stats (Dragon Lines does the same).

Also, I am making sure that all of my Swords of Cydoria NPCs will average to 13.

What skill would you use to forge an official document?

BTW, here's the synopsis of the mini-scenarios I'm writing.

Scenarios

Artifact Hunters

The artifact hunters are hired to escort a scholar on an expedition to a new Navarian site located near the town of Sweetwater in the Arusian desert. Unfortunately, the site is home to a tribe of bloodthirsty Knorr and a giant reptillian creature. In addition, their mission accidentally releases a debilitating plague that threatens the entire region.

Remember Demetria

There is a plague sweeping across Arus. The resistance cell has learned that a local Cydorian noble has a monopoly on the cure and is stockpiling it in his warehouse. A lot of Arusian towns desperately need that cure. The cell has decided to break into the noble’s warehouse and liberate the medicine.

The Champions of Markania

Sweetwater is under threat. The local militia has fallen ill to a sweeping plague and is unable to defend the town. Meanwhile, a group of bandits has decided to take advantage of this situation and is planning on raiding the town. The town learns of the impending raid and sends a message to the nearest Vrildarian garrison, but help is weeks away, if they come at all. Luckily, a few brave volunteers have stepped forward to defend the town until the militia gets back on its feet.

Flight of the Tonbo

The Tonbo is hired to transport some medicine to Sweetwater. On the way they are attacked by pirates and must submit to a Vrildarian military inspection, where it is discovered that the medicines are illegal and will be confiscated.

The Great Game of Cydoria

A Vrildarian noble possesses the only means of creating a medicine to treat a plague sweeping across Arus. Your employer wishes to end this monopoly. Your mission is to infiltrate the noble’s compound and steal the formula. It turns out that the formula exists in the head of an apothecary held against his will. If you help him escape, he will share the formula freely.

The Forbidden Arts of the Techno-Mystics

The apothecaries of Arus now possess the knowledge to create the medicine needed to treat the plague. Unfortunately, they lack the proper tools to mass produce it. Through your Phanosian contacts, you were able to acquire the tools they need. Now you need to replicate the tools and distribute them to the towns of Arus. Unfortunately, a Vrildarian noble wishes to regain his monopoly and the Inquisition has been tasked with stopping you.

Christian -- This looks quite interesting. Is there a tentative schedule for how long it will take to have this published once it's been submitted?

Don't know any of that yet. That's all in Chaosium's court.

Just a quick update. I'm now two-thirds done.

First third: setting chapter (geography, society) = done

Second third: Player chapter (character creation, equipment, powers, artifacts) = done

Third third: GM chapter (NPC/creature stats, GM advice, scenarios) = 05% done.

So far, 90-thousand words and 271 pages of un-laid-out manuscript.

I might have to break it up and edit into a smaller book.