TRose

Here my opinion. I like to have several types or schools of magic in the worlds I run from the powerful sorcerers and wizards of legends to the village wise woman who practice folk magic( Or as it used to be called spirit magic) and also magic from Priest and divine sources. Your Powerful wizard is similar to your specialized surgeon who very good at what he does , but his training does not leave time for much else while your village wise woman is more like an EMT who has time to learn other skills as needed. Your average warrior may not have time or ability to learn sorcery , but could perhaps pick up some folk magic to even things out when his sword skill is taken into account. If magic truly worked chances are different cultures and people would use it in different ways ,or at least that's my opinion.

Al I can not having seen BRp is that there are things I like and dislike in MRQ. I do like the fact its in print() and the way a set number of skill advances are given per adventures and I also like hero points. I dont like the way the number of skills was cut down, or the way divine magic was nerfed( In my opinion) for Runepriest. I plan on supporting both at the beginning as much as I can with out having wife go berserk on me . I hope that they will be close enough that I can steal idea from both to run my own game. I mean who wants to run a game with out being able to change things. Perhaps after the Release of BRP some one will come up with a conversion table for converting stuff from one game into another.

In my opinion sanity should be an optional rule based on the game setting. In a modern game your player might not expect the store clerk to turn into a tentacle horror. And a sanity check would make sense there. But to Thrud the Barbarian in a fantasy game, well it would be business as normal, just cut off the head and take all the twinkies. But Thrud might need to make a sanity check to cross a busy street in a modern town with care zooming by, honking horns etc.. And once your players have had some one turn into a monster 3-4 times there should no longer be sanity checks for such things as people get used to things. Years ago when I work as an EMT, at first working with people all bloody was ick. But soon I could be working on some one with their guts all out and be discussing where to eat lunch with my partner with no problem

OK if nonmages are restricted to knowing 1/4 their int in spells then what restrictions are there on mages to even this out? For example I roll say 18 on str and con and 16 on power and int(I'm using loaded dice:D) Whats to keep me from declaring myself a mage then go on my merry way being the best fighter in the game , but with a full load of spells.

So are there going to be penalties for casters that walk around encumbered ? Or will Wizards be able to go around in Plate armor? Or for melee types for that matter? And if so will they be the same penalties But it sounds that for a warrior type perhaps spending 13 weeks learning Arbalast might be better then learning blast

For my 2 cents on which magic system for BRP. Although I plan on using The spirit /divine spells from Runequest and Sandy Petersen's sorcery system , I will look at other systems as they come out. I dont mind different sorcery systems as I have always felt there should be different schools of sorcery out there. I Just want to see a sorcery system that is balanced so the non magic specialist dont wind up as a cheering gallery for the finger waggers . If the System is such that a experienced Mage type can easy defeat 3 experienced non mage types and not work up a sweat I probably wont like it.

here a few idea for source books that I thought of. First would be one based on 1001 nights. I havev always been amazed that this source has been pretty much ignored by the gaming community all these years. I mean who would not want to follow in Sindbad's or Aladdin's footsteps. Sindbad is said to have traveled all the way from Madagascar ( Where Some say the Roc was based on the large birds that used to live there) To java where he met his Bride. Second choice would be China . Again pretty open ground there. There few source books on China that been published over the years. Yet China is one of the few place where real life adventures have made it big. Look at what power Koxinga had in the 16 century. Come to think of it a supplement just based on Koxinga and his pirate empire itself would be a fun one.

I remember watching a show on the history channel while back where they put forth the theory that many mythical creatures where the results of the ancient trying to explain what creatures ancient fossils where. One example they gave was that the Griffin was the result of people finding skulls of Protecetops dinosaurs. After all the skull looks like that of a bird ,but one larger then any alive. While that of a mammoth could have given rise to the cyclops. The skull of the mammoth has a big hole in the middle for the trunk that could be mistaken for an eye socket if you never seen a elephants skull.

OK bought Stormtribes fro RPG now. When I get time might try to make a spirit cult to Vorgoth the Strong man . that should be a fun one for my players. Think a spe where for every magic point they spend they gain 2 strength but lose 1 intelligence would be about right for him

Might add that a Good place to pick up added chaos features is Sorcerer of Pan Tang. They have a few pages devoted to Demon features that are fun to play with. I gave a Broo a sling and a couple of eye stalks in the Big Rubble and did he play havoc with the party. And of course there always making up your own when you get an evil thought. My favorite was my flamethrower Broo. I think most of us know the Human body makes flammable methane gas and how the human body expels it. So I thought how is the simplest way a body would make and throw flame. My players first was wondering why the Broo ran up to them turned around , grabbed his knees and mooned them. And of course then it hit them. For 3d6 fire damage. Maybe we could make a list of our favorite chaos features we have come up with.

How adaptable are the HQ books for those of us that play BRP or Runequest. I been thinking of putting them on my list to buy.

I Figure critical and special hits, along with randomness of the die roll, are there to simulate weak points in armor. If we are going to roll to simulate weak points in armor then we should then also should simulate that certain armor protects better against certain types of attacks too. For example how much protection should chain armor provide against a slashing sword and how much against a spear or rapier? More realistic yes , but game can then get bog down.

A Chaos/mutation table would be good. For fun some times I used a mutation table from a science fiction game I had( Gamma world I believe) instead of the chaos table a long time ago. Only thing was some of the mutation ,while great for players would not be of much use to a Chaos creature going into combat. But them many features should be that way in my opinion. I remember on Broo that had the ability of Photosynthesis so he live off dirt and water. Great for survival in most areas but not much good in a fight.

Also under Runequest linkss, Try Pete' Runequest page. he has a few.

While cruising the Web I came across some Orc Calvary by Zvezda. And the Orcs where riding Bison of all things. I was wondering if anyone has seen these figure in person. Was thinking if I could find some body in the US that has Orc Calvary in stock buying a pack of Numidians or Mongols to go with them and swap out the riders , so the Orcs ride the horse and Mongols ride the Bison's if possible. Might add the figures are plastic for those that are interested.

While on the subjects of mounts. How do most of you handle shooting at mounted targets. To simplify thing I tended to add size of mount and rider together to determine size penalty and then any hit that was the result of size modifier hit the mount. The rider could of course try to parry the blow

So who wants to go over to Thunderbreath's for a trollkin Burger and side order of roof rats? I personally like the batter fried pixies.

Last game I was in our mounts lasted long time. That was mostly because none of us was any good at mounted combat and tended to dismount before we got into a fight. Even though some of us had warhorses we tended to hand our horses off to a servant and then fight on foot. Guess we were a bunch of Dragoons.

One area I would not mind seeing is one based on Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom(Mars) books. I have always wanted to ride a thoat and rescue a Red Princess Chaosium might also want to see about a tie in with some of smaller online games such as Eve, Ragnorak online, Swords of the New World, ect.. The big ones I know would turn their nose up at the company as small as Chaosium( Blizzard I bet spends more on coffee then the Chaosium entire budget) but some of the smaller ones might see a benefit to a cross over between an online game and a game publisher.

I have always heard the advantage of the Mace and the war hammer was that they where better against people in heavy armor . I saw a show on the history channel where they put a dummy in chain then had a man on horseback hit the dummy first with a broadsword then with a mace.. The dummy suffered no damage from the broadsword but did from the mace. Perhaps you could have a rule where metal armor provided less protection versus crushing weapons. BTW I do like the rule mongoose came up for flexible weapons where they are harder to parry and plan on keeping that one. And as far as large 2 handed weapons go. As pointed out one big advantage they had was they kept your opponent at bay. I once read where the 2 handed sword was better at defenses since the man with sword and shield would have difficulty getting pass the blade of 2 handed sword. I been thinking of giving 2 handed weapon a defensive bonus , such as having people with swords and other shorter weapon subtract 5% from their chance to hit to reflect the fact they have to find a way to close in. BTw I remember reading one ta tic the Romans came up with when fighting Pike formation was to chop the heads of the pikes with their Short swords. One advantage short sword did have was that they where pretty sturdy weapons and they where not likely to break. Romans consider their short swords more sturdy then the Gauls broadswords, but that could also be due to the Roman more advance forging techniques. And as far as Axes versus swords. I have understood the Battle ax was much cheaper then the broadsword and was very good at delivering a killing blow. I'm wondering if anyone knows the exact cost of Battle Ax versus Broadsword in say 13 century Europe for a real comparison

My main problem with Malkioni sects is that for players who have the wrong background , it was hard to justify them learning sorcerers or joining other adventures. I might add I thought the reaction to sorcerers as printed in "Strangers in Prax " was a little extreme. Gods Forgot not that far away and merchants and their sorcerer guards would travel to and from Pavis and through Prax on occasion. And you dont lynch people who come to buy your goods as it makes for few repeat customers. Might add I made up my own Malkoini sect for God's Forgot since there still very little printed on the sorcerers in that region.

I for one hope both Mongoose runequest and BRP both do well. Since both are based on the D100 system it should be easy to borrow stuff from one game and convert it for use in the other. Same with players. If some one playing one game and moves , they would be easy fit in with a game using the other system. For me the more people playing d100 the better.

One setting I always thought that would be interesting would be a Muskets and Magic setting in the early age of explorations, say around 1500. The age of the Conquistador is almost perfect for role players. Your Conquistador often operated in very small groups , out for loot and glory and did not mind who he had to kill for it, just like many players. And of course they never knew where they where or where they where going. And for magic, its my opinion that if magic really worked, your Kings and other would not be pron ed to burn sorcerer's at the stake when they would be so much more useful working for the King then being the guest of honor at a BBQ. perhaps you could have different schools of sorcery in different societies. That way your sorcerers would be heretics while mine would be doing God's work. And your natives would have their spirit magic and shamans to defend them selves against those European invaders.

I like Glorantha for the most part, but not everything as time went by. I definitely did not having things "Gregged" on me. But as far as BRP goes, considering Glrorantha Hero wars has a hold on the 3rd age and Mongoose on the second I dont think we going to see much Glorantha stuff for BRP so only people that are really going to be running Glorantha stuff are Fossils like myself and we going to be doing it our way anyway. I have started a 3rd age campaign in my own version of Glorantha but I like the fact most my players have no access to most of the stuff and have to take my word on how Glorantha works

I prefer 3rd age because I have more source material at present. I dont really like either Elmal or Vinga as I dont think they where really needed.