filbanto

French & Indian War

The War in the Forest in Colonial America is frightening. British officers who've surrendered watch in horror as their men are cut down and scalped. Diabolical French officers order their men to set fire to farms while settlers cower inside. Rangers travel 100's of miles through the back woods to decend upon a native village and slaughter the inhabitants. Can war alone drive "civilized men" to such savagery or is there something darker lurking in the forest? Characters could be members of a fairly independant military unit like "Rogers Rangers", or normal folks caught up in terrible events. Reading material: the "Leather Stocking" tales by James Fenimore Cooper, "The Skulking Way of War" by Patrick Malone, "White Devil" by Stephen Brumwel. Miniatures available from Conquest amongst others.

Three Musketeers

Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D'Artangan versus Richelieu, Milady d'Winter and Rochefort. Would give it a much more light-hearted feel than Clockwork & Chivalry. All windows are made out of sugar glass, chairs automattically break after clobbering one attacker, +20% bonus to swing across a room on a chandlier. Reading material: Anything by Dumas, more modern "Musketeer mysteries" by Sarah D'Almeida and for a touch of fantasy the "Cardinals Blades" series by Pierre Pevel. Required viewing: The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers (Michael York and Rachel Welch version - screenplay by George MacDonald Frasier). A variety of miniatures for this period, but I think the ones by Brigade Games are some of the best.

Remember the Alamo

This is an iconic American battle. Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Santa Anna and other 'larger than life' characters. Great potential for skirmishes, raids and other "rpg-group-sized" actions. To add a horrible twist - what if Santa Anna dabbled in the dark arts and raised an army of zombies to assault the mission? Miniatures available from Boot Hill Miniatures.

Late 16th century Scottish Border Reivers. Very interesting time period full of "larger than life" characters, cattle raiding and small scale skirmishes. You can set the characters up as either members of a local clan out for some sweet revenge or over-worked wardens trying to maintain the peace.

Reading material: "Candlemass Road" & "Border Reivers" by George MacDonald Frasier. Also a series of books by P.F. Chisholm (aka Patricia Finney). Osprey has a couple of books including one on the fortifications. Wargames Foundry and (I think) Vendel miniatures have lines of appropriate miniatures.

Please leave Cthulhu out of this one:) Witchcraft would fit in perfectly though.

According to the USPS website Omnibus 1 & 2 will be waiting on my doorstep when I get home tonight! I'm really looking forward to reading these and hope to run them once we wrap the current game. The current version of Clockwork & Chivalry is excellent:)

I can't think of a single system that uses !1D100 in a way that uses the "granularity" of the hundred sides.

Many of the recent iterations of BRP make use of the granularity in opposed skill contests, don't they? The whole "if both characters succeed the guy that rolls highest wins" business? This can theoretically come down to a 1% difference in die rolls.

I also recall that Rolemaster made use of it for the combat and spell "to hit" system. You referenced a table to determine damage done and criticals - pretty sure it was in 1% increments.

HELLAS: Worlds of Sun and Stone and Princes of the Universe supplement are very good. This is a Greek-inspired Science Fiction game (think swords, sandals & blasters) , but the benefits for worshipping gods are easy to port to the BRP allegiance system. One of my favorite parts of Hellas is while your character will gain more power as he devotes himself to his deity, eventually the god will become jealous and things will end tragically.

Follow up, can anyone identify the font used for titles in the Elric! book? I'm positive that I had it many many years ago. I think it was presented as free but I'd gladly buy the thing to use it. Been looking for at least ten years.

PM Binder - aka Marcus Bone. I think he uses the font and layout for his Stormbringer site.

Mutations or Super Powers. I had a passing fancy to convert Tagers from Cthulhutech into the Mighty Children for the Cruel Empire and super powers was the tool kit I'd settled on. Never went anywhere with it...

There's no need for acrimony, guys. I asked a question, twice, and now we have the answer: 3 scenario packs and 2 individual adventures. It shouldn't be that hard.

You're right. I should have kept my virtual nose out of it. My appologies if I've hurt your feelings. I'll try to make sure it doesn't happen again.

All the best - Mike

Yes, my invitation for you to advertise was entirely intentional - knowing how much you like it. (And yourself!)

But is there no more than ONE adventure to your credit?

FFS... Here's Alephtar's "Drive Thru" page: DriveThruRPG.com - Alephtar Games - The Largest RPG Download Store!

- Veni, Vidi, Vici is a scenario pack for Rome

- That Hounds one is a free adventure for MRQ

- Crusaders of the Amber Coast has a whole campaign included

Stormbringer (at least early editions) had a riposte concept as well. If you parried an attack you could take an immediate swipe at your attacker at a cumulative -20 or 30% penalty. This was quick and very fun for high skill characters.

Combat actions are tied to DEX (or DEX + INT) in Legend (aka Mongoose RQ). I think it is only a buck to download the pdf.

The way I would do it in RQII/Legend is to let partial armour be 'bypassed' through a Choose Location. E.g. You're wearing greaves that cover up to your knees. If I get a CM I can choose location to hit you in the thigh. On the plus side, I would reduce the ENC and maybe the Strike Rank penalty. If you don't choose location and happen to hit the location anyway, then armour protects normally.

Your example presupposes you hit the guy in the leg to begin with right? My recollection was you needed 2 CMs to avoid armor. Allowing it on 1 CM might be a bit overpowering.

I like it alot. Very elegant.

1D20 perhaps?

Also, I always loved hit locations and partial armor of RQ, but I'd also love to see some method for dealing with partial limb armor like hauberks that cover upper arms and thighs or greaves that cover only knee to foot.

I've added the Viking Arms and Armor document I wrote up for BRP to the downloads section. You might find it useful. Nothing fancy - just reduced the number of AP on the arms for a short sleeved byrnie.

All the best - Mike

OK, so that's a little flippant, perhaps. But if you want to put Cthulhu monsters into a pulp movie serial or magazine, there should be some narrative incidence of insanity as a result of the encounter. Likewise in an rpg designed to emulate a pulp movie serial or magazine.

Now, go for broke and put the Cthulhu monsters on Barsoom. Unless you just want a punching bag made of hit points with a Lovecraftian label attached, there should be some insanity as a result. No? Otherwise what's the point? Stick with big white apes.

I respectfully disagree with this. Cthulhu monsters need not cause insanity to be interesting opponents. This is an interpretation of a certain game style and it is already covered by CoC as written. To my mind heroes are made of "stronger stuff" in the "pulp" genre. NPC's might cower and lose their minds when faced by alien horrors. But while the creature may bring bile to the throat of your stalwart adventurer he's able to suck it up and get the job done instead of collapsing into a mewling mess. Both styles of game are fun.

To me, it's a matter of playing style and description.

This. I see pulp heroes as larger than life. Fate points put more control in the hands of the player to replicate this idea, but you can easily run a "pulp" game without them. "Pulp Cthulhu" needs tweaks to the SAN mechanism to replicate the genre. Instead of "Oh my god - a horrible creature from the depths, I'd better visit my therapist." It would be "Oh my god - a horrible creature from the depths, I'd better get my dynamite."

Anyone know what that "Shaan" CoC setting is about? Quick google search turned up some actor...

The Foundry figures are nice - I've got at least 100 of their old west line painted up and probably close to that number in little baggies waiting for paint:(

Artizan's old west figures (Wild West - Artizan Designs) look really nice and if I was starting my collection again I'd probably spend my money there. The sculptor did a fair number of the later Foundry cowboys before he left to start his own business so they would mix well style-wise.

Black Scorpian (BLACK SCORPION (miniatures)) look fantastic, but they are significantly bigger than a lot of their competitors. They are also moving to resin casting and I'm pretty dubious of the durability of resin for gaming figures.

Old Glory (Old Glory Miniatures Historical, The American Experience) are probably the cheapest ones out there. They have an extensive range of 18th through 19th century figures. Most come in bags of 30 figures, so not as useful for RPGers. I've seen photos of their new line of American Civil War figures and they are top notch - as good as if not better than Foundry. Some of the older lines are hit or miss with some pretty dodgy poses in those big bags.

West Wind Cowboy Wars (Old Glory Miniatures West Wind, Cowboy Wars) are decent figures. They've a number of foot and mounted characters. They are a little more "cartoony" than the Foundry figures, but mix in nice and paint up well. I didn't see them listed on West Wind's site however (guessing postage from the UK would be cheaper for you).

Another cheap option is the Airfix or Revell (can't remember who did them) 1/72 plastic cowboys and indians. I personally find them more visually appealing than counters or standup paper figures.

Great news! I'm looking forward to this one myself. Your teasers have been really cool.

For folks interested in the 1830's Boot Hill Miniatures (Boot Hill Miniatures - Home) has some figures that are really full of character. Take a look at "Mex10 Texian Adventurers 1" William Blazeby is packing a volley gun!

The word "Year" was sloppy on my part - I guess I meant "time period". I agree the book covers 1850 to 1900 well. I've always toyed with running a "really old" west game set in the 1830's or even earlier, but I've go lots miniatures of guys armed with six-shooters and very few armed with single-shot pistols:)

More reasons to lower damage:) The barrel length of the weapon is 20 inches or so and the powder charge per barrel was pretty light. An individual barrel would likely do damage similar to a carbine/musketoon. A Brown Bess musket is in the 40-inch range barrel range. Black powder has a comparatively long burn time so barrel length would make a big difference on range and muzzle velocity.

I totally agree with the coolness/intimidation factor. Wave this in the face of any cowpoke and he'll need to clean out his britches! Inclusion of weapons like this is also nice for GMs who'd like to set their campaigns earlier than the default year. Imagine Aces High: Zorro or Aces High: The Alamo.

Nock's idea was to post a sailor armed with this weapon in the crow's nest and fire down onto the deck during boarding actions. The idea never panned out because - apart from being terribly heavy & a beast to reload - it set fire to the ship's rigging when discharged!

I'd treat it as a really big shotgun instead of using the burst rules. This was a smoothbore and designed as an "area attack" weapon. At point blank range you'd cut anyone you pointed at in half. At longer ranges the bullets would spread and it would be most effective against a tightly packed group of opponents. I think the damage is a little high too. My recollection is the Nock was a 0.45 caliber weapon and no individual ball packed the punch of a Brown Bess musket.

The Nock Volley Gun was invented in the late 18th century. Ace's High is set in the 1860's so this would be a one of a kind weapon.

We decided to go with very broad skill classifications for our Viking game (originally using RetroQuest rules). There is only one craft skill and a handful of fighting skills (melee, close, archery, thrown). Characters are proficient in all of the weapons they begin the game with. In the course of adventuring they will likely pick up new weapons. Any character fighting with an unfamiliar weapon will be at a penalty until he gains experience with it. The Craft skill is similar. A character starts knowing one craft at his skill level, but will be at a penalty to practice another craft until he gains experience with it.

The exact penalty assigned is up to the GM. Two very similar weapons may have only a -10% modifier, while wildly disparate crafts may have a penalty of 30 or even 40. A character’s skill should never drop below his base (e.g., the sum of his two controlling characteristics) due to penalties though.

Example: Thorfinn purchases a beautiful short sword from a Frankish merchant. The GM decides using the weapon is not much different than a seax and assigns a penalty of 10 when using the weapon until he becomes accustomed to it.. Later, on his return to Iceland his ship is damaged in a storm. Thorfinn is an accomplished Jeweler and wishes to help with the repairs. The GM has trouble fathoming the crossover between jewelry making and shipbuilding and assigns a -50% to his Craft skill.

A character may learn a new weapon or craft by gaining an experience check while using it. Each experience check reduces the penalty by 10. He may use Practice & Research or a Mentor to gain an experience check.

Hi Rust -

I'm pretty late to the party here, but I would suggest giving the OpenQuest and RetroQuest games a look. When we started putting together our Viking game I initially picked RetroQuest as it had a skill list very close to what was needed. I added the stuff I wanted, cut the stuff I didn't and had a set of rules to e-mail the group so we were all on the same page. We eventually moved to a system closer to Pendragon for our game, but both OpenQuest and RetroQuest are excellent games to tinker with.

Cheers - Mike