filbanto

I think your friend has taken the easy way out by not telling Vincent why he is no longer welcome at the game. It also sounds like your friend has made a supposition that Vincent is out to sink the game if he is allowed to play. This may not be the case. He may have realized he acted like an ass and wants to make amends. Your idea to talk about it over a couple of beers is an excellent suggestion. He should be sympathetic about the fate of Vincent's characters and also tell the guy he (your friend) did not like the way things played out. Your friend should let Vincent know his concerns and then set clear expectations for behavior in the next game. Let him know he gets the boot if things go poorly a third time. I'd have him write up a new character who "fit in" with the game better and go from there.

Allegiance rules, suggested by Agentorange, are a brilliant idea. Under the existing framework they should work well. Once the village/town/group's allegiance to a faction is 20 points more than any other faction they will start actively aiding that group (supplies, a place to hide, etc). Once their allegiance to a faction has risen to 100 they are in full support (rebellion).

Presumably the adventurers in this game are "righters of wrongs" or "steal from the rich and give to the poor" types, no? I suggest using their deeds as a measure. Set some value to the scenarios you create. Helping a little old lady across the street is worth one point. Slaying the evil Baron is worth 25. As their the value of their deeds increases it becomes easier to convince people to join the rebellion.

It has been a while since I played Flashing Blades and longer since we used the battle system. My recollection is it allows you to fight out a war in 3(?) engagements. Players who were in charge of units or noble orders could volunteer their forces for the war. If they scored well in their strategy or captaincy skills they would add a modifier to the outcome of the engagement. I believe the rules were heavily stacked in France's favor for any war, but I suppose that is fairly true to the history of the time:)

Pendragon would be my first choice. Flashing Blades has a very good battle system as well. A bit more abstract than Pendragon maybe... Allows characters to have some influence on the battle and do some cool things like capturing an enemy flag.

Well I had a blast last night and that's not just the beer talking:) It's not often a SIZ 4 rat can give pause to 3 SIZ 20+ bruisers! Wish we'd been able to put a little dent in the chud population, but Scott & Chris' new armor ought to help even up the odds a bit.

Hi Silent Bob - The rules sound incorrect to me. When we played RQ back in the day it went something like this: - Chest or Head at 0 HP to almost negative = Knocked out - Abdomen or Leg at 0 HP to almost negative = CONx1 to walk - Arm at 0 HP to almost negative = CONx1 to fight using it - Chest, Head or Abdomen at negative HP = Dead - Arm or Leg at negative HP = maimed and unusable limb

I don't know of any races out there in print, but here's how I'd go about it: - Give the player a pool of points for attributes instead of rolling randomly. - Look over the super powers & mutation lists in the Big Gold Book and choose a few that fit the concept. - Consider if magic or psionics are appropriate for the race. If not make sure players know they cannot take them.

Hi Rich & Narl - Rich, sounds like a great move! Madison is a very nice place to live. The street system is no more confusing than St Louis (I lived there for a few months). UW-Madison is converting its old coal plant to biofuel and natural gas - maybe you're part of the project? Our group games on Wednesday nights at my place. We play a fair number of games including board and miniature games. Currently we're playing Warhammer FRP. The dynamic is pretty laid back. We have a couple beers (2 of the guys are home brewers), complain about our lousy dice roles and have some fun. Please PM me and we can talk. Narl - you're welcome to come over next week. Cheers - Mike

Hi Rich - I'm in Madison. What brings you up to this neck of the woods? Cheers - Mike

I took a look at my copy of Rogue Mistress this morning. I'm not going to post the info to this thread. I'll list what it contains to help you make an informed purchase: Descriptions for cannon, pistols, horse pistols, musket and blunderbuss. Ranges are shorter and Damage is typically higher than what I put together above. The weapons also have an "Armor Piercing" rating that ignores the first X points of armor. Weapon skill determines how quickly you can fire and reload. A fumble table with 6 results. I highly recommend Rogue Mistress as an adventure. If you're just buying it for the black powder rules there is not much more than what this thread already contains.

Here's some notes and firearms stats for you. I am toying with pulling this into a proper document and adding some more spot rules and info. Sorry for the lousy formatting. Can't seem to figure out how to get tabs to work in this... Name Skill Base Dmg Attk Special Rng Hands HP STR/DEX Ammo Value Enc Blunderbuss Shotgun 30 3d6/1d6/1d4 1/4 Impaling 5/10/20 2 12 9/5 1 Average 2.5 Fowler Shotgun 30 1d6/1d4/1d2 1/4 Impaling 10/20/30 2 10 9/5 1 Average 3.0 Musket, Military Musket 25 1d10+1 1/4 Impaling 50 2 12 9/5 1 Average 3.5 Musket, Trade Musket 25 1d10+1 1/4 Impaling 50 2 10 9/5 1 Average 3.0 Musketoon Musket 25 1d8+1 1/4 Impaling 30 2 10 8/5 1 Average 2.5 Pistol, Dueling Pistol 20 1d6+1 1/4 Impaling 12 1 8 7/5 1 Expensive 1.0 Pistol, Flintlock Pistol 20 1d6+1 1/4 Impaling 10 1 8 7/5 1 Average 1.0 Pistol, Horse Pistol 20 1d6+2 1/4 Impaling 12 1 8 8/5 1 Average 1.5 Pistol, Pocket Pistol 20 1d4+1 1/4 Impaling 5 1 6 6/5 1 Average .5 Pistol, Turn-off Pistol 20 1d6+1 1/3 Impaling 10 1 8 7/5 1 Expensive 1.0 Rifle, Kentucky Rifle 25 2d6 1/6 Impaling 100 2 10 9/5 1 Expensive 3.0 Rifle, Ferguson Rifle 25 2d6 1/3 Impaling 100 2 10 9/5 1 Expensive 3.0 Notes: Skill: I'm pedantic - can't call it the rifle skill when used for the musket... In actual play I stick with a more generic "long arm" skill for both muskets and rifles. Attack: Musket rate of fire is estimated at 2-3 rounds per minute when using prepared paper cartridges. Rifle rate of fire is estimated at about 1 round per minute. I punted with this and went with the rules in the gold book for rate of fire. I suggest the following "spot rules" to increase the rate of fire to more realistic rates: • If character has a weapon skill of 50% reduce load time by 1 turn. • If character uses both his "attack & defense" actions to reload, reduce load time by 1 turn. All soldiers are trained to do this. • Combining these will give experienced soldiers a rate of fire of 1 shot per 24 seconds which is pretty close to reality. • Loading with loose powder and ball should add 2 turns to load time. Parry: No Malfunction: Misfires were common and had little to do with the skill of the shooter. I use a house rule that anytime a "double" is rolled the weapon misfires "flash in the pan" and the shooter must take an action to re-prime. A critical failure indicates the firing mechanism is damaged: Make a Luck roll and it is something you can repair/replace in 1d4 turns. Failure indicates a trip to the gunsmith. SR: You're on your own. I don't use them:-) Blunderbuss Length: varies, Weight: varies, Caliber: varies Also known as a coachgun. This early shotgun fires small-caliber balls. They are rather short compared to muskets - 3-4 feet long. Rumors that the weapon was loaded with scrap iron, glass and other "junk" are unfounded. The bell-shaped muzzle was designed to make it easier to load on horseback or in a coach, not to "spread" the shot as you'll see in many game books. Military Muskets: Come in a great variety, but for game purposes they have identical stats. Some typical muskets in the American Frontier: British Long Land Pattern Musket Length: 62.5", Weight: 10.4 lbs, Caliber: 0.75" The long land pattern remained in service through the 1790's and there were likely many in service in the colonies. British Short Land Pattern Musket Length: 58.5", Weight: 10.5 lbs, Caliber: 0.75" The short land pattern was the standard musket issued to British troops from 1768. American forces would also have used these weapons. As far as I know, British Dragoons carried the Short Land Pattern musket in this time period. French Charleville Musket Length: 60", Barrel: 44.75", Weight: 10 lbs, Caliber 0.69" The French supplied the American forces with these weapons in large numbers. Spanish M1757 Length: 58.5", Barrel: 43.5", Weight: ?, Caliber: 0.75" Other Muskets Trade muskets were traded to Native American and often carried by hunters and trappers. They come in many sizes and calibers. They are typically shorter and lighter than military weapons. A "fowler" could fire either a bullet or birdshot. A musketoon was a shorter musket and was often a cavalry weapon. Civilian muskets could not typically mount a bayonet. Turn-off Pistols Turn-off pistols are also known as cannon-barrel or "Queen Anne" pistols. The barrel of the pistol was unscrewed to reload the weapon so no ramrod is used. They are thought to be faster to Duelling Pistols Fine weapons sold only in cased pairs. Makers include: Wogdon & Barton, Durs-Egg, Manton, Mortimer, Nock, and Purdey Other Pistols Horse pistols were popular during the early 18th century. Barrel length was up to 14". Later in the century barrel lengths on military pistols (what I'm calling the flintlock) shortened to 9-10" on average. Pocket pistols are small, short-barreled weapons similar to a derringer. Long Rifle Length: varies, Weight: varies, Caliber: 0.36-0.60" Kentucky & Pennsylvania rifles are somewhat mythical in the USA. They are fine weapons, beautiful and hand-made for the purchaser. The weapon length was usually the height of the buyer's chin. The accuracy of the weapons was very good in the right hands. Daniel Boone was reported to have shot a man who peeked out from behind a tree at 250 yards! Damage is for the larger caliber weapon most likely carried by a player character. I'd rule a 0.36 caliber weapon 1d8 damage and a 0.45 caliber 1d10 damage. Ferguson Rifle Length: 48", Barrel: ?, Weight 7.5 lbs, Caliber: 0.65" Introduced in small quantities during the American War of Independence. They are breech-loading weapons and are quite before their time. Great idea that did not work well in practice due to expense and fragility of the weapon. Cheers - Mike

I've started a document for 18th century firearms. I just need to pull the notes together into something coherent and stat out some pistols. Hope to have something for you to peruse next week. Cheers - Mike

What kind of setting are you going for? If doing a gritty Napoleonic setting like Sharpe's Rifles I'd make firearms fairly effective. If you're playing a Zorro setting make sure the Alcalde's men can't hit the broad side of a barn with their muskets:) Shouldn't be too hard to gin something up. Let us know what you're looking for and we can bounce ideas around.

Flashing Blades is a good fencing system. Easy to port it to BRP. You can pick up a pdf for $6 (usd) at Drive Thru: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.php?cPath=70_99

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Greetings! I'm Mike Baumann. Started gaming in the late 70's with "white box" D&D. Got into Runequest & Stormbringer some time during high school. Co-authored a couple adventures for Stormbringer that Chaosium hosted for a time and also one for Corum that is still on the Darcsyde website. Been lurking around here for a few months. Marcus' request to find Matt Hartley or me finally got me to join:) Cheers - Mike

Hi Marcus - Mike Baumann here. What can I do for you? Cheers - Mike