sdavies2720

I'm prepping a conversion from homegrown/RQIII to BRP. I'm thinking about Raw Damage (pre armor absorption) vs. CON for Stun. That means that a Crush special from a giant is definitely going to knock you out, but a Crush Special from a thrown rock is much less likely. Steve

Is there ever a good time for the opponents to critical? Kidding aside, the point is a good one. My campaign has been going a long time, so my regular players have gotten pretty good at reading encounters, or their luck, and talk or hightail it when they need to. New players, on the other hand, tend to think in D&D terms and slug it out. I recently GMed encounter with a Giant--who was not particularly antagonistic---and the old hands were warily getting ready to chat him up, but one new player insisted on having his character charge the giant with sword raised. One swat, and he was down. "Dat guy wit you?" "Nope, not with us. Nope, never seen him before. He came out of nowhere. He looked crazy, thanks for saving us!" Steve

First link didn't work for me, but the second is good. Nice positive and informative review.

I'm not sure whether to laugh or despair, but I'm keeping the link in case I decide to do a present-day cthulhu campaign. Great starting material.

Very nice. But I had to chuckle when I saw what part of the background illustration appeared in the "equipment" section.

Marcus, I've downloaded the new materials. What I've seen so far looks great! Thanks for your work and for making this highly recommended material available again. Steve

Thanks. Now that you mention it, RPGnet may have been where I found Avalon Innovations in the first place. AI does (did) have their own equipment, and did great work. They were just a little unreliable (apparently that's typical for printers) and now most recently have gone off the airwaves... Thanks. Steve

My father has been using Avalon Innovations to print some personal travel journals that include lots of pictures. Avalon has always done a great job, but recently has not been answering phones or e-mails for a couple of months. Does anyone have a recommendation of a Print on Demand/one-off print company that does high quality color work? I found Avalon from an RPG thread, so I'm hopeful someone here will have ideas. Avalon was slightly cheaper, and MUCH higher quality than local kinkos, so he's motivated to find a replacement. Thanks. Steve

Please don't use them as 'filler' for whitespace. Whitespace is really important to assist the clarity and appeal of the text. Use the images to lighten up dense sections of the text. While it's useful to have images on the chapter headings as a visual signal to the reader that they are entering a new subject, probably the images will do more for you embedded in the text. Steve

c.f. "Aria, Canticle of the Monomyth" which has rules for playing out world creation, and has been described as "the most pompous RPG in existance" and "basically unplayable" Steve

Yes, I think a sample is at STEVE PERRIN'S QUEST RULES (SPQR) Steve Perrin is currently updating, and is supposed to pass on the rules to anyone who has bought it in the past Steve

Especially if the Deep Ones didn't realize the humans are back, and the clones are beginning to deteriorate (too many generations), but new human genetic material can be used to regenerate the stock (and therefore make more powerful amphibians that are not deteriorated). I always like there to be a downside to having the heroes weigh in, and if there is a natural way for the bad guys to get tougher, that's good too! Steve

Sorry, I didn't read well, but again no real magic here. The monks teach some skills like "Pass Without Trace" and "Deathlike Trance". Modelled on old Kung Fu series. Pass without Trace: Roll under skill and the character leaves no discernable trace even on snow or sand. Treat as skill v skill for someone to get a chance to track them. Deathlike Trance: If successful, monk falls into a state indiscernable from death. Skill v skill for someone to try to detect that the Monk is alive (I've been lenient with this, including First Aid, Perception, and Listen (heartbeat) rolls to try to detect. Trance can last up to skill % / 10% hours, and player must state at the beginning how long it will last. I usually roll a random +/- time to that or go for dramatic effect. Go Without Food & Water: Success = no need to eat or drink that day. Modify skill roll by 10% for every subsequent day after first. Once miss a roll, normal effects of lack of food & water start to apply and the skill cannot be used again until the character eats & drinks. Steve

That was always my problem with short rounds: The combat occupied the players for a long time, but only a short time in-game went by. So it was, for instance, hard to set up a dramatic situation where something non-combat needed to happen while the other players held off the bad guys. Generally with really short rounds, the right strategy was always to have everyone fight, cause there was never enough time to do finish the non-combat activity in time. It was that, and movement rates, that were the two disbelief killers. Steve

The Death Cult I've been winging, 'cause no characters have become initiates (and they've acquired a major enemy there, so there's little future for them). To be clear, there are no classes in my game. So the only difference between a spellcaster and a thief is the thief has focused on adding stealth skills and the spellcaster has worked at acquiring spells. No reason that the spellcaster couldn't build his stealth skills, and the thief could easily add a spell or two to his bag of tricks. The control of Undead I've done as a skill. I've added a couple of levels of RunePriest that represent further penetration to the mystery of the religion. At the second level, Priests acquire a "Control Undead" ability. Priest's APP as opposed roll against Undead's POW, with the Control Undead skill adding to the Priest's attempt. Failure = Undead are unmoved, Success = Undead are Positively inclined (e.g. will listen to offers, take them if they make sense), Special Success = Undead are friends (will act favorably for Priest even if it is inconvenient for the undead), Critical = Undead are fanatically in favor of Priest. Fumble = munch, munch. The Cheating Death ability I have as a single-use Divine spell that, once acquired, is automatically triggered at the body death of the priest. The Priest's soul remains on earth until a suitable vessel is found (which could be reanimation of the old body). The church has been experimenting with alternate forms, and keeps lots of mummies around with odd body parts incorporated. I don't know if any of that makes sense. My GM style is rule-based but fudged to make the story & situation 'work'. I find BRP just right for me -- enough rules to give structured choices for stuff like this, but not so many that I have to worry about what else I'm breaking. Steve

Ack, run! Seriously, experience points and character classes were the two main reasons that I turned to RQ (now BRP) in the first place. Classes: I want these to arise from the game world, not from the rule book. So, for instance, the worshippers of the God of the Undead gain abilities to speak to undead, control undead, and ultimately cheat Death as they sacrifice POW and take higher oaths. Similarly, those who have studied with the monks at Mountains Meet have learned certain bare handed attack techniques, and the ability to pass without trace. All without formal character classes. This may be a little bit of semantics, but to me it's important that there is an in-game source or authority for character abilities. Experience: As a GM I hate tracking and awarding experience. And I just hate the inevitable "what counts to get you experience" discussions. The "Use it and advance" approach of BRP is very simple and elegant. This is all purely my preference. No reason not to graft a class or experience system on BRP, but surely there is an easier way to get where you want for your game? :confused: Steve

But if you have a nervous breakdown, suddenly you will have lots of time to work on it. So there's a silver lining! >:-> Steve

Having missed them, and not found a copy ANYWHERE, this is very good news indeed. Steve

Someone published a "Time Wizard" supplement a while ago. I'd have to look through my stuff at home to find a reference. IIRC abilities (spells in this case) slowly escalated from minor precognition (bonus to attacks and stuff) to faster movement, to greater power. The balance is really ticklish. One of the characters in my game is looking for a Time Rune, and I'm hoping that the player knows that he'll never find it, 'cause as the GM, I'm pretty clear he won't find it (except maybe in one of the climax scenes). Steve

I started with CC2, not DOS. I can say that Profantasy has worked hard to make the tools more powerful, and the software overall easier to use. I think a CC2 user will find CC3 easier to use (and will also have lots of bitmap graphics options opened up as well). As for CC-DOS, If you are familiar with the Verb-Object ordering of cc2, it should be straightforward. You could also ask your question on the profantasy forum (Forum.Profantasy.com or the cc2-l group on groups.yahoo.com -- both are well attended) and get an educated answer. Steve

Cross-ventilation? Practical joke by that gnomes while the dragon slept? Maybe it's a door for a doll house that's a mid-winter's night present for the dragon...:eek: Steve

I also ordered through my FLGS and got it (coming in and whining about it every couple of weeks for a year helped!). I'm running a popular campaign in-store, so when I said I'd convert (from homebrew RQ) the owner called the distributor to get another copy -- same story, that they are out. I may order another copy through Chaosium as part of their sale. My guess is the distibrution channel underestimated the demand and didn't order enough but hopefully Chaosium has more on the shelf. Steve

I think that Mage: the Awakening had the concept of Wizard's twilight. Over time, the accumulated effect of casting spells expelled the mage from the world (IIRC -- I read a friend's copy a while ago). It might be worth checking for mechanics. Steve

Clearly it was installed from the other side, where the dragon is sleeping in the huge cavern & there was plenty of room to work. Steve

I'm a CC2/CC3 fan, mainly because it makes drill-down easy. I agree the learning curve can be a barrier, but I'm able to make a high-level map, split it into submaps that get detailed, and link everything together. If I ever want to print out a poster map, I can electronically paste all the detail maps together and get a big one with tons of detail. Steve