Questbird

I've been using a hitpointless system* for my Swords of Cydoria campaign. It's been quite successful for a swords + blasters game, and it doesn't rely on a huge number of charts (just the Resistance Table). Nor does it use hit locations. A successful resistance roll vs damage basically means a flesh wound or graze; in other words no game effect. * It uses the Resistance table: ((CON + SIZ + POW) / 3) VS. ((max weapon damage + max damage bonus) - armour) Success - OK to fight Fail - knocked out of the fight -- find out how wounded you are afterwards More info -- search for 'hitpoint-less' on this forum.

That's true. The demon weapons and armour were more accessible than in the stories. Elric (via his Ruby Throne bloodline) had various historical pacts with demons and elementals but they didn't get bound to weapons and armour. Stormbringer, arguably the most powerful 'bound demon' was never really under anyone's control.

I liked the totally random characters and the deadly combat. Any group of PCs, if they lived long at all, would end up missing limbs, fingers and toes. The random characters -- well I can see how you might feel ripped off if you have a Nadsokorian beggar while someone else is a Pan Tangian or Melnibonean anything. However I did like the sense of being given a character with only a bit of choice and having to play that character, instead of min-maxing and futzing around with points to 'build' your ultimate Cool character. (Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay has something of the same vibe.)

I came up with a fatigue system like Nick's, which I used for Mentalism spells (you can keep casting them until you fail a roll and move to a higher Fatigue level). I think I was using the 'there's only easy, normal and difficult skill tests' school of thought to avoid the +/- bitty skill rolls, so there's not so many fatigue levels as in Nick's Outpost 19 system. I forgot about MOV though (but it would be easy to add). I must have got those figures from somewhere -- I thought it was the BGB but if it's not there I agree it's an omission. I usually don't really bother about encumbrance either. However I did have a dragon's hoard once which required a lot of logistics -- and guards, and politics -- to shift Fatigue levels: Psychically drained: Mentalism skill rolls Difficult Tired: All skill rolls Difficult (equiv. CONx3 rounds of physical exertion) Spent: Stamina roll required for any activity; skills at one quarter normal (equiv. CONx4 rounds of physical exertion) Exhausted: Difficult Stamina roll for any activity; skills max = POW x 1 (equiv. CONx10 rounds of physical exertion)

Reader, I bought it.

This BRP monograph also got re-worked/re-released as 'Exiled in Eris' (no longer quite BRP, since that doesn't really exist anymore). Great setting though. http://www.pigames.net/store/default.php?cPath=130 And the scenario which was included in the original (The City in the Mirage, which I've just finished running) is available from there too.

I'm currently playing the Blade of Takasha, the followup adventure.

I just read Jack Vance's story Nopalgarth. It's not a well-known one but it has some relevance to this thread. An Earthman is abducted by aliens who seem to be torturing members of the losing side of a war. The aliens strap him down too. He passes out and they explain that they've removed a psychic parasite from his brain, as they have done to all the survivors of their war. They then send him back to Earth. He realises that everyone else has one of these psychic parasites attached to their heads. His mission is to cleanse the Earth of these parasites. There's more but here's some salient points for our discussion of the psychic genre: Everyone on Earth has a psychic parasite attached to their heads, but they can't see it or anyone else's. The psychic parasite affects its host's emotions, and suppresses psionic powers. Only those without a parasite can see them (and be seen by them). People without a parasite may have improved psychic powers BUT everyone with a parasite suddenly views them with mistrust, malice, hatred, repugnance, suspicion -- fed to them by the parasite. The only way the aliens know to remove the parasite is a sort of electric torture device which causes such pain to the subject that the parasite can be detached and crushed like an eggshell in a bag made from a psychic material made from dead parasites. Attempts to remove the parasite without this method result in the death of the host. Furthermore, the parasites are ambient, and they can re-attach to a naked brain after a month or so, so the process needs to be repeated. So we have a classic psi-paranoia setup. The few who have no parasite (the psionics) are hated and persecuted irrationally by those with the parasite, who don't know that they are infected. They see only suspicious, deranged and malignant characters intent on abducting and torturing normal citizens. And those with the psionic powers know the truth, but can't trust any parasite-infected human -- they need to isolate and 'convert' new followers. And the psionics can't just kill the normals, because they know their malignancy is not their fault. Paranoia and seeing things other people can't see is not generally well-regarded in our society, so the mental asylums might be full of psionics who have been captured (as well as actual crazy people).

My introduction to Prax was River of Cradles, which I picked up bundled with Dorastor and RQ3, having never played any of them. River of Cradles is a nice intro to the area other than Borderlands (doesn't require players to be mercenaries) and has an adventure which spans the whole river area. I've not been tempted to play Dorastor yet.

Psi Corps in Babylon 5 is an example of g33k's 'psi vs psi'. Its enemies are the 'free' psychics, whose lives it tries to make worse until they join. Psi Corps is part of the establishment. Xavier's X Men vs. Magneto's mutants; each of these non-governmental organisations tries to recruit any newly discovered mutants to its cause. (Not quite the same idea as g33k's).

I played this one as a sort of semi-GM'ed experience. That is, I ran one player through and made a few judgement calls throughout which maybe slightly relaxed the constraints of the CYOA style, though sticking with the book rules as much as possible. That said, my player did finish it successfully. He used the supplied characters. I think he went through one or two of them before he succeeded -- he did get caught by a couple of the Mwa-haha moments you mention. It is a harsh scenario. He won as I recall, by short-circuiting a lot of the later parts of the book, but that was his adventure.

Julian May's Intervention is the bridging novel between the Many Colored Land series (mentioned by soltakss above) and her Galactic Milieu trilogy. 'Intervention' is set on Earth where psychics are starting to appear, and using their powers for good or bad.

I haven't but would be interested.

I enjoyed the Tomorrow People as a kid. They were supposed to be incorruptible homo superiors, but I remember an episode where a new Tomorrow Person 'came out' and seemed to be involved in criminal activities which "should have been impossible". I picked up a copy of the game Psi World from the 80s which has a similar idea, but it so thin on setting that I don't really know why they bothered. It basically just listed a whole lot of psychic powers, which were more like D&D spells really. Disappointing. One theme of these 'persecuted psychics' games is that there are always organisations which seek to control those with the special powers, even if they aren't well understood. Examples: Babylon 5 - psi corps, a sort of nazi kindergarten for 'registered' psychics; punishes those which aren't registered to maintain monopoly control Dr Xavier's school for Mutants and Magneto's 'we are the next level' mutant group are similarly protective and political; they want to recruit mutants (exclusiively if possible) as well as help them The Tomorrow People with their underground base and psychedelic computer are also a (very small) cult group which protects and recruits new psychics, who occasionally have a very traumatic 'coming out' when they are effectively kidnapped by jaunting Tomorrow People. There are interesting themes to explore here. And there are usually criminal or government groups which don't understand but can see the utility/danger of these people.

Hehe, except I had in mind Yet Another Fantasy BRP.

The character sheets look cool, but why wouldn't you just use one of the many excellent generic fantasy BRP variants including: Elric!/Stormbringer Magic World Or if you are one of the crazy ones who prefers their rules to be currently in print, what about OpenQuest Revolution D100 Mythras Classic Fantasy Legend or even Fire and Sword rather than making YAFBRP (there you go, a free name idea for it!)

I have it and liked some ideas but I found it weighed too much on the 'fantasy' side of science-fantasy. Swords of Cydoria was more my cup of tea. It's one of those games I wanted to use some ideas from, but never found a way to do it.

Some BRP-like games provide some pregenerated NPC templates like 'Merchant', 'Guard' or 'Soldier'. Elric does this, as does Swords of Cydoria, and they are a good addition to any setting book. So it can be pretty easy --and especially, quick, to find the kind of NPC you are looking for, tweak the stats a bit or change the weapon/armour combination. Like Chaot says, you don't need to roll stats you don't need. Another one I quite like is a sort of classification of skill ranges eg. 01-20 Poor 21-40 Average 41-70 Good 71-90 Very Good 90-100 Excellent 101+ Master (usually assigned rather than randomly rolled for NPCs) Then you can say Knarth of Kelgar is Good with the cudgel and a Very Good blacksmith, but Poor at fast talking. It's a bit like FATE but with a quick description like that you can randomise the exact skill level later with a d20/d20/d30/d20/d10 etc As for stats I just roll 3d6 straight for all NPCs (well, maybe 2d6+6 for SIZ), and only if I need to know.

I've never encountered 'tick hunting' in my games so I don't bother to penalize it. I also have only one session monthly so I don't mind at all if players have multiple experience checks per session. I allow an experience check for any skill tested against during the session, and if it succeeds the skill increases by 1d10. In addition I give an automatic and immediate 1 point bonus to a skill on a fumble or a roll of 01.

I played the 30-year old version and it is a great scenario with an interesting plot, good connections between the characters and some very creepy moments.

I got RQ3 as part of a bundle with 'River of Cradles' and 'Dorastor: Land of Doom', long after I'd become a player of Elric! I was impressed enough with River of Cradles to run it as a campaign, which required quite a bit of back and forthing with RQ3 rules. It didn't make me want to stop playing Elric! The main thing I like about RQ3 is the extra stuff like how much it costs to hire a translator etc. etc. I might still refer to it for those (Fantasy Earth) tables, and some spells. A couple of NPCs from River of Cradles ended up as long term players in my campaign; so I am reminded in each session about the small frictions between RQ3 and its cousin games.

Sounds like a good way to do it.

Nevertheless, this one is where you'll get the most sympathetic hearing.

In normal BRP, if you roll ⅕ of your attack roll you get a Special success. This causes extra effects, depending on your weapon. The Big Gold Book list these on pp.194-7. The only one I've changed for the hitpointless system is the Bleeding one (for edged weapons). Instead of causing extra hit points of damage -- not measurable in a hitpointless system -- it requires an extra Resilience roll each round to stay conscious, until the bleeding is staunched. Example Two street brawlers face each other in Knifer's Alley in the city of Beelzebahn. Let's say they each have Resilience 11, and otherwise normal abilities. They are wearing heavy clothes (armour factor 1). The first rolls a special success against the other, who fails to parry. The Special effect will depend on the weapon the first thug is using a bleeding effect for a slashing weapon. Resilience roll for the second thug is normal: 50% + ((Resilience – (damage - armour)) x 5%). If it was a scimitar (base damage 8), this formula would be: 50 + ((11-(8-1)) x5 ) = 70% chance of the second thug staying up. However the 2nd thug must repeat this 70% roll at the end of subsequent rounds (even if he doesn't get hit that round) to see if he can resist collapsing from blood-loss. +4 damage for a club (base damage 6). That is, the damage bonus is increased to the next level. In this case, damage bonus is raised from 0 to 4. Resilience roll would be 50 + ((11-((6+4)-1))x5 = 60% chance of staying conscious after this blow. The effect of this special is to make it harder for the target to make the Resilience roll; there is more chance of being knocked unconscious by a crushing blow. An impaling weapon doubles the damage, but doesn't ignore armour (need a critical for that). Say the first thug wasn't a thug at all but a militiaman with a spear (damage 8). The Resilience roll would be: 50 + ((11-(16-1) x5) = 30%. There's obviously quite a difference between weapon types. In this case a spear is very effective in expert hands vs. a lightly armoured foe. By contrast a normal hit with the spear would result in the same Resilience check as the Scimitar above -- 70% for the target to stay fighting, but without the bleeding effect.

Depends how many times you want to run the End of the World scenario. It lacks finality if you repeat it again with the same characters. That said, Moorcock himself did imagine a kind of spiral time where the end is also the beginning (see Stormbringer and also the Dancers at the End of Time). I reckon only a Champion of the Balance could survive more than one iteration of the End Times though.