Questbird

Like Mjollnir said, there are visual heuristics you can use which ignore the maths altogether.

Eg. for 20% you can say any 0 or 5 on the units die which is less than your skill is a special success (or you can pick any 2 other numbers if it is more meaningful to you). One advantage of this system is that it allows for special failure, a concept not normally used in BRP because the on-the-fly maths is too tricky. You just apply the same system for numbers greater than your skill. One disadvantage is that if you are used to the calculation method, the visual dice method is confusing. Not quite sure of an easy way to get 05% with this method though.

I'm not sure if it's the only one, but there certainly is OpenQuest discussion here, including from Newt Newport the writer of OQ.

I always say, why invent when you can steal:

Maelstrom, currently from Arion Games, has an interesting magic "system" in that most magic doesn't actually violate nature; it's just suspiciously timed. The GM rates an effect from 1 (pretty likely) to 4 (virtually never happens), and the character tests his Knowledge score to figure out if he knows the right spell to make it happen. Naturally, magic is still a crime against man and God. There's also Rank 5 for "high" magic like demon summonings, which requires a huge amount of effort.

I love the Maelstrom magick system; search these forums for many threads where I've gone on about it. Not only is it perfect for low magic settings (was it magic, or just a fluke?) but it also encourages creative roleplaying and problem solving by player spellcasters. eg, if such-and-such effect would be Highly Unlikely under certain circumstances, a player is forced to think how he might either achieve a similar effect in a more likely way or increase the likelihood of his first idea by some other action; either way the line between true magic and chicanery is delightfully blurred.

Thanks Puck. I liked what I saw so I went and purchased the pdf of The Green from Chaosium (downloading as I write this).

I think a lot of the authors of the monographs have found Chaosium's lack of follow-up frustrating. Publishing errata, second editions or supplementary material has been fraught for a number of monographs I've acquired. Various people seem to have found different solutions, sometimes finding another publisher (eg. Classic Fantasy), or giving stuff away (eg. you, or Swords of Cydoria), or just giving up. I don't have any answers to this recurring problem though.

Sorry questbird. I mentioned errata fixes but haven't put it on an android yet...

And I don't expect you to. It's just unfortunate that the program works differently across platforms.The simpler ones do work, but yours is more elaborate (and I was excited about that). Thanks for putting the work in anyhow.

Made a few errata fixes I found making my NPC book, Peoples of the Southern Reaches.

nothing big but worth re-downloading if you're using this.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v66qvx6ewd7u55q/BRP%20NPCs.ipt

Hmm. I tried it but it still doesn't work for me (missing)... on Android. But I've been looking through the manual and I should be able to derive something simpler using some of your data.

You have most of the sources I know of for BRP. I know you listed some of the Harn books already but really those are a pretty good repository of mostly RPG-focused medieval research. Even though Harn/Lythia is not medieval Europe, its creators have pretty much researched that period to a large extent as inspiration. I would also give a cheer to Cthulhu Dark Ages and Crusaders of the Amber Coast for historical BRP. A good non-gaming resource is the Dictionary of Chivalry by Grant Uden (though I'm not sure if it's still in print).

Thanks, I downloaded it, but it doesn't work well on my Android Tablet.

It says:

(missing)

(missing)

(missing)

...

10 times, or however many you select.

I looked at the code but couldn't really work it out (I have some Javascript programming experience too so I was hoping to give you a useful bug report)

I looked up the instructions for Inspiration Pad for Android and found this (not sure if relevant):

Current Limitations:

- Unicode text in generator files is not supported

- Generators with parameters are not supported yet

- This edition does not contain an integrated editor like the desktop edition does. But you can use any text editor to create and edit generators right on your device.

So I'm disappointed. No doubt it's a compatibility issue rather than your code. Unless there's some dependency I'm missing, I don't think I can use it.

AND.....DONE ( I hope!)

You will also need the small,FREE, NBOS program "Inspiration Pad" to use this table which can be found here:

http://www.nbos.com/products/ipad/ipad.htm (I know it says Ipad but there's a windows and even android link.)

Download the .ipt file from here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v66qvx6ewd...BRP%20NPCs.ipt

and place it in your C:\Users\Documents\Inspiration Pad Pro\Generators\Encounters directory (or wherever you install NBOS)

Great, thanks for making this. I have an Android tablet so I should be able to use it. But the link you posted above says 'Invalid Link'

BTW there are some online generators which have been posted from from the Inspiration Pad at

http://www.rpginspiration.com/index.htm but I'm not sure if Magic World derived content is legal there.

Anyway, thanks for putting in the work.

I'm happy to share my notes. I'll follow up with a private message to you after I've run it with my players.

My probability of running a Swords of Cydoria campaign has gone up from 'Quite likely' to 'Definitely, and soon!'

I had a hankering to run a science-fantasy campaign. I considered Chronicles of Future Earth, Empire of the Petal Throne and Jack Vance's Planet of Adventure (a GURPS supplement), and Swords of Cydoria.

CoFE - too much fantasy in the science fantasy. There are gods? Why?

Empire of the Petal Throne - Cool setting but I don't think enough of my players would dig it. Once again, more fantasy than science fantasy. There are gods, but at least there's some explanation for them. On a practical level, the Tekumel materials are hard to come by and expensive, though I have accumulated enough to run a campaign.

Planet of Adventure - loved the book, supplement not so much. Plus it's GURPS so there are conversion issues. I might steal some ideas for my Cydoria campaign though.

 

What sold me on Swords of Cydoria was that it scratches most of my science-fantasy itches, it's well-written, it's BRP, it is accessible to new players without any knowledge of the setting (and to new GMs too!). I especially like the player race illustrations and descriptions -- with enough adventure hooks to inspire players; and the NPC and creature stats (like my beloved Elric!'s Young Kingdoms Digest) for quick play. To tempt people to play I just say "SerenityJohnCarterofMarsWesternsNinjasJedi" very quickly, that usually works.

UPDATE:

My Swords of Cydoria campaign Rebels of Cydoria is up and running at: https://rebels-of-cydoria.obsidianportal.com/

I've run two adventures so far: The Mountain of Power and halfway through the introductory adventure City in the Mirage

My players are running techno-heretics, a Demetrian resistance fighter and a Cyberdroid assassin.

Thanks Evischemer,

I'm about to start running a Swords of Cydoria campaign so this will definitely help. I've got another adventure I've made up and there's the one in the book too. I've also made a donation on your blog. I'll send you some feedback when we play this.

Thanks,

For Loz and Pete,

I know there was some talk about a single book or splitting up Classic Fantasy. I own a softcover and hardcover of RQ6 as well as the Classic Fantasy monograph and will not hesitate to buy the RQ6 version of Classic Fantasy with the full rules included. I'd prefer it that way than a separate book as I dislike having to go to the monograph and then the BRP hardcover.

I also prefer my games as one book. However if both RQ6 and Classic Fantasy are slimmish volumes it would be fine. My main problem with the BGB is its SIZ.

I've got the Classic Fantasy monograph and I'm a player in a campaign with it right now (a sort of mashup with Dragon Warriors). I'm excited about its new incarnation in RQ6.

Thanks MatteoN, Alex and Questbird.

Questbird: that sounds like an interesting view on the fumble roll. And I've played Stormbringer/Elric since the mid eighties and thinks it has a Little bit too fast skill rate advancement.

Maybe it is too fast, but since my group only plays monthly it works out just right for us. You can always use the more conservative 1d6 skill increase from the Big Gold Book...

Elric! was and is my perfect version of BRP.

It's lean, fun and captures the saga enough for me.

I've played SB1 and SB4 and also run YK with RQ3, and Elric! hits the sweet spot.

I agree it is the best. I think it is because it is a slim volume with everything you need, in a pleasing layout (as Chaot mentioned earlier). I don't even use it in the Young Kingdoms (Nehwon for me) but it is just great. Even Magic World is too thick for my taste. Don't get me started on the Big Gold Book.

Thanks for praising my old old site Chaot :-P. No, Obsidian Portal is a different one and no you don't get complete control over the aesthetics on it unless you pay, which is a bit of a shame. However what you do get is the ability for your players to also edit or contribute to your wiki, comment on adventure logs or at least manage their own characters. It's the collaborative thing which is appealing.

My group uses a rule that if you roll a fumble you immediately get 1 point added to the skill. Works quite well for us. Otherwise I use normal skill rolls, except that I use Elric! so skill gain is 1D10 if successful, which can advance skills quite fast.

I have been wanting to use a wiki for the longest time. Haven't actually sat down and done it.

One of the gaming hosting sites like Obsidian Portal might be a good place to start for those who are interested in the wiki approach. I use that one for my Nehwon campaign. I find more and more of my players have the ability to use electronic resources at the gaming table (not in a disruptive way). So, an accessible wiki can work better than printed out PDF notes. It's also changeable if you work out that your cool house rules really just ain't that good.

The Dragon Warriors land of Legend (not to be confused with Mongoose's Legend game) is like a Mythic Earth concept. It is findable online and is pretty good. I suppose the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay World is somewhat similar -- an ancient Earth-like world with fantastic elements.

I picked Runequest + other as well as Magic World (since I play Elric!) so I may have tainted your poll if it was supposed to be a joke. I have stolen bits of Prax for my game world but overall Glorantha never particularly appealed to me.

Ray Turney's excellent Fire and Sword, available here at BRP central also has generic wealth rules so that you don't need to count every penny. It's not a completely new idea -- very little in rpgs is :-)

For quite some time some of the ideas behind Ray Turney's Fire and Sword have been circulating in my head. One of those is hitpoint-less combat. Here's a stab at that system for BRP or its variants, which can be slotted in without completely wrecking everything.

Worked example

A Marine faces Pirates on the deck of a burning ship.
Marine (from Elric! p.112
STR 13 DEX 11 CON 14 SIZ 13 POW 9 Resilience 12
Sea Axe (2H) 50% 2D6+2+1D4, Dodge 50%
Sea Leather and helm 1D6

Pirates (from Elric! p112)
STR 12 DEX 13 CON 13 SIZ 12 POW 10 Resilience 12
Cutlass 45% 1D6+2
Dagger 40% 1D4+2
Dodge 26%
no armor

Pirate Captain (from Elric! p.112)
STR 13 DEX 14 CON 15 SIZ 13 POW 16 Resilience 15 HP 14
DB +1d4 /(+3)
Rapier 110% 1d6+1+1d4 and Dagger 95% 1d4+2+1d4
Sea Leather and helm 1D6

See the first post for the suggested system and this example. I've been testing various ideas and re-running the same fight, and for those interested I'm posting a summary of the results here. I used exactly the same rolls in each scenario whenever possible.

Scenario 1
As listed above. Roll weapon damage, subtract armour roll, multiply result by 2.

Marine fights 1 pirate: kills him with one blow
Marine fights 2 pirates: they knock him out after 4 rounds (marine unluckily fails his Resilence roll)

Scenario 2
As Zit suggested above, I fixed the weapon and armour values at double their average damage/absorption value.
So, for example sea leather 1D6 gets a value of (3.5 x 2) = 7; Sea Axe 2D6+2+1D4 becomes (9 x 2) = 18 + 3 = 21, etc.

Marine fights 1 pirate: kills him with one blow
Marine fights 2 pirates: he defeats them in 6 rounds, remains undamaged
Marine fights pirate captain: Marine lasts 10 rounds before being brought down by the captain. During that time the Marine made 4x Resistance Rolls of 75% and failed the fifth. The pirate captain made one resistance roll of 60%, and succeeded. Additionally the Sea Axe made one resistance roll of 90% and the Rapier made one resistance roll of 80%.

Scenario 3
For comparison, I ran a normal fight with normal hitpoints

Marine fights 1 pirate: kills him with one blow
Marine fights 2 pirates: he defeats them in 9 rounds, has 3 HP at the end of the fight
Marine fights pirate captain: Pirate captain kills the injured Marine with one blow.

 

Scenario 4

This time I used maximum weapon damage (including maximum damage bonus) as the fixed damage, plus fixed armour:

 

Marine fights 1 pirate: kills him with one blow

Marine fights 2 pirates: he defeats them in 11 rounds, remains undamaged

Marine fights pirate captain: Pirate captain defeats him in 10 rounds.

 

Not having to do stunts with weapon damage, this appears to be my new preferred method.

Musings on the results
A couple of things came up, which my system does not yet account for. For example, what happens if you make a critical Resilience roll when resisting damage? Does it make your next Resistance roll Easy?

I also wouldn't mind factoring a temporary stun effect into the Resistance roll, but can't quite see how to do it yet, especially as my base system is Elric! which uses only 4 or at most 5 levels of success: impale (01), critical (20%) success, failure, fumble. At the moment I just use success (OK), failure (KO) and 'critical failure'* (Major Wound, additionally). If I were to change it to:
Critical success -- next Resistance roll you make in the fight is Easy
Success -- keep fighting
Failure -- stunned for 1 round
Failure with 0 or 5 on 'ones' die -- out of the fight as per normal failure.
Fumble, Major wound, additionally (makes Major Wounds very rare -- maybe move this one back to the old fashioned Luck Roll)

.. It might make fights last way too long. I'll continue to experiment with this system.

* failure with 0 or 5 on units die; 20% of failure chance but easier to calculate

I can answer that.

Chronicles of Future Earth is Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. It's weird. It's incredibly ancient. It feels medieval and old yet also weird and gothic at the same time. It's Jack Vance and Frank Herbert. Chronicles explores themes of decadence and decay and corruption. It also falls more on the fantasy side of science-fantasy.

Nicely put. I found CoFE leaned a little too far on the fantasy side for my taste, though maybe I should re-read it. I'm looking forward to giving your Swords of Cydoria a go with my players. What I like about it is its apparent accessibility. For example, the little pictures and descriptions of the various races allow players to pick ones they like the sound of, complete with some story hooks and a little bit of knowlede about the world they will be entering. That sort of thing makes the GM's life easier.

Unfortunately, Rubble and Ruin doesn't get a lot of love in the discussions and reviews I've been able to find:

Rubble and Ruin is good and has a lot of interesting ideas, but it is not Gamma World. It is set a decade or two after the apocalypse; Gamma World is centuries later. Still you could definitely get some inspiration for a GW game from R&R -- maybe mix in some Swords of Cydoria or Chronicles of Future Earth too.

I got my print copy of Swords of Cydoria from Chaosium quite recently, after enjoying the pdf. I hope to play it, though there have been a few monographs I've said that about before.

Your repost ruling is essentially the same as the Magic World repost on page 63. So it must work, I think I'll start using in my OQ2 games.

Yes, except I don't limit it to once per round, and I also allow it vs. a failed attack roll.