Questbird

Nice to know.

I think there's a difference between a Successful Parry vs. Failed Attack and Successful Attack vs. Failed Parry. I've done a rework of the attack/parry matrix incorporating the minor parry rule at: Revised attack parry matrix.

I think I've killed two threads now by mentioning the Tirileku riposte idea. I'm going for a record!

If you like ripostes, think they should be more accessible to the less-skilled masses and don't mind a bit of extra dice rolling:

Allow a 'minor' riposte on a successful parry vs a failed attack roll. (The attacker has left an opening which the defender may exploit)

The riposter needs to roll less than the score he rolled to parry. He has to use the parrying shield or weapon.

The riposte can be dodged, or parried by the attacker's off-hand weapon only.

Performing a minor riposte gives the riposter a 10% additional penalty to Parry rolls for the rest of the round.

The extra dice rolling comes because you roll Parry dice even if an attack misses.

Normal ripostes as described in the rules and above in this thread are unaffected by the addition of minor ripostes.

(I got this idea from Dave Morris' free Tirikélu Tékumel game.)

The old Flying Buffalo Citybooks had a pretty good rough guide for strength of NPCs, dividing fighting prowess and magic ability into five grades:

Poor -- (01-40%) unfamilar with combat, easily wounded or killed

Average (41-59%) run of the mill type, no hero

Fair -- (60-74%) better than average and will acquit himself adequately

Good -- (75-84%) can go one-on-one with seasoned fighters

V. Good (85-95%) this person can cause a lot of trouble in combat

Excellent (96-100%) if blood is spilled, it's not likely to come from this character

and of course, for those who play Elric! I can add:

Master (101%+) champion level

So, in answer to the original post, you can judge both your characters and the opposition according to this scale (bearing in mind that most bad guys will probably be in the lower part of the chart). Works for magic ability too.

Sounds like a good idea to me, also having a seperate " monster manual " would add to the old school flavour....The MM was the first gaming supplement I ever bought.

I agree. The current 'monster manuals' available for BRP are heavily slanted towards Runequest or Call of Cthulhu. An alternative 'monster manual' might sell independently of CF. I also second the desire for a small rulebook. For me, Elric! was perfect but the BGB was unwieldy.

Not really into the Cthulhu in space theme. I run plenty of CoC games and not looking for more of the same stuff. The other links were just adventures not actual game rules. Sure you could play around with adding some of the BRP core rules to them to make a semi playable game but I am interested in a finished Sci-Fi rpg rules book and now I find out there is none for BRP.

Might try Traveller or Rogue Trader. Was looking for a game that combined my favorits...Space 1999, Aliens and Deap Space pc games...

Cthulhu Rising is a great hard science fiction game, very ALIENS like and it is posible to completely ignore the Cthulhu mythos stuff. It has good psionics rules too.

Actually, since you have the BGB, I think you have most of the sorcery spells that are in Elric! What you would be getting is Demon Summoning rules and a combat option, Riposte. Demon Summoning rules are also present in 'Chronicles of Future Earth' but I don't remember how comprehensive they are. Bronze Grimoire is a good buy with an expanded Sorcery spell list, expanded Demon Ability list, a bunch of magic items as well as Runic and Necromantic magic.

Also, since you mention magic items I'm going to point you at Lucky Trinkets, Heirlooms and Named Items.

The Lucky Trinkets article is great thanks, Chaot!

The Bronze Grimoire isn't so much a new magic system (except for the rune magic), but it has a lot of cool spells. It's worth getting. Corum is really well-put together thing, though I haven't really used it in my campaign. I haven't tried the Green yet. If you just want spell lists, Call of Cthulhu's Dreamlands supplement is also a good source.

There are lots I'd like to use.

Those I actually use (none of which are technically 'BRP'):

Cthulhu Rising for the psychic powers

Runequest 3, Call of Cthulhu, Dreamlands, Bronze Grimoire for spells (also ICE Spell Law)

Elric! for rules, and Sailing on the Seas of Fate for maritime

I couldn't remember exactly how you did this part. I ended up tying up the POW rolls together as one roll. For difficulty 1 it was POWx5%, difficulty 2 was POWx4%, 3 was POWx3%, 4 was POWx2% and 5 was POWx1%. I wonder what the difference in probability is between the two methods?

Hmm, a quite valid interpretation and fewer dice rolls required. Let's run those numbers with Aldo the Subnificent (POW 15):

First your method:

grade 1 - 75%

grade 2 - 60%

grade 3 - 45%

grade 4 - 30%

grade 5 - 15%

And then mine:

grade 1 - 75%

grade 2 - 75% x 75% = 56.25%

grade 3 - 75% x 75% x 75% = 42.19%

grade 4 - 75% x 75% x 75% x 75% = 31.64%

grade 5 - 75% x 75% x 75% x 75% x 75% = 23.73%

Interesting. Yours is slightly easier for the lower grade spells and mine is slightly easier for the higher grades. One advantage of the multi-roll system is the unknown and variable Magic Point cost (1D6 for successful, 1 point for failure) so the sorcerer never quite knows how draining a spell attempt will be. It's less mathematics but more dice rolling. You also feel like more of a champion if you get five Luck rolls in a row ;-)

Howdy QB, I remember those days well. Two BRP heads in a sea of D20. And I'm eternally grateful for you turning me onto on to one of, if not THE, best free form magic system out there.

Originally, I was just sticking to magic systems published specifically under Elric!/SB5 and hinting at some of the Mongoose stuff but I think Maelstrom would be a great fit for Moorcockian magic if it were framed right though.

I think the un-Moorcockian part of the Maelstrom system is its emphasis on natural effects. Moorcock was more in favour of flashy scintillating protoplasms of Chaos and bizarre summoned beings.

Have you had a chance to look at the Maelstrom companion, QB? It's been on my list of things to pick up, but I haven't gotten around to it.

I didn't even know about it. My reference all these years has been my dog-eared 1984 paperback edition of the game.

Hi Chaot. I've added a brief summary of the Maelstrom magic system in response to the BRP on Hârn thread (http://basicroleplaying.com/basic-roleplaying/brp-h-rn-magic-system-use-2882/, response #5). We talked about it years ago on another forum. It's not very Moorcockian at all but it's a great system so you can add it to your list.

Okay I have to respond to this thread. There is an old out-of-print game called Maelstrom (set in 17th century England) which has an excellent magic system which is perfect for Hârn. Since you probably won't find the game around* I'll summarise the system here, including how I adapted it to BRP. I've used it successfully in Hârn and in my own Newhon campaign.

The Maelstrom magic system

There are no specific spells, just one generic Magic skill. Magic is situational and based on probability of an event occurring. When a mage wishes to cast a spell, the referee gives it a level of difficulty:

1. Probable. Things which might happen normally eg, a person tripping

2. Unlikely. Thing which could happen by accident but which are unlikely

3. Highly unlikely.

4. Wildly improbable. eg, crazy physical feats or strokes of incredible luck

5. Impossible in nature. eg, flying people, talking to dead men etc.

The mage rolls against his Magic skill - (10% x grade of spell) If he fails he can't remember the incantation and there is no effect. If he succeeds he makes a POW x5 roll for each grade of the spell. For each one that succeeds he loses 1D6 Magic Points; for each one that fails he loses 1 Magic Point. If all succeed the spell works.

That's the basics. This system works well in Hârn or any low-power or historical game for a number of reasons:

1. It is subtle. Did magic *really* happen or was it just a freak of nature/the will of the gods? Spell effects tend to be more 'natural-looking'.

2. It encourages tactical use of spells, and the same spells may vary in their difficulty depending on circumstances. A freak wave washing away your enemies would be Impossible (or at least Wildly Improbable) in the desert, but might be merely Unlikely on a rocky promontory by a stormy ocean.

You can vary the system by how expensive magic is to cast. There are also specialist mages who study a particular realm of influence (eg. fire magic) for whom the difficulty grade is reduced by one when casting spells related to their specialty. It is great little system which encourages cleverness, inventiveness and roleplaying (or at least tactics and positioning) from mage players.

* Actually it *is* being reprinted; there's a pdf available at Maelstrom - Arion Games | Maelstrom | RPGNow.com)

I still use the Elric! rules in my campaign but I don't use Moorcock's Young Kingdoms (mine is in Leiber's world of Nehwon). It's an excellent set of rules in a slim volume. It's also out of print. But the good news is that Chaosium is reprinting the rules in the form of Magic World (shame about the name though) this year.

Chaot is right about the old edition of Stormbringer. It is great fun, random and deadly. I had a copy from Games Workshop (UK) with terrible binding that eventually fell apart.

Cthulhu Rising without the Cthulhu or FTL drives would be my pick, though End Time is also not bad. I too am interested in a Solar System based science fiction BRP game.

Men of the Sea was within reach, I will be able to use the material. River of

Cradles, however, seems very difficult to get, so I will have to come up with

my own detailed description of Corflu, based upon the informations from Pa-

vis and Borderlands.

I ran a successful campaign based on River of Cradles where I basically plucked the whole region from Glorantha and put it in Nehwon (Greg that!). To me it was just a great campaign setting begging to be used, and I didn't care to use the rest of Glorantha. Plus I've been running games in Nehwon for twenty years and didn't want to change venues.

I blogged about the experience here:

http://scrollsoflankhmar.com/blog_archive/2010/08/15/challenges-of-using-runequest-glorantha-adventures-in-a-nehwon-setting/

and the campaign notes are here:

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/nehwon/wikis/troubled-waters-campaign-sessions

Venemous Pao's 'step-up' idea might be a good one for skills if you want pure mechanical balance. I think the benefits of being a PSH would be more in the setting than the characters. Ancient technology, especially biotech, biosecurity or medical technology, would be more effective on pure human characters. You could make these things relatively common in the setting, but discarded as useless by non-humans. Vehicles, etc. are made for human sizes and physiology. But as in Rubble and Ruin, it is the transhumans who have the edge when it comes to pure survival.

I am thinking of doing yet another survival horror campaign. And I think I might put some cyberpunk in it as well. Perhaps I'll use the Eclipse Phase setting for some Dead Space-like action. And maybe I'll just use OpenQuest rules, anyway. Assuming that OpenQuest rules doesn't make damage less brutal/gritty. Btw, does OpenQuest have charts/stats for modern weaponry? I understand it's a fantasy rpg system as of right now.

OpenQuest has The Company coming out soon, a modern setting with a huge list of weaponry. Also possibly of use to you is the excellent Rubble & Ruin Chaosium monograph, which also has an extensive list of modern and post-modern weapons.

I do not remember to have seen anything of the kind, and I do not find anything

of the kind in the download section.

I've seen it too. Someone called Mark from Oxford (username 'd(sqrt(-1))') had been in contact with Sandy Petersen in 2009 about revising the BRP Tekumel rules:

http://www.gamingtavern.eu/tav/viewtopic.php?p=20314 and http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?455666-Tekumel-Calling-out/page9

Nothing much seems to have come of it, though there was this tantalising fragment from the author in July 2010:

Off the top of my head:

• Better Psionic rules
  
• More Psi Powers
  

I know it's BRP/CoC but John Ossoway's psionics rules in 'Cthulhu Rising' are pretty good, and come in a roundabout way from original Traveller, so they might be usable with his permission.

We are of the same mind, sir!

I still play Elric! in the world of Nehwon (by Fritz Leiber) and various intersecting planes (most recently a stint in HP Lovecraft's Dreamlands). Elric!'s elegant combat system and mechanics, slim rulebook and dark-tinged play cannot be beaten. The magic system left a little to be desired, and needed tweaking for my campaign (a topic Chaot and I have discussed at length in different forums over the years). Even if you don't use the Young Kingdoms setting (as I did not) the Digest of generic NPCs was also very useful -- I wish more BRP supplements did the same.

I have Darcsyde's Corum book (I think that was a Chaot recommendation too -- thanks) and it's very interesting. I use it for some of the elder races.

Gianni Vacca´s excellent Celestial Empire not only states that ¨in Asia, magic and religion are inseparable¨, but it also lists 13 religious allegiances (drawn from real-world religions) and how to gain/lose allegiance points from each. I´ve only briefly played with Glorantha and RQ3 (the River of Cradles campaign) but I reckon you could do the same, maybe not for every cult and subcult, but for groups of deities like the Lunar Pantheon or the Praxian Storm gods or something. Maybe you could come up with particular allegiance rules for gods which your players actually follow too.

After trying to boost shields within the BGB framework in my "Savage North" game last year and being somewhat unsatisfied with the results I think my position now is that I'm simply going to re-instate something like the Elric! rules.

When success levels of Attack and Parry are tied, roll normal damage. If the damage is less than the hit points of a parrying sheidl or weapon (which is designed to be parried with), nothing happens (a weapon NOT designed to parry with loses that many hit points). If the damage exceeds the parrying objects hit points by 1 it breaks (if it's a weapon) or loses 1 hit point (if it's a shield). If the damage exceeds the parrying object s hit points by more than 1, it breaks (if a weapon) and the damage goes through to the target or reduces the parrying objects hit points by the excess (if the parrying object is a shield).

Since there hasn't been much response to this angle in the thread (sorry, only just noticed your post Rodney418), I will agree. I also came at it from an Elric! point of view. I use a similar system.

With a successful (normal) parry vs. a critical attack I apply damage to the weapon (the parry was successful after all!) If the damage exceeds the weapon's hit points it breaks and any excess is applied to the defender. However if a shield is used to parry, only damage above the shield's hit points damage it.

Examples:

Critical hit does 22 points of damage

vs. normal parry with sword (18HP) -- sword broken and 4 points of damage to defender

same hit vs. normal success shield parry (shield 20HP) -- shield split, loses 2HP permanently, defender safe for now

This is similar to the effect of fighting with weapons not designed to parry; every hit damages them. For weapons made to parry, only criticals do.

This rule makes shields slightly better protection against criticals and more durable as a parrying device, without increasing a user's skill with them or otherwise messing with the -30% per parry/dodge rule.

Hopefully, Wayfarer will succeed and join the family of RQ/BRP/D100 games around.

RuneQuest

BRP

Wayfarer

OpenQuest

GORE (perhaps)

Paolo's system (can't remember what it is called, sorry, Pazio ???)

Also Fire and Sword, Ray Turney's system which you can download from here (hey it uses d20 instead of d100, but its heart's in the right place.)

If you are looking for a Conan-like setting you could check out The Savage North for OpenQuest. I haven't read it (but I'm thinking about it). It's by John Ossoway who wrote Cthulhu Rising, which I like.