Questbird

This thread may be old, but it is well-named. The worlds that we here nominate will most likely be similar to those that those outside of BRP would like to see. That will include generic settings and copyrighted places. One advantage of worlds based on existing literary or film properties is that they are more accessible to the players; they can learn more about the world in ways other than at the rpg session. And even in the USA, copyright doesn't last forever -- at least not yet. Disney BRP, anyone?

Interesting. A generic system for...a System would be good. As for our Solar System, I don't have a problem with its size and I find the amount of information about it useful. In fact I think some familiarity with the setting helps the players. The referee could add social and political stuff. The farthest planets and (ahem) Plutons would take quite a while to reach, though I expect propulsion systems would improve. Those planets will be like South Sea islands in the 17th century (except for the vegetation): remote, small population, cut off from the mainstream.

Many of those I'd like to see have been nominated already in this thread. Here's some which attracted my special attention. 1.) I studied Peru and the Conquistadors and I agree that sixteenth century South American history, with or without the fantastical elements would be a great setting. 2). Yes I would love a Vancian Planet of Adventure BRP setting. I have the GURPS book but it doesn't quite cut it. 3). Third is mostly original for this thread. I would like to see a hard science fiction set in colonies of the Solar System of the future with NO INTERSTELLAR DRIVES to get us quickly outta there. It's a part of our future which most science fiction writers skip quickly over to get to the stars and the aliens and galactic empires. The inclusion of functioning Faster-Than-Light drives crosses the border between real hard science fiction and speculative fantasy. (Wormholes are conceivable, though human-traversible ones are less so). Cthulhu Rising and especially its Jupiter setting is not bad for this if you dump (or conceal) the Mythos aliens and the star drives (this goes for 2300AD too). However, the Solar System is an amazing wilderness. It is real, it is public domain. It is the perfect sandbox campaign. Literary inspirations: 'The Stars My Destination' by Alfred Bester, 'Martian Time-slip' by Philip K. Dick (maybe also 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep') and 'The Ennead' by Jan Mark (which is set in an alternate Solar System, but similarly constrained there). 4.) The post-human Earth described in Illium and Olympos by Dan Simmons might be an interesting setting too. (Though perhaps it could be made as a variation of (3) above.) And, on a tangent: There is a fan-created Tamriel BRP conversion here (link is dead)

Thanks Mithras. Here's my LibraryThing review of Warlords of Alexander: (from http://www.librarything.com/work/11051921/reviews/71032896 )

Yes, that was what I meant. The second weapon is the one which gets the riposte in standard Elric!/SB5; the first is used to parry. However for the other ripostes I mentioned, the Tirikelu-inspired ones, if it is in response to a failed attack, I don't see why it wouldn't be with the primary weapon. One of the things which vaguely annoyed me about the riposte rules in Elric! was that if you were armed with two weapons, instead of a weapon and shield, then the only time you would ever get to use your 2nd weapon in a fight was a riposte, which required a critical success. On reflection, perhaps that is right, because it means two-weapon styles are only useful for very skillful fighters. Doesn't stop players wanting to do it though.

Maybe you could keep the rule about making a full-strength riposte on a special success. So for example someone with Trident 50% parrying vs. a failed attack roll score 50 --> riposte at 50% score 11-49 --> riposte at that score score 01-10 --> riposte at 50% net result is to increase by 1% the chance of getting the equivalent of a special success. Not too bad.

Speaking of Dave Morris, his free Tekumel game Tirikelu (also vaguely RQ inspired) had a very interesting mechanic for ripostes which is relevant to this discussion. A successful parry vs. a failed attack would give the defender the chance for a riposte. The defender needed to make another roll less than his successful parry roll to make a free attack which (by definition) could not be parried if successful. In other words, the attacker had left an opening which the defender might exploit. I like this idea because it makes ripostes more common than in BRP, where depending on your rules (I use Elric!/SB5) you need to make a critical parry with a second weapon or shield to make one. In the Tirikelu system ripostes are less effective than normal attacks, but I like the way the line may be blurred between attacker and defender. Of course, this does rely on rolling attack and defense rolls at the same time, which was the contention of the original post. It does give one possible reason for doing so though.

Ah yes, I know it. The dumplings are good and cheap too.

Here's my LibraryThing review of the Chronicles of Future Earth: http://www.librarything.com/work/10972783/reviews/70219266

Which is your favourite Melburnian Chinese restaurant, out of interest?

Thanks for the kind welcome, Chaot, I do remember you well. zeitgeistgeist it was. Now back to our regular transmission.

Here is my review of Celestial Empire from my LibraryThing (http://www.librarything.com/work/book/70037020): Thanks, Gianni. A roleplaying supplement with just the right balance of background and game information. I will have a review of Chronicles of Future Earth soon (after I have pondered it a little further).

That would be me. This is an old thread, but I'll just add to it anyway. The Maelstrom system has some nice features. 1. It's pretty simple. The mage says what effect they want to achieve, the GM assigns a difficulty based on how likely that event is to happen* at that particular time, the mage makes a check to see if it works. 2. It's situational. Because it's all based on likelihoods and probabilities, the mage can act to make his spells more likely to work. For example to make someone trip in combat, the spell might be Unlikely, but if the mage flings a barrel of marbles underfoot (or orders his underlings to do it), it might change to Likely. This encourages quick thinking and planning for the mage character. 3. It's subtle -- good for low magic or historical campaigns where you don't really know whether magic or witchcraft really works. This is not the only magic system I use in my campaign, but it's a good one. * as Chaot said, on a scale from Likely, Unlikely, Improbable, Wildly improbable, Impossible