Mankcam

My gut still tells me its a September release for the printed book, but at least the pdf is out in public now. Looking forward to a few pulpy games coming up!

My only issue is having BRP Space in one of the MRQ D100 line BRP games, like OpenQuest or Mythras, is that it is in direct competition to River of Heaven, even if it is a slightly different take on Sci-Fi, perhaps more Space Opera or Space Adventure than River of Heaven is. Personally I'ld like to see Clarence's rules in the new BRP Essientials rules, just for variety's sake...but I guess the main thing is that they get out there in print, whichever BRP system it is

I think this is all there is Colin. The word docs don't have any art, and whole chapters can be inserted into your own work, it is very versatile : http://openquest.d101games.com/openquest-srd/

To do something akin to MAGE Sphere Magic you definitely need to see the free-form magic that Lawrence Whitaker initially did for the Stormbringer book 'The Unknown East'. It was re-skinned to be a bit more generic and re-released more recently in the BRP MagicWorld book 'Advanced Sorcery', with the magic system being called 'Deep Magic' - it is perfect for emulating the free-form magic of MAGE: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/128316/Advanced-Sorcery

As an aside, River of Heaven (OQ) has a good range of cybetnetic/biological enhancements, although I'm not sure how easy it is to obtain a copy of the rulebook. It may be interesting to see how Revolution D100 handles things like this.

I have backed the Delta Green at Case Officers Book level, but only have the Agents Handbook in pdf at this stage so I am unsure about any pending publications. The Agents Handbook does have a reasonable assortment of weapons, but it is very broad in scope. For example, there are three types of pistols listed (light,medium, and heavy). It has a much bigger focus on weapons than the standard CoC rulebook has, however it is certainly not exhaustive. The Investigator Weapons books are a different beast. It is possibly most exhaustive listing of historic firearms ever assembled for a rpg, and for the gun enthusiast-gamer. It has a page on the background of each specific firearm, lists slight variations between models, and lists numerous stats for each firearm. These books are pretty hard-core, so it depends on what you are after. Vol 1 does firearms from the pulp era, so 1880s up to the 1930s, and Vol 2 (the larger volume) does from the 1940s up to contemporary times. Whilst the weapons in the Delta Green books are fine, it is hard not to recommend both volumes of the Investigator Weapons books.

If you're making your own character sheet and after simplicity, then you could always make the game Characteristic focused and use the CoC 7E skill levels as a guide: (crit =01, Extreme = 1/5, Hard = 1/2, Regular = full score, fumble = 00). So all rolls are actual Characteristic rolls, where you generate your characteristics by 2D6+6 for Extreme score, multiply this by 5 for Regular score, and halve that for Hard score. Once this is recorded there is not too much to add During the session you just set most tasks at Hard, then adjust either way depending upon the difficulty. Having specific knowledge/talents in a few things would adjust up for Regular diffulty. That way there is hardly any need for a big Skill list, just a small section for a few highly specific skills which adjust the difficulty level of the Characteristic rolls (this would include things like Pokemon Training). This would be a pretty simple concept, very handwavey. For EXP you could hand out Hero Points as milestone awards. Allow the kids to use these in-game as Luck ( spend a Hero Point for re-rolls, grant a bonus modifier, etc). Perhaps when a set number of Hero Points are accumulated then the kids may choose to 'cash them in' to increase their Characteristic by 1D4% (2 Hero Points) or to level up their caracter's Pokemon (4 Hero Points). I'ld use something like poker chips for the Hero Points, and use Bonus/Penalty Dice for any circumstantial modifers. The main thing is to keep the character sheet very simple and have a few gamist touches, the kids will take to it much better.

Well you'll already have the Agents Handbook in pdf then. I'm preachin' to the converted!

Just saw what you did there, heh heh

Who can fathom how Chaos works? I think anything speculated will always be purely that, which may be the point of the Chaos Rune. I don't think even the Lunars or God Learners could accurately measure it, let alone really control it.

If you like this kind of setting, then you will love the new version of Delta Green. It is a self contained BRP rule book, the genre/setting is 'Covert Agents vs Cthulhu Mythos'; so think 'X-Files meets True Detective meets Bourne Identity', and you'll be in the ballpark. It is currently being worked on as a Kickstarter project, due for print publication later this year hopefully. I see the Agents Handbook is already available on Drivethru RPG . Keep an eye out for it, it might be the kind of thing you may want to run

If you wanted to shell out some clams, the Investigator Weapons Vol 1 and Vol 2 are excellent. The pdfs are about $15 USD each on Drivethru RPG. Extensive list of historic and contemporary Firearms, specifically detailed for BRP mechanics I highly recommend these titles

My gut feeling is this may be an August/September release...

The new books look great. Haven't seen so much colour in a CoC rule book since the old Games Workshop CoC 3E hardcover (not sure if Achtung Cthulhu counts). A reasonable ammount of the artwork is a good as the Arkham Horror board games, and the books are eye catching enough to sit alongside the other good quality rpg lines. Plus the rules themselves promote a low pulpy flavour as well as a purist flavour, and I think this will appeal to many people, especially new customers.

That's a great insight into how the Runes actually influence game play, and how detailed the new char gen is. I really love both of these aspects It all sounds really great, however I'm not sure if I want every adventure to be monumental. To that effect I will be happy if there definitely is an option for less skilled beginning characters who start off just fending villages from petty raiders or sand boxing their way around the region like in classic RQ. I don't mind the default characters being experienced, it probably will work well for published campaigns which could take the characters right into the major events of the early Hero Wars. I also don't mind using Sacred Time as a flavoursome way to mark downtime, it's very much like the old KoDP PC game and like Pendragon, so you kind of know you'll be playing in one of Stafford's worlds. Just as long as you can have an alternate option for less experienced characters then I'm pretty happy with most the things I have read so far with CRQ4. I would have given almost anything to have been in Jeff's play test!

Yeah I'm speculating it'll be more the Orient of Central and Eastern Asia, from the Himalayas through to the Chinese and Vietnamese coastline, and down across the straits into the Javanese regions. That's a fairly big region, but I doubt it is referring to the other side with India, Pakistan, or up to the Middle East and Near East. Kicking things off in a 1920s/1930s Shanghai or French Saigon could be very pulpy, and then moving things into the steaming jungles of the interior. I'm thinking this could easily lead the investigators into Thailand and down into Singapore and Malaysia. An exotic hot bed of culture clash and dark mysteries, I am looking forward to this!

I just stumbled across this today, and it looks hot of the press - wow, this looks absolutely great! http://www.chaosium.com/blog/lynne-hardy-to-write-new-call-of-cthulhu-campaign-children-of-fear/

I guess the next edition of RQ may specifically describe this, so perhaps Jeff can clarify it; otherwise just go with what you think works for your interpretation of Glorantha.

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Another tip on playing with kids is to import the Bonus/Penalty Dice option from CoC 7E to replace the numerical modifiers in OpenQuest or BRP BGB. It will be in the free CoC 7E Quickstart if you don't have the full edition of CoC 7E. It ports across cleanly, its quick with no maths involved, and it adds a fun gamist touch that kids and newbies enjoy. I find my kids tend to create colourful cinematic situatons just to give themselves the advantage of using the bonus dice, so it is much more flavoursome than the standard dry numerical modifiers. Additionally its simple if you ever want to add a Talents system - you just pick a talent concept, then add a bonus dice to whichever skills that talent is enhancing for a particular situation.

That time again. Gee it comes around quick mate If you have Pulp Cthulhu you could easily rebrand the pulp archetypes with the names for the archetypes you listed OpenQuest is pretty simple for kids, I occasionally use it for my primary (elementary) shool lads and they picked it up reasonably quick If you can get away with stating up the Pokemons as just their powers and HP then I reckon that's all you'll need. I'ld just consider all Pokemon characteristics are automatically within normal range (no need to record their values, they would be 9-11), and just use descriptors like 'small' 'large' 'quick' etc to indicate which characteristics are outside of those norms, and which Skills/Powers to list for the Pokemons. That way you could almost emulate those Pokethulhu cards, which would allow for quick conversion. It shouldn't be too hard...

I prefer Mythras for hand to hand combat, its very tactile with hit locations, and the combat options are great. Not sure if all that is necessary for a sci-fi setting however. I would think the focus would be on other things that Clarence may bring to the party, like technology, vehicles/ starships, etc I guess a minor drawback for Mythras would be that Clarence's document would need to reference two other documents, Mythras Imperative and Luther Arkwright ( or the Firearms pdf). The Firearms options would be essential to a setting like this. Whereas the OpenQuest SRD could have portions of it directly plugged in to the BRP Space rules, meaning that it could be a stand-alone product. But either system is good. I guess Mythras has an advantage of having a bigger following. Now if this is released as a digest sized hardcover with a predominantly black cover, it may feel like Traveler with a D100 skill resolution. That would be cool...

Well the core rules of the SRD are simple, there are no combat options like RQ6/Mythras, but that can also be a positive thing as some people find those combat options too clunky. The good thing is Mythras players could easily play your setting even if the rules are OQ, they just add the Mythras combat options and hit locations and they are good to go. I am assuming the skill list can be ballooned out as required and you can plug in what you need to make it setting-specific, but you may need to contact Newt directly regarding things like that. I'm sure OQ will be the least expensive option, and it will have a lot of versality. I would wait for BRP Essientials, but OpenQuest would be my next option for these BRP Space rules.

This must be another of those English slang things Simon, but down here in Australia you would be saying that you are Hardy or Hardened, as in 'Toughness'. But what you wrote has other connotations here, none of which would likely increase your survivability chances in Prax, heh heh