Mankcam

I think as written in the BGB (which is similar to RQ3) it may be only for unarmed attacks. Someone in one of these forums several years ago described their take on widening the scope of Martial Arts to include Fighting Styles in general, so I have been running with that concept for several years. Works for me

It would be unusual if a dagger attack takes down a fully armoured opponent in heavy plate armour, and doing so would have to be the result of a very good skill roll, typically a special or critical success. I have been using BRP as my predominant rpg system for many years now, and for melee orientated games I still think static armour + hit locations is the best way to go. Others would prefer the Elric/MagicWorld options of variable armour + major wound table. The variable armour + major wound chart is usually a little quicker about half of the time, but the static armour + hit locations isn't all that cumbersome. I typically use the limb HP as thresholds rather than tracking separate HP tallies, so it takes the paperwork out of it and makes the characters slightly more resilient. The tactile feel of hit locations adds a great feel for combat, and is one of the things that I have found players love about this system. But its apples and oranges, really. Just a matter of taste. But those are usually the options that work for BRP

You could do it, but there's no need as you already have the success matrix for determination of these things. For example, a Special Success beats a Standard Success etc. If that was not already a feature of the game mechanics, then simply opposed rolls would suffice (although I would consider the best roll to be the lowest score as it is the closer value to the Critical 01. Others would prefer your method however). But as the current success matrix rules exist then I would just go with that myself

Yes, BRP Martial Arts are pretty powerful in the fact that base damage dice gets an additional roll. I tend to balance this by only allowing skill gain thru Training, never successful Experience. That way there is a maximum of 4% gain, and sometimes no gain at all. I also rule that the training roll covers a 6 month period of downtime, This does not prevent training in combat skills of course, although I am pretty conservative and rule that training other skills cover a 3 month period anyway. Combat skills gain % thru Experience as usual however, but doing so with Martial Arts would minimise its importance. If these checks are not in place characters becomes experts at everything far too easily IMO I also widen Martial Arts to include melee combat Fighting Styles, so a swordsman might learn Duelism , Fencing, or Kendo (Kenjitsu), for example, to be used with their Sword attack skills, or you could include fantasy-flavoured styles like Beserker for Vikings perhaps; no need to restrict it just to Oriental unarmed combat styles I would even go so far to describe different effects rather than the default roll-twice-damage. For example, a swordsman using the Florentine martial arts might get an additional sword attack in that combat round, or perhaps using Akido grants a free Grapple/Throw manuver with the attack, for instance. It is very effective when used with melee weapons, so it needs to be balanced in regards to skill gain

I would go with the above advice for using Hero Points. If that is too liberal, then allow the PCs to make a Characteristic Roll (eg: INT x5%) only after expending a Hero Point. If this is too broad in scope, then you could ask the player to choose a favoured Characteristic in char gen and then make it an Ability that they can make a Characteristic Roll (x5%) for that particular characteristic upon expenditure of a Hero Point. So they choose to be Agile, Deductive, or Lucky, and this is kind of built into their character concept from the start. Just an idea, but the concept of broadening Hero Points to cover these situations certainly makes sense. (As an aside, in my home rules for BRP, I only allow the characters to make characteristic rolls at x1%, although if they expend Power Points then this chance is increased. I'm pretty particular when these are able to be used, so they don't displace the importance of having Skills. For a gritty setting, for every Power Point spent then the chance is raised by x1%, maximum of x5%. For a pulp setting, the cost is only 1 Power Point to raise the chance up to x5%. These rules have worked well for me; although Power Points are not Hero Points like in LEGEND however).

Just jumped on at the last minute, this looks pretty good. I don't actually have the Cthulhu Invictus sourcebook, although I do have Pete Nash's BRP ROME book which I think I can use with this. I have multiple editions of Call of Cthulhu so the two books should cover what I need if I ever want to run these scenarios I think. Looks like a good little kickstarter project, I'm always on the look out for scenarios to run or to inspire my own home brew plots. Thanks for the heads up!

I've been a player for the following: BRP - RuneQuest, Stormbringer, Call of Cthulhu ICE - MERP, Rolemaster, Cyberspace, HARP, D&D - TSR D&D, D&D 3E, WW Storyteller - Old WoD: Vampire, Werewolf, MAGE, Changling, Battletech/Mechwarrior, Shadowrun. Currently playing: Shadowrun (albeit in hiatus). Very cool WW Storyteller - Dark Ages: Changling. We are having alot of fun with this. At the moment I GM the following: BRP/RQ Glorantha - This campaign is currently in hiatus (which will reap the rewards from the Guide To Glorantha when I return to it). Liberal mix of mechanics from BRP BGB, RQ3, and RQ6. Plays quite well, a great default fantasy setting I really want to get back into soon BRP Astounding Adventures - Mixing in some Stunts from Blood Tide, and this is a great 1920s/1930s Pulp Era setting which I am using Masks of Nylarthotep as the plot grounding. It's playing more like a Thrilling Tales rollicking adventure rather than a horror investigation, great stuff! I have a large collection of rpgs I haven't had the time to indulge as yet, including the following titles or systems: Swords & Wizardry (old D&D retroclone); Pathfinder; Warhammer; Traveller; Firefly; Harn; Ars Magica; Pendragon; True20; HARP; GURPS; HeroQuest; Conan D20; Mutants & Masterminds D20; Savage Worlds; Qin: The Warring States; Star Wars D20; Eclipse Phase; Wild Talents; The updated 20th anniversary editions of Vampire, Werewolf, and Mage; The One Ring; Cypher system; 13th Age; FATE; Ubquity; HeroQuest. All the other titles I have are part of the extensive BRP family of games, and my bookshelves are groaning under the weight of BRP, RQ3, CoC, LEGEND, RQ6, etc :-) These days I tend to get influences from other systems and add those elements to my BRP/CoC/RQ6 mechanics. Its much more intuitive for me to run, and my players find it easier to adjust to new settings if the mechanics are familiar. The upcoming River of Heaven will add a swag of sci-fi and cyberpunk rules to my BRP mechanics so that will allow me to move BRP into wider frontiers as well. If I had the time to choose to GM multiple systems in addition to BRP/RQ, then I would likely consider the following: WW Storyteller - again out of familiarity for both the settings and mechanics, FATE system - FATE Core, Spirit Of The Century, The Day After Raganok, The Kerebos Club Ubiquity games - Hollow Earth Expedition, League of Adventurers, All For One, I am quite like FATE and Ubiquity systems for their cool mechanics and adventurous settings, they feel like very 'fresh' systems to me and would be alot of fun to run. Cypher system - Both Numenera and The Strange looks quite fascinating settings, and the mechanics seem to suit as well; these games could also tempt me on a sojourn away from BRP for a while... But really, any rpg is a good use of my time, I think I will be trying to run rpgs from a retirement village one day. Just totally love this hobby!

Lots of ways to go with this, and at the end of the day I would suggest converting Feats in accordance with a pre-existing Feats system that has already been play-tested for whichever BRP rules you are using. If using BRP BGB then the Stunts from Blood Tide are the way to go. If using LEGEND, then Heroic Abilities are the way to go (probably viable for RQ6 as well). If using Open Quest then retrapping the Battle Magic spells as Feats is one of the suggestions in that book. So if you are using Renaissance then perhaps it is worth grabbing Pirates & Dragons to see how they have done the Talents there. BRP can definitely do cinematic settings just as well as games like FATE or Savage Worlds once you throw in Feats/Stunts and heavy emphasis on Hero Points or a Luck mechanic. I often swap between running a default gritty BRP campaign and a light-hearted, pulpy romp of an adventure campaign, just by adding those options. It works great as the players don't need to learn a completely new system of game mechanics, allowing them to focus on the narrative aspects of roleplaying.

Darkholme the altered experience gain concept was your suggestion, I was just throwing an example out there for how I may implement it. Some good ideas coming out of this thread

Yes, definitely reduce the physical stats And using the Personality Types from the BGB char gen is probably a good idea. As far as skill points go, perhaps just use those, then give them perhaps 100% for skills gained through their schooling, and another 100% for skills from their hobbies or general upbringing...ok I may be out on those figures but its something along these lines

You could run into problems with the characters finding little to no challenge in your scenarios if you introduce a Feats/Stunts system for extraordinary abilities. I don't think it really works for Class Abilities porting over to Profession Abilities, I think if you convert Feats then it should be quite personalised traits which is attributed to the nature of the character rather than to a particular vocation. I'ld also only go down this path if you want to play a very cinematic game. In which case, go ahead: for Renaissance it might be quite appropriate for playing a swashbuckling 'Three Musketeers' kind of setting - that certainly could be alot of fun!

I don't think having less Fate pts or less starting skill pts for non-human races would be the way to go myself... But I think a reasonable explanation could involve presenting non-humans as ancient races, and thus quite 'jaded' by human standards I think the most simple quick fix to model this for me would be to decrease the skill gain rolls for non-humans. So, to use Tolkien's races as an example, perhaps if a Man of Bree has a standard skill gain roll of 1D6, then perhaps a Dwarf from Durins Folk rolls a 1D4 instead, whereas a Sindarin Elf from Mirkwood rolls a 1D3. I haven't thought this through very well, but I think I could be onto something possibly...

I tend to agree with just picking skills as fits the character concept. Some other games will use Classes such as Jock, Nerd, etc but this isn't a class-based system so modelling it off that is going down the wrong path. If you think that the players need some direction, then perhaps you could come up with various Student Backgrounds to replace Professions, but I would keep them broad, perhaps an Scholastic background, a Practical background, a Creative background, and a Technical background. Just assign skills to these backgrounds akin to how Professions are done, and allow room for 'hobby' skills. But if I were doing it, I would just tell them to think of a concept, and build it from there

Nice sheet, especially with the focus on character portrait

I don't really think BRP is designed to model mixed race parties if you are after game balance. I have done so in the past only when I ran a game set in Middle Earth, and I was heavily influenced by Decipher's LOTR rpg at that time, so I had a Feat/Stunt system in place, and giving humans a 'free' Feat/Stunt during character generation was the only way I could attempt some balance mixing humans with Hobbits, Dwarves, and Sylvan Elves. Players were restricted from playing Sindar and Noldor Elves due to the imbalance issues. Typically in most BRP settings I dont find balance an issue as the settings itself often sort that out. As previously discussed, an ancient fantasy setting like Glorantha provides narrative pros and cons for playing with the Elder Races, and most other BRP fantasy settings have been quite sword n sorcery in flavour that non-humans are often supernatural races or something similar, and are usually the province of NPCs. I'm not sure that BRP can do generic high fantasy without imbalance issues for mixed races, as the system was initially designed to be human-centric. Despite such, RQ was one of the first systems that allowed you to play any race or beast, yet I don't think game balance was ever heavily modelled into the system mechanics. If you are playing using LEGEND then perhaps grant human PCs a 'free' Heroic Ability during character gen, or allow them to disregard some requirement of a Heroic Ability. If using BRP BGB then port over the Stunts from BRP Blood Tide and do the same thing. Other than that, I think there's probably not too many other ways you could achieve balance during char gen for mixed race parties in a high fantasy setting.

I tend to make our sheets with excel, and we use two page sheets, front and back. Front page has demographics, Characteristics, Hit Points, Power Points, Fatigue levels, and Hit Location. The other half of the front page is for character description and illustration. I think this is very important to have on the front page, as it is a good reference for the players and tends to lend a narrative focus to the game, otherwise the sheets are just full of statistics and not much character. Back page has Skills listed under Skill Categories, Weapons, Stunts, Spells, Notable equipment. Works well for us.

BRP is a game system whose default setting is usually quite gritty, hence Call of Cthulhu being the flagship. I really like it being so, as the default rules support this very well. However, there is also room for a more cinematic approach, and I think Feats/Stunts and such are a great bolt-on option for that kind of setting (see Blood Tide). I guess the main thing is not to bloat the game up with too many extra options and abilities, as lack of such has become one of the strong features of BRP, rather than seeing it as a deficit in this area. Many BRP players like having a streamlined skill system approach, and tend to use the outcome of the rolls to narratively portray how well an action has been achieved; its up to the GM as to whether the skill scope is mundane or if it can portray more broader aspects. I do prefer this from a GM point of view, although players from more pulpy style rpg systems do tend to not grasp this, and will often be looking for a Feat or an Edge that gives them a major advantage or defines their character This is understandable, and not wholly inappropriate if you like a cinematic flavour to your games. I'm not sure where MW sits, but core BRP suits a gritty sword n sorcery setting, whereas the use of Stunts would lend a High Fantasy fllavour to the genre. I'm sure BRP can handle both styles equally well, and again Blood Tide is a useful reference for this.

Yes, the idea really isn't mine; it comes from the Fate Rules option in the BGB, where it describes using PP to work as Fate Points. Although the PP costings are very vague there, and LEGEND's Hero Points (or RQ6's Luck Points) have a much clearer mechanic. I sort of combined the both rules, and also created Pulp Edges/Feats which are so similar to the rules for Stunts from Blood Tide that I simply converted to those rules for the sake of clarity - its quite easy to create new Stunts using the pre-existing ones either as a guide or just changing the trappings. If characters use magic then the Power Points represent some form of magical essence, whereas if they are using Stunts it represents sheer swagger. It does not matter if they are the same pool of points really, as it all plays out the same during a session. It is great for non-magical characters to actually have a chance to use those Power Points. I won't go into it all at length here, as I have rattled on about it under other threads recently, and I don't want to bore the many gamers who are not after a cinematic touch to BRP. I'm using BRP as the basis for my Pulp game however, whereas I now see you are using LEGEND. I should of read that more clearly. In BRP it does not make sense to have a new set of Points on the sheet, but LEGEND already has Hero Points worked into the system so it's probably best to stick with that as written actually. Your additions of Pulp Abilities can easily slot in there quite well under the rules for Heroic/Legendary Abilities, although in a Pulp genre I would not worry about any skill requirements, as they are not such much about technical mastery as they are about sheer moxie and pulpiness. For a fantasy genre you will probably still need skill requirements however. Your rules for Stunting is a nice addition though, I think that is necessary to keep encouraging players to using Hero Points and pulling off cool stunts. Definitely keep that, or some version of that concept in any case. Sounds like you really dig the Pulp settings :-)

ICE's Rolemaster was quite a good rpg for 'old school', level-based gameplay with character classes (which are very broad archetypes that are capable of creating multiple character concepts). Much better than D&D was for character creation, back in the 80s and 90s. The more recent game with the ICE system is HARP (High Adventure Role Playing). Its much more succinct than Rolemaster was, and is the natural inheritor of that system. HARP combat flows a little better than Rolemaster as well, although if you don't play the games side-by-side you may think you are playing Rolemaster; its very similar. My friend loves the system, and I quite enjoy playing it whenever he gets around to running the game. However the game mechanics are far too wieldy for me to actually be a GM for it. It has large calculations and numerous in-game tables for ongoing reference (much less so than Rolemaster, but still quite significant by modern gaming conventions). Some quite good supplements however, and ICE was always noted for such. I still like reading some of the MERP and Rolemaster books, and HARP has some great resources as well. I'm not sure I would recommend them to specifically enhance BRP however, as the systems are very different (unless you are playing BRP with the 'Classic Fantasy' monograph supplement). I'ld recommend them in a broad sense however, simply for those who love collecting rpgs in general. But give me RQ/BRP any day, for being quite a simple and intuitive system to run. Not too much 'gamist' mechanics, yet enough crunch to keep old school players happy, while being quick enough for modern players. I also love the fact that playing BRP can have several approaches: 'simulationist' or 'narrative' are merely play styles depending upon game master and troupe tastes, rather than upon the game mechanics to dictate such (...okay, I strayed a bit off-topic from the 'roll high vs roll low' title...)

For my Pulp Setting I just use Power Points, so it saved me creating another set of Points on the sheet. I renamed them 'Pulp Points' for flavour, and calculated them by (POW+CHA)/2. They cover pretty much what Hero Points do, and I also use them to power Stunts (which I am using from the Blood Tide rules). The main thing is that due to the large number of points available then I have a weekly recovery rate on Pulp Points, it works like natural healing with a 1d3 recovery every week. I like to run a low-pulp setting with cinematic moments as pivotal scenes rather than every time something dramatic happens, so its more akin to Raiders Of The Lost Ark or even Magnum PI rather than Doc Savage or Sky Captain. I also use Features (previously called Personality Traits) to provide in-game recovery rewards, although you could do this simply by rewarding good roleplaying in game, Sounds along the lines of Magic & Flintlock actually, so I might check those rules out. Although I do already use the Flaws system from Blood Tide (although I expand it to encompass any flaw you can think of), and I don't grant any Pulp Point recovery when a Flaw is resisted, or if a character fails the Flaw roll. My only issue is that I don't want the characters to hold back on Pulp Points, as the setting is more fun when they are being used. I was thinking of some kind of roll to see if they gain an 'in-game' refresh according to the outcome of the Stunts they are using their Pulp Points on, which is kind of moving in the same territory as the Stunting Rules you are describing in the original post. I'm still unsure how I will incorporate it with my pre-existing rules, although seeing the concept outlined above definitely reinforces that this kind of rule needs to exist in order to stop 'point-hoarding' and keep the flavour of the setting.

You could easily do this with MagicWorld, and it does have the right 'flavour' for the Witcher series. However I personally prefer RQ6 due to the more tactile feel of hand-to-hand combat, which would be pivotal to a gritty setting like this. I think you would use the Sorcery magic to simulate the magic in the Witcher series. If there is already a fan-made version of Witcher done for LEGEND then I would just run with that if you think it captures what you are after.

The Cyberware system from ICE's Cyberspace was pretty cool. You could easily use that. I also recommend the Cyberware system from Shadowrun as well; both would be reasonably portable to BRP. Although, as I suggested earlier, if you just change the names of Powers in the BGB then you already have a Cyber Powers system in your hands and it won't cost you a cent. I missed the Punktown kickstarter, and it will be great if that book gets a general release at some stage. 'Mad Max meets Sin City meets Cyberpunk' sounds like a pretty cool concept to me. Speaking of kickstarter books, I am a current backer for the River of Heaven kickstarter, which is a scifi setting produced by D101 Games for BRP OpenQuest. Here's the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/645319106/river-of-heaven-sf-rpg?ref=nav_search I just received the backer pdf last week, and it looks much more like Traveller than Cyberpunk, so there's no rules for 'netrunning' that I have come across yet (nor do I expect to find such). However it does include a Powers system called 'Augmentations' which covers cyberware, nanotech, and metabolic augmentations. Looks pretty cool, and very relevant to this thread. River of Heaven will be released to the general market at some stage in the near future. The kickstarter backers will be getting physical copies over the next month or so. I haven't been keeping up with the posts, but I would think that D101 Games would be considering publishing this title for general release pretty soon. Once that happens then certainly River of Heaven has what you are looking for; you could easily use the 'Augmentations' rules in any scifi setting you want, and many of the Professions can be 'ported as well. It will likely be my 'go-to' book for any SciFi when using BRP. Just sayin'

I have the G2G and it has really invigorated my love for the setting of Glorantha. It feels much more 'ancient world' and the artwork really brings the cultures alive. As in the G2G, Jeff Richard is heavily involved in HQG, so its bound to be a great resource even for those who do not use the HQ2 rules. I am eagerly awaiting this book and the RQ6 AiG book as well, as it will be more tailored to my BRP-orientated tastes

Heh heh No, I'm just saying that one day there should be a new BGB, and when that day comes they should put these Stunts in it. I'm ever hopeful that there will be a BRP BGB every 10 years now...:-)

Yeah I was thinking a few weeks ago of actually posting the 'Extraordinary Abilities' system I had home brewed for my Pulp Era game, but its so similar to the system for Stunts from Blood Tide that there's not much point. These Stunts from Blood Tide are pretty good, and easy to port over to other cinematic settings. They typically either alter the perimeters/scope for certain skills, or create a circumstantial modifier for certain skills. Using these principles its quite easy to port new Stunts into the system from other game settings, or even change the name of existing Stunts and provide them with different trappings in order to create new Stunts. For example, in my home brew setting, the female character had a Feat called 'Moxie' which kind of gave her benefits to physical skills to get her out of scraps etc, based on her sheer conviction and devil-may-care attitude rather than an particular skill expertise. I found a mechanical equivalent to this with a Stunt from Blood Tide called 'Natural Athlete', which allows for the skill difficulty to be reduced by one level for physical skills, representing a natural inclination for physical fitness. I used this to create a new 'Moxie' stunt which does the same thing, except it comes from the character's personal swagger rather than any inclination regarding fitness. This was a great fit, and showed me how easy it was to create new Stunts based on existing Stunts in Blood Tide, and it should be easy to create new Stunts just by name alone. I hope this Stunts system is included in the Powers section for the new BGB, as it has a wide application as an optional Power system for cinematic settings.