Mankcam

I would keep Psychic Powers consistent with your other approach to the other Feats/Talents in a Pulp Adventure setting, although perhaps the costing is slightly higher due to their 'Weird' nature. So if your Feats/Talents have no PP expenditure, like Savage Worlds Edges, then I would describe them in similar terms. Or, alternatively, you choose to have a single 'Psychic' Special Ability, which allows for a wider scope of applications (ie beyond the mundane) for certain skills such as Scan, Spot, Listen, Insight, Fast Talk, Persuade, Navigate, etc. I would possibly insist on 1 Power Point cost to use these skills beyond their usual mundane parameters, although you could handwave that. Not sure if that is consistent with your other Pulp Feats though .

The rules for Clockwork Inventions are pretty simple, yet quite good to port over into any setting. They cover designing, construction, and use of wondrous devices and vehicles. I think more could be done with them, but the rules are certainly logical enough to port over anywhere. I would love to see just a separate Steampunk Invention book to be put out using the Renaissance system which expands on these rules, as well as giving a sizeable compendium of pre-invented devices. Having said that, some of the charm is actually just having mechanics to make whatever you want.

I totally agree Baron that edition changes have fragmented many great games, and it is testimony to Call of Cthulhu that scenarios from 1st ed can be played by troupes using 6th ed rules. Yes, that is certainly one of the great strengths of Call of Cthulhu. I have played RuneQuest since the mid '80s, and Call of Cthulhu since the early '90s, and I like it just it as it is, and in many ways the simplicity of the earlier editions is sometimes better. However, the changes suggested by p_clapham are all good suggestions for BRP in general. I would like to see very little changes to the actual Call of Cthulhu rules themselves, although a more hefty set of Pulp rules would be a great option to the next edition of the BRP BGB. I think Astounding Adventures has alot of flavour, yet does not offer enough dials and switches for those wanting to pulp up the BRP rules (although the Mook rules are quite good). Many of the above suggestions would be great for optional Pulp Adventure rules, but I think core Call of Cthulhu is gold as it is. Perhaps we'll see some of these concepts in Pulp Cthulhu perhaps?

Sounds interesting. I do like how Allegiance was used in Mythic Iceland to tie in with worship, and I'ld like to see another take on it. No doubt another good book in the works

I just rule that Knowledge Skills cannot be raised through usual skill checks, or are at half (thus +1d3% rather than +1D6%). Seems to limit things quite well, including magical knowledge skills. Your way should work just as well. All you need to do is limit the the amount of magic skill increase in some fashion to provide game balance. " Ben gave me a teaser about some extra uses for allegiance system in the upcoming Companion Guide" This statement caught my interest...

CthulhuFord is on the right track. Make up a new skill called Arcane Lore (Speciality) which operates like a cross between a Knowledge skill and an Allegiance skill. It cannot be increased through skill use, only training/research (at a slower rate than usual) and/or also by rewards for particular behaviour associated with that lore, like Allegiance. Perhaps makes teachers hard to find, or rewards only achievable after completing mystical quests and such. Then give magic spells a Threshold Value (possibly 20% or 30% + MAGx10%). This would be the minimum Arcane Lore required to be able to perform that magic. Usual Magic Point cost. Then just change the magic trappings to suit each speciality. Examples would be Arcane Lore (Sorcery); Arcane Lore (Animism); etc Divine Magic would be named after the religion itself, or after a particular Deity. Most spells could be lifted almost verbatim and applied to a simplified, universal magic system like this. The main thing is to change the trappings to make the magic styles feel very different narratively, although they all use similar game mechanics rules. Depending upon the setting, you could have the Arcane Lore representing Runes or Spheres perhaps, such as Fire Rune or Earth Sphere etc. I can not see this working with Enlightened Magic or Deep Magic, but you could certainly use it for a general fantasy setting without the players needing to learn separate mechanics for different magic styles. It's kinda like tweaking LEGEND's Common Magic and spreading it across all the magic styles. I don't think you can have one meta-magical system for all settings, and in some settings having more than one is good to highlight intrinsic differences in magic styles. For example, the Enlightened Magic rules would compliment the Mythos Magic in a Call of Cthulhu setting. You could easily add in the Allegiances of Enlightenment and Corruption to such a setting, and use it as a meta-threshold for those magic styles perhaps. Deep Magic can co-exist in a generic fantasy setting as an example of a higher form of magical manipulation, or you could easily use it in a modern setting to play similar to White Wolf's MAGE setting. The system I described earlier however, can cover a lot of different magical styles in a general fantasy setting, and can save player headaches trying to learn different mechanics for their styles. Easily doable, because I have been doing such for my fantasy setting and it has worked fine so far :-)

I heartily second you have a look at the BRP Classic Fantasy pdf, it pretty much is old school D&D tweaked for BRP rules, and exactly the kind of thing that would be useful here. There are no professional backgrounds, but instead you have the classes from D&D, complete with unique class abilities. The main reason for you to grab it however is that the magic system is heavily cloned from old school D&D, and that would be worth the pdf price alone for your particular needs. I think there is an upcoming RQ6 version of Classic Fantasy, but there is nothing wrong with the BRP monograph version. I like the idea of getting rid of skills and just going with characteristic rolls and skill category rolls. I would hate this for a campaign, but it is excellent for one-shots. I think if you used this in conjunction with some Mook rules you would find the game would play like a better version of Savage Worlds actually. There is probably a niche market for a 'BRP Lite' system like this, although its pretty easy to make it yourself. Actually it would likely play like the game called 'Barebones Fantasy' which is a D100% based fantasy rpg which is pretty much a cross between a 'D&D Lite' and a 'BRP Lite'. Great for a beer n pretzels rpg game night, good superficial fun. I like your idea of trying to eliminate character sheets for one-shots. Perhaps you could have a single page, probably double-sided printing, with all the PCs stats on it for the troupe, and that gets passed around as required. Maybe the only thing permanently in front of the players is a picture that depicts their character, that way the system itself becomes background. Have fun, but if I were you, I would definately spend a few dollars on the BRP Classic Fantasy pdf and save yourself all the time porting over the D&D magic, as its ready to run in Classic Fantasy. There's some other goodies in the Classic Fantasy pdf as well, such as Classes, Fatigue levels, etc. Have fun!

Wow - this is excellent, very useful! I always set my RQ Gloranthan games in the Third Age with starting dates of approx ST1610 - ST1615 so I've got a canvas of background events that are cannon, and its not yet in the kickoff of the Hero Wars (? ST1620s onwards). Its a good time to begin as 'ordinary folk' and if the campaign becomes lengthy it could span the decade into the Hero Wars if possible. Your timeline is going to be an excellent resource when I return to GMing Glorantha next year. Greatly appreciated; thanks for posting!

Is it only for Apple and Android? I tend to mainly check these boards from my Micrsoft Surface, so I don't really need an App option with it due to the screen size. However I do also have a iPad Mini so I might go to the App Store and check it out later. My phone uses Android, but I rarely use it for browsing, and I doubt I'll be using it to check forums as its too fiddly to reply. Although it could still come in handy at times... I take it that its not listed as a BRP Central app, but rather something like 'Invisible Power Board' app.

I have my BRP groundings in RQ3 (although I tend to run a mish mash of BRP/RQ3 meets RQ6 at present). The skill mechanic is just one of those things it never crossed my mind to radically alter, although I do have a wider range of Special Success options now, thanks to RQ6 Combat Manuvers. I'm not one for maths, but the Critical chance is pretty straight forward, it is only the Special Success I tend to get muddy with. But the use of a GM screen pretty much handles these kind of issues for me. So I've never really had a problem with it. I've always had the Success Chart available to refer to, it's one of the core things I have on my GM screen. When I say a GM screen, I mean a single page, double sided printed, with the Success chart, the Resistance Table, the Hit Location Chart, and the various Special Success effects, the Fumble Table, and the Sanity Table. This is not clumsy to refer to during the game. I do have a couple of other charts at hand, mainly weapon charts, quick spelll lists and what-not, but my core references is a single page, double-sided, with those aforementioned essential tables for reference. So, in my sessions, checking mid game for a Special Success is pretty much second nature for any skill roll that has a result less than 20% for most PCs. Doesn't slow things down at all, no more than checking a Hit Location chart ( or a Major Wound chart, for that matter, if you are using those rules). I can see why people would like another system, for for me personally, this one ain't broke so I don't try to fix it.

Its great having pdfs, I never cared much for them on the desktop (although they were handy at times), but having an entire rpg collrction in one tablet is a grand concept thats hard not to like. However, rpg rulebooks & resources, like all reference books, are quite nice to have physical copies of, and I love my physical library. I wish more rpg books were in hard cover format, it trumps pdfs and I love seeing them in the bookcase. I can see paperback novels going the way of the dinosaur, but nothing beats a good hard cover tome

I'll have to check if that's there, but if not then that is exactly the kind of spell you could port over. It would obiviously not be Casual Magic, so either Ritual or High Magic would be the niche. The fun would be in designing the trappings, such as the components, auspicious requirements, etc. The good thing as you can have the same spell portrayed quite differently, depending upon the trappings. It sounds like you know the kind of spells to port over

Merlin is the name of my cat. He thinks he knows everything. That aside, this teaser is cruel! Yes its whetting my appetite for Mythic Britain. Obviously set not too long after the decline of Rome, it should be very pagan and muddy to say the least; no Lancelots running around here I reckon heh heh addicted now...must see more...

It wouldn't be too hard. You would have to work out what tier the spell is to fit it in the system. The biggest issue is the flavour of magic - no fireballs or whatnot. I could see a version of Wrack however. Many spell effects are already covered actually. The main thing is that this system actually feels like Magic, as opposed to Powers. I would not worry about porting too many spells over, but you can easily make up your own to fit the system, and are encouraged to do so, in order to create unique spells designed specifically for a certain situation. Its well worth checking out.

Thanks for the reply Loz. Greatly appreciated. I'm quite looking forward to these releases. AiG is my current priority as I am already using Glorantha as a setting and I'ld like to see it done with RQ6. I'm a backer for The Guide To Glorantha, so I'm literally itching to go with all things Glorantha at present. Mythic Britain and Mythic Constantinople also sound great. I really like the sound of these, they sound like the kind of settings that RQ was born to run. You already have my money with these titles I didn't realize that CoFE wasn't DM, I will keep a closer eye on these things before I post in future I scooted over to the DM website, and the 'Spring 2014 News' post was pretty informative; in fact if I had done this first then it would have addressed my query. My apologies, I am definitely checking the DM site before posting any further queries here! In any case, thank you for the prompt replies :-)

Thank mate. I probably should check out the DM Forums I suppose...I tend to loiter in BRP Central, Yog-Soggoth, and Moon Design. I probably should check the DM Forums again, but as Loz has posted most of the DM announcements here in BRP Central I have just got used to checking here Thanks :-)

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It would only be gimping Magic if you are running a High Fantasy, High-Magic setting where Spellcasting is almost as instantaneous as using Super Powers. That's cool for emulating the kind of settings portrayed in rpgs like Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, etc. Low-magic Fantasy settings, Sword n Sorcery, and covert-magic Modern settings could be portrayed down to a tee with the rules from Enlightened Magic. Very atmospheric, and it places real value on spell casting. I think Chaosium should have considered revisiting Snead's Liber Ka much earlier than than they have done, but better late than never!

Just a quick query primarily aimed at Pete or Loz...hopefully, not too forward... Do we have any ETA on the following publications?: Mythic Britain Mythic Constantinople Chronicles of Future Earth Adventures In Glorantha Also, is Adventures In Glorantha a single book, or is it going to be an entire setting line similar to Moon Design's Glorantha line for their HeroQuest system? I would just like to know ball park estimates on these releases if possible; they all sound great to me

Cool. I've got the pdf, and ordered the hardcopy thru Chaosium as well. Its been so long since I ordered any hardcopy from Chaosium as last year their international postage was ridiculous. I'm happy to see that their postage is now comparable to the likes of Amazon and Noble Knight, so that's a big plus. However this limited downloads for pdfs is certainly a minus for me as well, especially since a big player like DrivethruRPG doesn't do that. Back on topic, this book looks excellent. I'm certainly using this with Call of Cthulhu as a complimentary alternative to Mythos Magic, and I think I would go with something like this if I was playing a low-magic fantasy setting as well. I would have 'Enlightened Magic' for virtuous characters, and have 'Corrupted Magick' for villains, which would be the Mythos Magic from Call of Cthulhu - the two systems can co-exist well in a low-magic fantasy system. Either way you look at it, this publication has great content, I highly recommend it

...not sure about this, its all new to me, I will have to check the BGB tonight. Roll under, the lower the better, has been a big principle of BRP I would think. Otherwise we're playing Rolemaster :-)

hmmm...I thought so as well...this should be an interesting release in any case

You can mish-mash various elements between all BRP-related systems (ie: Magic, Ship Rules, etc), but fiddling with their inherent combat systems is probably a no-no. I have found that if you muck around with core mechanics too much then unanticipated problems arise. I would go either with BRP BGB or LEGEND/RQ6. My gut feeling with this situation is to listen to the wise words of Egon Spengler: "Don't cross the streams..."

I prefer the Skill calculation from LEGEND/RQ6/OQ as it places more direct emphasis on the characteristics, although my troupe is used to BRP from the BGB so I keep with that. I used to play RQ3 in the 1980s/1990s so I was used to Skill Category modifiers from there, and when we started using the BGB I tended to follow a lot of optional rules that was more or less consistent with RQ3, such as Hit Locations and Skill Category modifiers. I don't use EDU anymore, it's not inherent so it just doesn't fit my world view of the character sheet either. You can pretty much play without it. For rolling skill checks I just get the players to have a bonus equal to their skill category modifier, and that seems to work. For long campaigns I slow the rate of experience accumulation by allowing a +1% to their skill check for each time a skill is successfully used, but the Skill Category modifier is the maximum limit on bonuses. For calculating Skill Category modifiers you can pretty much replace EDU with INT and it seems to work fine. I have done that for a few years and it's not an issue. Seems to work fine with our troupe, so I would ditch EDU if it isn't to your tastes, the game can run fine without it.