Mankcam

Excellent!

I almost ran this scenario as an introductory scenario, but felt it needed more 'meat on the bone' - your additional info sure would of helped me flesh it out. I ended up running the scenario about the Harlem jazz player and the Mob, the one where the jazz player has an instrument of Nylarthotep which raises the dead, ending up in a zombie monster mash-up. It was a great scenario but I would have preferred 'Murder in the Footlights' for an introduction if it had more collateral. Having a villain get away in the end can be quite useful as a reoccurring character. Someone is bound to benefit from your efforts

That's a smart move, considering the cheap price and great utility. I feel LEGEND is a far less intimidating core rulebook than RQ6, purely based on its size, but also on its font and the general presentation of the internal layout. LEGEND feels nice and simple, and is user-friendly enough to jump straight in and start rolling up player-characters. It looks like quite a handy reference to have at the gaming table, due to the book's digest size. It's an illusion of course, as RQ6 is really just a more expanded/updated LEGEND, but its a handy illusion none the less. My advice is to start with LEGEND, and take your time reading RQ6 down the track. I would probably only read the Magic sections of RQ6 before you start a LEGEND campaign, as I think this is where the most obvious changes are, everything else in RQ6 can be soaked up slowly once you have your LEGEND campaign already up and running. RQ6 is a much more comprehensive resource to have, and most serious LEGEND GMs will probably transfer their game to RQ6 at some stage, especially considering it is written by the same authors who wrote MRQ2 and LEGEND. I for one cannot wait to see if RQ6 will ever come out in a printed hardcover edition, that would be just superb for my bookcase... From a player's perspective, only the astute players will know or care if you transfer your LEGEND GMing to RQ6 GMing, as the systems are so similar in game play. The added bonus is that you can jump between the published resources/scenario settings from both systems with ease, as they are about 95% (or more) compatible, so buying into the LEGEND/RuneQuest 6 variant of BRP is a pretty good idea for a fantasy GM. There is also a high degree of backward compatibility and cross-compatibility with previous RQ editions and other BRP resources, enough so that it doesn't take all that much as a GM to tweak the stats from scenarios from other BRP products, which expands your resources considerably (I'ld probably just stick with LEGEND/RQ6 initially though, until you get more comfortable with these rules). Additionally the OpenQuest setting resources will port over reasonably well (basically just use the LEGEND/RQ6 Hit Locations instead of Total Hit Points, and use whatever Magic correlates), so titles like 'The Savage North' and 'Life and Death' could be easily played by a LEGEND/RQ6 troupe. Looks like some great upcoming titles for both LEGEND and RQ6 this year, LEGEND's "The Spider Gods Bride' springs to mind, as does RQ6's 'Book Of Quests' and 'Monster Island', so there are plenty of sword n sorcery scenarios coming out which you can sink your teeth into. Have fun with it all

Looks pretty good to me. Personally I prefer having the stats at human level as it really gives you a sense of mecha size and feels more BRP. I can see why a different scale was chosen though, I guess it could be less cumbersome in gameplay for some. No probs with adding 10 to the stats if that is all it takes to scale the mechas. This will be a good book to have, completely different from the other BRP resources on the market. Any idea on likely publication dates ?

PLEASE EXCUSE ANY TYPOs AS I'M TYPING ON A LITTLE 7" TABLET AT PRESENT... That is the crux of the matter for myself as well. I was toying with some of the ideas from Pendragon where magic is based upon the intentions of the caster. Beings like the Istari could simply do magic, and Elves would have some talent as well , but Men would need to treat it more as Spells if they still use magic at all by the end of Third Age Middle Earth. My ideas are quite vague on how to portray Middle Earth Magic, although I know that Allegiance (The Light vs The Shadow) would play a major role in Magic and also mundane situations in Middle Earth. One of my ideas included that if you rolled a Special or Critical Success with your Craft skill (skill level must be 90% and above) and the roll was also under your Allegiance then some aspect of yourself and the Alliegance is imbued into the crafted item. Its an attempt to portray that most magic items are the result of master craftsmanship and the Purity (or Corruption) of the crafter. I also thought that various items, when in use, should react differently according to the nature and conviction of one's Allegiance, and items should also accumulate resonance according to the Allegiance level of their owners. Magic use would have to be quite difficult if it goes against the Nature of Things, so my example is conjuring a magical fire requires kindling, although the fire created is much bigger than it would normally be. Doing so without kindling may be a Difficult roll, and doing so in unfavourable circumstances may be almost impossible, such as conjuring fire whilst the weather is snowing. The intentions of the caster could also have some impact as well, such as creating a Ward that does not allow others to enter, but could be much more powerful against those aligned to The Shadow if the caster also rolls under their Light/Purity alliegance whilst invoking the ward. No firm ideas on any of this though...

Hi Fergo113, thanks for checking this thread. Unfortunately I doubt that I myself will have the time to run Middle Earth at present, I'm in the middle of a Cthulhu campaign, and have a Gloranthan campaign in hiatus. My group of friends is very inspired after seeing The Hobbit, but I don't think I can do the setting justice until I completely wrap up my other campaigns. The more I read your Middle Earth rules the more I like them, you really have put a lot of effort in with this. I am still interested in GMing Middle Earth, but I don't think I will be in a position to do so until the end of the year, which should tie nicely in with the cinema release of the next instalment of The Hobbit, and I suspect my troupe will be quite enthusiastic about it at that time. I will keep a watch out for anything you may post or put in the downloads section over the next twelve months, as its likely I'll be using most of your supplement for my campaign. If I start developing anything sooner I might take you up on your offer and PM you to see how you would be handling things with your BRP ME setting, that is greatly appreciated. Unfortunately my family and work commitments are making it hard to continue gaming at a rate I would prefer, but I guess that's the curse of many a maturing gamer...

LOL

Yep, Super Powers does work better from a 'build' perspective. You can also use the Failings to describe the social impact of having ape features, it would grant you an additional 1-3 'budget points' in order to spend on Ape abilities (Powers). Some ideas could include using Super Characteristics, Leap, and Unarmed Combat Powers at low levels to describe some 'ape abilities' perhaps...

OpenQuest is a pretty good set of rules, its a clean version of BRP yet has some old school flavour. I have a copy and would give it a go if I had more time, and I really like to support D101 Games as an indie rpg publisher. In any case you can pretty much buy the OQ resources and tweak them for any BRP game. Actually my next purchase is likely to be The Company, which uses the OQ engine, I'm quite looking forward to getting that book. Ordering RuneQuest 6th ed is a great choice, as the version of combat is particularly flavoursome for melee battles and the rules are great for doing ancient age or fantasy settings. On a side note, and probaby not of immediate interest to you as you are doing your own world building, but you can get the entire pdfs of the Gloranthan resources from Drivethru for about $10, it about 11 titles covering the 2nd Age of Glorantha, the world setting for earlier editions of RuneQuest. It may have some value in terms of seeing how the authors covered religions, and there are probably some scenarios in there that you easily be used in other fantasy settings. Anyway, I just thought I'ld give you a heads up, as its a pretty good deal. Another tip with RQ6. Its a big tome, which can be intimidating to some. The rules are quite simple however, and most of the book is taken up with lots of additional information which is good for a fantasy game. However if your players feel they would prefer a more rules-lite game, then buy LEGEND. Its practically the same system, no less complex in game play, but as it is a little digest sized book, it appears to be more simple and good for those players who come from the Savage Worlds rpg mind set. Just a neat trick. Its also possibly less intimidating to GMs new to the system as well, but as a GM ultimately you would progress to RQ6 anyway for the additional information and rule amendments. Anyway, welcome to the BRP rpg family, you'ld be glad you've chosen this system, its quite hard to leave

Wow! All the stuff on the DM Downloads page looks promising. I can't wait for Book Of Quests and Monster Island to be published

Pretty much what Simon has said. The system won't break from a few homebrew powers, and it certainly won't have been the first time that its been done. Either that, or just do your own variants from the Mutations you have already suggested. I think you could cover it with those mutations, just use those mechanics and give the trappings of monkey features, adjusting the character's APP and social skills accordingly (I'ld probably give the character monkey behaviour as well, so that's likely to affect social skills - perhaps a POW x 5% to resist acting on base instincts etc. That way the character has to take the good with the bad, so to speak). Shouldn't be too much a quandary I reckon ...or alternatively, you could actually roll up the character using the animal statistics in the rulebooks, except replace INT, POW, and APP/CHA with the attribute rolls for Human PCs. There's a sample Gorilla in the BRP BGB, and in the Basic Creatures book there is a Baboon and a Chimpanzee, so a few monkey breeds to use as templates. Depends on how much you want the monkey traits to be evident so just another idea to go with...not sure how I would do it, but there's a few choices on the plate

Totally agree, you can get the pdf of LEGEND for $1 from Drivethru RPG, and if you like it then the actual printed rulebook will only set you back about $15. Its a good version of the BRP system that is tweaked for Fantasy. If you like it then you can always get RuneQuest 6th ed down the track, as it is by the same authors and covers alot more ground. LEGEND is a good entry to the BRP family of games, and its pretty compatible with RQ6 so theres no problems going between supplements. You'ld be unwise not to check it out, especially given its price

The award is certainly well deserved. Actually anyone who wants to play BRP in a fantasy/pseudo historical medieval setting should pick up Mythic Iceland and Merrie England in my opinion, both resources are absolutely great!

The name 'Lynn Willis' is emblazoned on so many of my beloved roleplaying resources, which makes him almost feel familiar to me. He must of been such an interesting bloke to have been involved with so many projects that have brought a great deal of happiness to those who utilised them. My respect goes out to this man, and my condolences to his loved ones. Sad news indeed

Not sure if there is a comparison thread, but the question is not an uncommon one. Most BRP games (including the earlier Chaosium RQ editions) are about 95% compatible, that is, the core fundamental rule mechanics are the same, with a few different game mechanic options according to the flavour of the setting. Easy enough to ignore and port your favourite mechanics to any BRP setting. RQ6 has strayed from the path moreso than other BRP games, although it is about 70% compatible (possibly more) with core BRP, so many people here in this forum would GM both systems, with players going between the two systems with relative ease. BRP is a generic toolkit which attempts to cover many different genres, a dream for a GM who wants one system to hang all his worlds from. However, RQ6 specifically focuses on the fantasy genre, ideal for ancient/bronze age settings, sword n sorcery pulp settings, through to gritty late medieval settings. So I think a good rule of thumb is to go for BRP if you want a one-stop shop, whereas pick up RQ6 if you want to specifically create fantasy world settings (Also note that Chaosium will be releasing a 'Magic World' line this year, apparently a series of resources for using BRP in the Fantasy genre, so that may also be worth considering if you decide BRP). In the end it's a hard call between the BRP BGB and RQ6 - you'll could easily find yourself with both titles in your collection at some stage, just like many of us here... Good luck with your world building!

Wow! I wasn't expecting such good production standards, and I really love the flavour of the setting, it reminds me of pulp sword n sorcery novella from the late 70s. This is an interesting find, and certainly one to watch out for further developments. Good work!

"...And here's a little trick Mother showed me while you were out, you bastard!" Heh heh brilliant!

While I've got some time off work I'm really starting to sink my teeth into a few titles in my collection that I've only perused up until now, with RQ6 amongst them. I kinda like most of the rules in it so far, esp combat manoeuvres, I think they could play out quite well. I was initially put off by the lack of total HP when I read MQ2 and still am to some extent. I know during actual game play it is less book keeping, but sometimes HP is a quick way to size up a critter when reading creature descriptions. No big issue really, more just personal taste after playing AHRQ3 for many, many years. I think one of the strengths that really strikes me with RQ6 is the char gen, its quite simple but yet has alot of that old school crunch in regards to life-path etc, including family history, connections, contacts, background events etc. Also the book has a decent ammount of equipment lists, something which is also old school and quite useful. All in all it is a great product for fantasy, a great buy in my opinion

Perhaps neither could be recommended over the other, but rather, instead of the other. BRP BGB is great for covering many different settings, whereas RQ6 has a strong focus on fantasy settings. The two rule sets would play a little differently. I do like some of the RQ6 melee mechanics and they have certainly done a better job with magic than in Chaosium's RQ3. However my group pretty much knows RQ3 and Call of Cthulhu, so I won't change things too much with them considering they have a good grasp of BRP. It I had a new group to play with I might consider RQ6 however, just to see how it all plays out. Either way I think they both have pretty good system mechanics as I read them, enough to share between the systems which I suspect many GMs are doing. I'm certainly interested in checking out some upcoming RQ6 titles, I think I could easily use them with BRP mechanics if I keep gaming with my current group of friends.

I always wanted to run BRP Call of Cthulhu, having collected numerous scenarios for years. My players wanted to play a Pulp Adventure campaign like White Wolf's 'Adventure', SW'Thrilling Tales', or FATE 'Spirit Of The Century'. In the end I made up a few 'Pulp' rules and now we're running our own 'BRP Pulp Cthulhu'. Its being going great for a few months now, I'm going through heaps of previously unused CoC scenarios, and the characters are surviving due to the Pulp mechanics. We're onto the Masks Of Nylarthotep campaign, and its playing out more like an Indiana Jones adventure than a Lovecraft Horror. We'll keep playing this for a while (although some also want to alternate with a fantasy campaign), and the only reason we can keep playing these Cthulhu adventures is due to some Pulp mechanic adaptions for the PCs, there is no way I think the investigator party could have lasted the distance otherwise. That's not to say that its all fedora hats and blazing guns. We have our academic type who specialises in Research, Knowledges, and the Occult; there would be only limited opportunities for the investigators to proceed in many situations otherwise. Some Cthulhu scenarios are the most well designed scenarios I have ever seen, and also the most deadly. The standard CoC rules are great for short scenarios with a focus on horror, but yes, our group has found that there is some benefit in rule adaptation for campaign play, especially if you prefer Investigation Adventure to that of the Investigation Horror genre.

Well I do believe having a good fit with mechanics is quite important, but yes, the narrative flavour of Tolkien is the most important part of portraying his world for a rpg setting. I totally agree, and atmosphere certainly does take precedence over game mechanics (although this should be the case in all good settings). I think if I had a bit more time I could marry the Pendragon magic to Tolkienesque magic quite well, but those days are gone for me, my time gets eaten up with work, family pursuits, and just plain mental lethargy these days... In the end using a BRP conversion of the Decipher rules is the quickest solution, and I think Fergo113's ME BRP rules covers a version of that pretty well actually. I'll have to focus my game prep more on plot, location descriptions, NPC prose etc, which is pretty time consuming in itself, and running Fergo113's ME BRP rules for mechanics out-of-the-box will hit the spot in any case. My players and I want to run Middle Earth at present, we all love the setting. However in my experiences a few years ago I found it had limitations and wasn't as free form as we liked, so we'll see how we go this time around...

For my home brew Middle-Earth setting I plan on using 'Abilities/Feats' for non-magical characters, to provide a bit of heroic play. Basically these work like magic mechanics, costing PP, except they have no prep time. I use them in my Pulp Cthulhu home brew setting and they're alot of fun. For example, one character has a 'Steely Gaze' which basically is a variant of the RQ Demoralize spell, whereas another character has an ability that reduces the range/environmental modifiers when using Firearms. I also like to have an 'official' reference for my homebrew tweaks so that players can refer to. For example, our player-character can apply her Steely Gaze ability, and the player reads the description mechanics for the RQ Demoralize spell. Works well. It's alot of fun, but PP are regenerated much slower, between sessions normally, although we also use Personality Traits as well which heal PP like Natural Healing rules for successful trait use. I renamed Power Points to be 'Pulp Points' for my Pulp Cthulhu setting, just to get into the Pulp flavour, and calculated them as equal to (POW+CHA)/2 rather than just POW. For my Middle-Earth setting I'll probably rename Power Points as 'Fea' (Quenyan for 'Of the Spirit'), and also likely rename Hit Points as "Hroa' (Quenyan for 'Of the Body') - its all about flavour I reckon. In any case I have a notion that perhaps this Ability/Feat system would work well in Middle Earth, albeit with different trappings and names, and still provide non-spellcasting characters with effects they can spend PP on. It would work in with the concept of Middle Earth to some extent in that extraordinary effects can occur by good skill use. On another note, other effects deemed to be magical in some settings could easily be portrayed by extraordinary skill/lore use, such as the Healing Arts, for instance. The question is, then, how would I portray actual Spell-casting as being different from Abilities/Feats, beyond simple narrative? I don't mean Rune-writing or Crafting, which is actual Magic in Middle-Earth, but rather the evocation of magical effects on the spot. Not that many player-characters would have access to Spell-casting, and I'ld have to tweak the setting to incorporate a little more Spell-casting than Tolkien described, otherwise the only Spell casters would be Istari. Tolkien does describe folk magic practices, but it is unclear if this is low powered magical spellcasting, or if it is extraordinary mundane lore use, or just plain cultural beliefs and practices. Tolkien was not consistent with describing Spell-casting, at times there was evidence of 'flashy' magical spell effects, although overall magical spellcasting tends to be subtle and pervasive, much more like the mystical beliefs of the Britons and medieval magic, rather than Vancian high fantasy magic fare. This got me thinking that perhaps Chaosium's Pendragon could be referenced here. My Pendragon 4th ed has a great portrayal of medieval spellcasting, and I am toying on somehow using this with a few tweaks. It would certainly be quite different to the Abilities/Feats I have outlined above, and I think could be a reasonable portrayal of Middle Earth spellcasting. The spells tend to drain much more magical energy the more powerful they are, and the magic is based on a mixture of the caster's knowledge of a specific realm of magic lore and on the caster's intent, which seems very Middle-Earth to me. The spells are not clearly outlined, rather there are sample effects described at varied levels of spell potency, with great room for character elaboration here. I would greatly decrease the amount of slumber time (if required at all), and perhaps also the amount of casting time, but essentially I think it could be a good fit. I was even thinking of keeping the Life Point cost similar to that of Pendragon (renaming Life Points as 'Essence'), so I port the potencies directly across. Perhaps for every 1PP the magician expends, the magician has 1D20 Essence at his/her disposal. This way the magician can still have the effects of ambient essence etc similar to Pendragon, I'd perhaps rename that as 'Resonance' as it fits more with the Middle-Earth theme Okay sorry if this post rambles, I have my child sitting here with me so I'm possibly not articulating my thoughts as clear as I would like. Does anyone think this kind of system could portray Middle-Earth magic reasonably well, or does it sound too cumbersome for the setting? Any constructive advice appreciated :-)

That's a really nice looking full-coloured map. You've created a great setting with The Green, I figured this may be one of those monographs that Chaosium would expand upon, or perhaps work in with the upcoming MagicWorld to create a great 'official' sandbox fantasy setting for Chaosium now that Glorantha and The Young Kingdoms are in others' hands. I love the localised feel of the region, and now here's a great looking map to show my players if we decided to game with this setting Thanks for posting!

Gday Fergo113, I just stumbled across your thread, I see the last post was six months ago. If I had done my home work a little better I would have posted directly here instead of starting another thread. I really like some of the work on Middle Earth that you have put in the Downloads section, and I'm just wondering on if you've got more stuff you're holding out on heh heh no really I think you've done a fine job with it so far, lets hope you post some more chapters when you can

Well it was probably seeing The Hobbit that kicked it off again for me as well, and many of my players are interested in Middle Earth again. I think it is quite hard to portray the setting and really do it justice, the flavour really comes in its trappings and world view, otherwise its too easy to be a bland generic fantasy. I think using Allegiance will be a key in portraying The Light vs The Shadow, with the role of Hope, Morale, Honour having a tangible impact on the characters and the environment ( not to mention their opposites also having ill-effect, such as Dishonour, Betrayal, Fear, Corruption, etc). Some mechanics I could lift from pre-existing BRP settings, for example I think the Fulthark Rune system from 'Mythic Iceland' could be excellent in portraying Rune-writing with Dwarven and Elvish Letters. Magical items, although rare, could be easily portrayed with RQ Enchanting. There are other aspects of Magic which require a little more detail however, such as Elvish Powers, Folk-Magic and Wizardry (the later would need to be rare, primarily the province of The Istari, however some scope would need to be had in order for PC playability). Folk-Magic would also need to be determined if it is actually Magic at all, or mere customs (ie: The Dwarves in 'The Hobbit' place 'spells' on their buried loot to ward away robbers - are these actual spells in a game sense, or just cultural practices...?). Also there needs to be a concept of 'inherent nobility/corruption' in particular items and locations which makes them behave almost magical at times, perhaps there is scope for Allegiance rules to be used here in some fashion. To really make it feel Tolkienesque the GM needs to describe in great detail the environment and scenery, and also try to mimic much of the prose and speech of the characters from the novels, no mean feat and certainly more of a narrative style than a game mechanic. I'll probably look a field into other rpg systems to see how they have done things, and I already have found a few free rpgs on the net that are also quite good: 'Arda Marred'; 'Legends Of Middle Earth'; and I have a teaser pdf of 'Hither Lands'. I can use these with BRP to some extent, although finding a really good BRP conversion would be great. I think I have a fair idea of the concepts I need to lock down, but if there are any pre-existing BRP conversions I would like to take a good look at them first. Fergo113 did a good job, I'ld certainly be interested in seeing if the other chapters were ever posted.