Gollum

What book will you use? The "Big Golden Book"? http://www.chaosium.com/basic-roleplaying-pdf/ It's free quick-start introduction? http://www.chaosium.com/basic-roleplaying-quickstart-pdf/ Do you have Blood Tide? http://www.chaosium.com/blood-tide/ These questions apart, here are my two cents generic hints ... The BRP is not a very precise and realistic system, like GURPS, for instance. It is neither a fast and furious heroic system like Savage Worlds, for instance. It is something between the two. Or it can make both, depending on what the GM and the players want ... You can play in any world you like and in any kind of genre (from quite realistic to crazily heroic). But this is up to the GM to make it become so. For instance, if the GM wants the game to be realistic, he will rule that bullets are impossible to dodge. Now, if he wants the game to be more heroic (like James Bond or Indiana Jones stories), he can just decide that characters can dodge bullets by zigzagging, jumping behind cover, and so on. The results given by the rules are not very precise. Successful attack, missed defense, X points of damage and almost nothing more. But the GM can make these result really interesting with his descriptions, because he has more leeways to interpret them as he desires. Does the X points come from the shock, from bleeding? Does it hurt a lot or not? Some other roleplaying games give more answers to these questions, but it means more rules and less freedom. With BRP, you've got more freedom ... And more decisions to take. And you can choose a lot of things depending on the story you want to tell and the drama you want to add to your games ... Finally, the flat distribution of the D100 is only partially true. It is true, because a D100 gives flat results (as many 01 as 100 or 50 or any other result). But it is wrong because the GM will change things a lot, depending on the difficulty of the action he chooses. An easy action multiply the chance by 2. A hard action divide them by 2. And the GM can simply decide that an action is automatic or impossible. Thus someone with a skill of 50 can have 0%, 25%, 50% or 100% chance of succeeding his action! Here again, everything depends on the GM decision ...

Yes. And this thread is not really out of place. The book may come from Runequest rules, it is a book for the BRP system. "This book presents three new ways for BRP players to conceive of magic: spirit, divine, and wizardly." is written in the introduction. So, even if it first was rules for Runequest, it is now intended to be new optional magic rules for all users of the BRP system Big Golden Book. That is why I bought it - even if I didn't used it yet.

Génial ! Un site en français ! Il y en avait déjà quelques uns, mais il ne publient plus rien de neuf depuis de nombreuses années... Longue vie à d100 ! Great! A french website! There already was some here or there, but they didn't publish anything new for a very long time ... Long life to d100!

Yes, you're right. The Sanity rules will certainly be put off to another book which will need them. Or maybe a supplement of "optional rules to go farther" (I'm surely dreaming here).

This is precisely why, in my humble opinion, Sanity rules are vital ... As optional rules. In some campaigns (Lovecraftian stories, for instance), Sanity checks are crucial. In some other (Hellboy stories, for instance), they would just ruin the game ... The Big Golden Book did a very good job here. I hope the new BRP Essential will did something like that (even if things are changed a bit).

Don't know whether it is to late to vote ... No matter ... I did it. For Big-Golden-Book-like. Do someone has news about BRP Essentials? When is it supposed to be published out?

There is a difference between the table given in the skill Teach, page 82 : "SUCCESS: Your character’s lessons take hold, offering a chance for improvement. At the end of the teaching interval, the student rolls 1D6–2 for skill gain (minimum 0)." And the "same" table, page 184 : "A SUCCESS indicates your character gains 1D6-2 points in the skill being studied. The maximum increase possible is 4 percentiles, and there is a chance that your character will learn nothing (2 – 2 = 0) or even lose ground (1 – 2 = –1)." So... What is true? Minimum 0 or not minimum 0? And the other rule has to appear in the errata, of course... In my humble opinion, the minimum 0 is better: it is not fair that, when the Teach roll is successful, there is still a risk of fumble (- 1%).

There is already a new version of Call of Cthulhu in French. It has been completely reworked by french authors (in a different way from the American 7th edition). It is still easily compatible with the old versions and with the BRP system, though some details are handled differently. And it is supported by a lot of supplements! http://sans-detour.com/index.php/Jeux-de-Role/L-Appel-de-Cthulhu/L-Appel-de-Cthulhu-Les-essentiels/Voir-tous-les-produits.html http://sans-detour.com/index.php/Jeux-de-Role/L-Appel-de-Cthulhu/L-Appel-de-Cthulhu-Les-Secrets-de/Voir-tous-les-produits.html http://sans-detour.com/index.php/Jeux-de-Role/L-Appel-de-Cthulhu/L-Appel-de-Cthulhu-Les-Terres-d-H.P.L/Voir-tous-les-produits.html http://sans-detour.com/index.php/Jeux-de-Role/L-Appel-de-Cthulhu/L-Appel-de-Cthulhu-Les-Aventures/Voir-tous-les-produits.html http://sans-detour.com/index.php/Jeux-de-Role/L-Appel-de-Cthulhu/L-Appel-de-Cthulhu-La-France-des-Annees-Folles/Voir-tous-les-produits.html http://sans-detour.com/index.php/Jeux-de-Role/L-Appel-de-Cthulhu/Le-Mythe-au-Coeur-de-lHistoire/Voir-tous-les-produits.html http://sans-detour.com/index.php/Jeux-de-Role/L-Appel-de-Cthulhu/Cthulhu-Moderne/Voir-tous-les-produits.html http://sans-detour.com/index.php/Jeux-de-Role/Cthulhu-1890/Voir-tous-les-produits.html All these huge and beautiful books sell very well. Actually, Call of Cthulhu is one of the best selling roleplaying games in France - if not the best selling one. Some campaigns are even published as packages with an old fashioned leather book bag and a lot of accessories... And are rapidly out of stock despite of their huge cost. So, I really doubt that a translation of the American 7th edition would have any chance to find buyers. A translation of Runequest would be, in my humble opinion, a much better idea.

The problem here, in my humble opinion, is that a successful parry gives more than what it is supposed to give: it allows the character to parry and (bonus with no justification) to have a chance to riposte (which means one more attack freely). But since the idea still sounds very good, I would just modify it a bit, like this: Critical parry - get a riposte as a normal but free action. Special/"Impale" parry - get a riposte as a hard (but still free) action. Successful parry - get no riposte. You parried well and that is already something good.

Very well. This is a rough approximation because you threw out the factor 2g/(pACd) which has a lot of incidence on falling terminal velocity. There would for instance be a lot of difference between me falling while wriggling and screaming crazily and Felix Baumgartner, who broke the sound barrier… But no matter. This is still a very good approximation. And it was very clearly demonstrated. I had no problem to follow your equations. Now, if we could have the time – and then, the height – required to reach that top speed, it could give a good formula to calculate the damage inflicted to someone who falls and by someone who falls on you. GURPS fourth edition got close from that with its new rule about falling, falling objects and collisions which all use the same rule: a table gives the velocity you (or the falling object) reach depending on the height of the fall and, then, a simple calculation gives the damage inflicted depending on your starting hit points (or the starting hit points of the object falling on you): (velocity x starting hit points)/100 six-sided dice. Unfortunately, it doesn't solve the problem of friction and drag... And the ant falling from 10 yards inflicts to itself about the same proportional damage than the elephant. Yet we know that it is wrong. The elephant would probably brake most of its bones while the ant would just be a bit surprised and, then, go on working and running without the least injury. Oh my! I've got an equation which proves that girls are angels.

Could you explain your calculation, please? What I have learned in my physics class is this: 1 = step before the fall. 2 = step after the fall. KE = Kinetic energy PE = Potential energy m = mass s = speed z = difference of heights. Law of conservation of energy: energy at step1 is the same than energy at step2. KE1 + PE1 = KE2 + PE2 1/2ms1² + mgz1 = 1/2ms2² + mgz2 m (1/2s1² + gz1) = m(1/2s2² + gz2) 1/2s1² + gz1 = 1/2s2² + gz2 1/2s2² + gz2 = 1/2s1² + gz1 1/2s2² = 1/2s1² + gz1 – gz2 s2² = 2 (1/2s1² + gz1 – gz2) s2 = square root of: 2 (1/2s1² + gz1 – gz2) The mass is canceled in final the equation. So speed is really independent of it. This is, in my humble opinion, what Rogerd wanted to say and what has effectively be proven numerous time – either by the calculation of energy just above and by experimentation: two balls perfectly round and having exactly the same size fall at exactly the same speed and reach the ground at exactly the same time (if they are released from the same height at the same time); and that, independently of their mass. Their acceleration only depends on local g. But the terminal velocity still depends of atmospheric friction. Which is relative to the shape and the size of the object. And this is where things become much more complicated. So, how did you come to 1.5 times SIZ?

I fully do agree with both of you. And the best way to control advantages and disadvantages is to ask the player to justify each one of them. Players then tend to choose much less traits (it's hard to find a good justification for each one of them) and to play them much better (they are more coherent with their character concept and background).

In GURPS, reputation are bonuses or minuses that add to reaction rolls, but also to influence skill rolls such as diplomacy, fast talk, sex appeal, and so on... So, in my humble opinion, the best way to handle reputation would be to build such bonuses and penalties: Known for being untrustworthy, -20%. Known for being brave, +15%. The advantage of such bonuses and penalties is that it can also be reversed if necessary: Famous criminal hunter, +20% for honest citizen, -20% for criminals. In James Bond RolePlaying Game, the reputation was a disadvantage: "Hey, guys, this man is James Bond and not the lawyer he pretends to be..." Then, the reputation bonus, either positive or negative, could be the chance of being recognized. Famous criminal hunter +20%/-20%, 20% chance to be recognized by someone in the crowd... And that chance could be modified as any other skill, depending on who exactly makes the roll: 20% to be recognized in his state, but 40% chance to be recognized in the town where he did his exploits and only 10% to be recognized in another country.

Call of Cthulhu 6th French edition solved the Status issue by making several Status skills. Dr Henry Armitage, for instance, has Status (Miskatonic University) 99%. It gives him a lot of Status when he is in Miskatonic University. Everyone knows him and almost every teacher will listen carefully to what he tells, and probably do all what he can to help him. But if Dr Henry Armitage goes in London, he won't have such an amazing Status in George V's, Edward VIII's or George VI's court.

I've always considered than searching truth is much more important than being right. And fortunately, because life tend to show that being right is very relative! As latins said, "errare humanum est, sed peseverare diabolicum". Avoiding perseverare is eventually the most important. Yes. They are a lot of exceptions in the world of animals... But, as you showed it well, it doesn't prevent to have generic rules. To the contrary, these generic rules help the GM to assess most animal stats. And to twist them if he really thinks that a specific creatures has to be considered as an exception. That was in the documentary too: a lot of cats know when other cats are roaming and take advantage of it to get stealthily in their home in order to steal their food.

So, I watched The Secret Life of the Cat, episode #12 It sounds to be a serious study made by serious scientists like professor Alan Wilson, specialist of feline tracking (Structure and Motion lab, Royal Veterinary College). They used GPS trackers able to let know where the cats go, how far they go, what is their speed and what are their accelerations. They did the experience in an English village, with 50 different cats, day and night across a whole week. They also used cameras, both covered fixed one in the village and its neighborhood, and little ones, mounted on the cats, to try to see what they exactly did. The conclusions are... Some cats turn around home... Some other go to the neighbor wood... Some go to a neighbor house. The average cat's home range (maximum range from home) is about hundred meters for males and half that for females. The cat who has the widest walking territory covers an area of 300 meters times 200 meters and walks about 2 miles a day. So, it sounds that I was completely wrong. Unless other episodes of this TV documentaries show the contrary (I only watched episode #12 and there are 17 different episodes), or unless I didn't understand numbers at all (English is not my native tongue and there was no subtitle).

This movie is amazing! Perfectly kitsch... I hope I'll find the time to watch it.

Yes. But that doesn't make cyclist less healthier... OK. I'm kidding here. I perfectly got your point.

I don't have the time to read this interesting article... But are you sure that frictions are taken into account. On the moon, a lead ball falls exactly at the same speed than a feather. No problem. But on earth, with atmospheric friction, the feather (or a leaf) won't ever reach the terminal speed of a lead ball. Otherwise, parachutes wouldn't work.

My problem is still concrete. If my player has a stamina roll to do for her cat, this car is supposed to have only 35%. If poisons or things like that are in question, no problem. That's realistic. The same dose of venom has more impact on a little creatures than on a big one (which is why we give big creatures like horses a huge dose of sedative, for instance). But if working all the day without sleeping, resisting fatigue, starvation or dehydration is what triggered the roll, then there is something which appears unfair. At least to my mind.

Yes. "Breathing from the hara" (more than the stomach, that is, about one inch below the navel) is the key here. Quadrupeds always do that because their posture (shoulders blocked by the front legs on the ground) enforce them to breath like that. Just take a quadruped posture and you will see that you are naturally enforced to "breath with the stomach".

As soon as I will have some time to watch the documentary, I'll make a summary of the experimental data it gives about this topic. Yes, this other solution could work. In the big golden book. Page 334 for the Brontosaur and pages 339-340 for the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Actually, I was looking for the constitution of elephants and whales, but they are not in the big golden book. I have their stats in a French supplement of Cthulhu. Now, since it is not a Chosium product, taking them as an official reference of what BRP says would be dubious. Yes, I do agree with that. GURPS found a good manner of taking CON (i.e. Health in GURPS terms) in healing rate: each day, the player make a Health roll and if it is successful, he recovers 1 hit point (2 if his starting HP are 20 or more, 3 if they are 30 or more etc.). The drawback is that it requires a lot of rolls...

Of course. It would have to be proved. See below. Even if it can be regarded as a very quick and dirty generic rule, it is not true, actually. Lifespan of animals is much more complex than that. Some birds live as longer as we do. Cats live much longer than dogs. Turtles lived much more longer than we do, etc. http://www.school-for-champions.com/animalhealth/animal_ages.htm So, if lifespan was really a good criterium to determine the CON level of animals, cats would have a higher CON score than dogs... BRP rules say the exact contrary. But smaller creatures recover much quicker from fatigue... And I'm not sure that they don't travel as much. Actually, I'm even sure of the contrary. Birds are the animals that do the longest travels and the ones that surely require the most important stamina. Yes, but the problem with BRP rules as written is precisely that, concerning CON, the small creatures have all the disadvantages and no advantage at all. They have a lower score for all purposes while bigger ones have a much higher one for all purposes. To take a reverse example: why would the brontosaur and the tyrannosaurus rex have a CON level so high than no human can never expect to reach that stamina level (respectively 41 and 35)? This is, in my humble opinion, the huge problem when CON is linked with SIZ for every aspect of constitution.

You are right here. There are times where building an advantage in advance rather than on the flow is absolutely necessary to balance things. Something like bullet-timing, for instance, has so many consequences on combats that everybody around the table must agree on what it exactly allows or doesn't allow. And to do that, nothing best than well thought tested rule... in advance. To be fair, GURPS can be played in a really simply manner once characters are created... 3D6 under the skill and that is almost all. But, indeed, the character creation is what takes a lot of time.

Thank you. I'll watch it as soon as possible and tell its conclusions.