frogspawner

Even that could be too much. How about...?

A) Three-word character summary

Max ten word background description (or other length, to taste)

C) Similar-length 'statement of intent' (what the character wants, as per that article)

and optionally D) About 3 BRP/Pendragon Personality Traits

I like the rule as it's simple and easy, but it does leave out the encumbrance part.

Well, you didn't actually ask about encumbrance, now did ya? But since you ask so nicely, here's mine rule for that...

"Encumbrance Capacity: SIZ x (STR + 10) / 20 (x14 lbs). Over half Encumbers: Movement, Initiative & Dex-based skills are x1/2.

Armour Burden (Light/Moderate/Heavy) can affect physical (generally DEX-based) skills, movement rate and magic spell-casting.

Light: no skill penalty, -1 Move, +10% Magic fumble. Moderate: Skills x1/2, -2 Move, +20% Magic fumble. Heavy: Skills x 1/10, -3 Move, +30% Magic fumble. Listen/Spot skills are greatly disadvantaged (x1/10) in Full/Great Helm; Lock-picking, Shooting Bows and Playing Instruments are impossible in Gauntlets. Anyone not trained to the burden of armour is automatically Encumbered."

Not so neat as the Fatigue rule, and I don't usually invoke it. But it's there, just in case anyone tries anything too blatantly unreasonable...

I allow Parry and Dodge. Thus the problem disappears.

Here's mine...

"Fatigue: Exertion (e.g. combat) for a turn requires a CONx5 roll to avoid Fatigue (Movement, Initiative & all skills x1/2) or if already fatigued Exhaustion (x1/10). Recovery from fatigue requires rest for 1 hour; exhaustion 8 hours."

An add-on for those occasions it seems warranted, yes. Something to track all the time (or for spell-points) - heck, no!

1. HeroQuests - how to run in BRP (the eternal problem that led to HeroWars).

Soltakss has a good way to handle these, with plenty of examples on his site.

I'd suggest that if those in SC aren't compatible with this, then they need fixing...

OpenQuest is nothing like RQ3. It is based off the MRQ1 SRD but it is a radical simplification of it. ...

It evolved from MRQ1 in that it used the MRQ1 SRD as a means to build a publishable game...

Thanks, gents. I have looked-over OQ, but didn't find it memorable. I was unimpressed and was just left thinking it was too MRQ-ish for me. It's free, but I still recommend buying original RQ2.

What about I just use OpenQuest - is it any good? It seems to be getting good reviews.

Isn't it based on MRQ1, the sucky one?

So has the D&D system of hit points and saving rolls going up as a character progresses not made it into CF?

Nope - and rightly not.

How can a high-level CF character wade through a horde of hundreds...?

With heroic bravery, clever tactics, skill and luck - not by being a bullying 'sack of *hits', like in D&D.

Apologies to threedeesix, it's author, but - no. (Not for that Iron Age campaign, anyway).

CF is for if you want to play something reminiscent of AD&D. (But with the worst bits of rules excised).

The basic rules of original RuneQuest (Chaosium RQ2, I assume) can be simulated with the appropriate BRP options, right there in the book. (Anyone care to specify which?)

If you're really after that RQ2 feel, though, there are (sadly) many aspects BRP misses out. But - you should be able to pick up a real RQ2 book on eBay for less than a tenner. (I have, in readiness for a campaign soon with newbie players...)

Pro-BRP: You have the book already, and your ideas for adapting it's magic to that setting sound just fine.

Pro-MRQ2: Heroic abilities sound suitable, and having the author answer questions within 45 mins of your posting can't hurt, either!

It depends on the setting. Plentiful, magical healing - possibly even Resurrections & Divine Interventions - and gross damage is fine.

Sounds right to me. I expect it's common to allow a choice on a critical hit, but whether that's RAW I don't know.

Personally I use Criticals equal Specials, but ignore armour too (so the effects stack nicely).

It seems to me SIZ/CON should just be set to whatever is required to get the HPs right.

But what is the 'right' value for HPs?

...the player of the most sociopathic character ... declared that he wants to play a "knightly" character next...

It's a trick! He's been reading this thread and wants to deflect you from bringing in Traits rules, the Sociopath's Bane!

With the exception of Dodge this is exactly what RQII does.

That's Mongoose (MRQ2) I take it, not RQII.

I think a combined Brawl/Grapple is good, but Spot & Listen (etc) should be separate. Just last week I was playing under a GM in the habit of calling for "Perception rolls...". But my character had very good eyesight (but not as good hearing), so I was always having to ask for clarification: "Spot or Listen?". Also, having just one Perception-type skill makes it a bit 'uber' - they're already verging on overly important.

This is why I say that for the most part in-game responses to behavior you don't like are, fundamentally, pointless; if the player was the sort to really respond to that, you wouldn't need to do it.

I sincerely hope the intransigent player described is very rare. I remain convinced a good game mechanic can do the trick in most cases.

It doesn't help that many players are used to getting, bluntly, no help from the GM in getting the kind of game they want, so they simply try to turn any game they're in into that sort of game.

Oh heck yes, I can relate to this - from the player side. Hence I'm keen that any Traits mechanic should be player-driven, not a way for the GM to puppet player-characters. And Carrot, not Stick.

Have you players define small set of “personality traits” or “motivations” for their characters. Whenever the players role-play these traits well enough in game, you could reward them for good roleplaying by allotting them a few Fate Points.

Sounds good! Sadly I don't use FPs, but this easy method should do just fine for others.

I had a player who stole stuff and picked fights every chance he got, the guards would come, he would fight then run away, get arrested; throw the whole “planned” adventure off course.

How about asking such players to bring along a spare character "to avoid interrupting the game when the troublemaker is executed" ?

Hopefully that would be enough, and you wouldn't have to use the spare. But if it wasn't and you did, it still works.

Aesthetically speaking I don't like characters spending more time in negative HPs than positive ones. (I've played D&D twice in my life and in one of them my character spent most of the game on minus something HPs; not dead just useless.)

You're welcome. The psychological effect of being on negative HPs is significant though. It's a serious danger signal, and makes it 'socially acceptable' for a character to duck out of combat - leading to greater chances of survival, without (too many) extra HPs. You might want to build that idea into your system too. (And for your D&D problem - try the 'Die Hard' feat...)

What I would like to get to is a pulpish system where characters are about as robust as they are in MRQII without using locations and without throwing Hit Points at the problem which is what the BRP heroic option does and without adding more dice rolls into the mix routinely.

The point with my system given above...

Character HP = SIZ / 2 (round up). But characters don't die until their HP go below minus CON. <etc>

Well, no offence, but I'll stick to the mechanism I use:

Character HP = SIZ / 2 (round up). But characters don't die until their HP go below minus CON.

Any injury taking them to 0HP or below disables the location hit (if that's Head, they go unconscious).

Any injury taking them to -5HP or below is serious.

Any injury taking them to -10HP or below is major.

I think it's simpler, seems to give less HP (though in fact giving about 50% more) - and scares the heck out of players!

...or something like the EnGarde! fencing system may be what you're looking for. Several manoevres are planned in advance, with 'rests' in between, and then the simultaneous actions of each side cross-referenced against each other to determine the outcome. Nothing like BRP of course!

But I did once write a program for automated combat that combined the two... (if anyone's interested, I could put it online).

I'd recommend going Borderlands has a nice link to Griffin Mountain, so you could chain them onto each other. The gloranthan classics are really great! Buy them all!

Hmm, except Borderlands isn't quite meant for starting characters. It'd probably do, but... play somewhere I can join in and you can borrow my Pavis & Big Rubble to start us off - plus the others!

Oh... The discussion has moved far ahead! Yes I do like what I see!

Glad to be of service!

Sorry, not CoC! <shudder> Have a weekend group here, currently doing D&D <spit>. So I'd be happy to join some midweek BRP/RQ group myself. York's just a bit too far tho'... Could probably stretch to Skipton?

Steve Wells

Yes, but I still haven't found such a mechanic.

Do you not like the one we're currently thrashing out in the (now rather hi-jacked) Alternative Experience System thread, then?