frogspawner

I don't think BRP makes that distinction though. That's a separate issue - but if you wanted it, maybe rapiers etc could be house-ruled as 'difficult' (i.e. half-chance) to dodge?

That sounds a good idea (for those of us who don't use separate attack/parry skills, anyway). Well, in your example (twenty archers on a wall) they will! That looks good too. (In fact it's hard to argue against the shield-arm being protected like that in any case). Bit tricky of not using Hit Locations though. And it's validated by Rust's... For Dex Ranks, wouldn't the equivalent rule simply be to forbid weapon-parrying of simultaneous attacks, i.e. those on the same Dex rank?

But the point here is it gives you that protection whether or not you're skilled with a shield. So why not concentrate on developing (whatever) weapon skill, and just pick up a shield when facing archers?

Any difference between force and effectiveness is too fine a distinction to worry about.

'Twould seem so!

What were typical rewards for outlaws in the Old West? That might help, if you can estimate the GP-to-Dollars exchange rate...

It's fine by me! :-) It's a workable, not-too-unrealistic rule - to me. I'm not insisting anyone else use it, just suggesting it, as requested. If a rapier hasn't done as much damage, it hasn't been as effective. A great axe has greater reach and sweeps through a greater area, so it should be harder to dodge, one could argue... Against such Big Nasties you'd be daft to rely on just Dodge... or just Parry.. or just Armour... you'd better have all three!

I can't think of any, but there's no need. We shouldn't reject a rule just because no-one's used it before - nothing new would ever be invented! Damage is the measure of a blow's effectiveness - whether from strength or skill (via special/critical) or whatever. So I see no problem with also using Damage to measure the counter-effectiveness of Dodging. In fact, it's neat.

Hmm, -45% from skills but probably a price worth paying.

Dodge reducing damage by a fixed amount is fine. Fast attacks aren't necessarily weak, and slow ones aren't necessarily heavy - that's just your assumption. There's no connection with attack-speed in that rule. Larger weapons may be harder to dodge due to longer reach... Not your mistake, that was Rosen's implication ("Not only that..." referring to your "halving damage"). But I missed that too until now. Well, fancy that! Me too! Ah - "through"! Now that may help - but I'm not sure even that really 'disfavours the armoured'. This exceeds the capacity of my poor brain...

It's a nice idea to have a kind of 'HeroQuest' to enact a Resurrection spell. I'd favour erosion of the character, though, rather than an all-or-nothing succeed/fail test - which is likely to leave you with the same 'dead character' problem half the time. In RQ2 (the real one!), characters lost 15% from most skills each day they were dead (and progressively lost their magic spells too).

My way is definitely "something else": Normal Dodge avoids 10 damage, Special 20, Critical All. (No fumble effect - but also no extra-attacks or anything. Keep It Simple.) I also allow Dodge in addition to Parry, even of the same blow. (Hence avoiding the 'which is better?' problem.) The trouble with halving damage is it means Dodge isn't that great for the unarmoured (or lightly armoured).

Voted before looking - SO glad I didn't spoil it! Nine-nil, nine-nil, nine-nil...

I see now. Thanks again!

So Lifekeeping herbs work if applied (shortly) after 'death' - Thanks! I presume the 'dead' would then recover if their body was healed-up normally? (If not, and Life-giving in some form is still required, that'd seem to make the lifekeeping pointless. Also I don't know of any 'awaken the lifekept' herbs in RM).

Nope, no contradictions there. Except for what you say about POW being impossible to increase beyond 21 - but I'd be surprised if that's correct.

Not quite on-topic, but could anyone please tell me just what effect RoleMaster "Lifekeeping" herbs had?

Well that's good. It's nice to have permission from the author herself for some such crossover, even if it doesn't become canon. But no bog-standard elves/dwarves/hobbits/orcs/trolls - well, I guess that's a good thing too! Thanks for the guidance...

How about a Bar-Room Brawl? (Can you get hold of the 'Rumble at the Tin Inn' RQ scenario from White Dwarf 33?) Being on an airship would make it a bit more risky...

Yes, this is very good news. An official setting for BRP! It deserves our wholehearted support. I wonder what already-published stuff might be compatible with Future Earth...for example, how easily would it accommodate The Realm of Classic Fantasy? Could/should any of SharedWorld be transplanted (even unofficially) to Urth? PS: Is there anything more than coincidental similarity to the Urth found in the 'Book of the New Sun' books?

Very close to the premise I've used for my campaign. Go for it! :thumb: I got around this by giving them, instead of simple sanity-blasting horribleness, mind-blasting psionics. This seemed 'right' to me, because psionics had been in AD&D since time immemorial but also most people think nobody in their right mind would use them! >:->

I give only half the usual HPs (yes, half). But let 'em stay alive until -CON. (Basically, Zero HP is the 'Major Wound Level). This has three effects: (1) PCs are more nervous of losing HPs and try even harder to protect themselves. (2) Although running away on half-HP (or even less) may be seen as cowardly, it is perfectly acceptable if you're on zero/negative. So foolish heroics are minimized. (And falling down unconscious below -CON/2 also helps). (3) Although they feel more vulnerable and as though they have less, characters effectively have about 50% more HPs.

Well, attached here is the one-page char-gen for my own homebrew, that I will be converting for BRP when I get time. (And others can do so for other systems, I guess). Quick and easy, and every player can have a copy - so no problem there. If that still isn't quick enough for you, the GM could always pre-gen a half-dozen characters and hand them out. Keep adventures short, one-session affairs until you're confident the drop-out problem is past. The BRP QuickStart freebies (converted to your preferred genre) are ideal. As for marketing, well I've made my suggestion before: something like the attached char-gen, plus a one-page (solo?) adventure on the back, printed by the hundred and posted through letter-boxes. Or for a more targetted audience, stuck amongst the D&D books on the shelves at your local Waterstones... BRQp1.pdf

True. For my own variant, I've trimmed char-gen down to one page (quick and easy, with hopefully still enough details included to be interesting). I will be doing a version for straight(-er) BRP when that reaches the top of my to-do list again...

Shame. I wasn't really meaning 'stand-alone' with no GM, just that the GM/Players could visit at separate times. It is possible to do that as well as having all the VTT features you mention, e.g. RPGtonight. (NB: This is not a recommendation! Also unfortunately, that site is kludgy as heck - nice idea, though...)