frogspawner

(Ooo - hypnotic multi-quote nesting.... And these smiley's really are bad, aren't they? My Big Grins and Winking aren't nearly clear enough.)

You wouldn't dare! OK, my apologies, HeirophantX. (Excuse: It was just crying out to be said. A humourous allusion to lack of print-quality, and rules-quality, in previous Mongoose publications. Plus, you did ask for it!) You may be interested to know that Mongoose RQ is not the same system as BRP (though perhaps becoming more similar due to the good efforts of Mr Nash and others). Trifletraxor created this forum as an alternative to the stifling, pro-Mongoose propaganda of their own site. You'll find some of that here, due to various interlopers generally on the Mongoose's payroll, but overall here we're much better balanced.

Plus we have at least one ODF currently. That's a thought - look through the existing downloads and see what extensions they have?

They are too. (Just found one and tested it). Phew! How about restoring the latest pre-upgrade backup into your TEST area, dumping off anything after the latest date we now have into a text file, an posting that for peeps to mine and re-post if they think it vital? (Any mileage or interest in that, anyone?)

It sounds to me like you've bought a Mongoose product. (Is it MRQ2?) If so... yes, you are crazy.

OK here's a (new?) bug - couldn't upload a PDF file. (I was trying to replace the PDF version of rpgstarwizard's alien-generation one I uploaded the other day, which has been zapped). The error message told me the file types I'm limited to uploading is:

I think my suggestion was "The Realm of Coronarea" (but I'm not totally sure). Derivation: Corona - glow around the sun, referencing the sun in Sky Mountain; also a synonym for "disk". + Area - synonym for "world"; also suggested in ironic(?) postings by tedopon/Rurik. ...Making it all a synonym for DiscWorld... Realm - also a synonym for "world", but most importantly a reference to "The Realm", the world in Classic Fantasy. Alternatively, or additionally as a name for a significant region, the "Land of Tzand" - a reference to the long-gone Tzandian Empire, of the Worlds of Wonder MagicWorld (a link with BRP's history). Anyone remember anything else from the "Lost Fortnight" of postings? Next step: test the Poll facilities...

Still happ'nin' at "http://basicroleplaying.com/forum/". But I just changed my bookmark to "http://basicroleplaying.com/forum/forum.php" and all is well...

Ditto. Also using Chrome (obviously, I can't use IE anymore now our EuroMasters have told us not to...) I feel rust's pain on this one. He's posted an absolute shed-load of stuff for his SciFi setting - and it's been totally wiped. Can it - and perhaps other stuff from the Lost Fortnight - be restored, please? I'm also a little saddened the BRP QuickStart downloads count has been put back to 127-ish again. It was up to 357+ and going well. I also don't know if the new download is from the same URL as I have merrily been posting about various forums... will eager new potential BRP-players now just be getting broken link?

Hi Joela. You can judge for yourself - as well as Newt's OpenQuest, the MRQ1 SRD and GORE are available for free in the Downloads area. (I take it you mean you've got the big new BRP book with a mutant 'Vitruvian Man' on the cover, but otherwise the BRP QuickStart is there too). Obviously most people around here should prefer BRP, including me. These are my reasons: Mongoose's version is RuneQuest only in name, them having rented the rights to that trademark from Greg Stafford who had nabbed it before Chaosium got their act together. There are quite a few differences from old-time RQ, and not good ones either IMHO - initiative, opposed-roll combat, only-HP-per-location, feat-like Legendary Abilities, a form of experience points instead of skill-ticks, Resilience/Persistemce skills replacing POWx5 and CONx5, and initially cacked-up combat and magic systems (most of which making it more D&D-like). Worst, though, they introduced 'Runes' as magic objects that you had to kill their owners to take - forcing D&D-like behaviour that turned me right off. With the rules They have rights to '2nd age' Glorantha, but not the traditional 3rd-Age/Hero Wars era, and that doesn't interest me. If you fancy it, though, I'd advise waiting for MRQ2 which looks like it may fix quite a few of those problems. OpenQuest is based on MRQ1. It's free (or can be), it's out there, and Newt is a nice guy. (But it's still too MRQ-ish for me. Soz!) GORE is apparently based on MRQ1 blended with Elric!, so is a bit more old-school. It pre-dates the new BRP, and people are a bit wary of it because it 'borrows' heavily from Elric!, but without Chaosium's permission (though it probably is, strictly speaking, legal). The new BRP is a toolkit of options from CoC and Stormbringer/Elric and the old WorldsOfWonder BRP. But you can stitch together the options to make pretty-much old-school RQ (or a simplifuied version, as is my preference), though it does have a few quirks (like the opposed-roll combat, which is a personal bugbear of mine). But such things are easy to house-rule away...

Happy Christmas, all. Cheers!

Plenty of good ideas - that's great! If anyone is inspired, please go for it (i.e. don't rely on me: I'm off for the hols with limited computer time/access, taking the kids to see their grannies - now Brum, next Kent). If we end up with with a range of different BRP Flyers - to suit different genres/audiences/tastes - then so much the better!

You're right, of course. But thanks! (Sigh, more space to find - and piccies...)

How would you feel about contributing your world & sector to the "SharedUniverse" project? (Which currently has nothing else but may or may not be deemed to be based on Nick's 'Gate Wardens' universe from Outpost 19, ultimately a variation of FutureWorld).

I accept the challenge. It's on my To Do list. (Firstly I'm doing a revised/ultralite version of my own homebrew, though.) By the way, I shan't be offended if anyone else wants to take this on, and beats me to it... Thanks! And I will - in fact I have (way back on page 12)... I'm hopeful there is still enough fat there that can be trimmed down to 2 pages. Obviously many things will have to be cut (like a char-sheet aready has). Any comments on how well/badly this succeeds would be helpful for the 2-pager... (I've attached it again - please see end-of-post). Was it this CoC QuickStart from Chaosium by any chance, or perhaps a translation? (Hmm, I note this CoC one is easy to download from their site, without a login - and even has a navigation bar link to it on their page headers... Why don't they do that for BRP, eh? :ohwell:) Were those flyers doing much the same as we're talking about here? Any ideas where they went wrong? Thanks. Only 1 or 2 Games Days many years ago, and a Fiasco II at the Royal Armouries a couple of years back. No shop-based Games Evenings that I can recall, ever. Probably just as well: "Mummy, if I play these games, will I end up like that silly man?" Exactly so. I shall do my best to "give us the tools"! BRP_Introductory_Guide_SJW.pdf

By time they finish with the BRP Flyer they'd have had a game: a solo mini-adventure in the style of that on the original 16-page BRP Introductory Guide. Obviously space would be made on the BRP Flyer for a website address - probably this one (and maybe Chaosium's). So they could come here for all the advice they need. Other players? No reason to think they won't play it with the friends they already have. (So each one-in-100 could actually be a group of half-a-dozen new players...) Dice though. Yes, that is a problem. Any ideas, anyone? Flyers can just as easily be distributed at Cons, to reach existing RPers. Even those without cash. Anyone can role-play. And an ultra-lite introductory BRP can be made simple enough for anyone. 1. Teaching the concept of "a RolePlaying game" is not that hard. Say "You are a...", and it's done! 2. Our new players need never know there are such big, bad RPGs out there. 3. Good examples will help a lot, I'm sure. 4. If they've got a flyer, they've already got the rules... FREE. 5. I suspect GM-ing at a con is more effort than posting flyers. But there's no reason not to do both. 6. Sitting at home, on your own, with your flyer... you go see if your friends got it too, maybe they can figure it out... Or try that website... ...But it really should be easy enough without that!

Woo-hoo! I see BRP Central has just had it's "eleventy-first" download of the BRP QuickStart! And in only a week - an achievement due to this thread. Personally, though, I think even that is over long. So could someone please point me at what Loz was referring to here...?

Well, the original thought behind this thread was perhaps that the BRP Book may be off-puttingly long. My suggested 'ultra-lite quick start' is therefore totally on-topic. Of course settings also help. CF isn't really a setting, but it could be said to be set in MagicWorld (which really needs a better name...), because both are designed to be generic. MagicWorld itself has little detail, but if you then add the good ideas from SharedWorld... ta-DA! And, for the SciFi fans, there's FutureWorld - as freshly revealed to us anew via Nick's in-print Outpost 19... So, is the "Call of Classic... (Fantasy, etc)" line looking a better option now?

Not particularly useful. It says "Direct marketing campaigns can be very effective... start by keeping it simple" - which I was thinking anyway - and the 3 'traps' they mention are not relevant. What would be useful is a link to... Well, I wouldn't say it's any better than 'unfocused mass-marketing' - because that's what it is ! And even 1% would be great. But I'd hope for better from a stack of BRP Flyers dumped around the bars etc at Game Conventions, of course...

'Leveraging' the CoC line could be a good way to get shelf-space in FLGSs - though perhaps more subtly than my suggestion above! Um, never heard of 'em, actually. (OK, I knew of the MIB RPG - from ebay - but presumed it was D20) All that effort, and for what? At cons they're still only 'preaching to the choir', advertising to existing RPG players. My preferred option is to make use of BRP's famous simplicity. Distil the rules into a one-or-two page introductory flyer - and give it away, anywhere and everywhere possible. Mail-shot your own street, and you might get a new gaming group on your doorstep! Very kind. I hope you have fun with that. Good Luck! Just make sure they don't send this twat: Is there any reason not to try both approaches at once?

So BRP should be promoted as "the CoC without Cthulhu"? "Tired of going insane and being eaten by slimy tentacled horrors from beyond? Play BRP!" Maybe a range of genre-specific offerings, all named "Call Of..." something evoking their genre (and preferably beginning with C). Hmm, "Call of Classic Fantasy", and similar "Call of Classic ..."s, might fit the bill.

In support of combining MagicWorld with SharedWorld, it clearly has it's fans, as in this MagicWorld thread.

Sounds good. Meantime, should we hold off posts/mods to the wiki, to minimize your conversion job?

Remove the Wiki? I've just been encouraging people to use it! It might be that it looks so good and 'official' that folks are a bit scared to put their stuff there. But if it were made clear we could & should, and perhaps made it a bit more prominent (particularly SharedWorld), then hopefully it would be used more. How do you think it should (have been) used? If it gets zapped, where will the content go?

That would be very kind of you. But I'm not sure when I'd get the chance to properly test them [your Spaceship Design rules]. Besides - why should I be so honoured, but others hereabouts miss out? Publish, and be... praised (I expect). Why not both? But also: Download or Wiki? I remember your SIZ table being highly acclaimed, so I'd say it clearly deserves a place in the Wiki. Though I don't really understand the criteria for putting things in one or the other. What's the difference? (If we put things in both places, though, we could run into versioning problems). The downside I see with the Wiki is the special formatting it needs; but it is better for collaborations, because it tracks changes. PS: I suspect a sticky 'ideas' thread would just add to the confusion. Things get lost in long threads, and hopefully it would become long. We probably have all the areas we need already, if we can use them right.