frogspawner

Have you seen the preview...? It made me quite enthusiastic. But now they seem to be back-tracking somewhat and it may not be the return to a more RQ2-style combat that I had hoped for, after all. Loz/Pete seem to have done good things with combat manoeuvres and the various types of magic, though. However, it's clearly still not the true Glorantha setting, just the newly-made-up "2nd Age" stuff. But then, even the HeroWars/Quest "3rd Age" stuff isn't proper Glorantha anymore, either... ;-(

It looks a decent, workmanlike effort - and well supported with adventures. And Cthulhu-optional. (Mind you, what campaign of any genre doesn't have something Cthulhoid in it?) With the added advantage of the "Cthulhu" name-tag, to 'leverage' access to that all-important FLGS shelf-space... Right, that's the SciFi settled then. :thumb: So the rest of us can concentrate on "Classic Apocalypse" ...or perhaps "Cthulhu Apocalypse" (for more shelving)? Now that IS a thought... maybe it should be a mythos-related apocalypse (instead of nuclear/global warming). After all, if any of your save-the-world CoC adventures actually fails, what do you play next?

I meant Mr Leary (threedeesix) - he owns the "Classic..." franchise, after all! (Soz for not being clearer). (PS: Nice to know you've got more, doubtless good, stuff coming, tho'!)

So, how can we get around that little problem? Because it sounds like it'd be great. Could folks around here contribute various bits, and Mr L (3d6) paste it together? For "Classic SciFi", I'm reminded of Doc Smith, rather than any serious SF authors. (But there was a GURPS Lensman, so I guess SJG own that. Still, battle-axes in zero-g...! That sort of style). It strikes me that a "Classic Apocalypse" could include stuff for runaway colony starships (Metamorphosis Alpha) as well as the ruined (Gamma-) World. They'd logically fit in the same universe. Also, I'd suggest a world ruined by runaway global warming ("Scorched Earth"?), rather than (just) nuclear war/disaster, would fit better with modern concerns. (There, you see? I'm almost inspired. And it's not even my genre!)

Gamma World. And/or Metamorphosis Alpha. (Hmm, didn't Mr Leary mention running GW? We've found his next project!)

Well, I'd be very happy to be proved wrong, and seeing BRP material occupying one foot or more of under-head-height shelf space would do that. But how good does the spine of Dragon Lines look? Precious few books if any were displayed face-forward in the RPG section. (BRP scored here, because it's spine isn't black). Trollslayer was there (1 copy) but I didn't see it (until later, by sheer luck) - miles away from BRP itself, down at knee-level (and it's very thin). I guess the BRP line isn't well-known enough for them to be put together. Default is apparently alphabetical order of title. Sadly, in this shop, that left BRP languishing awkwardly high up and almost in the very far corner, nearly blocked by stuff on the end-wall. (And it was half-hidden by some other odd-shaped books that jutted out). Maybe if everything was titled "BRP: x/y/z", then they'd be sure to be together en masse? Better yet, if they were called "Cthulhu: x/y/z", maybe they'd command some of the prime shelf-space the CoC-related material does... :ohwell: So, even if the stuff does get to the shops, there are still plenty more hurdles.

Hmm. Today I was such a person. (Travelling Man, Leeds). Quite depressing though, from a BRP perspective, I'm afraid. Shelf-upon-jam-packed-shelf of glossy RPG stuff (4E, Pathfinder, WFRP, SW, Conan d20...). One solitary copy of BRP high, high up and basically lost amongst it all. Even with a copy-or-three of Classic Fantasy next to it, BRP would still not have any significant 'presence'. Something more is required.

Unless they were "free" in such a way that allowed them to be reprinted inside other non-free publications (adventures/settings), perhaps?

I sort-of guessed that, and hope you don't mind too much my jumping-in with suggested solutions (in hope of promoting my preferences, rather than for your benefit). We should probably make allowances for him, considering people buying books is what allows him to eat. Hopefully, future BRP adventures/settings/etc will fix the "Rules Confusion" problem by recommending options, and specifying how to deal with such things. (Maybe by reprinting/referencing the FAQ page we're now going to compile?) Would Uncounted Worlds also be a suitable place for such things? After all, it is freely available from the Chaosium site, and may reach a bigger, or at least different, audience. (Mr Middleton?)

Fair points. Thanks! (Though 4 is handled, 'cos modifiers like "-10%" or whatever are in the system, but maybe not well-defined what their values should be. Similarly 3a is left for the GM to decide, which is a bit woolly). I suspect the problem is that long-time BRP-ers have all developed their own House Rules to cover these wrinkles, and others. So we don't notice them. Personally, I... 1. Translate monsters from other systems (by various rules-of-thumb, and bodged formulae thrown together over the years); 2. Use the old RQ-style combat, so shields/weapons block damage equal to their AP (and weapons have fewer AP); 3. Use the same base for all similar skills (see 5); 4. Actually don't bother with fiddly "-10%" mods or whatever, anyway! (x2, x1/2 seems fine to me); 5. Use the ONE most relevant stat for a skill's base percentage, and coarser-grained character generation where previous experience buys you multiples of that stat to add on. (I should probably have a mechanism whereby skills vary if their parent-stat changes, too, but never felt the need). Hopefully, as has been pointed out before, now the work has been done drawing all the disparate BRP systems together into the one book, future publications can begin to address these issues - as, it seems, is happening with Classic Fantasy...

Yes, I interpret it more hopefully: we who have met BRP-systems have stuck with them, even for up to thirty years! A similar age-survey of players of other games, those more prevalent these days like D&D and Warhammer, might be interesting. I suspect the age-range would be the opposite of ours - vastly more short-term (predominantly younger) players. I bet it's due to the dominance of other shallower games. People play them for a short time, get bored, grow out of it, and quit - thinking they've "done roleplaying - that's for kids...". (This is particularly evident with WH/40K). A great shame. We're back to exposure. Show 'em there's something better than bashing stuff: plots, personality, moral dilemmas, character development - real roleplaying. Our survey says... experiencing a more satisfying system gives people a hobby for life.

1976. (Or was it '77? I can't remember now!) You're as old as you feel...!

Brill - that's spot-on. I shouldn't've worried! Absolutely - both. They are completely compatible ideas. If we just adopt a "thin veil between the worlds" approach, then there's no need to go messing wiith anyone else's work. Any author who actually wants a more direct connection with SharedWorld, or even a place in it, can just 'contribute' their idea of where/how it fits (or anyone else could for that matter, as any GM might, without interfering with the creation itself).

Not just the word. But the word does need to be got out, for anything else to happen.

But surely it must be Chaosium's, since they re-issued the Magic Book, another part of RQ3, as 'Basic Magic'? I guess I really mean 'who owns the IP?', since it forms a story with named characters. Does Basic Magic still contain the "Cormac's Saga" examples of the RQ3 Magic Book? (It's so much easier to use something already written. Chaosium seem to favour that approach! And I don't see how Vikings could be off-limits.)

Whose copyright is it?

Different worlds don't need to be very different. Players could pass from one to another without even realizing. My version of SharedWorld would have a normal sun, but be otherwise similar to everyone else's version. Maybe future contributors might prefer my version, who knows? Fortunately, we don't have to make that decision. Or any such decision. What I'm suggesting means we don't have to argue. Everyone should simply contribute whatever they can, whatever they like - building on other people's ideas or ignoring them or contradicting them - it doesn't matter. Even alternative, contradictory geographies: they can just be different parallels (or used as false maps...) Certain ideas, presumably the better ones, will gain a consensus.

Exactly. The transfer mechanisms really must be vague so players can't use them until the GM wants them to. A 'menu' of (unreliable!) methods is good idea. Even a particular place defined on a map may be too well-defined. It could lead players to expect that if they go there, they will be able to plane-hop, somehow. Plane-hopping that players control could too easily wreck a GMs whole campaign. I liked the way it was for Moorcock's Corum in the first story - he managed to 'fade' from one world to a nearby one only in extremis (when the bad guys had maimed him), and even then only in a limited fashion; and in a later story he was summoned against his will, IIRC. More like that, perhaps.

Well, I rather suspect that it is at least 50% about exposure - probably even more. Players cannot choose "System B" over "System A" if they don't know B exists. No matter how good B's features (or how bad A's). Exposure is required to make players aware of B. Within that, players that know B exists can't be preferring the features of A until they have seriously considered/played B. Only then can features/taste come into it. Even more exposure is required to make players consider/try B. So it's could be about 75% exposure. Businesses invest large amounts in advertising, so evidently they also think it's significant.

Don't think I know him (maybe some relation?) but personally I was satisfied with the other two typos.

RQ2 in '82. A mate of mine ran a campaign (Pavis-based), and it was so great I thought 'I could never match that' - and spent the next 20 years or so trying to tweak my own D&D-based rules to be as good...

OK, 'tis done here - into Downloads/Generic. Now to spread the word elsewhere...

So - Go for it, all! One down, five to go (we definitely need #6, those BRP Bikini Babes).

"100,000 lemmings can't be wrong!"