frogspawner

I limit the number of ticks to INT. (It's not such an admin overhead, since you only have to assess it when increase-rolls are done, erasing excess ones then). Depending on how many ticks your players tend to amass, that may or may not be a benefit to you.

Also, I don't give the '+1/2 INT' bonus on increase-rolls. Instead I have a threshold of '100-INT', rolling over which always gives an increase no matter how high the skill. This slows down increases at lower skills but speeds it up for higher skills, so it may or may not help your situation.

Thirdly, if your players seem to be rolling more 6's than are statistically likely , you might consider changing to give a flat +3% per increase instead. (I also rate some skills as harder than normal and give them just +2 or +1 per increase, in fact).

Relevant skills increase by +d8 (or +d10?) instead of the normal +d6?

1) IrfanView seems up to it.

2) "BRP p.XYZ" would do, wouldn't it?

3) Dunno - soz!

4) Or was it something someone else said around here recently?

Alternatively, there's this thread over on the Order of The Stick site (heavily D&D oriented), bemoaning the unrealism of that system's Hit Points mechanism...

How Hit Points Ruin SoD - Giant in the Playground Forums

So is there hope the tables may yet be turned, one day?

I'm also using an alternative experience system, but I dare not post it for fear of being called a heretic...

Heretic! :mad:

...There, now that's out of the way, you might as well tell us.

Glad to be of service! :cool:

Have you ever been a "Tolkien burn-out" ? If so, how did you "cope with it" ?

How about a "Twisted Tolkien" campaign? You're welcome to try an idea I had, when watching the LotR films: What if Elrond had got hold of The Ring when Sauron was (physically) slain? He'd have just chucked it straight in the Cracks of Doom, like he told Isildur, and that would've been that, right? Wrong! IMHO, the power of The Ring should stop anyone being able to do that. So Elrond and his kin would be slowly corrupted over the millenia...

Do the possibilities of that fire your imagination at all? I see the Dark Vale of Rivendell populated by monstrous wraith-elves with glowing green eyes, centre of an empire of enslaved sub-races (e.g. gollum-like twisted hobbits), amid shattered remnants of once-allied-then-betrayed human/elven nations, with black magic abounding, Sauron's jealous shade inspiring weird cults... and somewhere Isildur's ghost saying to an old man "I was there Gandalf, three thousand years ago, when the strength of elves failed...".

Hah! That was two years in to my subscription IIRC! :eek:

Well, there's Old - and then there's Venerable...

Can't remember which game I got it from...

I also can't remember where it came from.

White Dwarf #25. That's definitely Old School!

I can't review it before it arrives, and don't include me in that round of drinks either - neither of those wouldn't be ethical. :innocent:

Ditto all that. Soz.

The copy of BRP in TM York looks distinctly lonely on the shelf all on it's own...

Yes, I felt exactly the same about the copy in TM Leeds a while back...

As penance, perhaps you could stat the Red Mist. Sounds like a fun thing to throw at unsuspecting players. >:->

Ah, I'd only overlook some vital detail... :ohwell:

I'd say, not wanting to re-invent the wheel, the Red Mist should use mechanics like a Fanaticism-type spell and/or Barbarian Berserking. Which I hope to see soon in my hard copies of Tywyll's BRP Magic Monograph and Threedeesix's Sword & Spell, respectively... obtained for reasonable postage and without having to pay twice!

I was mistaken. Thanks for pointing out that PS and putting me right.

If the Red Mist hadn't descended first at Dustin's pay twice 'joke'(?), and then Nick's sighing, maybe I would've spotted it for myself.

Fingers crossed that does actually lead to wider availability...

What Dustin was talking about was conventional print and distribution - which will indeed put In Search of Troll Slayer in patriot Games and at IGUK and most other retail outlets.

That'll be great - if true.

But I suspect it's just wishful thinking on your part to believe In Search of the Trollslayer and the other upcoming supplements are in an entirely different business model from BRP Adventures etc. I believe otherwise - that monographs are Chaosium's 'normal print and distribution' method for all things BRP. (Because, amongst other reasons, it says "monograph" on the cover, see? BTW, is it my turn to sigh patronisingly now?)

Really? Patriot Games to name but one game stores in Leeds / Manchetser / Huddersfield / York, or IGUK or one of the other UK based online retailers? IGUK will deliver MM to your door for £20.49...

Yes, really - because MM was just an example of a similar-sized book from Chaosium (I don't actually want MM). So thanks for those links but, unless Patriot/IGUK will also sell stuff like BRP Adventures and the upcoming supplements, then it doesn't help - and, from a quick look, I could only find the BRP core book (£21.99!).

...the BRP tome which some (me included) had hoped would give us a soild foundation and remove need (or 'need') for yet more houserules

Grind that hope out of yourself, Al - that ain't never gonna happen. (PS: 'soild foundation' didn't annoy me at all. Very apt in the context of Opposed-Roll-Only combat. Thanks for that one!)

The mathematics and subtraction are the same, aren't they? And Vorax has already said he's ok with that.

But that still leaves unanswered...

Disadvantages:

you lose criticals and specials (and fumbles?)

But in general these circumstances have not yet arisen, nor are they likely to.

Er, these circumstances exist now. Frex, BRP Adventures is currently PDF-only, as are others I believe.

On the contrary - producing a book to the point of being print ready incurs exactly the same costs, irrespective of how you are going to print it. So at that point, ones is out of pocket and must select a print & distribution method that will guarantee to cover those already incurred costs.

I'm talking about books they've already produced - so that's a point in favour of selling it any and every way available!

And, as Rome's "in my hand" price of £34 vs. say £22 for Malleus Monstrorum...

I just calculated this and the "in my hand" price for Malleus Monstrorum would be £34.44. Because for me, there's a large shipping cost to consider - with POD, that would be dramatically reduced.

What works for one company (e.g. Alephtar) may well NOT work for another (e.g. Chaosium).

So what are Chaosium doing wrong, that means - even though they're such 'experienced/established' publishers - they don't offer such good service to their customers? :confused:

Could Chaosium make more use of PoD for out of print books? Probably, albeit a lot of the older stuff they just don't have good enough master files for from what I've heard.

That's not really relevant, since I'm talking about new and upcoming stuff. "Out of Print" only in the sense that Chaosium is unwilling to print the hard-copies to go with the PDFs.

They already use PoD to make the monographs available in print.

Since Chaosium use POD already (when it benefits themselves), there should be no issue over print quality.

I see no harm in them making this plain, and I'm afraid that PoD is currently being bandied around, as PDF was a few years ago, as some sort of magic wand that will just magically solve all problems. It isn't, and it won't.

No need to be defeatist. Just because one idea didn't live up to expectations once, doesn't mean a new idea won't!

Highest roll equal to or under your skill level just feels weird.

Yes, I actually agree with you on that. And the "feel" is very important, imho.

(Thought I'd mention the possibility, though, since you might have thought the 'feel' of having to do subtraction was weirder.)

You either succeed or you don't. The bigger the difference between your roll result and your skill level, the better you perform.

Now that's contradictory. Can you please clarify: Are you proposing an On/Off Success/Fail system, or one with some form of Criticals/Specials/Fumbles? How "better"?

It's a bit fiddly. If you're really ignoring Degrees Of Success (special, critical etc), then why not just say the higher roll - that's equal to or under the skill - wins?

Also, there'd be no way to get better-than-normal results. So things'd be a bit 'samey'.

Related to that, would you still have fumbles? If so, it seems unfair you could do worse than normal, but never better. If not - shame on you! Fumbles are Fun!

That is the question... would it be more money? The margins with print-on-demand are slim and you would only make more money if people who aren't buying the pdfs are buying the pod-version (or there really are a lot of people who would buy both). On the other hand, you would probably make less money if people are buying the pod-version instead of the pdf.

So... the reason against Chaosium making their PDF-only items available via POD is to encourage/force customers who actually want printed versions into making-do with PDFs? I can't say I'm terribly sympathetic to that attitude.

If monographs are mainly pdf's in the present and future, then that's ok with me.

It seems odd to me they call these promised upcoming BRP supplements "monographs". Aren't they commissioned by Chaosium itself? They seem more like core products. I guess I'll just have to hope Chaosium have sufficient commitment that printed copies will be available, and for long enough so I can get 'em all in one go - and thus afford the postage!

So, currently, I would prefer to buy the book and .pdf from the publisher.

However, if I buy the physical book, I would like the .pdf to come free or at minimal additional cost.

That's a rather different proposal, and would cut Chaosium's margins further - which they obviously wouldn't like.

What I'm suggesting is, when they're not printing a book themselves, they make it available via a 3rd-party print-on-demand service.

That'd cost them nothing as far as I'm aware, and might even get them a little bit more money...

It is available as a printed product. I have a copy. It might be out of print right now, but it does exist. The monographs are printed in very small print runs (50 iirc) via a POD printer.

Um, that means it's not available, printed. And it's a worse situation, because I did buy the PDF - but now it's out-of-print anyway!

(I'm not actually worried about this one [bRP Adventures]. I had it printed at my "FLPS" as an experiment - which failed, on quality. Ah well. I've got the PDF which, for adventures now I think about it, is fine. Sourcebooks would be a different matter, though...)

Question. Are you peeved because Chaosium has this practice (the practice of only printing books they can afford to print -- a policy held by most publishers ) or that they stated it in a public forum?

I'm peeved because it shows they don't understand the frustration of a potential customer who wants to get hold of decently printed copies. The possibility of letting some other company print the books (that they decide they can't afford to) is just not on their agenda.

Actually, I'm glad Dustin stated it - because resulting discussion might lead to the situation improving...

Would you be willing to pay more for that book via a POD publisher than you would if Chaosium had the wherewithal to have that same book professionally printed at one of their normal printers?

Would it be more? Are POD publishers not professional? I've just bought BRP Rome off Lulu, so yes I am willing to pay their price and hopefully the quality won't prove too disappointing (and hopefully I'll find out soon!).

For me, being over here in England (or Yorkshire, at least ), there's also the issue of shipping costs. From Chaosium, that'd likely double the price - which is prohibitive. From Lulu, it only adds a fiver or so, which is fine.

BTW, have you asked Chaosium why they don't use a POD service to get some of their books out there?

No I haven't. Firstly, I'm canvassing opinions here to see if it's even a sensible/feasible option. Then, if so, hopefully someone with a more direct line to the Chaosium guys would put it to them...

I may need to rethink my business model. :ohwell:

Nah. To a business person, yours is much the better model.

Buying the PDF and then having it printed at a local printshop doesn't get you out of paying twice, you just pay two different people.

I know. That's what I did with BRP Adventures. The quality (of binding) was poor, but at least it avoided the shipping cost and I got it fast. (And is it available non-PDF even now?)

... to Chaosium, "Popular" and "Profit" basically mean the same thing...

Well then you can tell Chaosium that their attitude makes them not-at-all 'profitable' with me...

The rest of that post is such a mess I'm inclined to ignore it all!

On the contrary, I don't think we should ignore it. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to just whine and complain. There's a real problem here - a danger that we might miss out on the printed BRP books we want (well, I do, at least!). So we should solve that problem.

How about this: Anything Chaosium think is not "profitable enough to print", they could make available via print-on-demand. Since they'd have the PDF anyway, what'd they lose? And it might even make them a bit more profit/popular...

I don't think (my own assumption here, of course ) that they have developed a retail strategy based on selling two copies of a given product to any or all customers.

You don't? That is the thrust of what he said. For myself, I don't think he was joking - or at least not entirely joking...

I have no means to know who bought a physical copy, whereas I know who bought a PDF.

How about if we tear off the front cover and post it to you...?