frogspawner

"A target suffering a crushing special success" may be stunned, the BRP rule says. Should this apply if the target successfully parries, or if the parrying weapon gets shattered outright, or if the parrying weapon doesn't shatter but still breaks due to HP loss, or only if residual damage gets through armour, or even if no damage gets through at all (perhaps due to concussion effect) ? The odd wording seems to imply the latter, but I'd welcome other opinions.

Exactly. More evidence the answer to the OP is (lack of) Marketing. The question now is: What to do about it? Personally I favour a bare-bones introductory adventure*, on a single A4 sheet (or possibly A3, and perhaps double-sided), so we can each print a hundred-or-two** and put 'em through people's doors like fast-food flyers. (* Or a series of 'em, for different genres) (** What? Don't you have access to a work copier? >:->)

But it'd be great to come up with a simple way of generating 1-100 by rolling d6's... ...'cos it'd help BRP marketing a lot if potential new players didn't have to get 'weird' dice first.

It'd still be a pain to recalculate attack-chances (and hence special/critical/fumble chances too) all the time, especially if it's being split in possibly different ways each round. I prefer to use a version of Defence that is rolled as a normal skill, rather like Dodge, but in addition to parrying.

There's a built-in assumption that the target is defending themselves. If these enemy monster really were not trying to defend themselves at all, I'd say that shots/attacks against them should be Easy (x2), at least. If they were just standing there, it'd probably be Automatic (though personally, I use a "Very Easy" category, which gives x10). Another downside of 'opposed rolls'. Personally, again, I don't use 'em - and I don't require unnecessary rolls (i.e. parrying/dodging missed attacks), nor do I give fumbles for parry/dodge either - that's too harsh!

I'd put "Kaplow Double D10" on my Christmas List, if only I thought Santa would know what it meant (or where to find one)...

I find it hard to believe rolling a d20 is significantly quicker than a d100 (i.e. two associated d10's). Time-savings in Fire & Sword combat come far more from elimination of strike ranks and hit locations, surely? For some people, I imagine, the D&D3.x (and F&S?) style of re-rolling on a 'threatened' special/critical to see if it actually happens could feel more dramatic, and add excitement. Quite right. I don't bother with measly modifiers for skills in my BRP, and tend to use proper manly x2 (easy) or /2 (difficult) multipliers.

Yes, this is the key point. The % scale is intuitive. The immediacy of knowing (i) your skills, and (ii) how well you just did, gives affinity with the character.

Very good question. I've met this problem too, and have a few tricks to help: 1) Dynamic Dodging. Anyone trying to Dodge has to shift back - just 5ft or so (or, if they've no room, go prone!). 2) Knockback/down. The spot rule lets blows be specified to knock the opponent back (or down, if aimed from above). This is only if they do more than SIZ damage (before armour etc), but should apply quite often with buffed-up weaponry (and threshold can be reduced, at GM discretion). 3) Interesting Scenery. Fights should rarely if ever be in a featureless flat plain. I especially like multi-height areas, with open stairways, balconies etc. Outside, there'd be bushes, steep banks, rabbit-holes... (This is very important, and gives 1 & 2 most of their usefulness. But I don't have a neat & non-arbitrary way of setting this up. Any ideas?) 4) Aiming for Gaps. I don't use hit locations, but let characters aim (at half chance) for where armour is less (about half value) if they wish. I for one would be happy to hear more suggestions...

Sad, but true. The new BRP book is 'a new hope' (though, incidentally, I took the original question to mean unpopular historically) but it's clearly up to us to flesh it out, and get out there proselytizing the masses...

It's not my genre, but I don't see why everything has to have an explanation, even in a Hard SF setting. In the RW, there are plenty of scientists researching into things that are not understood - to be realistic, the same should apply in SF settings. If a player wants to know why that river flows uphill, or that earthquake didn't happen in quite the way he thought it should, just ask him how many decades his character is going to spend researching the explanation (or how much they'll pay someone else to do so). It's just a way of signalling "this isn't relevant to the plot". (Any old-timers remember Orange Door-Rot and Purple Jelly?)

The requirement for it to be in a crisis situation. That should be enough to limit it, even if you widen it to allow POW gains for defensive resistance too.

May I suggest HP = SIZ/2 (but not dying until under -CON) ? I use that and it keeps some players scared of how few HPs they have (though in reality, of course, they have more than standard). Major Wound type effects kick in at 0hp, which seems more natural, too.

So it does. There's also skill modifiers for armour (and a consequent complication to exclude Armour-related Enc from the Dodge penalty, I now notice). All a bit too fiddly for me - but at least STR is in there somewhere...

Whereas I use fixed armour and no hit locs - what a softie!

There's no penalty until the FPs go below zero and, since they start at STR + CON, your Conan does have some advantage. I agree it doesn't seem enough though.

The only Encumbrance system I can see in the new BRP is that Fatigue Points = STR + CON is reduced by Enc. Quite simple and elegant in itself, but not applicable if you're wanting to use the "Simple Fatigue" system (roll CONx5 against being 'Fatigued' every so often), as I do, instead of counting FPs. Personally, I'm more concerned SIZ doesn't come into it. So I'm using a "Max Enc" limit proportional to SIZ x (STR + 10)/20 [x6 for standard Enc/kg, but I use x14 for weights in lbs]

I've used fixed armour and a Major Wound-like variant in my homebrew for a number of years with satisfactory results.

What sort of RQ did you advertise to get them interested? If it was old-time RQ and/or the world of Glorantha, the new Mongoose RQ might not be quite the thing. For more traditional RQ2/3 type stuff, a quick google found this ready-to-run adventure (complete with pre-gen characters): RQ Scenario: To Kill A Monster Could be good (and the rest of that site looks useful too - more adventures &c).

While we're on the subject, could someone please explain to me how come the "Distinctive Features" section is labelled as OGL in "Dragonlords of Melnibone" but not in the new BRP?

Grapple seems to fit pretty well, but I'd say Martial Arts (Grapple). These abilities should be very rare and special, so perhaps base them all on Martial Arts (X). Allow 'Martial Arts' for non-combat skills too (call it 'Expertise'?) - but that creates the problem of inventing special effects for them... PS: What is 'the Juggernaut one'?

I don't like to do it, much preferring carrot to stick, but for particularly blatant bad examples (such as, recently, a mage supposedly "Enquiring" and "Dynamic" persistently failing to look at a clue/book intruding into his dreams) I do have a mechanism: The GM can award "anti-ticks" for grossly anti-trait actions. If not cancelled-out by a normal tick by the next time increases are checked, it must be rolled-for. Failing the 'increase' roll will cause a decrease (d6, or whatever, as per normal increase). (Making higher traits/passions harder to keep up, but relatively soft on lower ones).

Yes, I've tried it. This is what I use (a bit like SDLeary's), and it seems to work OK: Players can choose one or two Passions/Traits for their character. They work as a percentage like any other skill (base = CHA%). If they can convince the GM it applies in a situation (e.g. Bravery would have to be combat against something that outsized/outclassed them), they get a roll. Success gives double chance for one roll of a related skill (i.e. it becomes Easy). Failure gives no penalty. (Limiting factor: they can't roll a 'Trait-skill' which already has an increase tick).

Hmm. Doesn't solve the problem of armour for 'normals', though... I happened across these recently and they are good, if few in number. But maybe MA-enhanced ability to Aim/Bash/Disarm/Entangle/Slam is all that's necessary... Then add the special tactics (Feint/Flurry/(Steady?)/Disarm(Parry)/Guard/Riposte/Standfast/Counter/Evade) at greater skill, and finally (if the setting permits) advance into the realms of Ki abilities... ? (Actually that is quite a few! You're right, they could be just the job!)

Thanks. It wouldn't really work for Fist/Foot/etc attacks, though - unless some other effect can be thought up to help get past armour. Relying on damage bonus to do that job seems against the MA ethos. Any ideas?