Aycorn

This simply takes me back to my own personal rule: only play with mature friends who you know aren't going to be bozos. Period.

RuneQuest - with a group of kids older than myself at a local library where they allowed us kids to use a room on the weekends.

I was entranced - this was what I had been yearning for. It had everything I felt D&D was missing.

The simple (and sarcastic-sounding) answer is: as much as you need and no more.

You want enough detail to be able to respond to questions or situations your players may think of, and to give your setting versimilitude.

On the other hand, it's all too easy to get bogged down in details that hold no interest for the players and no relevance to the game. That means you're spinning your wheels. The players may never even see it.

I know Sandy Petersen once wrote that a lot of times his private scenarios covered one side of one sheet of paper, and unimportant NPC's had no stats (i.e. a guard at a door who was just there to be killed or knocked out anyway).

Now, obviously in a published thing, it needs to be very detailed because that's what's expected. But those published things are worked on over time, and often by multiple authors. You (or I) may need something soon, and be working alone.

I once read a book on writing that gave a good analogy - I could probably look it up if anyone's interested - but in a nutshell, it suggested you imagine you're drawing pictures with a child. You sit down to draw, say, a barnyard. If you sit there and draw a fence, a barn, a rooser, a cow, a tractor, a farmer, etc ... that kid will get bored very fast. So you draw a fence and maybe a rooster and then you say to the kid - "okay - you draw the rest." It works the same way. The reader (or the player) needs room for their imagination.

Those are my thoughts, anyway.

Just downloaded this a couple nights ago. It's a real labor of love - thanks for doing it! I look forward to Vol. 2.

I always would have liked to have KANE handled as an "Eternal Champion" write-up. Who says that all Eternal Champions have to be created by MM?

I don't have the main BRP rulebook as yet, but I have been running Call of Cthulhu for over twenty years so I pretty much know the system.

I'm beginning to draw up plans for a sci-fi cyberpunk/noir style game on an alien world with dinosaurs. Don't ask me why but thats the ideas running the old grey matter at the moment. A mixture of sci-fi action, underworld and corporate dealings, prehistoric monsters and possibly a lizardman/evolved raptor race (original planet's inhabitants). Thinking of less high tech so no energy weapons but slightly advanced SMG's, assault rifles and shotguns.

Not sure if it will work but it is what I am working on.

Sounds very cool. Like the old "Skull The Slayer" comics from the 70's.

For my pseudo-Celtic campaign, I've basically reinstated Divine Magic, having it work like Sorcery but keeping the "sacrifice POW for spells" aspect. You have to have a certain amount of Allegiance points to a god (I'm debating 30 or 40) in order to be able to get Divine Spells from it. I don't really have cults built around individual gods, per se. The Druids, for example, are more like a cult in and of itself that allies to all the gods, with individual members choosing to pursue their own relationships to particular deities.

Call me weird but I find Harry Potter series thrilling and interesting too...I also find da Vinci code mysterious and you will surely tried to follow the story even if its boring

I've only read the final two Potter books but I thought they were excellent. Someday I'll read the rest of them. I have nothing but respect for Harry Potter - it's got kids interested in reading, the stories seem to be very good and have real depth, and its something that got mega-popular for no other reason than that a lot of people really liked it. Can't knock that.

Aycorn, stop being an arse. Spawn of Fashan is a steaming pile of crap. >:->

Sorry, I fumbled my "Resist Sarcastic Response" roll.

Seriously I'm looking forward to "Classic Fantasy" myself.

Hack-N-Slash is the name of a fantasy game for the Fudge system.

Chaos & Catacombs which everyone would abbreviate as C&C, would be confused with Castles & Crusades, which everyone abbreviates as C&C.

Sword & Spell got nixed with the announcement of Shadow, Sword & Spell.

It's ok though, for the last couple months of so I have known that it was to be Classic Fantasy and it has quite grown on me. I like the title as one can just look at the cover and know the feel the game is attempting to evoke.

Rod

It's straight up and descriptive, probably very good marketing-wise, if, admittedly, not as cool or aesthetically pleasing as the others. People will have a pretty good idea from the title alone what it's all about.

:thumb::thumb:

If, for some reason, BRP: Classic Fantasy gets nixed, I think you should insist that it be titled:

"BRP: Spawn Of Fashan"

This time in history is probably one of the most overlooked of any, maybe because no one nation or peoples can lay sole claim to it. But I have rarely read or imagined more exciting adventures than the tales of REAL adventures that took place in this age... Ballrooms, mansions, castles, kings and queens, conspiracies and sorceries both real and imagined, swords, pistol/ muskets cannons blazing, vicious guerilla wars waged in dark Forests, Mountains and waterfalls which stretch as far as the mind can grasp. The spirit of this age has now slipped beyond our grasp, and sadly I do not think that it will be seen again until we succeed in colonizing other planets and again there arises a new frontier to summon mankind to the challenge..

The starting time is going to be America 1733, the new world where settlements abound and the frontier is alive with legendary animals of Enormous size and power. Dark ruins of peoples so old, arcane and mysterious that their origins and way of life are lost even to oldest tribes.

To this world many men have come indentured or of low stations and made their fortunes in the wilds of this new land. The word spread like wildfire across the length and breath Europe and legends, hope & greed grew in equal proportions. Agents of mighty trade empires whispered in ball rooms and into the ears of kings and queens alike. And the rush conquer the new world began.

Soon people of all nations gave all they had and willingly & sometimes not so willingly sold themselves into bondage for the chance to rise again as freemen in a land of opportunity and adventure, where a person’s constitution, character and hard work can win for them a place among the new aristocracy of America.

Secreted within their numbers are witches, warlocks, alchemist and secret societies who all hope to increase their knowledge and power base in the new world, some for the common good and some for their own selfish ends. All of them trying to escape the spirit of prosecution & the soldiers of faith.

In dark and stormy waters pirates sail the coasts of the Americas and dominate the South Seas. Robbery and murder their calling cards. Great rewards are offered for their heads, treasures & and secrets of the seas.

Finally the War between the great nations of England, France & the Dutch, rage constantly and the waves of conflict crash into the new world. Drawling solders, colonist & there native American Allies into their tide. Death by wild animals, starvation, exposure, musket or tomahawk is a constant companion.

But if you a swift, cunning and brave then Fame, Fortune, and prosperity & maybe a kingdom can be yours.

I love it. Last year I read David Drake's "Old Nathan," which takes place in early colonial times, and thought "Man ... you could make an interesting campaign setting out of this!"

Good luck with this one as I'd love to see it.

Yeah - not to come off as a jerk, but I love BRP, have since I first played it, and I'm really not interested in what it's detractors have to say. I'd rather converse with people who share my interest and enthusiasm.

Thread looks like another excuse for D&D devotees to whine about RQ:

"Waaah ... you can kill yourself with your own weapon .... waaah ... it's got ducks ... waaaaah ... the rules are (clunky/broken/suck/insert negative of choice)."

The Mist Giant!

I've long since thrown away the books that I thought were bad - Calix Stay and Garafax Greythorn (or something like that) ring a bell as just such books.

Notoriously bad books by Neil Hancock. I confess I've read and have a soft spot for the first two. They're quite wild - funny animals up against brutal orc-like baddies, swords and sorcery mixed with gunplay. Long stretches of bad writing rubbing up against shining moments of really good writing. Very, very weird.

I don't disagree at all.

The LOTR is significant as an iconic work. It is the common reference point for all fans of fantasy and is a part of the collected consciousness of not only fantasy fans but much of mainstream society.

There are much better written fantasy works out there, but none that are as universal as LOTR.

I also agree the Hobbit is much better written. It is an easy and enjoyable read, a tight and concise tale (compared to LOTR) that feels like a tale a wizard may spin by the side of a fire in a warm hobbit hole.

Tolkien gets more grandiose as his works move on. Don't even get me started on the Silmarillion.

To cut it some slack the LOTR is also a product of it's time - writing style has evolved since they were written. But still there is the Hobbit for comparison...

I too will join you guys undercover.

I think that "Lord of the Rings" is a great story, but I don't think Tolkein tells it very well. It not so much that I find his writing grandiose - I merely find it rather flat. He doesn't have the ear to pull off grandiose. He has trouble with characters (only Gandalf, Sam, and Gollum really show much personality) and, as I think Fritz Leiber pointed out, he lacks a good, powerful, scary villain (Saruman's offscreen almost entirely until the epilogue, at which time he seems merely petty, and Sauron is off-screen for the entire story).

He also grinds the story to a halt at least twice, once for a tiresome detour into the happy land of that insufferable Tom Bombadil, and then an even more tiresome detour into the entire history/sociology of a bunch of talking trees!

Now, this will really get me lynched, but I'll say it: I prefer the recent films to the book. I loved `em. Loved every minute of `em.

But I agree that, even if LOTR isn't the BEST fantasy novel, it's still a great one in it's way (flaws and all) and it is absolutely the most famous, celebrated, and influential.

Also agree about "The Hobbit."

I thought he meant "Cool Powers" like feats rather than "cool mechanics" - you know, stuff like that feat that lets you take a second attack in a round if the first one is successful - can't remember what it's called.

I think everyone can agree that BRP's actual 'mechanics' are actually way-hay-hay cooler. N'est pas?

Thalaba

I confess, I'm a complete zealot for BRP. I'm really not interested in playing any other kind of system. As said, it can be tweaked to be more "gonzo" if that's what's desired.

Also it's so flexible and easy to add/subtract things from it, making it endlessly adaptable.

I think maybe part of the charm for me is - hey, I've got the system nailed down, so now I can focus on the other aspects of the game.

I'm fortunate in that I can play with people who like BRP, even if they're not as single-mindedly devoted to it as I am.

I find the corerule book to be nicely compact and self-contained. For me it fulfils Jason's design goal that you can watch a film/read a book/come up with and idea and create it straight out the book.

My feeling on this whole matter is that the BRP book doesn't need constant new books and supplements month on month and I find it odd that people declare the game dead because Chaosium isn't churning out supplements to 'support' the game.

(Note: this is not intended to slag anyone here, I just don't know any way to put it without sounding like I'm slagging people, so please no one take offense) It's a different way of thinking which seems to be pretty prevalent among gamers that a system is "dead" if it's not producing regular supplements or new editions. It's one I don't subscribe to. I was playing BRP before and I'll be playing it now - only difference is now I have a really good core rule-book as opposed to lots of cobbled-together notes. It's not dead as long as people are playing and creating for it, even if Chaosium (god forbid) vanishes off the face of the earth.

I've read it but nor played. I like the different (and multiple) takes on the Mythos, some very interesting ideas there. The system itself, seems fine, but doesn't strike me as my flavor.

Yes, I too (surreptitiously) read it, and some of the mythos information was interesting and cool, though I felt it "codified" and organized the mythos more than it should have (although I suppose Chaosium could be open to such accusations as well).

Okay, everybody, all together now: "GO JASON, GO! GO JASON, GO! GO JASON, GO!"

All kidding aside, great news. I'm really looking forward to this.

I'm sure there's room in the world for multiple Cthulhu-based rules (though I'm ready to slug the next game-designing "genius" who's out to fix some "fatal flaw" in the rules).

My attitude can best be summed up as follows: a few years ago my brother (a bigger gamer and bigger nerd than I, with whom I played COC for several years back in the 80's) proudly displayed a copy of the d20 to me. My response was: "Well, damn - good thing that came out - we sure never had any fun with those old rules." (he told me to shut up).

Aren't the d20 rules out of print, now? Or am I mistaken.

I suspect that what's going on at Chaosium is very similar to something I encountered 10+ years ago.

I was working for a small manufacturing company that was trying desperately to stay in business after years of losing money. It had reached a point where, even after laying off all but the most essential staff, they still couldn't pay their bills. We owed a lot of suppliers, big-time, but payroll and essential operations had to come first (the owner always made sure the employees were paid first). Unfortunately, he instructed accounts payable to not return calls or give any explanations to suppliers who called for payment status. He was convinced they wouldn't sell to us anymore if they knew how dire the company's financial situation was. As the company's purchasing guy, I was in the unenviable position of having to get materials in. I had to call a sheetmetal supplier to ask him what it would take to get some more parts out of him - he angrily replied that he wanted to know when he was going to get the money we owed him before he would discuss any new parts.

I finally convinced the owner to get on a conference call with the guy and admit that the company had a serious cashflow problem. Once that was done, the sheetmetal (and other suppliers) were actually quite understanding and willing to work out a reasonable deal, where there were at least promise dates for payments, payment schedules, etc in place. He just needed to be honest with his suppliers.

It sounds to me like it may be a similar scenario here. Jason's not getting paid (and yes, he has every right to be paid and every right to be pissed about how this is getting handled) and Chaosium's not responding to him. Professionally speaking, even "Hi - we're broke and can't pay you right now, can I trade you my collection of Conan comics instead?" is preferable to silence.

I make no excuses for Chaosium's treatment of Jason et al and sincerely hope they put things aright. I just suspect (if someone knows the facts feel free to step in and correct me) that this is less about Chaosium being crooked and more about Chaosium being stupid.

As for BRP as a system - you bet I'm going to play it. Like others' here, I've got enough material with the new book and the old ones to generate any settings I want, and that was my plan all along (until they announced the new BRP), so if nothing new appears, it's just back to Plan A.

As for having to scour the net for stuff - well, that's a fair concern - but it's no longer necessary, is it? We have a good, very creative, friendly community here. We've got "Uncounted Worlds" (very good) (assuming further issues are planned). We've got each other. We can go on sharing and helping each other out. Let BRP continue to be a DIY system, until the day Chaosium gets it together. That's my vote.

Chaosium is notoriously slow in delivering payment. And, of course, in getting things published. When I sent them stuff in the early 80's, it took a year for either one to happen.

I still love their system and their products. I regret that they aren't better businesspeople.

To Jason and Pete;

Pardon my ignorance, and this may have been covered elsewhere in the thread, but - would it not be possible to work out a deal with Chaosium where you could publish or self-publish your supplements as BRP supplements - just not under the Chaosium banner?

That way, you wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel, so to speak, system-wise.