nclarke

I believe it's currently in proofing according to the Mongoose site. Probably going to the printer next week with the PDF available then.

I think the issue was that they were using a third party to do the changes for Legend and the people doing the changes dropped out twice before the finally got someone to finish the job.

This rule turns up in Legend (precursor to RQ6) and may be in MRQ1 as well.

The Horror on the Orient Express kickstarter has closed now so you'll have to wait for the product to hit stores in about 9 months time. Expect a hefty price tag though.

You could use average damage for weapons and include the db in the total - short sword (d6+1+d4db) usual damage 7, impale 16 used by an amateur 30%, professional 70%. Knowing the various levels of skill can make it easy to apply to anyone the group runs into. A low=grade thief's sleight-of-hand 30 or 40%, a watchman's insight 30% etc.

For major NPC's I'd do a more comprehensive work up of the character as they are going to get more screen time.

Stand alone in this context usually means that it doesn't require another book, hence stand alone. This usually means that the core rules are included with the setting rules. Where the opposite is the case the publisher's blurb says something like requires X to play.

What I do is generate one mook's stats and then on the same page make a table labelled one to 20 or so and along the top add hit points, current hit points and condition (prone, entangled, major wound etc). I can then use this for any number of town guard, bandits, skeletons or zombie pirates. When I've used the sheet I print off another one.

I suspect that many of the participants here are not using the same definition of the words Parry or Dodge and may even be thinking of differing amounts of time for a combat round all of which will lead to arguments that make no sense to other participants.

Combat rounds in most BRP type systems vary between 5 and 12 seconds according to which iteration of the BRP mechanisms you are using. Dodge may mean a movement of the body - sway, lean etc., or may encompass actual physical movement or even diving out of the way. Parry could be used to describe the deflection of a weapon or the complete blocking of an attack. Even Attack in BRP systems refers to series of swings and feints, cuts and parries with only the actual impact of the weapon being the result of the opposed Attack/Parry roll.

I would point out that I suggested Mr Axe-Elf went away, tested his changes in actual play, compared them to the existing rules and the suggestions made here and came back and reported his conclusions. I, in no way, suggested that he permanently depart however offensive his attitude might be.

I rather suspect that stating that you've read BRP4e and don't think that it does a good job of dealing with combat strikes many here as very arrogant. After all the rules in one form or another have been used for 30 years by thousands of GMs and players, many of whom have at least as much experience of weapon handling as you mention you have. To specify that all those players and GMs are wrong and you with your testing of the rules, not even in an actual game of course, deem them inaccurate and wrong really irritates many people.

You have been told the concepts behind the way the rules are and still persist in your own way as being superior to those of the collective membership here who suggest that making your changes is not going to work that well.

I recommend that you go away and test the rules as-is, test them again with your own house rules, try out the suggestions that people have offered to make your combat more to your taste and then come back and report on how those tests work in actual games rather than paper simulations.

Gollum, Take a look in the downloads section of the Design Mechanism site where a PDF with rules and stats for weapons from black powder muskets to laser rifles has been posted. Pete Nash has promised a guide to doing Star Wars using the RQ6 rules which might aid you in playing a less medieval game.

Nigel

I tend to get a plotline together so I know who is doing what to whom but after that it gets a bit less firm. What I do is cut and paste a few stat blocks into a document for the likely creatures/monsters so I have a reference sheet rather than having to do lookup in a book. I can also check off hits etc., on this semi-scrap sheet as needed. Personalities I tend to outline in terms of motives traits etc., often without a full stat block if I don't think combat is likely - If it does happen I can usually fudge the stats quickly enough.

In the spirit of trying to get something together that lists all the current D100/BRP based games I threw together a list of ones I could remember and popped it into the Downloads section.

Corrections etc. welcome.

Nigel

If MGP Hawkmoon use MRQI then I think there are some conversion rules about. Check for MRI to MRQII conversion. If the Hawkmoon stuff is MRQII then it should be pretty easy to convert on the fly.

The best way to get BRP out to a more general audience would be to make access to a free basic attractive colour 4 page digest sized PDF very easy.

Look at the business model of some companies that use torrent sites to put their game out there for example. Put a link to a site offering said free entry level PDF in your sig at every forum you frequent. Push it at every con you attend by offering games, employ freelance sales/demo people with the offer of free points towards 'stuff' for running games at stores and cons.

If these BRP Disciples had a set of quick chargen/adapatable pregen characters and a 2-3 hour adventure, that they could run wherever they had a place and free time, that was replaced/refreshed on a monthly basis that would do a lot to spread the word.

However without the facilities behind such a push it's unlikely to prove more than transitory in effect.

You might want to look at some of the Monographs at Chaosium.com for post apocalypse gaming. I don't think any of them deal with cyberware but monographs do often have excellent background and campaign specific material.

Be warned though, some of them are not as well presented as others as they don't get the professional editing and playtest workout that Chaosium's non-monographs do but are offered as is.

Draven,

I think that there are some cross purposes here.

Are you asking if you can use supplements from any BRP game with the BGB/BRP4e?

You mention mecha and cyberware so I guess (as you don't say) that you are intending to play a game using mecha and cyberware with BRP4e.

Someone here is working on mecha under BRP but I haven't gone through the downloads section on this site to see if anyone has done cyberware.

Bayonets come in different forms.

The earliest is the plug bayonet - basically a knife with a rod-like handle that was rammed into the muzzle of the flintlock musket.

After that comes the socket bayonet - basically a tubular handle that fitted over the muzzle and was locked via a pin on the musket.

Later on a bayonet clips to the underside of the weapon but that is mostly a 19th century and later thing.

A bayonet mounted on a musket should probably use a polearm skill but one held in the hand is no different than a knife

I did see that they mentioned an update of the shopping cart software so I guess that covers the security thing.

Nope, Rick isn't the mod/owner here. You'll find him over at Welcome to Moon Design | Moon Design Publications where I think you'll find all things Glorantha.

You might need to check permissions on the avatar upload directory. Not being able to write there would likely cause the symptoms described.

This sounds extremely interesting. Just enough abstraction to make it easy to work with, just enough crunch to satisfy the need for technical detail. Differing levels of technology can be easily dealt with by varying the power output/ton of the motive power unit. It would even work backwards for non/pre-space vehicles.

How would you deal with the computational needs for targeting and navigation? The networked terminals style of early Traveller or perhaps independent units in a distributed processing system. Slave worked for Blake's Seven to deal with both targeting and navigation/sensors as a single unit but that sort of thing is subject to failure/damage of a single unit that makes it not sensible for manned space travel (having worked for NASA in the past this always strikes a warning note in space games I play).

Colin, I was using the UPS International Priority flat rate boxes as an example the price of which is included in the shipping price. I didn't bother to check out lower cost options as mostly those involve someone actually going to the post office and standing in line. That choice in itself may preclude Chaosium from using that option.

It might be that their current staffing level might not allow them to make the optimum choice in shipping when many of their overseas customers probably either get the hard copy books locally or buy the PDF. And Chaosium PDF prices are another sore point that they have only recently decided to address.

Sorry if I came across as treating you poorly but I see a lot of comments about the relative costs of RPG material here compared to the US and having lived there for some time do have an handle on things that I try to get across to explain why things are the way they are.

The problem with international postage from the US is that, like here in the UK, the USPS has greatly increased postal charges and reduced service types. I don't think there is a printed paper rate any longer for example, and no surface rate either.

E.G. USPS Int'l flat rate boxes (13-5/8" x 11-7/8" x 3-3/8" or 11" x 8-1/2" x 5-1/2", up to 20lbs) USD74.95

USPS Int'l flat rate letter sized envelope (15" x 9-1/2", up to 20lbs) USD 38.00

These prices are straight off the USPS web site.

From the UK to the US global value packet up to 1kg, 5-9 days delivery, not tracked UKP29.20, increasing the weight to 5kg max pushes the price to UKP67.90

The best bet for minimising shipping costs is a local POD option from the publisher so that you can order from the US and have it printed in and shipped from the UK.

Unfortunately most RPG publishers being one man and a dog are not geared up for delivering product like this.

Luckily the current trend to make material produced for ebook readers allows for electronic delivery to relatively low-cost devices.

Possibly the sign of a wealthy person is likely to become their library of hard copy books as it was in the eighteenth century.

I see that this has been tentatively scheduled for Dragonmeet (1st December) this year. However I'm hoping that it might be available at Indiecon 9-11th November. Any likelihood of this happening?

Nigel

In the absence of the man but with my own copy of the holy grail I can tell you that the special effects system is a slightly updated version of the one in MRQII/Legend.

Beating your opponent in combat by a level of success allows the choice of combat manoeuvres which are now called special effects. If you grab a copy of the GM's package from Design Mechanisms website it has a copy of the chart included.