NickMiddleton

Yup - almost exactly my experience. Minus the medieval west: I'm not a Gloranthaphile - it's just a cool example setting, I've not run a game there since the late seventies, just used the source books as springboards for my own stuff. Add in that RQ3 was heinously expensive for a penniless A Level student in the UK when it was released, and I spent several years from it first appearing being a very grumpy RQ2 grognard... then GW lost the license in the UK and had a fire sale of their hardbacks and I got all five for £25 and actually read and then played the game. It is not flawless, but it is admirably logical and there's a subtle interplay between the sub-systems that really works, without making the game fragile (unlike say d20). I've re-read both RQ2 and RQ3 a couple of times in the intervening 30+ years - I've never been tempted to run or play RQ2 again, despite fond memories of playing it 1979-1983/4. Where as for a certain type of BRP fantasy I could still see myself breaking out RQ3 (or picking options from the BGB that make it most resemble RQ3) - and in fact did in 2009 for a post apocalypse setting game I keep meaning to go back to. When I run BRP games these days I generally run either Magic World (or my SF variant), or something that looks very like RQ3, or a pulp variant. But the "spine" of rules logic that lets me adapt each to whatever setting comes ultimately from a blend of Worlds of Wonder, RQIII and Elric!... which were three of the main source texts for the BGB, funnily enough. Cheers, Nick

I have an adaptation / update of on old introductory adventure, originally intended for the Elric! game system (Which Magic World is directly derived from) but adjusted to Magic World I could pass to you? There's a bunch of BRP fantasy adventures available in PDF from Chaosium (various monographs, and IIRC In Search of Trollslayer adventure are still available. Plus there's Fishsinger's Daughter in the Magic World Quickstart. Most fantasy adventures that don't rely on combat grind to get through can be adapted to MW - pure Dungeon Crawling tends to be problematic in most version of BRP unless one fiddles with the resource economy a lot, so classic (A)D&D modules in that mode would need a bit of careful thought but its certainly do able. Cheers, Nick

In Issue Two of Uncounted Worlds (PDF linked above) there are a couple of articles by Jason Durall (now Line editor of RQG, also lead author on the BRP "Big Gold Book) on adapting Call of Cthulhu (6th edition) to variant settings - one on Post-Apocalyse settings, and one on Sword and Sorcery. Also available from Chaosium (in print and PDF at present, and it has a sample quickstart)) is the stand alone fantasy RPG Magic World: https://www.chaosium.com/magic-world-2/ It's a BRP D100 family game, a little more complex than Call of Cthulhu, but probably less so than the new RuneQuest Glorantha (albeit until that's actually released that's open to debate). It is certainly less complex than either Mythras or Revolution D100 with all the options. Magic World, unlike RQG, is not tied to a specific setting (although it includes a sample one). The BRP / D100 family is quite extensive, and whilst some branches are really quite diverse from each other, for the most part material for one particular game is relatively easily adaptable for use with another. Several of the ones mentioned have quick-start / introductions that are free (at least in PDF) - I suggest picking up those and seeing which one you think will work best for you and your kids, and then look to adapt additional material as you need and when you feel confident to do so. Some RPG systems are very intricate, full of clever, subtle linkages between different parts of the rules that make them interdependent on each other: they can be very rewarding to play, but are fragile to modification, and can be very frustrating for groups that either don't grasp the intricacies, or don't enjoy that sort of structure. BRP / D100 games in general are far more "modular", in that whilst different subsystems work in the same or similar fashions to each other, very few are critically dependent on each other. It makes the whole family of games easily interchangeable and adaptable. Cheers, Nick

What Nigel said. My own advice would be rather than formulating a hard CAP (which as said is fraught with problems of definition), take a leaf out of Magic World's approach and define a maximum add: so for example no one can add more than 30 points to a professional skill or 15 points to a personal Interest skill. Adjust values according to style of campaign. It achieves what I think is the underlying aim (that people don't overload what they see as key skills to detriment of others, producing weirdly implausible characters), but is easier to implement. It doesn't impose a hard boundary, but there are few hard boundaries in the BRP skill system that have huge mechanical effects. Cheers, Nick

True - backed it a while back because I loved Tales From the Loop and this looks very cool. Still undecided whether to run RAW or ported to MW... Cheers, Nick

This. We had this debate back when Ben was revising Elric! to create Magic World. Dodge gets a BASE score directly derived from DEX, and is in a GROUP of skills that are improved by having a high Strength. DEX is by far the dominant factor in Dodge, but being strong is of benefit. Its a BRP game - no one sub-system is so tightly couple to any other to make changes dangerous to the whole, so one can change things with relative impunity. But there WERE reasons for the various decisions. Part of the point of Arete rules I devised for Advanced Sorcery was to provided "feat like" / "ki-skill" like abilities for characters with high skills. The original idea was to adapt the LoN ki-skills to be generic, but Ben's brief to me talked about "arete" in the Greek sense and that sent me off in a rather different direction (although the building blocks are an adaptation of some ideas from LoN). But as another way of looking at the idea of "exceptional" abilities in Magic World, I'd say its worth a look - and the other material in Advanced Sorcery is a useful adjunct to the base Magic World game as well. Cheers, Nick

IIRC Midkemia press did a bunch of the stuff FIRST, and then later did a deal with Chaosium to republish SOME of them as generic / D100 supplements - they are based on Steve Abrams RPG Campaign from the mid-seventies, that was the basis for Raymond E Feist's novels - http://www.midkemia.com/ And holy shit there is an App version of Cities?! now? In many ways I always found Jonril and the Sunken Lands the most interesting - they weren't stock "pseudo-medieval", they were something different, but becuase the wider world WAS, they were accessible. Jonril has always struck me as one of the great forgotten cities of early RPG's, too often overshadowed by Pavis, the City States from Judges Guild and Greyhawk. Cheers, Nick

IIRC the "Elemental Summoning" Spells are still in Magic World - but their wording may well have been revised. *pause, pokes iCloud drive* Yep - Summon Elemental on page 127 of Magic World mentions prerequisites of "Bounty of the Sea, Flames of the Sun, Gift of the Earth and Wings of the Sky". As described on page 111 Flames of the Sun isn't really a good fireball substitute: it's basically a "create bonfire spell", so whilst it would certainly have a potential roll in siege warfare etc it doesn't really mimic the direct, immediate damage capability of a Fireball... Did Flames of Kakatal allow the mass of fire to "firebolt" targets, or am I conflating that from a basic Fire elemental (possibly in earlier EC rules!)? My PDF of the BGB isn't in my iCloud alas (and my copy of Elric! is at home). Cheers, Nick

In combat use, I'd say a Brawl or Wrestle attack would be required, arguably an easy one (however you choose to assess "easy" rolls), with a Dodge or parry as a defense as you are simply trying to touch the target. IIRC They spend a round casting the spell, which becomes active at their INT in the Casting order - they then have until that point the following round to discharge it. SO if they cast it during a fight yes - but there's no necessity for anyone to KNOW they are casting it... Given the wording on 104 / 105 I'd say per that page they have to concentrate for the whole casting time so yes, Dodging / parrying whilst casting would lose the spell (as would taking 1 or points of damage). Effectively yes. I'd also assume it ignores armor. I don't think it is a terrible spell per se, but its use is not what its description might at first suggest. It was briefly discussed a few years back: It's a terrible _combat_ spell (for better effects in combat use Sorceror's Razor / Sharp Flame or others...). But, besides its utility for killing rats etc consider this spells name: "Wrack"... It's for torturing prisoners / intimidating peasants. It's entirely possible that non-Wizards will have no idea that it has been cast, so when the Wizard steps up and slaps the local loud mouth and their face erupts in suppurating boils etc the crowd will flinch. The original intent of the spells in Elric! was to avoid the "fire & forget / mobile artillery" model of magic that is common in e.g. most version of D&D, so there wasn't originally ANY direct damage spell of this sort - no fireball / magic missile etc. IIRC Wrack is adapted from the Elric supplement "Sailing on the Seas of Fate" which adapted it in turn from the old RQ spell Disruption (that WAS Ranged). Cheers, Nick

Err, I don't recall anyone at Chaosium getting a direct writing credit on WEG Star Wars, it is IIRC credited to Greg Costikyan - but the core rules mechanics were clearly adapted from WEG's Ghostbuster's RPG. The original Ghostbusters RPG was written by Sandy Petersen, Greg Stafford and Lynn Willis, with development by Ken Rolston and Martin Wixted. Cheers, Nick

1) The addition of cultures to character creation add atmosphere and texture - but in a fashion that doesn't complicate matters. 2) Skill categories were an option in Elric! but MW gives them some significance (by having bonuses) but without the complexity of the RQ 1/-/3, SB 1/-4 etc model. 3) Character creation, frequently a morass of decision paralysis dividing point totals out across skill lists, is streamlined to assigning defined list of fixed BLOCKS of points, simplifying the whole process (whilst still allowing customised breakdowns if preferred. 4) Rather than fixed "impales" as the highest level of success (but only for weapon attacks) and "critical" on 1/5th of skill as in Elric! Magic World reinstated the more traditional scaling of critical on 1/20th of skill and specials on 1/5th of skill, for ALL skills. Annoyingly, this was errata that was missed before the book originally went to print - not sure if it ever got corrected in the PDF. 5) Occupation skills increase slightly faster than non-occupation skills, ensuring occupations retain some relevance without being a straightjacket. 6) Guidance on generic NPC stats - Magic World page 221 Those are the ones that spring to mind and I'm confidant of without going through the two texts closely side by side - there are a number of other "nips & tucks" that are more editorial in nature. The compiled errata is here - https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/2786-magic-world-errata-is-live/?do=findComment&comment=77861 Thanks to Big Jack Brass retrieving it from off site after the previous upload was lost. Chaot is remembering incorrectly - as published, MW retains both statement of intent as a separate step in combat, AND divides sequencing so Magic happens in INT order and then physical actions in DEX order, as in Elric! And all spells takes a FULL found to come in to effect. cheers, Nick

Magic World, hands down. What changes there are are minor, and subtle, but I think all of them improve the game to at least some small degree. Cheers, Nick

Magic World was Ben's tribute to his mentor at Chaosium, Lynn Willis. The changes Ben made (besides removing the IP Chaosium no longer had a license for) were all subtle refinements to the existing text borne out of the intervening couple of decades of use, or corrections to slips in presentation or editorial oversights in the original: Character generation adds RQ3 style cultures, but at the same time streamlines the process; similarly skill categories / groups and their bonuses; the core mechanics were tweaked to bring terminology more in line with the BGB; some minor errors and unclear passages in combat were clarified; Demon & Elemental summoning were largely removed from the core book to Advanced Sorcery and additional spells from published sources folded in to the core list, as were the ship rules (from either Sailing on the Seas of Fate or the RQ GM's book -can't recall for sure which was Ben's primary source there). Bluntly - if you have have Elric! plus Sailor on the Seas of Fate plus the Bronze Grimoire you have no _pressing_ need for Magic World or Advanced Sorcery (and I say this as the author of one of the bits in Advanced Sorcery you WON'T have). And much as I don't dislike the layout of Magic World, Elric! remains the gold standard for B&W RPG books in editing and design IMO - concise, readable, accessible, atmospheric AND practical. To achieve a couple of those is worthy of note; most RPG books struggle to manage one, yet Elric! managed to achieve all five. However - with Elric! you game material will be split over three books, and if anyone you play with does want their own copy, you will have to direct them to eBay; also, there is _no_ legal means of obtaining any of that material in PDF. And if ANYTHING will persuade Chaosium to revise their stance on future support for Magic World, it would be sales of the existing books. Cheers, Nick

No - assuming the the shield was the weapon parried with, the riposte attack HAS to be with the OTHER weapon: So, assuming no attack this round with the Sword, at 82%. If the character has ALREADY attacked this round, I would rule the riposte would be at 52% personally, but that's because I largely default to Jason's version of the rule he intended for the BRP BGB - see here: Nick

Not in Europe or Australia they aren't (the original Wierd Tales versions anyway): precisely the issue is that the copyright status varies between jurisdictions and much of Paradoxes defense has relied on Trademark of particular characters. http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks13/1303751h.html cheers Nick

Corum was created and published under license by Darcsyde, so the copyright of the material does not belong to Chaosium. I don't recall if it was ever even on the list of possible sources for material for inclusion in Advanced Sorcery because of that. Cheers, Nick

Absolutely agree. I have that experience with books (mostly), quite frequently. Achieving THAT was one of Jason's goals with the BRP BGB and the play-test groups focus on helping him achieve it (that lead to the BGB's five discrete "off the shelf" powers systems) is still one of the things I am proudest of about that playtest. I wish there had been a way for Jason's modular powers system to see print, but I have always been, and remain, firmly convinced that the off the shelf discrete systems were the right choice for the BGB and are one of its big strong points. cheers, Nick

Different Nick, but I used Allegiance as the basis of Priestly miracles in Ulfland (written up for the BGB in Uncounted Worlds volume 1). cheers, "other" Nick

This is worth looking through - http://talmeta.net/ - in the RPG section there is a bunch of stuff aimed at RQIII and Greyhawk; and despite its old school looks it seems the site at least is still getting updated. Whilst the mechanics are RQ based, adapting them to MW should be pretty straightforward. Cheers, Nick

Magic World Sorcery spells have deterministic results like this? Sounds a bit like Deep Magic in Advanced Sorcery? There is a BRP Supplement called "The Magic Book" (http://www.chaosium.com/the-magic-book-pdf/ ) which revises the four magic system from RQIII to align with the BGB; as thats very close to Magic World, it could easily be used with Magic World and one of the systems it includes is Divine Magic (sacrificing POW to a Deity for spells). I've also used Magic World / BRP BGB Magic powered by Allegiance as a form of Divine Magic - the system is sketched in the Ulfland article in Uncounted Worlds Issue one (Uncounted Worlds #1) Cheers, Nick

D'Oh! Apologies for mis-remembering that! I think I first learnt about the Superworld connection to SB4 from Ben around the time of the BGB playtest, which is probably why I conflated the two. Cheers, Nick

As Chaot says, we are under NDA's, morally if not legally. It was Jason's work and is Chaosium's IP so even if we did have the files, it is theirs not ours. From what I can recall it built forward from the work Ben Monroe had done in Stormbringer Fourth edition to make a "schematic" power system from the Demons of SB 1/-.3 and synthesized it with Steve Perrin's work on Super-powers in Worlds of Wonder and Superworld. My memory is It was very flexible - but it was ALSO NOT "immediate use / off the shelf" user friendly and was far more in the Hero system / GURPs / "Gear head" design space. We talked a lot about the new BRP being the book you could pull off the shelf after seeing a film, play, TV show or talking about a book or comic and kit bash together a game that evening. The more limited but explicitly defined "off the shelf" power systems Jason went with gave that, and I still think it was the right choice. I wish him well in his new role. Cheers, Nick

No, they were one of the league races, quite prominent in Season 1 and 2 as I recall. Ambassador Kalika was Abbas - http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/Kalika_Qwal'Mizra Nick

My SF BRP games were always a blending of Other Suns and Worlds of Wonder with borrowings from other non-BRP games (Loved Space Opera's ships for example). I didn't find Worlds Beyond until sometime in the last ten years, and never had a chance to buy RingWorld as it was expensive in the UK and then very hard to find. Always felt it was a shame Other Suns got overly associated with "Furry Fandom". In addition to being a decent BRP variant, I really liked the setting, such as it was. Niall Shapiro was active on the RQ Rules mailing list a decade or so back and IIRC still owns Other Suns (one of the few creatives to avoid losing their RPG IP to the black hole that is FGU). Alas the last time OS came up on these boards someone who knew him indicated he was largely out of the RPG hobby these days. Its a shame as it probably means Other Suns will remain unavailable in any form legally except via eBay. Cheers, Nick