NickMiddleton

I have always had a huge soft spot for the Call of Cthulhu adventure anthologies Strange Aeons - whilst they were were all (obviously) within a single rules / setting framework, they were distinctive stand alone adventures and "settings" in a way... ...I was also a contributor to the BGB era BRP quick-start's "shorty" adventures - originally an idea of Dustin Wright's, inspired by the one page dungeon phenomena. I have been noodling away at a hybrid of those two influences for BRP: UGE: a set of short, one shot scenarios with pre-generated characters; each set in its own distinctive setting and with its own particular sub set of options from BRP:UGE. Whether I get anywhere with it is another matter (role changed at work last year so job takes more of my time, and my health has been a bit shit last third of the year as well), but we shall see. I have always thought that adventures are what an RPG systems needs. Not everyone uses them: but their existence helps build a sense that the game is supported, that engaging and committing to it is not striking out in to the wilderness; and I think it has an impact, even on those people and groups who don't themselves use anything or little of "official" published material. So I think whatever happens with my own efforts, the basic idea is sound, and whether its really short little things like the original Shorties, setting / adventure anthologies such as TrippyHippy proposes or something in between (as I am working on slowly), stuff that supports BRP:UGE by showcasing the range and variety it can easily accommodate is worthwhile.

A well crafted “random” encounter table condenses pages and pages of world building into a succinct single table. They are woefully under appreciated IMO as a key part of filling out settings. Every table of gamers uses what it prefers, and no one else’s preferences dictate to anyone else: but I would encourage anyone to look at Gwyndolin’s table and consider how one might create an equivalent for any particular locale or region of one’s own setting, and how that can concisely evoke its nuance and detail.

From a quick skim of Page 115 from the PDF on my phone, don’t think so. But can’t see any reason one couldn’t include it with some house rules?

Page 17: "Only with a gamemaster’s permission can you raise or lower a starting characteristic beyond the range of 3–21. For higher power levels (epic and superhuman), the characteristic maximum should be ignored." Page 18: "Like INT, human POW has no set maximum, and can rise indefinitely." Page 121: "Generally, characteristics other than POW can’t improve beyond the species maximum (for humans, this is 21), but for epic or superhuman power level games, this limit is ignored." Taken together, I think the intent is that the Species Maximum (of 21 for humans) applies to normal and heroic level campaigns, but such limits should be ignored for epic and superhuman power level campaigns. Which begs the question of what the chance of improving POW for a character with 21+ POW would be; my off the cuff ruling would be a flat 5% or the characters Experience bonus, which ever is greater.

For folks considering investing in software for book publishing - Affinity 2 suite is heavily discounted currently (until 04/12) and whilst I can't speak from experience, I gather that many who have used it and Adobe Creative Suite regarded Affinity as a viable alternative - and its a one off fee, no monthly sub... https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/ I had some spare cash, so splashed out on upgrading my copy of Affinity Publisher 1 to the full version 2 suite. Hopefully will have some time during Christmas break to have an experiment properly. Now just need to some decent SF Stock art for... reasons... 😉

Both issues of uncounted worlds are in the Downloads section here at BRP Central as well.

Picked it up recently as I had some spare cash and was curious... Sadly, its based on the older PDF, NOT the revised PDF, so errors like critical chance still being a flat 01-05 rather than 1/20th of skill are still present in the printed version. 😞

This is, now BRP-UGE is out, the Chaosium announced release I am most excited about: I even picked up a copy of the original game via Noble Knight in anticipation 🤣. The art we’ve seen so far has been amazing and I really like what has been revealed so far about the game. Delighted to learn its presentation will draw inspiration from the gorgeous BRP-UGE.

My limited experience having never published anything major / for money but done a few small things via Lulu (mostly for private use) is that Lulu is pretty easy to use and not that fiddly. Quality of product for the very limited / private works has been great, but the were all of minimal challenge (no page backgrounds, all interiors sparse on art and that all b&w greyscale images). Everything I’ve done I managed to prep in Apples Pages with no major issues. I have never attempted to publish anything via DTR: that may change in 2024, and I therefore have a copy of Affinity Publisher in readiness, but the learning curve is a caution (but then I remind myself of my experience with Scribus and Affinity doesn’t seem so daunting…) 😉

I can now also reveal that I liked it so much, I revised and expanded it a bit for Magic World, and with Richard and Chaosium's kind permission that version is now available in the files section. Please note that this version has been entirely removed from the Young Kingdoms and makes no use of any of that IP - this version is set entirely in the Southern Reaches setting from Magic World.

After a looooong time being tinkered with in fits and starts, I finally finished, and got permission from Chaosium and the original author to post this in the files.

Ancient Shadows View File "Ancient Shadows" is a long gestating adaptation and revision of Richard Watt's seminal Elric! scenario "Curse of Chardros" to the Magic World rules and the Southern Reaches setting. I've been noodling away at it off and on for nigh on a decade in fits and starts but the announcement of BRP-UGE at the start of the year re-kindled my enthusiasm and after consulting with Chaosium and Richard to confirm it was OK, I am happy to make this available for everyone. Many thanks to MOB and Rick Meints for their time in agreeing to this release, and especially to Richard for his agreement to my revision of his outstanding original work. Submitter NickMiddleton Submitted 11/11/2023 Category Magic World  

CCP: “Community Content Program”.

I am uploading a new file to the MW Downloads. It is primarily a player resource I created for Southern Reaches games, based on Nick J's sterling work creating the complete spell list for Magic World / Advanced Sorcery (thanks again Nick!). It adds the concepts of Orders of spells, and broad types of spell, for descriptive purposes. It also sketches four Colleges of Sorcery and some details of the administration and structure imposed on Sorcery by the Empire - all such details are of course unofficial material from my campaign. cheers, NDM

Sorcery in the Reaches View File This a player resource I created for Southern Reaches games, based on Nick J's sterling work creating the complete spell list for Magic World / Advanced Sorcery (thanks again Nick!). It adds the concepts of Orders of spells, and broad types of spell, for descriptive purposes. It also sketches four Colleges of Sorcery and some details of the administration and structure imposed on Sorcery by the Empire - all such details are of course unofficial material from my campaign. Submitter NickMiddleton Submitted 10/28/2023 Category Magic World  

“BRP-UGE is out in both PDF and Print. What do people want to see published for it…?” What do people want for BRP-UGE? GURPS is perhaps the biggest generic RPG with the least published scenario support from its publisher - the overwhelming majority of GURPS supplements are setting or other support material… The “big” RPGs of the 80’s (anecdotally AD&D, Traveller, Call of Cthulhu, MERP, FASA Star Trek and WEG Star Wars#) in contrast had/ have pretty substantial libraries of scenarios, alongside other support material… …and that was 40 years ago, pre web and PDFs. Besides, bar AD&D (which had a few settings), most of those were tied to a single, in three cases massively popular and in two cases active in other media to some degree specific / licensed IPs… So do people want a BRP-UGE powered setting adaptation of Silo or The Rig (picked at random); a BRP-UGE range of scenarios like BECMI D&D’s B series, AD&D’s GDQ series or Call of Cthulhu’s “Lovecraft Country” series of related scenario anthologies; or BRP-UGE Ultra-Tech, BRP-UGE Empire of Charlemagne and similar sourcebooks? What do people want, what do we think will grow the user base of the game? # seriously, I have no robust stats to back that speculation up, just a vague recollection of some polls in White Dwarf…

... which is not a euphemism. BRP-UGE is out in both PDF and Print. What do people want to see published for it, whether as fan works or more commercial propositions? Leaving aside for now the question of a BRP CCP, what are people keen to see? Scenarios? Campaigns? Settings? Supplements (e.g. a Fantasy Bestiary; an extended starship construction and combat system; extensions of existing powers systems, entirely new powers systems).

If you don’t find them useful, don’t use them. My suggestion would be to use Easy / Normal / Hard in relation to the specifics of the challenge, and decide if a roll is needed based on the wider circumstances and context. An elite sniper whilst training will face challenges that are notionally Easy, Normal and / or Hard, but unless it’s an evaluation they are really invested in passing, it’s unlikely to be stressful circumstances that require rolls, and the GM can assess the overall outcome based simply on the characters skill. Stuck on a high mountain ledge with one chance to take out the tyres on the leading vehicle in an enemy convoy as a snow storm sweeps in on the other hand is stressful AND hard… the same shot, given two days to prep the snipers position and with perfect weather conditions still requires a roll, but is a normal (or possibly even easy) challenge. Also, think about challenge in relation to skill. No one has to roll to drive to the store. But to get across town by a certain deadline? A character with minimal local knowledge probably needs to roll, and it’s probably hard; a native of the city who has worked as a delivery driver should still roll (there’s a deadline, so presumably story consequences for missing it…), but given their expertise and knowledge, it’s probably an easy (and certainly not a hard roll)… but if the destination is say somewhere the newcomer knows well, that might be enough to mitigate their roll to Normal…

Hume and Charette’s Aftermath divided the human body into 30 locations for the purposes of determining armour values - but I can’t recall the details of how damage works exactly. I have hazy recollections that there was a global value called system shock that was affected by where the damage was dealt, but beyond that I’d have to dig out and re-read my copy. Will take a look later if I have time. EDIT: speed reading my PDF, hit locations in Aftermath! Doesn’t have location hit points - but “special effects “ / critical damage associated with a specific location renders it in unusable ( so head / neck character is unconscious / comatose etc)… There’s also a global hit point total (damage resistance total?)… …more and closer reading required. I remain fond of Hume & Charette’s BCS system, but man this has reminded me how awfully fiddly it got in Aftermath!

They are the text of the four non-Gloranthan booklets that made up the original Avalon Hill Deluxe RuneQuest boxed set with all references to Glorantha removed. They were issued under those covers in the original “tape bound” monograph era, and then again under different gold covers to match the BGB as perfect bound monographs. Since they are literally a prior edition of RQ, under a different name minus Glorantha, I can’t see any reason Chaosium would reissue them directly. An RQ3 reprint edition possibly, but not this monograph form. I’d also note that “Basic Magic” / “Magic Book” got overhauled (in a rush alas) and re-issued as The Magic Book for the BGB and remains available in PDF: https://www.chaosium.com/the-magic-book-pdf/ the BRP quick-start (bottom right, gold cover / perfect bound version) is different to the tape bound version. Whilst the latter is indeed just the old 16 page booklet, the former was a re-write as a subset of the BGB with and additional set short, single page scenarios / encounter sketches. cheers, Nick

Blood and Badges authors were: Jon Hook, Kevin Ross, Kevin Scrivner, R.J. Christensen, Tom Lynch, Rich LeDuc , Marko Ercegovi ́c ‘Streebor’ and Simon Yee. The River Terror authors were: Oscar Rios, William Nobel, R.J. Christensen, Jon Hook, Kenneth Spencer, Michael Silverling, Kevin Scrivner, Bruce Thompson, Patrice Crespy, Tom Lynch and Greg White Mission to Epsilon was also an anthology of adventures: Authors were Oscar Rios, Jeromy M Schulz-Arnold, Richard LeDuc, Kevin Scrivner and R.J. Christensen. BRP Adventures Authors were: Andrei Baltakmans, Chad Bowser, Jean-Philipe Chapleau, Sverre Larne, Guy dondlinger, R.J. Christensen, Stuart Godbolt, Rich Leduc, Sarah Newton, Matt Steele, Jason Williams, Simon Yee, and Bruce Thomson NOTE: I believe (correct me if I'm wrong Andre) that Andre's table is solely the square bound "BRP" monographs from the BGB era - the Basic Players / Gamemaster / magic / Creatures books were ALSO released way back in the "tape bound" monograph era. (2006 - P, 2006- G, 2006 - M and 2006 - C). Richard Le Duc’s Rubble & Ruin has been ported to Mythras, Christian Conkle’s Swords of Cydoria has been released for another non D100 system iirc. IIRC Oscar Rios and at least some others are mostly writing at Golden Goblin Press and othe CoC small presses these days? But I largely lost track of where many of the monograph peeps who crossed freely between CoC and BRP went about a decade back when I drifted away from CoC. Some of the individual adventures in various of the BRP monographs were adapted with the original authors permissions (and by them in some cases) for a never released Magic World work, Richard LeDuc's Shillingshead.

The last I heard is that yes, entirely author owned monograph IP is back with the authors and that there were plans to do some sort of community content program for BRP once the new book was released. I am currently (in amongst day job and couple of bouts of illness etc etc) working on revising both Outpost 19 and preparing a long-gestating Magic World project for possible release if this route becomes viable. This issue with “Miskatonic Repository” is that it’s remit is Call of Cthulhu, in the same way that “Jonstown Compendium” is RQ / Gloranthan: like all CCPs, they have well defined boundaries of what can be referenced etc. BRP UGE material would need similar robust definitions: which have yet to be released. As for Basic Magic, it was of course kinda supplanted by the Basic Magic Book. Cheers, NDM

I wrote the BRP.net article rsanford links to years (err, decades…) ago, for the pre-release version of the BRP “Big Gold Book”. I have a revised version, specifically aimed at 2012 Magic World, but not sure when that will make it in to the wild - it’s currently part of something I am hoping to publish if a BRP CCP gets going. Cheers, NDM