NickMiddleton

Bad Jason, no biscuit!

I like the monographs, and I think they fill a much needed role in providing Chaosium a way of providing low volume cost effective support for CoC and BRP - which I'm afraid makes them problematic to get in print outside the US, unless one can manage to club together with friends and put in an order that qualified for free shipping...

I'm glad we've left the b&w tape bound card cover era behind, and I'd be happier if Chaosium made more of a distinction between monographs like BRP Adventures, where they did the editing etc, and ones where the editorial and layout is entirely down to the author ("Faculty papers" and "Student papers" perhaps?) but given the current physical format and there availability in PDF as well I really can't complain about the monographs!

Just need more normal distribution books...

Nick

To add to Vagabonds point - Nephilim was published by Chaosium in 1994 and had seven supplements by 1997. Pendragon in total got a similar level support over it's 4 editions at Chaosium. These are not GURPS / WotC D&D4 levels of support - but they are not atrocious. Certainly, we'd all like more but lets not forget that, pretty much until the release of BRP, Chaosium was regarded as the dinosaur who had not embraced PDF publishing. Now they have and that's allowed them, despite very difficult circumstances in the past year to get BRP and five new supplements out (and two of those five supplements had some Chaosium editorial input, for what that's worth).

In that Chaosium are responsible for publication, marketing etc etc I'd say they do count, but I take your point

Chaosium have to grant approval of a license before a 3rd party can publish a BRP book - I even asked their permission before doing Uncounted Worlds and in some cases they need to take a more active role than that and have a definite part to play in fully distribution 3rd party products. This appears to be why the Deadworld project was stymied and, on a more positive note, RosenMcStern has indicated that he and Chaosum negotiated a specific license for Pete Nash's Rome. So they have definite part to play in enabling 3rd party support and lets hope that Rome is the first of many.

Agreed, what they need is publicity and a higher profile in the marketplace.

BRP is frequently talked about at RPGNet and on other internet forums; the new book has been reviewed by both Ken Hite and others; it's in the distribution channel and showing up in local game stores... But there is no advertising channel for RPG's anymore that hits all, or even just major chunks of the target demographic (very few print zine's are left and the breadth of their audience and thus the cost effectiveness of advertising in them is suspect).

And where is this "market place"? Five to ten years or more ago it may well have been primarily focused on bricks and mortar shops, but I really don't think it is anymore - it's Amazon, DriveThruRPG, RPGNow, Noble Knight, Infinity Games and ARG in the UK; it's here, and RPGNet and EN World: the market place is primarily online these days. Local game stores still have a crucial role to play - but they are now playing second fiddle to online retailers and PDF 'books' which can be delivered immediately and without the at times extortionate cost of over seas shipping.

Again, not saying Chaosium have got it exactly right - but I think the last year has seen them move to embrace the modern market more than at any time in the preceding decade and that gives me hope that they will continue to adapt and improve their market presence.

Certainly online PDF stuff would seem to be the quickest, cheapest way to go. Now here's an interesting thing, I just nipped over to RPG now, they have no monographs of any sort there, be it CoC or BRP, also the BRP rulesbook doesn't seem to be available. I can understand Chaosiums desire to cut out the middle man and sell direct from their site as it maximises profit margin....yet they do sell from RPGnow as there are some CoC products there, and they wouldn't do that unless they were turning a coin. Surely they must be able to cut some kind of deal with RPGnow, drivethruRPG, Paizo etc etc to get PDF products out there ?

That's a question for Chaosium, but at a guess - they don't like the cut that RPGNow / DriveThru (actually a single entity called One Book Shelf, as the two merged some time back but continue to trade under both brands) now take of PDF sales, hence not expanding the range they originally made available via that outlet. Many other small publishers have also not liked OBS's terms and have gone elsewhere.

Chaosium's second reason I would guess stems from the secondary purpose of the monographs - which is that in addition to making money for selling them, because they are exclusive to Chaosium's website, purchasers have to go to Chaosium's website and thus may buy something else direct from them. And Chaoisum makes more on direct sales.

As a strategy it has pro's and cons - I wish they were a little more consistent (some recent books such as Secrets of Kenya and Malleus Monstrorum are available as PDF's from OBS, but not the BRP core rulebook?) but I think the idea of having a line that is exclusive to the website (i.e. the monographs) but is effectively free delivery any where in the world (because you can but them as PDF's) is a shrewd idea. And I don't see any Steve Jackson Games PDF's at OBS or Paizo either...

Chers,

Nick

It's certainly more realistic. But how do you halve it for missile weapons?

Reduce it one die step? So if your melee damage bonus is +1d6, your missile weapon bonus is +1D4?

Cheers,

Nick (also a fan of the "linear dice" damage bonus idea)

I'm looking for opinions on whether you, as GMs and players, prefer a new skill to fit a concept or have that concept melded with an existing skill.

Is it a technique that has limited distribution in the setting? Or is it a unique technique TO the setting? In general, Skill list creep is a bad thing - it's one thing to stats NPC's with quirky specific skills, but adding skills to the list a player character has to divvy points between should be approached with caution.

For example, rappelling. It is a somewhat specialized skill and requires some specific knowledge to do it safely and quickly. If I were to produce a supplement that had characters rappel would you like to see a Rappel skill (or a generic mountaineering skill) or have rappel be handled by a Climb or Jump check?

In a modern campaign, Abseiling is simply part of the Climbing skill - any climber beyond 25% has probably used the technique and certainly Professional Climbers (51%+) would know it well, know what equipment they need and be able to talk novices through using it. In a 15th Century, wars of the Roses era campaign the technique has not been invented, so no one knows it - you could consider allowing a master Climber (90%+) to invent it.

In general, specialist, specific techniques I'd restrict by skill level, rather than as a skill.

Cheers,

Nick

I wanted to get the group's opinion on something else skill related as well.

How do you feel about making multiple skill rolls to achieve a single result? The best example I can think of can be found in Delta Green Countdown. It adds the Tradecraft Skill. In and of itself, Tradecraft does little. However, if you want to plant a bug, you must first succeed at a Tradecraft roll and then a Surveillance roll.

If the character makes the Tradecraft roll, but fail the Surveillance, the bug isn't planted.

If the character fails the Tradecraft roll, but makes the Surveillance, the bug is planted. However, it might be easily spotted or in a sub-optimal position to capture conversations in the room.

If both fail, the bug's not planted.

If both succeed, the bug's planted and works as expected.

Does this complicate matters unduly or does it add to the experience? In the above example, would a single Surveillance roll be enough to succeed, in your opinion?

I voted that it over complicates matters, simply because I think too many people use it without thinking through the impact "compound" rolls have on success and failure. If, in your example, the character is 51% in both skills, the chance of rolling BOTH successfully in a "compound roll' is only 25% - suddenly the Professional Spy is only an amatuer...

As Al. says, the better approach is to match a SINGLE roll against multiple skills: in which case, the Professional Spy would still have a 51% of successfully placing the bug, but his protégé from local LEO with minimal Tradecraft (22%) would likely hide the bug (get less than 51) but quite likely in an position a skilled agent would look (roll less than 51 but greater than 2).

As a further consideration, I'd be wary of adding skills that could conceivable be covered by others, or subsumed by broad skills. For example, I'd prefer to write up Tradecraft as a specific Craft skill (in the sense that it's a body of practical skills and procedures one can teach), rather than add it as a new stand alone skill.

Cheers,

Nick

Thanks for the encouragement, it helps to keep me going.

Nick, if you feel like this type of stuff could make the cut and you have any need of images for the next copy of Uncounted Worlds let me know. I am a fan and would love to help out in any way I can.

I can do full character cuts like this pretty quick and easily. Backgrounds and more interactive stuff takes a little longer. Just let me know what you are looking for.

Cool - life and work are manic at present but expect a PM by the end of the weekend - but only on the condition you also keep working on The Green! ;-)

Nick

Print edition of Outpost 19 is now available from Chaosium.

Cheers,

Nick

The Print Edition of Outpost 19 is now available from Chaosium.

Cheers,

Nick

....Another thing that has been taking an awful lot of time is that I have been trying to learn how to make semi-presentable pictures for the book. The problem is that I end up having more fun doing that and then I put off the writing a little. Here is an example of a couple of pics I was working on.

The results are worth it - those are excellent!

Cheers,

Nick

Starting to feel like subconscious stalking, right Nick? I checked with the wife and she already had a Yahoo account for her Xena group. I got approved by the AlternateEarth Yahoo guys and my hands on that Bronze Age file. It would still be cool to have a copy in the Downloads section here though.

Simon (Soltakks here) and I have both emailed Eduardo through his (last know) Yahoo email address so we'll see if he gets in touch.

Cheers,

Nick

I wasn't trying to be unduly critical, believe me.

s'OK - I always knew I wasn't happy with Outpost 19 maps, just wanted to explain the process I went through.

I've been putting off doing maps for a BRP scenario I've been working on since the BRP Monograph contest last year. A good map is a work of art, but a lot of effort goes into getting it there. I'm still not sure what approach to take for the maps right now. Are you happy with Microstation? What does it cost?

I can draw things in my sleep in Microstation - but it's really a high end 3D CAD package, used for Civil Engineering and rail Transport projects. I have acess to it through work, but it's NOT a package I'd recommend for private use (it's expesive, and massively over specced for most home use).

What about free map making software like (a quick Google search later).... AutoRealm?

I used AutoREALM a lot when I had a PC and whilst it's a little quirky, it's actually very effective and powerful. It's also worth looking at just plain bit map or vector based drawing packages as well - currently on my Mac I do a lot with Inkscape, Seashore (a glorious little GIMP compatible low end bit map editor) and Artrage 2.5, which I got as a freeby with my Wacom Bamboo Tablet. I still tend to produce a base map in Microstation, but then I end up touching up teh final graphic file in Artrage or Seashore.

Oh, and as for the issue of third-party support? It's a catch-22 right now. The BRP book won't sell better until it has more support, but there won't be a lot of third-party support until BRP is selling well. Maybe having enough monographs out will jumpstart things? I hope.

Hopefully.

Nick

Nick, I should have mentioned before that I enjoyed reading your take on the FutureWorld setting in Outpost 19.

That said, those maps? I find a detailed b&w map, like what you did in Uncounted Worlds for Ulfland to be better than a coloured one. What did you use to create that Ulfland map? Or was it done by hand?

Most of the Ulfland maps were done in Bentley Microstation, then converted to a more "production friendly" graphic format - the originals are in colour. The floor plans and the map of Tarinport are doctored scans of hand drawn maps. The Outpost 19 maps are also originally colour Microstation diagrams, but I was never happy with them and meant to rework them but we ran out of time. I keep meaning to overhaul them and send Dustin a copy to put up on Chaosium's site.

Nick

I just grab a PDF copy of Outpost 19, and fully intended to print out a copy for easier reading, plus I'm probably going to want to change things and add a few notes to the margins.

I do wish Outpost 19 was more "printer friendly" though. I don't need the full colour space shots, and in fact expected (my first monograph purchase) to see only black and white art.

hehn - I believe Charlie is currently wrestling with converting Outpost 19 to more monograph appropriate / printer friendly b&w graphics. They add to the atmosphere when reading as a PDF, but are definitely a bit of a pain as far as printing is concerned. Mind, IIRC Chaosium also struggled with Ashes to Ashes as IIRC that's a colour interior as well.

Cheers,

Nick

Well the abhorrent monster was only a little bigger (maybe Size 15) and an average Con (maybe 14), so yeah, that damage would certainly be lethal to it.

And from the condition of the grapple as described between the player and GM, the monster was basically on top of the player, thus a bigger target, and couldn't break the hold and therefore could not move.

I don't think I'm ever gonna use BRP to run horror ever again, ironically.

That's your choice - but I think it's a mistake - as cjbowser says, BRP is very well suited to Horror. Just don't use physical monsters to create the horror - ghostly presences, possessions, twisted influences and situations that put the characters in moral dilemmas and confront them with unpalatable choices. There are lots of ways to side step a particular players gun focused tricks - send in a dimensional shambler next time and both characters are grappled to the shambler when it shifts (and once it starts shifting, it finishes shifting whether it's alive or dead...)

Nick

I was disappointed to realise that there doesn't seem to be any fantasy oriented BRP supplemental, in particular a bestiary or spells book, or an expanded weapons/armor module. The idea of playtesting my own creations is daunting (although I'm sure with its own reward), and I wonder what others here might have used as a workaround?

Ahses to Ashes is a fantasy supplement (a complete "dark fantasy" setting), but only available direct from Chaosium (in print of PDF); Malleus Monstrorum is ostensibly a Call of Cthulhu source book that should be available from all usual RPG outlets, is entirely numbers compatible with BRP and makes a pretty solid creature collection for BRP. There is some fantasy content in the first issue of my BRP fanzine, Uncounted Worlds. There are also several supplements "in development" that are fantasy orientated.

Sadly, at present, after that you are left looking for supplements to previous BRP games on eBay - the RuneQuest III Creatures Book (also briefly published as the BRP Creatures Book monograph by Chaosum) would obviously be useful.

I'm familiar with the 3.5 SRD monsters, and saw a post on the forums here on converting from that format to BRPs, but again, I'm curious to know if there's another avenue to take that'd save time/energy (if not money).

Trawl through the downloads section here, ask in these forums and also other BRP Internet related sites (there are several Yahoo Groups for BRP and BRP related games). Several folk here have talked about conversions from D&D (3.x and earlier).

Are the Runequest Bestiary (Bestiaries?) by Mongoose fully BRP compatible, and are they worth the expense, for example?

No idea as I don't own them - but several other people here do buy MRQ books for use with BRP.

Again, I'm very re-new to RPGs, and have been wondering if another system like Pathfinder might be more worth exploring, esp. due to the Open Game License it utilises. Maybe that's a dangerous question to post here, but have at... Any feedback is appreciated, thanks.

The Open Gaming License is a bit of red herring IMO - the fact that A N Other publisher can sell a book with great swathes of copyright text previously published by someone else does not guarantee their books are any good, and as the d20 collapse of '03 showed it mostly just choked the market and distribution chain with mediocre derivative crap. Also, whether Pathfinder will get significant support has yet to be seen (they've only JUST announced their trademark and fan use licenses IIRC).

Find a game you like playing that involves a level of effort you are comfortable with and play that. I'd recommend giving BRP a serious try as I think it's very good and, whilst not as heavily commercially supported as others there is quite a lot of at least basically compatible material out there. But in the end, find a game you and the rest of your group enjoy playing and have fun: that is, after all, the point.

Nick

We should change that notice on the front page... it is not only back in line, but may be available in some form sooner than expected...

More I cannot say.

Excellent news! Really looking forward to this, and gives me just the excuse I need to read my Fantasy masterworks anthology of Leigh Brackett stories!

Non-monograph. A book that'll hit the actual distribution chain at some point. As for the setting, I'm going to hold off on announcing it for a bit. I want to get all my BRP options outlined, then post the setting and intended options here for everyone to comment and suggest on.

:thumb: That sounds really good as well. Things are definitely looking up.

Nick

Well, back on to the original topic. I received a contract yesterday to produce a setting for BRP.

It's due in September. I should have it done before then.

Ooh! Ooh! Cool! Tell us more please!

Nick Middleton

... BTW, Thalaba? I want to see your notes on that Bronze Age game.

There's a file in the file section of the Alternate earth Yahoo Group you might find interesting (http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/alternateearthrq/files/), entitled "RuneQuest Bronze Age Rules Source Book"

It's by Eduardo Chamon who was a regular poster on that list but I don't think is a member here as yet.

Cheers,

Nick

Care to elaborate on what you felt the need to change? I'll probably use something like it if I ever get around to using the new BRP for something, and there's no need to completely reinvent the wheel...

Err - I couldn't remember exactly how the RQIV:AiG system worked when I was reworking my old "Ars Magica" influenced rules, but when I looked at them for writing up Outpost 19 I realised I'd based them on RQII (where ENC was, basically, limited to STR x 1.5), rather than BRP. In the new BRP Jason points out that a character has a 50% chance to lift 6 x STR in Enc (since ENC/6 = SIZ), so I pegged set STR x 3 as the notional "maximum load" (whilst acknowledging that one could bench press potentially much greater weights) and defined six load levels (from unloaded to maximum load). I defined seven levels of fatigue levels in BRP terms, with penalties based on Circumstantial Action Modifiers (page 177), from fresh to unconscious.

I then just use a Stamina roll (penalised by current fatigue level penalties, if any) to avoid "dropping" another fatigue level after appropriate exertion; I also emphasised the idea of imposing a "maximum" fatigue level to represent harsh conditions etc.

In the end, (albeit I'd have to re-read AiG to be sure) I simplified the system a bit but mostly I tweaked the numbers so the system I was writing would work with the numbers in the BRP book - although I will confess that I haven't actually ever gone through them with a fine toothed comb to be sure they are robust...

Cheers,

Nick

I tended to like the RQ4/AIG fatigue much better than RQ3's...

I thought it was probably the single best feature of RQIV:AiG when I finally managed to get a copy and read it, and I'd already been using a not entirely dissimilar system (inspired by, amongst other games, Ars Magica). I think I suggested a variant be included in the new BRP during the play test. I certainly included a further revision of my house rule as an appendix in Outpost 19, tweaked to bring it more in line with the new BRP core book.

Cheers,

Nick

Rather surprised that no ones mentioned Ken Hite's Out of the Box about the new BRP - unless of course I've been dim and missed it...

Nice positive write up I thought, as ever with Ken Hite gently incisive about the positive aspects of the game he's writing about - "BRP remains excellently suited for any game in which combat is dangerous and something important reliably happens outside combat."

Cheers,

Nick

On the topic of Location Hit Points:

On P29, the chest has 4/10 of total Hit Points.

On P368-369 the chest has 2/5 of total Hit points.

Same value, just expressed differently.

If Chaosium (imho the best name for a Gaming company I've ever seen) ever releases another edition of BRP they probably should be made consistent (2/5?).

Is there anywhere we can send the little "oddities" that we find?

A few bits are logged here but that's as close as we currently have to an offcial errata record as far as I'm aware.

Cheers,

Nick

It doesn't say so on their site, but on the other hand I've never seen them for retail sale. I ask because I'm going to get myself a copy of Ashes to Ashes. Now I could get it direct from Chaosium, but since I firmly believe that one of the things that BRP needs to flourish is publicity and retail support I was also considering ordering from my local book or hobby store.

Monographs are specifically intended to drive up traffic through Chaosium's web site (on which they make far better margins than normal distribution sales). As such, they don't sell the monographs through normal distribution, but they don' prevent it - Leisure Games of London in the UK (and IIRC FanBoy 3 in Manchester) have previously carried some monographs. But it's an expensive way of getting them.

Cheers,

Nick

I added my own take on the table.

BRP Central - Downloads - Hit Points by Location Table

Mine differs in that I've also included it with Total HP divided into groups (like on P369 of the book) and I've always followed the round up rule (as detailed on P29).

And I managed to make an embarrassingly simple error with the spread sheet...

Which I have now corrected...

Cheers,

Nick

Whilst not one of the writers, I was involved in the play testing of the new BRP. Step six comes from the previous BRP game Elric!, which was one of the major influences on the baseline of the new systems as I understand it. The personality type option in Elric! was assumed to be used, as it was meant to be quite a heroic game. In the new BRP it pretty clearly says that unless notably heroic characters are what you are after, don't use the option.

My preference is to use it to emphasise the heroic edge within the wider campaign level. For example, a campaign based on the TV show 24 is arguably a normal game (there's no powers and it's ostensibly set in the real world) - but I'd definitely use the step six for such a game, where as for say a Smiley's People inspired game I wouldn't.

Another approach is to make the add from step Six scale with the campaign level: +10 / +15 / +20 / +25 for normal / heroic / epic / superhuman games.

Cheers,

Nick