NickMiddleton

On Page 369 there is a table showing the hit points for hit locations.

I think the values for the 1/5 column are wrong. They are actually the values for the RQ 0.16 multiplier.

Looks likely to me. Also, since the hit point ranges in column one are fixed, the values in the subsequent columns don't always match, as even applying the "always round up rule" in a given THP range for certain specific values of THP you might get different fractional values.

The last value for that column is especially wrong, and I presume that is a typo.

Yeah, that's clearly a typo.

I've put together a table for 1 to 100 THP in NeoOffcie and exported it as a PDF - here. Looks to me like the table on 369 is simply a copy of the table from RQIII, with and added transcription error.

Cheers,

Nick

I'm delighted to report that Chaosium have settled all issues with me, and I'm going to be back to work on Interplanetary this very evening.

Excellent news Jason!

Cheers,

Nick

The Question I have is:

Are you producing your BRP settings so that all options can be used, or are some of you making assumptions about the options that will work more or less well with the setting.

In what I've done so far it's not so much a matter of assuming what will work as picking specific options because I think they suit the details of the setting. Ulfland doesn't have Psychics or Supers, but definitely needed hit locations for example.

And if the latter is the case, do you state flat out which options are not being supported, or do you only recommend that certain ones not be used?

Given I can't actually psychically tell what GM's do with the material once I've made it public nor can I, contrary to rumours circulating in some circles, call down divine vengeance on those who misuse my holy words , I mostly state flat out which options are NOT being used which ARE, so there is an unambiguous statement of what I was doing, and then leave it to the GM's using the material.

Of Coruse I AM compiling a list of transgressors... >:->

I'm just curious about how this is being handled by people in general.

Being less flippant, I think most settings are best served by being clear about what fits and what doesn't, and most people will appreciate the clarity of knowing when they are doing something that the original setting excluded or if it's something the setting was always built to cope with.

Cheers,

Nick

Well, now that Pete the Author has "spilled the beans", I can add one more detail: barring direct intervention by Nyarlathotep himself, you will have BRP Rome available at Tentacles as a dead tree supplement (200 pp. or more). Non-tentacles attendees will have it available through Chaosium or as a PDF or POD by the same date.

Excellent news!

So you have yet one more reason to hurry up and book one of those last places available for Castle Stahleck.

Not someone who attends cons - and since this is the last Tentacles, I leave that place for more dedicated Tentacles fans who want to be there at the final event.

That's what I call "third party support". Enough for you fans?

You know the answer to that - of course not! As fans we want Rome, Fractured Hopes, Supernatural Western, BRP Adventure Monograph, The Merchant's Scale, Mythic Iceland, The Covenant of Justice, Fantastical Baroque, Desolation's Edge, Sword & Spell, The Green, Gravequest, The God Machine AND Interplanetary now!. And a BRP Magic book and a BRP Bestiary and a BRP Space and several scenario anthologies and... and... and...

More seriously though, this is genuinely positive news - and I hope a positive sign of things to come!

Cheers,

Nick

(feeling more optimistic than I have for a week!)

No, not really, there are several companies alive and well that are older than, or at least as old as, Chaosium - for example Flying Buffalo and Fantasy Games Unlimited, to name just two of them.

FGU stopped publishing in the late 1980's and has only recently started again. Flying Buffalo are, like Chaosium a niche publisher - but Rosen's not wrong to point out that Chaosium is, (bar Flying Buffalo) the ONLY survivor of the seventies first flowering of RPG publishers to have been in continuous operation since then largely intact and with a noticeable continuity of staff. TSR, GDW, MetaGaming, Judges Guild are all gone, changed out of all recognition or bought up by someone else. Cast the net a little wider in hobby gaming and time and you can add SPI, Avalon Hill, Mayfair Games, West End Games, Victory Games etc etc. The fact is that it's a tough business to survive any length of time in, and Chaosium's track record at basic survival is better than the vast majority. Now they just need to prove they can do more than basic survival...

To help inject a little more optimism on this thread, I should state that Chaosium is currently making a big effort to publish BRP material.

I should also say that 'Rome' will be released for BRP, under license (freeing Chaosium to produce more supplements in concert). Whilst RosenMcStern has been defending Chaosium's corner, he very modestly kept quiet about his kind offer to help me publish my manuscript; which thanks to him is now undergoing layout as I type.

So don't despair - even if it was a little belated, support for BRP is coming!

Excellent news Pete.

Cheers,

Nick

Trail of Cthulhu divorces "official" Lovecraftian adventure from BRP, using a different role-playing system. Since Call of Cthulhu is the flagship BRP product, I'm wondering how Trail is affecting the fortunes of both Chaosium and BRP.

Pelgrane have a license from Chaosium, which technically they didn't have to do (as the copyright situation on Lovecraft's work is complex but much is public domain these days). On the whole I suspect (but have no hard figures) it's probably doing well by Chaosium - there is the license fees, plus ToC doesn't yet have the extensive library of material that CoC does and it's fairly easy to convert

Also, has anyone played both systems? Does it make a difference in the feel of the game? (If you're being devoured by a multi-tentacled terror, does it matter how many or what shape dice you had to roll to get there?)

ToC and CoC are quite different games. Leaving aside the ludicrously over hyped "flaw" in CoC that ToC allegedly "fixes"§, ToC is a modern "rules light" game, optimised around investigating mysteries. It's so tightly focused on that, to this old style gamer anyway, it felt rather restrictive. I also got very irritated reading the core book, as I had to wade through 50 pages of interminable details about character generation before I got a coherent explanation of the basics of the actual system - without which the numbers on the preceding fifty pages were largely meaningless... The rest however is well written by Ken Hite and very nicely presented. I played a couple of games and realised it wasn't giving me anything that BRP CoC didn't, and didn't feel as easily adaptable to other styles and approaches.

Many people on the net are very taken with it however, so see if you can get in to a couple of games at a convention or something and try it out for yourself.

Cheers,

Nick

§ basically perhaps the most obvious single piece of advice from GMing 101 - if there is a specific sequence of events your game requires the PC's to follow, the characters must always obtain the necessary information to progress along that path. i.e. Don't hide key clues behind skill rolls the players might fail, give them the key clues and use skill rolls to enhance the details they have have or promote the mood of the game. I worked this out in, er 1982, from reading the 2nd edition Call of Cthulhu rule book...

Who put the gun to their heads and forced them to sell RQ to AH?

No one. But then, they did not sell RuneQuest to Avalon Hill.

I think Shannon Appelcline's account is pretty reliable, as is Pete Maranici's History of RuneQuest.

Lord knows they have got things wrong in the past, and they need to put some immediate things right at present, but could we not muddy the waters by raking over incorrect versions of history, much of it ten or more years old?

Cheers,

Nick

It's an interesting option, but given the situation I cannot imagine any conceivable way it would work.

Are you aware of Kenzer & Co's Kingdoms of Kalamar for D&D 4e? With no particular license or permisions, simply adhering to copyright and trademark law. Legally it's entirely do able - albeit it's not a route I'm particularly happy with contemplating even in the current circumstances.

Nick

I'm going to ponder on all of this. I talk to Charlie quite regularly, but I need to talk to the Gwenthia Design Mechanism too. I know that everyone in the Design Mechanism is a big BRP fan, and although a consensus had been reached to use the RQ SRD, things have changed, so maybe its high time we thought again. But everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, would hinge on some solid commitments from the Chaosium side.

*sigh* Frankly, I am sceptical at this point and mostly think I'll be building my future plans around supporting BRP as much despite Chaosium as because of them. And I find that very sad.

There's always hope.

I really hope so. And there WILL no doubt be more monographs, and I'm certainly planning more issues of Uncounted Worlds.

Well Loz, you know I'd rewrite all the existing creatures, stats and rules in a flash to get Gwenthia published by Chaosium... but I'm not hopeful they'll be able to truly commit themselves.

Or, bluntly, honour that commitment a few months later...

After much deliberation I'm now looking at withdrawing my submission and self publishing, although I'd much prefer for it to be released by Chaosium. To whit, I've trawled the net for as much royalty-free art as I could find. Unfortunately that'll mean a distinct bias towards neo-classical 18th C b/w illustrations. My biggest frustration is rewriting all the elegant rules I came up with for magic, chariot racing and the monsters/creatures, which were designed specifically for BRP.

I'm no layout editor, and I'd still love to see the little Chaosium logo on it... but I've reached the point where I want to (need to) see two years of research and hard work actually get into print.

Hey Jason, if you're going down the same road perhaps we could collaborate to produce our own line of d% compatible supplements, sharing the same style of book layout and POD distributor? PM me if you are interested!

I'm pretty sure that both Interplanetary and Rome would find buyers here, whether they have the Chaosium logo on or not.

I do not know the details of Chaosium's current BRP licensing terms. The last I'd heard they were prohibitively expensive for a single, self-publishing author.

The sample license says 50 copies up front gratis for print runs less than 500 and I believe they've said that is the category they would consider PoD models in. Plus the right to buy subsequent copies at wholesale rather than retail, but that's a given really - mind the assumed retail mark up is pretty steep.

So in terms of raw cash, assuming one were using lulu and say a 192 page perfect bound book with colour covers and b&w interiors, in US letter format with lulu's higher grade paper stock would cost (pauses to fire up lulu's calculator) £151.00 plus cost of shipping those 50 books from wherever in the US lulu printed them to Chaosium.

Does anyone have specifics?

The above assumes Chaosium would still go with the idea that a genuine Print on Demand model (i.e. people can buy EITHER a PDF or the book PoD) falls in the "Print run of less than 500 units".

Where that figure falls on the scale of expensive or other wise would depend on ones terms of reference. Depending on how things go in the future, it was a possibility I'd not ruled out for some potential projects: albeit I'd not ruled it IN either, and in current circumstances I'm not willing to commit ANY significant amount of money towards a BRP related project.

Gah, this is depressing, I’m just gonna go home, lie down, and listen to country music. The music of pain.

Nick

Can I read your submission guide line to mean that a jelmre article would not fit in as it's gloranthan, or could that be interesting too?

Correct - there are other venues for Gloranthan material, and, being Gloranthan, it's not strictly all your own work, but in part a derivative work of Greg Stafford's Glorantha. There's nothing wrong with that per se, but in general (so ANY pre-exisitng published setting, not just Glorantah), it's an added complication I've chosen not to deal with.#

Something like this I would recommend you send Newt's way for Hearts in Glorantha - it seems a natural fit subject-wise and HiG is a great 'zine.

Cheers,

Nick

# If for example Gloranthan material is included in Uncounted Worlds I have to wrap my head around the Issaries Inc Fan Policy and possibly the MRQ STL, and how both interact with my exisitng permission from Chaosium and maybe even the OGL and... Lifes too short and I'm more intersted in new ideas, about new worlds. But mostly, lifes too short...

Say Nick,

DO you have any guidelines for submissions?

Yep - here .

Cheers,

Nick

What happened to Morrigan Press?

The all to common fate of small, over enthusiastic RPG publishers - wider economic circumstances changed in ways there fledgling business couldn't cope with. Specifically, Morrigan, like a number of small RPG companies was hit quite hard by shifts in exchange rates IIRC. That lead to some difficulties honouring commitments to freelance contributors and customers and some unfortunate delays in communication. Some of these have now been addressed I believe, but as far as I can tell Morrigan itself is on hiatus whilst Scott Agnew tries to make the numbers add up again.

Morrigan did some good work when everything was working - I know several people who speak very highly of the Omni system games they did for example. They may yet bounce back again, and Omni isn't dead yet.

For more information I'd suggest looking at the Yahoo Talislanta group(s).

Cheers,

Nick

That was a surprise to me, as I don't ever recall having played it like that. I checked the d100 systems I had at hand:

Call Of Cthulhu 5th Edition: agrees with you wrt Parry stating that "At the beginning of the round, the defender states which potential attacker he intends to parry, before anyone attacks." However CoC 5 doesn't allow multiple parries - where the existence of such a rule could be more difficult to apply. It is not prescriptive about when Dodges need to be declared.

RQII & III and Elric! / Stormbringer 5 were the ones I had to hand. Note it's pretty crucial it works that way in RQII/III because you ONLY get 2 combat actions a round: If you Parry two separate attacks before your attack strike rank arrives, you simply CANNOT attack that round.

GORE: Seems to suggest that a Parry or Dodge only has to be declared after a successful attack.

GORE is based on MRQ, and MRQ tied itself in some rather odd knots with combat trying to be different, so GORE does NOT AFAICR work the same way as most BRP games do.

Cheers,

Nick

Looking at the BRP "Melee Weapon Parry Fumble Table" p194 the result for 76-78 is "Wide open; foe automatically hits with normal hit."

How does this work? The rules are fairly clear that a character only has to roll to parry/dodge attacks that actually succeed -- thus if you are rolling on this table you have already been hit for at least a "normal hit".

That sounds wrong to me. Every version of BRP I've ever played you have to declare whether you are Parrying, Dodging or just hoping the attacker will miss BEFORE they roll their attack (but after they have declared that they ARE going to attack you).

The problem I think is the word 'successful' - a BRP character doesn't have to designate who they will Parry against at the start of the round, they can wait until someone attacks them; but they can't wait until they know if the attack has hit them and THEN make a defensive roll, they have to commit to a defensive action (if any) as soon as they know the attack is coming.

At which point of course, the fumble entry makes sense - even if the attack missed, the Parry fumble means they do hit.

Another alternative is that the result applies to the NEXT attack against the character who fumbled.

Cheers,

Nick

I have now read Uncounted Worlds. Good work Mr Nick Middleton.

Thank you.

Are you planning to do an Sci Fi issue perhaps?

I'm definitely keen to include a wider spread of genres in future issues. I don't have definite plans for specifically 'themed' issues per se, but since issue one was predominantly fantasy material (and fairly conventional fantasy at that), I would like to include more varied material in future issues - and since I'm very fond of SF I'd definitely like to see more SF content.

Cheers,

Nick

* Sigh * I suppose it's inevitable that this ends up in a skirmish.

...

FWIW, I don't think that being rude is likely to get the stuff posted.

Quite agree - and the only thing I'd add is that, irrespective of the specific legal niceties, quite a lot of cover art etc. that people blithely copy and pass around the internet is art work produced by a living artists and I personally feel one should ask permission and properly attribute ownership of such pieces simply out of respect for the creator...

Cheers,

Nick

Perhaps we are looking at this from the wrong end.

Is there anyone here who aspires to be an author of fantasy novels?

A successful book with notes at the start that it developed from a BRP campaign, and a link to a website with campaign notes by the author may do wonders.

Of course that just leaves the little peopblems of getting some one to write a book and get it published. And then the big problem of getting the book stocked in shops!

Chaosium are already in the book trade with their Cthulhu fiction line - but as their various forays in to more game related fiction over the years have shown its a VERY tough market to crack. I think a BETTER approach, especially given that the requirements of a role playing campaign setting and a setting for prose fiction are different, would be to build a decent setting, and then get authors to write stories in the setting...

Nick

If you are filled with the creative urge to do something and the time and resources (which if you are going down the lulu route need not be huge) I say get in touch with Chaosium and put your idea forward for licensing.

I too agree - part of the purpose of Uncounted Worlds is to build up my skills and confidence, and the reason Outpost 19 went the monograph route is that I originally promised it to them, and it makes use of material from the original Future*World, if only peripherally, so it seemed a better fit under Chaosium's aegis.

I have some ideas for stuff I might want to try as stand alone supplements self-published, but I'm not rushing in to anything at this point.

Cheers,

Nick

As a matter of interest, Nick, how much does it cost to set something up at Lulu? I glanced at the costs for self-publication but I couldn't work out how they worked.

Nothing. I assume Lulu get something from their print partners who actually physically produce a printed volume if the seller has chosen to print it at cost, and if I were adding a "profit" element to UW, Lulu would take a cut. But Lulu don't directly charge me anything for the services they provide.

So, for example, roughly what was the ballpark cost of setting up Uncounted Worlds # 1? Presumably, the cost included the ISSN Numbers and the online store entry.

The only costs associated with UW have been the domain uncounted-worlds.org, the clip-art library I'm building up, and the physical cost of posting a reference copy of UW1 to the British Library ISSN Centre at Wetherby (a requirement of the ISSN registration), and a copy to Bo Rosen in Sweden as he contributed to that issue.

ISSN's (International Standard Serial Numbers) are free, simply contact the ISSN Centre at the British Library - but they ONLY apply to "serial publications" i.e. magazines, newsletters, yearly produced proceedings etc. ISBN's (International Standard Book Numbers) will cost money and apply to non-serial / unique publications - books. Lulu DO do a service where by they will sort out an ISBN for a publication, but that costs: I only looked in to it briefly a year or so back, so the details will have changed.

And the Lulu storefront Lulu provide for free - note that I've done nothing in the way of enhancing it - again, there may be "pay for snazzy feature" options, but I didn't bother exploring them.

The reason I am asking is that I am vaguely thinking of doing something for RQM that is BRP compatible, but I can't afford to spend much on setup.

Lulu is ideal, but check their FAQ's to make sure it suits, and bear in mind tat shipping costs on printed editions from Lulu can be high - they print at partner printers (paperbacks for the UK are I believe printed in the UK, but all other European destinations are I think sourced from a printer in Spain) and this produces do quirks - at present for example I believe they can only print hardbacks in the US, which makes they an expensive buy for purchasers in the EU or Australasia.

You could also look at Amazon's PoD / Self-publishing arm, Booksurge who provide a similar service to Lulu.

Cheers,

Nick

Wow, such a fanzine was really needed! If and when I have a good BRP adventure that I don't want to self-publish I'll submit it to you, Nick.

Thanks. The more contributions I can get the better!

Just one suggestion: readability is not perfect because you made little use of boldface for chapters, paragraphs, etc.

Can you tell I'm very conservative with layout? Duly noted for issue two and beyond.

You could also use less spacing in stats blocks. I know it is a pain in hit location 09 to make a good layout with limited resources, but I bet your next issues will be even better than this one. :thumb:

I hope so. And BRP stat blocks are quite complex. I modelled the ones in UW1 on the work that was done here by Shaira and others - but it's another area noted on my list to look at again for UW2.

I've also invested in some more clip art and am hoping to break up the layout a bit more in future - it was a deliberate decision to NOT tangle with the complexities of art too much this time round, but I always knew that was going to make the text seem quite dense. So I'm hoping I can address that next time round.

Thanks for everyones comments so far and please keep them coming!

Cheers,

Nick

I must admit I do find myself a bit concerned about the lack of supplements actually hitting the shelves. It seems to be be falling into that old chaosium pattern of releasing a new product with a bit of a fanfare, then it slowing dying the death through lack of support. Nephilim, Elric, Stormbringer, Elfquest it seems to happen every time.....

Bear in mind that Chaosium's level of support for previous games was a) dictated in part but what was financially viable and often concentrated in to bursts of activity. If you look at Elric! in the context of the three years or so it was an active product line, it did reasonably well, compared to similar RPG's from similar sized companies - and the line stopped being actively supported because it wasn't economically viable for Chaosium at the time...

What BRP needs is some third party support - which is why loosing Seraphim Guard and Dead World was such a shame.

EDIT: Nick, have you let Chaosium know that uncounted worlds is available, free publicity for the magazine, and from their point of view it shows that stuff is happening to support the game. I've ordered a print copy from Lulu ( likewise Hearts in Glorantha 1 and 2 ) will let you know what I think when I've had a read !

I did email Dustin before I went away at the beginning of last week, so they should know it's out and available, and I did include a copy of the PDF.

Need to crack on and get another issue or two out this year though, to get some momentum going.

Nick

My main concern is the apparent deadliness of the game. I’m not one to shy away from character deaths, but too many deaths just tend to bog things down and my games do have their share of violence.

BRP's "centre of gravity" (the feel and style it handles most naturally in it's typical baseline configuration) is gritty - violence is always a gamble that rational characters should avoid, or try to enter in to only when they've stacked the odds heavily in their favour, and even then things can go brutally, horribly wrong.

BRP is, however, far more adaptable than many give it credit for and can quite easily be tuned for more heroic styles of play.

I’m wondering if any here have used the Str + Con as hit points option and how it has worked out. I want sturdy adventurers but I don’t want supermen.

I often use this, because against "human scale" opponents (especially if spear carries are left at SIZ+CON/2) it gives the PC"s just enough edge to work, without making some large creatures less threatening.

I also usually operate that instant death is -CON - 0 or lower THP the PC is bleeding out etc. (possible very quickly), but the rapid application of suitable emergency first aid (powerful Healing magic, high tech paramedics etc.) MAY be able to stabilise the PC.

Mook rules may help - I find they often make things a little TOO heroic for my tastes - if I'm going to bother having fight scenes then I'm not happy for faceless extra's to just drop like cardboard cut outs, but that's a personal preference and Charles Green's Mook rules as quoted and adapted by Chaot will serve you well if that approach to combat suits you (and it really does save a huge amount of book keeping).

As an alternative I’m also considering the Fate Points system. Truthfully as a GM I’ve always had some reservations about Fate Points, it sometimes leads to situations where players are cocky when they have some at hand but cautious when they don’t, even if the latter threat is a lesser one than the one they were previously more cocky about.

I am traditionally HUGELY sceptical of Fate Point type systems, for similar reasons to yourself... but I'm going to use them in an upcoming swashbuckling fantasy campaign, as after reading Jason's proposed system for BRP I'm prepared to be convinced, and I liek the way I think it will interact in the setting with teh two sorts of "magic" I'm including.

That said, I haven’t completely ruled this option out and players do seem to like them. Has anyone used the Fate Point system and have any feedback? One other question here, if Fate Points run off Pow does that mean a spell caster draws from the same pool that they cast from?

That's my understanding - and as I say, I like the idea that "Wizards make their own luck", "Fate despises a Sorcerer" and so on that it suggests for my setting.

Lastly since all of you have more experience than me, am I overly worrying over the deadliness? Those of you that have run strait out BRP games, have you found the amount of death a problem?

Generate several typical starting PC's and run several mock combats with your players so they understand the combat system - for gamers coming from other systems they will need to understand the difference BEFORE they start playing. It will also give you a chance to see the various sub-systems in operation and get a feel for things from your side of the screen.

Cheers,

Nick

I was thinking about Delta Green last night, after I wrote what I wrote above. It's just a shame that there's no other setting outside of CoC for independent writers to latch onto.

This is true - but it's also an awkward conundrum. Bear in mind that Delta Green is NOT, despite appearances, a setting open to all - the Delta Green Partnership are very firm (and rightly so) about maintaining the integrity of their IP.

Creating an "open" BRP setting (or settings) sounds like a glorious idea, but what will make a difference to BRP is product on the shelves - which, bluntly, means doing something more co-ordinated and disciplined than the typical open on line fan collaboration based world creation exercise, and (to produce the actual product), more engagement with financial reality than must such projects can survive.

I think it CAN be done - and I think that the Chaosium BRP sample license isn't a bad basis for negotiation with Chaosium for an individual or group who already have substantial material and a robust plan of how to go forward.

Cheers,

Nick

Dear All,

Finally, I am delighted to announce that Uncounted Worlds is available - see here. At present it's available for free download or at cost print price from Lulu, but only in A4 layout I'm afraid (there may be a US letter version at some point).

I hope people like what they see and I'd be delighted to receive contributions for future issues.

Cheers,

Nick

Greetings all BRPites as well as the various ancestral derivatives and modern mutations...what glory is ours!:

From a BRP POV, I'm wondering how you all are handling the priestly-magic end of things. Are your priests, holy folk, crusaders, fanatics or church-ladies, etc. using magic, sorcery, or psychic powers...or all of 'em...or none of 'em...or somethin' else?

Sorcery, rebadged as Divine Miracles and with various spell names changed as appropriate. Allegiance <Specific Deity> grants access to spells (1 / 5 points of Allegiance) on the deities "approved" list and the priest own Power Points are normally used to cast spells but then can also draw points from a willing congregation

I have to admit, I miss the "separation of powers" RQ III offered ;-(. I know I can go back and pull out the RQ III book and port divine magic (to tell you the truth, when we game my group uses both the BRP and the RQ III texts...LOL!), but before I do anything like that I thought I'd check out to see if any of you's guys had come up with interesting approaches.

To be honest, RQIII magic requires virtually no effort to use with BRP you know...

Cheers,

Nick