NickMiddleton

*shrug* change it if you like. In the end, it's an arbitrary figure pulled out of the air that has little impact on the specific game mechanics. Provided you leave the rules governing what goes on within the round unchanged you can redefine a round as 1 second, 3 seconds, 6 seconds or a minute, it doesn't really matter. The round, and whatever sequencing rules you choose to use (DEX ranks or Strike Ranks) are an abstraction whose sole purpose is to make a playable game out of sitting round a table rolling dice to pretend we are in a real melee. Back when RQ/BRP was first on the scene it was regarded as a bit weird as the combat round was so short (D&D was a 1 minute round, Traveller was using 15 seconds IIRC). I first encountered six second combat rounds in FGU's Space Opera I think, and like a lot of the details in that much maligned game, I think they make a lot of sense - but it really doesn't bother me that much. Cheers, Nick

Excellent news Marcus. Even better! You know, may be I should go back to trying to finish the rewrite of that epic Stormbringer campaign I was planning to offer for a million spheres... Nick (who already has FAR, FAR too much to do as it is!)

I prefer a blend of the two systems an dgenerally work on the model that broad circumstances that clearly make a task harder or easier set the difficulty (easy, routine or hard) and then specific circumstantial details supply specific adds or subtractions if mentioning those details seems relevant. If picking the lock is incidental (PC's are fleeing through a complex an dwant to duck in to a locked room), I'll just say it's particular difficulty, or give a specific penalty/ bonus dependent on the quality of the lock - but if it seems centrally important (the PC's have broken in to the complex to steal something and this is the door to their specific objective) then I'll specify a difficulty and maybe assess a few additional penalties and bonuses... My main concern is that the game doesn't bog down over minutia for something that isn't that important in the overall scehme of things, but likewise doesn't gloss over a situation that deserves greater prominence. Cheers, Nick

Becuase it was a feature of the MagicWorld systems that Magic is based on and as others have said, power points / skill are really only limiting factors for mages starting out... No, not unless the GM specifically chooses to limit power point storing devices in a way that is quite draconian. But if there is no "book learning" and a mage can have any spell they know equally to hand that's a different feel to magic. You certainly could drop the requirement for your game and it wouldn't "break" the game - but it would have a noticeably different feel, especially with experienced mages. And the principle of a Wizard having a limited repertoir of spells immediately available, but potentially more available in their grimoire is a common motif in fantasy literature and has a long history in BRP games... Cheers, Nick

Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. Nick

One of my play test games with the new rules was a short SF campaign, and another one shot in my play testing was SF; plus I've used BRP for various SF games over the years. Of necessity the equipment sections skims over everything from flint axes to Spaceships, so nothing is treated in exhaustive detail, but there's enough stuff there to play in pretty much any era or setting, and some good notes on using the Powers' systems to stat out vehicles and gadgets. Not exactly - but there are spot rules for knockout attacks, grappling etc... Not exactly - but depending on the options you chose to use you can be debilitated long before your THP hit zero: with hit locations limbs can be rendered inoperative before death, or an individual rendered unconscious, and with the THP/Major Wound system (derived from Stormbinger) once major wounded you have a limited number of rounds of combat left before you collapse from shock... Very easy. This is BRP, so it's trivially easy to customise the existing powers andvery straightforward to use the existing powers as guidelines to create your own. The super powers system effectively provides a baseline framework for designing ANY power you like. Don't know Fuzion at all, and I read a copy of True20 and sold it as it seemed rather bland and despite its claims to streamline and rationalise d20, oddly fiddly in an un-satisfying way. There's a short but pretty comprehensive bestiary in the book, which can guide you in monster creation. I'd also heartily recommend the Call of Cthulhu supplement Malleus Monstrorum - even if the mythos angle is no use, there are a HELL of a lot of useful things statted out in that book. Cheers, Nick

Summon:Elemental is a Sorcery spell and has no spell ranks IIRC. Conjure: Elemental is a Magic spell, and does have spell ranks - it also has a range and a duration, so I'd let the caster use additional ranks to boost either, on rank adding either another block of range (12m IIRC) or duration (10 combat rounds). Iff I was going to have different sizes of elemental, I'd also look at having larger / more powerful elementals requiring a higher rank spell to call them. Cheers, Nick

QLI did a subscription model for Traveller material, called the "Moot" or some such, and it has foundered on precisley the issues others have mentioned - sustaining a volume of content commensurate with the subscribers financial committment. I'm with ORtrail - a "house" magazine / digest via PDF and PoD (not entirely unlike Palladium's Rifter) could work. But actually, what I'd MOST like to see Chaosium do is tighten up the criteria for them to publish a monograph. People just don't grasp the way chaosium describe the moonographs and expect them to be full Chaosium books that Chaosium has exercised a degree of editorial control over. So make them that, and in additin do some sort of "fan publication license" that allows fans to publish material in PDF or POD for a modest return provided Chaosium can also sell it via their website. Cheers, Nick

Yes to all, pretty much. Volley fire (certainly as described in Elric! / SB5) is as much about massed bows a la Agincourt as it is Legolas-the-Ninja-elf-but-cuter (sorry, I got increasingly annoyed with him in Jackson's trilogy...). So whilst adding a single shot may seem a bit stingy for an individual character, with a block of 20 archers it is highly effective. Actually, now I think about it, I might drop the diffciulty penalty as the target is a mass of people / area - so you get the extra attack for free when the target is "that block of pike-men", and volley fire is just not possible against individuals. Maybe a separate "rapid shot" spot rule that allows the extra shot (or an extra shot for every 50 points of skill?) against specific targets, but all shots that round are one step more difficult? Cheers, Nick

Hmm, looks like the RQIII errata paragraph didn't get pulled across. Tthey went as follows: it takes a full 50 hours, and then the character gets 1d6-2, plus skill category modifier (if you are using those), and until you have a positive skill (remember, those category modifiers can be negative...) you keep spending tine in 50 hour blocks toget further 1D6-2 increases )no skill category modifier afetr the first time). Once you have even 1% in skill, the normal skill training rules apply. Cheers, Nick

In Elric! / Stormbringer the Volley Fire spot rules allows those using missile weapons (thrown axes, spears, bows, slings etc) to discharge an extra shot per round against massed targets, or to pin down defenders. It reduces their chance to hit (to 2/3rd's normal) and requires a CON roll to sustain for any length of time. Call of Cthulhu 5.6 allows "unaimed" shots with a firearm - the character gets DOUBLE the rated number of shots per round, but (without advanced sighting aids anyway) their chance to hit is reduced to 1/5th normal. This rule is reproduced in BRP on page 254. So I'd house rule it as follows: Volley Fire can be used at mass targets or to pin down defenders. It is only applicable with primitive and historical missile weapons (not firearms or high tech missile weapon). It adds an additional attack per round but the 5 DEX rank separation remain sin force, so a DEX 9 character still can't hurl more than two rocks per round. And it makes all shots hard. Volley firing muskets or more advanced missile weapons should use the "unaimed" shot rule. Cheers, Nick

Indeed. Monte Cook loved it so much he returned to the themes and ideas at least twice more for fantasy settings: in Wind-Riders of the Jagged Cliffs for the revised Dark Sun Campaign setting# and again for D&D 3e/ d20 in Malhavoc's Chaositech, which even includes a few Lovecraftian deities (the Galchutt, one of whom is Abhoth). I wish I still had a copy of Dark Space... Cheers, Nick #and I've always wondered if the rumoured "returning space halflings" direction of the meta-plot for that line was actually going to be an invasion of Lovecraftian horrors spearheaded by halflings corrupted by their "life-shaping" technology...

Would it though? To quote that disucssion on the BRP group: (see here for my original post). Don't get me wrong, if someone wrote and Chaosium (or a licensed third party) published a "BRP Space" I'd probably buy it - but I think that those of us who did would be a relatively small, select few I'm afraid. On the other hand a strongly presented, coherent BRP SF setting, that resonates well with currently popular written SF ideas even if it's an original creation and not a licensed property? That I think would sell very well. That to me seems the best route forward in the currrent climate, with perhaps a "BRP Space" as a monograph. Cheers, Nick

Err, the draft I had back from the editor a few weeks back was, as raw text, a little over sixty pages (if one includes the six pregenerated characters). I'm currenly hoping Dustin gets some one more artistically talented than me to re-do the maps, as the ones I supplied were a bit of a mixed bag. And other than maps, I supplied no art. Still not sure what exactly they plan on doing with it, I'll just be glad when it's available for people to play, as that's the reason I submitted it. I'd like to go back to the setting actually, but my current group are more taken with other ideas at present, so it may be some time before I can. Cheers, Nick

All the senses bar touch I'm quite happy with - but allowing touch starts leading into holodeck territory. If you have an illusionary mace and it hits a character, does it do real damage? Illusory damage? Hence, touch is the one thing (in fantasy / magic type settings) I don't let illusions have... But as I said, I think the RQIII Phantom (Sense) spells are a good model. Cheers, Nick

Think he meant Browncoat, which is definitely a Firefly reference. *sigh* and now I'm going to get all depressed again that it got cancelled I didn't get to watch the plot play out properly over several seasons... ;-( Excuse me whilst I high-jack my iTunes to replay the sound track... Nick

The characters are a team of trouble shooters sent to deal with a medical emergency at a multi-corps research site on a recently opened colony world in a setting that's basically a "re-imagining" of the Future*World setting with touchs of Dune and Alastair Reynold's Revelation Space future history books - humanity lost earth to an out break of nanotechnology over a millennia ago and has split in to at least three distinct and divergent cultures (planet bound normal humanity, the "Gifted" of the Guild of Gate Wardens and the near immortal cyborgs of the Pilot's Guild), currently coexisting in an uneasy peace whilst aliens (the Sauriki and Quertzl from Future*World) are intruding in to the human sphere. As and when I know what Chaosium intend to do with it, I'll say more, but at present I'm not sure when or even what exactly they'll do with it. Cheers, Nick

Err, I could be wrong, but from the way I read it, it only creates visual illusions, and makes explicit reference to having to use OTHER means to create the auditory component: I'd add them as separate spells, and rename the existing Illusion as Illusion (Visual), taking inspiration from the RQIII Sorcery Phantom Sense spells. But i wouldn't allow "touch" - this is an illusion, so physical contact would reveal its unreality (I hate "holo-deck" Illusions!). Cheers, Nick

I noticed that last night - interesting, especially as there is already Cthulhu Rising. I'd very much like to see a review as well. The SF segment of Ripple from Carcosa is rather cool, and Cthulhu Rising very good, but as a Call of Cthulhu fan something that builds rigourously and carefully on the explicitly SF / future elements of the mythos could be very cool. Mind, I also want to see something explicitly SF and NON-mythos for BRP - and I'm still waiting to here exactly what Chaosium are going to do with Outpost 19, the SF scenario I sent them a while back, once the editing is complete. Cheers, Nick

Okay, I'll have a stab - others may of course disagree with my interpretation. No. That's the base rule for evenly matched opponents and, because one participant is heavily armoured, does not apply. I'd say yes - per the final paragraph in the spot rule on Foot Chases, the heavily armoured character has to make the Difficult Stamina rolls to maintain distance to the lightly armoured character - but to close to the point of being able to grapple, he need the lightly armoured character to "drop back" into range, which per the rules requires two failed rolls. Given you said "slight head start" I might allow the heavily armoured character to try the grapple after only ONE failed roll from the lightly armoured character - it would depend on the exact circumstances and context in the scenario. No - if they are evenly matched in speed and load, they use the resistance table; if one is more heavily laden than the other, the heavily laden character makes Stamina rolls to keep up. Per the rules the character at a disadvantage (more heavily laden) makes the rolls, and two failures in a row indicate that they have dropped away from their target such that the target has eluded them. This does NOT explicitly therefore allow for the possibility of catching the target, hence my suggestion above. Per the rules, if the pursuing heavily armoured character fails two successive stamina rolls, the lightly armoured character has eluded their pursuer. Per the rules as written, he can't, he can only maintain the original separation - and given he IS heavily encumbered, I'm not sure that is entirely unreasonable at this level of abstraction... However, as I said above, I'd have the lightly armoured character also making Stamina rolls (routine ones) and two successive failures would drop them back to "side by side" with their pursuer, allowing the grapple attempt - but note if the grapple fails, I'd let the lightly armoured chaarcter pull ahead again out of grappling range... That's what I'd do, anyway. Hope that helps. Cheers, Nick

It arrived in the post today! Yah!! :party: Nick

Depends how generous you are being with wounds... Personally, I agree with your houserule and would use it most of my games I suspect. Cheers, Nick

*sigh* me too ;-( Nick

I think Shaira's correct, and that the section on Armour hasn't been corrected to reflcet the section on shields on page 204 onwards in my PDF: I'm holding off doing a thorough read until my physical copy arrives however, so there may be other details I've mised elsewhere. Cheers, Nick

I believe Jason's just sent the manuscript for the BRP Quick start to Chaosium... Cheers, Nick