NickMiddleton

Err, care to condense that a touch? Or at least break out the key things you think MIGHT be useful / relevant to BRP? I'm afraid I don't particularly rate Mike Mearls as a designer (most of his d20 work I've read I find overly fiddly and poorly thought through) and most of the rules ideas in 4e seem aimed at taking the game even further back down the "tactical skirmish wargame" road than 3.5 - a shame as the flavour text and such has been a marked improvement over 3.0/3.5 - but frankly, if I was to run something in a 4e style "points of light" setting, from what I've heard so far 4e is pretty low down the list of possible systems I'd choose to use... Cheers, Nick

It's a bit of a quick straw poll effort, and I suspect one would need to get in to some rather lengthy discussions to clearly define Modern Horror and Modern Fantasy as distinct from each other - AND explain how both aren't already to some degree addressed by Call of Cthulhu. But I'm sure Chaosium would listen to / read a pitch on either one - and they might revise the poll in response to an email. Be interesting to see what the results look like when it has more respondents...

Yes - basically you can add more levels to a spell and for spells where it makes sense, those additional levels can be applied to different aspects of the spell. So a level 6 change spell could last 15 minutes and affect one SIZ 18 individual, OR affect TWO SIZ 9 individuals (six levels of it's basic effect, split between two targets) OR one SIZ 9 target but for a duration of one hour (3 levels of basic effect last 15 minutes, and three levels of additional duration). The spell list is virtually unchanged from Magic World, but there is a Conjure Elemental spell, and as you say, it would be very easy to improvise additional spells. I'm also hopeful that an early supplement for BRP will be some sort of "magic system anthology" based on the RQIII Magic Book but also including material from the Bronze Grimoire, Nephilim, Liber Ka, Land of Ninja and some new ones... Cheers, Nick

I dislike the fixed damage bonus approach, as it removes any possibility of a glancing blow from exceptionally large creatures. The increasing die size damage bonus seen in MRQ (and earlier in the things like the Elric! effect die table) is a better solution, addressing both the lack of variability in the fixed system, and the bias towards average (and thus large) damage adds of the traditional d4/d6/2d6/3d6 DB progression... But I thought long and hard about it during the BRP play test and to be honest, at the point at which things get a 2d6 DB in BRP , I don't think it's an issue. Before I'd re-jig the DB table I'd re-jig the weapons damage tables to remove the flat +'s, as I think they distort things far more. YMMV. Nick

Not exactly. BRP 0 defines a condition "Fatal Wound" - where the character receives an injury that does them more hit points damage than they currently have hit points" So, in theory, a character could go to -157 hit points, and if some how a companion character could administer 158 points of healing in the round on which the fatal wound occurred and the immediately following round, the character would survive - which, given eth necessary power level of any campaign in which 158 points of healing over two rounds is even possible, doesn't seem unreasonable. In a "normal" level campaign with First Aid, a character5 might make it back from going as far as -5, but it's not likely, and any more severe is irretrievable. I've used variants of the D&D "dying rule", where a fatally wounded character loses a further hit point per round until -CON, at which point they are beyond treatment - it depends on the genre and setting. Cheers, Nick

I'm in the process of adapting BRP 0 Sorcery as a system of Divine magic for Priests in a fantasy setting i'm writing up, and basically all I've done is replace the POW 16+ requirement with an Allegiance requirement (To gain spells a characters must have Allegeiance (Specific Deity) 50+ and be allied to that Allegiance) and renamed the spells to remove the word Sorcery / Sorcerer. Cheers, Nick

Before I get thoroughly diverted from what I should be doing (which is finishing off the thumbnail sketch of the setting so I can get back to writing up this bloody scenario for publication), has anyone worked up the Optional Rules checklist from the back of BRP 0 as a electronic document (doc / pdf / odt)? Cheers, Nick

So each family line has it's own set of "ideals" from the traits list? And perhaps each family / line has an Alleigance (family / Line) that works as per the BRP Allegiance, but each family / line has different sets of actions / behaviours that add allegiance? So you have both a set of ideals for a family / line that the character would strive to live up to, AND a set of specific behaviours that family tradition / loyalty would define as "right action"... Cheers, Nick

Nah, re-read Jason's posts up thread - BOTH are copying Da Vinci's "Vetruvian Man" aka "Measure of Man" - it's a very well known image - see here . Nick

Purely off the cuff, but how about, rather than using the fate point mechanic and Allegiance (which is in some ways a fre-form variant of Pendragon's Passions rules), define some "ideals" - sets of say five traits that exemplify a particular ideal / philosophy / worldview and if a character who espouses that ideal has trait scores that qualify (16+ if 1-20 scale, 80+ if 1-100 scale, can't remember how BRP 0 does 'em but think it's 1-100) they get a benefit. Or even, for each qualifying trait they get a minor benefit, and for the full set they get an enhabced benefit? Just a thought... Nick

The catalogue works, and I managed to log in, so I think they're most of the way back. Cheers, Nick Middleton

I've always found Dustin is pretty good at responding promptly, and he specifically posted to the BRP play test Yahoo group regarding license submissions - BUT he's also remote from the Chaosium offices in California, so I know his email recently has been erratic. regards, Nick Middleton

IIRC Jason's notes on doing Star wars in BRP were posted in a thread at RPG Net a while back... Cheers, Nick Middleton

Err, which "new rule"? In BRP zero, a critical Parry or Dodge negates an attack and in the case of the parry the parrying object takes no damage - which is exactly how a critical parry worked in RQIII (and in RQIII, a special parry means the pParrying object takes no damage)... Cheers, Nick Middleton

BRP Zero includes the RQIII fatigue point system, and a simple systen rekated to the RQII Encumberance model, IIRC. Nick Middleton

I haven't got BRP zero to hand, and this is off the cuff, but how about: 1) Attack vs. Dodge is an Opposed Roll per the opposed skills rule (with a bit of fine tuning and clarification#). 2) Attack vs. Parry is not treated as an Opposed Roll i) A successful (critical, special or normal) parry blocks the parrying objects AP from a succesful (critical, special or normal) Attack's damage roll. ii) Whichever "object" achieved the lesser degree of success out of the attack or parry reduces its AP by 1 if its AP were exceeded by the other objects damage, plus an additional one for each degree of success less. iii)Where sensible (e.g. Impaling weapons vs. Shields) aspects of weapon special effects may (GM's discretion be applied) e.g. impaling weapons getting stuck in a shield. So... Parrying with a shield, even perfectly, probably won't break a sword, and may well not stop all the damage, but unlike armour CAN'T be by passed (and the shield will have a LOT of AP); weapon AP's have a role, and weapons and shields do degrade, but slowly. And in the past in RQIII I've let characters use their weapon skills as a Maintenace roll with appropriate resource's to hand to "first aid" their weapons and shield and replace lost AP, so I'd certainly allow that as a possibility. Quite like that actually, will have to try it some time... Cheers, Nick Middleton # Specifically, that when Degrees of Success are tied, the higher roll wins but is in ALL cases treated as having only achieved a normal success, so ties on any DoS result in a normal success for the winner.

Hmm: unlike the Tribe 8 / Silhouette version, this potentially allows a characters to dump a LOT of power points in to a fairly major effect: a typical character could easily afford to drop 8 power points, for a +40 augment... I'm not saying it's a bad thing (or even out of scale with T8), but would one want to limit it? I think if I were looking at a BRP conversion of T8 I'd be tempted to impose a maximum limit to augments, at least for non-dreamers characters - say may be 4 power points at a time (i.e. +4 to special chance, + 1 to critical chance), or no more than POW / 4 perhaps. And I'd raise the caps on augments - so whilst a non-Shaman could augment some what, a Shaman could really turn on the juice, as it were... What might be useful is, despite the ideas roots in T8, to try and divest the ideas of their T8 terminology - whilst I'd love to see a T8/BRP conversion, I think you are right and there are more interesting and original things that can be explored from here... Decide whether we're talking about a T8/BRP conversion (which would be cool!) or about shaping a new magic system / setting for BRP inspired by T8's Synthesis (which would also be cool!). Cheers, Nick Middleton

Sounds promising, but I'd hav eto look at my Tribe 8 stuff again to be able to say anything useful. Bear with me... Nick Middleton

The default rule: Both characters roll and the one who achieves the highest degree of success wins. Once the "winner" is determined, if the losers roll was still a success, they reduce the winners degree of success by one step for each degree of success the loser achieved above failure (So a normal success will be beaten in an opposed test by a critical roll, but the critical will be reduced to a special success). Where degrees of success are tied, the victory goes to the higher dice roll (thus rewarding the higher skill). A number of optional variant are included, and there are some wrinkles in interpretation that were to be clarified as a result of feedback on BRP 0 IIRC. The default rule and variants automatically takes account of skills over 100. Cheers, Nick Middleton

It's a cracking setting, and pretty easily adapted to BRP, and it's native system (for the first edition, Silhouette) is actually pretty good. I've yet to run it, and thus haven't actually committed to whether I'd convert to BRP. Albeit the After the Scouring campaign I ran last year that was heavily inspired by Tribe 8 was basically RQIII powered... I think the key thing is to provide something that can be used immediately, and that demonstrates the range the rule set is capable of. I wasn't imagining tying them to specific settings: more just very generic examples of those genres with good scenarios that can be played with just that demo game. Cheers, Nick Middleton.

If the model is something that can be given away, take a look at Dream Pod 9's Tribe 8 demo-game . No character generation, but a concise outline of the game mechanics, the game setting, a set of pre generated characters and a solid scenario for them to play through. All in what amounts to four sides of A4. Something like that (a set of pre-generated characters in a specific setting, with a concise explanation of the core rules and a solid scenario) is what would be best - but, given that BRP is not tied to a specific setting, what might be best is a set of these: fantasy, SF, superhero, perhaps western, espionage and post-apocalypse as well? Cheers, Nick Middleton

There is a fate point mechanic in BRP (page 176 of BRP 0). (my emphasis) My experience of such systems (not just in BRP/RQ but in a number of other games) is that they are intrusive, breaking "the fourth wall" in a fashion that is detrimental to the atmosphere and flow of the game. Some groups love them - but equally, some groups don't... How else would you describe a skill of 250%? "tremendous skill" is just that: tremendous skill. Elements of the Super Powers system can be used to model exceptional / superhuman talents (e.g. Superhearing will let a character hear frequencies other humans cannot), and setting the campaign "level" suitably high will allow very high skill levels. Err, Hit Lcoations are an optional system in BRP. The Fate Point system I mentioned allows a Character to "soak" one point of damage at the cost of three "power points" (what we known in previous BRP games as magic points), as well as offering various options to affect the outcome of percentile rolls that could reduce damage suffered in combat. Cheers, Nick Middleton

BRP did roundless combat in Ringworld, and Niall Shapero also tried a smiliar system in Other Suns - it's a while since I read (and longer since I played) either system, but my memory is that they were both a book keeping nightmare that actually added little. Cheers, Nick Middleton

Yep - at a genuine Castle on the Rhine in Germany... See here . Cheers, Nick

Isn't Ling a type of fish? :eek: Nick Middleton