NickMiddleton

In some ways I wish they'd do just that. Have a core and stick to it.

It's the constant accretions to D&D that turn me off.

I'm still regularly playing and running D&D 3.0, Arcana Unearthed/Evolved and Stargate d20 in my two game groups and moderately enjoying it precisely because whilst we've added LOTS of setting variation from published material, core rules-wise we haven't added much beyond the original core 3.0 books...

Now, I think from what I've seen that the new BRP will support layers from detailed combat to simple and/or simplistic.

Indeed. Assuming the published version is close to the playtest draft we saw, one could run a game with BRP that from a rules point of view resembled the original BRP pamphlet. Alternatively, pick the right options, and you could have something that is nearly indistinguishable from RQIII, but has X-Men level powered Super-hero's...

Talk to Jason, the sidebars/optional rules and so on will allow you have your own modular house ruleset and yet stay within the BRP canon and use anything from the past or future.

My immediate plans for BRP are to re-work my (currently on hiatus) "After the scouring..." post-apocalypse England RQIII setting in to a BRP form, plus further work on the "Gate Warden" SF setting I used during the playtest, and a few fantasy settings(Gwenthia, what I used to call "fantasy Mars" and a Fantasy/Horror hybrid called "the Last Refuge"). How far I'll get with any of course is another matter (fewer 9.45pm nights at work would probably help...).

Personally, I don't see huge need to revise BRP, as I'm very happy with the synthesis and development of prior work Jason has achieved - but once the core book is published, it wouldn't be a tabletop RPG if people didn't start house ruling and changing it.

As for forums here - can't really comment fully as I don't get here enough at present. Given the title of the site, I don't think a HeroQuest section makes sense:its different game and has support; what nest, a GURPS or d20 forum? Once the BRP book is out, adapting to the interests of subscribers as to which settings they use and discuss makes sense - I'm not personally convinced that many will use BRP with Glorantha (if they are that keen on the old way they have RQIII, otherwise they have MRQ which has it's own forums, which is also where discussion of new MRQ Glorantha material will tend to gravitate), but if it IS a setting people use with BRP don't see it being a problem.

Cheers,

NDM

Any old RQII/RQIII fans able to comment on how the system compares?

Pick the right optional subsystems (Skill category modifiers, Hit locations, strike ranks) and you will have something virtually indistinguishable from RQIII in how it plays (albeit there are a lot of nice refinements in defining skills, levels of success, and other details e.g. opposed skills). Pick a different set of options and you will have something very like Call of Cthulhu, or Stormbringer.

The big difference is in the "powers" - the playtest had two magic systems (modelled from Magic World and Stormbringer), a mutations system (Hawkmoon), a super powers sytem (Superworld) and a Psychic Powers system (ElfQuest). The RQIII Magic Book is currently available from Chaosium as the BRP Magic Book, and is pretty compatible with the new BRP imo, although whether it will remain available after BRP sees print I don't know - I hope so.

Cheers,

Nick Middleton