Ram

I'm working on what's turned into a rather long-term project of coming up with my own BRP/d100 version, by reading through various options out there and making choices. Just to add a few to your list, you might want to add to a comparison chart some of the following:

- Do characteristics affect skills?

- How are hit points calculated?

- Are weapon skills grouped into classes?

- By how much are skills advanced?

- Are difficulty levels used for skill resolution?

- Are skill rolls required for casting spells?

- Are weapons and shields broken or worn out?

- How do shields and Dodge work?

These are the kinds of things to note.

Earlier in this thread there are the following things noted as differences...(some of which have been listed, but I quote it for simplifying the thread to this point.)

The good news is that many of these BRP variations are free and available for download from this very site. You can get the Mongoose RuneQuest (1) SRD, GORE, BRP Quick-Start Edition, and the Renaissance SRD either in the download section or from discussion thread links. Variations among them include things like whether they use a total Hits pool or break it up by body part, whether they use Strike Ranks during combat, whether they use EDU and SAN.

Some authors of d100 systems like the Resistance Table, others dislike

it an prefer another game mechanic. For example, lifting an object could

also be handled by the Encumbrance rules on page 180 of BRP. The use

of the Resistance Table or of an alternative game mechanic is one of the

typical differences between various d100 systems.

However, nothing prevents you from using the Resistance table in your OpenQuest game.

It is really a matter of taste, both methods (specialised skills and the resistance table) have their pros and cons.

Two other typical differences are the use of total hit points or location hit points

and the use of skill category bonuses (none, based upon one characteristic, ba-

sed upon two characteristics).

They can still be used for all situations which are not covered by a specific skill

or as a kind of "saving throws" in difficult situations.

I was wondering about the deadliness of GORE compared to BRP? There are noticable differences in damage bonuses, as BRP just uses multiples of D6, while GORE uses D6, D8, D10, etc. And the damage some weapons do is different, such as 9mm guns do D10 damage in GORE as opposed to D8 in BRP. Has anyone played both and noticed a difference, or none, in the deadliness of either toward PCs?

I would add handling of the interaction of movement and intiative. I would also expand the "weapon skill into classes" into a general description of the grouping of skills and their impact or allow for a couple of different branches on this theme. (I seem to recall one of the systems I looked at grouped skills differently than one of the others and I don't think it was related to classes.)

I was just thinking it's a shame there's not a sell sheet style version, with a grid, to show the various versions side by side. The software industry and web hosting does this a lot. It would give an at a glance of what's in or how it's handled (like the damage base, or inclusion of "hero points", or use of background / profession vs. open point spend, OGL release, etc.).

Lot of good information in this thread, by the way. Thanks!

I was hoping to be pointed to something like such a chart when I posted and I agree that the lack of one is a shame. That being said the responses in the thread were helpful. When I get a chance to take a close look again, I'll start by refreshing my memory of what lies herein.

You may find the thread on Revised Movement Rules interesting. There is some discussion about how it should work and other ideas on how it could work.

Thanks for the replies.

I see it now, but the change from making rolls based on the characteristics to never making such rolls threw me. All the characteristic rolls (listed on page 9 of the BRP quickstart) are never rolled in a game that is using specialized skills (and therefore is not using the resistance table) instead of characteristic rolls, right?

rust notes that this (the resistance table vs specialized skills decision) is one of the typical differences between D100 games. Can folks point out what the other typical ones are?

And thanks for the info on Legend. That they seem to flesh this issue out in more detail than the other games is intriguing. Does Legend seem to provide more details of that sort throughout the rules in comparison to these other games?

So, I'm continuing to try to learn about these systems. I can see in the BRP Quickstart a resistance table on page 20.

Some actions require more than skill or natural ability: obstacles must be overcome for the character to succeed. In these cases, refer to the resistance table and call for a resistance roll. Resistance rolls pit characteristics or other measurable quantities against one other. For example, a heavy rock might be SIZ 15. To lift it, a character will need to roll his or her STR versus the rock’s SIZ on the resistance table.

Now, I'm going to compare that with what I see in the Age of Shadows pdf. Well, there is no resistance table. Age of Shadows has added skills they label as "resistances". However, it is not clear to me, for example, how to handle the lifting of the rock from the above quote. It seems like the rules are incomplete without the resistance table. I cannot find a reference to opposed characteristic rolls in Age of Shadows. (I believe that Renaissance is also missing the resistance table without explaining how to calculate if the hero can lift the boulder.)

Have I missed something?

Thanks, Mankcam, for your insight. That is precisely the kind of information I hoped to get from folks here. It would be great if anyone else would like to chime in with their preferences and rationale. In the meantime, I'll be taking a close look at Mankcam's post.

Thanks for the replies.

The first question I would ask is: What genre of game are you looking to run ? Fantasy, ScFi, Modern, multiple genres ?

For my purposes I am interested in the flexibiilty for games to span multiple genres. Though, I would be interested to hear suggestions specific to one genre where there is perceived added value.

I'm new to d100. I've spent some time looking at Openquest this month. I'm having trouble figuring out which game I should focus on as a beginner. At first, I thought maybe it was just my confusion, but I was inspired to post this after some responses to another of my posts and then seeing the conversation in this thread.

So, what is your best advice for someone new? What are the big differences between the various games?

Are the core rules for RQI and RQII found in one of these PDFs? Is there some other RQ books that are the 'core' books that these pdfs are branched from? I don't own any runequest stuff at all.

In the real world, the NPC Authorities wouldn't start a gun-fight because the PC's refused their request. In the real world, they'd negotiate with the recalcitrant until they got tired and gave up their weapons, or they could taser them.

This had me laughing too hard to label it lol...Thanks, I needed that.

If you weren't trying to be funny (I've convinced myself both ways now), ooops.

I have recently been in the "being disarmed" situation twice in the same campaign in a fantasy setting. (Within the past seven or eight sessions.) Both times we fought. The first time the group gave up when the reinforcements arrived. The second time we fought with the reinforcements and they beat us down. They did nonlethal damage to us, which is an option when you do actually have a superior force facing the party and the availability of magical healing.

I believe that the GM has to be willing to kill the group. It sets the "stage" for the world. My response in the game (after the two "showdowns") is that my character will no longer enter the city where the guards are in force. If they want my character, they will have to send their force out to get him. Of course, this also means my character has no interest in doing anything to help the locals.

I think the GM was expecting more cooperation from the group and I think he is unsatisfied that the players are building up a disdain for the town and its ruler/guards/inhabitants. He laid some groundwork for us cooperating with the locals after the first showdown, but the players clearly ended up working with the locals despite their ill feelings because it appeared obvious that the GM wanted us to stay there. The second showdown was our last session, so I am not sure how things will play out from there.

This is one of those interesting dynamics that plays out when the GM does require an element of assisting an NPC that does not feel s/he needs the party (so that fighting/killing them is an option) as part of a central campaign arc.

Is the developer of OpenQuest still active here?

Currently, there are what may be overlapping files available for download in the download portion of this site concerning Mongoose RuneQuest. They are:

1. Runequest SRD Luxury Edition (Uploaded to this site in 2007)
   
2. MRQI SRD - Core, MRQI SRD - Companion, and MRQI SRD - Monsters. (Uploaded to this site in 2011)
   
3. 
   

Can anyone tell me the difference between them or if they represent the same information just broken into three files?

I am in the process of reviewing OpenQuest rather closely and wanted to point out an error in the Developer's Kit.

The Developer's Kit has mistakenly left out a chart for the "Practical Skills" from the "Chapter 2 Characters" file.

If you review the file you will see that there should be a chart after the Knowledge skills and before the paragraph that discusses the Practical skills. I'm sure it'll be an easy fix, but wanted to point it out.

Take care.

Merry Christmas.