Lloyd Dupont

After playing both and agonizing other the differences between BRP and Mythras I feel qualified to comment! 🙂

- BRP has 3 level of success, giving you perhaps, a bit too many special effects?
- BRP already has some sort of special effect (except you can't chose, it's always the same) but they are way more potent, like special impale does double damage in BRP... In general BRP damage can scale like crazy and it's became increasingly obvious that using location HP in BRP is for the sadistic or masochistic...
- I like the per weapon skill of BRP though, but I guess that Mythras purposely reduced the number of skill (think magic grimoire or combat style) because levelling skill with XP is slower than levelling all skill that have a check mark?

I am contemplating a mix system, where check mark can be used to gain 1%, checkmark+XP can be used to gain D4+1% or 1% if failed, and just 1 XP only gain D4%. But I think player will just game the system, so I might not bother and only use XP.

I think I would stick with Mythras. Mythras is better overall. Apart from Magic System of both that are "not very balanced" and I have a slight preference for BRP Magic (a controversial and possible subjective opinion), but Mythras is more balanced with weapons, location HP and combat I'd say. However, I prefer this forum to the Mythras forum, here people are more open to rule tinkering, and it's also a more active forum. Finally, I found what I would call a "balanced magic and pseudo class system" with Classic Fantasy (Mythras edition).

BTW, have you checked Classic Fantasy (the Mythras variant being the best and most complete), you might be pleasantly surprised! 🙂

Thanks Nick.
Hey it's like I thought!! With some nice and reasonable tweak. loving it! 🙂

ON a side topic...

Once upon a time, a time long long ago. In another life. I played an awesome game called Master of Magic. I will never forget that game, it was so good.

And today, today I found a worthy heir for it. Master of Magic is dead. Long live Age of Wonders 4!

That one always leave me a little unsure..  I might be playing BRP again soon so I'll bring it again for a refreshed perspective...

Say you use location damage.

How do you handle are damage, like say 3D6 Fire damage from Fire spell. Or even fall damage or grenade damage.
 

Hey you gave me an idea.... player will start with a small number of perk (like up to.. say 3?) and the maximum number of perks is INT (+some bonus..) and some perk have level that are tried to skill percentage. So sum it all up make for a nice power level gauge! Nice thing too, about that animals have few perks, and magical beast have a lot. 

So all of that to say sum of perk level is a good gauge for power... I don't need to be too specific... but it give some guidelines on mortal prestige when talking to supernatural entities and, keeping the soul harvest power idea, it give an idea what to count.... now just have to think what kind of favor I want to grant.... extra years of life is a good one! mmmm.... and also mortal and voidling seeds... it's a lore crafting item to create stuff out of the void...

I'm working on a setting with a strong supernatural influence. Main supernatural faction being angels, demons, faes and Vanir? (Norse like gods).

Anyway they are all after some versions of buying / capturing mortal souls and also, nurturing "powerful souls" and, ideally lore wise, indirectly or directly promoting conflicts (for soul development and harvest, you see, and also to make them all fundamentally assholes)

Now I wonder, in game term, without "XP by killing" (which is definitely not my cup of tea, nor D100 character development philosophy), how does one define a strong soul? (No POW development roll here, the only way are some prohibitive and slow magic perks).

It might seem a little pointless to try to justify some lore/ philosophy with game mechanics... But a good game mechanics can be a powerful player drive. I strongly believe that XP by killing is what encourage murder hobo, conversely olden d&d days of XP by gold found was a strong drive for exploration  and now I wonder how the voidlings farm the mortals and encourage them, and ideally this farming has conflict in it...

An idea I just had, musing that topic, perhaps they need to learn a soul capture (on kill) perk for their patron, and use it a lot to gain extra perks?

But hey, other ideas welcome!! 🙂

I have yet to come with a good timeline for it, that would be great if I can have the player live it from day one...

For now, and from lack of sleep and thinking in my bed so far, I am thinking a nuclear bomb blow up the palace. The oldest alive daughter and also planetary administrator claim inheritance. Meanwhile there are 2 space armada with powerful Admiral, also descendant of the High Commander who reject her rule for being weak and unworthy of Bulrathi military values. And also, if GNN is to be believed, she might even be a Darlok impostor for all we know!

Meanwhile many planetary administrator, other independent minded ruling family relatives in most cases, feel either supportive of their relative or maybe have independent streak of their own, but lack the power for it.

Ideally player could start looting and reject their master at this stage, or they might become conscript to loot other citizen (or something, this doesn't stand much scrutiny) for a local planetary administrator...

I like a key planet Far Harbor, to have a successful run at independance playing both the Bulrathi and Psilon and its rich resources. I'd like some local battle sponsored by Psilon Authority and Gnolam-Humal Confederation.

It's all I know so far.... Many details to felsh out...

4 hours ago, Joerg said:

So do you want to have a secession war like the US Civil War (or the Naboo incident in Star Wars), do you want a succession war (not necessarily of nobility) after a coup or otherwise end of a government, or do you want to have a doctrinal war like e.g. the 30 years war as your backdrop? Are there outside forces to ally with for either side of the conflict? What kinds of oppression are there to rise up against?

For those in the known, it's (loosely) in the Master of Orion universe (http://www.moo3.at/moo2), I am thinking player would be part of the Bulrathi Military Dictatorship (whether Bulrathis themselves or conquered aliens, like, you know, Humans, Elerians and other such alien scum 😛). And the long lived Emperor would have died. The rumor has it that was a Darlock terrorist that did it!
Regardless the many descendant would be fighting for the throne. A war of succession one might say, as you asked. Foreign empire might stoke the fire to collect some lost planet in the conflict as well!
At least that's my current thinking.

1 hour ago, svensson said:

So, I'm a Civil War reenactor, historian, and lifetime gamer.

There's a whole genre of US Civil War wargames out there, but that's not what you're really looking for.

Traveller did an entire edition where the Emperor and his family were assassination and the Third Imperium fragmented into regional factions, each fighting each other and vying for the Iridium Throne at the same time. Meanwhile, several external enemies attacked took the opportunity to attack for various reasons. That edition was called MegaTraveller and you can find all of the materials on drivethru.

A sci-fi TV series that does a good job of portraying issues that could lead up to a civil war was 'Space: Above and Beyond'. It only ran for one season of 23 episodes, though like Babylon 5 there was a plot arc that was supposed to run for 5. If you're a veteran, there will be some truly cringeworthy moments [trained fighter pilots who get sent off to play grunt games on a regular basis, for example], but it's got plot elements that I think might inspire you.

From a historian's standpoint there are several real-world civil wars that bear looking at, not just the American Civil War.

- First is the granddaddy of all 'modern' civil wars, the English Civil War of 1640-1651. 'Cavaliers and Roundheads' etc.

- The second I'd suggest looking at is the Bolshevik Civil War of 1917-1925.

- The third one is the Spanish Civil War 1935-1939.

- And the last one is the Breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

All of these have succinct wikipedia articles that can give you a good grasp and overview.

Wow.. lots of material for inspirations here! Thank you very much! 😄

I dunno I only saw the Movie, for which the context remain a little nebulous, at least to me...
Oh I see.. do you mean I could, as one possible story, retell the  story of Firefly? I suppose I could! 🙂

For me the civil war part enable me to have typical looting, pirating, bandit activity and so on, that hurt my suspension of disbelief usually in scifi stories...

2 hours ago, Mark Mohrfield said:

Forty-two. I should have thought of that earlier.

So Obvious!!

For my scifi setting I am working on, while looking at adventure opportunities, I am thinking I should take inspiration from American Civil War...

Wonder if any one could come up with PRG Scenario tied to a similar settings?

2 hours ago, Agentorange said:

Kill people and steal their stuff ? 😁

You got it! 👍

My first google found Trudvang for 5E! Shudder! 😮 

Googling for French stuff (fortunately I happen to be - or were 20 years ago? - fluent in French!), mmm... it looks a lot like Conan 2D20. 2 value seemed to be added. Anyway, this kind of design did inspire for my skill system tweak! 🙂 

Hey I am planning something somewhat like that already! 🙂

The categories are not entirely set in stone, and can only be improved at creation time, between 20% to 45%. There is a Melee Combat Category. For range I am not sure whether I fold that with another one...

It's the base score for all melee weapon without specialization. Then 2H, or 1H are specialization. Which give you only the basic special option (2 of them each, you can do both with a crit).

Weapon perk specialization (each one being a perk/stunt, of which one can usually have up to INT of them, which includes spells as well), give you additional option like: power attack (all weapon), hooking (axe, scythe, etc) - can topple character or control a weapon give 30% malus next action, sunder (let you sunder with polearm, axes and hammer, ie. chip at the armor), etc...

Even the dreaded critical attack armor discounted from basic BRP is removed (to be fair it's only on simultaneously failed defense), anyway only precision weapon can do it - usually small weapon, on immobile victim or with assassin perk you can do if you sneak up to them, even in melee, provided it's from behind and they are busy with someone else.

Weapon skills are up to the GM group of cultural weapons to be defined... I mean it makes sense too, one medieval swordsman use his sword and shield together... It's good too, but it's not what I was looking for! 😉 

I mean with all the D100% systems and D7D sometimes I get confused by all the skills... trying to come up with a simple enough, yet comprehensive enough list... that is not tied to any particular cultural setting.... (will work for Master of Magic or Master of Orion) (of course Magic and Psionic and science and alchemy will be setting specific.. but just that! 😄 )

OK, got an idea! 🙂
Would use a few very simple combat skill like:
- Close Combat (punching, brass knuckle, knives, daggers, black jack, ...)
- Melee 1H
- Melee 2H

and would require perks to use any specific weapon type to full effect... (i.e. using weapon extra benefits)

I am working, again, on a custom BRP system!
Though this time this is looking good, I have campaign ideas! I have thematic magic and cosmology ideas! That will let spirit meddle in the affair of mortal and vice versa!
I have some ideas to make magic power and combat lethality just what I want!

Anyway, trying to come with a (relatively) definitive skill list. Now having issues with weapons. I would like to avoid both the simple Melee skill, or 1H Weapon, 2H Weapon, but also would like to avoid the jungle of Shortsword, Long Sword, 2H Sword, Katana, blahblah.. you name it...

Any idea?
I have to confess the idea crossed my mind to use the category from... D&D Player's Hanbook! Gasp! (i.e. Simple Melee Weapon, Simple Ranged Weapon, Martial Melee Weapon, Martial Ranged Weapon), thought what was in each category was debatable... mm.. 

Any other ideas?

Well... I won't miss too much since I have not used ghost much so far as source of adventure. But I see your point I might have been missing out all along! 😄

I will be missing on undead since I often have them. But animal undead are still a thing, I guess I would have to weight that way. Hey might even have sapient animal ghosts! 🙂 

And yes, you are correct, not all souls are captured. I was thinking in the starting country most people would be marked by the angels, their soul "saved from wandering the afterlife" (also it enables the person to learn some angelic magic), but, perhaps, older more ancient ghost, from before the religious domination of the angels are possible!!! Or maybe some necromancer who manage to unmark themselves can survive as ghost as well.

haha good one... 
I decided I didn't need to reveal it at all.. it might a huge lore twist that might come up, or not. But why spill the bean right away when I can make a few mysteries out of it hey?! 🙂

But.. there are no ghost and no resurrection in this world. mostly. Because most souls are captured and destroyed...

Got a few additional ideas since then as well.. some lore (& wealth) reason to go to the astral sea, and both spectate the lack of souls there and witness how the angels do not tolerate mortals over there.

Also player might think, ho well, no resurrection spell, not that surprising.. But if they ever learn necromancy though, they will realize something shifty is happening with the souls of the faithful...

There are multiple power systems in BRP: "Magic" (that's the name), Sorcery, Psionic, Mutation, Superpower

Sorcery seems to be the most popular by virtue of being the single magic system found in the more popular franchise: Magic World (and Moorcock or something).

That said Magic and Sorcery are relatively similar (compare to the other 2).

Personally I like "Magic" more. But I somewhat dislike all D100 magic system, because how they majorly skew power in the hand of wizard right of the character creation phase (as long as one pick any reasonable spell they want). This is the one thing that bother me, not entirely sure yet how to solve it. Though I have some ideas! 🙂 

I got a great idea!
In case of trouble, in a losing fight, an angel (or daemon, fae, whatever) can harvest all the marked soul of its allegiance to recover life/mana effectively killing them in the process. That can shatter some faith!....

Other than that I will not sell the disbelief from the start. Why deprieve myself of a good, long term, twist in the story!

To spice it even more, if they win the fight, they might want.. to dispose of any witness...

6 hours ago, Joerg said:

What shape do these archangels take? The Cherubs of the Arc of the Covenant aren't humanoid at all, and lammasu or sphinxes are hardly humanoid except for their faces. Effectively, these benefactor archangels could be terrible to behold and inhuman. possibly causing nightmares even without any rules-bending or -breaking by the characters.

well... the voidlings original form come from the subconscious of their first summoner that extracted them from the void. Angels being what they are, it is a somewhat positive if otherworldly human form. I was thinking to follow Diablo lore here, bright ethereal wings, a shining piece of armor and a hood with peerless dark void inside.

Certainly, at the very least, it should be awe inspiring. Perhaps even intimidating.

6 hours ago, Joerg said:

Perhaps there is some form of magical corruption - possibly a sheen of holiness threatening to draw the characters to their afterlives prematurely, something that needs to be returned to the realm of the angels to avoid effects outside of the control of the magicians. (Negative corruption might occur, too, requiring different forms of cleansing. At the same time, too.)

I didn't think of that. And as you mentioned I wanted to rebuke it. But.. mmm.. there might something interesting to that. Not sure how to put in term of gameplay though...