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Hmmm.... This makes me wonder... If someone gives 100L as part of making a Loyalty roll, do they get +5% to that roll, AND +2% permanent Loyalty? Given the word "cumulative", should the bonus on the roll be +7% rather than +5%? Munchkins gonna munch, yo! It can't ALL be egregious, sometimes ya gotta slog through those +1% and +2% bonii ...

This... seems to be changing. Sort of. A BRP-revised document is reportedly coming ! It was just announced at Dragonmeet! Read the post by @Steve a few posts upthread. Also there's a live-tweet'ed commentary by Nick Brooke, attending the panel, In the panel discussion, Chaosium seemed to state that they would be producing their own version of an OGLish license, and an SRD, and releasing some form of BRP under that.

Well, well, well! Here's hoping there was no misunderstanding, no mis-statement, et cetera !

I don't think so; he specifically said a "BRP update" and cited this thread, particularly. No sign, IMHO, of RoL ... But we should ask! What WERE you asking about, @Jeffrywith1e ?

Exactly. It's simply a possibility they are considering. Nothing may ever come of it. They may decide to scrap the notion. Or shelve it for a few more years, and revisit the possibility later. But it is, at least, a genuine (if unlikely) possibility... rather than mere "wishful thinking."

No, and no: No (#1) -- there isn't "a BRP update coming." There is no project, no manuscript, no author. But also... No (#2) it isn't mere wishful thinking, because Chaosium IS talking about such a project... speculatively. I think they are trying to gauge interest, trying to see if there is anything like a singular vision they could produce, that would satisfy enough of the market. No point in producing the book *I* want if the majority of fans would lift their noses at such a sorry excresence ... and the same for any particular "vision" expressed here. Not holding my breath; even if Chaosium goes gangbusters for it, the thing is a long, LONG, LONG ways away!

The more complex, the more modes for the thing to break. How do they generate the mag fields for the railgun? Batteries & capacitors? Batteries can overheat & catch fire. Capacitors can pop. Timing can fail... Each loop needs to kick the projectile forward HARD, so mis-timed mag pulses can render a dud, that only flies a few meters. A sabotaged gun could even push the ammo to the tip, then "shoot" it in reverse! Physical damage to the railgun, or to the ammo, might result in the shot contacting the gun, presumably destroying it's use (manufacturer repair, not field repair). I suppose damage in the midst of battle might be severe enough for it's own shot to actually "hit" the gun -- foe hits the gun a split second before the gun shoots, so its own shot hits the misaligned rail, or a loop, etc. Unlikely, but possible.

I presume that a genuinely accurate long-gun... plus the discipline to train up to the gun's capacity ... and the support/logistics necessary to get the sniper in place... Is actually kind of rare. I believe that -- at least in the USA -- having observers on overwatch, examining all windows overlooking a presidential route, plus overhead spotters covering rooftops, is standard. It's true that a top end military sniper rifle can hit from a mile away... if you have a top sniper handling the gun, good shooting conditions, and a good position to take the shot (i.e. a good logistics team). It isn't as good for a RPG, because it relies upon a bunch of NPC's -- even faceless hordes of bureaucrats -- and automation, etc; but the logistical support needed for an urban sniper to hide and shoot are reasonably well understood. The TARGET has their own logistics & support teams! I expect security forces pay special attention to hotel rooms in sniper-likely spots, to unoccupied rooms of ANY kind (office, construction, etc), to parks with tree cover, etc etc etc. In a sci-fi context, we have drones & other tech that can provide extra surveillance coverage of any potential shooter vantage-points. If the PC is a target, they may not be able to muster all these resources; even if they can, it's not THEIR roll to spot the dummy-ID on the room rental, or the human heat-signature in the bushes at 1450 meters range, or etc etc etc.

I'd love some news too... some good news. I recently saw (a rumor of) bad news, though. 😣 Someone unofficial, but normally reliable, reporting on info from Chaosium. But that counts as "rumor," especially when I don't WANT it to be true! I'm hoping someone official ... @Jeff or @Rick Meints for example ? ... might let us know what's going on with this project.

Typically, I'd use either the "major wounds" rules or HP-by-location, but not both together: I see them as two different ways to make damage into something more-interesting than "big meatsack of HP's." That said, one could integrate the two systems. For by-location HP's, a sheet with the relevant spaces is invaluable. There's a fan-made sheet here: (There may be other BRP sheets with hit-locations in the D/L section, too; I'm not sure.) I'm very partial to the RuneQuest style sheets, where there's a little graphic of a person, with spaces on the graphic for the points. The old RQ2 "Sapienza mk iv" sheet is primitive, but functional; the new RQG sheet is more evocative... and ALSO functional (the RQG special "artisinal" sheet it even MORE evocative... IMHO, too much so, too distracting from the core functionality & legibility of the sheet).

If you control the shambling corpse, and you control the discorporate spirit... Is there any reason you couldn't order the spirit to just move overlapped with, and in concert with, the zombie? Until and unless you wish the ghost to do something different, of course! For longer durations, just bind the ghost into an arrowhead or something, shoot it into the zombie, and snap off the arrow. Or bind the ghost into a small object that you have the zombie swallow. Hmmm... Or do I mis-recall, and maybe you need to actually touch or see the binding object???

There's some character-generatir tools floating 'round. Dunno if you mean actual running code, when you ask for "tools" ... ?

Vegetarian Morokanth.

There may be a local native that acts equivalent. Figs naturalize out here in California, too.

Except that -- technically -- 100 years is in the nominal range: (emphasis added by me) We could be talking about the dawn of RPG's -- that's not much more than 40 years ago. So it could be anything the early RPG community wanted... of any vintage. For example, everyone who was sitting around going, "You know what this game needs? Not another F'ing level of Castle Greyhawk on Oerth, dammit! We need an epic D&Dification of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso!!!"

It's worth noting that "the arms race" -- specifically, the weapon-vs-armor race -- is neverending (historically speaking). Sometimes weapons have the advantage, sometimes armor has it. Currently, FWIW, the top tier of human-portable weapons overmatch the top tier of human-portable armor. As it's all a GAME here, we generally get the most fun when the two sides approach "balanced," IMHO. 1-shot-kills against PC's are usually a Bad Thing (tm), no matter what "realism" suggests "should happen." At the same time, armor so tough as to make combat non-dangerous also makes it non-interesting, non-fun. So... "balanced" weapons v. armor for our games. YgamesMV

Ah. Sorry to hear that.

There is, maybe, the POV that Serdrodosa is an Other Self of Ernalda. Ernalda-in-Dreams, Ernalda's Ghost. Maybe... Ernalda's own Fetch? There is always another way, after all...

Ambush strikes me as VERY much a Darkness thing -- secrecy & surprise. Likewise the Dark is ever-hungry, so "murder" and "destruction" are not so negative as in most human contexts. I don't really see these as Trickster-y to a Troll. Fire... Undead... Yeah, I gotta give you those as transgressive things from a Troll POV ! So I kind of got back to the "sometimes" conclusion -- ZZ is sometimes an Uz Trickster (ish... very ish!) figure.

Yes, the Red Goddess says that a lot, too...

Rye bread is very strongly-flavored! It needs food that can keep up with it. I commend pastrami & aged Swiss (or similar) cheese, with a strong mustard (not that piss-vinegar crayon-yellow stuff).

If you're tender, you obviously haven't had enough rye.

Googling 'round, I see various arguments for ZZ and/or XU, for the idea that the role exists and is irregularly/occasionally filled by various deities or heroes... but... no info that's really solidly canonical. So... is there any official word on this, @Jeff, @boztakang?

One could do it that way, with increasing "branching" specializations of "root skills." Or one take it in the reverse direction, with only specialties listed, but Similar/Related skills. For example: a skill in "Physics" might imply a Similar Skill (half or two thirds?) in Engineering, Mathematics, etc; or a skill in "Longsword" could imply 2/3 skill with any 1-H sword, and 1/3 skill with any 1-H weapon at all, and with 2-H swords or daggers/knives. Details are left as an exercise for the gamer. "Related/Similar" specialties would be easier to learn; or you could build up new specialties easier because your base/root skill were already solid. I believe that the actual as-rolled character abilities would be virtually identical; it's just a matter of what works best for people to conceptualize it. With a bit of effort, one could actually build mechanics whose effect is identical, and present both conceptual frameworks for the reader(s) to choose, so either perspective is valid...

Wait... the '93/'94 AH one, or the '14/'15 TDM one? 🤔