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Shaira

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  1. Just resurrecting an old thread... :innocent: I've been reading SotC too, and been quite taken with the "Aspect" rules, which provide something "ruleable" without being arbitrary. Bearing in mind I'm already using several of the BRP optional rules, including Personality Traits, Complimentary Skills, and Opposed Rolls, and trying out some "HeroQuest"-inspired gameplay ideas with them, I've also been toying with the following loose adaptation of SotC Aspects into a BRPified equivalent. In other words, winkling out different *ways* of playing BRP from ideas implied in the BRP rulesbook optional rules, building on the existing "core system" base without creating a wildly divergent variant. One of the things I'm undecided about at the moment is whether (and how) to use the BRP "Fate Points" rules (ie PP or something else). I like the idea of spending a Fate Point to avoid penalties from a "Fearsome" location trait, but am less sure about having to spend a Fate Point to gain a bonus from the "Dark" location trait when trying to Hide - maybe that should just be free? Or could you pay a Fate Point when it's a *second* Compliment (ie above the usual 1 which you're allowed)? Comments are very much appreciated. I'm going to playtest it myself in my games going forwards, too. ***** BRP OPTIONAL RULE: LOCATION TRAITS Gamemasters may wish to have special locations in their games which provide special effects on skills used in their vicinity. “Location Traits” uses the “Personality Traits”, “Complimentary Skills”, and “Fate Points” rules from the Basic Roleplaying core book to allow this. Examples: Temple of the Black Toad: Fearsome 75%; Dark 75% Temple of the Sky God: Too Bright to Hide 50% Location Traits provide situational or circumstantial modifiers to skills being used in that environment. This modifier may be a bonus or penalty. The modifier is equal to the Location Trait score divided by 5, ie it is treated just as a Complimentary Skill modifier. Thus, Dark 75% provides a +15% bonus to Hide, Sneak, and Ambush attempts in the Temple of the Black Toad; Fearsome 75% provides a -15% penalty to attacks or similar actions; Too Bright to Hide 50% provides a -10% penalty to Hide, Sneak, and Ambush attempts in the Temple of the Sky God. Gamemasters should allow the above Location Traits to be resisted or countered, if desired. Thus: Allow the PCs to use their own Personality Traits. Thus, a character with Brave 75% (+15% Complimentary bonus) can use it to counter Fearsome 75%. Allow the PCs to use Fate Points to ignore Location Trait penalties. Costs 1 Fate. [NOT SURE ABOUT THIS] Gamemasters using Fate Points may also decide it costs 1 Fate to use a Location Trait to gain a Complimentary modifier. Other examples: A candlelit restaurant could have Romantic Location 75% (giving a +15% to attempts to woo someone); haunted graveyard could have Mighty Possession 50% (giving a +10% to ghostly attempts to possess a target). ***** Cheers! Sarah
  2. You have more of a dilemma stateside than we do in Europe - basically unless you're buying TONS of stuff all at once ($120+), the shipping charges to Europe are prohibitive, generally costing the same as (or in certain cases more than) the actual product - so PDF is a godsend for things like the Chaosium stuff. For big, chunky rulesbooks I'm likely to use a lot, or for works of beauty which I want to drool over, dead-tree is the way. But for supplements where I'm likely to read through, then use selected bits, I quite like PDF, then copy-pasting into my own easy-to-use folder. I actually bought a Sony Reader a couple of months back, and whilst it's PDF functionality is fairly rudimentary, it's made my PDF collection *much* more usable (and I can carry a zillion volumes in my handbag... :happy:). Now we just need to convince people to make "reader-format" versions of their PDFs (roughly A5-sized in European money), and we're laughing. I bought Spirit of the Century recently in PDF - a third of the print price - and am more than happy reading it off a gadget, though I'll probably print out chunks if I ever run a game. Cheers, Sarah
  3. Hi all, Without wanting to blow my own trumpet... ... I just noticed Dustin's put the Halloween Scenario Comp monograph on the Chaosium website here. I don't know what the split is between BRP scenarios and CoC scenarios (or indeed how much that actually matters anymore... ), but mine's a BRP adventure, and at least 3 others look like either Dark Ages or straight BRP scenarios too (one appears to be scifi!). Either way - it's nice to see a BRP supplement appearing. Hopefully dead tree copies will follow! Cheers, Sarah
  4. It's a very good point. Personally I'm taking the tack of writing to cover the more obvious options, then people can cut out what they don't want (so, provide Fatigue Points, Major Wound Scores, and Hit Locations, plus Attack *and* Parry scores, plus ENC, then folk can take their pick). The other option is to provide the bare minimum, ie cater for none of the optional rules, then allow people to add in the extra bits they want. In case of encumbrance, I don't think there really *are* any "non-optional" encumbrance rules - apart from the loose statement that you can make an Effort roll if your "heavily-laden" character has just accomplished something significant, to see if they're fatigued or not. I think if you want to include some kind of encumbrance system, a version of the fatigue rules with or without ENC is the way to do it. Cheers! Sarah
  5. Hmm... looks like you have the Stormbringer 5 "Extended Range" spot rule side by side with (at a rough guess - don't have the book handy) the RQ3 missile weapons rule (?). For its granularity, I'd probably go with the spot rule, but it could be either. One for the Errata, methinks. :thumb: Cheers, Sarah
  6. ... although to be honest if you want encumbrance rules, I'd definitely go with the ENC system. Cheers, Sarah
  7. Definitely have a look at the Bronze Grimoire supplement for Elric / Stormbringer. It's tons of sorcery spells, demon stuff, magic items, plus a new Runic Magic system and new critters, all BRP-compatible off the shelf. You can generally pick copies up on eBay or sometimes Noble Knight, etc. Well worth it. Whilst you're at it, you could pick up Stormbringer 5th edition and use the demon summoning rules as is - again BRP compatible. Apparently (although I haven't looked) you can also use the MRQ SRD magic systems too - I don't know how much tweaking would be needed given the rules are somewhat different, but it's probably not that much. Lastly, if you can puzzle your way through French, there's the French Hawkmoon stuff by Oriflamme et al, still generally available, which gives you a kind of technosorcery system which is completely BRP. Plenty out there! There's probably more, but that's off the top of my head. Cheers, Sarah
  8. Three ideas for "license-free settings". 1. Fantasy Swashbuckling I still want to play in a pseudo-late 16th century / early 17th century (1660-1710? Ish?) setting. Musketeers, Pirates of the Caribbean, Voyages of Discovery, Nippon, Cathay, Wars of Religion, black powder and melee weapons, plus of course lots of lovely baroque magic. You could centre it where you liked for the core book - say, Restoration England, the Sun King's court, or German(ia) in the Thirty Years' War, then produce all manner of "license-free" setting books for: The Three Musketeers Pirates of the Caribbean Shogun Master and Commander The Great Embassy to China Robinson Crusoe Inca and Aztecs Salem Witch Trials Alchemists Pre-Petrine Russia The Ottoman Empire Siege of Vienna Sort of, say, the Fantasy Europe of RQ3, but a thousand years later, and doing the whole world! 2. Pulp Sword & Planet Second, Jason's Interplanetary is a killer setting which could spawn all kinds of settings books a la John Carter and Flash Gordon, but again without requiring a license. I think the scope for beautifully crafted worlds and "sub-settings" here could really let you go to town. "Witch-Queen of Venus" and "Nightmare Men of Jupiter" here we come! 3. Foundation / Space Opera This is "the scifi trope everybody knows". There's this huge galactic empire, run by humans but with gazillions of alien races, sufficiently large that there is no "one true world" viewpoint. There are spinoff civilizations, wars, explorations, lost worlds, the whole shebang. You just write a world (or a few) and plug it in. Stick it a few thousand years in the future, and you can have your Star Wars, Galacticas, Buck Rogers, and Star Treks all rubbing shoulders with minimum hassle. Cheers! Sarah
  9. I think Chaosium are flat-out getting Pulp Cthulhu ready right now, but I'm aware that they're aiming to get some BRP stuff out the door and on the shelves early in the new year. With a man down (Lynn Willis) I reckon it might be all hands to the pumps there at the moment, but I'm optimistic we'll be seeing some BRP goodness shortly! Whether it rings your bell, however... well, you'll have to let us know Cheers, Sarah
  10. Yup - I wrote one too. A sort of Star Wars "Escape from Death Star" type thingie. I don't know whether they've actually got used yet... These are pretty tiny flyer-type things, but they're certainly handy for helping get the word out. Cheers, Sarah
  11. That is actually a nightmare. Whenever I've played D&D, I've always required the splatbooks in use to be DM-approved. Otherwise it's just this whole munchkin juggernaut tearing the campaign apart... Go for it! One thing I'd say about BRP combat; always give your guys a way out, even if it's just "run away!". D&D et al tends to assume PCs will stand toe-to-toe and just slug it out until all the opposition are dead. Which is great fun, natch :thumb: BUT, it is a feature of the game, rather than RPGs in general. In BRP fantasy, things can go wrong very quickly - a few fumbles, the opponents critical at the wrong moment, and even your most powerful munchkin is left holding his innards in his shield-hand and hightailing it for the hills. Because of that, combats don't need to be specifically "balanced to the death", as it were. Relative newbies can scout out powerful baddies and still have fun - just not in a full-frontal attack. In terms of BRP published scenarios, there are some crackers out there, so treat yourself if you feel like it. I don't know whether you've ever played RuneQuest, but you could do a lot worse than buy the RuneQuest-2 campaign pack "Borderlands". Some of the magic may need swapping out with the new BRP magic systems, but the MRQ SRD is available online and you could use the magic systems from that pretty much as is. It's a helluva scenario pack even after umpteen years. The published Stormbringer scenarios tend to be very sorcerer-centric, as that's the genre, and if you're concerned about character occupation balance that could be an issue, but Borderlands, or even Griffin Mountain, are quite a treat. BTW - if you're worried about giving the players the rulesbook, don't be. All you need to do is limit the combination of powers you're using in your initial game, just to get the hang of it. Say, use Sorcery, or Magic, and stick with just that. Things shouldn't get too unbalanced, and, hey, if you do have a minimaxing combat specialist, then one is always useful in every party! Cheers, Sarah
  12. AFAIK, D&D is the only rpg that's ever really made a hullaballoo about this vague thing called "game balance", and IMHO that's only because it obsesses about combat and had all kinds of unbalanced artifacts built in to the game system from day one (capping the max level of immortal elves, frex. Never figured what that was all about...). Unless you're playing a miniatures board game in which the object is to kill things and take their stuff, and the person with the most stuff wins >:->, then game balance is pretty meaningless. Having played BRP fantasy for 27 years, I can testify it handles the genre extremely well, everyone (who wants to) has a blast, and magic-specialists and combat-specialists ("powered and non-powered characters") rub shoulders with the best of them. One thing worth bearing in mind about BRP; specialists win, generalists suck. Yes, you can create a character with 35% in greatsword, plate armor, and a raft of spells at 35%, 35% in climbing walls, hiding, dodging, spotting, speaking languages, the whole shebang. Then, the first time he meets a specialist worth his salt (Greatsword 75%, or Domination 75%, or Hide 75%), then he's toast, powers or no powers. Does it differ from D&D in its approach to "game balance"? Yes, of course, especially with 4E, which IMHO hamstrings a perfectly good game in the name of "game balance". "Other fantasy games?" Dunno - name some. All the FRPs I have on my shelves don't give a damn about game balance - except one, and it shouts about it all the time. IMHO, if your game is out of balance, and one player is hogging the limelight and everyone else is bored or struggling, it's the gm's fault, not the game. I'm aware it's a topic very dear to the hearts of some, but I do think the entire concept belongs more in a game of monopoly than an RPG. Cheers, Sarah
  13. Ooh! That sounds fun! :party: Any ideas when you'll be putting something together? Is this the D100 fanzine thing? I'd be happy to submit some stuff if you think you can use it. If you have any kind of wordcount expectation and timescale let me know! Cheers, Sarah
  14. After reading some of the cool powers in 4e, I thought about gemming up something similar for BRP. Before I did this, I went through the BRP rules with a fine toothcomb to find out what - if anything - was already there in terms of tactical options. What I found actually surprised me. There's a lot there. I ditched my plans to "4e-up" my BRP game, and concentrated on using the already existing options. It's not just spot rules, either. Unfortunately a lot of these rules are sprinkled throughout the text, but I think the very simple base of BRP skill system and combat can lull you into a straight "I attack then you parry" approach to combat, which is easy to get your head round, but eventually misses out on a lot of the sophistication that's in the rules. Here are my findings - excuse the relatively unedited mess they're in, I've been meaning to write them up into a small article but haven't had the time yet. Everything in the list is from the BRP book - they're "official" rules. Using these creatively makes combat much more fluid and dynamic. ***** BRP TACTICAL COMBAT OPTIONS I. COMBAT TURN SEQUENCE Characters act in the following order: • Missile Weapons • Long Weapons (spears, lances, etc) • Medium Weapons (swords, axes, etc) • Short Weapons (daggers, unarmed, etc) II. COMBAT ACTIONS You may take the following Combat Actions in a combat round: Attack: Move up to 5m and attack Move and Attack: Move from 6-15m and attack at half your DEX Rank Move and Attack: Move from 16-29m and attack at quarter your DEX Rank Move Only: Move 30m Engage in Combat: Move up to 5m and attack Disengage from combat: i.) Succeed in Knockback Attack, then a successful Dodge. Ii.) Fighting Withdrawal: Succeed in all Parries / Dodges. You are then disengaged and may move up to 30m Iii.) Desperate Withdrawal: turn and run. Attacker gets a free attack which may not be defended against. Parry / Dodge: You may Parry or Dodge in addition to Attacking Fight Defensively: Make no attacks, but gain an extra Dodge at full chance. Speak III. FATIGUE POINTS For extended combats, or where characters are heavily encumbered or already fatigued (through injury, magic, etc), fighter fatigue becomes important. • First, you have Fatigue Points: STR+CON. Costs 1FP per standard CR. Regain 1FP per 5CR. • Negative FP = penalty to all skill, characteristic, and resistance rolls • FP at negative STR+CON = totally fatigued, unable to act, probably unconscious (maybe Stamina Roll). • [NEED TO CONFIRM EFFECT OF ENC ON FATIGUE] IV. IMPLIED COMBAT ACTIONS These rules are found throughout the BRP rulesbook. They involve a more cinematic style of combat. Parrying Missile Weapons with Shields (p198): usually at Default Shield Parry chance; optional cinematic feat: (optional too: Successful Spot roll required): Shield Parry vs SIZ 0 missiles is Difficult; vs SIZ 1 missiles is Standard. Dodging Missile Weapons (p198): usually a Difficult roll; GM may make this a Standard roll based on game genre Parrying Missile Weapons with Weapons (p198): GM discretion for extraordinary feat or genre. Agility roll required; then, special or critical parry required. Catch Missile Weapon (p198): special or critical Agility or Throw roll. On a normal success, the weapon is not caught, but the defender has avoided the attack. On failure, make a Luck roll to avoid being hit; Fumble means automatic hit. Dying Blow (p199): character is Dying: successful Stamina roll allows a character to make one action at full skill level. Speaking Final Words (p199): requires a Luck roll for each piece of info. V. CIRCUMSTANTIAL MODIFIERS The following modifiers apply to Missile Weapon Attacks: Target Moving Fast: -50% Difficult Vision: Light shadows: -10% Light fog: -25% Darkness: skills are Difficult Intense Darkness / Invisible Target: skills are POWx1% unless Difficult Idea or Luck roll Target covered or partially concealed: skills are Difficult Target prone at range greater than attacker's DEX/3 in meters: Difficult VI. SPOT RULES FOR COMBAT The following rules are all found in the Spot Rules chapter. Aimed Attacks: Taking More Time: For every 5 DEX ranks (or SR) delayed, add 10% of the skill rating as a bonus. Must happen in same CR. Up to double base range. If aiming at window, doorway, etc, max range is half base range. Target Specific Area: Difficult. In both cases, interruptions require Difficult Idea roll to maintain aim. Aura Attack (p214): (maybe special "Feat Power") Average SIZ, POW, and APP to get AURA. Requires 1 full CR. Targets must resist AURA with INT. Failure means target is "mesmerized" for that CR - may defend but not attack. Fumble means target is "demoralized" and may surrender or flee - all actions are Difficult for that CR Backstabs (p215): Attack is Easy. If target succeeds in a Difficult Listen or Sense roll, a Difficult Dodge or Parry roll is allowed. Big and Little Targets (p215): For every 10 SIZ of target above 30: +5% to hit For every 1 SIZ of target below 5: -5% to hit Close Combat (p219): need to sort out (but see Weapon Length below for a workable version) Desperate Action (p220): at end of CR, make Difficult Agility roll to gain Desperate Action, which is a Difficult Action and costs double Fatigue Points. Forfeit any attack actions in the next CR. Disarming (p221): Grapple Disarm: need to be in Close Combat. Then successful Grapple attack: see Grapple skill Attack Weapon Disarm: if attack is less than 1/2 attacker's skill, Disarm succeeds. Target may resist with a Difficult Effort roll. Special Disarm means Effort roll is STR x 1%; Critical Disarm disallows Effort roll. Disarm Attack may be Dodged, but not Parried. Entangle Attack (p222): requires Entangling Weapon and a Difficult attack roll at 3m range. Success means target is Entangled (see p196). Firing into Combat (p224): Firing a missile weapon into combat: -20% Firing a missile weapon whilst engaged in combat: Difficult, unless in Close Combat, when Standard Any miss that is between modified chance and normal chance will hit a random target. Firing willy-nilly at mass of closely packed targets: +5% per target packed together Knockback (p225): Match damage done vs SIZ; success means 1m knockback per 5 damage above SIZ. Damage is also done: an Agility roll is required to remain standing. Knockout Attack (p226): Only works against humans and humanoids. Difficult Attack roll; damage is rolled to determine potential for knockout. Armor defends. If subsequent rolled damage is equal to a Major Wound, knockout occurs for 1D10+10CR. If less than Major Wound, minimum damage is done. Attacking While Running (p227): capped at Agility roll. Attacking While Jumping (p227): capped at Jump roll. Moving and throwing a weapon to the side (p227): Difficult Moving and throwing a weapon behind (p227): Difficult and Agility roll. Quick-Draw (p230): One combatant acts first. The other makes an Easy Spot roll; failure means the first combatant gets an Easy attack. Success means DEX vs DEX roll required by EACH participant; winner goes first. If both win (or fail), they both make an attack. Any Dodges or Parries are Difficult. Stunning or Subduing (p232): Grapple Stun: see the Grapple skill Crushing Stun: see p195 Knockout Stun: see Knockout Attack Stun Weapon Attack: match damage done vs target HP on resistance table - armor protects. Success means Stunned for CR equal to damage. If damage would reduce HP to 2 or less normally, target is Knocked-out and the Stun attack need not be rolled for. Sweep Attack (p233): Easy Attack, but damage is halved. Cannot be Dodged; Jump roll avoids. STR vs Damage (before halving) resistance roll required in order to make Parry roll. Non-edged sweep attacks may cause Knockback. Two Weapons (p233): Need to have 100%+ in both weapons to use at half each if ambidextrous of specially trained in 2-weapon fighting (Martial Arts Feat?) (otherwise secondary attack is Difficult - halved again). Second attack happens 5 DEX ranks later. [NB THIS SPOT RULE IS CONTRADICTORY - NEED TO REVIEW] Volley Fire (p235): [THIS SPOT RULE SEEMS VAGUE. NEED TO REVIEW.] Weapon Length (Long Weapons - p235): These rules are possibly more coherent than the Close Combat rules. o Start in "Standard Combat" o Long weapon user vs short / medium weapon user always attacks first in "Standard Combat"; short / medium weapon user can Dodge or Parry, but cannot attack AT ALL whilst in Standard Combat. o If short / medium weapon user successfully Dodges the attack, he is then in Close Combat, and can attack. The long weapon user cannot then attack. End of CR o Next CR (now in Close Combat), the short / medium weapon user goes first. The long weapon user can Dodge or Parry, but cannot attack. He must Dodge the attack or Disengage to be able to disengage from Close Combat (or can do another Close Combat action); if successful, the long weapon user is in Standard Combat again and can attack the same CR. End of CR. ***** So, that's from the official rules. The one thing missing from the above is the "Martial Arts" skill. This is something which is pretty huge when you look at it, including Weapons Schools, Legion Fighting Styles, the whole thing: if you want D&D3E feats or 4E powers, this is probably where they live. I've some ideas for drumming up some Fighting Schools using the Martial Arts rules, but have not got round to doing so yet. Hopefully you can see that BRP isn't just "I attack you parry" - there's a lot of versatility in the rules. All being well when some BRP fanzines or magazines start to turn up, we can start writing some articles on how these rules can be used. There's a lot there already without having to houserule. Cheers! Sarah
  15. Hi Simon, I'm going to take you slightly out of context cos you make an interesting point - hope you don't mind. With "old" BRP I'd definitely have agreed with you - power vs power or skill vs skill is a fairly plain affair. However, in the new rules you get three apparently small tweaks which have considerable effect on gameplay - namely the "Complimentary Skills", Cooperative Skill Rolls" and "Opposed Rolls" rules. In HeroQuest terms, these effectively give you Augments and Simple Contests (when you need them); add in the Skill Difficulty Levels (to which a level between Difficult and Impossible is absolutely crying out to be houseruled - a "Formidable" difficulty of 1/4 your skill) and the Personality Traits, Allegiance Rules, and Status Skill, and you have a suite of options which can take you a long way from the traditional "roll-under-your-skill-is-all" BRP approach. I have a lot of respect for the HeroQuest skill system, and think it can provide some useful feedback into the BRP system - especially in the *mindset* you use when approaching the rules. I'm not houseruling at this stage, but am experimenting with the optional rules in the BRP book "in the spirit of" HeroQuest, just to see. As a simple example, you could use your Personality Trait "Brave 60%" or "Hate Lunars 75%", or your "Allegiance (Death Rune) 100%" to "compliment" your Greatsword Attack with a +12%, +15%, or +20% bonus. Or, three characters could each use their Etiquette (Heortling), Status (Colymar Tribe) and Intimidating Manner personality trait to "cooperate" with a fourth character's Persuade skill attempt. Suddenly things start to sound rather familiar... Naturally this refers to skills, not powers. My game uses Sorcery as its principle power system, with psychic powers and mutations in the background. I'm eyeing the possibility of hooking the Complimentary, Cooperative, and Opposed Roll rules into the POW vs POW / PP vs PP rolls which power use generally requires, plus the psychic power "skill" percentages, again to see how it plays. If you're a Gloranthan BRP gamer, however, you could probably graft the HQ magic rules into this system fairly easily. In some ways, although perhaps not quite as deliberately, the new BRP book is a little like the first appearance of HW/HQ, in that a lot of the implications of the rules (specially the optional ones) are not immediately obvious on the surface. As I'm playing the new rules, I'm getting the feeling that there's a substantially different game here than the "old" BRP we've been used to - although you can leave all the optional rules out and play old-style too, if you want to. Anyhoo, just my two-pennorth. Cheers, Sarah
  16. I loved this when it first came out - almost seamlessly done by our great friends at the Onion. Priceless. And, of course, absolutely the sort of thing our Shadowy Overlords are constantly up to. :thumb: Sarah
  17. Nick's point is crucial IMHO - the Spot Rules are where it's at. High-level combat *will* bog down if you just run through an endless stream of attack-parry rolls. Gang up if you can. Multiple attackers against a single opponent produces dividends pretty quickly. Use the movement rules. You've got limited actions per round, so it's worth using them fully. You've got a 5m move if you also want to attack at your normal DEX rank; you can move more and attack later, or not at all. Use those moves to get better tactical positioning. Use the circumstantial modifiers. You've got weather, terrain, lighting. Try and throw your cloak over your opponent's head so he can't see! Use complimentary skill modifiers. Get creative here - if you're extremely athletic and want to go bouncing all over the place, maybe you can even get a bonus from your Jump skill; alternately, use your Climb skill to scrabble up the cave wall and get the drop on the opponent. Use Encumbrance and Fatigue if combat is going on forever. Dodge becomes pretty damn difficult if you're encumbered, and fatigue means your skills degrade the longer a combat goes. From Spot Rules, use: Cover, Close Combat / Closing, Desperate Actions, Aimed Shots, Darkness, Ambushes, Enclosed Environments, deliberate Knockback, Prone, Unstable Surfaces, Superior Position, and Weapon Length. Deliberate Knockback can be great to push a slow guy over a cliff... Don't forget to fight dirty. Grapple, gouge, bite, kick. Use whatever advantages you have over the opponent. Throw a lantern at his head! On a separate point, once you get past 100% skill, you *could* bring in a houserule or two, depending on the nature of your combats. If you're Elric, then you'll be fine splitting your attacks and ploughing through heaps of minions; if you're Aragorn, then you've got plenty of chums around to help gang up on the bad guys. If, however, you seem to find yourself constantly up solo against The Greatest Knight in the World, then you may want to use the old RQ2 version of the "Feinting" rule, as AikiGhost said, ie you can degrade your opponent's parry chance by a percentage equal to the penalty you take to your attack, as long as you don't go below 100%. As an alternative, you could use the Riposte rule from Stormbringer: if you make a Critical Parry and you're using either two weapons or weapon-and-shield, you get to make an immediate, free attack against the same opponent. It can be Parried or Dodged as normal - but obviously at another -30% from the last Parry / Dodge attempt. I might rule though that you can only Feint or Riposte if you're in single combat - not sure. I might also make them very fatiguing actions (1D6 FP?) which eat up your 5m move too, if I was feeling mean... Hope that helps! Cheers, Sarah
  18. Hi all, I hope I'm not stealing Jason's thunder by mentioning this - but there's a cool review of BRP over at Game Geeks - balanced and very positive. :thumb: Take a look! Cheers, Sarah
  19. I think Dustin is pretty snowed under at the moment - I haven't heard anything on the BRP adventure contest either, other than hearing back from Dustin in July saying "thanks" for the submission! I've heard back from the Halloween contest, but not the original one in July. My guess is that it's on an enormous "to do" list on Dustin's desk... Cheers, Sarah
  20. Ah-hah! Excellent...! How about a sneak peak into the armor values you're using, perhaps? I'm interested in the Cloth Armor 10AP (etc) stats which go along with your penetration values on the weapons tables - partic. if you've been playtesting them as thoroughly as it looks like you have! Cheers! Sarah ps. I'm refining the BRP skills based on TNE and Gurps Interstellar Wars, particularly with reference to ship operations and technical skills (engineering, sensor ops, etc). I'll pop those up somewhere if I ever get them into a presentable state.
  21. Very nice Vile - love the nostalgic look n feel, takes me right back to the LBB striker set! I'm toying with the idea of using BRP to play Traveller - Interstellar Wars, and am looking for Traveller starship combat rules for BRP. You don't *happen* to have anything lying around, do you? >:-> :innocent: Cheers - and good job! :thumb: Sarah
  22. Hi Simon, That's a really good document - have you thought about approaching Chaosium about doing a BRP SF supplement? Cheers, Sarah
  23. Hi Puck, I just downloaded the free PDF from Drivethru and, with all due respect to the author of said piece, I think maybe you don't need to worry too much ;-). The RPG world being what it is, overlap in names or concepts is bound to happen from time to time, and from what I remember of your concept notes early one in the shared world project, there isn't much comparison beyond them both being an arboreal fantasy habitat. I think you can relax and carry on producing your original material! :thumb: I'd probably think about a name change for the product itself. Continue calling the setting "The Green", by all means - no need to change that - but I'd do something like Rust suggests, "Into the Green", or maybe "Verduria - Land of the Endless Green", "Lords of the Trees - BRP Adventure in the Endless Green", something like that, for the actual book. Looking forwards to seeing your monograph! Onwards! Cheers, Sarah
  24. Check out "Shields and Missile Fire" on p231. Briefly: - If you're using a shield in HTH combat, there's a chance your shield may block "a missile": 15%/30%/60%, depending on shield size. If you actively duck down behind your shield, the last two chances rise to 60% and 90% respectively. Only normal successes can be blocked in this way; specials and criticals get through. Note that this is *not* a parry - your shield is basically acting as a lump of armor you're carrying in one hand. - Against a firearm or energy weapon, this won't work. You have to make a parry instead, and it's this parry that's at the shield's Base Chance. That's the RAW, and I think it answers your question, although you may not agree with the answer! Personally, I would wonder why the "ducking behind shield" option wouldn't work against a firearm, but my conclusion that these two rules are not a simulationist solution but a practical differentiation between using a shield against "missiles" (which I understand to be thrown weapons, arrows, etc) and "firearms and energy weapons". You could also use the "Parrying Missile Weapons" optional rules in the last paragraph of p198 if you prefer a more cinematic / heroic style. My own preference is a combination. For shooting a bow at someone carrying a shield, I'd use either the hit location rules or block percentages to determine if the shield "accidentally" gets in the way. That's the shield being completely passive. Then, if the hero actually wanted to try a shield parry against a missile weapon, I'd use the rules on p198: standard parry vs SIZ 1 weapons, Difficult parry vs SIZ 0 weapons, and a Spot roll required to even attempt to parry a high-speed weapon (including Fireballs, etc). I play a swords and sorcery game, so heroic actions like this feel appropriate. Hope that helps! Cheers, Sarah
  25. I think the "Taking More Time" option is the only one explicitly restricted to missile weapons; the "Targeting a Specific Area" option IMHO can be used for both melee and missile attacks. So you're right - it's just a Difficult skill check. I'd also be tempted to rule you can only do this if you haven't been "interrupted" (ie attacked, forced to parry or dodge, etc) that round - otherwise you have to make a successful Idea roll to maintain the concentration required for the Targeted Attack. Cheers, Sarah
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