seneschal

Hmmm ... Fractured Hopes Chaosium Inc. Chaosium Inc. Chaosium Inc. Outpost 19 Chaosium Inc. Operation Ulysses PDF Chaosium Inc. So, not as many as I'd hoped but a few. In addition to River of Heaven, there's also the pending BRP Mecha by Alephtar Games. Interplanetary has been in the works for a loooooong time now, but its author says he's still plugging away on it.

There are also a couple in-print monographs from Chaosium that are sci-fi: Operation Ulysses, Outpost 19, and some Cthulu-associated ones. They are adventure modules as opposed to full campaign books but could easily be expanded into a campaign.

Usagi Yojimbo is particularly appropriate for this thread, since it is based on traditional Japanese folktales. Although the primary characters are regular animals, er, people -- soldiers, farmers, nobles, mercenaries, bandits -- supernatural entities pop up all the time: fox spirits, ogres, bridge-haunting trolls, immortal warriors trying to make themselves gods. Another manga inspiration might be Monkey King, based on the ancient Chinese novel Journey Into the West. In contrast to Usagi Yojimbo, nearly everyone here is a supernatural entity. The Handsome Monkey King, the title character, is sort of the Bugs Bunny of Buddhist mythology. To atone for his many crimes, he must accompany a holy man into The West (India) to retrieve ancient Buddhist writings. Think Looney Toons antics with high-end DC/Marvel Comics level powers and you get the general picture.

You could take the Star Trek Next Generation Q route and have him show up occasionally to help out but mostly to make snide remarks about human foibles. The deity or his avatar won't save the PCs' butts directly, but his comments and complaints could give them the information needed to solve the immediate problem on their own. Sort of like a fairy godmother, only snarky. Or you could reverse the situation. The god has a problem he can't solve (divine politics or whatever) but the adventurers' actions might solve his dilemma if he can manipulate them to do what he wants (he can't directly give them a mission to do a certain task).

Hmmm, I'm sure I saw the guy with the facial tattoos and the Mohawk on Jay Leno .... Good to see more BRP product actually getting out the door. Congrats, Zomben!

So ... if I oppose this discussion, what do I have to roll?

Heh. Sorry. We're an easily distracted bunch.

He's ... the Mr. Banks ... of GM-ing? As in Mary Poppins' boss? (Save those tuppens!)

With the other items I ordered, I also got Cthulhu by Gaslight. I haven't read it thoroughly but was pleased when I skimmed it. The scenario The Burnt Man is a favorite, really captured the feel of Robert Howard's Little People stories. Machen's The Shining Pyramid inspired at least 4-5 stories by Howard. I read them first and wasn't as impressed by Machen's original tale, since the do-little protagonists did nothing to save the missing woman.

Hmmm, an RPG based on garage door repair. Well, if they can do games based on being a maid or being a goblin computer hacker, who am I to say nay?

Tut, tut. And I thought evil, abusive GM-ing was a D&D foible, a practice which RuneQuesters were far above. Since the game mechanics don't require characters to kill things and take their stuff to advance and all. I cut my tabletop gaming teeth on Champions and Classic Traveller, so the whole adversarial GM thing wasn't something I experienced. In the latter game, I had to actively work to keep my players' characters alive (the -- insert name of celestial body here -- is a harsh mistress, and all that). I may have been adversarial during our TOON campaigns, but since cartoon characters can't die, it just wasn't the wrenching experience that I've heard D&D-ers moan about.

Astounding Adventures (1920s - '40s?) was supposed to be a separate book from Atomic Age Cthulhu (1950s). Despite glowing announcements, its actual release has been delayed (like so much else). No mention of Pulp Cthulhu on Chaosium's site for a long time. Your surmise that perhaps its planned content was folded into the AA project sounds logical to me.

My favorite "mook moment" is an old episode of the Adam West Batman TV series. Batman and Robin were invited to speak at a lodge meeting -- the Grand Order of Occidental Nighthawks. They arrived and were immediately set upon by the Penguin's men, each of whom wore a black turtleneck with the acronym "G.O.O.N." silk-screened on the front.

That happened a lot in 17th Century European wars, too, where mercenaries were often a component of a king's army. It wasn't uncommon for a skillful and well-bankrolled diplomat to get an opponent's mercenary soldiers to switch sides. Occurred with non-mercenaries, too. During the English Civil War, an enlisted man's wages were so poor and so rarely paid that troops regularly switched sides depending on who -- the King or Parlement -- was actually dishing out meals and issuing paychecks this week.

We've had many discussion about mook rules here. I was hoping one of our creative folks had put his notes in the Downloads section, but apparently not. Give 'em some time to chime it. Several of our regular posters have come up with the solution you're looking for.

Yeah, that's a GM problem. Players and their characters shouldn't get punished for trying to do the right thing. Even crooked politicians and gangsters do the occasional good deed, if only to keep their constituents on their side.

That's a trope I've seen before in folklore. The god/angel/fairy godmother shows up in the guise of a human needing or requesting assistance of some kind. If the protagonists show kindness and compassion toward some nobody who apparently can't return the favor, they'll have demonstrated their character and receive supernatural assistance of some kind, often in the form of knowledge essential to completing whatever task or mission they're in the middle of. If they brush off the tattered old man or thin, dirty child by the side of the road because they're in a hurry and have things to do, they won't get the supernatural help and may have some additional obstacles thrown their way, too.

Option 2 is the way I'd go with critters and monsters. As you've noted, both fantasy games have a similar creature list, so why not use the Legend or BRP equivalents and save yourself a lot of work? A monster ported from D&D doesn't have to be exactly the same in your Legend game, it just has to carry off the same feel or fill the same role. Less time doing conversions means more time and energy for actually playing with your friends.

They make sense to me. Your smuggler has a way of smoozing people and business acumen. Since his deals tend to be on the shady side, he's got some practical physical abilities and knows how to handle a weapon or two. His repair skills will enable him to maintain his ship. Additional languages and being handy with a musical instrument are always useful. Overall, he's got a broad range of skills that reflect his breadth of experience in the world. He's a well-traveled guy.

Yeah, for really big, strong opponents (e.g., King Kong) the bonus is more harmful than the punch or weapon itself.

The version of "The Haunting" in the Quick-Start rules is abbreviated, but your copy of 6th edition will have the full scenario in the back, as well as a couple others. Also, the mini-scenario "Murder in the Footlights" is a freebie downloadable at Chaosium's web site. See my additional material for it here: http://basicroleplaying.com/basic-roleplaying/expanding-murder-footlights-3206/

"Fled the country." Heh, heh. That's what everyone assumed, based on the statements of the bruised policemen, who groggily woke up on the sidewalk with no police box in sight. In reality, your character actually didn't even leave the city, well, not exactly. Upon throwing open the police box door, he was confronted by a strange little man in a looong scarf who whisked him 2,000-something years into the past (into a parallel Cthulhu Invictus campaign) to confront the evil that created the situation your former companions (and your new character) were dealing with in the present day. Did your original character survive? Only the strange little man -- and an ornery squad of Silurians -- knows for sure ...

But that was kinda the point of Bushido. Your character advances or regresses by gaining or losing Face, Honor, whatever you call it. Follow the Code and you advance in society (and in experience points). Break it or defy it and you actually lose experience points, assuming you don't suffer a quick death to cleanse with your blood the shame you've brought upon your family and extended clan. It is restrictive. But that's the culture. Freedom of choice is a Judeo-Christian Western concept. It doesn't exist in many Eastern or Mideastern cultures, especially not in historical ones. You exist to benefit the Group (family, tribe, nation, whatever); rugged individualism isn't admired or encouraged. In those cultures, the squeaky wheel doesn't get the grease; instead, the nail that sticks out gets hammered down, hard. I thought the game's mechanics, enforcing the culture, was clever. Forget collecting gold pieces, guard your reputation!

I've rarely run published scenarios, at least not as-is, because my high school through post-college players always had access to the same gaming materials as I did. But I have combined scenarios, taking the situation from one and tossing in the main villains from another, a cool building map from a third, plus bits from a favorite movie or old-time radio show. I may not know what the ending will be, but I usually have two or three set-piece locations in mind and a general idea of what the Big Bad is up to. I've usually statted up the main villain and his immediate henchmen. I've rarely tried to run a scenario purely on-the-fly; the only time that has really worked for me is in a superhero game, since an average session was a knock-down brawl anyway. My players weren't much into detective work or sneaking around -- they just wanted to swat somebody! Good for a Marvel Comics feel, bad for Agatha Christie-type crime busting. With my wife and kids, I usually run a scenario I've written for a magazine or contest, improvising NPCs and situations between the main events. Again, the success of improvised sessions has varied widely. In one game, the kids were happy to explore random islands while searching for lost fishermen. In another, examining an alien spaceship was utter failure, the family just wasn't into it. The best sessions have been the ones where they didn't necessarily follow my (unwritten) script but got fully into their characters.