seneschal

Nazi zombies vs. ninjas. On snowboards.

Personally, in a setting like this I'd ditch game mechanics entirely. There are no PC magicians, so they don't need to stat anything up anyway. Just let your NPC "witches" (or whatever you choose to call them) do what they do. Was it stagecraft? Drugs? Coincidence? Suggestion to superstitious minds? Actual supernatural activity? Only Broomhilda's hairdresser knows, but it really doesn't matter since the adventurers believe regardless of the actual truth. Why beat your brains out with rules when you can GM it with atmospheric description and a hand wave? Again, with player-characters "causing" events to happen -- you know and I know that their little superstitious rituals are meaningless. So forget about rules. Let them perform their barbaric shenanegins, roll the dice with a thoughtful expression on your face, and let events fall where they may. If they succeed, well of course their ritual was effective. If they fail, aw gee, those darn spirits sure are a fickle bunch.

# A man-sized stone figure weighs way more than a man would. Should I base SIZ on physical dimensions or weight? Should Constructs just have dimensions and weight directly instead of size, like Elementals do? If so, how would I determine a Damage Bonus? # Should I involve STR in HP calculation at all? I'd say yes. Weight = the construct's density. So an NBA basketball star and Der Golem may both be 7'4" tall. But Der Golem will have a greater SIZ because its sheer mass is greater. Its Damage Bonus is calculated normally, STR+SIZ. CON+SIZ determines Hit Points. Again, Mister NBA star may come out on the short end of the stick; although he's a pro athlete, his CON (a general measure of health and toughness) may be less than that of a being made of animated ceramic or concrete. While I'm not sure that materials necessarily affect DEX and Move, Golems are traditionally depicted as being slow and deliberate. So Der Golem vs. NFL lineman = even match; Der Golem vs. NBA star = Mister Basketball will dance circles around the construct (but he'd better stay out of reach). The Big Gold Book, by the way, has a section devoted to robots and other "built" creatures.

You might check with Dustin Wright about whether they'll extend the deadline. When I contacted him about a week ago he indicated that I had plenty of time.

I just submitted mine, too. Whew! I was afraid I wasn't going to make the deadline.

So you've scheduled a round table discussion about ... The Table Round?

Don't forget mysterious god-parents who may or may not be human! ---- "I used to own Londinium, I tell you! I was the god of Light and Health and Beauty. Sacrifices were plentiful, the women were beautiful and willing, the wine and oil flowed freely at my altars. I used to BE Somebody!" "Sure, Apollo, sure. (You drunken, old has-been!)" "And I still would be, too, if it weren't for those meddling missionaries and their stupid dog!"

North American fisheries = trade secret Shhhhhhh!

If we're going "real" Dark Ages Britain, don't neglect the "real" folk and mythological critters lurking in the dark woods: Cornish giants, refined ogres who masquerade as human landowners, pixies who lead the unwary astray,short folk who like to kidnap musicsians, women and children, down-at-the-heels Roman deities, female humanoids in dark pools that like to snatch kids. Howardian Little-People-Who-Were-Once-Men might be fun, too.

Well, my Cthulhu the Musical lyrics weren't well received in the "How can BRP be more popular?" thread. So perhaps not.

I feel your pain, Thalaba. I've been having trouble squeezing in writing time, too. As for setting, I think one could set an adventure on "Generic Waterworld or Space Station X" without giving away the baby. But then, I'm planning a historical adventure; Chaosium could hardly trademark Oklahoma.

The June 15 deadline is days away. Anyone submitting an adventure? I've got one in the works, and Jason Durall had expressed interest several months ago. Anyone else? rust's Pharos IV/Varun musings should be able to supply an entire campaign, let alone an underwater caper or two. We've got write-ups for John Carter and kaldanes; all someone would have to do is throw in a scantily-clad princess and stir!

Why the Barsoom books stopped focusing on John Carter after the first three novels: John Carter: You are not going to the royal ball in that harness! Tara of Helium: But it’s my body. John Carter: Not until you’re 350. Tara of Helium: Daaaaaad! John Carter: Deja! Please come deal with your daughter.

I was going to do a Green Martian write-up but the whole SIZ thing puzzles me. Depending on which book you read, a typical insectoid warrior ranges from 15 to 18 feet tall, 180-216". That's double the height of the typical RuneQuest troll (8 feet) but less than half the height of a typical 48-foot-tall giant. I was hoping the Big Gold Book would have an extended SIZ chart but no such luck. And the SIZ levels don't expand consistently; some are 12 inches, others are 4 or 5. I couldn't find anything already written up online, although I have a copy of the experimental SIZ chart someone was working on for mecha purposes (which has weights but not dimensions). How would I calculate it? Also, because Barsoom's gravity is less than Earth's, Green Martians are tall but not necessarily much stronger than a 6-foot human or Red Martian soldier. Otherwise, John Carter wouldn't have been able to one-punch them so easily. So they're double or triple the height of a man but comparatively fragile for their size (or SIZ). Many of the Mars novels treat them as mooks for all their bulk and fierceness. How would BRP handle that?

Edgar Rice Burroughs' characters, even the women, were too muy macho to run shrieking into the night but the sight of the kaldanes and their mounts did fill them with horror and disgust. What would you say appropriate SAN penalties would be?

Since we've been discussing classic science fiction settings (and waiting with bated breath for Interplanetary), I thought I'd stat up a couple of my favorite sci-fi critters, re: Chessmen of Mars. Kaldane The kaldane are a Barsoomian race of burrowing social carnivorous arthropods who have achieved advanced intelligence at the expense of their physical capabilities. A typical specimen is a basketball-sized bluish-gray sphere with six spidery legs, sharp chelae, huge, black, round unblinking eyes, and a tiny mouth orifice. Kaldanes are excellent climbers and diggers but are physically weak and vulnerable, relying on their rykor “bodies” for transportation, labor and food. They regard this symbiotic relationship as the ideal union of pure mind and pure physical strength. Aside from accident or violent death, they are incredibly long-lived. They also don’t need to breathe. Each kaldane nest is ruled by a hermaphrodite king who lays the eggs that produce warriors and workers. A typical nest will have several spare kings sealed away in case its current one perishes. Several nests are typically clustered near one another, each ruled by a separate king. They cooperate with one another generally, but the members of different nests may compete violently for scarce resources. Kaldane society is strictly hierarchical, run by the ruthlessly logical dictates of the king. While not a group mind, they do tend to think alike unless exposed to the individuality of other races. (Kings may order the execution of nest members “infected” by such disruptive ideas.) Despite their goal of creating a society of pure unsentimental mind, kaldanes appreciate beauty and are excellent engineers, architects and artists. Their society never developed music, however. A typical nest consists of an opaque domed tower surrounded by walls, around which the kaldane plant the crops with which they feed their rykors. The walls protect the livestock at night, when they are helpless without their riders. The dome’s many prisms funnel light into the kaldane’s gorgeously paved tunnels deep underground. The higher-ranking nest members live in the deeper tunnels, and the deepest chambers are for food storage against the day Barsoom’s surface becomes unable to support life. While kaldanes pride themselves on their lack of emotion, they experience the sensations of their rykor mounts while attached. They thus are able to experience pleasure, pain, fear, and lust. When not so distracted, their highly developed brains are capable of reading or controlling the minds of other creatures – abilities that are greater among higher-caste nest members. Kaldanes are not expansionist or aggressive but they view humanoid visitors as inferior rykors – neither pure mind nor pure physical perfection. As such, adventurers will not be permitted to leave if captured. Instead, they’ll be fattened for the larder or used as breeding stock for the rykors. STR (1D3) 2 CON (3D4) 8 SIZ (1D2) 1, 2 INT (4D6+10) 24 POW (3D6+10) 18 DEX (3D6+5) 16 APP (1D2) 1,2 Move: 4 Hit Points: 5 Armor: AP 1 (Leathery hide) Attacks: Bite 55%, 3D4-1D6; Sword 45%, (variable) Powers: Dark Vision, Mind Control, Telepathy Skills: Climb 60%, Dodge 40%, Hide 30%, Jump 35%, Ride 40%; other skills vary by profession. Rykor Rykors are mindless quadrupeds barely able to feed themselves without kaldane assistance. They resemble handsome but headless male and female human bodies. The “stump” of a rykor’s neck contains its mouth and a neural knot that kaldane riders use to control the creatures. They are blind, deaf, and mute. Able only to crawl on their own, rykors become powerful, well-coordinated and agile when ridden. The kaldane use these “bodies” to construct and defend their nests, grow crops, and create artwork. Despite their utility, rykors are considered utterly disposable. When a mount becomes too old, sick, or weak to be useful, it is left outside the walls to be eaten by predators. The kaldane also fatten a certain number of rykors for their own meals. STR (2D6+6) CON (2D6+6) SIZ (2D6+6) INT 1 POW 1 DEX (2D6+6) APP (1D4) Move: 10 Hit Points: 13 Armor: None Attacks: Per kaldane rider Skills: None

On the other hand, you yourself have noted that BRP's chief fan base is the over-40 crowd (many of whom frequent rpg.net). The popularity thread deals with how to attract GianniVacca's pimply set, who may be oblivious to BRP's existence. That said, the recent YouTube reviews by eager BRP converts are encouraging.

I know many will disagree, but after slogging through the Big Gold Book, creating characters and looking at the task resolution matrix, BRP reminds me of ... HERO System. (The Big Gold Book is similar to HERO 5th Edition's Big Black Book in terms of size, purpose, content, and complexity.) Since I'm a HERO fan, I don't see that as a bad thing. Sure, you can random-roll stats quickly. But after that, skill selection and the other options are pretty much a point-buy group of choices like Champions. It takes me the same amount of time to create a superhero character in both systems, and longer to create a normal character in BRP (since I'm still learning). The only iteration of D&D I've played is Mazes and Minotaurs (extremely stripped down 1st edition), so I don't know how 3.5 compares. I'm looking forward to downloading the reviews.

UFO has been mentioned as a good license fit for BRP. Another would be Blake's Seven, another British show. Again, despite the cool starships and AI computers, the focus is on the human action. Not a lot of whiz-bang gadgets to stat up.

Um, you mean your American-made sedan can't do 1300 mph? Sigh. It's all a matter of proper maintenance and the right gasoline brand.

Just trying to SIZ things up ... http://www.ehow.com/about_5412669_normal-height-weight-schoolage-child.html http://www.plimoth.org/discover/myth/4-ft-2.php http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/height-weight-teens.shtml http://courses.washington.edu/bioa101/articles/article38.pdf Nutrition, and good health, is a big deal. Example: Well-fed Guatemalan children who are 3 inches taller than their parents, who had had poorer diets (or suffered from the runs a lot) while growing up. MurfinMS has done a reasonable job with available data. Even in America, there can be a 10"/50 lb. variation among middle schoolers the same age. You can shrink (or grow) international kids according to local data.

The fact that there are at least 15-20 such songs on YouTube, enough to do two or three real musicals, is ... disturbing. Which, I suppose, is appropriate. There ... is ... no ... shame!

The All-Singing, All-Dancing Monograph!* Nah, the license fees would kill Chaosium. Given BRP's penchant for the occult, Wizards of Waverley Place the RPG might be a possibility ... but can the system handle situation comedy? *But it would set us up for Cthulhu the Musical: R'lyeh dreams, burst at the seams But oh-oh those sta-arry nights! (Wella, wella, wella) Oof! Tell me more, tell me more!

Or you could look here. http://www.jiawen.net/Chinesenames.html

To attract new players, we need to insert a microchip in the cover of each copy that makes the UFO alien saucer swishing sound when you open the cover.