Sunwolfe

...but on points the match went to the NPC. The deck was truly stacked against the poor guy. A very powerful sorcerer sent a demon of combat as a warning to the PCs who had a magical artifact in their possession the sorcerer wanted but which they were unwilling to give up. The demon was instructed to challenge a particular NPC to ritual combat according to the NPC’s cultural norms and in the NPC's own language. The sorcerer knew this NPC was without a hand, that he had lost a suit of demon-armor in an earlier encounter and that the NPC would be honor bound to accept the challenge. This type of ritual combat had strict rules that dictated how the participants would fight and with what natural weapons. In the course of the long bout (a couple turns worth of combat rounds) in which the grappling was but a small part, both combatants whittled each other down pretty close to zero hp. The demon, however had the ability to Regenerate, so, though he was close to being defeated at least three times, he recovered enough that the PCs felt like the NPC was starting over each time the two would break and reengage. In the end the demon killed the NPC, but because he had fought so well, the demon allowed the PCs to enter the ritual battle ground immediately and heal the dead NPC to positive hp before the following round was over. In turn, one of the PCs offered to heal the demon of his great wounds, “…in recognition of the greater battle you have fought.” The demon who admired bravery and scorned cowardice (an “attitude” the PCs picked up as the result of earlier circumstances during the combat), was amazed that the party would treat an enemy with such honor. Though bound to perform his mission, he was nonetheless moved to offer them a final gift—a warning: “I am the least of those he [the sorcerer] will now send,” he said. “Weigh your choices carefully.”

Thanks for the heads-up. Yeah, we debated over the lost hand bit and in retrospect I'd play it with some sort of percental disadvantage and thus give the poor NPC more of a chance. At the time, trying to get the procedure down RAW before we tinkered with it and the phrase, "If two hands are free, the target can attempt to Grapple back" (61) held us off from making adjustments. Now that I know we did it *right*, we'll play it more from the gut as we usually do. Thanks again :thumb: Cheers, Sunwolfe

Hail, BRPians: We had a hella marathon game Saturday night; we hooked up about noon and played until sometime around 1:00 am Too much fun. Anyway, we came to grips with (no pun intended) the grapple rules-engine during the game when a demon and an npc went at it in a ritual challenge. What I'd like to do here is recount the process round by round, which we hope was understood and enacted correctly. I then, my dearest friends, ladies and gentlemen, angels and demonata, hope to gain from you confirmation that we did indeed proceed correctly or, if not, check out my questions below, offer your advice and return us to the "...wonted way again, to both [our] honors." Round one: A. Having the higher DEX rank, the NPC moved first and failed his grapple attack. B. The demon moved in and made a successful grapple attack. C. The NPC tried to use a grapple parry and failed, thus, the demon rolled a random hit-location to see what he’d grappled on to… the left arm. End of round one. Round two: A. The NPC began to “attack” the demon by using a brawl punch which was successful…huzzah…an EASY action at clinch range, and inflicted 1D3 +db on the head of the demon. B. The demon enacted his grapple effect, in this case “CHANGE HOLD (61),” exchanging the arm for a head. C. In the DEX : DEX resistance roll in which the demon was active and the NPC passive the demon won. D. A grapple check was done by the demon to see if he’d held on. End of round two. Round three: A. The DEX edged NPC opts not to try a grapple but to continue to bludgeon his demonic opponent with his fist unsympathetically about the head, again rolling the above damage. B. The demon then proceeds on to the “grapple effect”…in this case “STRANGLE THE TARGET”. C. After a contest of STR : STR which the NPC loses the pain begins. D. A grapple check is made to again see if the demon held on. End of round three. Round four: A. The NPC goes for his CON X 1% roll and fails B. The NPC takes 1D3 damage to his hp C. A second STR : STR fails for the NPC D. A grapple check is made to see if the demon looses his grip. End of round four. Round five: A. The NPC goes for second CON X 1% and fails taking more damage. B. The STR : STR rolls this time in favor of the NPC who breaks the hold and scrambles away. C. Circling each other warily the round ends. Have we done this correctly? Could the NPC have made another brawl attack at the beginning of round four or is he too busy with the CON x 1% roll? Is it my imagination or does the grapple round have less symmetry than the combat round? Should the grapple checks come at the beginning of each round? Should the NPC have been able to go for a grapple parry during round three when the demon went for the STRANGLE THE TARGET effect or was that taken up by his brawl attack? PS...the NPC had lost their left hand sometime back and we ruled that he could not therefore, "...attempt to Grapple back." Thanks for the look-see! :thumb:

My brother and I were just talking about different character classes this morning and wondering if we needed to come up with more "Kit-like" packages for PCs. "You wanna play an apprentice/adept/full mage? Here are the skills you should start with, variables and how many spells your PC knows..." ala RQ III. I'm wondering if such might not be appropriate for your Witch manuscript. What does a beginning witch from the Victorian era "look" like characteristic, stat and spell-wise; what makes her different from her Dark Age cousins? Just a thought Cheers, Sunwolfe

I hadn't visited that web site in a while, though it is in My Favorites. I don't ever go there without getting inspired to work on my own game milieu. If I can generate just a quarter of the richness Barker has :ohwell: . Though I've never used Sandy's interpretation, I keep telling myself, "Some day!" Thanks for the reminder, Kaddawang :thumb: Blessings of Thumis on all who seek, Sunwolfe

Just a wee clarification... When young Henry, fifth of that name, may he be blessed, was dressing down the French ambassadors for the Dauphin's "mock" (a box of tennis balls) sent in response to Harry's demand for his French rights, the king said, And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his/ Hath turned his balls [the one's in the box, you naughty boys] to gunstones, and his soul/ Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance/ That shall fly with them; for many a thousand widows/ Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands,/ Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;/ And some are yet ungotten and unborn/ That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn. Thus were the gunstones, according to context, most likely not so much the flint as they were the ammunition...and more precisely, according to the footnote in my Signet edition of "Henry V", cannonballs--Bah-bah-boom!

Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah! :party:

Hey, Frogspawner...this sounds very interesting. Could you elaborate on what you mean by "skills" and "traits" and how you also treat traits like skills? And, if you wouldn't mind, an example. I just added Allegiance to my game two weeks ago and am still looking for a rhythm on how to employ it; this sounds like the ticket :thumb:. Cheers, Sunwolfe

Aww, I dunno, Seneschal...as I look over the thread, it seems the guy got a lot of encouragement and advice from Vagabond, Byron A., Thalaba (once he got over being flabbergasted ), Chaot, RosenMcstern, Frogspawner, etc. And while things did sorta degenerate toward the end, don't discount what came before :happy:. I have to say, though, that the complaint of sameness--if I understood the original poster correctly and there is a good chance I did not--does seem a little weak. As I recall that was one of the draws I felt toward RQIII: combat was definitely NOT the same simple business it had been in a DnD or DnD-like game. It was also something I felt I had more control over…more options: pluses for this; pluses for that; an attack skill AND a parry skill; a riposte even!--Thank you Stormbringer; weapon specifics; armor specifics; hit locations; various results...my god, it gives me a wood just thinking about it. BRP's got all that too for anyone who reads the rules closely and uses a fair amount of devious thinking. I'm not saying Mike didn't read closely or isn't devious enough...hell, I don't even know 'em, but from-my-point-of-view the seemingly casual dismissal of the system, "Easy for you to say - we're shopping around for a new system" did not indicate an interest in thoroughly researching the subject and raised my hackles too. I think that's why more than a few of us were “flabbergasted” and may have responded with less than kid-gloves :ohwell:. Again I could be wrong and stand corrected if I am. I hope Mike and crew find what they are looking for :thumb:. Cheers, Sunwolfe P.S. Thanks for the game master screen link there, Harshax; I must have one!

Howdy all BRPites: I have an issue I need to resolve and I'd like to have your opinions, but first a word or two. If you guys know of a thread which includes an answer to my query, send me there and disregard this thread. I looked but I may not have typed in the "right" word. Though I am not interested in serious scientific accuracy and only want to keep from breaking the "asthetic distance", I don't want to push the bounds of credibility so radically far that the game (I know, irony here) enters the realm of silliness and farce. That being said... In light of the wiki errata concerning Extended Range which suggests that, "This Spot Rule is deprecated. [and] Instead, use the Missile Weapon Range Modifiers on p257, as follows: “At the weapon’s basic range, the skill chance is unmodified. At medium range (double the basic range), the chance becomes Difficult, and at long range (four times basic range) it becomes ¼ the normal skill chance.” I'm a little concerned about the extended ranges this suggests for Historic Missile Weapons". The weapon in question is the "composite bow". I have written of this weapon before as one of my main players is armed with one. According to the BRP book, it has a range of 120 [meters?]. If I apply the suggested rule above that means at basic range, 120, the skill chance is unmodified and, barring circumstances, an "Average Action". At medium range, 240, the chance to hit is 50% of the player's skill with the bow--a "Difficult Action". At long range, 480, four times the basic range, success is measured at rolling under 1/4 normal skill chance. My difficulty is with the "long range" section and my concern is as follows: Is "four times basic range" even possible for an unaltered (non-magical)composite bow? Would that be beyond its physical capabilities? If so, is the rule, in referring to "four times basic range" suggesting an impossibility of range and therefore, by default, an "Impossible Action"? This seems not so however, and hence my confusion, as it gives the player a ¼ chance to pull off the shot and therefore suggests that the archer does indeed have this incredible range. Suggestions, clarifications and enlightenment appreciated. If you feel the rule is broken, that’s fine, but please don’t belabor the point and force me to sift through cheap shots fired off at one another to find it. If I have simply misunderstood, a very good possibility, feel free to steer me in the right direction. I note that RQ III suggests that the "Effective" range of a composite bow is 120 and that its "Maximum" range, beyond which the weapon "...can reach no further..." is 225. Between the two extremes the roll is at half the archer's skill...I.E. a Difficult Action. Would you take your cue from RQ? Cheers, Sunwolfe

Expeditious Retreat Press's A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture is all that and a jelly-donut! :thumb: The condensed "Mapping Guide" version linked by Rust above includes the full table of contents for the book, and you can see the good-stuff to be had with the full version. Cheers, Sunwolfe

You guys just got to stop with all the wonderfulness! I feel like I'm on a swing going really high and have to pee! Sunwolfe

Praise the gods! Strike-up the band! Let the pigeons loose! Free Willey! Give a hoot; don't pollute! Hug a tree and kiss a whale, by Odin's bronzed balls that's damn good news! Just the kind we BRP-ites need around here on a rainy day in the Central Valley :thumb: to give us a little hope. Silly, I know, but with a legislature like ours we don't have much to look forward to Time for some strawberry ice-cream and jalapeños! Now back to work...slave! Serve this ship well and live! Row! Cherries, Sunwolfe

That just stinks, man...and I mean that stone-cold sucks hard balls I'm feeling totally helpless. So many cool people, manuscripts and ideas here...so much enthusiasm, effort and creativity. Don't they get it?! It's been awesome to watch/observe and comment on the advent of BRP. I mean a lot of us ain't in the center, we know, but we're feeling lucky nonetheless just to watch you big fish writing, creating and developing kewl stuff for us wee-fries to gobble up. Its really been a slice to have even played a small part [read "observer"] in something like this. It was easy to kinda feel "involved" even though we really aren't, except around our own humble gaming tables. But I was feeling excited that, after so many years, I had got a window seat on the doin' of thing, and finally some real back up, ya know...real stuff comin' out from the Chaosium. It really blows hard-core that this state of affairs has evolved: Deadworld--Interplanetary--Rome--and not paid yet :mad: WTF? (that is just wrong, Jason). I know it ain't a matter of life and death and we live in seriously scary times, but I feel…well...it's like watching the distant oasis disappear just when I was beginning to think I was actually making distance. :confused: Ya know what I mean? It's hard not to take it a bit personally...stupid, I know...but nonetheless true. It's like I just got hit with a bait-and-switch; like Chaosium said, "...buy our book, man...and...we'll, ah, support it, yeah, yeah, that's the ticket; we'll support it wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say not more--publish no more." Like I've said before, P.T. Barnum just loved dudes like me. I know that this response maybe unreasonable, maybe unkewl, but I just have a hard time feeling anything else after reading this thread closely and reflecting the company's past MO. I'm not looking forward to trawling the net again...like back in the day...with Google-searches trying to find anyone who was courageous enough to post some support for RQ [sans Glorantha :-P]. In fact I'm down right pissed off that I've been offered this carrot only to find out that's it plastic, but I will if all this does go belly-up. By Odin's bronzed balls, I thought those days were over :ohwell: I don't know if I speak for anyone one else, I'm not trying to. I just had to say something because I'm feelin' that's all I can do. This is one bottom feeder, however, that is really and seriously disappointed and frustrated that there seems to be nothing anyone can actually do. You big fish come up with some idea…let us little guys know. Until then… …Crap

Hope you guys don't mind the chime, but this topic has been something that I've pondered from time to time. Back in the fourteenth century some knights just wanted to do more damage and the armorers were more than happy to turn their twisted minds to it. Turns out some fourteenth century gauntlets were designed with wicked little knuckle dusters called "gadlings". These babies were attached over the knuckles on a gauntlet and were shaped into all sorts of unsympathetic-to-human-flesh knobs. Edward the Black Prince for example, had them made into the shape of lion heads. I've see other examples designed in the shape of seriously mean and heavy points. I also understand that they were interchangeable so as to be replaced or upgraded to a new and more deadly or sexy shape should the wearer desire. I've always thought that knights, at least during the periods where war was honestly their primary function, were seriously trained martial artists. Granted, it may not have been in the way Hollywood and television has corrupted our minds to think of "martial arts"--eastern influenced, CIA enhanced, hand to hand hai-ya--, but nonetheless these guys were not simply slipping the ol' steel skin on and rolling out for a session of "fear-my-mightiness"; they were deadly professionals who trained a good part of the day and "practiced" their skills on a regular basis. They could, in fact, do limited gymnastic-type moves, tempered of course by the limitations of their chosen armor style: roll, stand up quickly from a prone position, jump, jump off moving horses, mount quickly, (no silliness about "oh, no way...the armor weighed too much" crap--do your homework and read the research), stand on their hands, run, etc. Because of this, I always considered anyone/player in my game being from a professionally trained class of warriors to have been trained in the uses and ins and outs of armor. They, as apposed to Peasant Joe with dreams of glory who finds the long dead knight decomposing under a pile of leaves in his back yard and dons the stinky armor before taking the high road of adventure, would have all the skills and such to use armor and all its features, both offensive and defensive. I give 'em pluses to their damage if they use their brawl skill to punch someone wearing a full metal gauntlet, maybe a little more when said gauntlet sports gadlings. I don't however have a separate skill for it as I'm trying to keep it simple because I've got a memory like a sieve; BTW who am I? :shocked: The same would be true in my game if we were in our Sci-Fi mode. Love...LOVE...did I say LOVE?...John Steakly's Armor and of course, Star Ship Troopers--Heinlein's Star Ship Troopers, mind you! Not that travesty of a movie (second movie I ever walked out of and demanded my money back) that came out in the late 90—not a powered suit in sight and not a nuke via Y-rack launched! There I just assume it is a given that fellas sporting such mechanical marvels are specially trained to wear and operate them. They can grapple and chop-saki the hell out of the enemy with their grapple skill--especially if it is heavy combat power-assisted armor as apposed to scout armor, whereas some neophyte, should they even be able to find such an artifact that came remotely near to fitting, as these technological marvels are tailor made for the wearer, they would simply have no training an therefore use of their naked-skin grapple would at best be reduced to the look of a fumbling robot trying to mate...LOL. I’d give the trained professional a serious plus to damage, especially if the clank was power assisted. I understand the referral to mace-type damage as it would be a serious “impact” type blow, kinda like a smashing-not-cutting hit one would get from a mace. I seem to recall that some maces had a wicked spiky point above where the flanges met on the central axis; I suppose it could be used to jab/punch but it doesn’t seem designed for such. Getting training of course would help. In my games I have to admit few have ever got training in such things. As I write this I'm actually surprised to realize that most of the time my players are after information and end up further developing lore skills as they research, study and learn so as to get the skinny on a foe or, more likely, a cultural history that gives 'em a heads up on the ruins or tomb they are about to raid...hmmm :-T Any way... with such I'd probably just allow them to resume part of their grapple/brawl/martial arts skill while in armor. I guess then they'd have two separate skills to keep track of until they equaled out . Sorry if you guys feel I've jacked things...just my thoughts. Cheers, Sunwolfe

Nick...M'Man! Well done. I d/led the issue a couple days ago and have been enjoying the articles at a measured pace. I particularly dug going over the final version of the Simple Life Paths for BRP Character Generation. We don't roll up characters very often--the gang learned long ago to be vewy-vewy-cewful when playing RQ and have transfered the same survival skills over to BRP, but as fate would have it, we rolled up a newbie a few weeks ago--days before I d/led the present issue. Coulda used that bad boy of an article. There's hope, however, that the newb will probably get wacked and need another character soon, and then I plan to use you's plan. :thumb: I also got a kick out of Ulfland, a lot o' work there. I started a thread earlier asking folks how they might be treating magical concerns in the area of priests and holy men. The Ulfland treatment and renaming of sorcery--like your suggestion on the thread--for divine magic is sick and I plan on doing something similar in some of my game-world cultures. I'm writing a lot for my home-brew game...mostly specific to the mileu, but if I think any of it applicable for use in a generic fashion, I'll flash it your way to see what you think. Great mag...hope peeps contribute and it's a success! Cheers, Sunwolfe

Slow they are and slow they have always been...save for Cuthulhu stuff, but I'm sure the economic slow/melt down is adding more glue to the gears :ohwell: too. I was wondering how the financial crisis was affecting them and smaller gaming companies like 'em. It's got to be a seriously scary time. Cheers, Sunwolfe

Greetings all BRPites as well as the various ancestral derivatives and modern mutations...what glory is ours!: From a BRP POV, I'm wondering how you all are handling the priestly-magic end of things. Are your priests, holy folk, crusaders, fanatics or church-ladies, etc. using magic, sorcery, or psychic powers...or all of 'em...or none of 'em...or somethin' else? I have to admit, I miss the "separation of powers" RQ III offered ;-(. I know I can go back and pull out the RQ III book and port divine magic (to tell you the truth, when we game my group uses both the BRP and the RQ III texts...LOL!), but before I do anything like that I thought I'd check out to see if any of you's guys had come up with interesting approaches. Yeah...I'm bein' lazy And BTW...as I'm on the subject...is anyone using any interesting enchanting rules? If any of you guys and gals are porting in RQ Divine or Enchantment magic, what modifications if any are ya making so that the whole thing is like...like...ah...ah-ha: peanut butter and jelly--they justa fitta sooo nice! Cheeeeeeers! Sunwolfe

Expense...hmmm. I can understand wanting to give your players a break. Every one wants to get the biggest bang for their buck. If you want something good however, you usually have to pay for it, which is why I want to pitch BRP as a seriously good deal. That being said, I want to agree with Soltakss and suggest purchasing a ".pdf" if you are worried about your players not being able to afford the cost of a bound book. At $28.00, how can you go wrong? Thing is, even though dead tree BRP breaks in at just about $40.00 bones, which I know isn't chump-change, let's keep it in perspective and remember that it's a complete game set of exceptional quality and weighing in at 400 pages, that's a penny a page--a true steal Further, let's compare this to the "complete" 4EDnD game set (not that you'd ever purchase it--but simply for the sake of the point), and hold on to yer wallet, pard, cuz yer in fer a wild ride! DMG at 224 pages--$35.00 PM at 320 pages--$35.00 MM at 228 pages--$35.00 That's a whopping 772 pages for only $105.00. I think your players would be hosed there, as you'd be. Even if they don't "need" the MM or DMG to play, that's still a hefty price tag for only part of a game system. Yes, yes...the art work is very colorful and well done, the covers are really hard, but what are you paying for? The artwork and the cover? I'd rather pay for game. And lest your players think owning the PM is sufficient, let's not forget that the above prices don't include the Players Manual II--224 pages for another $35.00, the Advanced Players Manual--110 pages for $20.00 and last, but I'm sure not THE last, Dungeon Masters Guide II coming out in '09--at least another $35.00. BRP, a complete quality game set at $40.00? Priceless! :thumb:

For those who enjoy and imbibe tonight in anticipation of a hangover tomorrow...make sure you have a designated driver! Slainte' :party:

Sunwolfe shudders :eek: The Vang were about the only "monsters" I ever had serious nightmares about...well, there was that black haired chick who wore a red turtle-neck sweater and had three eyes. It all happened out in the jungle at night by the abandoned air-strip... Holding his talisman next to his heart and eating garlic flavored pez,...in the dark! Sunwolfe

Spit and bailing wire...fudge here, fudge there...action finished/begun. Was it canon? Hmmm, well...maybe. Was it fun...hellzyeah! Bingo! :thumb: For me, that's the beauty of BRP: it's flexible enough to handle my--be it hallmarked by ineptitude or inattention to detail--attempts to employ the system. Slainte', Sunwolfe

When it comes to a tiger however, sometimes there just isn't enough time for all that dismounting and accuracy stuff Whattcha think? Bamboo rods-of-lordly-might? Slainte' Sunwolfe

Hi, All: We're trying to play out a foot chase where one character is heavily armored using the chase rules on page 218. Heavily armored character wants to tackle/grapple the lightly armored runner. Lightly armored character has a slight head start. Using the rules on 218, how should this play out? Please give an annotated round by round explanation. We've spent a better part of an hour discussing this...a happy hour, but an hour nonetheless. We'll probably simply house-rule it, but I'd like to know how it is supposed to work RAW. Do the characters in question make a CON vs CON roll on the RT until one fails twice in two consecutive rounds? Do both characters roll against Stamina each round...the heavily armored rolling difficult, the lightly armored rolling normally until one fails in two consecutive rounds? Do characters make a CON vs CON roll on the RT AND a stamina roll until one fails twice in two consecutive rounds? Which rolls, when failed twice in a row, indicate who wins or who loses? How does the lightly armored character know if he's "gotten away"? How does the heavily armored character know if he's caught the runner? Thanks in advance :happy:, Sunwolfe

Hi, Frank: Please understand, this is my opinion and my tastes here. I like the historical angle you are taking. Enough to sound familiar, yet with a unique spice to make it different. Seriously, I love that kind of stuff. My game milieu is low magic. My PCs deal with challenges that arise from differences, social, religious/spiritual, political, economical, in the cultures of the lands they explore. I strive for the unique or exotic in my cultures...I want my player characters to experience the same wonder and awe that early 19th and 20th century explorers did in India or Nepal; Africa or Central America when encountering ancient peoples or "lost" ruins of peoples of the past. The situation between your two empires sounds like great fodder for such a feast as your PC's deal/flee/combat/ally/ignore situations as they arise. You could go a lot of places with that, and it sounds like you did as per your response to Shaira's post. In fact you had me quite interested... …until you mentioned, "dragons and other creatures of myth and legend". While I like monsters and badies, it sounds a little like maybe you didn’t know what to do next? I mean, you got the juices going with an awesome appetizer and are now serving Cheerios for the main...what the? I can understand why you might bring them in: PC's got to have badies and beasties to cut their teeth on, but let me encourage you to develop the idea as you laid it out prior to the dragon paragraph. That sounded pretty exciting and full of potential, but the dragon paragraph made all that effort sound "ho-hum"…just like every other fantasy seasoned story/RPG. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to tear you down. Nope. Rather I'd like to build you up in the Historical part of the Fantasy setting by encouraging you to keep the mythical creatures at a minimum. If it were mine, and it's not, but if it were, I'd keep the mythical beast presence low...very low...so as to keep their exotic-ness in tact. You'd probably get better mileage when PC do encounter them as a result. Case in point, I remember finally dishing out a mated pair of Manticores terrorizing a very remote village/mining camp to my players once. LOL…they damn near wet themselves in consternation and spent hours hashing out how they would try to deal with them. The satisfaction they felt after defeating them…priceless. Further, a Gryphon once showed up as a powerful mages main mode of transportation. The riot that caused…delicious. Those two beasties are the only two I remember fielding…after 15 years of Gming? Many demons but few beasties. The legends of such, however, abound, but few be the eye-witnesses >:-> The axiom, "fact is stranger than fiction" is so true, so let me encourage you to continue to tweak the facts...I.E. the historical...end of things and use your creatures sparingly...legends that "might" be real. Don't let the cool setting you established in the first part of your post be watered down by the fantasy grist from the second. Again...just my comment, as solicited ; disregard it as such. I have to admit, it's pretty personal-taste oriented at that Cheers, Sunwolfe