Has anyone tried coverting Conpiracy X/X-Files type game to BRP system

[Rift_Knight]

I've recently gotten a copy of Conspiracy X 1ed RPG. Love the backround, original system seems ok but I really prefer a % based system. I was wondering if anyone had already done some work on this type of conversion/ game type.

[rsanford]

7 minutes ago, Rift_Knight said:

I've recently gotten a copy of Conspiracy X 1ed RPG. Love the backround, original system seems ok but I really prefer a % based system. I was wondering if anyone had already done some work on this type of conversion/ game type.

I haven’t done Conspiracy X games but I have done Alternity/ Dark Matter games which have the same feel. I have used base BRP for this as well as Delta Green. Both worked great. I’m also hoping to run some of the Bureau 13 games in BRP but haven’t yet done so,

[rsanford]

Are there many Conspiracy X scenarios? Maybe I should purchase a few if they exist!

* Just looked it up on drivethrurpg. They only had two and I picked up both

Edited August 8, 2020 by rsanford

[seneschal]

The "Berlin '61" monograph is set in divided Cold War Germany if you want something with a military/real-world espionage feel.  Plenty of political conspiracies as well as the supernatural ones.

https://www.chaosium.com/berlin-61-pdf/

[Rift_Knight]

I'm familiar with Delta Green just don't like the every character has to go insane eventually. I'm like Kirk. Don't believe in a no win scenario. Maybe combine some elements of Conspiracy X with Delta Green. Have to think  about it.

[Atgxtg]

BTRC's CORPS might be worth a look. It's a Conspiracy based RPG about large organizations pulling the strings behind the scenes, and is skill based, so it wouldn't be all that hard to adapt it to BRP.  It's hard to get much more conspiracy based too. I think that it has a half dozen secret societies assassinating Kennedy at the same time.

[ragr]

5 hours ago, Rift_Knight said:

I'm familiar with Delta Green just don't like the every character has to go insane eventually. I'm like Kirk. Don't believe in a no win scenario. Maybe combine some elements of Conspiracy X with Delta Green. Have to think  about it.

It doesn't have to be that way with DG. It's a simple task to tone down the horror aspects, with the associated SAN loss risk, and turn it into a less military and more investigative process. The whole go insane and/or die scenario process is usually a result on player/keeper expectations in a one-shot scenario and it's an easily fixed problem if you think it is a problem.  

[rsanford]

On 8/7/2020 at 8:53 PM, Rift_Knight said:

I'm familiar with Delta Green just don't like the every character has to go insane eventually. I'm like Kirk. Don't believe in a no win scenario. Maybe combine some elements of Conspiracy X with Delta Green. Have to think  about it.

You could ignore the Delta Green sanity rules. It would result in a lighter, less grim game but it would still probably be more grim than Bureau 13 for example unless you swap at the mythos for more conventional monsters too. That's what I would do.

Edited August 10, 2020 by rsanford

[Ian Absentia]

On 8/8/2020 at 6:22 AM, rsanford said:

You could ignore the Delta Green sanity rules.

Or employ the Madness Meter introduced in Unknown Armies and adapted for Mythos applications in Nemesis.  It's ostensibly for the One Roll Engine, which is not BRP-compatible, but it's changed very little from the original presentation in Unknown Armies, which was largely BRP-ish.  Sanity is broken out over four different gauges (originally five in UA) with two different tracks -- Failed and Hardened.  A failed check results in your stereotypical CoC freak-out.  Hardened means you stay in control, but at a cost to your humanity.

The gauge that I appreciated the most was Violence -- that player characters might totally freak out at witnessing (or committing) horrifying, but naturally-enacted violence.

I recall there being much discussion back in the day for adapting the rules to Delta Green (which was essentially straight-up CoC at the time), but I don't recall the popular formulae.

!i!

[Atgxtg]

On 8/7/2020 at 9:53 PM, Rift_Knight said:

I'm familiar with Delta Green just don't like the every character has to go insane eventually. I'm like Kirk. Don't believe in a no win scenario. Maybe combine some elements of Conspiracy X with Delta Green. Have to think  about it.

I agree. Part of the trouble I have with the SAN rules is that everyone in a battle or who works in a hopital trauma center would pretty much go insane automatically due to the sheer number of horrific things they see every day. I think there should be some point where you get desensitized to some things and they don't bother you as much. It's what used to happen when I worked in a hospital. After a certain point you learn how to turn your emotions off so that you can still function. Our big fear wasn't that things worth bother us too much, but that we might reach a point where it didn't bother us at all, anymore. 

[rsanford]

2 minutes ago, Atgxtg said:

I agree. Part of the trouble I have with the SAN rules is that everyone in a battle or who works in a hopital trauma center would pretty much go insane automatically due to the sheer number of horrific things they see every day. I think there should be some point where you get desensitized to some things and they don't bother you as much. It's what used to happen when I worked in a hospital. After a certain point you learn how to turn your emotions off so that you can still function. Our big fear wasn't that things worth bother us too much, but that we might reach a point where it didn't bother us at all, anymore. 

Someone correct me if I get it wrong but I think both Unknown Armies and Delta Green (which is influended by Unknow Armies) has a concept where a character can get hardened to particular causes of sanity loss (such as violence).

[Ian Absentia]

34 minutes ago, Atgxtg said:

I think there should be some point where you get desensitized to some things and they don't bother you as much.

 

30 minutes ago, rsanford said:

Someone correct me if I get it wrong but I think both Unknown Armies and Delta Green (which is influended by Unknow Armies) has a concept where a character can get hardened to particular causes of sanity loss (such as violence).

Shall I assume you both have me on Ignore? 😝

3 hours ago, Ian Absentia said:

Or employ the Madness Meter introduced in Unknown Armies and adapted for Mythos applications in Nemesis.  It's ostensibly for the One Roll Engine, which is not BRP-compatible, but it's changed very little from the original presentation in Unknown Armies, which was largely BRP-ish.  Sanity is broken out over four different gauges (originally five in UA) with two different tracks -- Failed and Hardened.  A failed check results in your stereotypical CoC freak-out.  Hardened means you stay in control, but at a cost to your humanity.

The gauge that I appreciated the most was Violence -- that player characters might totally freak out at witnessing (or committing) horrifying, but naturally-enacted violence.

I recall there being much discussion back in the day for adapting the rules to Delta Green (which was essentially straight-up CoC at the time), but I don't recall the popular formulae.

!i!

!i!

[rsanford]

40 minutes ago, Ian Absentia said:

 

Shall I assume you both have me on Ignore? 😝

!i!

🙂 Woops! I read your post earlier but forgot it when I went to post!

[Lordabdul]

1 hour ago, rsanford said:

Someone correct me if I get it wrong but I think both Unknown Armies and Delta Green (which is influended by Unknow Armies) has a concept where a character can get hardened to particular causes of sanity loss (such as violence).

Yep. Delta Green 1st edition was just a CoC sourcebook, so it didn't have rules of its own, but Delta Green 2nd edition is a standalone game that indeed draws from Unknown Armies. The sanity rules are still a bit simpler than in UA, I think, but they have the same basic idea. DG splits SAN into 3 buckets: Violence, Helplessness, and The Unnatural. You can become "adapted" to one of these things, but at a cost.

One of the mechanical innovations in DG 2e however is the idea of "Bonds", where your character has families, friends, and support groups to help you cope with SAN loss... but (as always in DG) at a cost. So these people help you regain SAN between missions, but it takes away from them too... your character's partner or kids have to deal with the character waking up screaming in the night and such... so eventually, if you use a Bond too much to regain much SAN, the Bond breaks and is lost (the partner leaves and takes the kid). Is DG super bleak? Yes it is. Very much.

Whether that's useful to @Rift_Knight remains to be seen... they said they don't like characters to go insane all the time, and in DG, thanks to Bonds, you actually don't go insane as often (you tend to die more often!)... but these Bonds mechanics might not be everyone's cup of tea, obviously  

Edited August 10, 2020 by lordabdul

[Ian Absentia]

36 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

DG splits SAN into 3 buckets: Violence, Helplessness, and The Unnatural.

Unknown Armies, five:  Violence, Unnatural, Helplessness, Isolation, Self
Nemesis, four:  Violence, Unnatural, Helplessness, Self
Delta Green, 2nd Ed., three:  Violence, Unnatural, Helplessness

Another two iterations and they'll be down to only a single gauge:  Sanity.

Honestly, though I can see why Isolation and Self were jettisoned over time.  They were very existential gauges of character (and player) stress, and probably more suited to Tynes' style of play than perhaps most campaigns can entertain.

!i!

[Atgxtg]

2 hours ago, Ian Absentia said:

Shall I assume you both have me on Ignore? 😝

!i!

 Sorry, the streak tips were done and I had everyone on ignore for a few minutes. Can I retroactively give you full credit?

Oh, and I had intended to mention the Fear Check mechanic used in Chill as well, but, well, the steak tips were done. 

[soltakss]

10 hours ago, Ian Absentia said:

Shall I assume you both have me on Ignore? 😝

Who said that?

[RogerDee]

On 8/8/2020 at 2:53 AM, Rift_Knight said:

I'm familiar with Delta Green just don't like the every character has to go insane eventually. I'm like Kirk. Don't believe in a no win scenario. Maybe combine some elements of Conspiracy X with Delta Green. Have to think  about it.

Use the 7e rules that allow players to get used to certain things. Seen a few Deep Ones? Seen one, seen them all. Encountering them costs no more sanity.