A question regarding sorcery in BRP

[KPhan2121]

I'm preparing to run a fantasy game using the Sorcery rules from the BGB. One of the things that caught my attention are the rules for Summoning Demons and Elementals and binding them to the flesh or specific objects to gain powers, are there any guidelines to the sort of power they would gain? I looked at the Stormbringer 5e rules and found that they have a system for creating the abilities based on how much PP you spend. But the BGB's version of sorcery doesn't have any of that, is it just meant to be completely freeform? 

[Mugen]

My opinion is that the intent of the designer was to provide a simplest system, but in the end he removed half the rules and didn't replace them...

We had a conversation on a related subject some times ago :

 

[KPhan2121]

4 hours ago, Mugen said:

My opinion is that the intent of the designer was to provide a simplest system, but in the end he removed half the rules and didn't replace them...

We had a conversation on a related subject some times ago :

 

Thanks! I guess I'll just have to get Advance Sorcery then. 

[Atgxtg]

3 hours ago, KPhan2121 said:

Thanks! I guess I'll just have to get Advance Sorcery then. 

Or port over the Summoning rules from Strombringer. If you have that you kinda have what you want/need.

Originally, Sorcery in Stormbringer was just summoning, and the spells were added later. The Sorcery system is a reskinning of the RuneQuest Battle Magic system.

THE BGB is just a collection of rules from previous BRP games, with a few tweaks. So anything you like from another BRP game can be ported over if you like. So if you like the Demon rules from Strombringer (of which there were several versions) then feel free to use them rather than worrying about using something that is expressly Gold Book

 

BTW, I think the mainreason why the summoning rules were not included in the BGB is that they don't really work well with the other power systems. Demon items in Strombringer are often game changers, being much more powerful than other magic of the same POW cost. For instance a sword that does an extra couple of dice damage, all the time, is better than most other, if not all other, damage boosting powers.  And once you got one, it's permanent. 

. 

 

[Atgxtg]

Just now, Atgxtg said:

Or port over the Summoning rules from Strombringer. If you have that you kinda have what you want/need.

Originally, Sorcery in Stormbringer was just summoning, and the spells were added later. The Sorcery system is a reskinning of the RuneQuest Battle Magic system.

THE BGB is just a collection of rules from previous BRP games, with a few tweaks. So anything you like from another BRP game can be ported over if you like. So if you like the Demon rules from Strombringer (of which there were several versions) then feel free to use them rather than worrying about using something that is expressly Gold Book

 

BTW, I think the main reason why the summoning rules were not included in the BGB is that they don't really work well with the other power systems. Demon items in Strombringer are often game changers, being much more powerful than other magic of the same POW cost. For instance a sword that does an extra couple of dice damage, all the time, is better than most other, if not all other, damage boosting powers.  And once you got one, it's permanent. 

. 

 

 

[KPhan2121]

4 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

Or port over the Summoning rules from Strombringer. If you have that you kinda have what you want/need.

Originally, Sorcery in Stormbringer was just summoning, and the spells were added later. The Sorcery system is a reskinning of the RuneQuest Battle Magic system.

THE BGB is just a collection of rules from previous BRP games, with a few tweaks. So anything you like from another BRP game can be ported over if you like. So if you like the Demon rules from Strombringer (of which there were several versions) then feel free to use them rather than worrying about using something that is expressly Gold Book

 

BTW, I think the mainreason why the summoning rules were not included in the BGB is that they don't really work well with the other power systems. Demon items in Strombringer are often game changers, being much more powerful than other magic of the same POW cost. For instance a sword that does an extra couple of dice damage, all the time, is better than most other, if not all other, damage boosting powers.  And once you got one, it's permanent. 

. 

 

Hmm, this makes me think that you could use the Super Powers rules to make the demonic abilities. Like every power point spent towards creation would have the equivalent to the same amount of character points for items. Like if I wanted a demonic sword that had a fire ability, I would use 10 power points to give a sword Heat Projection giving it +1d6 heat damage. It wouldn't be so over powered like in Stormbringer 5e where the equivalent power points would give you a +2d10 bonus to damage and a +100% to hit. And there would be much greater variety in the powers. Imagine a greatsword that could give you HP drain and superspeed on top of the extra damage.

[Atgxtg]

On 11/25/2020 at 9:25 PM, KPhan2121 said:

Hmm, this makes me think that you could use the Super Powers rules to make the demonic abilities. Like every power point spent towards creation would have the equivalent to the same amount of character points for items. Like if I wanted a demonic sword that had a fire ability, I would use 10 power points to give a sword Heat Projection giving it +1d6 heat damage. It wouldn't be so over powered like in Stormbringer 5e where the equivalent power points would give you a +2d10 bonus to damage and a +100% to hit. And there would be much greater variety in the powers. Imagine a greatsword that could give you HP drain and superspeed on top of the extra damage.

You could indeed do that. The thing to watch out for would be just how powerful that makes things, and if that power level meshes with what you want for your campaign. The demon rules in Storrombringer are different from one edition to the next, with demons becoming generally weaker in the latter editions. In SB1 it was pretty easy for a competent sorcerer to summon up a demon weapon that was generally more effective that Strombringer!

What you will need to do is to figure out what power level you want and adjust the points used to buy demons to match that. If you don't want demon weapons with a +10d6 damage bonus then you need to make sure that sorcerers don't have the points to do so.

[Al.]

The Demon ability rules from Elric! make a great basis for a generic powers system (not a huge surprise, they are an evolution of the Demon powers and CV system from SB4 which were themselves an evolution and improvement of the superpowers from Superworld)

The roll table in particular does a brilliant job of correlating effect with cost (although being an inveterate rule fiddler I went for using dice of a more similar size 1d8+1d6 not 1d10+1d4 and so on, I'd struggle to say that such a change is needed as such though).

I personally find it necessary to cap the effect of any power (no  power can more than double the mundane item it is boosting so Stormbringer would do 2d8+2d8 damage for example), you may not.

Edited November 29, 2020 by Al.