Seeking Stats: Any BRP Will Do

[Questbird]

On 11/15/2021 at 2:24 PM, Ian Absentia said:

@soltakss noted his book for Legend up above:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/139266/Legend-Land-of-Ice-and-Stone

Not exactly BRP, but d100 and a kissing cousin.

!i!

 

And for non-BRP but still Chaosium there's also Würm

 

[Atgxtg]

3 hours ago, g33k said:

"EDU" is a sort of broad catch-all stat that substitutes-in for a huge array of (largely academic) skills -- or vice versa.

I don't think of it that way. EDU is rarely used directly. It is more a indicator of how much "academic" training and instruction a character has, and thus partially determines how many points a character will have in such skills. 

3 hours ago, g33k said:

Simulate "EDU" in a version of BRP (that doesn't have it) by using the skills directly -- high scores in Read/Write, in Mathematics, in Other Languages, in Archaeology, in Civil Engineering, in Literature, etc etc etc.

That's probably not all that viable in play though. For instance in a Roman era campaign, where Greeks scholars are viewed as being more learned, you would epect them to have higher skill scores in the sciences and arts of the day. Yet most character generation methods in BRP games do not give extra skills to one group of characters over others, for obvious reasons. 

3 hours ago, g33k said:

Overall, I tend to prefer the more-granular skills.  All characters with "EDU 17" are obviously *HIGHLY* educated, but... honestly, kinda same-y.
(JRR Tolkein had an EDU of 19+, and so did Albert Einstein... were they "same-y"???)

I agree, I'm not all that fond of EDU as a stat. I mean it helps to show that someone has received some degree of education, but education, knowledge, and competency  are not the same things. 

The reason why I brought it up though was that for something like a BRP Rome, or  RQ3 Fantasy Europe setting, the higher level of Education could justify a bonus to the INT score for a given culture. THe idea isn't so much that those people are any more intelligent, just that their relatively advanced knowledge makes them seem so. Just imaigen what someone with grade shcool level understanding of mathematics and physics could do just a few hundred years back. 

3 hours ago, g33k said:

Remember, though -- you AREN'T accurately modelling "Homo neanderthalensis", you're defining a RPG creature that happens to be "a bit neanderthal-ish."

Yeah, and that is true for pretty much any RPG species or culture. As best it is a highly fictionalized being that is somewhat based upon some things we believe we know about the subject. And that's perfectly okay, provided that we remember that is is a fictionalize being in a game. 

[soltakss]

On 11/6/2021 at 4:26 PM, Zenith Comics Presents... said:

Demons, devils, possessed creatures/people

Merrie England: Age of Chivalry describes the Demon Lords and their Powers. It also covers several types of demon, but they are fairly generic.

On 11/6/2021 at 4:26 PM, Zenith Comics Presents... said:

Neanderthals

Land of Ice and Stone has the Red Men, who are Neanderthals.