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How do you think BRP is doing?


Conrad

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But does BRP lend itself to toonish hijinks? Lethal combat, complex skill system, lots of magic and powers but not necessarily cartoon ones. That was at least one reviewer's criticism of the Elfquest RPG: that BRP was great and Elfquest was great but, unlike chocolate and peanut butter, they just didn't mix well.

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But does BRP lend itself to toonish hijinks?

No it doesn't, BRP lends itself to grity 'realism' really, really well. Having just said that TMNT or something like Palladiums After the Bomb would work well. But I think the problem is that all genres have been covered. What BRP needs is either a new genre or a desirable (and probably cheap) license to an existigng work with a recognisable background. Maybe Iain M Banks Culture, David Brin and Uplift. Although something else, something older like John Carter of Mars by E R Burroughs would be interesting.

Mr Jealousy has returned to reality!

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Although something else, something older like John Carter of Mars by E R Burroughs would be interesting.

Well, Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique has been mentioned before, and is old and related to Cthulhoid stuff, so fitting.

But I reckon we should all get behind the Chronicles of Future Earth ('Urth'?), when it comes out...

Britain has been infiltrated by soviet agents to the highest levels. They control the BBC, the main political party leaderships, NHS & local council executives, much of the police, most newspapers and the utility companies. Of course the EU is theirs, through-and-through. And they are among us - a pervasive evil, like Stasi.

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What BRP needs is either a new genre or a desirable (and probably cheap) license to an existigng work with a recognisable background.

Well, some time ago in the "How can BRP become more popular" thread IIRC I suggested New Age Commune: The Sixties Countercultural RPG. So far, none of our intrepid BRP publishers have asked me to submit a manuscript (even though it could be considered a historical game, which BRP is said to do well). I'm not saying how well it would sell, but it would be different! ;D

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Well, some time ago in the "How can BRP become more popular" thread IIRC I suggested New Age Commune: The Sixties Countercultural RPG.

With stats for Charles Manson ... >:>

"Mind like parachute, function only when open."

(Charlie Chan)

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What BRP needs is either a new genre or a desirable (and probably cheap) license to an existigng work with a recognisable background.

Who wants to do "Twilight - The RPG"? ;D

Joking aside, with the right approach and a license from the Twilight creator, it might be quite profitable.

I was thinking that a game system like Cortex or Savage Worlds would be a more suitable for the Twilight fan demographic. However, seeing how well BRP works with CoC and the type of people who like to play BRP CoC (more focus on story, less on mechanics), then BRP could be a good match for Twilight.

Food for thought.

Edited by dragonewt
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Who wants to do "Twilight - The RPG"? ;D

Joking aside, with the right approach and a license from the Twilight creator, it might be quite profitable.

I was thinking that a game system like Cortex or Savage Worlds would be a more suitable for the Twilight fan demographic. However, seeing how well BRP works with CoC and the type of people who like to play BRP CoC (more focus on story, less on mechanics), then BRP could be a good match for Twilight.

Food for thought.

May i bring my humakti to the twilight game? *ALL* of them? :D :D :D

"It seems I'm destined not to move ahead in time faster than my usual rate of one second per second"

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May i bring my humakti to the twilight game? *ALL* of them? :D :D :D

This will be a Twilight RPG expansion: "Twilight Emo - At the Sword's Edge" (AKA: "Blade"). ;t)

Edit: On a tangent, here is a fan paradox for you: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" vs "Twilight" - Maybe similar to the paradox of Star Wars storm troopers shooting Star Trek red shirts.

Edited by dragonewt
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Well, some time ago in the "How can BRP become more popular" thread IIRC I suggested New Age Commune: The Sixties Countercultural RPG. So far, none of our intrepid BRP publishers have asked me to submit a manuscript (even though it could be considered a historical game, which BRP is said to do well). I'm not saying how well it would sell, but it would be different! ;D

Why not write it and then send it in? That's what I did with Merrie England.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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This will be a Twilight RPG expansion: "Twilight Emo - At the Sword's Edge" (AKA: "Blade"). ;t)

Edit: On a tangent, here is a fan paradox for you: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" vs "Twilight" - Maybe similar to the paradox of Star Wars storm troopers shooting Star Trek red shirts.

Unfortunately, much as Buffy fandom might like to claim a chance, the defined trait of Twilight vampires don't give much of one. The only thing liable to successfully take out a Twilight vampire is a large area flame attack. Short of that they're too fast and to tough for most of the Buffyverse entities to have any sort of reasonable chance.

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The movie version might have a chance if he understood the difference between them and vampires he's used to (hint: stakes are pretty much worthless) as he appears more superhuman than any routine Buffyverse entity. But that's what you need; avowed superhumans.

Well, the movie version (especially the 2nd and 3rd) seems to have potence, celerity and vigor (or whatever the resistence discipline is called) at 8+ dots :)

"It seems I'm destined not to move ahead in time faster than my usual rate of one second per second"

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Well, the movie version (especially the 2nd and 3rd) seems to have potence, celerity and vigor (or whatever the resistence discipline is called) at 8+ dots :)

The movie version punked Dracula...

One of my many issues with Blade 3...

The comic version of Blade wasn't all that badass until after the movies (he was primarily in comics that only had him fight vampires, and held little, if any, continuity with Marvel's main universe), when they basically took the movie character and ported him to the comic. He rarely showed up in 616Marvel, and when he did, it was with/against mostly peripheral characters.

Now things are different. One of the next Wolverine stories has Blade and Wolverine at cross purposes, and I'm sure there will be at least a 3 or 4 page spread of them at each other's throats until they finally realize, as in every comic, "we're actually both on the same side".

Does anyone here read comics regularly? (I realize I've put this thread to bed)

A storyline I expected to see Blade in came out in 04 or 05, in the New Invaders (totally underappreciated mag). There was a few issues dedicated to Captain Britain and his mates, and the main story during that period was a cult of vampires. The story involved a lot of characters' unfinished business from the 40s-70s, and had an AWESOME/HORRIBLE antagonist that was little more than a vampire baby. I was so disappointed that it didn't go anywhere, but it was a little extreme for Marvel...

121/420

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The movie version punked Dracula...

One of my many issues with Blade 3...

The comic version of Blade wasn't all that badass until after the movies (he was primarily in comics that only had him fight vampires, and held little, if any, continuity with Marvel's main universe), when they basically took the movie character and ported him to the comic. He rarely showed up in 616Marvel, and when he did, it was with/against mostly peripheral characters.

Now things are different. One of the next Wolverine stories has Blade and Wolverine at cross purposes, and I'm sure there will be at least a 3 or 4 page spread of them at each other's throats until they finally realize, as in every comic, "we're actually both on the same side".

Does anyone here read comics regularly? (I realize I've put this thread to bed)

A storyline I expected to see Blade in came out in 04 or 05, in the New Invaders (totally underappreciated mag). There was a few issues dedicated to Captain Britain and his mates, and the main story during that period was a cult of vampires. The story involved a lot of characters' unfinished business from the 40s-70s, and had an AWESOME/HORRIBLE antagonist that was little more than a vampire baby. I was so disappointed that it didn't go anywhere, but it was a little extreme for Marvel...

I read ironman and that's it. And volume4 is *FRIGGIN AWESOME*

"It seems I'm destined not to move ahead in time faster than my usual rate of one second per second"

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The movie version punked Dracula...

One of my many issues with Blade 3...

The comic version of Blade wasn't all that badass until after the movies ......

The Blade TV series was good.;t)

(I realize I've put this thread to bed)...

It was put to bed several pages back but is wandering about like a lively somnambulist.;D

http://www.basicrps.com/core/BRP_quick_start.pdf A sense of humour and an imagination go a long way in roleplaying. ;)
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  • 2 weeks later...

Apologies for not reading the whole thread, but I did read the majority of it. I play in Australia and my FLGS has 1 copy of the BGB a bit CoC and a little of MRQ. The majority of it's space is devoted to D&D (Pathfinder & 4E) and Warhammer.

I've been roleplaying for about 10years now and I've only ever played D&D (AD&D 2nd Ed, 3.0, 3.5 & 4E). Our gaming group is tiring of Wizards of the Coast always changing the game. The amount of errata (which is not technically errata but more revision) is way over the top. And now they're bring out essentials which changes the game even further...

Thank whatever God turns you on that there is BRP! Our gaming group was discussing changing games systems due to the above and at one point we were going to create our own. I pulled out (my never used, sadly) Dragon Lords of Melnibone (Strombringer D20) and visited the Chaosium site. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that BRP was exactly along the lines I was thinking of for a game. Where the weapons and skills you chose defined your character, not some BS class that boxed you in, or made you multi-class to get the character you wanted.

One of our GM's will be running Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, one D&D 4E and I'll be running BRP using Rod's (threedsix) excellent Classic Fantasy to get our group "converted".

I think the BRP market will grow, albeit slowly, as the bigger companies (WOTC I'm pointing at you!) lose market share due to never ending changes they make to their systems. My opinion of BRP is that it is a very versatile and stable game platform, that requires more quality product produced over a number of genres with a good marketing and publishing strategy. Unfortunately, I don't know if Chaosium has the resources to promote this excellent platform as it should be promoted. It will be up to us, as fans, to spread the word and increase it's popularity.

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But to have pity on us?

Ah, just the usual streak of arrogance of people who think that they know better what is univer-

sally good than those dumb others who do not share their opinion ... :7

"Mind like parachute, function only when open."

(Charlie Chan)

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm a bit late to the party on this one...

The problem with BRP imo is that it is a generic ruleset. Because of this it lacks the atmosphere of any of the specialist BRP variants like CotC or Runequest. I think this is quite important to an RPG. Atmosphere is enhanced by many orders of magnitude if there is a unique and detailed world associated with the game.

Both Traveller and Runequest prove this to a certain extent. Both of these systems did well when linked to the Imperium/Spinward Marches or Glorantha. But once divorced from these settings their sales dropped.

When I first heard of BRP my instinctive reaction as a long time RQ fan was to ask 'What is it?', 'What's it trying to be?'

I thought if I wanted fantasy I'd go RQ, for Horror CotC or maybe even Ringworld for Sci-Fi - which kind of leaves BRP out in the cold.

I think its the genericness that is both BRP's greatest asset, yet its greatest weakness. Kind of jack of all trades but master of none.

Most RPG'ers want to pick up a set of rules and play. They don't want to work through a ruleset trying to figure out which rules to enable and which to disable. Its just too much additional work.

On top of this there is the other problem of dilution. How many 'monographs' are out there now - quite a few by the look of it. But each one is its own campaign setting. Most GM's myself included, only have time to run one campaign at a time and these normally last for years - so once one buys a monograph why would they want to buy anymore?

With a focused ruleset a number of addons and scenarios can be released, each enhancing and reinforcing the central campaign theme of the chosen system. This in itself entices new players because they see a ruleset and campaign setting that is well supported by a number of publications.

In BRP's case by contrast, it is well supported - it's just that each publication is standalone - like its own little island in a very big Ocean. There are so many of these single publications, that none stand out, none get very famous and none get well supported - at least compared to other systems.

I wonder how many GM's would opt to go for BRP and a monograph or two for their campaign rather than say a fully supported campaign world such as RQ and Glorantha with its myriad of publications?

Another commercial angle on this is collectability. Where a single setting is the theme, most people want to collect all the publications related to it so that they can get as much information about their setting as possible. I would suggest that this factor does not occur in BRP as nearly all the addons are standalone and separate - so there is never that urge to buy 'that' supliment to discover something new about one's game world.

Early on in this thread someone posted that if they advertised a BRP game at a convention they would get very few respondents. I can see why. BRP in itself is like a glass of water - utterly transparent, very versatile, yet with no real character of its own. It desparately needs some colour and taste to attract people.

RobP

http://AncientArmies.co.uk

Edited by RobP
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Most RPG'ers want to pick up a set of rules and play. They don't want to work through a ruleset trying to figure out which rules to enable and which to disable. Its just too much additional work.

On top of this there is the other problem of dilution. How many 'monographs' are out there now - quite a few by the look of it. But each one is its own campaign setting. Most GM's myself included, only have time to run one campaign at a time and these normally last for years - so once one buys a monograph why would they want to buy anymore?

What you have written is certainly true. A "normal" GM would only want to buy one monograph and use it for his campaign. But I don't see this as a problem: the commercial product is the BGB, which any BRP GM/player needs to play. Monographs are labours of love so it's OK if they don't sell by the thousands.

OTOH a company like Alephtar games has now started publishing connected books: a GM may start his campaign in England using Merrie England and after a while have his party move on to the continent and use Crusaders of the Amber Coast...

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I think there is a certain amount of truth in the comments made about BRP needing a good setting, I like BRP a great deal and have most of the monographs, but a good setting is always welcome. I am looking forward to the Chronicles of Future earth setting, it ticks a lot of the right boxes for me. Lets hope it will be well supported with supplements

Edited by Agentorange
typos
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