Mystique RPG: a 1981 Style RPG (Beta Release)

[Stan Shinn]

My latest game hack is up on Itch.io -- https://roguecomet.itch.io/mystique-rpg -- it's a trimmed-down, old-school incarnation of Chaosium's new Basic Roleplaying (BRP) game. This game is tuned to work more like the simpler mechanics of the 1981 Stormbringer (Elric) game, while being fully compatible with the current BRP statblocks. Eventually, after beta testing and adding a bit more content, I hope to have it in print format as an old-school module format with line-art, with an SRD style text version which you can use to easily create your own games.

Also included is a form-fillable Character Sheet and a DEX / Initiative tracker.

Hmmm, is this the first commercial 'Powered by BRP' product released under ORC I wonder?

[Ron Hale-Evans]

Stan Shinn writes, "Hmmm, is this the first commercial 'Powered by BRP' product released under ORC I wonder?"

Er, no, because ORC itself has not been released yet, and the BRP text has not been finalized either. I'd say you've jumped the gun. I'm curious what Chaosium will say.

[g33k]

56 minutes ago, Ron Hale-Evans said:

Stan Shinn writes, "Hmmm, is this the first commercial 'Powered by BRP' product released under ORC I wonder?"

Er, no, because ORC itself has not been released yet, and the BRP text has not been finalized either. I'd say you've jumped the gun. I'm curious what Chaosium will say.

Chaosium has published the PDF, and stated that it's free to use.
This text is itself declared as a "beta" edition, and it's being released for free.

I suspect they'll be fine with it... likely even happy about it.

Edited May 10, 2023 by g33k
(n.b. I am not Chaosium & do not speak for them; maybe they will see an issue I do not)

[g33k]

I just noticed in this thread:
https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/18822-publishing-free-brp-considerations/
 

@MOB says you should wait to release any "Based on ORC"-licensed game until the ORC license is finalized..
 

 

[Stan Shinn]

If Chaosium asks me to, I will happily pull the product until a later date.

However, looking at the license page and the blog announcements (which is what I was going off of), it seems pretty present-tense to me, with no 'after this date' or 'after this future event' type clauses:

"Basic Roleplaying: Universal Game Engine has been released under the Open RPG Creative license (“ORC License”) for others to use." -- https://www.chaosium.com/orclicense/ 

"BRP’s Universal Game Engine is available royalty-free for personal and commercial use under the ORC license. Use these rules, and focus on creating your worlds, scenarios and even books to sell!" -- https://www.chaosium.com/basic-roleplaying-universal-game-engine-pdf/ 

"BRP’s Universal Game Engine is available royalty-free for personal and commercial use under the Open RPG Creative license, aka ORC license." -- https://www.chaosium.com/blogcreate-explore-play-brps-universal-game-engine-is-available-royaltyfree-for-personal-and-commercial-use-under-the-orc-license/

Given I bought a product that promised me "Use these rules, and focus on creating your worlds, scenarios and even books to sell!", seems like there'd be major changes in multiple descriptions if you can't actually do that.

[MOB]

1 hour ago, Stan Shinn said:

If Chaosium asks me to, I will happily pull the product until a later date.

You say yourself this is a work in progress, Beta 1 version, draft. But given the final version of the ORC is not yet released, we suggest you add a note on your project to that effect.

[Stan Shinn]

9 minutes ago, MOB said:

You say yourself this is a work in progress, Beta 1 version, draft. But given the final version of the ORC is not yet released, we suggest you add a note on your project to that effect.

Thanks! I just added that text to the project page description and uploaded replacement versions of the beta rules that have that text.

Very much looking forward to building several BRP products in the future!

[Eddy]

At first glance this looks good, just what I've been after. Just one thing though, what is the Critical success percentage is it 5%  of the skill or 10%.

Good work though

Eddy

[Stan Shinn]

8 minutes ago, Eddy said:

At first glance this looks good, just what I've been after. Just one thing though, what is the Critical success percentage is it 5%  of the skill or 10%.

Good work though

Eddy

Page 16, bottom right:

"Critical Success: Sometimes your character will perform an action so well they achieve extraordinary results. Rolls that are equal to or less than 1/10 of the skill rating are a critical success."

So 10% of the skill. 🙂

[Eddy]

Thanks, I looked up and down for that!! That's good I prefer a simple 10% Critical rather than the more complex Critical (5%) and Special Success (20%)

Cheers

[Stan Shinn]

The next Beta packet will have a 'Charts and tables' section in the back that summarizes all the key rules and lists the tables. An experience GM could run the entire game just from that section. It will call out how Fumbles and Crit works (in addition to those rules buried in blocks of text earlier in the book.

[Ron Hale-Evans]

Looks good, especially for a beta! Keep up the good work! Looking forward to the next version.

[Ron Hale-Evans]

Because crits happen 10% of the time in Mystique, have you considered making them happen on double rolls, like 11, 22, 88, etc.? This is the way OpenQuest does it, and to my taste, it simplifies things a lot.

[Stan Shinn]

12 hours ago, Ron Hale-Evans said:

Because crits happen 10% of the time in Mystique, have you considered making them happen on double rolls, like 11, 22, 88, etc.? This is the way OpenQuest does it, and to my taste, it simplifies things a lot.

My plan is to add some commentary on "If you limit skills to 100%, a more efficient way is to check for doubles." So you'd have two modes of play: (1) Skills over 100% (with crits being 10% of the skill), and (2) Skills capped at 100% (checking doubles for crits). What I don't know is which one to make as the default! Hmmm....

[g33k]

3 hours ago, Stan Shinn said:

My plan is to add some commentary on "If you limit skills to 100%, a more efficient way is to check for doubles." So you'd have two modes of play: (1) Skills over 100% (with crits being 10% of the skill), and (2) Skills capped at 100% (checking doubles for crits). What I don't know is which one to make as the default! Hmmm....

I'm not seeing why you can't use "doubles" even for skills-over-100.
By definition, doubles happen on 10% of d100 rolls; that will be true whether or not your skill goes over 100.

It's true that your odds-to-crit-per-attack stop improving above 100% ...

BUT: 
The core BRP rule of splitting your over-100 into multiple attacks means you are getting multiple chances to crit.  De facto, then, your chances to crit are going up...

 

[leftwingpenguin]

A minor point, but pretty important to some: Would you consider changing the text under "Gender" in the character creation section to something that doesn't imply that male and female are the only two genders that exist? If you're looking for a suggestion for how that might look, I would suggest: 

Quote

Gender: Write "female," "male," or anything you like here; there are no game system differences between genders.

 

[Greg]

13 hours ago, leftwingpenguin said:

A minor point, but pretty important to some: Would you consider changing the text under "Gender" in the character creation section to something that doesn't imply that male and female are the only two genders that exist? If you're looking for a suggestion for how that might look, I would suggest: 

 

You'll notice that a change was made in the BRP:UGE PDF versions before it went to press. It now reads, "Choose your character's gender and write it in the correct space."

While "neither" is defined in some dictionaries as meaning "not the one or the other of two or more", it is most commonly used for just two choices. I agree it is a simple change to make! 

[Stan Shinn]

Look for changes on this gender point in the next release packet. 🙂