Sin City?

[daddystabz]

Can the new BRP handle a Sin City campaign with its noir atmosphere and ultraviolence?

[g33k]

8 hours ago, daddystabz said:

Can the new BRP handle a Sin City campaign with its noir atmosphere and ultraviolence?

Yes; absolutely!

Depending on the vibe you're going for, you may need to bump PC-survivability, such as by using flat (CON+SIZ) for hitpoints, instead of (CON+SIZ)/2.

"Ultraviolence" (under the basic BRP system) will tend to drive a *lot* of PC-death.

[Ian Absentia]

11 hours ago, daddystabz said:

Can the new BRP handle a Sin City campaign with its noir atmosphere and ultraviolence?

Yes.  If you have the new release of BRP, look to the Pulp guidelines on p. 208, and the Passions (p. 214) and Traits (p. 203), as Sin City is at least as much about the pathos of the characters as the violence they mete out and endure.  I don't want to muddy the waters by suggesting other games, but there are combat rules in other BRP-adjacent games that would mesh better with combat, particularly gun violence.  Combat in Sin City isn't so much about whittling down HPs as it is generating plot momentum.

!i!

[daddystabz]

What other games do you all suggest for Sin City?

I have some noir specific games, including Hard City, Mean Streets, and The Big Crime by Spectrum Games.

 

I also have Gangbusters 2e and the new 3e.

[DreadDomain]

17 hours ago, Ian Absentia said:

Yes.  If you have the new release of BRP, look to the Pulp guidelines on p. 208, and the Passions (p. 214) and Traits (p. 203), as Sin City is at least as much about the pathos of the characters as the violence they mete out and endure. 

I agree with this. I would add that Sanity (renamed Mental Stress perhaps) is also adequate as is Fate Points. Regarding Traits, out of the 20 odd pairs, I would only select a limited number of pairs (from 4 to 8 pairs) focused on what you want to emphasise in your game. Passions and Traits are great to introduce character flaws.

2 hours ago, daddystabz said:

What other games do you all suggest for Sin City?

Pulp Cthulhu would actually work great. It has a lot of what the BRP guidelines are suggesting plus it has pulp talents. Sanity and Luck are in, and the major wound rule combined with total hit points offer high survivalability. You could add BPR's passions and Traits. Or not.

Combat in CoC is also more theatre of the mind and more fluid than BRP.

[Ian Absentia]

6 hours ago, daddystabz said:

What other games do you all suggest for Sin City?

I hesitate, because it's always frustrating when someone asks for help with one thing and others chime in with what amounts to "Buy and learn another game!"  But DreadDomain has it on the money with a direct BRP family member, Pulp Cthulhu.  It's almost ready-made for Sin City -- I'd still port the Passions rules over.  One could also reverse-engineer it from the Big Book BRP.

Farther afield, I was thinking of Mythras, which also features nearly identical Passions rules.  But I'm looking particularly toward the combat system, which maintains a mechanical crunchiness while introducing a narrative aspect with its Special Effects.  Rather than a simple random effect rolled from a table, a combatant can choose to press certain tactical advantages based on weapon type, training, etc.  Making the recommendation even more specific, I'll point to Destined, the superheroic comic book adaptation of Mythras that does gritty street level action like a charm.

All in the family, though.

!i!

Edited October 16, 2023 by Ian Absentia
Because Destined does a lot more than just superheroes.

[Raleel]

I’d also point to the Mythras Companion that has Pulp rules and a modicum of pulp talents. Luther Arkwright has more talents but it isn’t especially pulp. I can confirm Destined does pulp well, as I’ve run a short campaign and played in a longer one. 

[Sam E.]

Anyone here familiar with Everyday Heroes and its various licenses (Escape from New York, The Crow, etc.)?  I'm wondering if they'd be good for something like Sin City.

[g33k]

4 hours ago, Sam E. said:

Anyone here familiar with Everyday Heroes and its various licenses (Escape from New York, The Crow, etc.)?  I'm wondering if they'd be good for something like Sin City.

Everyday Heroes seems to be a D&D/d20 variant...?
I'd ask for info on that on another forum; something general, not system-specific... RPG.net, ENWorld, etc.

[DreadDomain]

18 hours ago, Ian Absentia said:

I hesitate, because it's always frustrating when someone asks for help with one thing and others chime in with what amounts to "Buy and learn another game!"  But DreadDomain has it on the money with a direct BRP family member, Pulp Cthulhu.  It's almost ready-made for Sin City -- I'd still port the Passions rules over.  One could also reverse-engineer it from the Big Book BRP.

I also just thought that the character creation of Pulp Cthulhu also have archetypes (and then occupations) which can feel quite pulpy or noir.

18 hours ago, Ian Absentia said:

Farther afield, I was thinking of Mythras, which also features nearly identical Passions rules.  But I'm looking particularly toward the combat system, which maintains a mechanical crunchiness while introducing a narrative aspect with its Special Effects.  Rather than a simple random effect rolled from a table, a combatant can choose to press certain tactical advantages based on weapon type, training, etc.  Making the recommendation even more specific, I'll point to Destined, the superheroic comic book adaptation of Mythras that does gritty street level action like a charm.

All in the family, though.

!i!

Mythras/Destined would absolutely work. I think it would deliver a grittier experience and PC would be more... pulp, heroic? Not sure how to qualify it.

11 hours ago, Raleel said:

I’d also point to the Mythras Companion that has Pulp rules and a modicum of pulp talents. Luther Arkwright has more talents but it isn’t especially pulp. I can confirm Destined does pulp well, as I’ve run a short campaign and played in a longer one. 

LA and its talent would well I think. He the book has a noir mood.

[Sam E.]

18 hours ago, g33k said:

Everyday Heroes seems to be a D&D/d20 variant...?
I'd ask for info on that on another forum; something general, not system-specific... RPG.net, ENWorld, etc.

I understood the question about "other games" and at least some of the responses to that question to include things outside of the BRP family.  My question was a follow-up to that.  

[SDLeary]

4 hours ago, Sam E. said:

I understood the question about "other games" and at least some of the responses to that question to include things outside of the BRP family.  My question was a follow-up to that.  

I believe site etiquette is that the BRP forum is for BRP itself, and games derived from it that have no named forum of their own. Other games that are outside the BRP/Pendragon/QuestWorlds ancestry are generally discussed in the forum labeled Alistor's Skull Inn, near the bottom of the list. 🙂

SDLeary

Edited October 18, 2023 by SDLeary

[g33k]

2 minutes ago, SDLeary said:

I believe site etiquette is that the BRP forum is for BRP itself, and games derived from it that have no named forum of their own. Other games that are outside the BRP/Pendragon/QuestWorlds ancestry are generally discussed in the forum labeled Alistor's Skull Inn, near the bottom of the list.

SDLeary

I think that's so (although n.b. all things QW have their own sub-forum).

Name-dropping a game as another to consider is AFAIK fine; longer discussions of said game, as you say, should go to the Inn (or, realistically, to a different site with a larger proportion of non-BRP players; if wider audience is desired)

[Ian Absentia]

This is a gate that I don't think needs keeping.  RPGs are a grab-bag, and it may be worth looking at what's been done elsewhere and considering how it could be done more satisfactorily with the BRP d100 family of games.

Considering the hefty slew of popular licenses the Everyday Heroes series secured, I'm almost surprised that they didn't lock down Sin City, too.  I'm impressed, but then I see that it's level-based and I think that it's like wearing shoes on your hands instead of gloves.  But that doesn't mean there's nothing to learn from how they adapted the action genre to gaming in general.

!i!

[g33k]

On 10/19/2023 at 6:34 AM, Ian Absentia said:

This is a gate that I don't think needs keeping....

The newer & more-active Modstaff likes to keep threads & forums on-topic, and they move posts (and sometimes close threads) accordingly.
I think the topic has legs, but a devolution away from BRP (in the BRP forum) is (IME) likely to see those legs cut out from under it.
 

On 10/19/2023 at 6:34 AM, Ian Absentia said:

... RPGs are a grab-bag, and it may be worth looking at what's been done elsewhere and considering how it could be done more satisfactorily with the BRP d100 family of games ...

Agreed; "I like how this other-game-X implements a setting-feature Y" and "here's how we could BRPize that" seem entirely-apt!
An extensive comparo between a bunch of non-BRP noir games, the merits & drawbacks of each... well...  Legs, cut out.

 

On 10/19/2023 at 6:34 AM, Ian Absentia said:

... Considering the hefty slew of popular licenses the Everyday Heroes series secured ...

I have been mystified for years at how many setting licenses SJG seemed to get for GURPS ...

Edited October 20, 2023 by g33k
which forum?

[Mugen]

I think I'd use FATE myself, or Revolution D100 in the extended BRP family, as its Traits can be used as simili-aspects.