Call of Cthulhu / BRP rules suggestions for an Hyborian campaign

[Alasthor]

Hello!

Recently, I delved into the world of BRP by running an adaptation of the solo adventure "Alone Against the Flames" for Call of Cthulhu in a play-by-post 1-on-1 game on Discord. I enjoyed the simplicity of the base system and its capacity for adaptation and customization based on each storyteller's needs. So this year, I would like to set up a play-by-post game on a Spanish forum that I frequent.

My idea is to create a kind of West Marches-style game set in Hyboria after Conan's death, where the characters are colonists living in a new aquilonian(reminiscent to medieval french) settlement in untamed lands. They should have opportunities for exploration and combat without the constant fear of dying with a single blow. Additionally, I would like to incorporate some elements of the crossover existing between the Cthulhu Mythos and the Hyborian world, maybe a bit further down the line when the characters delve into ancient atlantean ruins.

I am aware of the existence of Pulp Cthulhu and Dark Ages, although I'm not sure which optional rules from there would best reflect a low dark fantasy setting where characters have more durability than a CoC investigator but aren't as powerful as legendary heroes like Conan. I need to find a middle ground.

I have read that some recommend RuneQuest and Mythras for similar settings to what I have in mind. However, at first glance, I don't want to overly complicate the system with hit locations, weapon reach, and other systems proposed by those games. The goal is to stay as close as possible to the Quick-Start rules for CoC or similar Quick-Start rules, adding only what is necessary and to avoid scaring away potential players with too much crunch, since people there are used to rules-light/narrative systems like Savage Worlds.

That's why I wanted to ask if any of you with more experience in BRP games could provide some guidance, primarily on:

Magic: Which system and compendiums would you recommend? I am no expert in Conan lore, but magic in that world seems to be quite rare and mostly of a malevolent nature.

Pulp rules: Which ones would you recommend for a grimdark low fantasy setting?

Insanity: Since contact with horrors related to the Mythos would be occasional at most, I wonder if it would be better to remove this part of the system altogether and replace it with something more generalized like corruption or a similar concept. If you know of any published corruption/purity system for BRP that could work in my case, I would appreciate the recommendation.

Thank you very much in advance for any input or suggestions!

 

[Jason D]

Hi! 

Check out the downloads section. Long ago I created character sheets, character creation guidelines, and other rules suggestions for running a Hyborian Age campaign using Elric! rules. They may be of use. 

My suggestions to your questions: 

Magic - anything you want to use. There's no underlying scheme to how magic works in the Hyborian world. Believe me. I worked on the Conan RPG for Modiphius, and worked on the Conan RPG for Mongoose, and there are at least three or four distinct methods of spellcasting active in Conan's world, maybe more. In my short campaign I used the Bronze Grimiore, Call of Cthulhu magic, the Elric! magic system, psychic rules from ElfQuest, and even some Egyptian magic rules published in Different Worlds magazine. I may have also borrowed some spirit magic from RuneQuest. 

Pulp rules - I'd give the PCs heroic hit points as per BRP (CON+SIZ) and let them use fate points. No hit locations. Random armor values. 

Insanity - have you seen the newer, simpler iteration of sanity in BRP? There's definitely insanity in the Hyborian world, as characters are frequently gripped by madness and react in a maddened state. 

 

Edited January 4 by Jason D

[Ravenheart87]

I would use Magic World, probably mostly as written. Which is not that different from what @Jason D mentioned above, because MW is Elric! with the serial numbers filed off. The BRP rulebook also has recommendations for what rules you should use for different genres in the Settings chapter.

[SDLeary]

6 hours ago, Ravenheart87 said:

I would use Magic World, probably mostly as written. Which is not that different from what @Jason D mentioned above, because MW is Elric! with the serial numbers filed off. The BRP rulebook also has recommendations for what rules you should use for different genres in the Settings chapter.

This. I'd add Advanced Sorcery, because is has copious amounts of Bronze Grimiore and other arcane goodness that could be used.

SDLeary

[Alasthor]

Thank you very much, @Jason D Yesterday, after reading your reply, I downloaded your Conan material, and it's already giving me many good ideas about mechanics, cultures, weapons, professions, and more for the game I'm preparing. I'm not familiar with the new Sanity system in BRP, so I'll definitely be taking a look at that soon, along with your other suggestions regarding Magic and optional Pulp rules.

@Ravenheart87 and @SDLeary, I appreciate your suggestion regarding Magic World and Advanced Sorcery. Being new to BRP, I honestly didn't know either of the two manuals, not even by name. But based on what you've mentioned here and what I briefly read in a couple of reviews online, I believe both resources will be very useful to me. For now, I've downloaded the Quick-Start rules for MW and I'm reading them.

Once again, thank you all for the guidance. I had my campaign project somewhat stuck because I didn't know which pieces of the vast BRP toolkit to use to recreate the theme I want without overly complicating things for myself and the players. Now I have a much clearer roadmap.

 

[g33k]

Hey Alastor... Welcome!

I see you've been lurking for a bit, glad you've jumped in, and that you're finding the forum useful!

I will throw my +1 onto the suggestion of Magic World -- or one of the Quickstart's -- for your basic game-engine chassis, tweaked a little bit with other BRP options.

[Alasthor]

Thanks @g33k. Yes, I think I registered on the forum shortly after watching a youtuber commenting on the back then very recent release of the new edition of BRP last year. However, at that time, I knew little about the game engine, so I only read the occasional thread where people had already posted similar questions to mine, or I looked at comparisons of whether BRP, CoC, RQ, or Mythras were more ideal for specific cases, etc. I also spent quite some time lurking on Reddit, browsing similar threads, until I finally decided to overcome analysis paralysis and try some CoC.

Now this "Quick-Start Rules Plus"  idea discussed here seems like the perfect fit for my campaign.

Again, thank you very much!

[Jason D]

Yes, if you can find a copy of Magic World (or Elric!) it's an off-the-shelf fit for the material I created. 

I'd love to see that work back in print in some fashion, but as sales were unsatisfactory* and it competes to some degree with RuneQuest, it's a hard sell to management. 




* It was one of the worst-selling Chaosium products ever, period. 

[Dangermouse]

41 minutes ago, Jason D said:

Yes, if you can find a copy of Magic World (or Elric!) it's an off-the-shelf fit for the material I created. 

I'd love to see that work back in print in some fashion, but as sales were unsatisfactory* and it competes to some degree with RuneQuest, it's a hard sell to management. 




* It was one of the worst-selling Chaosium products ever, period. 

Magic World - Chaosium | Basic Roleplaying | DriveThruRPG

[Nick Brooke]

1 hour ago, Jason D said:

I'd love to see that work back in print in some fashion…

Your wish is my command! We brought out print-on-demand editions of BRP Gold, Magic World and Advanced Sorcery around the same time Wizards screwed the pooch by putting a gun to the OGL’s head this time last year: I’m sure it was a coincidence.

[g33k]

6 hours ago, Jason D said:

... Magic World ... 

... sales were unsatisfactory* ...
* It was one of the worst-selling Chaosium products ever, period. 

And yet it's remarkable how often the best recommendation from the fandom to a newbie is, "get Magic World, and <minor tweak/add/etc> in such-and-such a way"
 
Looks like an ORCish opportunity, tbh...

[Nick Brooke]

That’s because Magic World is an accessible compilation of good old stuff that’s no longer on sale. There’s no point in sending people to look at ancient RQ3 or Stormbringer publications nowadays: when the same content is available in another book, that’s what we recommend.

[Mugen]

On 1/3/2024 at 7:48 PM, Alastor said:

I am aware of the existence of Pulp Cthulhu and Dark Ages, although I'm not sure which optional rules from there would best reflect a low dark fantasy setting where characters have more durability than a CoC investigator but aren't as powerful as legendary heroes like Conan. I need to find a middle ground.

Concerning characters durability, I would simply give PCs skills and characteristics above standard humans. Which is something Elric! did : it was possible to start the game with skills above 100%, and all characteristics were determined using 2d6+6. I don't own Magic World, but I think it works on the same principles.

I would also consider that all damage that is not a Major Wound is just exhaustion, which can be recovered with a good night sleep. On he other hand, damage over the MW threshold would reduce the HP maximum until properly treated.

 

 

 

[Questbird]

I like Elric!/Magic World for Sword and Sorcery. OpenQuest is another rules-light d100 variant which would probably do what you want with Conan. It also has the advantage of being currently in print and supported. There was even a Conan-with-the-serials-filed-off adventure setting called The Savage North for it.

[DreadDomain]

On 1/5/2024 at 7:07 PM, Jason D said:

Yes, if you can find a copy of Magic World (or Elric!) it's an off-the-shelf fit for the material I created. 

I'd love to see that work back in print in some fashion, but as sales were unsatisfactory*

* It was one of the worst-selling Chaosium products ever, period. 

To be honest, it was absolutely preposterous to believe that publishing an updated beloved classic BRP/d100 ruleset using a generic game and featuring a generic setting, would gain any success. Preposterous!

Cheekiness aside, my point is that we now have concrete evidence the issue with Magic World has little to do with content and a lot to do with everything else from art, graphic design, layout, marketing, Chaosium lack of brand recognition at the time. Notice how all of those things have now been resolved with Chaosium and Chaosium's products?

From a content perspective, Dragonbane has better ready to play content (adventures, pre-gen) over MW, but that is it.

On 1/5/2024 at 7:07 PM, Jason D said:

and it competes to some degree with RuneQuest, it's a hard sell to management. 

My suspicion is that RQ would benefit from a Dragonbane-like Magic World as it would more easily introduce new players to a simpler fantasy BRP ruleset and would make the jump to a more complex (rule and setting) RQ easier. 

But isn't it what the RQ Starter Set is for you say? Yes, but for someone thinking that RQ is "complicated", they might not consider anything with RQ on the cover.

Edited January 12 by DreadDomain

[Ravenheart87]

5 hours ago, DreadDomain said:

Cheekiness aside, my point is that we now have concrete evidence the issue with Magic World has little to do with content and a lot to do with everything else from art, graphic design, layout, marketing, Chaosium lack of brand recognition at the time. Notice how all of those things have now been resolved with Chaosium and Chaosium's products?

The extremely generic title Magic World didn't help either. If I saw it first today it would remind me of a classic Gunshow comic strip line ("Dare you enter my magical realm?"). Stormbringer? RuneQuest? Dragonbane? Now those sound cool as hell and immediately catch my attention. Magic World? Not so much. Before someone wants to hold a history lesson: yes, I know where the name comes from. But MW ended up being quite different from the little booklet in the Worlds of Wonder boxed set, which is a product only BRP/RQ grognards remembered by the 2000s anyway.

On a different note... If you had the BRP rulebook only, which magic system would you use for a sword & sorcery setting? I like in Magic that each spell is a different skill, it neatly goes hand in hand with the rest of the system, but since the original WoW MW booklet the spell prices got really high, plus the casting test followed by resistance roll feels a bit much. Sorcery is cool and has a great spell list, but I feel it lacks something with not having skill rolls, and the demon summoning cost still feels wrong (it kept the 9 MP starting cost, the book also mentions varying costs for demons á la Elric!, but omits any rules about how to calculate it and how it works).

[NickMiddleton]

3 hours ago, Ravenheart87 said:

....On a different note... If you had the BRP rulebook only, which magic system would you use for a sword & sorcery setting? I like in Magic that each spell is a different skill, it neatly goes hand in hand with the rest of the system, but since the original WoW MW booklet the spell prices got really high, plus the casting test followed by resistance roll feels a bit much. Sorcery is cool and has a great spell list, but I feel it lacks something with not having skill rolls, and the demon summoning cost still feels wrong (it kept the 9 MP starting cost, the book also mentions varying costs for demons á la Elric!, but omits any rules about how to calculate it and how it works).

Personally, I loathe a single skill per spell (makes it all way to fiddly IMO, especially if one adds additional skills a la RQ3 Sorcery)... but a SINGLE Sorcery skill is very appealing, and something I now do in Magic World, with an option to NOT roll for "rote casting" without risk, or roll and get bonuses at the risk of failure or fumble imposing deleterious effects on the casting.  

[Mugen]

9 hours ago, DreadDomain said:

My suspicion is that RQ would benefit from a Dragonbane-like Magic World as it would more easily introduce new players to a simpler fantasy BRP ruleset and would make the jump to a more complex (rule and setting) RQ easier. 

That reminds me of the japanese RuneQuest 90s.

Published in Japan only, it used a rather simple BRP system, and was a truly gloranthean game from he start, contrarily to 3rd edition. And despite the very 90s-anime styke cover.

9 hours ago, DreadDomain said:

But isn't it what the RQ Starter Set is for you say? Yes, but for someone thinking that RQ is "complicated", they might not consider anything with RQ on the cover.

The Starter set is not meant to provide a simpler game, but rather an introduction to the whole game where only the rules needed for the scenario are provided.

As a result, the Set contains rules (especially concerning combat) that are more complex than Dragonbane or Magic World, even if it's not the whole picture.

[Mugen]

9 minutes ago, NickMiddleton said:

Personally, I loathe a single skill per spell (makes it all way to fiddly IMO, especially if one adds additional skills a la RQ3 Sorcery)... but a SINGLE Sorcery skill is very appealing, and something I now do in Magic World, with an option to NOT roll for "rote casting" without risk, or roll and get bonuses at the risk of failure or fumble imposing deleterious effects on the casting.  

My opinion is that 1 skill is not enough, but 1 skill per spell is too much. 😄

I prefer systems like Mage (all versions), where there is 1 skill per "domain", and you need different skills for casting a fire ball or reading thoughts, but all fire-based (or even all elemental-based) spells are under he same skill, and all mind-based spells are under the same skill.

Edit : a single skill for all "minor/common" magic/cantrips anyone can learn and cast might be enough, though.

The removal of Range, Duration and other "metamagic" skills in RQG was a step in the right direction, but I think there was a missed opportunity when Rune Masteries were not designed as skills.

Edited January 12 by Mugen

[Ravenheart87]

3 hours ago, NickMiddleton said:

Personally, I loathe a single skill per spell (makes it all way to fiddly IMO, especially if one adds additional skills a la RQ3 Sorcery)... but a SINGLE Sorcery skill is very appealing, and something I now do in Magic World, with an option to NOT roll for "rote casting" without risk, or roll and get bonuses at the risk of failure or fumble imposing deleterious effects on the casting.  

I had a BRP-lite homebrew I never finished where I did something similar, but put the magic spells into four or five skills. I might revisit the idea, but instead of D&D-like rigid magic schools I think I should put them into actual traditions which might overlap here and there if they share similar interests - kind of like Combat Styles in Mythras.

Your sorcery idea sounds neat too. And tempting, because the sorcery spell list is a bit more flavourful than the magic spell list.

[NickMiddleton]

21 hours ago, Ravenheart87 said:

I had a BRP-lite homebrew I never finished where I did something similar, but put the magic spells into four or five skills. I might revisit the idea, but instead of D&D-like rigid magic schools I think I should put them into actual traditions which might overlap here and there if they share similar interests - kind of like Combat Styles in Mythras.

Sounds cool! Ever since I read Earthsea as I kid I’ve liked the idea of schools & domains of magic. We never fully grokked SPIs Dragonquest, but we co-opted the magic system into various games and settings back in my early gaming days.

21 hours ago, Ravenheart87 said:

Your sorcery idea sounds neat too. And tempting, because the sorcery spell list is a bit more flavourful than the magic spell list.

When I’m home and have access to tools I’ll extract the write up from larger work it’s currently part of and stick it in the files section here.

[Mugen]

23 hours ago, Ravenheart87 said:

I had a BRP-lite homebrew I never finished where I did something similar, but put the magic spells into four or five skills. I might revisit the idea, but instead of D&D-like rigid magic schools I think I should put them into actual traditions which might overlap here and there if they share similar interests - kind of like Combat Styles in Mythras.

Note Mythras Sorcery already has "traditions" that works like Combat Styles. 🙂

Each Invoke Skill is associated with a list of spells that are suited with a given tradition. If a Sorcerer wants to cast a spell outside its tradition, he needs to learn a new Invoke Skill which has the spell associated with it.

As I said above, I prefer a more rigid approach, like in White Wolf's Mage. Life, Mind, Forces, Matter, Spirit, Prime... I don't really like Ars Magica, as I'm not really fond of the Verb/Form divide.

[Atgxtg]

On 1/12/2024 at 1:53 AM, Ravenheart87 said:

The extremely generic title Magic World didn't help either. If I saw it first today it would remind me of a classic Gunshow comic strip line ("Dare you enter my magical realm?"). Stormbringer? RuneQuest? Dragonbane? Now those sound cool as hell and immediately catch my attention. Magic World? Not so much. Before someone wants to hold a history lesson: yes, I know where the name comes from. But MW ended up being quite different from the little booklet in the Worlds of Wonder boxed set, which is a product only BRP/RQ grognards remembered by the 2000s anyway.

Well, it was supposed to be called Stormbringer but things happened. 

Your comment does highlight one of the weaknesses of generic RPGs, namely that they are generic. No one gets excited over generic coffee, generic soft drinks, or generic anything.

Edited January 13 by Atgxtg

[Alasthor]

I like @NickMiddleton's idea of a single sorcery skill with the option to roll it for extra effects and potential mishaps. I haven't played in some time, but it sounds like a more benign version of Warhammer Fantasy 2e magic, where you always roll without any extra benefit and can eventually keep fumbling through a series of mishaps tables of increasing severity until a rift in reality opens, unleashing a demon that will consume your soul for trying to use burning hands to heat up the stew.

@Ravenheart87's idea of a set of traditions also sounds great. I was thinking of maybe having a skill for each element related to the god the spellcaster worships, with the elements being Earth, Air, Nature, Death, Astral, Blood, Fire, Water (taking inspiration from the paths in Dominions 5 for PC). So a priest of Mitra could have a primary focus on Astral and maybe a secondary focus on Fire or something like that.

But for now, I'll just stick with the default of no sorcery skill or the single sorcery skill option to keep it as simple as possible.

Anyway, thank you very much for sharing all these useful concepts.

[DreadDomain]

6 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

Well, it was supposed to be called Strombringer but things happened. 

Was it? Where can we read about this?