Help curate my shopping list

[Apostrophe]

I just found out about D100/BRP/Chaosium family of games and how they are my favorite thing ever, and i have an excuse to buy more books. But since i am not made of money and i also like to have at least some reason for getting a book (best version of the rules, great art, interesting mechanics etc.) i need help deciding what to pick up, especially out of print books, some of them are really expensive. All of my opinions and decisions what to buy are based on forum posts, i read only Mythras Imperative and skimmed PDFs of a couple of Stormbringer editions.

• Runequest

I want to get RQG, Mythras and 1993 Avalon Hill Deluxe Edition.
As far as i can tell RQG has heavy roots in RQ2 with some improvements and gorgeous art, and Mythras is descendant and refined version of Mongoose Runequest so there is no reason to hunt down other versions. 1993 edition of RQ3 has full rules in a single book and can be found for decent price. Any interesting supplements for Avalon Hill RQ3 that i should hunt down (most interested in mechanics and art), am i wrong to "ignore" other editions/versions of the game? Any of Mongoose Runequest (now Legend) supplements i should look at?

• Call of Cthulhu

Ordered 7th edition slipcase set (it is gorgeous), and as far as i understand it is somewhat significant change from older versions that were mostly small incremental changes. What older versions should i look at, should i just get 40th anniversary/20th anniversary, should i even look at older versions? Any older supplements/adventures that are worth hunting down? Anything really cool in those old boxed sets?

• Stormbringer

Searching for Elric of Melnibone RPG introduced me to D100 games, i already ordered copy of Elric of Melnibone by Mongoose for their RQ2, i saw it was out of print and fount new book for great price.
Other versions are really confusing, seems Stormbringer 1-3 are mostly the same game (and 3rd edition published by GW is significantly more expensive than 1st edition), with 4th edition changing magic for the worse while doing everything else a little bit better. Elric! and Stormbginger 5e are made by same author and it seems that Elric! is better choice with a little less content but much better book and organization. I will get Elric! since it can be found for decent price, but i really dont know about older versions.

• Pendragon

Dont know anything about the system and not really interested in the setting, any versions with interesting (and significantly different) mechanics than Chaosiums other offerings? What editions are considered the best? I presume there is a focus on mounted combat and relations with church/nobles etc, what editions did those the best?

• Basic Roleplaying

Ordered the new edition, any point in getting the older stuff?

• Other stuff

Any reccomendations, mostly interested in art and mechanics, especially if they tie in to the setting in interesting ways or represent/simulate them really well.

[Nick Brooke]

I think you might enjoy Magic World, which is a mashup of Stormbringer and RuneQuest 3 mechanics, magic systems etc. lightly reworked for a generic BRP fantasy setting. But if you've already got all the Stormbringer and RQ3 you can eat, you won't find much that's new in it.

Mythras is Mongoose RuneQuest II "done right." I don't know how much value you'd get from seeing what the same authors produced working under absurd time, editorial and budgetary constraints.

Your understanding of Call of Cthulhu 7e vs. 1-6e is spot on. While the 40th anniversary rulebook is particularly beautiful, the rules content is identical to your slipcase set. There are useful designer's notes from Jason Durall explaining why none of the CoC 7e changes made it into BRP here (see point 4). 

[Squaredeal Sten]

Do you value the Gloranthan background?  If you do, I advise not spending on all possible versions of the rules and instead. using most of your limited money on background: The cults books, some adventures, maybe the new  Lands of Runequest: Dragon Pass book.  The starter set?  The GM Screen set which has a large amount of setting and adventures (the screen is NOT most of its value).

[rsanford]

Fair warning, you are descending into a rabbit hole that could get badly expensive. 
 

That said, are you mostly interested in BRP family rule books or are you also interested in setting and scenario books?

What genre games do you normally play? 

The new core BRP book or its predecessor, either one, sets you up nicely for nearly every genre, and I think buying one of those is a must.

Assuming you are mostly looking for rule sets, I would also consider STRONGLY Delta Green by Ark Dream Publishing as well as Revolution D100 by Alephtar (especially if you have interest in narrative mechanics). 
 

I also would recommend Mythras, though if you are looking for print versions and your eyesight is less than ideal, I would recommend its predecessor RuneQuest 6 which is what I use). 
 

If you ARE interested in setting and scenario material, you will find The Design Mechanism offers multiple incredible settings, my favorites of which are Thennla, Mythic Babylon and Mythic Constantinople. I also understand Lyoness is supposed to be awesome.

Chaosium offers Mythic Iceland, which is excellent, however be aware they are currently developing a second edition of that book. Chaosium also has a huge amount of material for cosmic horror roleplaying, so huge, I recommend dealing with it in a dedicated post assuming your interested in horror.

As for as Stormbringer goes, I would either get Stormbringer 1, Elric or both.  But they are different… Characters in 1E tend to be wildly unbalanced (which makes for AWESOME role-play).  Elric, on the other hand, is a much more balanced game. I also recommend Demon Magic which is somewhat rare and expensive these days.

 

Lastly, see here for an extremely out of date family tree for BRP. Note there are two different family trees on this page - 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Atgxtg]

47 minutes ago, Apostrophe said:

Ooh, tough question. It's a big BRP world, and a lot fthe answer depends on just how far you want to go. 

47 minutes ago, Apostrophe said:

 

 

I just found out about D100/BRP/Chaosium family of games and how they are my favorite thing ever, and i have an excuse to buy more books. But since i am not made of money and i also like to have at least some reason for getting a book (best version of the rules, great art, interesting mechanics etc.) i need help deciding what to pick up, especially out of print books, some of them are really expensive. All of my opinions and decisions what to buy are based on forum posts, i read only Mythras Imperative and skimmed PDFs of a couple of Stormbringer editions.

• Runequest

I want to get RQG, Mythras and 1993 Avalon Hill Deluxe Edition.
As far as i can tell RQG has heavy roots in RQ2 with some improvements and gorgeous art, and Mythras is descendant and refined version of Mongoose Runequest so there is no reason to hunt down other versions. 1993 edition of RQ3 has full rules in a single book and can be found for decent price.

RuneQuest is where it all started. Technically BRP is an offshoot of RQ, not the other way around. 

My advice is get RQ2 if you don't have it,m and RQ3 if you can find it. Myhras is good, but not quite the same as a Chaosium game. 

47 minutes ago, Apostrophe said:

Any interesting supplements for Avalon Hill RQ3 that i should hunt down (most interested in mechanics and art),

Yeah, most of them, unless you have the RQ2 version of one, in which case it is optional. All the Glorantha stuff id decent, most of it is good, and Land of the Ninja and RQ Vikings are good as well. 

47 minutes ago, Apostrophe said:

am i wrong to "ignore" other editions/versions of the game?

Yeah. Get RQ2 stuff if you can. Most of the good RQ 3 supplements were updated versions of classic RQ2 stuff. IMO, Cults of Prax and any of the old boxed sets among the best RPG supplements ever written for any RPG. It just happened to have been written for RuneQuest. Not to throw shade on the current company, or any other RPG company, but virtually anything  Chasoium had a hand in during the the early to mid 80s was excellent. Even Ghostbusters. The D6 system is still a thing, and that was the game system they made for West End. They were just that good, and I don't believe anybody has ever matched them in sustained quality over such a long period.  And much of what they were putting out was breaking new ground and raising the bar. Now I'm probably wearing rose colored glasses here and drank a bit took much of the Chaosium Cool-Aid back in the day, but it was good stuff.

Personally I think Borderlands might be the single best campaign pack for any RPG. For the price of two D&D "modules" of the day a GM got seven adventures and  enough supporting material and adventure seeds to set up a whole campaign. 

47 minutes ago, Apostrophe said:

Any of Mongoose Runequest (now Legend) supplements i should look at?

No, Yes, Maybe.

No, stay away from their 2nd Age Glorantha stuff, I don't think anybody has much praise for it.

Yes, their non Gloanthan stuff is better, and 2nd edition was an improvement in the game mechanics, and eventually evolved into Mythras.. The Mongoose Elric stuff I saw was actually good, but I think that;s because some of the people involved in those projects  pulled an Amstel Light (and you are going to have to google old Amstel Light commercials to get that one).

If they have a book that cover sompething specifc that you are interested in (Vikings, Priates, etc.) then it might be worth a look.

47 minutes ago, Apostrophe said:

• Call of Cthulhu

, should i even look at older versions? Any older supplements/adventures that are worth hunting down? Anything really cool in those old boxed sets?

Yes, there is a lot of neat stuff scattered around in all the old Chaoisum products, not just CoC, and that's sort of the problem. There is so much good stuff that you can run out of money and SAN points trying to get all of it. Most things were handled as they cam up so there are a lot of cool ideas and rules tucked away in various supplements here and there. That's kind of why the BRP big gold book got made. To collect a lot of that stuff. 

But really there is so much good stuff packed away that rather than try to decide what is worth getting, prioritize what you need or want and then think about the rest later.

For instance, I don't run much Call of Cthulhu, but it has the best firearms stuff for BRP (makes sense, since most of the firearms stuff for BRP is in a CoC supplement),and the Bermuda Triangle supplement is such a good resource of the Caribbean that I find it indispensable for my James Bond campaigns (it was his usual stomping ground in the novels). Yeah I got to take out most of the Mythos stuff for Bond, but the islands are mostly the same.

47 minutes ago, Apostrophe said:

• StormbringerOther versions are really confusing, seems Stormbringer 1-3 are mostly the same game (and 3rd edition published by GW is significantly more expensive than 1st edition), with 4th edition changing magic for the worse while doing everything else a little bit better.

It's a little more complicated, but most editions of Strombringer and Elric! are basically the same but with soem changes.

SB1 had the most powerful Sorcery rules which overpowered everything else, and the latter editions progressively tones down the sorcery. Elric! was a redesign/streamlining that made the rules closer to CoC than RQ.  SB5 was an updated Elric!

There good stuff for it. The Bronze Grimore, Hawkmoon, and Sailing of the Seas of Fate are probably the most useful supplements.

 

47 minutes ago, Apostrophe said:

•  
• Elric! and Stormbginger 5e are made by same author and it seems that Elric! is better choice with a little less content but much better book and organization. I will get Elric! since it can be found for decent price, but i really dont know about older versions.

Tough Call. IMO First Edition Strombringer is a must because it's really the definitive one, with two very good authors, one of which wrote or co-wrote practically every game that Chasoium made in their heyday. But Elric! is more streamlined and weakened sorcerers much more, which is probably a good thing. 

 

47 minutes ago, Apostrophe said:

• Pendragon

Dont know anything about the system and not really interested in the setting, any versions with interesting (and significantly different) mechanics than Chaosiums other offerings? What editions are considered the best? I presume there is a focus on mounted combat and relations with church/nobles etc, what editions did those the best?

Yeah, PEndragon has a very different version of the BRP rules. So much so that's it probably the least BRP of all the Chasoium BRP games. The mechanics are great but very different. In a nutshell:

• Pendragon is not Percentile based but D20 based.
• For simple rolls roll 1D20 and try to roll under the skill or characteristic as with BRP.
• Opposed rolls are the same except the highest successful roll wins. This is sometimes referred to as the "Blackjack Method", as in Blackjack you want to beayt your opponent but not go over and"bust".  
• Combat is handled with an opposed roll with the winner rolling damage on the loser, instead of the attac parry exchange of other BRP games.
• If both character roll under their skill then the loser usually gets a partial success, which means they lose but get some sort of mitigating effect. In combat this typically means they  get the protection of their shield. 
• A critical happens if someone rolls their skill exactly.
• A fumble happens if someone rolls a natural 20 (unless their modified skill is 20 or more, in which case it it a critical and they can't fumble)
• If someone's modifier skill is over 20 they add the amount over 20 to their die roll. So someone with Sword 25 would roll 1D20+5 (and critical on a 15 or higher).
• Hit Points, Weapon Damages and armor protection values are all handled differently than in most other BRP games. 

Pendragon is a very good system, even better than regular BRP  in some ways, but it's different. It's a great game, but it will lead you down it's own path. 

47 minutes ago, Apostrophe said:

• Basic Roleplaying

Ordered the new edition, any point in getting the older stuff?

Yes. There is stuff in the older edition that isn't in the newer one. Plus there are some good supplements for the older edition. BRP Rome for instance, or Wind of the Steppes.

But, like I said above, you should prioritize.

 

47 minutes ago, Apostrophe said:

• Other stuff

Any reccomendations, mostly interested in art and mechanics, especially if they tie in to the setting in interesting ways or represent/simulate them really well.

It depends on how deep down the rabbit hole you want to go and how far you are willing to stray from the path of actual BRP products. 

For official BRP stuff there was:

World of Wonder: A simplified supplement that covered a traditional FRPG game, Superworld, which covered superheroes, and Future World which was the first Sci-FI setting for BRP. And it had a strong influence on the current version of BRP.

Superworld; A stand alone boxed set that expanded upon the Superworld concept from Worlds of Wonder and essentially turned BRP into Champions. 

ElfQuest: A version of RQ3 adapted to the EflQuest comic book series by RIchard and Wendy Pini, and which seems to be making a comeback. Great if you're an ElfQuest fan; skippable if you aren't. 

RingWorld: BRP adapted to the Known Space setting of author Larry Niven. It's mostly BRP/RQ but with a dew new wrinkles such as a new sequencing system and higher hit points (and weapon damages). Great if you are a Larry Niven fan, useful if you want to see BRP handle SciFi (it was the fist official BRP game to do so in depth)

Nephelim: A strange RPG about reincarnating entities that used BRP game mechanics. 

 

Outside of the official stuff there's

Other Suns (by Fantasy Games Unlimited): A SciFi RPG that has strong BRP roots.

Privateers & Gentlemen (also by FGU): An RPG set in the Age of Sail, using what is essentially  RQ2 game mechanics (or about as close to RQ2 mechanics as you can get without being RQ2) mated to a naval wargame and written by an award winning Sci-Fi author.

RQ6 if you can find it. (It's pretty much Mythas).

 

And there there are games like OpenQuest and BaSiC where are other peoples take on the BRP game mechanics.

And that's not counting all the games that are functionally similar to BRP (FASA Star Trek for instance); all the stuff I've skipped over (Thieves World, Fantasy Paths).Or all the stuff that I forgot about. 

So there is tons of stuff out there. But I think you should figure out what type of stuff you want the most, and we can suggest what to pick up. Because otherwise you will just be overwhelmed with possibilities and suggestions.

Oh, and download the freestuff at the various company websites and Drivethru, since they will help to point out what's out there and where.

 

As for art, well, outside of the covers most older BRP games were printed in black and white with the occasional line drawing, map or floorplan. Most of it isn't that important (except stuff you needed to run a particular adventure), but a handful of pieces are iconic. RQ1-RQ2's cover in any form, for instance. IMO Strombringer had the best art since they could use some of the art from various Elric novels and such. But RPG art has steadily improved over the years. 

[Joerg]

3 hours ago, Apostrophe said:

• Runequest

I want to get RQG, Mythras and 1993 Avalon Hill Deluxe Edition.
1993 edition of RQ3 has full rules in a single book and can be found for decent price. Any interesting supplements for Avalon Hill RQ3 that i should hunt down (most interested in mechanics and art),

As someone who came into these circles through RQ3, there were a number of excellent supplements that were not (fully or partially) reprints of RQ2, although rather fewer for the setting Glorantha. The Renaissance books Sun County, River of Cradles, Shadows on the Borderlands, Strangers in Prax, Dorastor Land of Doom and Lords of Terror are worth getting, but not that easily available. There are some RQ2 contents reprinted - Sun County has material from less than a dozen pages from the Pavis Box, River of Cradles reproduces quite a bit of the Pavis description but adds a heroquesty campaign and the Lightbringer cults in full format for RQ3 (plus Zola Fel), reworked from RQ2 sources. Lords of Terror is to a great extent a reprint of Cults of Terror, edited for RQ3, with extra demigods from those cults.

Lords of Terror is the least original of these books. RQ2 Cults of Terror is available as pdf and PoD, and the extra information might not be worth the scarcity-driven prices on the second hand market. The others get a rather strong buy rating if the price is reasonable for booklets of that size.

As to RQ3 art, you're way better served with the French edition by Oriflam which had rather useful and appropriate art (if risky for the Anglophone world). The interior art commissioned by Chaosium was ok but sparse, with one or two misleading images in the Genertela box.

The AH RQ3 Gloranthan Bestiary booklet had art that got reprinted in the Guide, but has a few entries not yet reprinted, and might be worth getting at not too high price.

The Games Workshop edition of RQ3 used in-house art, some of which rather on point, other typical later Citadel style. The De-Luxe rules were published as basic and Advanced RQ3, the Bestiary combined the one from the De-Luxe set with the pre-rolled characters from Monster Coliseum in a most useful way. Griffin Island and Land of Ninja had decent art in the GW edition, and that's about what was available.

Most official RQ3 scenarios prior to the RQ3 Renaissance (starting with Sun County) were reprints. Heroes (the Avalon HIll house magazine) may have had one or two, ask the Meints Index to Glorantha. The first original scenarios for RQ3 in Glorantha (other than The Money Tree in the DeLuxe edition) were in Sun County.

Away from Glorantha (not counting Griffin Island, which had a RQ2 prehistory) there was the somewhat community-driven campaign used in the Vikings Box, and somewhat adapted to the other setting in Land of Ninja. Monster Coliseum had encounters for arena fights, but I don't recall any scenario. There were two later non-Gloranthan scenario books which were less inspiring, The Lost City of Eldarad a re-imagining of the Pavis idea and a few good ideas, and the highly flammable Daughters of Darkness which was similar to the early Dark Eye scenarios (in the most non-flattering way).

The reprinting of 2nd edition RQ for RQ3 applied to Griffin Mountain de-Gloranthafied as Griffin Island, with orcs replacing the Lunars seamlessly, the classic scenarios Apple Lane and Snake Pipe Hollow, and Trollpak. Into the Troll Realms and Haunted Ruins were taken out of the box as separate booklets, the Munchrooms remained in the box as an extra stapled booklet. They all used RQ2 art.

RQ3 Troll Pak had most of the contents of RQ2 Troll Pak, a color map of Dagori Inkarth that was unfortunately not quite to scale, shrinking to the east, when compared to the topographically correct RQ2 map of the region. That RQ3 Dagori Inkarth map did presage the style now used in Lands of RuneQuest: Dragon Pass, though.

Then Troll Gods appeared, and the RQ2 art had been used up. AH spent about as much on that new art as it had for the Trollpak reprints, forcing an in-house graphic designer to deliver drawings for the empty pages in the booklet (quite a few people would have been fine with empty pages instead). Elder Secrets of Glorantha fared little better. Both these boxes did bring new text to the Glorantha lore, though. Practically all of that has been caught up by RQG by now, or will have been when the Darkness volume of Cults of RQ is out.

 

The presentation of Glorantha in pre-Renaissance RQ3 was halting. Introduction to Glorantha in the DeLuxe box did not give a playable presentation of the world, but managed to outline some of the high points of the setting. RQ3 Gods of Glorantha introduced a whole lot of gods not present in RQ2. RQ3 Genertela Box was a first gazetteer, had "What my Father Told Me" and character creation. Troll Pak delivers RQ2 knowledge, Elder Secrets adds a few good bits. Most work is left to the GM.

Renaissance works are ready-to-play, on the other hand, and classics.

 

The RQ3 mechanics have been carried over into the BRP Big Golden Book, but may be hard to separate out of the extra options added there. Other than the book-keeping nightmare of the Fatigue rules, RQ3 De Luxe offered a rather complete set of rules, including ships. Chariot rules were postponed to Monster Coliseum. Vikings and Land of Ninja repeated some of those rules in condensed form.

RQ3 VIkings is one of the better treatments of the subject that I have seen, and Greg Stafford's campaign showed the course for a somewhat community-based ga´me of adventuring. It was definitely more than worth buying for my RQ3 experience. When Chaosium finally gets around to its Mythic Iceland line, it will be superseded. (I cannot comment on the previous BRP edition of Mythic Iceland, which was a lot slimmer, but that's about what I know about it.)

Land of Ninja is a treatment of Samurai Japan with no fixed historical setting. The adaptation of the campaign in Vikings seems to work, and the treatment of sorcery with Mandalas beats the approach with familiars used in the rest of RQ3 IMO.

[Kloster]

2 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

PEndragon has a very different version of the BRP rules. So much so that's it probably the least BRP of all the Chasoium BRP games.

Wrong. The least BRP Chaosium RPG is Prince Valiant. By far.

2 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

And there there are games like OpenQuest and BaSiC where are other peoples take on the BRP game mechanics.

BaSiC is pure, licensed BRP.

[Kloster]

18 minutes ago, Joerg said:

As to RQ3 art, you're way better served with the French edition by Oriflam which had rather useful and appropriate art (if risky for the Anglophone world).

Completely agreed. Hawkmoon is the riskiest, as far as I remember.

[Atgxtg]

14 minutes ago, Kloster said:

Wrong. The least BRP Chaosium RPG is Prince Valiant. By far.

Ah but I wrote "the least BRP of all the Chaosium BRP games." 

Prince Valiant Isn't a BRP game at all. Pendragon is, just one that is very different from the rest of the BRP games. CoC7 is probably the next lest BRP ish. 

It's kinda like saying a calzone the least pizza like pizza, as opposed to, say, chicken fried steak, which has nothing to do with pizza at all. 

14 minutes ago, Kloster said:

BaSiC is pure, licensed BRP.

Okay. I think I just saw the bestiary that had been floating around ten-fifteen years ago.

I'm sure there is a lot of unofficial BRP or BRP related stuff out there, of variable quality, like with most long standing RPGs. Probably a bit less that more modern RPGs since BRP came out before PDFs and the internet. Back then fan made stuff mean't someone banging away at a typewriter and then spending money to make photocopies. That got expensive. Not like today.

I remember some of the lengths some Dragon Quest GMs went to in the 80s to try and hunt down a copy of never published Arcane Wisdom. I knew people who doubted that Spawn of Fashaan was real, and not some insider joke.

[DreadDomain]

6 hours ago, Apostrophe said:

But since i am not made of money and i also like to have at least some reason for getting a book (best version of the rules, great art, interesting mechanics etc.) i need help deciding what to pick up, especially out of print books, some of them are really expensive. 

Focusing on "best version of the rules, great art, interesting mechanics", I assume setting and scenarios are not your priority.

6 hours ago, Apostrophe said:

• Runequest

I want to get RQG, Mythras and 1993 Avalon Hill Deluxe Edition.
As far as i can tell RQG has heavy roots in RQ2 with some improvements and gorgeous art, and Mythras is descendant and refined version of Mongoose Runequest so there is no reason to hunt down other versions. 1993 edition of RQ3 has full rules in a single book and can be found for decent price. Any interesting supplements for Avalon Hill RQ3 that i should hunt down (most interested in mechanics and art), am i wrong to "ignore" other editions/versions of the game? Any of Mongoose Runequest (now Legend) supplements i should look at?

Definitely RQG for the best art and production value with good rules on runes, passions, augments. Mythras (or RQ6) for its tight design and combat rules (special effects) and RuneQuest 3 (the single book) for an awesome and yet compact rules package. Still one of my best rule book to this day. RQ Classic (the current reprint of RQ2) should also be of interest. It was groundbreaking back in the days even if it does not really hold up on its own now.

6 hours ago, Apostrophe said:

• Call of Cthulhu

Ordered 7th edition slipcase set (it is gorgeous), and as far as i understand it is somewhat significant change from older versions that were mostly small incremental changes. What older versions should i look at, should i just get 40th anniversary/20th anniversary, should i even look at older versions? Any older supplements/adventures that are worth hunting down? Anything really cool in those old boxed sets?

CoC 7E is an excellent choice. Pulp Cthulhu also adds good rules for a more heroic style. As for CoC classis, you cannot go wrong with the recently reprinted Call of Cthulhu Classic Boxset (based off CoC 2). The 2" boxset has tons of reprinted supplements.

6 hours ago, Apostrophe said:

• Stormbringer

Searching for Elric of Melnibone RPG introduced me to D100 games, i already ordered copy of Elric of Melnibone by Mongoose for their RQ2, i saw it was out of print and fount new book for great price.
Other versions are really confusing, seems Stormbringer 1-3 are mostly the same game (and 3rd edition published by GW is significantly more expensive than 1st edition), with 4th edition changing magic for the worse while doing everything else a little bit better. Elric! and Stormbginger 5e are made by same author and it seems that Elric! is better choice with a little less content but much better book and organization. I will get Elric! since it can be found for decent price, but i really dont know about older versions.

I would choose Elric of Melnobone (which is not self contained, it needs MRQ2), Elric! or Stormbringer 5, (both are equally good and almost identical) and one of Stormbringer 1 or 2 (I would choose the paperback book). SB 3 and 4 are still very close to 1 and 2 (and SB3 bindings fall apart).  

6 hours ago, Apostrophe said:

• Pendragon

Dont know anything about the system and not really interested in the setting, any versions with interesting (and significantly different) mechanics than Chaosiums other offerings? What editions are considered the best? I presume there is a focus on mounted combat and relations with church/nobles etc, what editions did those the best?

For a self contained game Pendragon 4 is the best. Mechanics wise it sings with Personality Traits, passions, skills on 1-20, etc. It even has a narrative magic system. Pendragon 6 is cleaner and has much better production value and rules are equally good, or better.

6 hours ago, Apostrophe said:

• Basic Roleplaying

Ordered the new edition, any point in getting the older stuff?

With the lastest BRP:UGE, you are good to go.

6 hours ago, Apostrophe said:

• Other stuff

Any reccomendations, mostly interested in art and mechanics, especially if they tie in to the setting in interesting ways or represent/simulate them really well.

I might come back for that.

[Ethereal]

Most of the stuff I would have recommended is already mentioned with a few caveats. I like the newer and older editions of Basic Role playing as most of the material is convertible to different genre's. Those I will mention are out of print (OOP) and difficult to find. or from small publishers. Some out of print maybe found in PDF.

Chaosium

Starfarer 2250. Ran across in a Game store, Inquired to Chaosium and was told authorized, so bought it. Never saw it advertised. OOP? (SF)

The Chronicles of Future Earth. (Careful, There is also a version of Fate game system.) (F/SF)

All the Worlds Monsters #1, #2, and #3. #3 has small conversion notes for most games and for Runequest. (F)

Magic World (printed 2012)

Devils Gulch (W) (OOP)

Basic Role Playing ‘Mecha’ (SF in cooperation with Alephtar Games) (OOP)

Enlightened Magic. (OOP) PDF only.

BRP Witchcraft. (OOP) Available in PDF.

The Magic Book 2012 (OOP)

Advanced Sorcery. Supplement for Magic World. (OOP)

In Search of the Trollslayer. BRP Adventure. (OOP)

Outpost 19 (SF) (OOP) BRP Adventure.

Worlds of Wonder. (OOP) Boxed Set.

Quest World. Boxed Set. (OOP)

Runequest 4, Adventures in Glorantha. Never Printed. Was play test only.

Alephtar Games:

 

The Celestial Empire---Imperial China (OOP?)

Dragon Lines---Guardians of the Forbidden City (OOP?)

(Others-Too many to list. Available on DRPGThru)

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/2555/alephtar-games

 

Fantasy Games Unlimited:

 

Other Suns SF (OOP) Not BRP, but uses a D100 type system.

Aldersons Shipyard (OOP) Supplemental Deck plans for Other Suns.

 

Steve Perrin Quest Rules:

https://web.archive.org/web/20160701124101/http://www.perrinworlds.com/SPQR.html

Also Steve Perriin Tukemel Rules (Never Printed But have seen it online somewhere)

 

Timeline Ltd

 

Morrow Project and Supplements OOP. Not BRP but uses a D100 type system. (Post Apocalyptic)

 

Precis Media

https://www.pigames.net/store/default.php?cPath=149

Worlds Beyond (SF) Not BRP, is D100

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rsanford]

Wow, I don't believe I forgot John Snead's Enlightened Magic... If the OP ever wants to run a pseudo-realistic modern occult game, Enlightened Magic is irreplacable. In my view, its even better than GURPS Thaumatology book.

* Because there are so many, I have avoided Call of Cthulhu titles thus far, but the Investigator Weapons books (2 volumes) by Sixtystone Press are useful for nearly all BRP games.

Edited November 5 by rsanford

[Nick Brooke]

7 hours ago, Ethereal said:

Advanced Sorcery. Supplement for Magic World. (OOP)

Print-on-demand editions of Magic World and Advanced Sorcery are available from DriveThruRPG.

[Mugen]

Pendragon is really heavily tied to its setting, much more than most RPGs. However, there was an insteresting Gloranthan variant of it named Pendragon Pass, which may still be available online.

I can't really recommend RQG, as I think it's a mix of outdated rules with few improvements and rules change that broke the system.

A very good but complex magic system was Sandy Petersen's rules for RQ3 Sorcery. He also did 5 other very interesting documents on Rituals, Spirit Magic and so on.

If you can find it and read Japanese, RuneQuest 90s seems to be a very insteresting game, lighter than any other RQ game, and very Gloranthan (despite its very "90s heroic fantasy anime" cover. It was produced in Japan, and AFAIK has no connection with Chaosium.

Another free resource is the Character Creation chapter of Steve Perrin's Quest Rules, which can be found online. I've never seen any other chapter, and it maybe difficult to buy nowadays, as they were only available by e-mailing its author, who died a few years ago.

[AndreJarosch]

8 hours ago, Ethereal said:

Starfarer 2250. Ran across in a Game store, Inquired to Chaosium and was told authorized, so bought it. Never saw it advertised. OOP? (SF)

Can you post a picture of the cover of this, as i never have heared of this before?

[NickMiddleton]

41 minutes ago, AndreJarosch said:

Can you post a picture of the cover of this, as i never have heared of this before?

https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/7393-starfarer-2250/

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/236697/starfarer-2250

 

[DreadDomain]

20 hours ago, Apostrophe said:

• Other stuff

Any reccomendations, mostly interested in art and mechanics, especially if they tie in to the setting in interesting ways or represent/simulate them really well.

A few others I would recommend.

SuperWorld is you are interested in a classic superhero game. It shows its age and only come together with the companion but it still offer a.ternative mechanics for BRP.

Destined for a much modern take on superhero gaming. This is based of Mythras but is self contained. Interesting take on superpowers and their boosts.

Lyonesse is another self contained fantasy game using Mythras

Going afield, Troubleshooters. This is not quite BRP but it is a fun d100 take on franco-belgian comics.

[Mugen]

Also worth mentioning in the BRP "extended family" are Révolution D100 and M-Space.

I like that RD100 has a simple unified core system which can be used in any situation, similar to HeroWars/HeroQuest/QuestWorld. M-Space is basically Mythras in Space, but it incorporates the same core system as RD100.

[Saki]

Just the BRP book alone is enough for literally hundreds of hours of play - if you're worried about money and still haven't gotten BRP to your table in actual play yet, I'd recommend against preemptively spending hundreds of dollars on books.

[Apostrophe]

Forum just let me post again (but i still dont have more reactions for the day :) ), huge thanks to everyone. I switched my priorities a little, mostly by including RQ2 stuff. I just figured out Chaosium has a lot of its older stuff as POD they have gotten much better over the years and are definitively preferable over used books. That significantly reduced the number of books i need to hunt down, i am am mostly going to focus on some recommended RQ3 books.

So far i got 1993 Avalon Hill Deluxe Edition for cheap, almost mint condition, and brand new Elric of Melnibone  by Mongoose for their RQ2. I ordered new CoC slipcase and smaller classic box, BRP Universal, and i am considering witch Glorantha setting book to get. I am gonna skip Pendragon for now but i will order The Great Pendragon Campaign. I also got full version of Mythras rules and made a shopping list from Chaosium and Design Mechanism to treat myself for a couple of months when i have some extra money. I am checking out some out of print Chaosium stuff but its not a priority.

Stormbringer is a problem. I really want them but they are expensive and in bad condition. The ones in decent conditions, and decent in this case means with minimal staining and spine still holding together in some places would set me back probably just little under 200e with shipping and taxes.
Elric! is an exception, still pricey (for me because of shipping and taxes/customs, i am in eastern europe) but at least decent books can be found and i will be getting one next.

12 hours ago, Mugen said:

I can't really recommend RQG, as I think it's a mix of outdated rules with few improvements and rules change that broke the system.

Can you expand a little, reviews i saw were singing it praises.

 

6 hours ago, Saki said:

Just the BRP book alone is enough for literally hundreds of hours of play - if you're worried about money and still haven't gotten BRP to your table in actual play yet, I'd recommend against preemptively spending hundreds of dollars on books.

On 11/4/2024 at 1:59 PM, Apostrophe said:

 i have an excuse to buy more books

Basically this :) i like reading rules and figuring out what i can use and i like books, also i dont plan to buy everything at once. For some older stuff if you want to get decent book for sane price you really need to start looking asap, especially since i am from eastern europe and shipping, customs and taxes can really inflate the price.

[Nick Brooke]

7 hours ago, Apostrophe said:

21 hours ago, Mugen said:

I can't really recommend RQG, as I think it's a mix of outdated rules with few improvements and rules change that broke the system.

Can you expand a little, reviews i saw were singing it praises.

RuneQuest has forked a few times in history: both RQ3 and the Mongoose/Mythras version have different lineages to the current Chaosium edition, RQG. As you can see from their post, Mugen is a big fan of “modern” (eighties/nineties? ha!) rules. RQG is self-consciously retro, to maximise compatibility with all those reissued RuneQuest Classics, but it also gives starting characters higher skills and more reusable Rune magic, to smooth their path to Rune level. If your preference is towards the zero end of “zero to hero,” or you loved tweaking RQ3 Sorcery or playing in non-Gloranthan settings, I can understand how that might not be the sort of game you’d enjoy.

It’s the most Gloranthan edition, and the most beautifully-produced edition, by a long way. Is it perfect? Probably not. But it doesn’t get much better than this.

[Mugen]

@Apostrophe I think people who praise it only saw the improvements, like the introduction of Runes in the game mechanics (40+ years after its first edition !!), or the introduction of Runic Pool in Rune Magic.

The combat rules are a mess, because they're a mix between RQ2 (with few tweaks from RQ3), and other BRP combat systems. It results in weird situations where a fighter with a shield is going to use its main weapon to attack and parry and not his shield, which the older RQ rules made impossible.

It's initiative system, the Strike Ranks, is very confusing, and doesn't really adds much when compared to simpler systems, like the reverse DEX order.

Two weapon fighting is even impossible to understand without reading the FAQ...

The skill opposition system results in a lot of ties, because it only takes success level (critical, special,...) into account.

[Atgxtg]

9 hours ago, Apostrophe said:

Forum just let me post again (but i still dont have more reactions for the day :) ), huge thanks to everyone.

I hope we didn't bury you in recommendations. THe game's been around in some form or other since the 1970s so there is tons of good stuff out there. 

Pick one thing/line and start with it. You can add other stuff (or not) later as you wish, or can. 

 

Most of us got thier stuff piece meal as it came out, not in bit chunks.

[DreadDomain]

15 hours ago, Apostrophe said:

i like reading rules and figuring out what i can use and i like books

Mate, with RQG, RQ3, CoC7, BRP, Mythras and EoM, you are in for a treat. If you like mixing and mashing, you will find the rules in these books are highly transferable.

[AndreJarosch]

I have made a list of D100 Rule Sets in a german forum, but since almost all entries are english publications i am sure you can use it even if you don´t speak/read german: 

https://www.tanelorn.net/index.php/topic,127565.0.html

 

I also have made a list of SETTINGS (not rule sets): 

https://www.tanelorn.net/index.php/topic,105885.0.html


Maybe you (or other members of the BRP forum) will find it useful. 

Edited November 6 by AndreJarosch