Games that use BRP rules that are not from Chaosium

[Kloster]

I heard that an unofficial (and illegal) English version of the rules is supposed to exist. Unfortunately, I don't know much more or where it could be found. It's a shame, as it is a fine game which many of our English-speaking friends would probably enjoy.

I think that a French version was published years ago, but the translation was quite bad, apparently, and was considered a failure. Here is a link to an article about this editions and several reviews (in French).

Thanks for the info.

I will take a look.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

[Kloster]

According to Wikipedia (which does not count Aquelarre nor BaSIC):

"BRP was also licensed to Japanese companies, BRP games in Japanese are Houkago Kaiki Club (1997, school life and horror, Hobby Japan), Genom Seed (2004, mutant action, Shinkigensha) and Taitei no Ken RPG (2007, SciFi-jidaigeki, based on movie of the same title, Shinkigensha)."

I know nothing about those ones.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

[drohem]

yeah, I saw that article as well and wondered about BRP in Japanese. Sounds like BRP was translated into horror, apocolyptic or supers, and science-fiction versions in Japanese. It would be interesting to see their take on BRP and those genres.

[Aycorn]

yeah, I saw that article as well and wondered about BRP in Japanese. Sounds like BRP was translated into horror, apocolyptic or supers, and science-fiction versions in Japanese. It would be interesting to see their take on BRP and those genres.

I know that both Glorantha and COC have Japanese followings.

[Agentorange]

I heard that an unofficial (and illegal) English version of the rules is supposed to exist. Unfortunately, I don't know much more or where it could be found. It's a shame, as it is a fine game which many of our English-speaking friends would probably enjoy.

I think that a French version was published years ago, but the translation was quite bad, apparently, and was considered a failure. Here is a link to an article about this editions and several reviews (in French).

I was hoping an English translation existed, it does sound a very interesting game. As you might have gathered from reading some of my posts here I do do like the idea of 'fantasy earth' settings so the idea of a game drawing on Spanish, Arab and Jewish folklore and mythology for it's creatures and using medieval manuscripts etc for ideas for spells and magic really appeals to me...what a shame it was never officially released in an English format

[Kloster]

I heard that an unofficial (and illegal) English version of the rules is supposed to exist. Unfortunately, I don't know much more or where it could be found. It's a shame, as it is a fine game which many of our English-speaking friends would probably enjoy.

I think that a French version was published years ago, but the translation was quite bad, apparently, and was considered a failure. Here is a link to an article about this editions and several reviews (in French).

As I'm french, the reviews in french are not a problem.

I've checked and the reviews are not bad. It seems (from other sources I've found) it was a commercial failure, but the translation is not declared bad.

I will try to find it.

Thanks a lot.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

[Kloster]

I know that both Glorantha and COC have Japanese followings.

When I've discussed on some matters with Sandy Petersen some 10 to 15 years ago, he told me that the japanese edition of CoC was the second most successful in the world. And that the japanese RQ was quite high also. But he didn't spoke of the japanese games.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

[soltakss]

I was hoping an English translation existed, it does sound a very interesting game. As you might have gathered from reading some of my posts here I do do like the idea of 'fantasy earth' settings so the idea of a game drawing on Spanish, Arab and Jewish folklore and mythology for it's creatures and using medieval manuscripts etc for ideas for spells and magic really appeals to me...what a shame it was never officially released in an English format

You'd probably like Stupor Mundi, then. It's for RQM but could be used with BRP with no problem at all.

[Agentorange]

You'd probably like Stupor Mundi, then. It's for RQM but could be used with BRP with no problem at all.

I actually bought Stupor Mundi and that GORE adventure: The Whispering Wood from lulu.com a while back, I liked both to be honest, but especially Stupor Mundi, it was clear that a lot of work had gone into it. I've said before ( ad nauseum ) that there's a lot of untapped potential in fantasy earth settings and it was nice to see Stupor Mundi addressing that. My own personal preference is for something set further back, either:

approx 1500BC, allows you to take in homeric era Greece, Minoan crete, Egypt, Babylonia etc or:

approx 400BC, you've got your Etruscans, nascent Romans, Greeks, Persians, Phoenicians/Carthaginians.

That said I thought Stupor Mundi was a fine piece of work and I'm glad I forked out the money. The Whispering Wood was a good little intro adventure with some interesting monsters but obviously didn't have the same depth etc as Stupor Mundi

[soltakss]

I've said before ( ad nauseum ) that there's a lot of untapped potential in fantasy earth settings and it was nice to see Stupor Mundi addressing that.

Are you aware of the RQ Alternate Earth site? Not much happening at the moment, but it might kick back to life at any time. alternateearthrq : Alternate Earth and Alternate Earth RQ

My own personal preference is for something set further back, either:

approx 1500BC, allows you to take in homeric era Greece, Minoan crete, Egypt, Babylonia etc or:

approx 400BC, you've got your Etruscans, nascent Romans, Greeks, Persians, Phoenicians/Carthaginians.

Have you written anything up? I'd love to hear about anything related to Ancient Earth .....

[Agentorange]

Are you aware of the RQ Alternate Earth site? Not much happening at the moment, but it might kick back to life at any time. alternateearthrq : Alternate Earth and Alternate Earth RQ

Yup, joined a while back, as you say hopefully it'll take off a bit when various MRQ/BRP historical supplements start being produced

Have you written anything up? I'd love to hear about anything related to Ancient Earth .....

Alas no, mostly because I'm a lazy bastard and also because I keep getting distracted. I splurged on a few books from Amazon about middle eastern mythology a while back, the trouble was I spent loads of time reading the books and then looking at the bibliographies.......and buying more books and no time on actually turning it into a working set of rules

Another thing that put me off was the simple practicality of keeping the players alive. RQ combat is pretty deadly, one of the things that compensates is being able to armour yourself up, but in a even halfway realistic ancients campaign armour is going to be pretty damn scarce, maybe some cloth or leather and players coming up against anything more dangerous than a pygmy shrew

Flash » The Pygmy Shrew

are going to be mincemeat faster than you can say man eating lion.

I did run an Alexandrian era game once using the rules from Zozer games. The players were most taken with the battle chants. I made them sing something apprpriate in order for them to work ( beer was involved ) The rendition of Men of Harlech by a spearman was good .

[weasel fierce]

Burning Wheel takes inspiration from the BRP advancement rules.

Mutant Chronicles and the Warzone mini's game uses some parts (MC uses a D20 roll under instead, but both games use the resistance table)

Theres of course Pendragon as well, if that hasnt been mentioned yet

[Ombord]

Swedish role-playing games have been heavily based on BRP. Conversely, I feel the Swedish rpg history contains lots of nifty rules that would contribute a great deal back to the international BRP community.

Here is a (probably not complete) list of Swedish BRP-based rpg's:

Drakar och Demoner (Dragons and Demons) - Sweden's first and most popular fantasy game, which for years successfully battled the influence of D&D. Being BRP-based was of course a big boon in that it meant Swedish gamers aren't weaned on levels and hundreds of hit points like many places elsewhere.

The BRP origin is clear in all editions, though the game has slowly left its BRP roots (one recent, but short-lived, edition even experimenting with levels!) through its two publishers and three different game worlds.

See Drakar och Demoner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (though what the English page calls the 7th edition, the most current one, is really the 9th if you look at the Swedish Wikipedia, which is presumably more up-to-date.)

Mutant - Here it gets really confusing, as this game really is four completely different games under one name. So let's list the different games that all share the same ancestry:

Mutant (1984) - the first game in this post-apocalyptic series. Unlike other games in the genre, this one features a stable post-apocalypic society (one based in the middle of Scandinavia roughly at early 19th century tech level). Robots and laser rifles spice up the game, as does mutants (which explains the game's name): intelligent and anthropomorphized animals with physical powers. There are also "mutated humans" which work exactly like the mutated animals except their look is based on humans rather than some animal and "psi mutants" (mutated humans whose powers are in their mind rather than wings, extra-strong limbs, poisonous stings etc).

Mutant (1989) - this game re-uses the same concept, but in a vastly different setting: a cyberpunk Europe! Yes, complete with mega-cities (Berlin 2090 is the best example from the game line) and mega-corporations, but still featuring both humans and mutants.

Mutant Chronicles (1993) - yes, this is the game the current (not so good) movie is based on. Via a short-lived intermediary edition, the Mutant brand was used for yet another, completely different, setting. This time, while the Earth suffered the apocalypse, civilization survived and flourished on the Moon and in the Solar System. At least until the Dark Legion with its endless hordes of Necro Mutants are let loose! This game features a pretty noticeable disconnect between two worlds: you can play a dystopic investigation-heavy civilian game back on Luna (the city that covers the entire Moon) or you can play the game "as intended": an action-heavy Warhammer 40,000 inspired game in the trenches on Venus or Mars, where you either fight one of the five mega-corporations, the Brotherhood, or the Dark Legion.

Mutant - Undergångens Arvtagare (Mutant - Heirs to the Apocalypse). This can best be described as a "re-imaging" of the original Mutant game from 1984, featuring a vastly expanded and well-developed mature world, updated (but still BRP-based) rules and a distinctive and highly appreciated visual presentation. This is the Mutant game most grounded in Swedish and Scandinavian cultural and linguistic values, and thus the game that would make the least sense being translated into English. As the focus has broadened from simple, fun action-heavy exploration into areas of intrigue, investigation and socializing using the rich background of the Pyri society, the game no longer much resembles its roots in games like Alpha Omega or movies like Mad Max. In recent years, this game probably took the crown from Drakar och Demoner as Sweden's most well-liked role-playing game.

KULT (1991) - Yes, probably the most infamous horror rpg of them all. And that's all I'm going to say in this post. From a BRP point of view, KULT is less interesting, being farther removed from core BRP.

Okay then. These are the "big three" - games that all became big successes locally (and in KULT's case, an international phenomenon). Other less well-known Swedish games to utilize BRP include En Garde!, Götterdämmerung and Gemini.

So you should see why I feel the Swedish rpg market would be interesting to any BRP completist!

[Tywyll]

I was reading about Drakar och Demoner and I saw that in one of the earlier (assumedly BRP friendly) versions, they had new magic systems.

does anyone have any experience with this? Has anyone played the system at all?

[christopherhouse]

The Adventures of Luther Arkwright

1st ed by James Brunton (1991) 23rd Parallel Games

A UK alternate-timeline RPG based on the miniseries of comics by Bryan Talbot. The system is a percentile skill-based system similar to Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying. >:->

[peterb]

"The first real roleplaying game in Swedish to be released on the market was Drakar och Demoner (Dragons and Demons). Note that despite the name it is not a Dungeons & Dragons clone. The game system is that of Steve Perrin, basic roleplaying, used in Runequest and Call of Cthulhu. The first edition of Drakar och Demoner came in 1982 in a blue box and was a straight translation of Perrin's Magic World which was released together with Future World and Super World in the boxed set Worlds of Wonder (1982).

The basic set of rules, by many referred to as the black box, was later expanded by Drakar och Demoner EXPERT in 1985. Introducing several new occupations, skills and lots of magic, it also got rid of the d100 and used a d20 for all skill rolls. Now Drakar och Demoner was a game of it's own, bearing little resemblence with that of Steve Perrins."

.....................

from the page linked above.

so... drakar och demoner does not resemble BRP anymore.

BAD CHOICE from the designers!

The only real difference btw BRP and Drakar och Demoner edition 3 to 6 is the use of d20, slightly different weapon damages and a hit location table that is upside down compared to BRP, i.e. Head is 1-2, L arm 3-4 etc. Beyond that they use their own background skills system, but most BRP-clones do that.

There are less differences btw D&D 3-6 and BRP then btw RQIII and MRQ, IMHO.

Drakar and Demoner 7 (released 2007) went back to using a d100 but also did away with the standard abilities and added feat-like features, so the latest version is probably the version most unlike BRP.

[peterb]

I was reading about Drakar och Demoner and I saw that in one of the earlier (assumedly BRP friendly) versions, they had new magic systems.

It's quite similar to the "magic" magic-system in the new BRP book (and old Worlds of Wonder). They added magic schools and spells do more damage (about a d8 per MP).

As a side note: if anyone is looking for an alternate magic-system for BRP that can be grafted on with little trouble - check out GURPS Magic...

does anyone have any experience with this? Has anyone played the system at all?

At the peak of the hobby in the end of the eighties about 300.000 people played RPG:s in Sweden and the majority played Drakar och Demoner (the abbreviation "D&D" is to most Swedes, who know something about RPG:s, not linked to Dungeons and Dragons...). The system is well tested and played by a huge number of people. It's an OK system.

[peterb]

Okay then. These are the "big three" - games that all became big successes locally (and in KULT's case, an international phenomenon). Other less well-known Swedish games to utilize BRP include En Garde!, Götterdämmerung and Gemini.

There's also a game called "Western" set in the Old west in 1870-ies that is clearly a decendant of BRP. It's similar to En Garde! but you must roll a d20 above 20 adding your skill to succeed with a skill check.

[Varulv]

Drakar and Demoner 7 (released 2007) went back to using a d100 but also did away with the standard abilities and added feat-like features, so the latest version is probably the version most unlike BRP.

Nope Drakar och Demoner Trudvang (aka 7th edition) use the d20(hit lower or equal of skillvalue).

One thing what really made a quite big different from orignal BRP rules i D0D were the class system of the 1991 DoD edition. Charatcers got more tied to their classes/occupations by either classabilitys and that skills outside the PC´s class was caped and more expenisive to buy. DoD:T(7) changed this wich is great.

Edited March 6, 2010 by Varulv