New hear and to the BRP system

[draven]

I have have a rather newbie question. I have The BRP latest edition I believe it is 4th ed book. I was wondering what other books and products are closest to it's rules. As well as the edition of those products. I see that they are all kind of the same base mechanic but what ones require the least conversions? I am not sure I am good enough with the system to convert much at this point. I have looked at some of CoC and there seems to be major difference in them. I do not care about magic systems yet though any additional Psionics would be nice. I would also like good stats for Mech and cyberware if possible.

[Gollum]

I have looked at some of CoC and there seems to be major difference in them.

Hello.

I played Call of Cthulhu for a while and use the golden Basic Roleplaying book now. But I don't see any major difference. Characteristics are the same. Either are skills.

Don't be confused by the characteristic rolls (Effort roll, Stamina roll, Agility roll...). They was and still are also used in Call of Cthulhu, though they don't appear on the character sheet. Call of Cthulhu adventures often ask the player to do such rolls.

All what I noticed is a little difference in bare handed combat damage (The BRP characters do less damage with kick and head blows than CoC ones; 1D3 vs 1D6 and 1D4). And there are also little differences in skill names. But there is absolutely no conversion to do. A Call of Cthulhu character works perfectly with BRP rules and vice versa.

That is what I do in my games.

[soltakss]

I have have a rather newbie question. I have The BRP latest edition I believe it is 4th ed book. I was wondering what other books and products are closest to it's rules. As well as the edition of those products. I see that they are all kind of the same base mechanic but what ones require the least conversions?

Stormbringer/Elric is probably the closest, then maybe RQ2, or RQ in general.Most of the things can be used in BRP without any conversion, or with minimal conversion if you can run things like Strike Rank/DEX Rank on the fly.

[Atgxtg]

I depends on which optional rules you use.

The core BRP ruleset is probably closet to Elric! and CoC. THer advanced options are closer to RQ3 and RQ2.

Ironically, the rules are probably furthers from Worlds of Wonder (ironic since WoW was the Authros favorite BRP product), due to shortcuts taken in the WoW rules.

The good news is that the stats are pretty much the same in all BRP games, and you won't have to change much. AP or weapon damages might adjust slightly, bonuses and hit points in very old RQ2 stuff, and you might need to split up a melee combat skill into attack & parry (or combine two into a single skill), but mostly it is the same.

[draven]

Thanks for the replies but does the edition of CoC matter or are all of them basically the same? I have only seen the first edition of CoC and that is where I saw difference. I have not looked at Elric.

[nclarke]

Draven,

I think that there are some cross purposes here.

Are you asking if you can use supplements from any BRP game with the BGB/BRP4e?

You mention mecha and cyberware so I guess (as you don't say) that you are intending to play a game using mecha and cyberware with BRP4e.

Someone here is working on mecha under BRP but I haven't gone through the downloads section on this site to see if anyone has done cyberware.

[Atgxtg]

Thanks for the replies but does the edition of CoC matter or are all of them basically the same? I have only seen the first edition of CoC and that is where I saw difference. I have not looked at Elric.

Basically the same,although there are differences between editions.

But then all the BRP systems are basically the same. Anybody familar with one BRP game could look at a character written up in a differernt version and understand 90% or more of it. Most of the stats are the same, it is only which options being used that might cause confusion. Oh, and a slight change in SIZ and INT between the early edtions and now (both changed from 3D6 to 2D6+6).

But going from any BRP game to any other is kinda like going from D&D 3.0 to 3.5.

[draven]

Yes I am asking what editions of the supplements are the easiest to use with the game. I have a few plans for BRP BGB. One is a near future themed game. The other is an apocalypse setting. For fantasy games I am looking at RQ not sure of the edition yet. In general though I am looking for products that mostly work the same as I like the BRP system so for the different setting I do not have to learn and tech my players new rules.

In my years of role playing I always seemed to miss any BRP game. I just found them in a quest to find a skill based game other than Palladium. But in getting to it this late there are so many editions of the games in the system that all have slight changes to large changes. So far I see Strombringer/Elric and RQ2 seem the closest. What I am looking for is what editions of the games are closest to BRP 4th. edition?

[RosenMcStern]

The Big Gold Book is based mainly on Stormbringer 5 (I think - I only have edition 1 of Stormbringer so I cannot compare) and RuneQuest 3 (Avalon Hill). Both these works are so old you can only get them on ebay. And there is little or no reason to get them, either: RQ3 can be reconstructed "as is" by using the monographs, and for SB5 there is Magic World coming out soon that is the equivalent, but better.

RuneQuest 6 is another beast. It has a lot of changes, and does fantasy really, really well.

[Chaot]

Welcome to the boards, draven.

My advice is to run yourself through the combat system a few times and give the spot rules a good eyeballing. If you're comfortable there I think you'll find that most things will port easily from game to game.

[draven]

Thank you all for the advice

[nclarke]

You might want to look at some of the Monographs at Chaosium.com for post apocalypse gaming. I don't think any of them deal with cyberware but monographs do often have excellent background and campaign specific material.

Be warned though, some of them are not as well presented as others as they don't get the professional editing and playtest workout that Chaosium's non-monographs do but are offered as is.

[draven]

I have gotten the monographs for rubble and ruin as well as Aces High they both seem great to me. I mean you can tell they are privately done but they are not hard to use or read. When I read them I think probally could not even do that good of a job.

[Atgxtg]

The Big Gold Book is based mainly on Stormbringer 5 (I think - I only have edition 1 of Stormbringer so I cannot compare) and RuneQuest 3 (Avalon Hill). Both these works are so old you can only get them on ebay. And there is little or no reason to get them, either: RQ3 can be reconstructed "as is" by using the monographs, and for SB5 there is Magic World coming out soon that is the equivalent, but better..

It's a stranger hybrid than that. much of it is harks back to RQ2, THe weapon damages, powers, mutations and most of the systems are pre RQ3. It's odd, since it's a lot of stuff that was left to the wayside over the years-cobbled with bits of stuff that came out after RQ3 went into limbo. In fact, RQ3's influence is more conspicuous by its absence. I don't think there is a single thing in the gold book that was exclusive to RQ3.