Advice for GM new to D100 Type Systems

[Archivist]

I'm about to run a campaign using Renaissance D100/Pirates and Dragons. I've never run a D100/BRP system except for Dark Heresy. What advice do you have in general for GMing systems like this? Thanks! I know there's lots of discussions about whiff factors w/ % dice due to the flat distribution curve, etc.

Edited December 8, 2015 by Archivist

[nclarke]

Check the rules for when to actually ask for a roll. It's normally not used unless there is some reason for a roll/test. A normal climb using a rope wouldn't call for a roll but one on a sheer surface with no equipment would for example. It's also normal to test when under stress but not when things aren't being stressful. So if it narratively makes sense to test then do so.

[SDLeary]

32 minutes ago, nclarke said:

Check the rules ...

This.

Also remember how deadly d100/BRP can be. Renaissance isn't quite as deadly as stock BRP, but it can still come up and bite you. Make sure the characters have an option OTHER than fighting. 

SDLeary

[Gollum]

What book will you use?

The "Big Golden Book"?

http://www.chaosium.com/basic-roleplaying-pdf/

It's free quick-start introduction?

http://www.chaosium.com/basic-roleplaying-quickstart-pdf/

Do you have Blood Tide?

http://www.chaosium.com/blood-tide/

These questions apart, here are my two cents generic hints ...

The BRP is not a very precise and realistic system, like GURPS, for instance. It is neither a fast and furious heroic system like Savage Worlds, for instance. It is something between the two.

Or it can make both, depending on what the GM and the players want ... You can play in any world you like and in any kind of genre (from quite realistic to crazily heroic). But this is up to the GM to make it become so. For instance, if the GM wants the game to be realistic, he will rule that bullets are impossible to dodge. Now, if he wants the game to be more heroic (like James Bond or Indiana Jones stories), he can just decide that characters can dodge bullets by zigzagging, jumping behind cover, and so on.

The results given by the rules are not very precise. Successful attack, missed defense, X points of damage and almost nothing more. But the GM can make these result really interesting with his descriptions, because he has more leeways to interpret them as he desires. Does the X points come from the shock, from bleeding? Does it hurt a lot or not? Some other roleplaying games give more answers to these questions, but it means more rules and less freedom. With BRP, you've got more freedom ... And more decisions to take. And you can choose a lot of things depending on the story you want to tell and the drama you want to add to your games ...

Finally, the flat distribution of the D100 is only partially true. It is true, because a D100 gives flat results (as many 01 as 100 or 50 or any other result). But it is wrong because the GM will change things a lot, depending on the difficulty of the action he chooses. An easy action multiply the chance by 2. A hard action divide them by 2. And the GM can simply decide that an action is automatic or impossible. Thus someone with a skill of 50 can have 0%, 25%, 50% or 100% chance of succeeding his action! Here again, everything depends on the GM decision ...

Edited December 8, 2015 by Gollum

[Mankcam]

I run my sessions as 'narrative' as I can these days, and often resolve most dramatic issues with simple or opposed rolls, even straight forward conflict/combat at times.

There are also numerous mook rules which can also be used for this, otherwise I just rule that the loser of the combat is at Half Skills % and if they fail another combat round then they are incapacitated. You could do the same thing for OQ/Pirates & Dragons, and rule the losers to receive an ascending modifier each time they fail in opposed combat rolls ( thus -25%, then -50%, then Incapacitated)

I only use the 'crunchy' combat system for when I want combat to be the main focus of the scene - this happens once or twice a session for us, rarely anymore that that. Remember healing is very slow in BRP games. Many D&D players have issues with this because D&D regularly uses a Hit Dice roll to rally a character, but in BRP it's a weekly game time roll, so this really needs to be taken into account otherwise it can slow the momentum of the game down - I tend to use mook rules for most combats early in the episode ( as combat is more of a dramatic situation to move the plot forward at this stage), and move to combat round rules towards the end of the episode for the heightened drama.

Most of the BRP games rules work very logically, and the great thing about using D100% chance mechanics is that is easy to make things up on the fly (eg: "there's a 40% chance the occupant is home" etc)

If you are using Pirates & Dragons then  it is very pulpy, so play up the more cinematic moments, but still watch out for the slow healing rate. Obviously use the 'Pirates Of The Caribbean' movies for inspiration as well

Edited December 8, 2015 by Mankcam

[Baulderstone]

Opposed rolls are a great way to avoid flat, binary outcomes. The give you a whole spectrum of results when you compare the PCs roll with the opposition. You can give impersonal effects a skill rating and have the player make an appropriate opposed roll.

For example, a mountain might have a rating of 50%. Make an opposed roll with the players Climb and you get a wide range of results. Maybe both rolls were successes, but the mountain had a better success. That means the player was forced to abort the climb when a storm came up. They didn't make it up the mountain, but weren't endangered either. On the other hand, the player might score a critical success while the mountain has a mishap. The player finds a new route up the mountain that provides bonuses to themselves and anyone else the teach it to. 

RQ6 with its combat Special Effects is another good way to use opposed rolls to give interesting results. 

[Questbird]

Coming from D&D (I assume..) your players may miss the rush of the experience point handout at the end of the adventure and 'levelling up'. Instead, you can hand out experience checks for skills which have been used, and optionally Allegiance points or checks (if you use for your game), Fate points (if you have a particularly dangerous campaign), or some kind of Status reward (like allegiance but to a particular cult, guild, temple or faction with which the players have interacted positively).

As skill checks are the major 'reward' for the end of a session, some players will try to use all sorts of wacky skills to get a check. You'll also get a bit of 'me too' skill checks where everyone wants to try a skill roll. Some referees get annoyed by this but I'd say, let them. They'll grow out of it, and they may think of solving in-game problems in some new ways. BRP adventurers are generalists, or they become so thanks to the skill check system.

As mentioned above, fighting is more deadly and it takes longer to recover from wounds, so don't necessarily plan for as much fighting as you would have in a D&D adventure. There's also no direct experience reward for fighting, so you'll probably find players become a bit more smart about avoiding fights they don't need. 

[Archivist]

Thanks! 

What can I do to make healing easier. I'd like to include lots of swashbuckly combat and if people take forever to heal that won't be as much fun!

[Mankcam]

I would achieve the same thing by doing the opposite. Keep the healing rate, but use mook rules for most combats until end session combat or major villain combat. That way combats move quicker and less chance of injury to slow down momentum.

Whichever method you choose, the main thing is to be mindful of character injury early in the session so it doesnt affect the pace of your game

Edited December 10, 2015 by Mankcam

[nDervish]

On 12/8/2015 at 9:04 PM, Archivist said:

I've never run a D100/BRP system except for Dark Heresy.

Although Dark Heresy does use percentile skills, it's not really a BRP-family game.  So don't expect too much similarity there.

Also, you specifically mentioned whiff-factor and, for whatever reason, my experience has been that that's primarily a complaint people have about WFRP-family games.  Offhand, I don't think I can recall ever seeing anyone complain about it as a problem with BRP games.  Not sure whether that's due to a difference in mechanics, GM technique, player expectation, or what... but I do know that it's not that hard to create an RQ6 character with one or two key skills in the 60% range, while Dark Heresy characters tend to start with everything in the 30s.

 

[Archivist]

Yes, DH start pretty low in most cases

[Questbird]

On 12/10/2015 at 2:48 PM, Archivist said:

Thanks! 

What can I do to make healing easier. I'd like to include lots of swashbuckly combat and if people take forever to heal that won't be as much fun!

Healing in D&D comes mainly from highly available healing spells/potions, which are so ubiquitous that no one ever heals naturally. So you could make healing spells equally easy to come by in BRP... or you could just relax into the BRP ways of fast and dangerous combats which aren't necessarily the best ways to solve problems (unless you are a swashbuckling master). As Mankcam says, mook NPCs (however you run them) will basically fight until they take one blow and then lie on the ground screaming. So that's one way to allow lots of swashbuckling without (hopefully) too much damage for your PCs. Some variants of BRP allow double hit points for players (CON+SIZ instead of (CON+SIZ)/2) for heroic Conan-like battles, which is sort of the opposite of the mook approach. You can also use some sort of morale system: fight your way through a few mooks on the deck until you get to the Captain; fight a serious battle with him and if you win the mooks surrender/jump into the sea.

The main difference between combat in D&D vs BRP is that tough and skilled fighters will cut a swathe through lesser ones in both systems, but in BRP the lone tough fighter is more likely to be brought down eventually by overwhelming numbers and/or lucky blows from his enemies.

Edited December 14, 2015 by Questbird

[nDervish]

10 hours ago, Questbird said:

The main difference between combat in D&D vs BRP is that tough and skilled fighters will cut a swathe through lesser ones in both systems, but in BRP the lone tough fighter is more likely to be brought down eventually by overwhelming numbers and/or lucky blows from his enemies.

Especially in the context of this discussion, I think I'd instead say the main difference is that an expert fighter in D&D is distinguished by his ability to absorb damage (massive HP total), while an expert fighter in BRP is distinguished by his ability to avoid damage (parrying or dodging most attacks from less-skilled foes).  This reduces the importance of healing magic in BRP because you shouldn't be taking damage as frequently in the first place.

[Mankcam]

10 hours ago, nDervish said:

Especially in the context of this discussion, I think I'd instead say the main difference is that an expert fighter in D&D is distinguished by his ability to absorb damage (massive HP total), while an expert fighter in BRP is distinguished by his ability to avoid damage (parrying or dodging most attacks from less-skilled foes).  This reduces the importance of healing magic in BRP because you shouldn't be taking damage as frequently in the first place.

That pretty much sums it up.

From a narrative perspective, when you lose HP in a game like D&D 5E it is more of a reduction in one's ability to remain capable in melee, so characters are more 'battered' than 'injured', at least until you get below 0 HP and start making the death saving rolls. As far as recovery goes, the regular rolling of Hit Dice is more like 'rallying' which is a mixture of fatigue recovery and morale.

In the BRP family of games, HP loss simulates actual physical injury. Recovery is the healing process, which is why it takes much longer in game time to do (weekly rolls unless magic is used to assist). It makes every single HP count, and this alone tends to make players think of ways to avoid unnecessary combat or think of creative solutions to gain advantages in combat. It makes gritty combat scenes, although if you would like a more cinematic experience then use mook rules (or the double HP option suggested earlier).

As previously said, when I run a more pulpy game I use Mook rules until I want the combat to be the main scene, then I switch to the standard combat rules. It seems to keep the pace that I want, and characters are not maimed early in the scenario.

It really depends on whether you want a gritty or a cinematic session, the rules are great for both.

Edited December 14, 2015 by Mankcam

[Archivist]

Mook rules sound great.

Are the Mook rules from BRP Core?

I know there's a Pulp BRP Suppliment. Is that useful?

 

 

[Montjoy]

33 minutes ago, Archivist said:

Mook rules sound great.

Are the Mook rules from BRP Core?

I know there's a Pulp BRP Suppliment. Is that useful?

 

 

We just play that a single hitpoint loss takes them out. Simple as that.

I don't believe there are rules for it in the golden book.

 

To give an example: at our table we play with hit points by location for player characters.

Then when a style of game calls for lesser opponents/packs of mooks we have:

Regular npcs (done like players),

Henchman npcs (they have a single HP pool equal to calculating the chests HP)

and Mooks 1 hitpoint of dmg and they are down. We use to do a hit and they were down but we changed it to actually having to inflict a single point of dmg.

[Baulderstone]

8 minutes ago, Montjoy said:

We just play that a single hitpoint loss takes them out. Simple as that.

You might also have something like orcs, that are mooks, but with a little bit of toughness to them. You can set a threshold number, like 4. Any hit that does 4 or more damage puts them down. Anything below that is shrugged off. Either way, the GM doesn't need to write anything down. 

[SDLeary]

I use mook rules too. Normally a single hit, regardless of damage amount, will take them out of the fight. Their Sergeant tracks as normal, unless they take a Major Wound, then they are out.

SDLeary

Edited December 15, 2015 by SDLeary

[Gollum]

There is another mook rule (and full of other interesting advices) in Astounding Adventure*: all mook characters have a defense roll equal to DEX + Hit Points + Armor Points. When a mook character is hit, the GM makes a defense roll for him. Success: he goes on fighting without penalty. Failure: he is dead or incapacitated.

Likewise, there is an alternate rule which allows to have more Hit Points at the start of the game: SIZ + CON instead of (SIZ + CON) / 2. That allows characters to survive more wounds ... But I don't remember where it comes from.

* http://www.chaosium.com/astounding-adventures-pdf/

Edited December 15, 2015 by Gollum

[Montjoy]

47 minutes ago, Gollum said:

 

Likewise, there is an alternate rule which allows to have more Hit Points at the start of the game: SIZ + CON instead of (SIZ + CON) / 2. That allows characters to survive more wounds ... But I don't remember where it comes from.

 

BRP pages 30 (in mine at least) Box on top left of page titled Option: Total Hit Points

[Gollum]

Yes. I saw that yesterday, while searching through the Big Golden Book just before sleeping. But thank you for the reference ...

It is a very interesting optional rules for heroic/cinematic campaigns where the player characters are supposed to be more tougher than their foe. And, as said in this box, it allows them to survive more easily their foe's critical successes, which gives an atmosphere more close from D&D ... Even if it will still remain very different.

[Chaot]

17 hours ago, Archivist said:

Mook rules sound great.

Are the Mook rules from BRP Core?

I know there's a Pulp BRP Suppliment. Is that useful?

Minion rules were published in the Gods of Law monograph, currently available free on stormbringerrpg.com and then developed further in the book Dragon Lines.

[Mankcam]

There are rules for 'Rabble' and 'Underlings" in RQ6, and Astounding Adventures (Pulp supplement) has 'Mooks' for BRP.

It's easy enough to make up something on the fly as well :-)

Edited December 16, 2015 by Mankcam

[jux]

I'd say you have picked the best game (Renaissance D100) to introduce you to the d100 system. No need to make things more complicated.

[GianniVacca]

On 10/12/2015 at 4:48 AM, Archivist said:

What can I do to make healing easier.

You could rule that all damage except criticals is "flurry of combat" damage (i.e., fatigue rather than wounds), which wears off after the end of a given combat session, but that needs a kind of tedious 'double track system' for hit points.