BRP pitfalls

[Dudemeister]

That is a vaild point and one of my fears that players might not immediatly like a grittier setting. I talked a lot about what everyone wanted in the new campaign, so I hope everyone knows what we are getting into and will give it a try.

[tooley1chris]

1 hour ago, Dudemeister said:

That is a vaild point and one of my fears that players might not immediatly like a grittier setting. I talked a lot about what everyone wanted in the new campaign, so I hope everyone knows what we are getting into and will give it a try.

Can always start players out with Heroic Hitpoints(CON+SIZ). That's how I started my folks.

[Baulderstone]

Another option is to use something like the Luck Points in RQ 6. You get three a session, and you can spend one to re-roll any die roll that affects your character or to downgrade a Major Wound when it occurs. It still keeps the game fairly gritty, but players can at least minimize limb loss a bit.

[TRose]

8 hours ago, g33k said:

Animals-as-viable-foes can sometimes lead to some kinds of frustration, though... indeed ANY foes the players are used to plowing through as a "trivial" challenge can become a sign that the new game is "under-powered" or "less heroic".

I once ran a D&D campaign (actually one large/complex multi-session adventure-arc) based around foes that were "half man" creatures like minotaurs &c... all based off of domesticated herbivores, turned monstrous/carnivorous.  Gorgons instead of dragons, etc...  Some of my players from that arc are still active, 20-ish years later; others remarked after the arc, "I can't believe we just spent 10 sessions on COWS!" and I never saw them again.  So be sure your players who want to FEEL "heroic" can do so... or if you plan on "grittier" (something RQ/d100 is (legitimately) lauded for), make sure the players sign on for THAT!

 I have used lots( and I mean lots) of Giant insects against my players as  I can get them cheap in the toy section of discount stores. Once I bought a bag of   100 plastic  Ants( they where about 12 mm long) and glued 1-3 on stands. For some reason my players hate them.

[TRose]

 Although I love the Magic book and feel at present its the best system for BRP, you should look at the other magic  systems too. The Magic and sorcery system in the Gold book are simpler, although its up to the GM to balance Wizards against  normal non spellcasting characters. The  Enlighten Sorcery book  would be good for a low magic game and deserve a look in my opinion.

[Dudemeister]

9 hours ago, Baulderstone said:

Another option is to use something like the Luck Points in RQ 6. You get three a session, and you can spend one to re-roll any die roll that affects your character or to downgrade a Major Wound when it occurs. It still keeps the game fairly gritty, but players can at least minimize limb loss a bit.

Seems the Fate DNA is strong in all the newer RPG. We kept the player ressource from our last system - Iron Kingdoms RPG - which was almost the same as what you describe RQ6 uses.

Plot armor is one thing, I like it for letting players mechanically interact with the narrative through something other than just their character. 

4 hours ago, TRose said:

 I have used lots( and I mean lots) of Giant insects against my players as  I can get them cheap in the toy section of discount stores. Once I bought a bag of   100 plastic  Ants( they where about 12 mm long) and glued 1-3 on stands. For some reason my players hate them.

There was once a undercity of ratlings - and the players hated it very much. There is no reason. Since then I bore my players with what to come in a campaign until they have enough. 

[Baulderstone]

3 minutes ago, Dudemeister said:

Seems the Fate DNA is strong in all the newer RPG. We kept the player ressource from our last system - Iron Kingdoms RPG - which was almost the same as what you describe RQ6 uses.

This is a lot older the Fate. Deadlands had it in the '90s with Fate Chips. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay had it in the '80s with Fate Points.  

[Dudemeister]

10 minutes ago, Baulderstone said:

This is a lot older the Fate. Deadlands had it in the '90s with Fate Chips. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay had it in the '80s with Fate Points.  

This could be a good start for a heated argument. But I only use the term FATE DNA to get the point across. After FATE got popular new systems adopted a player ressource. You are right, that they might got the inspiration elsewhere.

Since the Fate Points in the Big Golden Book are no real player ressource - and not tested. We will keep:

9 hours ago, Baulderstone said:

Another option is to use something like the Luck Points in RQ 6. You get three a session, and you can spend one to re-roll any die roll that affects your character or to downgrade a Major Wound when it occurs. It still keeps the game fairly gritty, but players can at least minimize limb loss a bit.

It works just as intended.

[TRose]

 Would also point out that if using the Magic book, while a Sorcerer is very powerful, its a Long road to get there.

  Your Rune Pries, your Shaman and your Warrior will reach their goals and become a force to be reckon with long before your sorcerer does.

 Your warrior can choose to master sword and shield while a Sorcerer has to master four magic skills plus his  favorite spells . Add to the fact that the warrior spirit magic spells require no investment in skill rolls and just cost coin to learn and the Warrior is going to get to rune level before the Sorcerer.

 Not that an adept sorcerer is useless or not useful to have around, but a Magnus is for those who are willing to be patient.

[KPhan2121]

Yo, I transited from D&D to BRP.

The first problem that I faced was that combat was way more lethal. My players really liked killing enemies in a few hits, but learned that they can go down just as quickly. I solved that problem by nearly killing a player in one hit. He had fullplate and a gambeson and that barely saved him from being one-shot by a 4d6 damage monster. BRP is much easier if your players are novices with no preconceptions on what an RPG should "feel" like. The good thing about BRP is that it's just simulating the setting so you don't have to worry about some mechanics-simulation dissonance if they're newer players.

The second problem I've seen was that there was some initial difficulty when explaining the power mechanics into the game's setting as everything is "generic". In my games I give everyone access to superpowers and magic since we play in a D&Desque setting and they want to replicate some of their old abilities. For example, the monk has ki strike and so has access to the strike superpower which gives him +1d6 damage per level while a mage using shocking grasp is using the strike spell(Using the Unified Powers Houserule). I had to get use to the fact that I was using similar mechanics for completely different abilities. So be prepared to rename and refluff alot of different things that are essentially the same thing mechanically. It's a little difficult at first, but it does wonders to lessen mental fatigue from having to remember and look up spells/class/racial abilities in D&D games.

 

Edited March 16, 2016 by KPhan2121
Linking awesome houserule file.

[Mugen]

I think Percentile skills may be misleading.

For instance, one may think that a character with 50% in sword is an average fighter.
Fact is, he's very likely to die if he fights to the death.

In my view, skills under 75% are highly unreliable.

[soltakss]

A 50% fighter is likely to defeat a 25% fighter and is likely to lose to a 75% fighter.

In my experience, a 50% fighter is fairly average.

[Akerbakk]

3 hours ago, Mugen said:

The problem with doubles is that it doesn't scale at all with skills above 100%.

Whether you have 115% or 250% in your skill, you'll never have more than 9% chances to do a critical success.

Plus, you need at least 11% chance of success to score crits - but this can be viewed as a feature and not a bug...

Absolutely true. But the advantage is that if you use flat modifiers (as I do) it sort of works out because the highly skilled toons maintain their ability to crit.

I love reading about the ways folks handle specials and crits. While my method isn't without flaws, it keeps things very easy to arbitrate in gameplay, which is my priority.

[TRose]

  Im very careful about tossing bad guys with a large attack bonus at players.  A Great troll with a War Maul, even with just a 30% chance to hit can kill a player in one shot. Toss a few at the players and one will die.

 I decided to use the damage bonus for size and strength out of RQ6( It scales up slower) just so I could toss large bad guys at players and not have them end up as a red spot on the ground.

[Questbird]

10 hours ago, TRose said:

  Im very careful about tossing bad guys with a large attack bonus at players.  A Great troll with a War Maul, even with just a 30% chance to hit can kill a player in one shot. Toss a few at the players and one will die.

 I decided to use the damage bonus for size and strength out of RQ6( It scales up slower) just so I could toss large bad guys at players and not have them end up as a red spot on the ground.

Yes I've had several player kills from large creatures. They are much more dangerous in BRP combat than in D&D, and something to watch out for. I might check out that RQ6 damage bonus chart too.

[sladethesniper]

On 3/12/2016 at 1:21 PM, ReignDragonSMH said:

Its deadly.. not as deadly as Cyberpunk - When I came to RQ/BRP games I had played a few different games. One of them was Cyberpunk. Love that system and its very deadly. I know Paranoia also has a high body count as do some other games, but BRP is not, IMHO as deadly as those games. I feel it properly balances grit and good times.

Warm up some new dice - I had a favorite d20 I used for AD&D/D&D-BX. I put it aside entirely when I switched to RQ/BRP games. I had (until my lil dragon lost them) a green and yellow single digits d10s that I used. A new game is a new excuse to get new dice into the pool.

I agree with you on the Cyberpunk, where cover is your friend and smart tactics rule the day....ah, and the Paranoia, where a TPK per session is expected.

Also, I agree that "New game = new dice!"

On 3/14/2016 at 10:49 PM, g33k said:

By "default" BRP assumes (as compared to D&D) more combat-lethality and less healing than D&D; hit-locations in particular accentuate this... and are often either a favorite/popular or a much-hated difference from "good ol' D&D".

I fully agree with this, but allow me to pontificate on the differences between BRP and D&D...

For myself, I find that D&D and BRP are not opposite sides of the gaming coin, but rather different ways to describe the same thing...

As a thought experiment, imagine an epic level barbarian, a world class race car driver, and, let's say Sauron...now what are the stats that you would give them in D&D and repeat for BRP.  Compare those numbers and you have just created your own  "conversion" between the two systems and let everything flow from that comparison and don't worry so much about numbers..as long as you remember the "time span" of what a round is in D&D and BRP, you are all set.

The biggest issue is what a "hit point" represents in D&D vs. BRP.  I would suggest that using the optional D20 Vitality/Wound Point system and then using that to compare BRP Hit Points to D&D Wound Points.

With regard to scaling skills across systems...there are several ways to do it as shown below.  I use this depending on what I am trying to convert to BRP.

Difficult (real world) Setting: same scaling throughout (1 skill rank = 5% in BRP), translates to Palladium and BRP well                                                      

Medium Setting (heroic): kind easy, usually twice as good at low levels                                                  

Easy Setting (superheroic): starts off with a huge advantage, suitable for M&M conversion to BRP

Very Easy Setting (superheroic): this is good for the “lower level” characters in M&M converted to BRP

Ranks    Difficult %              Medium %                 Easy %              Very Easy %          

1              5                             10                           25                           40

2              10                           20                           35                           45

3              15                           30                           40                           50

4              20                           40                           45                           55

5              25                           50                           50                           60

6              30                           55                           55                           65

7              35                           60                           60                           67

8              40                           65                           65                           70

9              45                           70                           70                           72

10           50                           75                           75                           75

11           55                           77                           77                           77

12           60                           80                           80                           80

13           65                           82                           82                           82

14           70                           85                           85                           85

15           75                           88                           88                           88

16           80                           90                           90                           90

17           85                           92                           92                           92

18           90                           95                           95                           95

19           95                           97                           97                           97

20           100                         100                         100                         100

-STS